Samohi Marching Band Takes Prize

                                              photo courtesy Doug Campbell

Samohi Marching Band Takes Prize
The Santa Monica High School football team may be getting all the accolades of late, and deservedly so after their 11-1 season and CIF championship...

On The Stage: “JOE LOUIS BLUES” AT THE TIFFANY
“You’re a credit to your race,” is the mantra of the American media covering heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis in Oliver Mayer’s “Joe Louis Blues...”

Watch Out! Trouble in Toyland
Despite the passage of the 1994 Child Safety Protection Act, a new CALPIRG study found that toys on store shelves still pose a threat to children...

At The Movies: The Year’s Eleven Best
This year brought good independent films and not so great big studio films. Many films released later in the year weren’t able to adequately express the mood of the country because they had all been planned and made by September 11...

Books In The Mirror: A Few Really Good Books
Sometimes it’s OK to judge a book by its cover. This debut novella first attracted my attention quite simply because it is a work of art, with small words printed unobtrusively over a photograph of two tiny red shoes...

Kwanzaa Stories At the Library Next Week
The African-American and Pan-African holiday, Kwanzaa, celebrates what it means to be African and human in the fullest sense. It begins today, December 26, and runs through January 1,2002...

Bargain CD of the Week: MOVE OVER, BOYS
The cover photo on the CD threw me. With a tattoo on one shoulder, Kristie Stremel wears a black tank top and a cowboy hat as she holds her electric guitar...

SM Students Are AP Scholars
Four Marymount High School students from Santa Monica have been named AP Scholars by the College Board in recognition of their exceptional achievement on the college-level AP Exams...

Of Particular Interest: Oscar Contenders Open at Last
Finally, this week, audiences will have the chance to see the much-hyped, much buzzed Oscar contenders...

Center Stage: Johnny Mathis
At The Cerritos Center 12/22. Bright shows this holiday season, some by old favorites and some by brand spankin’ newbies...

Grant School Collects Toys For Drive
The 700 students at Grant Elementary School are doing their part to give other children a happier Christmas by participating in the American Red Cross “Share the Holidays” Toy Drive...

Starry Skies Above Santa Monica

Potter 101: A Primer on Harry, Hedwig and Hogwarts
Part of the charm of J.K. Rowling’s novels is that she has imagined a world full of wizards that exists on the same soil as our own...

In the Kitchen: From Serious to Sublime
Clarkson Potter, a division of Crown, is known for publishing beautiful books – interior design, gardening and landscaping, and the ever-elusive “style” are covered in glossy coffee table tomes, the kind that make you say...

Group Advises People To “Walk Safe”
The Walkable Westside Partnership for Pedestrian Safety and the Automobile Club of Southern California urge pedestrians to “walk safe” and drivers to “watch for walkers...”

Poetry in the Mirror: The Game of War

Farmers Market Report: What Is A Farmers’ Market?
In the panoply of universally recognized archetypes of civilization, few resonate as much as the term “farmers market...”

Arts Commission Gives $2,750 Grant To S.M. Playhouse
The Latino Community Arts Grant Program, a project of the Santa Monica Arts Commission, has awarded a $2,750 grant to the Santa Monica Playhouse...

Mirror Orphan Of The Week
Bunny Crisis at WLA. Too many discards, not enough homes. Meet WALT. He is curious, sweet, and a very good boy...