This summer was supposed to be a good one for Michael Jackson. His London comeback concerts, and thus his victory over years of scandal, were to begin in July. Instead, he died, leaving fans and p...

To what extent should a musician's political ideology or religious faith affect a fair-minded listener's response to his music? The question is easy to answer when the musician in question ...

It's 220 years since the French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. It's 20 years since the Soviet Revolution essentially ended as the Berlin Wall came down. We've...

Amidst a television field dominated by tacky reality shows, NBC's scripted drama The Philanthropist debuted on June 24 to surprisingly good numbers, winning its time slot. Based on real-lif...

"If these should hold their peace," Christ once said of his more vociferous worshippers, "the stones would immediately cry out." What stones crying out would sound like we can only guess; what a p...

John Lescroart's San Francisco-based police/courtroom procedural's are great entertainment, and he makes the city-its politics, weather, and food-serve his stories. His main characters, defense at...

It says something about the morally complex issues brought up in the new film My Sister's Keeper (rated PG-13 for sensuality, language, and brief teen drinking) that viewers can walk away from the...

There is a kind of person who enjoys watching large robots hit each other. I am that kind of person. If you are not that kind of person, you will want to avoid the new Transformers film. But if yo...

Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker begins by informing the viewer that "war is a drug." But the director's version is not a drug most people would take voluntarily. The film is a microcosm o...