Great Expectations

One thing to know about the brilliant repertory theater of A Noise Within: When the Glendale-based company sets a season of plays, it does so around a conceptual theme. In 1996, the theme was, according to co-artistic director Geoff Elliott, "reality, but not reality in the sense of naturalism. It's reality in the sense of 'my reality may not be the same as your reality.' We billed the season as 'Realitease,' because reality does tease us.

Tennis did its best to serve up a classic dish Thursday night in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. But a dash of this and a pinch of that were missing. We expect plenty of spice every time Roger Federer plays Rafael Nadal. It is a legacy built on their previous 28 matches, most of them thrillers, over nearly a decade. But minus the usual paprika, Nadal still managed to slap out a 6-4, 6-2 victory. It was somewhat convincing. Also somewhat unsettling. When these two play, we expect some 7's in the score line.

Tennis did its best to serve up a classic dish Thursday night in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. But a dash of this and a pinch of that were missing. We expect plenty of spice every time Roger Federer plays Rafael Nadal. It is a legacy built on their previous 28 matches, most of them thrillers, over nearly a decade. But minus the usual paprika, Nadal still managed to slap out a 6-4, 6-2 victory. It was somewhat convincing. Also somewhat unsettling. When these two play, we expect some 7's in the score line.

That didn't take long. On Oct. 30, one of the presumably most powerful teams in NBA history opened its season by marching on to a Staples Center floor ringed in blinding belief. On Sunday, one of the potentially most disappointing teams in NBA history will trudge on to a Staples Center floor drenched in despairing disillusionment, It is stunning that the Lakers, once a model of smarts and stability, are both of those teams. It is equally startling that, even in Hollywood, this Looney Tunes twist would require only six weeks.

Barack Obama has been criticized for being too cool, too aloof, even too serene. But the President Obama who delivered the inaugural address on Tuesday was anything but aloof. He was passionate and pleading, somber and demanding. And he did something his predecessor, George W. Bush, never quite did: He asked Americans to sacrifice for the common good.

Ever since they built the place 44 years ago and John Wooden sat in the coach's chair, Pauley Pavilion has been a place of Charles Dickens lore. Here, there are always Great Expectations. There certainly were Thursday night, when the basketball Bruins of Ben Howland took the court for a game against California. This wasn't business as usual. There had been whispers. The Bruins were struggling, the swagger was gone. Howland was too strict.

That didn't take long. On Oct. 30, one of the presumably most powerful teams in NBA history opened its season by marching on to a Staples Center floor ringed in blinding belief. On Sunday, one of the potentially most disappointing teams in NBA history will trudge on to a Staples Center floor drenched in despairing disillusionment, It is stunning that the Lakers, once a model of smarts and stability, are both of those teams. It is equally startling that, even in Hollywood, this Looney Tunes twist would require only six weeks.

Some expectations of greatness, as Pip learns in the Charles Dickens classic "Great Expectations," are better left undreamt. When a mysterious gift of money takes Pip out of his work as blacksmith apprentice and gives him the means of becoming a gentleman, it not only does not give him the beautiful, proud girl he yearns for, but it also takes him away from the humble one who might have made him happy.

Jill Waterman was counting on magic. She got aggravation. The trip was supposed to be a much-needed break with her twin boys. Even better, her parents were going along and together they planned to re-create, for Waterman's sons, their mother's favorite childhood vacation. But the UCLA child psychologist found that the much-anticipated trip to Central California wasn't anything like what she'd remembered from her own childhood vacation. The wilderness area was crowded and hot.

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No matter what happens to the UCLA basketball team during a series of exhibition games in China over the next week, do not expect any finger-pointing. The players have been warned about that particular gesture - it does not sit well with the Chinese. No pointing. No whistling. And if you give someone a gift, please use both hands. "There are a bunch of rules," forward David Wear said. "It's going to be tough to remember a lot of that stuff. " With an itinerary that includes ceremonies, sightseeing and official dinners - as well as games against two colleges and a professional team - the Bruins have been thoroughly instructed on Chinese etiquette.

Albert Pujols has entered a season with a team defending its World Series victory. That team of great expectations finished with a losing record. The season before Pujols led the  St. Louis Cardinals  to last year's World Series, the team failed to make the playoffs. So do big expectations like those confronting the Angels and $240-million addition Pujols help or hurt? “You guys are the ones picking us to win,” Pujols said Monday before making his Anaheim Stadium debut against the Dodgers in the opener of the three-game Freeway Series that will move to Dodger Stadium on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Albert Pujols has entered a season with a team defending its World Series victory. That team of great expectations finished with a losing record. The season before Pujols led the St. Louis Cardinals to the 2011 World Series, the team failed to make the playoffs. So do big expectations like those confronting the Angels and $240-million addition Pujols help or hurt? "You guys are the ones picking us to win," Pujols said Monday before making his Angel Stadium debut against the Dodgers in the opener of the three-game Freeway Series that moves to Dodger Stadium on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The trouble with attempting to adapt any novel by Charles Dickens into a three-hour miniseries (a mini miniseries?) is that even the best, cleverest screenwriter will be forced to boil the story down to its essential plot. And though Dickens did not shirk on plot, deliriously crisscrossing fistfuls of them as if each book were an unending game of cat's cradle, action is not what defined his work. God, they say, is in the details, and so is Charles Dickens, in the evocation of place, the palpable rise of mood and, most important, the creation of characters so freighted with eccentricity as to be unbelievable but so finely drawn that they live and breathe nonetheless.

By the time Charles Dickens' career hit its stride, his serialized stories drove readers to distraction in their eagerness for the next monthly installment. In 1841, Americans crowded the docks in New York waiting for ships arriving from England to find out the fate of Little Nell in "The Old Curiosity Shop. " (It was, sadly, not good news.) Dickens 200 t h birthday was celebrated around the world on Tuesday; it included a breathtaking reading by Ralph Fiennes, who stars in an upcoming film version of "Great Expectations," and a wreath-laying on his grave in Westminster Abbey in London by Prince Charles.

Martina Navratilova was hospitalized in Kenya because of fluid accumulation in her lungs after attempting to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. The 54-year-old tennis great is expected to recover. Navratilova was diagnosed with high-altitude pulmonary edema, Dr. David Silverstein , a consultant in cardiology and internal medicine at Nairobi Hospital, said Friday. "It is potentially dangerous when someone is at high altitude, but once brought down, recovery is quick," he said. "Martina is doing well and will continue to do well.

David Beckham is restless. Sure he has one of the most impressive resumes in English soccer history, with six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, a UEFA Championships and the captaincy of the English national team. He gets the biggest paycheck in U.S. soccer, has a former pop star for a wife and lives in an $18.2-million Beverly Hills villa with Tom Cruise and Jay Leno among his neighbors. Yet he remains unsatisfied because of one thing he doesn't have: an MLS Cup, the top soccer prize in this country.

Ronald Neame, a prominent figure in the British film industry whose long and varied career included producing the 1940s classics "Great Expectations" and "Oliver Twist" and directing films such as "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and "The Poseidon Adventure," has died. He was 99. Neame, who also directed Judy Garland's final film, "I Could Go on Singing," died Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said his wife, Donna. He was injured in a fall May 6 and had two operations on his leg, but his health kept declining after the second operation, she said.