Rock And Roll

Here's a fun, easy and very effective way to firm and tighten your abdominals while gently stretching the muscles in your back. Be sure to practice this move on a padded surface so your spine is protected and comfortable. Sit upright on a level, padded surface or mat. Bend your knees and hug them loosely toward your chest, hands holding your lower shins. Tighten your abdominals and lean back slightly until your feet are off the floor. Inhale and pause. On an exhalation, continue to shift your weight backward, round your entire spine, then roll back.

It was an emotional roller-coaster at the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony Thursday night in Los Angeles, even more so than usual for the annual event. Consider disco queen Donna Summer , whose husband and three daughters accepted the award for her posthumously, 11 months after the singer and songwriter lost her battle with cancer. Or 80-year-old producer Quincy Jones -- the most nominated Grammy Award winner ever -- who said his induction into the Rock Hall made him feel “that finally, I have arrived.” Also enduring a long wait for recognition was Heart, whose founding sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were finally admitted to what's historically been the boys' club of hard rock music after a decade of eligibility.

In the beginning, there was "Hot Rocks," a double LP of Rolling Stones gems from 1964-1971 that over four sides collected essential hits from England's greatest rock and roll band. It was released in 1971, and I found it at a yard sale about half a decade later in southern Illinois when I was 11, bought it for $2 and started listening to it on my older sister's stereo when she wasn't obsessively playing the Beatles.  "Hot Rocks" was my first spontaneous music purchase of thousands to follow, and within its 21 songs -- all but a few of which are represented on the Stones' new 50-track hits collection, “GRRR!

On his own and as a member of Crosby, Stills & Nash (and sometimes Young), two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Stephen Stills has taken part in many a benefit concert over the last four decades, but usually his role has been that of rock singer and guitarist. That changes with the Light Up the Blues benefit concert on Saturday for Autism Speaks, which CSN is headlining and also features Lucinda Williams, Rickie Lee Jones, Don Felder, Ryan Adams and several others at Club Nokia.

“Rolling Stones: 50 Years of Satisfaction,” billed as “the first ever major exhibition” on the group long-ago dubbed “the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band,” will open May 24 for what is slated to be a 10-month run at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland , officials announced Feb. 27. The show will span the group's half-century career and include “personal items and extraordinary collections that have never...

In Kevin Thomas' commentary, "Dynamic New Score for 'Metropolis' " (April 20), he throws off Georgio Moroder's 1984 score for this classic film as "disastrously inappropriate." What? As a longtime student of classical piano with no particular love or understanding of modern rock music, I was thrilled when I saw Moroder's version of "Metropolis" in 1984. Fritz Lang's film, with its age-old themes of good vs. evil, slaves vs. masters, the heart mediating between mind and hand, etc., virtually jumps from a modern screen with Moroder's dynamic blast of modern music.

Following are some of Mae West's most memorable movie bon mots: "I's not the men in my life that counts--it's the life in my men." "A man in the house is worth two in the street" "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful." "He who hesitates is last." "I used to be Snow White but I drifted." "I've been things and done places." "When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better." "When a girl goes bad--men go right after her."

I take offense to John Glionna's "Not Fade Away" Rolling Stones article (Oct. 20). He makes "over 40" sound like we're one foot in the grave. My first Stones concert was 30 years ago at the Long Beach Convention Center (or does my 44-year-old memory evade me?)--very exciting for a 14-year-old. If it wasn't for our generation, rock music as it is today would be nonexistent. Alternative rock is an extension of '60s music, evolved. Won't it be interesting to see what the future generation has to say about Nine Inch Nails in 30 years?

J.B. Williamson, with an entourage that recalled the invasion of Normandy, stormed Prince Mameh Mohammed for the vacant World Boxing Council light-heavyweight title at the Forum Tuesday night. It wasn't exactly the Gorilla War Fare that the former Marine's robe proclaimed. In fact, it wouldn't have passed for much beyond big-time wrestling. But, let it be said, he did win the battle. Williamson, ranked No.

It was an emotional roller-coaster at the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony Thursday night in Los Angeles, even more so than usual for the annual event. Consider disco queen Donna Summer , whose husband and three daughters accepted the award for her posthumously, 11 months after the singer and songwriter lost her battle with cancer. Or 80-year-old producer Quincy Jones -- the most nominated Grammy Award winner ever -- who said his induction into the Rock Hall made him feel “that finally, I have arrived.” Also enduring a long wait for recognition was Heart, whose founding sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson were finally admitted to what's historically been the boys' club of hard rock music after a decade of eligibility.

“Rolling Stones: 50 Years of Satisfaction,” billed as “the first ever major exhibition” on the group long-ago dubbed “the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band,” will open May 24 for what is slated to be a 10-month run at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland , officials announced Feb. 27. The show will span the group's half-century career and include “personal items and extraordinary collections that have never...

This post has been updated, see below for details. No one knows whether Prince's latest single, "Rock and Roll Love Affair," ends with a pancake breakfast . But it sure begins in classic Prince fashion -- a backing band of lissome ladies providing an exquisite disco-funk setting for his ageless coos.  In his new video for the single, Prince does what he always does -- exudes impossible sex appeal for all persuasions, leading his charges...

In the beginning, there was "Hot Rocks," a double LP of Rolling Stones gems from 1964-1971 that over four sides collected essential hits from England's greatest rock and roll band. It was released in 1971, and I found it at a yard sale about half a decade later in southern Illinois when I was 11, bought it for $2 and started listening to it on my older sister's stereo when she wasn't obsessively playing the Beatles.  "Hot Rocks" was my first spontaneous music purchase of thousands to follow, and within its 21 songs -- all but a few of which are represented on the Stones' new 50-track hits collection, “GRRR!

The nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced Wednesday night. That and the following fact are perhaps the only two things we'll all agree on over the coming few minutes. The nominees are: the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chic, Deep Purple, Heart, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Albert King, Kraftwerk, the Marvelettes, the Meters, N.W.A, Randy Newman, Procol Harum, Public Enemy, Rush and Donna Summer. Now let's get this straight. Joan Jett without the Runaways?

Shortly after being hired about a decade ago to up the ante of musical talent offered at the Orange County Fair's summer concert series in Costa Mesa, veteran talent buyer Ken Phebus rolled out his schedule for the fair's board. But one of the performers on the list was given a thumbs-down. A board member "didn't recognize the name and neither did any of her friends," said Jim Washburn, a writer who covers pop music in Orange County and became friends with Phebus. "It was Norah Jones, and that was right before she took home a boatload of Grammy Awards," Washburn said.

Pioneering R&B singer Etta James was saluted at her funeral service Saturday by fellow musicians, including Stevie Wonder and Christina Aguilera, and eulogized by the Rev. Al Sharpton as an artist who not only "changed the world of music [but] the cultural paradigm of the United States. " Best known for the rapturous joy or primal ache she brought to ballads of love and heartbreak such as "At Last," "I'd Rather Go Blind" and "All I Could Do Was Cry," James, who died Jan. 20 at age 73, also was lauded for overcoming adversity and persevering long enough to see a career renaissance that included multiple Grammy Awards, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a hit Hollywood film based on her life and numerous other accolades.

When singer Roy Orbison was touring England in 1968, it had been four years since he last appeared at the top of the charts with "Oh, Pretty Woman," even though he continued playing live and recording long after the pulse of rock music shifted away from his signature brand of sweepingly operatic pop. At a show in Leeds on that tour, he met 18-year-old German fan Barbara Ann Marie Wellhoener Jakobs, and within a year the two were married....

BELVIDERE, N.J. - Amid the whir of fans and the glow of soft white light, workers tended to bright green seedlings sprouting in a giant greenhouse. Located about an hour's drive from Manhattan in the hills of northwestern New Jersey, the facility produces basil, chives, oregano and other herbs that are sold in grocery stores around New York City. But if Ken VandeVrede has his way the facility will one day be growing a much more valuable plant: marijuana. VandeVrede is chief operating officer at Terra Tech, a hydroponic equipment maker based in Irvine.

Here's a fun, easy and very effective way to firm and tighten your abdominals while gently stretching the muscles in your back. Be sure to practice this move on a padded surface so your spine is protected and comfortable. Sit upright on a level, padded surface or mat. Bend your knees and hug them loosely toward your chest, hands holding your lower shins. Tighten your abdominals and lean back slightly until your feet are off the floor. Inhale and pause. On an exhalation, continue to shift your weight backward, round your entire spine, then roll back.

Axl Rose is wearing a white cotton bathrobe and white tube socks, relaxing on a couch backstage Friday night after a three-hour concert at Seattle's Key Arena, where he'd snaked his way through 34 songs with a version of the band he co-founded a quarter-century ago, Guns N' Roses. It's 3 a.m., and the singer, the sole remaining original member, has shed the bad-ass sunglasses and flat-brimmed Stetson-style hat he wore onstage, pulled off the snakeskin boots and changed out of his faded bell bottoms.