Jock Young
“Epsilon Zeta”
HARBOR HOUSE BOOKS
The closing pages of “Epsilon Zeta,” a novel by Jock
Young, bear a striking resemblance to its opening pages.

The city of Los Angeles is full of struggling actors. After
graduation, Sunkrish Bala will not be one of them.
Bala, a graduating UCLA theater student with an emphasis in
acting, has a supporting role in a pilot for a new television show
called “Notes from the Underbelly.” The show has been
picked up by ABC for the upcoming fall season.

In November of 2004, Frank Warren, a small business owner in
Germantown, Md., printed up 3,000 self-addressed postcards and
handed them out to strangers. These, he told them, were to share a
secret, which had to be something true and something they had never
shared with anybody else before.

Tonight, those who choose to enter Ackerman Grand Ballroom will
experience a revolution. Created by and for UCLA students, this
revolution is a multimedia event produced by UCLA Fashion and
Student Trends, a campus organization that provides students with
the opportunity to take on different roles as they work together to
create, among other things, a completely sweatshop-free fashion
show.

This weekend, there are two events in Southern California that
are expecting an attendance of over 100,000 people. There is the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, held in Indio, which is
charging people a record-high of $197.25 for two days’
admission, including the various service charges.

After announcing himself in the third person on a loudspeaker
backstage at his April 5 show, Bill Bailey energetically strode out
to his microphone, settled amid an array of unlikely musical
instruments, and concisely informed the audience that “there
are three jokes in this show.”
He promptly began the first with, “Three blokes walk into
a pub” trailing off midway through, unapologetically
explaining that he always seems to lose faith in his jokes halfway
through.

This quarter, the UCLA Department of Theater decided to try
something old and something new. The 16th-century French comedy
“The Marriage of Figaro” by Pierre Augustin de
Beaumarchais opens today and will run in repertory through March 11
along with “Il Gelosi,” written and directed by
visiting UCLA Professor David Bridel, in collaboration with
graduate acting students.

A Friday or Saturday evening in Los Angeles boasts an
overwhelming array of entertainment options for college students.
Rarely considered and often written off as boring or expensive is
the choice to start the night off with a trip to the theater.

Beginning Jan. 31, the recently renovated Geffen Playhouse in
Westwood will provide its audiences with a rare opportunity. The
L.A. premiere of “Boston Marriage,” written and
directed by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet, will
feature three critically acclaimed actresses known principally for
their work on film who are taking a turn on the stage ““
Rebecca Pidgeon, Alicia Silverstone and Mary Steenburgen.

As I sat in Brenna Youngblood’s studio among thousands of
photo clippings, observing what has emerged from the chaos, she
apologized for the mess. “Write that it was pristine,”
she said with a short laugh.