Newman

The Gloria Newman company's 25th anniversary performance, Friday at Cal State Los Angeles, strikingly confirmed the qualities that have made Newman so important to the Southern California modern dance scene. Based in Orange County (and still curiously neglected by its cultural Establishment), Newman is a pioneer and a force for excellence.

No, wait, don't turn the page. Yes, I'll admit it. This is yet another column on Tuesday's election in Los Angeles, the race half the city doesn't care about and the other half hasn't heard about, but DO NOT turn the page. OK, I'll give you $5 to read this. All right, make it $10. Would you stay with me for $20 if I promise Randy Newman's going to make a cameo? Sure, you've got your reasons for tuning out. Some of you think Wendy Garcetti and Eric Greuel are the same person, so it doesn't matter which of them is the next mayor.

Johan Aarnio gets to conduct countless beach runs as Socker assistant coach, but it has been almost three years since he coached a team to victory. With Socker Coach Ron Newman suspended for one game because he has four yellow cards so far this season, Aarnio was behind the bench in the Sockers' 4-3 victory over the Tacoma Stars Friday night at the San Diego Sports Arena.

Melancholy and middle America aren't usually seen in the rom-com world. In "Arthur Newman," a romantic comedy that unfolds during a road trip to Terra Haute, Ind., they are refreshingly unexpected elements that soften us up for the rough patches the film hits along the way. Also working in the film's favor are Colin Firth and Emily Blunt, both well-versed in comedy and about as appealing on screen as actors come. They star as a couple of depressed souls whose paths cross one night at the edge of a seedy motel swimming pool.

It was a remarkable backyard there in Pacific Palisades, the kind that produces enduring memories -- of sloshing in the culvert under Sunset Boulevard, chewing watercress plucked from the spring-fed creek, tramping through tangled woods away from watchful eyes. It made for a childhood that was part Norman Rockwell, part Robinson Crusoe. For years, Thomas Newman, an admired composer of movie soundtracks, has collected ephemera from the places where he romped as a boy -- faded photos, vintage postcards, cartoons and other relics of the Uplifters, a spirited bunch of Los Angeles Athletic Club movers and shakers who bought land from the Methodists in the early 1900s and created a country compound in Rustic Canyon.

When doctors, researchers and celebrity lobbyists talk about the amazing potential of stem cell therapy, their discussions usually center on big-ticket items such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cancer and spinal cord injuries. They don't, as a rule, talk about wrinkles and crow's feet. But could stem cells be the next frontier in anti-aging medicine? Though most stem cell therapies are still in their infancy, a small number of plastic surgeons across the country are already offering so-called stem cell face-lifts, cosmetic procedures that use a person's own stem cells to supposedly bring new life to aging, sagging skin.

Superior Court Judge Jack M. Newman, whose impartiality had been questioned by a Republican county supervisor because of Newman's past ties to the Democratic Party, was removed Wednesday from a case involving county regulation of gay bathhouses. Judge Warren Deering upheld the county's request to disqualify Newman.

You can't buy alcohol until you're 21 but you can buy guns when you're just 18! What?? ROB NEWMAN Topanga Canyon

Your June 11 front-page photo of Boris Yeltsin on stage shows how Russian politics are paralleling ours. All he needs is Bill Clinton backing him on sax. SKIP NEWMAN Los Angeles

Midfielder Waad Hirmez was suspended by Socker President Ron Cady Tuesday for one day without pay for sitting out the second half of the Sockers' 2-1 loss to St. Louis Sunday. Hirmez will not miss any games and will play against Wichita Friday. Hirmez decided not to return after arguing with Newman, who told him he needed to speed up. Newman said he wanted Hirmez on the bench in the second half, but Hirmez decided he didn't want to be there if he wasn't going to play and watched from the

- When Emily Blunt was in grade school and Colin Firth was still a struggling actor, Becky Johnston was penning their characters in the first draft of a screenplay that would become "Arthur Newman. " Twenty years later, it is finally a movie, opening Friday, a meditation on identity guised in a road trip featuring two lost souls grappling with their unenviable realities. FOR THE RECORD: "Arthur Newman": An article about the film "Arthur Newman" in the April 24 Calendar section said that the movie was the first that Colin Firth signed onto after winning an Oscar for "The King's Speech.

In one of the stranger plot twists in Hollywood, BitTorrent Inc., the technology company whose name was once synonymous in the creative community with Internet piracy, is now doing business with the film industry. The San Francisco company is partnering with Cinedigm, a leading Los Angeles distributor of independent films across digital platforms, to promote its newest release, "Arthur Newman," starring Colin Firth and Emily Blunt. Starting Monday, BitTorrent will help promote the film by inviting the 170 million users of its software - which helps facilitate the transfer of large data files - to watch the first seven minutes of the film prior to its theatrical release Friday.

Check the thermostat in hell -- it appears to have dropped below 32 degrees: Long-snubbed  Canadian progressive-rock trio Rush will at long last be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year, along with Randy Newman, Public Enemy, Donna Summer, Heart and Albert King. Rush's absence from the Rock Hall year in and year out has spurred more complaints from fans than any other uninducted act, but Rush fans can now change their jeers to cheers. Rush and the other new inductees will be welcomed into the Rock Hall on April 18 in a ceremony that will take place for the first time in Los Angeles at the Nokia Theatre.

Randy Newman has fired his satirical barbs at racism and the gruesome legacy of slavery before, most notably in "Rednecks" and "Sail Away. " Now he's taking aim again with a new song that's related from the perspective of a (presumably white) voter who declares that, "I'm dreaming of a white president. " One line goes: "He won't be the brightest, perhaps, but he'll be the whitest, and I'll vote for that. " The 68-year-old singer and composer, who's backing President Obama for reelection, told the Associated Press that he wanted "I'm Dreaming" to convey his thoughts about the pervasiveness of racism -- which he called "the great issue of this country" -- albeit with his trademark wry comic touch.

The Grand Canyon Reader Edited by Lance Newman University of California Press: 256 pages, $50, $19.95 (paper) The vicarious pleasure of armchair travel is a well-explored genre for books, transporting the reader without ever opening a door. What such books do, when they are thoughtfully presented, is to share the excitement and immediacy of exploration while sparing the reader the discomfort. In "The Grand Canyon Reader," Lance Newman's editing challenge was to illuminate an iconic place while offering a glimpse of something new. There is no lack for musings on the subject.

Answer: Alex Trebek Question: Who is the host of Sunday evening's Hollywood Bowl concert, "The Big Picture: AFI's Great American Movie Quiz. " Trebek mused that he won't get confused that evening by asking the questions instead of giving the answer first. "It will be the reverse, but keep in mind I have been doing this kind of [quiz show] programming for a long time," said Trebek, who used to host KCOP's live coverage of the Bowl's fireworks concert in the 1990s. "I did have a life before 'Jeopardy!

Robert Philipson (letter, Sept. 28) says the Constitution says nothing about a right to abortion; he appears to have overlooked the 9th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." MICHAEL D. NEWMAN Camarillo

The agent representing Sockers Jean Willrich and Jim Gorsek said he has narrowed his negotiations to three teams each for the two players, who, according to Sockers management, must be traded so the team can meet the league's salary cap requirements. Scott Simpson said Monday he plans to announce an agreement involving Willrich, a midfield and the Sockers' captain, with one of the teams today. Simpson said that he is negotiating with the Wichita Wings, Baltimore Blast and Kansas City Comets.

Lawrence R. Newman, a prominent advocate for the rights of the deaf community and a former longtime teacher and administrator at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside, has died. He was 86. Newman, who served two terms as president of the National Assn. of the Deaf, died Monday at his home in Riverside of complications from an emergency surgery and a long battle with Parkinson's disease, said his daughter Laureen Newman-Feldhorn. "Larry was a true gentleman and someone I admired for his hard work and dedication on behalf of the deaf community," T. Alan Hurwitz, president of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the world's only liberal arts university for students who are deaf and hard of hearing, said in a statement to The Times on Tuesday.

Oscar-winner Eva Marie Saint starred with Paul Newman in the 1960 film "Exodus. " Five years earlier, they appeared together in a musical version of a famed play by Thornton Wilder. What was it? "Our Town"