Posters

All month, passengers on Long Beach buses have gazed at colorful posters created by budding local artists. The posters are the result of a yearlong project in which children with little exposure to the arts were able to work with an experienced artist. Liz Harvey, an artist in residence with the California Arts Council, supervised the youngsters in the program developed by the Boys and Girls Club of Long Beach and the University Art Museum of Cal State Long Beach.

TARTUS, Syria - War may be ravaging much of Syria, but there is no sign of conflict on bustling streets here, where diners wearing designer sunglasses order freshly caught fish at seaside cafes and gaze out on a palm-fringed expanse resembling a slightly tattered version of southern France or the Greek isles. Absent are the rows of pulverized apartment blocks that mark parts of battleground cities like Homs, Damascus and Aleppo. But that doesn't mean this ancient port - once home to Phoenicians, Romans and Crusaders - hasn't suffered its share of losses.

Four decades ago, Bay Area artists filled their posters with raging flames, extravagant skeletons and bare, engorged breasts. This overstuffed style became the visual symbol not only for many late-'60s English and American bands but also a recognizable signature of the entire psychedelic era.

Fliers and posters urging help for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have reportedly popped up in Chechnya and Kyrgyzstan.  In the Chechen capital of Grozny, posters refer to charges against Tsarnaev -- whose family lived in Chechnya and Kyrgyzstan before moving to the U.S. -- as “groundless.” The 19-year-old is a suspect in the twin bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260 others during the Boston...

Fliers and posters urging help for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have reportedly popped up in Chechnya and Kyrgyzstan.  In the Chechen capital of Grozny, posters refer to charges against Tsarnaev -- whose family lived in Chechnya and Kyrgyzstan before moving to the U.S. -- as “groundless.” The 19-year-old is a suspect in the twin bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260 others during the Boston...

Like the films they advertise, movie posters can be dull, formulaic, even obtuse. But as the exhibition "Bob Peak: Creating the Modern Movie Poster" demonstrates, some bills manage to be more ? intriguing hooks, elegant examples of succinct storytelling, works of art in their own right. This collection of original paintings and final one-sheet posters by the distinguished designer Bob Peak feature such memorable films as "Superman," "Apocalypse Now" and "The Spy Who Loved Me. " Fourth Floor Gallery, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 8949 Wilshire Blvd.

In the beginning, there was light. And soon after, it seems, there were movies. And with movies came movie posters -- the "heralds" that drew people into movie theaters, particularly during the Golden Age of Hollywood: the 1920s through 1950s. This was a time "when fantasy architecture made its visitors feel as though they were entering into a sacred space," says the Rev. Michael Morris, a Dominican priest, film scholar and avid movie poster collector.

Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone, who died Sept. 15 of prostate cancer, wasn't just a pioneering punk rocker, he also was a major sci-fi and horror-movie fan, and 125 original movie posters Ramone had collected from such films as "Frankenstein" and "Forbidden Planet" will go up for auction starting next week in Dallas. The two-part auction begins Thursday at Heritage Galleries in Dallas and on the gallery's website, www.heritagemovieposters.com; the second part of the auction will be in March.

Although surpassed in popularity by social media, campaign posters continue to serve as a fundamental, democratic form of expression used by grass-roots organizers and artists to convey a message for social change. "Decades of Dissent," a collection of 28 silk-screen protest posters from 1960 to 1980 on view at the Skirball Cultural Center, offers a historical perspective of one of the most volatile periods of California politics illustrated through this graphic art form. Topics featured in the posters include women's issues, gay rights, immigration reform, union empowerment and disillusionment with an unpopular war - issues that have hardly disappeared this election season.

The NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia is distributing 10,000 "wanted" posters to its soldiers to help them spot and capture suspected war criminals, a spokesman for the force said Monday. The poster carries 17 grainy photographs under the heading: "War Criminals Indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia." Thirty-four people for whom photographs were not available are also named.

Hugo Chavez is already having a very busy afterlife. The charismatic and controversial president of Venezuela died March 5. Not long afterward, one joke goes, he showed up in heaven and persuaded St. Peter to choose a Latin American as the next pope. But St. Peter is worried now because there are elections in heaven soon, and Chavez is buying off the angels with heavenly currency and barrels of free Venezuelan oil. Back down on Earth, Chavez is busy, too. Over at the 9th annual Venezuela International Book Fair this week (FILVEN)

Brent Musburger came under fire during the BCS title game between Alabama and Notre Dame last month for what some perceived to be "creepy old man" comments about Katherine Webb, girlfriend of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron, who was in the stands. When Webb was shown on camera watching the game, Musburger talked about how attractive she was, and that quarterbacks get all the hot women. Of course, if you really listened to his statements, it was all pretty harmless. Even Webb said she wasn't offended by it, and later thanked him for sparking interest in it helping her land a gig on a reality TV show.

Fox Searchlight Pictures has commenced production in New York on the musical "Black Nativity," director Kasi Lemmons' adaptation of the 1961 Langston Hughes play. The cast of the all-black interpretation of the Nativity story includes Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson, Tyrese Gibson, Luke James and singers Jacob Latimore and Nas. Lemmons also wrote the screenplay with lyrics and arrangements by rhythm and blues singer-songwriter Raphael Saadiq. "This is a universal story of faith and family, a marker of our times, and an endearing Christmas tale, infused with music from hip-hop to R&B to gospel," Lemmons said.

Chicago real estate developer Dwight Cleveland has donated over 1,000 vintage movies posters from his collection to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The posters, documenting the studio era of "B" movie filmmaking from the first half of the 20th century, feature a variety of genres including westerns ("The Revenge Rider" and "Heart of the Golden West"), war films ("Friendly Enemies" and "Somewhere in France") and musicals ("Breakfast in Hollywood" and "Girl From Rio")

Every day, when he wakes up or goes to sleep, offensive lineman Cameron Hunt of Corona Centennial is reminded why he works so hard. "I have a little poster up in my room," he said. "It has a picture of Vista Murrieta's championship and it has a picture of us winning state in 2008. Every time I wake up or go to bed, that's what my goals are and dreams are. " So understand that the 6-foot-4, 255-pound senior will have a lot of motivation on Friday night when Centennial (12-1) plays at Vista Murrieta (13-0)

USC defensive end Wes Horton didn't spend much time savoring last week's victory over Arizona State. "From the second we got done," he said, "the first thing I thought was: 'It's UCLA week. It's time to go.'" Horton, a fifth-year senior, has reason to be eager: He's been a part of four victories against the Bruins since arriving at USC in 2008 and has a chance to end his career unbeaten against the Trojans' arch rival. So Horton, the son of former UCLA offensive lineman Myke Horton, is looking forward to Saturday's game at the Rose Bowl.

Six Valley youths were among 12 winners chosen from more than 1,000 entries in the Affordable Housing Management Assn.'s 1997 "Drug-Free Kid" poster contest. The contest, now in its 11th year, is designed to encourage young residents of affordable housing to stay away from drugs by using a drug-free theme as the contest's central message. The AHMA represents managers of privately owned, government-assisted affordable-housing complexes throughout the country.

Producers of the Dead Kennedys' "Frankenchrist" album and lead singer Jello Biafra are not constitutionally protected from criminal prosecution for an allegedly pornographic poster packaged with the album, a judge ruled Wednesday. Municipal Judge Sherrill D.

Although surpassed in popularity by social media, campaign posters continue to serve as a fundamental, democratic form of expression used by grass-roots organizers and artists to convey a message for social change. "Decades of Dissent," a collection of 28 silk-screen protest posters from 1960 to 1980 on view at the Skirball Cultural Center, offers a historical perspective of one of the most volatile periods of California politics illustrated through this graphic art form. Topics featured in the posters include women's issues, gay rights, immigration reform, union empowerment and disillusionment with an unpopular war - issues that have hardly disappeared this election season.

Los Angeles street artist Shepard Fairey received a sentence of two years' probation and a $25,000 fine in the criminal contempt case involving his "Hope" poster of Barack Obama. Fairey admitted in 2009 that he destroyed documents and submitted false images in his legal battle with the Associated Press over the use of a 2006 AP photo of Obama as inspiration for the poster. The AP accused the artist of copyright infringement; Fairey maintained that his artwork fell under fair-use laws.