Rhythm

What is the rhythm of Los Angeles? Before hearing poet Wanda Coleman speak at the Los Angeles Central Library recently, it had never occurred to me to think that L.A. has a rhythm. Coleman is an L.A. native whose poems have taken her around the world as an ambassador of Angeleno attitude. She shared the stage at the library's "ALOUD" lecture series with another great L.A. poet, Lewis MacAdams. When you leave L.A. and come back, Coleman told us, you feel the unique way time and people move here.

There was a good deal of playoff chatter around the Kings training facility Sunday morning. After an abbreviated skate, with the team still waiting to hear about its second-round matchup, players imagined the excitement of a freeway series against the Ducks. They talked about facing a familiar - and tough - opponent in the San Jose Sharks. Dwight King had no preference either way. He was just hoping for a happy ending. "In the playoffs, you have more eyes on you," he said.

The Sunset Concerts at the Skirball Center continued to move into dance party mode Thursday night with the performance by Mali's Vieux Farka Touré. Extending the growing emphasis on body-moving, rhythmic-oriented modes established in previous weeks by Hugh Masekela, TribalJazz and Zohar, Touré played a set unabashedly oriented toward the participants in the expanding dance pit at the front of the stage. Nothing wrong with dancing, of course.

MINNEAPOLIS - Maybe it was a desert mirage, that 2.37 earned-run average in four spring starts, the 13 strikeouts and no walks in 19 innings, but somewhere between Arizona and the regular season, Joe Blanton lost his pinpoint command and ability to put hitters away. The Angels right-hander was pounded again Monday night, allowing four runs and nine hits - including two home runs - in 42/3 innings of an 8-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins in Target Field. Solo homers by Peter Bourjos in the first inning and Brendan Harris in the third provided hope for the Angels on a chilly 38-degree night, but the offense went into a deep freeze and went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position, dropping them to a major league-worst .129 (12 for 93)

As Grace Jones tells the story, a certain pop-singer friend once asked how she managed to get out from under her strict, religious Jamaican American family years ago, setting herself on the path to becoming a singer, actor and fashion fetish-object. "You know, Michael," Jones told Michael Jackson, "I just did it." And how. To paraphrase the title of one of her albums, Jones, now 61, has always been determined to keep living her life.

Growing up on the streets doesn't give you rhythm, Ice. If you had grown up there maybe you'd know that. JILL JOHNSON Fullerton

Portland electronic quartet Chromatics wouldn't seem to make daytime music. With songs that hum with analog bass lines, the occasional strum of a guitar and a metronic rhythm that suggests midnight drives on the Autobahn, the music of Johnny Jewel's post-disco group seems crafted for groggy, syrupy nights on the dance floor. But as the sun was setting on the Spring Street Stage at the FYF Festival in downtown Los Angeles, Chromatics soundtracked the fading light perfectly. Fans stood facing them wearing sunglasses to block the sun at the band's back, skeptical and unwilling to totally let loose to the four-on-the-floor throb.

According to reader Robert T. Leet, "rap 'music' is literally not music--no melody or harmony, no notes. It is rhythmic, rhyming talk . . ." (Letters, Jan. 10). Poppycock! I looked up "music" in my dictionary: "vocal or instrumental sounds having rhythm, melody or harmony." That's or, not and. A composition need not have all three components; any one is sufficient. Rap has little, if any, melody or harmony, but it most indisputably has rhythm, and therefore meets the definition.

Vice President Dick Cheney was treated "without complication" for an abnormal heartbeat, his office said, making a short visit to a hospital to restore his normal rhythm with an electric shock. It was the second time in less than a year that Cheney, 67, has been treated for an atrial fibrillation, an abnormal rhythm involving the upper chambers of the heart. He has had four heart attacks, the first at age 37. An estimated 2.8 million Americans have atrial fibrillation, the most common type of irregular heartbeat and one that is not life-threatening in itself.

Vince Compagnone must be congratulated on his recent photo shot (Sept. 5) of a Cubs-Padre play. The picture shows (in freeze form) that games are filled with rhythm, dance and drama. And music can be added with viewer imagination. EDWIN L. SECARD Vista

The heaviest place to be at Coachella 2013, from a sound perspective, wasn't in the sweet spot of the Main Stage rig while Phoenix was preparing for the arrival of R. Kelly, or at the heart of the Sahara stage during Baauer's big, dumb, joyous set of beat music, heavy on the synth riffs and dirty beats. It was nestled away near the food court in the Yuma tent, where four bass cabinets the size of Jeeps were parked in each corner of the room. The tent is the sixth and newest venue at the festival, and because it's fully enclosed, the bass can't escape.

Portishead, 2008. I experienced Portishead, as with much of Coachella 2008, alone. As such, I remember a feeling of dread hanging over the masses that evening. In my emotional memory, as Portishead's crew set up its gear, the hum of laughter from groups of friends relaxing on the pitch, the sight of snuggling couples, were pierced by a certain tension. It was my first Coachella. I didn't have the wherewithal to cram myself into the crowd, so I stood well beyond the soundboard. Six months earlier, I'd moved to Los Angeles and left behind a long-term girlfriend and a bounty of friends and family.

April is generally the least abundant month for locally grown fruits, with nothing like the profusion of stone fruits in summer, apples in autumn and citrus in winter. But there's still plenty of great choices at farmers markets, particularly for shoppers alert to the rhythm of seasons and growing areas. Strawberries , near peak now from San Diego to Santa Maria, are the dominant spring fruit in their ubiquity and mass appeal. Experienced shoppers look for berries red all the way to the top and richly perfumed.

Sea lions can't sing along to music, but they might just dance to the beat. Researchers at UC Santa Cruz have trained Ronan the California sea lion to bob along to a variety of musical genres, making her the first mammal (besides humans) to respond to rhythm. The findings, described in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, may help shed light on the origins of the brain's ability to sync sound and movement.    Other animals have been shown to get their boogie on, but they're typically birds like cockatoos and parrots, well versed in vocal mimicry.

A federal bankruptcy judge on Friday approved the sale of Rhythm & Hues, the Oscar-winning visual effects company that recently filed for bankruptcy protection, to an affiliate of Prana Studios, a Los Angeles animation and effects company. The sale, valued at about $30 million, ends a closely-watched auction of one of Hollywood's best-known visual effects companies whose financial struggles have come to symbolize the challenges faced by an industry that was pioneered in California.

[UPDATE: A hearing on the sale of Rhythm & Hues has been postponed until 10 a.m. Friday as bidding discussions continue.] A principal investor in China Lion, a Chinese film distribution company with offices in Los Angeles, is among the bidders involved in talks to acquire the Oscar-winning Hollywood visual-effects house that filed for bankruptcy protection last month. Jiang Yanming, the Beijing-based president of China Lion and one its three principal investors, is tied to a bid to acquire Rhythm & Hues through another company in which he has an interest, Brave Vision, sources close to the auction said.

Key: Drew Brees passed for 369 yards and four touchdowns against the league's No. 1 defense. Brees had not thrown a TD the previous two weeks. He passed 100 for his career. Saints said: "Seven different guys scored touchdowns. That's big. That's the type of rhythm that, when you get in, you feel like you can call anything and it's going to work." -- Brees Giants said: "It's not the way I imagined it during the week, but you're going to encounter all sorts of games and all sorts of situations."

At first glance, a rhythm section-free duo outing between a piano and saxophone could be considered a challenging assignment for some jazz listeners. Not so with Kneebody saxophonist Ben Wendel and pianist Dan Tepfer, who has been tapped as a rising star after collaborations with Lee Konitz and an inspired album-long take on Bach's "Goldberg Variations. " Based on a show last year at this same venue, plenty of sparks will fly when these two forces meet, as heard on a new recording, "Small Constructions.

Prime Focus, the Indian visual effects and 3-D conversion company, has emerged as a possible buyer for Rhythm & Hues, the prominent visual effects company which recently filed for bankruptcy protection. Prime Focus had previously attempted to provide $20 million in financing to Rhythm & Hues, but the deal fell through prior to the company's bankruptcy filing last month. Now Prime Focus, one of India's leading visual effects and post-production companies, with a large operation in Hollywood, is one of three leading bidders to acquire El Segundo-based Rhythm & Hues, according to a source close to the studio who was not authorized to discuss bids.