AP - In an era of overthinking directors, intricate stage movements and concept productions that transport operas through time and locale, there is an argument for Verdi the way it used to be.
AP - Super Bowl Sunday is upon us, a special, heartwarming time to gather with friends, eat too much queso and make ridiculous side bets on how long the national anthem will last and who will be forced to punt first.
AP - We Americans may have thought we created the Angry Young Man. You know, that volcanic, vital, articulate stud who howls a lot. We've got tons of them, from James Dean and Marlon Brando, to Sean Penn and Holden Caufield.
AP - A fanatically-worshipped leader is eventually revealed to be headless. A pair of clowns singing about hanging onto reality suddenly realize they may have already slipped out of it. An enthusiastic song titled "The Best is Yet To Be," performed with confidence and glee, eventually collapses into whimpering doubt.
AP - "Big Miracle" — If a movie is cheesy and knows it's cheesy — if it embraces the soft, gooey texture and pungent aroma of its own fromage — does that make it any more palatable as a meal?
AP - The "Final Fantasy" franchise, now in its 25th year, has one of the most enthusiastic fan bases in all of video games. And those fans made their voices heard after the 2009 release of "Final Fantasy XIII," which jettisoned some of the series' long-standing features in exchange for a more streamlined, action-packed narrative.
AP - It owes a great debt to the found-footage concept behind "The Blair Witch Project," has some of the aesthetic and tonal touches of "Cloverfield" and probes the same sorts of philosophical notions about the burden of power that serve as the basis for the "X-Men" series.
Reuters - Unwrinkled pop newcomer Lana Del Rey has a lot in common with grizzled Newt Gingrich this week. They're the names on everyone's lips; we're all pleased to have them around, out of appreciation or sheer blood sport; and there's a general expectation that neither will be much more than a footnote in their respective races a month from now.
Reuters - Leonard Cohen sold off his song rights some years back, so he apparently doesn't collect royalties for the most hilariously over-covered song in "American Idol" history. That's bad for him, but good for us, since being cash-poor prompted the 70-something singer to come out of semi-retirement and return to the road in the late 2000s -- which, in turn, ultimately spurred the recording of "Old Ideas," his first studio album in eight years.
Reuters - Tim McGraw's "Emotional Traffic" arrives in stores as the most litigated album in recent musical/legal history. Imagine the missed opportunities for ad campaigns: Direct from the Tennessee court system to your sound system!
Reuters - Besides being one of America's greatest rock bands, the Hold Steady are the closest thing we have to a messy, rowdy, wordy, art-rock version of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
AP - If a movie is cheesy and knows it's cheesy — if it embraces the soft, gooey texture and pungent aroma of its own fromage — does that make it any more palatable as a meal?
AP - Some families have trouble communicating. The immigrant family at the center of Erika Sheffer's "Russian Transport," the latest production from the talented director Scott Elliott at The New Group, is not one of them.
AP - "Kill List" morphs subtly but devastatingly from an uncomfortable domestic drama to a brutally violent hit-man thriller to a what-the-hell-just-happened? exploration of a primal, paranoid nightmare.
AP - At the end of the all-Christopher Wheeldon evening at New York City Ballet this weekend, the choreographer came out alone for a curtain call. The crowd stood and cheered. It would have been a rare moment for any choreographer, let alone one who isn't yet 40.
AP - Throughout his 45-year career, Leonard Cohen has walked a fine line between love, sex, and religion, often embodying the trinity in the same song. Cohen doesn't abandon those themes on his latest album, "Old Ideas," his first studio recording in eight years and perhaps one of his best in decades.
AP - "Defending Jacob" (Delacorte Press), by William Landay: An assistant district attorney receives a case that will change his life in William Landay's "Defending Jacob."
