The Nutcracker is eternal

The Nutcracker is set in Imperial Russia, 1892, and glories in the rich pageantry of Tchaikovsky's best-loved tale. It's spectacular, as you expect. But it doesn't stop make-believing: there are dancing bears and a parade of sheep (including, adorably, a little black one), and there is a cannon that shoots confetti into the audience, and there's an imaginary feast-turned-food fight. Amid the elaborate choreography and the rigorous, spirit-and-polish beats an extraordinarily light heart. The Nutcracker is for the little ones, no matter how old they are on the outside.

Photo by Bruce Zinger - the National Ballet of Canada

"Ulysses"

Alexander Liberman was chosen by committee from a field of more than 100 candidates, including Willem de Kooning and Ellsworth Kelly, to create an artwork to respond to Calder's "Four Arches" across the street (1988 - 4th and Hope, Los Angeles).

"Four Arches"

Alexander Calder was commissioned to create this work for the first office tower on Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles. (1974 - 333 S. Hope)

"the J.D. Salinger of the cartoon world"

This story of Nevin Martell's search for the elusive Bill Watterson, the J.D. Salinger of the cartoon world, is so richly infused with the spirit of "Calvin and Hobbes," the genuine innocence and affection and humor, it doesn't even matter that the author never meets his subject. Watterson has never allowed the licensing of his work -- no merchandise, no TV, no movies. After doing a few interviews in the 1980s, he wrote a "manifesto against celebrity": "People love to have you, and then they use you up and there's nothing left." Early on, Martell wrote Watterson, who disappeared from public life after he stopped writing the strip in 1995, but never heard back. Discouraged but determined, he researched Watterson's life, interviewed friends, editors, even Watterson's mother, visited Watterson's childhood home in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, talked with other cartoonists, studied the influence of Peanuts, Krazy Kat, Pogo and Winnie the Pooh and pondered the effect of "Calvin and Hobbes" on his own life. Is this a definitive biography? No. But it's in many ways better and truer to the spirit of Watterson's creation.

"Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip" by Nevin Martell (Continuum: 256 pp., $24.95)

"the most famous sports action photograph of the 20th century"

It remains the most famous sports action photograph of the 20th century: Muhammad Ali looms over Sonny Liston, whose arms are splayed, before Ali retains the heavyweight championship in 1965. Longtime Sports Illustrated photographer Neil Leifer snapped the photo.

"The Prisoner"

A man known as Six (Jim Caviezel) finds himself trapped in a bizarre place called "The Village" led by a man known as Two (Ian McKellen). Sounds mysterious. Starts Sunday at 8 p.m. -- a three-night television event on AMC

"WWII in HD"

This masterful History Channel documentary follows a dozen Americans through their personal experiences in the war. It and a second, similar series -- 'Apocalypse' on the Smithsonian Channel -- feature Troops from the British Empire coming ashore at Normandy in the days following the initial assault, in an archival still from the documentary "WWII in HD." (Library of Congress / HIstory Channel / November 12, 2009)

"a civic milestone"

The opening sunday of eight new Gold Line stations in Los Angeles is among the most significant civic milestones the city has reached in several years.

PHOTO: Gold Line extension artwork

The Gold Line opens Sunday

'2012': Audiences might be better off looking, not listening

Even good actors can't punch up the dialogue and make plot contrivances believable, but oh, those special effects. John Cusack, who plays science fiction writer Jackson Curtis, tries to catch up to his ride as the Earth crumbles around him.

As far as the new disaster film "2012" is concerned, the world will end with both a bang and a whimper, the bang of undeniably impressive special effects and the whimper of inept writing and characterization. You pays your money, you takes your chances. (Kenneth Turan)

2 Japanese subs sunk after World War II found

The two submarines were among the most advanced of their time, but neither saw action in WWII. The U.S. captured the subs at war's end and sank them off Oahu after gleaning their scientific secrets. Above, a computer-generated image depicts the hangar of the I-14, one of the Japanese submarines located off Oahu. It carried two bombers. (Wild Life Productions / August 12, 2009)

No Longer Endangered

Reporting from New Orleans - Federal officials announced Wednesday that they were removing the brown pelican from the endangered species list, capping a century-long recovery that started under President Theodore Roosevelt.

The brown pelican is a fixture in Southern California and along the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Florida, where Roosevelt established the first national wildlife refuge on Pelican Island to protect the bird from human slaughter.

It is an icon in Louisiana, where it is the state bird and where Interior Department officials assembled Wednesday at the Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge near New Orleans to proclaim the brown pelican "fully recovered" and no longer in need of federal protection.

At the 1936 Berlin Olympics

Gretel Bergmann excelled during training for the 1936 Berlin Olympics before being kicked off the German team. "I was determined to show them that a Jew can do it, and better," she says.

Gretel Bergmann today at age 95.

"Trek humor"

What would happen if the Starship Enterprise and "Airplane" crashed into the Babylon 5 space station somewhere in the skies above Finland?

The loopy result would be “Star Wreck (The Imperial Edition),” the Starfleet parody from a Finnish writer-actor-producer named Samuli Torssonen and his crew of amateur moviemakers. Seven years in the making, the farce opens on the bridge of the USS Kickstart with the not-so-cosmic sound of a toilet flushing – the men’s room, it seems, is conveniently located right next to the vessel’s command center.

The Mystery of New York

An American masterpiece from internationally bestselling novelist Colum McCann—a dazzling and hauntingly rich vision of the loveliness, pain, and mystery of New York City in the 1970s In the dawning light of the late summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. . . .

It is August, 1974, and a tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter-mile in the sky. In the streets below, ordinary lives become extraordinary as award-winning novelist Colum McCann crafts this stunningly realized portrait of a city and its people.

Going to the Television Academy's Hall of Fame

Late "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, comedy duo Tom and Dick Smothers and actress Candice Bergen will be among those inducted into the Television Academy's Hall of Fame in January.

The Television Academy said on Tuesday they would be joined by "Saturday Night Live" and game show announcer Don Pardo, "The Price Is Right" game show creator Bob Stewart and Emmy-winning art director Charles Lisanby for the annual ceremony.

"This year's inductees have challenged and shaped popular culture and entertained us royally while doing so," said Television Academy Chairman John Shaffner.

Bergen is best known for her role in the 1990s CBS comedy "Murphy Brown," while the Smothers Brothers started their TV career in the 1960s and are still performing for audiences around the United States.

Denzel to Broadway

The current Broadway season is starting to look like an Academy Awards telecast.

The latest star to lend a marquee name to the Great White Way is Denzel Washington, who will perform in a revival of August Wilson's drama "Fences," which is scheduled to open in April.

Washington will play the role of Troy Maxson that was originated by James Earl Jones on Broadway in 1987. "Fences" went on to win the Tony Award for best play and the Pulitzer Prize for drama. The play is part of Wilson's epic cycle focusing on African American life in the 20th century.

"Fences" is set for a limited run through July.

Washington, who has won two Oscars, was last seen on Broadway in 2005 in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar."

$75-million man

Simon Cowell, the acerbic "American Idol" judge, creator of "America's Got Talent" and record producer, is the top-earning man on prime-time U.S. television with an estimated haul of $75 million, Forbes .com said on Tuesday.

Cowell, 50, beat out "The Apprentice" show host Donald Trump ($50 million) and "American Idol" presenter Ryan Seacrest ($38 million), based on estimated pre-tax earnings from June 1, 2008, to June 1, 2009.

Most of the top earners have several entertainment-related ventures, Forbes said. Cowell has his own record label, which has signed singers including Leona Lewis and Susan Boyle, in addition to his duties as a judge on "American Idol" -- the most watched TV show in the United States for seven years.

Rounding up the top five were "Two and a Half Men" star Charlie Sheen ($21 million) and "The Office" actor Steve Carell ($20 million).

Central Avenue and Beyond

A promotional print for 1937's "Harlem on the Prairie," starring Herb Jeffries. Frustrated by Hollywood bigotry, blacks produced their own "race films" through the '40s, which provided opportunities for artists like Jeffries, a Duke Ellington Orchestra baritone-turned-singing cowboy. (The Huntington Library)

"The Angel in the Flesh"

It's not often that artwork by Leonardo da Vinci makes the journey to Los Angeles. But in December, three drawings by the Renaissance master will go on display at L.A.'s Italian Cultural Institute along with a video installation by Bill Viola.

Leonardo's "The Angel in the Flesh," pictured, dates from around 1515 and was produced by the artist in Amboise, France. It depicts a smiling, androgynous figure in the process of lifting its right arm in salutation. This marks the first time that "Angel" will be shown in the U.S., according to Francesca Valente, who is organizing the exhibition.

"The rabbit hole is getting crowded again."

It’s been 144 years since Lewis Carroll introduced the world to an inquisitive girl named Alice, but her surreal adventures still resonate – Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” arrives in theaters in March and next month on SyFy it's “Alice,” a modern-day reworking of the familiar mythology with a cast led by Kathy Bates and Tim Curry.

And then there’s “The Looking Glass Wars,” the series of bestselling novels by Frank Beddor that takes the classic 19th century children’s tale off into a truly unexpected literary territory – the battlefields of epic fantasy. The series began in 2006 and Beddor’s third “Looking Glass Wars” novel, “ArchEnemy,” just hit stores in October, as did a tie-in graphic novel called “Hatter M: Mad with Wonder.”

Beddor said it’s intriguing to see other creators at play in the same literary playground. “It’s amazing how many directions it’s been taken in,” Beddor said of Carroll’s enduring creations. “There’s something so rich and magical and whimsical about the original story and the characters and then there’s all those dark under-themes. Artists get inspired and they keep redefining it for a contemporary audience.”