Aries (March 21-April 19): You’ll discover today that your temper isn’t as hot and uncontrollable as you thought. You’re in total control. Read more

BEFORE the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences worked out a deal with the striking Writers Guild, the Grammy Awards sat in a really interesting limbo. More intriguing than a looming picket line was the chance that the annual schmoozefest, minus longtime producer Ken Ehrlich and writer David Wild (both WGA members), would drift toward improvisation. Read more

NO sane person with a bladder would argue that “There Will Be Blood,” which runs for 2 hours and 38 minutes, should be longer. But what if it were, in fact, 62 hours and 22 minutes longer, because instead of being a movie, “There Will Be Blood” was a television show on HBO or Showtime or some cable outlet with a bazillion dollars and a liberal language policy? Read more

THE story of “Jericho” – not the story within the show but the story of the show itself – highlights a fundamental problem with American network television. Because the traditional and current business model seeks to field shows that will potentially run forever, even as they are in constant danger of cancellation, the vast wasteland is littered with unfinished stories. Read more

Dear Amy: Uncle George is having a milestone birthday, and we thought a framed copy of his birth certificate would be a thoughtful gift. Unfortunately, his given birth date seems to be a work of fiction because neither the state nor the city in which he was born records a birth of a Baby George to his parents on that date. Read more

The Times’ pop music contributors name their picks in selected categories. The Grammy broadcast airs tonight at 8 on CBS. Album of the Year Foo Fighters, “Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace” Vince Gill, “These Days” Herbie Hancock, “River: The Joni Letters” Kanye West, “Graduation” Amy Winehouse, “Back to Black” This startlingly diverse list suggests behind-the-scenes power plays (Nashville wants more acknow Read more

Big 1988 *** ABC Family 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Read more

Compiled by James E. Fowler. Tall Ship Cannon Battles Mock mayhem between two ships 2-5 p.m. Read more

“OH! Can we talk?! Oh!” Read more

Alone By Vy, 6 Bryant Ranch School Yorba Linda Being alone in a forest, walking deeper in. But it is not about being afraid. Read more

THE “Beware of Bear” signs outside Levon Helm’s home and studio are not a joke. A real black bear made itself all too comfortable the summer before last, somehow squeezing through a doggy door and heading to the kitchen, then the “big room,” where they stage the Midnight Rambles. Read more

Reviews by Christopher Knight (C.K.).Compiled by Grace Krilanovich. Critics’ Choice Robert Irwin: Primaries and Secondaries Light and Space, the sensual art of perceptual discovery that Robert Irwin pioneered in the 1960s, is now synonymous with Los Angeles’ emergence over the last half-century as a distinctive cultural powerhouse. Read more

IT’S only fitting that the Root, the new online black news, opinion and ancestry magazine launched by the Washington Post Co. almost two weeks ago, is still figuring out its identity. Read more

DIANA VISHNEVA would seem to have it all. A principal with the venerable Kirov Ballet since 1996, the Russian dancer blessed with an uncommonly supple body, superb technique and a vivid dramatic presence appears routinely on the world’s prestige stages. Read more

Feb. 10, 2008 Position No. Read more

In a salute to that old standard, the May-December romance, Lifetime will present the broadcast premiere of “P.S.,” a story about a lonely admissions director (played by Oscar nominee Laura Linney) and the relationship that develops between her and a college applicant (played by Topher Grace), who happens to share the same name as her dead high school sweetheart. (Lifetime, Thu., 9 p.m.) Read more

BRAD RENFRO had insisted over the phone that he was clean. That’s what the teen actor, hot from his performances as a troubled youth with sad eyes in such films as “The Client” and “Sleepers,” told director Larry Clark. Read more

FOR many Brazilians, 1970 was a time of both outsized national pride and overwhelming fear. The country’s soccer team was competing in the World Cup, with a squad that included the legendary Pelé. However, the ruling military junta was silencing dissidents, and runaway inflation was pummeling the economy. Read more

“The Case of the Secret Valentine” James Preller Jigsaw Jones is at it again. Jigsaw has a secret admirer. Read more

MOSCOW’S $4-billion Crystal Island development won preliminary planning approval during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, just as Russians were beginning to need a glittering distraction from short, bleak winter days. Eye-popping images of the hugely ambitious project, designed for a site on the Moscow River by the British architect Norman Foster, more than fit the bill. Read more

TIPS FOR TODAY 11 a.m.-noon, 7-8 p.m. – Record Shelf: Part 1 (11 a.m.-noon) and 2 (7-8 p.m.) Read more

AS “No Country for Old Men” star Josh Brolin said in accepting the Screen Actors Guild Award for ensemble cast, “The Coen brothers are freaky little people, you know, and we did a freaky little movie.” Indeed, sitting down with the notoriously press-shy, iconoclastic auteurs in a suite at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills with the only light coming from the rapidly dimming, overcast sky, is a little bit freaky. Read more

This one’s for the guys. According to the ads, it’s “uncut, uncensored and uncalled for” – all the earmarks of an Adult Swim hit – and yet IFC’s sketch comedy, “The Whitest Kids U’Know,” hasn’t developed a following. Read more

WHEN Angelenos first see Ian Storey this week in the title role of Verdi’s “Otello,” he’ll be standing nearly 35 feet in the air, borne aloft majestically on a giant ship’s mast. With a victorious flourish, he’ll exhort the soldiers and sailors below to rejoice – the enemy has been defeated! Read more

‘Otello’ Where: Los Angeles Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. Read more

Will newly eligible breeds the plott, Tibetan mastiff, Swedish vallhund and beauceron stand a chance in the 132nd “Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show”?Watch the canine Super Bowl to find out. (CNBC, Mon., 6 p.m., live; USA, Mon. Read more

‘Dedication’ Weinstein/Genius, $19.95 Actor Justin Theroux makes his directing debut with this quirky film about a disagreeable children’s book author (Billy Crudup) dealing with a multitude of dysfunctions. An oddly endearing friendship between Crudup and Tom Wilkinson gives way to a far more conventional romantic comedy with Mandy Moore. Read more

ROB McCALLUM holds the rare distinction of having once drawn 300 storyboards – the comic-book-like panels that summarize a film’s shots for the crew – in 72 hours. “And then a couple of days later they go, ‘Hey, we’ve changed things. Read more

‘Diana Vishneva – Beauty in Motion’ Where: Orange County Performing Artscenter, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday; 3 p.m. Read more

Did you know that there is a MySpace-style social networking website dedicated to “The Flavor of Love”? Neither did we. Read more

‘Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress by a Life in Progress’ Where: Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood When: Opens Wednesday. 7:30 p.m. Read more

SUNDAY It’s all about girl power at “The 50th Annual Grammy Awards,” which will feature performances by hit-makers Rihanna (below), Carrie Underwood, Mary J. Blige and Alicia Keys, among others. (CBS, 8 p.m.) Read more

Move over, Wiggles. Kids – and their hip parents – have a new favorite. Read more

You could talk about: “Definitely, Maybe.” Well, heck. Read more

THE Lisa Edelstein interview, “Sitting Pretty in Silver Lake” [by Choire Sicha, Feb. 3], illustrates why there is so little sympathy for the strike from fellow movie and television workers and so much disgust for actors who express sympathy or solidarity. Read more

Reviews by Holly Myers (H.M.) and David Pagel (D.P.).Compiled by Grace Krilanovich. Critics’ Choices Victor Man: Black Hearts Always Bleed Red Most of the works in this Romanian artist’s U.S. debut are small, dark and virtually illegible from any distance. Read more

THANKS to a new generation of viewers more conversant with YouTube than with appointment television, the short subject seems to be making a comeback. “Hotel Chevalier,” Wes Anderson’s 13-minute prequel to “The Darjeeling Limited,” was added to the feature’s theatrical prints after it racked up nearly 500,000 iTunes downloads. Read more

For more arts news, reviews and features throughout the week, as well as videos, photo galleries and interactive content, please go to latimes.com/arts Read more

EDDIE ARGOS was depressed. He was working long hours behind the bar at Hog’s Head, a pub in the seaside town of Weymouth, England. Read more

Iread Paul Brownfield’s interesting interview with Matthew McConaughey [” ‘I’m Not Working It,’ He Says,” Feb. 3]. Read more

YOU say it’s not possible to win a jazz Grammy with an album that isn’t out in stores, at the listening posts or available on Amazon? Think again. Read more

Writer Will Blythe asked artist Rachel Mason to accompany him and draw the candidates as he covered the John Edwards campaign last year. IT’S an electronic world these days, jittery with what passes for communication, especially on the campaign trail. Read more

DIRECTORS like Rob Marshall, Bill Condon, Adam Shankman and Tim Burton might be the latest filmmakers to craft engaging cinematic musicals, but, back when sound was new to the art form, it was German emigre director Ernst Lubitsch whose breezy, clever style and sophisticated story lines redefined the genre. After making a name for himself in silent cinema in Europe and Hollywood, Lubitsch brought his unique vision to the musical. Read more

In a recent talk at REDCAT, New York-based artist Walid Raad described what it was like growing up in 1980s Beirut under the constant threat of car bombs. The frequent explosions – he cites more than 3,600 in 15 years – turned cars, buildings and bodies literally inside out. Read more

The math might say you’re getting more than 2-1 on your money and you can’t possibly fold a hand as big as pocket queens. But your instincts might say that you’re beaten and you have to lay it down. Read more

IN two days, we will know the answer to the 8-month-old question: Was CBS nuts to cancel “Jericho” or nuts to bring it back? No matter which decision proves nuttier, the critically acclaimed drama about a Kansas town that survives a national nuclear attack will go down in history as the first TV show saved by a grass-roots Internet movement that involved thousands of fans from around the world – and more than 20 tons of peanuts. Read more

IT was not a label he embraced, but somewhere along the line Stanley Kramer became known as a maker of message movies. In the ’50s and ’60s, as a producer and director, Kramer (who died in 2001, at age 87) tackled such issues as racial prejudice, fascism, juvenile delinquency and the threat of nuclear annihilation. Read more

JOHN THOMPSON had always liked snow. He didn’t care how deep the drifts were, for he had been born in the snowy, far-off country of Norway. Read more

“The Bourne Ultimatum,” starring Matt Damon, isn’t major-league awards material around these parts, but ask the Brits and they’ll tell you it was one of last year’s best. It’s up for several awards, including best director and best British film, at “The 2008 BAFTA Awards.” Read more

SERIES Back in black: Jack Black lends his voice to an encore episode of “The Simpsons” (8 p.m. Fox). Read more

Previews by Ann Powers (A.P.)., Richard Cromelin (R.C.), Casey Dolan (C.D.), Randy Lewis (R.L.) and on Heckman (D.H.). Pop & Jazz George Clinton The era of musical titans may be fading under the weight of information overload, but a few remain standing. Read more