Heart And Soul

"Number fourteen, home " is an elaborate video requiem for the dead -- specifically for the great Romantic composer Frédéric Chopin but, by implication, for the entire network of cultural relations that made his work possible. Dutch artist and composer Guido van der Werve enacts a metaphoric lament for an era that has passed into history. At Marc Foxx Gallery, the 54-minute video screens every hour on the hour. In three movements and 12 acts, the artist performs a trans-European triathlon of swimming, bicycling and running from Warsaw, where Chopin grew up, to Paris,  where he died of respiratory disease at 39. Chopin was buried at Père Lachaise cemetery, but legend has it that his heart was smuggled out of France and interred at Warsaw's Holy Cross Church.

"Number fourteen, home " is an elaborate video requiem for the dead -- specifically for the great Romantic composer Frédéric Chopin but, by implication, for the entire network of cultural relations that made his work possible. Dutch artist and composer Guido van der Werve enacts a metaphoric lament for an era that has passed into history. At Marc Foxx Gallery, the 54-minute video screens every hour on the hour. In three movements and 12 acts, the artist performs a trans-European triathlon of swimming, bicycling and running from Warsaw, where Chopin grew up, to Paris,  where he died of respiratory disease at 39. Chopin was buried at Père Lachaise cemetery, but legend has it that his heart was smuggled out of France and interred at Warsaw's Holy Cross Church.

* * * 1/2 TRAVIS "The Invisible Band" Epic Travis' lead singer and songwriter, Fran Healy, thinks it's the song, not the band, that is important--hence the album title. But it's the rare group of musicians that delivers music with as much heart and soul as this Scottish quartet.

The Grammy Awards are known - at least in the minds of people susceptible to corporate branding efforts - as Music's Biggest Night. But at the 55th ceremony, televised Sunday from Staples Center, it wasn't the grand production numbers that stood out but the smaller, more intimate moments. The pleasant-enough British group Mumford & Sons might have won the night's top award for their album "Babel," but more memorable was Rihanna delivering her stripped-down ballad "Stay" with eyes closed and hands outstretched.

When "Frankenstein" opens on Halloween night at the Odyssey Theatre in West L.A., it'll provide chills and thrills, promises director Debbie Devine. It will also dig a little deeper than that. The production, presented by the Glorious Repertory Company, a new group composed of theater professionals, inaugurates "Heart and Soul," a series of three plays that will "celebrate the word, the visual and human interaction."

What does it really mean anymore, for today's rap and R&B artists, to "keep it real"? There's nothing "real" about the designer duds, Bentleys and $200 bottles of Cristal champagne depicted in video after video from many of black music's biggest stars, unless we're talking about a universal street-level fantasy of the good life. Though the recent neo-soul movement represented by the likes of Alicia Keyes, Jill Scott and India.

In directing a play or musical from another era, too much faithfulness can sometimes be as damaging as too little. By slavishly adhering to every punctuation mark in a script, you may end up locking your staging into a state of utter irrelevance. In the bubbly Reprise! revival of "Damn Yankees," which opened Wednesday at UCLA's Freud Playhouse, Jason Alexander, in his first season as the company's artistic director, takes substantial liberties.

REMEMBERING A TEAMMATE USC basketball players, including RouSean Cromwell (42) and Taj Gibson (22), react during an emotional halftime ceremony at the Galen Center honoring Ryan Francis, who was shot and killed in May. "He was our heart and soul," Athletic Director Mike Garrett said.

Now I've heard everything! What happened to compassion and caring about one's fellow men? No wonder this couple do not want their names used--a human life is not as important as the value of a home? If this couple don't have anything else to do besides checking on what their neighbors are doing, give them a cause. God knows, there are plenty of them to zero in on. LOUISE OKEY Huntington Beach

Re "Free speech and pink slips," Opinion, April 19 Patt Morrison's column was a reminder of the period when the House Un-American Activities Committee wrought havoc with newspaper columnists, educators and actors. Morrison touched on the heart and soul of an issue so great and important and with such history that it ought not stop here. I implore her to go on to tell more tales of Americans who have been punished for their thoughts and words in a newspaper. JERRY ARONOW West Hollywood

It's the rare book that challenges gender presumptions in a way that's as entertaining as it is unexpected and, perhaps most important, that's relatable to teens who may not think they need sensitivity training when it comes to sexual orientation and the nature of true love. "Every Day," from New York Times bestselling author David Levithan, is precisely such a book. Clever, bittersweet and utterly un-put-down-able, "Every Day" is a love story told from the most unusual of perspectives.

From Indianapolis -- The biggest man in the Super Bowl yawns, a gaping chasm of a yawn, and it's as if all the air in the hotel conference room is sucked up under his backward camouflage baseball cap. It's 8:30 a.m. and, clearly, the biggest man in the Super Bowl has just climbed out of bed, his eyes clouded and his face unshaven and his belly bouncing through a tight red T-shirt pulled over his saggy gym shorts. Vince Wilfork, the New England Patriot who hauls at least 350 unruly pounds around on his bulging 6-foot-2 frame, has us right where he wants us. "In the locker room ... we always joke and jive about who is the best athlete," he said Thursday.

It is said that the takeover of Chile in 1973 by Augusto Pinochet broke the heart of Pablo Neruda, the country's best-known poet. The man who wrote so openly of love and heartache could not bear to see his country in the hands of a military dictator and died days after Pinochet came to power. After his death, some Chileans said Neruda was spared the agony of seeing thousands of his countrymen killed during Pinochet's regime, which lasted until 1989. Revolutions. Dictatorships.

It hardly seemed fair when, on top of everything else, Jamal Boykin got sick. So much of his life had pointed toward playing basketball for Duke, and now that he had made it, entering his sophomore season, Boykin should have been living a dream. Except the Blue Devils had a roster full of proven veterans and blue-chip prospects on the way, barely enough room for a young forward from Los Angeles who relied mainly on ambition and grit. Coach Mike Krzyzewski sat him down to discuss his role on the team.

Being seen as a hero is something Marcel Melanson has become accustomed to after 13 years as a firefighter. But it's the newfound attention that comes with starring in a reality show that is harder to accept. "I got pulled over the other day by a cop to get an autograph," laughed Melanson, who is deputy chief of the Compton Fire Department. "I didn't do the show to be a celebrity." Melanson is one of the city's firefighters that are followed in BET's new reality series, "First In."

"Fame," it turns out, is not going to live forever. It's officially DOA. Call the coroner. Then call in the top teams from "CSI," and that sexy pair from "Bones" while you're at it, because if ever there was a crime scene that should be yellow-taped and relentlessly investigated this is it. Someone has driven a stake through the heart and ripped out the soul of the 1980 original. The responsible parties, make that irresponsible parties, should be found, thrown in movie jail and not allowed within 50 feet of a set again.

Last time I checked, Dave Taylor didn't graduate from Hogwarts, so let's cut him some slack. It would be great if every single trade he made worked out, but that's just not reality. Having been a Kings' fan for over 30 years, I've seen some of the worst trades in history. Before Taylor became the GM, we consistently traded away our future for quick fixes that worked only once (Gretzky). Am I happy that we lost Blake, Schneider and Huet? Absolutely not, but Taylor has done many things right.

Covina Police Chief Kim Raney was relaxing at home with his family around midnight on Christmas Eve. Lt. Tim Doonan was making late-night preparations for the holiday morning. And Det. Dan Regan was in bed, just starting to doze off. Then their phones started ringing. "Units are responding to a shooting in progress," the caller said.

OAKLAND -- The members of the McCoy Memorial Baptist Church choir in Los Angeles have been working very hard lately. The 40-member ensemble normally meets once a week at its East 46th Street home. But since reaching the L.A. regional semifinals of the "How Sweet the Sound" nationwide gospel choir competition, it has held extra rehearsals and a weekend "boot camp" to lick into shape its version of the gospel standard "Pass Me Not."