The day the bomb dropped, an entire culture disappeared. Before, the town was bustling with life. Festivals were held in the streets. In the summers, cicadas buzzed in the trees, birds chirped and children played in the river. After the “a-Bomb” dropped, there was nothing, recalled a Hiroshima survivor, “not even the sound of birds … it was a soundless world.” Documentary film director and Hiroshima survivor, Masaaki Tanabe, presented his 33 minute film, “An Unrecognized Loss: Message from Hiroshima,”… Read more

I don’t mark the calendar with a big heart to remind my significant other of the day. I don’t want heart-shaped chocolates or roses. I definitely don’t want a card with fuzzy animals cuddling each other. I may be one of the handfuls of women that hate Valentine’s Day. It’s not because I’m single, either. In fact, I’ve been in a steady relationship for almost six years. It’s not because I’ve had bad Valentine’s Days in the past. I’ve never… Read more

Star rating: 5 out of 5 Life inside a five-block comic strip in the Sunday morning paper was so much simpler. Charlie Brown’s biggest worries were gaining the respect of his peers, mustering the courage to talk to the “Little Red-Haired Girl” or trying to kick that football. Flash forward a few years, and Charlie Brown – or CB as he now calls himself – and the gang have entered into a life of binge drinking, pot smoking, eating disorders… Read more

A handful of members from Grammy U sat in the bleachers of the Staples center waiting to see the final run-through of what would be the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, Friday, Jan.29. The Dave Matthews Band took their marks on stage, as the stand-in on the mic announced their performance. As the song opened, Dave Matthews crooned out the first few stanzas of “You and Me”. Then the bridge swelled as Matthews’ voice blasted full force against the walls… Read more

Danny Matson waited for his girlfriend on Westminster Bridge in London. The Houses of Parliament and the famous Big Ben clock tower loomed in the background over the haze of the foggy mist. Matson, separated from his girlfriend for a month, anxiously waited for her arrival. Once he spotted her, he set the timer on his camera, balanced it on the bridge, and in a classic Clark Gable move — leaned her over the rail and kissed her. Matson produced… Read more

Technicolor. Psychedelic. Vivid. Like those weird dreams you get if you eat dinner right before going to bed. And in your dream, the steak appears alongside little gnomes lounging on the dinner table, next to an extravagant bouquet of outlandish flowers. Those are the images Erik Sandberg, illustration professor and professional artist, captures. Sandberg recently returned from a lecture and slideshow presentation that he gave about his “Hairy Children Portrait” series at the University of Tennessee, in November. The “Hairy… Read more

Colorful buildings line the block on Fairfax Avenue. Several restaurants bunched together on this small strip of land radiate pungent, sweet and spicy scents of food cooking inside. Outside of one restaurant, a man was singing in Amharic – a language I’ve never heard before. Welcome to the Little Ethiopia district of Los Angeles. A fairly new enclave in Los Angeles, Little Ethiopia started growing in the 1990s as more shops, markets and restaurants opened to welcome new arrivals. One… Read more

Growing up in a Christian household with a father who was a minister, Bryant Paul Mills was never allowed to listen to secular music. In high school, he would hear “For Your Love” play on the radio and always asked himself “who sings this song?” “My parents wouldn’t allow me to listen to R&B music…we listened to Maranatha, Sandy Patti … it was beautiful, it was great music, but we (he and his sisters) wanted to listen to Jodeci, Boys… Read more

Christina Handal isn’t a person that can be pigeonholed. The free-spirited, confident 21-year-old business management major said that concrete life plans scare her. “I don’t like to project out that far and try to plan my life that far in advance,” Handal said. “Even a month ahead, you think, this is where I’m going to be at, this is what I’m going to be doing – and your life takes you on some crazy turn of events that takes you… Read more