German

The sacrificial piano sat stage right during German band Faust's concert at REDCAT. It was a church basement clunker, a blond-wooded upright with broken-tooth keys and a chipped veneer. Whatever sacred beauty it delivered in better days, the piano was now doomed, sentenced to death by a band that 40 years ago helped transform the direction of experimental rock and noise music with transfixing grooves and an abundance of free-spirited, Dada-inspired non sequiturs. In the first of two Friday-night performances at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater in downtown L.A., the four-piece version of a band co-founded in 1970 by, among others, current members Jean-Hervé Péron and percussionist Werner "Zappi" Diermaier, delivered art-damaged (quite literally)

BERLIN - Twitter on Thursday blocked users in Germany from viewing the messages of a neo-Nazi group as the company for the first time withheld content in a specific country under a policy aimed at complying with local laws while allowing free speech. Twitter used its "country-withheld content" policy to block the account of a right-wing group called Besseres Hannover, or Better Hannover, which was banned by the German state of Lower Saxony for spreading nationalist socialist ideology and undermining free democracy.

The NHL was scheduled to open its season Thursday night, but instead of previews, predictions and a peek at the Kings' plans for their Stanley Cup banner-raising ceremony Friday night at Staples Center, we bring you more lockout-related news. Isn't that fun! Of greatest interest to Kings fans is that backup goaltender Jonathan Bernier will join Heilbronn Falken of the German second division to stay active during the lockout, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported. That makes sense for him, considering he played so little last season.

With its promise of destruction and chaos, of the mighty brought low, "The Last Days of Pompeii" is such an irresistible cinematic title it's been used time and time again. Two of the resulting films can be enjoyed in ideal surroundings in the Getty Villa's Outdoor Classical Theater this weekend in a miniseries accompanying the museum's engaging exhibition on the same subject. Playing Friday at 7:30 p.m. is the 1913 Italian silent directed by Mario Caserini and released in this country with a poster proclaiming it "A Spectacular Photo-Drama.

Outfest, the 30-year-old organization that promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality through the arts, is screening the 1919 German silent movie "Different From the Others," which it says is the earliest surviving feature film that deals explicitly with gay themes and characters. The film, which stars Conrad Veidt as a violinist and music teacher who falls in love with one of his male students, will be shown Saturday evening as part of Outfest's Legacy Awards ceremony at the Orpheum Theatre in L.A. The evening, which will also honor producers Craig Zadan and Neil Neron with the Visionary Award, benefits Outfest's Legacy Project, formed in 2005 with the UCLA Film & Television Archive for LGBT film preservation.

After jurors watched a video Friday showing a muzzled German Shepherd being beaten to death with a hammer, the Pasadena man on trial for that crime quickly pleaded no contest to felony animal cruelty and misdemeanor petty theft. Young Song, 42, was immediately sentenced in Pasadena by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Darrell Mavis to a year in jail and three years of formal probation. Song, who was also banned from possessing any animals for 10 years, could have faced more than four years in prison.

The parent company of T-Mobile USA Inc. has confirmed it is in talks to buy rival MetroPCS Communications Inc. in a deal that would give the combined entity more clout in the competitive U.S. wireless market. After weeks of speculation, German company Deutsche Telekom, which owns T-Mobile, said Tuesday that it was eyeing MetroPCS but that no decision had been reached. "The talks are at a stage where significant issues have not yet been finalized, contracts have not yet been signed and the conclusion of the transaction is still not certain," Deutsche Telekom said in a statement.

Since Claude Monet's death in 1926, Giverny Gardens in Normandy, France, where the French Impressionist painted his famous water lilies, has become a pilgrimage for artists, historians and tourists hoping to absorb the aura of the countryside and be inspired by the enchanted oasis. German photographer Elger Esser journeyed to Giverny in 2010 to experiment with an altogether different aesthetic, an antithesis of Monet's shimmering, colorful work. The result can be seen in his collection of photos, "Nocturnes à Giverny" (Schirmer/Mosel)

NIESTE, Germany - The masked intruders who come regularly after dark don't fill Marga Trautmann-Winter with dread so much as irritation - lots of it. She finds evidence of their larceny at daybreak in her backyard, where plums have been pilfered, cherries picked and apples appropriated from her small orchard. But if she's lucky, she manages to turn the tables and ensnare one of the thieves, as has happened about 20 times in the last two years, including one recent morning. The bandit lay curled up in a metal cage, its drowsy expression turning to wariness, then narrow-eyed aggression as Trautmann-Winter approached.

As crowds flooded Apple stores to buy the iPhone 5, a German court has dealt a blow to the company's claim that its smartphone rivals, Samsung and Motorola, infringed on its patents. The Mannheim state court in Germany threw out Apple's infringement claim regarding touch-screen devices, handing Apple a loss about a month after gaining a $1 billion victory against Samsung, according to the Associated Press.  PHOTOS: iPhone frenzy means lines, high-fives around world Apple will be able to appeal the decision within 30 days.