60th Anniversary

This is a parade that demands state-level security. Discipline. Extreme secrecy. Ordinary people will not be allowed anywhere near the parade route in Beijing on Thursday, when the People's Republic of China marks the 60th anniversary of its founding with a military parade. That applies even to people who live in the neighborhood: Entire apartment buildings along the route toward Tiananmen Square are being evacuated to prevent residents from watching. Cameras and binoculars are forbidden in many locales.

The American Cinematheque's Aero Theatre celebrates the arrival of its new state-of-the-art 4K digital projector with a summer series, In Spectacular Digital Cinema: Classics and Restorations on the Big Screen. The festival begins Thursday evening with the 1954 Judy Garland-James Mason musical drama “A Star Is Born,” followed Friday with the digital restorations of Martin Scorsese's seminal 1976 drama, “Taxi Driver,” and William Wyler's 1965 thriller, “The Collector,” with Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar in her Oscar-nominated role.

Mark Swed reviews the first of three concerts celebrating the 60th anniversary of Monday Evening Concerts.

This is a parade that demands state-level security. Discipline. Extreme secrecy. Ordinary people will not be allowed anywhere near the parade route in Beijing on Thursday, when the People's Republic of China marks the 60th anniversary of its founding with a military parade. That applies even to people who live in the neighborhood: Entire apartment buildings along the route toward Tiananmen Square are being evacuated to prevent residents from watching. Cameras and binoculars are forbidden in many locales.

In June I ran the Normandy Marathon in France (60th anniversary of D-day). Ran the Badwater to Mt. Whitney Ultramarathon (157 miles) in July. Just completed running the John Muir Trail. I turned 50 in April. Middle age ain't so bad. John "JR" Radich Monrovia

The California Jewish War Veterans will celebrate its 60th anniversary Sunday with a dinner and concert. The public event will be at Leisure World's Clubhouse 5, 24262 Punta Alta, Gate 9. The cost is $25 per person. Information: (949) 825-3773.

"Raise the Red Lantern" director Zhang Yimou plans to make a movie to mark the 60th anniversary of communist China, cementing his shift from a dissident to a government-favored artist. Zhang is still working on the script for the film, China Central Television reported Wednesday. Zhang designed the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics in August, and was earlier chosen by the government as the director of an Oct. 1 gala celebrating the People's Republic of China's 60th anniversary.

Re "Arabs feel bias in Bush's visit to Mideast," news analysis, May 19 You've got to be kidding! The Times points out that President Bush praised Israel during his visit to celebrate the country's 60th anniversary, but that the "mood was markedly different" when he addressed the Arab nations. And this is held up as an example of bias? Some simple questions: Do women have equal rights in the Arab nations? What is the status of gay rights? What about religious freedom? How about freedom of the press and freedom of speech?

A solemn benediction beginning at 3:30 p.m. June 30 at St. Matthias Catholic Church, 3095 E. Florence Ave., will honor the 60th anniversary of Msgr. Patrick T. Shear's ordination to the priesthood. A reception and dinner will follow at the Elks Club, 3355 Gage Ave. Shear, 85, entered St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park in 1915 and was ordained June 21, 1925. During his pastorate at St. Matthias, he directed the building of a new elementary school and the opening of St.

For the first time in a decade, Beijing on Thursday will showcase its latest armored vehicles, ballistic missiles and fighter jets in a demonstration of military ambition meant to befit the nation's economic rise. The display of hardware -- part of the government's 60th anniversary celebrations -- will no doubt stoke national pride. But it's also a chance for China to show an international audience that the world's third-largest economy is investing heavily in military technology, a strategic sector that Beijing believes will strengthen its regional security and global influence.

An uneasy calm settled over northern Myanmar today as Kokang fighters and refugees continued to cross the border into southern China in the wake of a military operation in the northern part of the country also known as Burma. U.N. and overseas Myanmar groups say upward of 10,000 refugees and hundreds of Kokang fighters are now in southern China, presenting a logistical headache for Beijing. Still unclear, analysts said, is whether this is only a lull in the fighting and how great an effect this human tide will have on Sino-Myanmar relations.

Kartell, known for turning plastic furniture into jewel-toned art, is holding a 60th-anniversary sale through June 30 with discounts up to 70%. Among reduced items: noted Parisian designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec's Panier, which takes its name from the French term for basket. The shatter-proof polycarbonate design is 2 feet in diameter and can be used indoors and out as an open storage container or, with the addition of a lid, a 9-inch-tall side table.

On a sunny Sunday when men with 10-gallon vaquero hats mingled with men wearing yarmulkes, Sonny Estrada, his wife Susan Miller and their 9-year-old daughter Eliana stepped into the aging synagogue in Boyle Heights as unwitting symbols. The Mexican-American-Jewish family was celebrating the 61st anniversary of Israel's independence outside the Breed Street Shul -- while also honoring Jewish and Latino bonds in a part of town that once was home to the largest Jewish community outside New York.

"Raise the Red Lantern" director Zhang Yimou plans to make a movie to mark the 60th anniversary of communist China, cementing his shift from a dissident to a government-favored artist. Zhang is still working on the script for the film, China Central Television reported Wednesday. Zhang designed the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics in August, and was earlier chosen by the government as the director of an Oct. 1 gala celebrating the People's Republic of China's 60th anniversary.

Re "Arabs feel bias in Bush's visit to Mideast," news analysis, May 19 You've got to be kidding! The Times points out that President Bush praised Israel during his visit to celebrate the country's 60th anniversary, but that the "mood was markedly different" when he addressed the Arab nations. And this is held up as an example of bias? Some simple questions: Do women have equal rights in the Arab nations? What is the status of gay rights? What about religious freedom? How about freedom of the press and freedom of speech?

The Scene: After work Monday night, when industry types came straight from the office to a reception for the Hollywood Reporter. The trade publication celebrated its 60th anniversary by taking over the venerable Hollywood eatery, Chasen's. The press skirmished in one room, while everyone else roamed the restaurant, vigorously going about the sort of power schmoozing that Hollywood does best. Business cards were flashing so fast that injury by paper cut seemed a real possibility.

I know that Michael Ramirez intended in his editorial cartoon (Commentary, June 15) to take a shot at France for refusing to help when he showed a person labeled "USA" dangling from a cliff and holding a figure labeled "Iraq" in his other hand. I read an additional message in his cartoon, however. If Ramirez was suggesting that we vote out of office a president who has allowed us to get into such a position, it may be one of the few Ramirez cartoons that I agree with. Larry W. Cohen Vista I just returned from a week in Normandy, touring the area for the 60th anniversary of D-day.

Seven-year-old Hannah Cohen and her brother Brandon, 9, first touched the strings tentatively, almost afraid they would break the one-of-a-kind musical device. Then with exuberance, they swept their hands across the unusual 60-string harp to help launch a 60-hour Los Angeles celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary. The instrument is designed in the shape of the Hebrew letter samech, which represents the numeric value of 60.

When the prestigious annual Turin Book Fair opens today, it will be amid a cavalcade of fanfare that organizers could not possibly have wanted. Riot police will guard the event. Rival demonstrators will make their stand. Boycotts, diplomatic incidents and mutually recriminating outrage swirl in the background. How did a mild-mannered book festival become the focus of such impassioned attention? It began with the decision by organizers to honor Israeli writers at this year's fair, which coincides with the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Jewish state.