Sorted by date Results 276 - 299 of 299
Hockey Returns; Kings Enjoy Ceremony, Not Game It was a big day for the Los Angeles Kings at noon on Saturday. They opened up the shortened 48-game 2012-13 NHL season, received their long-awaited championship rings on-ice, and finally got to raise their first Stanley Cup championship banner to the rafters at Staples Center. All while the coveted Lord Stanley’s Cup was on display at center ice during the pre-game ceremony hosted by Bob Miller, Kings long-time play-by-play announcer. There was a...
What started out as an offensive onslaught in the first quarter, and then became a defensive battle in the second half, No. 8 Stanford (12-2) took the victory in the end by beating unranked Wisconsin (8-6), 20-14, at the 2013 Rose Bowl game in Pasadena. This was Stanford’s first Rose Bowl win since 1972 and Wisconsin’s third loss in three years. The Cardinal got a jump on the Badgers with two quick touchdowns in the first quarter, led by quarterback Kevin Hogan. Running back Kelsey Young sco...
Patrons at the sold-out, acoustically-magnificent Walt Disney Concert Hall gave a standing ovation with thunderous applause after Los Angeles Master Chorale maestro Grant Gershon gave the final wave of his hand to end one of the most famous of all compositions, Handel’s Messiah. Composer George Frideric Handel (and his librettist, Charles Jennens) made this world a heaven-on-earth when he composed Messiah in 1741 at the age of 56. Originally, the annual performance of Messiah took place in sprin...
UCLA, 6-2 in the Pac-12) snapped a five-game losing streak to crosstown rival USC , 5-4 in the conference) with a 38-28 victory on Saturday at the Rose Bowl and earned a spot in the Pac-12 Conference championship game. After many years in the shadow of the Trojans, the Bruins finally get the limelight thanks to first-year head coach Jim Mora, freshman quarterback Brett Hundley and running back Jonathan Franklin. Hundley passed for 234 yards, threw for a touchdown, and rushed for two more...
On Saturday, the day before Veterans Day, veterans in attendance at the inaugural “A Day for Heroes” event at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs campus were given the red carpet treatment. Literally. “Every veteran is a celebrity today and will walk the red carpet (leading into the Wadsworth Theatre for the program featuring America in concert),” said Tim Byk, president of the Greater Los Angeles Fisher House Foundation who joined hands with VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System to create...
In a race for the National League second wild card spot at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers and Cardinals split a four-game regular season series which was last weekend. That left the Dodgers still one game behind the Cardinals in their hopes of making the playoffs. When these two teams play, it’s always a heated battle, and the heat was on full blast, literally and figuratively, as the thermometer reached 91 and 95 degrees during the first two night games of the series. But that didn’t stop the fan...
Sam Querrey has now become a three-time champion (2009, 2010, 2012) at the annual Farmers Classic men’s professional tennis tournament held at UCLA’s Straus Stadium. He beat Lithuanian challenger Ricardas Berankis 6-0, 6-2 to win the title on Sunday. Querrey, who is from Thousand Oaks, required only 52 minutes and 14 games, the shortest period of time and the fewest games on the ATP World Tour this season. He has also won 13 straight matches at the Farmers. “This tournament is special because I...
Dodger fans can breathe a collective sigh of relief now that outfielders Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier and second baseman Mark Ellis have been re-inserted into the starting lineup. They’re together again after each spent time with injuries and were on the disabled list . In their first game back last week against the Padres, Kemp, arguably the hottest player in the MLB, went 2-4 with a single and a double, while Ellis hit a six inning, two-run homer which would turn out to be the winning shot that...
The Kings, competing in their 44th NHL season since joining the league in 1967-68, finally captured their first Stanley Cup by defeating the Devils, 6-1, in Game 6 at Staples Center. For a team that had trouble all season scoring on the power-play, the Kings took advantage of a Devils’ Steve Bernier five-minute major penalty and game misconduct, which led to the Kings scoring three goals in a span of 3:58 in the first period while having a five-on-four man-advantage. Kings’ Dustin Brown scored t...
For the first time in the race’s six-year history, bicycle fans and enthusiasts will have an opportunity to ride on the eighth and final stage of the 750-mile, Tour de France-style Amgen Tour of California’s “Nissan Ride Before the Pros,” culminating downtown at L.A. Live across from Staples Center on Sunday. The creator, owner and producer of the Amgen Tour is Los Angeles-based AEG Sports, one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world. AEG, a wholly owned subsidi...
Early in the 2012 season, Dodgers star center fielder Matt Kemp is already having a breakout season and on course to top last year’s MVP-type performance. Last season, the only player in the National League standing in Kemp’s way of capturing the MVP title was Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun. Kemp fell short by six points of being awarded the crown. Subsequently, Braun almost lost the title due to an accusation of taking performance-enhancing drugs, but was later vindicated due to a successful appea...
It has been 11 years since the Los Angeles Kings have advanced past the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. After defeating the Vancouver Canucks – the President Trophy winner - in five games, they’ve move on to face the Central Division champion St. Louis Blues in the second round. The Blues have also had a 10- year drought in their first round attempts. Both teams, unhappy with the way things were going, took similar paths this season by hiring new head coaches early in the season, bre...
It was the injury that has seriously altered the Clippers’ season. Veteran floor-general Chauncey Billups collapsed to the court with a season-ending torn left Achilles-tendon while playing an away game against the Orlando Magic on Feb. 6. The injury occurred midway through the fourth quarter. Billups fell to the court as he tried to change directions while chasing the ball after missing a three-point shot attempt. There was no contact with another player. “I was backpedaling and tried to ret...
Ebony Repertory Theatre’s highly successful production A Raisin in the Sunopened Sunday at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. The classic Lorraine Hansberry play debuted in 1959, and was the first play produced by an African American woman on Broadway. The playwright was inspired by her own family experiences moving into an all-white neighborhood when she was a child -- the Washington Park Subdivision of Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood during the early 1950s. The play later became a fil...
The new-look Los Angeles Clippers were put to the test this past week by two elite teams – the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers – and passed the test by defeating both teams at Staples Center. These important wins certainly give the Clippers the nod to join that elite circle and now own bragging rights against their cross-arena rival Lakers. The Clippers tenacity so frustrated the opposing head coaches that the Heat’s Erik Spoelstra got ejected from the game and Lakers’ Mike Brown received a te...
On Sunday, the Los Angeles Kings took over the back lot of Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City for their annual “Tip-A-King” major fundraiser -- a chance for Kings fans to get up-close and personal with the players, coaches, alumni and broadcasters. Funds raised will benefit the Kings Care Foundation which provides educational and recreational opportunities for children throughout Greater Los Angeles. Proceeds will also be benefiting Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and the Kings Blood...
Mike Richards, former captain of the Philadelphia Flyers, seemed somewhat ambivalent and resentful as he spoke about being traded to the Los Angeles Kings during the introductory press conference held in the Kings locker room at theToyota Center. "I'm not exactly sure why I was traded," Richards said. "There's a lot of stuff written in Philly, but it was a big shock to me." Over the years playing for the Flyers, he came to feel as if Philadelphia was his home and had just signed a long-term...
“Venice,” the world premiere production at the Kirk Douglas Theatre which had its opening on Sunday, is a mash-up of styles that works on so many levels. The show was co-written and produced by two masterminds - wunderkind Matt Sax and Kansas City Rep artistic director Eric Rosen. Sax first came on the scene with Rosen’s first show with the Rep, “Clay,” which also ran at The Kirk a few years ago to rave reviews. Rosen found Sax at Northwestern University and recognized his potential, working w...
The Lakers honored Observer Sports Editor Mitch Chortkoff last week for his many years of covering the team. Bob Steiner, who heads the Lakers’ public relations operation, made the presentation of Laker memorabilia at California Villa in Van Nuys, where Chortkoff has been recovering from surgery. Chortkoff returned to work at the Observer’s Culver City office this week. The Lakers’ presentation team consisted of Steiner, public relations director John Black, general manager Mitch Kupchak and l...
Alex Kurihara, a recently-graduated midfielder for Culver City High School’s lacrosse team, has become its first player to be selected as a U.S. Lacrosse High School “Academic All-American.” Kurihara, a top-scorer for the Centaurs’ squad, was able to maintain an A-plus grade average while also enduring a rigorous practice and game schedule during after-school hours. “Alex is great, not just as an athlete but, more importantly, as a student,” said Culver High Lacrosse Coach Casey Chabola. “H...
I recently attended a DouglasPlus workshop for “Next Stop Amazingland” at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Because this production was being presented by the same creators of the critically acclaimed dreamscape vaudeville “All Wear Bowlers” (2005), I was interested to see it. Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle teamed up with world-class magician Steven Cuiffo to form this mix of half-theatre, half-magic show. The idea was to combine the magic with glitz, humor, and bizarre, off-the-wall characters. Overall,...
Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music stands almost alone in the grand sweep of his works for musical theatre – though set in the perpetual twilight of a Scandinavian summer night, A Little Night Music is perhaps his lightest show. Far better known for his work roaming in the shadows, Sondheim here takes a less tragic view of love and its foibles. Although, Night Music starts with pairs of lovers – some mismatched, some not remembering why they matched in the first place – the romantic, waltz-...
In “Eclipsed,” a tormenting yet humorous new play by Danai Gurira ("In the Continuum") at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, the theme of survival during the bleakest of circumstances is driven home. Gurira's revelatory work, set during the brutal 2003 Liberian civil war, takes a powerful look at the travails of African women treated as human chattel. Based on interviews that Gurira conducted in Africa, "Eclipsed" examines the plights of women captured and held in a battlefront camp as...
Nothing warms the heart like a good laugh, and there are laughs aplenty in the Kentwood Players’ handsome new production of Charles Busch's Tale of the Allergist's Wife. Busch built his reputation writing cutting-edge off-Broadway spoofs that showcased his brilliant drag performances, so it was a surprise to many when he cooked-up this mainstream comedy almost a decade ago. It wowed the critics, moved to Broadway, racked up a slew of Tony nominations and ran for well over 700 performances. T...
