Dan Brown's book Angels & Demons is a better read than his big hit The Da Vinci Code. Its downfall is one of the dumbest climaxes I've read. Thankfully, director Ron Howard and screenwriters David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman spare us. They delete it from the movie version, and opt for a better, more believable ending.

Aladdin Jr., the musical, is the biggest production of the year for Southridge High School's SunShine Theatre Company.

The Mid-Columbia Mastersingers plan to jazz up spring with a May festival that will celebrate music, art and film starting May 15.

Apparently there's a real movement going on in the French horror scene right now, which is news to me because I always thought everywhere was America.

Stardate 1905.08. Red alert. In local movie theaters, a Romulan vessel looking more like a giant squid than a space ship, has invaded Federation space. An intense, dramatic, brilliantly shot and edited battle scene develops. It ends with the birth of James T. Kirk.

YAKIMA -- The neo-flamenco sounds Andre Feriante pulls from his classical guitar could be the perfect gift for your mom on Mother's Day.

WALLA WALLA -- The second weekend in May brings bright colors to the Walla Walla Valley. But it's not blooms but balloons in fanciful shapes and Crayola colors coloring the landscape.

Of the list of directors I thought might win Best Picture in the next few years, the dude who made 28 Days Later wasn't one of them.

What began as just a funny story eventually turned into a full-fledged band.

Magic Slim feels the blues deep in his soul. And he'll play those blues from his heart, just like the song says, at the Untapped Blues Festival on May 9 at the Benton County Fairgrounds in Kennewick.

PENDLETON -- Poison's former front man is looking for nothin' but a good time when he brings his Rock of Love Bus to the Wildhorse Resort & Casino on May 7.

Even the title scares me. Does "origins" mean we have to see more films based on the creation of all of the members of the X-Men comic book series? If others are planned and they're this badly done, then one is enough. Really.

Listen to the Tri-Cities' musical best at this year's 40th Young Artists of Distinction concert.

Chase and The Reach have every reason to celebrate -- they've got a new album coming out and a full summer tour all lined up.

The Inland Northwest Musicians welcome spring this weekend with two concerts.

For more than 17 years, members of the Contemporary Christian rock band Third Day have been expecting the end.

They may come from a part of the state known for dreary weather, but there's nothing woeful about the Seattle alternative rock group Your Divine Tragedy.

WALLA WALLA -- Walla Walla Community College's spring production, Suds in Your Eye, takes a comic spin when San Diego junkyard owner Mrs. Feeley turns her establishment into a haven for those down on their luck during World War II.

I am a gambling man. Every year I bet the Mariners will not only win the Series, they'll cure cancer and invent robots that will sweep our floors while other robots feed us grapes. Back in '79, when I was floating around the ether for the 12th straight millennium, I bet I'd be born within the next five years. Cleaned up on that one.

Three's normally a crowd, but for local TV station KEPR, there's nothing better than the power of three.

Warning to parents: Though it is rated G and you don’t see blood and gore, EARTH does have what could be an uncomfortable and violent moment or two. Do take your young children, do take the entire family. Just be prepared.

I'm not what you would call a hardcore gamer. I'm a nerd and as such I am a huge fan of all kinds of games, but I'm not the guy you'll see spending a grand at an arcade or be top ranked on any first person shooter. I consider myself to be a casual gamer. I play games until they annoy me and only get around to beating games I'm in love with. I don't obsess over any particular title, I don't have a level 80 WoW character, and I haven't memorized any button combinations or cheat codes since the NES days. I just like great game play, even if that means the story lacks. In fact, I don't even care if there's a story at all if the game play is addictive enough. Case and point: Peggle.

WALLA WALLA -- Some music critics are calling guitarist Leo Kottke a "national treasure."

Richland High drama will bring theater lovers a taste of Hans Christian Andersen when it presents Once on This Island, beginning April 24.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Investors in GameStop Corp. may have panicked recently on the news that Amazon.com was entering into the used video game space, but a new study suggests that the slumping economy may help make room for plenty of competitors in the market.

I have tried, so far, to use this space to highlight the more obscure films I've stumbled across/been assaulted by in my years as an unwashed recluse. For one thing, if you've already heard of a movie, you don't need one more jerk telling you what to think about it, but more importantly, I can only assume geekily enthusiastic displays of useless knowledge impresses the hell out of chicks.

I love whodunits. A whodunit based on a six-part, award-winning British TV series involving newspapers is even better. The disheveled and seemingly disorganized loner reporter, the guy with piles of papers and files in his cubicle, driving a beat-up old car, with a nose for news, sniffs out corruption and rights a wrong.

The East Benton County Historical Museum has enhanced its entryway by adding more petrified wood flooring.

In certain corners of the Internet, ferocious debate rages as to what makes a “real” zombie.

Miley Cyrus is the world’s most popular teen.

The annual Jazz Unlimited Festival has become a popular venue for high school music departments throughout the Northwest to strut their stuff every spring.

Get ready for East meets West at the 12th annual Sakura-Con, a three-day event geared at Japanese animation and culture in Seattle.

What better family entertainment can there be than a true piece of American culture that is as inexpensive as it is entertaining?

Being a well-known DJ can be a little like living the glam life of a celebrity -- with a degree of anonymity.

When Jimmy Fallon took over the Late Night franchise, he inherited comedy's highest-profile petri dish.

Pasco rock band Folding In have trimmed the fat and are toning up for upcoming shows.

Here's how you know Joseph Gordon-Levitt is worth watching: he's got looks, youth, talent, and opportunity, but he persistently throws it away on awesome little movies barely anyone goes to see.

The name play with the The Fast and Furious sequels is far more creative than the plot of the latest installment which has a line in it that indicates it may be the prequel to The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Don't be deceived by the name BlueZette.

Pianist Angela Jia Kim has been called a lyrical virtuoso with enough eloquence and color on her musical palette to charm any audience, anywhere.

Rockstar Games has made an insane amount of money off Grand Theft Auto. And the GTA brand has such cachet that you could slap it on anything and make a bundle. GTA kart racing? GTA wrestling? Rockstar deserves credit for not trying to squeeze every last penny out of its premiere franchise.

I went into 1982's Mazes and Monsters thinking I had a surefire winner for Big Awful Friday. For years I've been hearing how it's a huge teen-scare movie feeding on the era's Dungeons & Dragons panic, a movement that started after the East Coast was destroyed by a horde of those dweebs everyone makes fun of armed with vorpal kitchen knives and bedsheet cloaks.

Remember the first time you saw Shrek? This is that kind of treat. Dreamworks -- who also put together our favorite Ogre films -- did Monsters vs. Aliens as a 3-D project. Most are two dimensions turned into three after the filming is completed. Both techniques boggle the mind-and are definitely the future of film -- but the difference between the two is astonishing.

If Trent Dabbs' life was a movie, he would already have the music for the soundtrack.

When Mike Murphy suffers from cabin fever, which happens a few times a year, he hits the road.

If you've never paid a visit to the annual The Tri-City Quilters Guild show, which is March 27-28 at the Three Rivers Convention Center, this might be the year to check it out.

My favorite part of this job is definitely attending rom-coms and kids' movies by myself, but second to that, what I like best is being subjected to the same trailer up to a dozen times before the movie it's advertising actually comes out.

Industrial espionage is Duplicity's theme. Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson head up rival mega-corporations. They hate each other. Their revulsion spills over into an original, and quite creative, slow motion fight at an airport early in the movie.

When it comes to finding talent in movies, all you have to do is tell her everyone gets their start in porn. Wait, this column is about watching movies?

Imagine sitting next to a campfire along the Vancouver Island coastline hundreds of years ago.