Birthday Boy

"Hurray!" says Jack when he opens his square birthday present. And no wonder: It's a book. You can't help but like a clever young pup who loves to read, even when he's a dog like Jack. Rebecca Elgar's series of chubby board books includes "Jack--Happy Birthday" (1998, Kingfisher, $5.95), a lift-the-flap book for practicing shape identification, which comes in handy for guessing what's in the wrapped gifts.

Justin Bieber is 19 and, for the first round of his birthday celebration, stripped down to show off his trim body. Because that's exactly what you do when you get a year older, right. Right? "Great show! Now gonna go celebrate 19! Thanks," the birthday boy tweeted late Thursday about his "Believe" tour performance in Birmingham, England, before heading out to party. The "Beauty and the Beat" singer left the show clothed but arrived at his London hotel shirtless, with his tighty whities in full view above his sagging blue leather pants.

Norm Johnson did not spend his birthday this year jumping out of an airplane. That's what he did in 1998, parachuting at 10,000 feet over the California desert near the town of Hemet. He fell to earth at approximately 120 mph, landing safely in his first attempt at skydiving. "I said I was going to do it, I did it," he said afterward, "and I'm never going to do it again." After his adventure, Norm got on another plane and flew to New York to be a guest on Rosie O'Donnell's TV show.

Metta World Peace's birthday didn't quite go as planned. The Lakers trailed by two points in the final seconds of Tuesday's game against the Spurs. World Peace inbounded the ball. He looked to pass to Kobe Bryant but the Lakers superstar was tightly covered by Kawhi Leonard, so he threw the ball to Pau Gasol, who missed a 24-foot three-pointer as time expired. Bryant was clearly peeved by World Peace's decision on that play, but nothing could get the 33-year-old birthday boy down after the game.

Where's Iggy? That was a relevant question Saturday night at Spaceland, where local bands ostensibly gathered for a celebration of Iggy Pop's birthday. But anyone expecting a long series of Pop or Stooges covers would have come away disappointed. The man's name was barely even mentioned.

So I turned 50 the other day, and I've never felt better, though I seem to be driving over street curbs more and more, and once in a while I forget the turn signal is still on. "Dad, your turn signal," the little girl will say. "What?" "YOUR TURN SIGNAL!!!" "Thank you for your patience," I say. Yeah, I'm 50 in a town full of people notorious for fibbing about their ages. Actually, I'm 54, but when you hit 50, it's all pretty much the same. Age 4 is way different from age 8. Sixteen may be significantly different from 20. But the glorious 50s are sort of the same sitcom over and over.

Justin Bieber is 19 and, for the first round of his birthday celebration, stripped down to show off his trim body. Because that's exactly what you do when you get a year older, right. Right? "Great show! Now gonna go celebrate 19! Thanks," the birthday boy tweeted late Thursday about his "Believe" tour performance in Birmingham, England, before heading out to party. The "Beauty and the Beat" singer left the show clothed but arrived at his London hotel shirtless, with his tighty whities in full view above his sagging blue leather pants.

CLUBS Nancy Sinatra gets out her walking boots at the newly remodeled Viper Room for a New Year's Eve blowout. West Hollywood, (310) 358-1880. FAMILY Party favors and an apple-juice toast are part of "Kids' New Year's Eve Countdown" at Kidspace Museum, Pasadena. (626) 449-9144. TRIBUTE The late country boy would have been a birthday boy. "John Denver Party and Concert." The Church in Ocean Park, Santa Monica. (310) 399-1000.

Three officers struggled with party-goers and a detective was nearly pushed off a balcony as they broke up an unruly 16th-birthday celebration, police said Thursday. Five gang members were arrested, according to police. None of the officers was injured. The fracas occurred shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday, when officers responded to reports of a brawl brewing at a condominium in the 2500 block of Anchor Avenue.

Metta World Peace's birthday didn't quite go as planned. The Lakers trailed by two points in the final seconds of Tuesday's game against the Spurs. World Peace inbounded the ball. He looked to pass to Kobe Bryant but the Lakers superstar was tightly covered by Kawhi Leonard, so he threw the ball to Pau Gasol, who missed a 24-foot three-pointer as time expired. Bryant was clearly peeved by World Peace's decision on that play, but nothing could get the 33-year-old birthday boy down after the game.

My, my, where does the time go. Where, where does it go go, does it go, my time, where does it go? America's minimalists, once bright young things rebelling against the tonal austerity of serialism via rhythmically complex but harmonically gentle loops, are now contemporary music's elder statesmen. Terry Riley turned 75 in 2010, Steve Reich in 2011, and the 2012 birthday boy is Phiip Glass. The chances of Fame and Fortune smiling upon you as a composer of classical music are, in the main, negligible.

So I turned 50 the other day, and I've never felt better, though I seem to be driving over street curbs more and more, and once in a while I forget the turn signal is still on. "Dad, your turn signal," the little girl will say. "What?" "YOUR TURN SIGNAL!!!" "Thank you for your patience," I say. Yeah, I'm 50 in a town full of people notorious for fibbing about their ages. Actually, I'm 54, but when you hit 50, it's all pretty much the same. Age 4 is way different from age 8. Sixteen may be significantly different from 20. But the glorious 50s are sort of the same sitcom over and over.

Series: One in a series of occasional articles about how alternative comedy is fueling Hollywood. On a recent weekday evening, after they'd all been mercifully released from their day jobs, seven clean-cut young men, a.k.a. the Birthday Boys, a popular local sketch comedy troupe, lounged on the worn couches that line their living room-cum-production studio and took turns cracking one another up. It didn't take much, really — these guys know one another so well that they complete one another's one-liners.

Elvis Presley isn't the only pop-culture icon whose birthday will be celebrated this week, although the King is certainly primed to get the lion's share of media attention with events at Graceland in Memphis, Tenn., and countless concert tributes around the country, including several in and around L.A. this week. Two others who are still around to blow out their birthday candles are comedian Soupy Sales (born Jan. 8, 1926, precisely nine years before Elvis) and actor Bob Denver (Jan.

The third and final performance of a program titled "Leon Fleisher's 75th Birthday Celebration" -- first played in La Jolla over the weekend -- came to Founders Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Monday night. It was presented by La Jolla's SummerFest and the center.

NBC celebrates the 100th birthday of comic, actor, hoofer, singer and golfer Bob Hope this Easter Sunday night in a new two-hour special, "100 Years of Hope & Humor." Hosted by Jane Pauley, the birthday bash features guest appearances by Alan Alda, Woody Allen, Bob Costas, Phyllis Diller, Brooke Shields, Tiger Woods and President George W. Bush.

--Screen star Rock Hudson is writing about his battle with AIDS in an autobiography and plans to donate proceeds from the book to help fight the deadly disease, his publisher said in New York. Hudson will dictate the memoirs, titled "My Story," from his bedside to writer Sara Davidson, said a spokeswoman for William Morrow & Co., which is publishing the book. The spokeswoman added that the proceeds from the book would go toward the battle against acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

My, my, where does the time go. Where, where does it go go, does it go, my time, where does it go? America's minimalists, once bright young things rebelling against the tonal austerity of serialism via rhythmically complex but harmonically gentle loops, are now contemporary music's elder statesmen. Terry Riley turned 75 in 2010, Steve Reich in 2011, and the 2012 birthday boy is Phiip Glass. The chances of Fame and Fortune smiling upon you as a composer of classical music are, in the main, negligible.

Slugger Barry Bonds, who's on a home run tear this year for the San Francisco Giants, becomes a free agent at the end of the season and we think he'd fit in fine in Dodgertown. Where else could his wife and friends arrange for Farrah Fawcett to show up at his 37th birthday party? Bonds' wife, Liz, threw the bash while the Giants were in town playing the Dodgers a couple of weeks ago.

Where's Iggy? That was a relevant question Saturday night at Spaceland, where local bands ostensibly gathered for a celebration of Iggy Pop's birthday. But anyone expecting a long series of Pop or Stooges covers would have come away disappointed. The man's name was barely even mentioned.