Conductor Gerald Wilson flung his arms in the air on Sept. 12 as
his big band belted out the last refrain of his famous composition
“Viva Tirado.” He held them there for bar after bar,
while his curly white hair danced under the lights of Schoenberg
Hall.

Boasting a history as old and illustrious as that of Hollywood,
it’s a shame that Mexican cinema has been in a funk since the
mid-1950s. With the exception of some noteworthy peaks in the
’70s and early ’90s, south-of-the-border cinema rode
through most of the second half of last century on trite themes
like cowboys, slapstick comedies and masked wrestlers.

As the daughter of two prominent musicians ““
guitarist-singer João Gilberto; and one of Brazil’s
most-loved singers, Miúcha ““ Bebel Gilberto, has been
surrounded by music from her birth.

Broadcasting live from Ackerman Grand Ballroom, but without a
signal tower, is KLA, UCLA’s student-run radio station.
It’s a promising ““ albeit
lesser-known ““ campus community that provides
resources for local talent to get exposure and plenty of
opportunities for students, staff and alumni to get involved.

The genre has been around for over a decade; game formats like
“Survivor,” character dramas like MTV’s
“Real World,” courtroom spectacles like “Judge
Judy” and real-life adventures like “Cops” are
all tactics that have been pleasing audiences recently.

It takes a visionary with an ambitious agenda to invent an
entire genre of music. Or maybe it just takes a self-indulgent
art-school graduate with an intelligent sense of humor.

When 22-year-old student Marci K stepped off the stage of
Westwood Brewing Company on May 25, she was instantly bombarded
with hugs from dozens of her ethnomusicology peers.

Eugene Hütz is like a wedding singer, birthday party clown
and Jackass cast member rolled into one skinny Ukrainian man with a
handle-bar moustache.
With acrobatic flips, magic tricks and an indulgence in harming
equipment and himself to embellish his rough musical act, the
frontman of Gogol Bordello violently stretches the role of a
singer.

Correction appended
For Frank Rudow,German-born multi-instrumentalist of the Spanish
rock band Manta Ray, April 14 was the longest day in his life.
After touching down from a 34-hour flight from Europe, Rudow found
himself surrounded by the greenery and suburbs of Oregon, excited
to be in the Western Hemisphere for the first time to begin the
band’s first U.S.

Accustomed to performing in front of adults who understand songs
about prosthetic foreheads, mammals and the political achievements
of James K. Polk, cult-rock band They Might Be Giants has had a
challenging experience performing in front of children.