Student wins second straight Best Animation Award at Shorttakes

Elderly Edna Katz sits in her nursing home, bored and watching television, when she is shocked to her feet by an advertisement to save homeless cats. The film that ensues is a five-minute conglomeration of gunpoint robberies and car chases, following Katz’s ambitious plight to save the displaced critters. Graduate student Ben Haist’s film, “Cat […]

Graduate student’s exhibit creates ‘symphony’ of art, tech

Terms like “right-brained” and “left-brained” fall short when used to define Design | Media Arts graduate student Neil Mendoza. As part of the Design | Media Arts department, Mendoza said he uses his background in technology to create innovative art pieces that seek to give new meaning to notions of form and space. Mendoza’s exhibit, […]

Q&A: Record producer Clive Davis talks past, present, future of music industry

One of the biggest trends in the music industry over the last 49 years is not a sound or style, but a man – Clive Davis. Fondly referred to by his industry peers as “the Man with the Golden Ears,” Davis’ ability to identify top-level talent has cemented him as a titan in his industry. […]

Q&A: Lecturer Jeffrey Jampol discusses course, joining music industry

UCLA music lecturer Jeffrey Jampol has worked in the music industry for more than four decades and has spent 15 years developing and fine-tuning his course, “Music Business Now.” From watching the Sex Pistols at Winterland in 1978 to founding his own music-oriented JAM, Inc., he gained industry experience and connections which he now seeks […]

‘Star Trek’ actor Leonard Nimoy’s legend lives on

Leonard Nimoy, who won over an obsessive fan-base as the half-human, logic-bound first officer of the Starship Enterprise on TV and film’s sci-fi titan “Star Trek,” died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 83 years old. His wife and daughter confirmed that his death was […]

Album review: “Let the Good Times Roll”

“Let the Good Times Roll” JD McPherson Rounder Records 3.5/5 paws Roots rocker JD McPherson’s sophomore release, “Let the Good Times Roll,” is a sonic time machine set for 1950s America, using the power of old-school tape echo and tremolo to transport the listener back to the birth period of rock ‘n’ roll. Listening to […]