Slow Motion

  On Tuesday, Lakers guard Kobe Bryant practiced for the second time  since April, after tearing his Achilles tendon in a win over the Golden State Warriors. Bryant's return date remains a mystery, although he suggested it could be before the end of the month. "We'll see," was said by both Bryant and Coach Mike D'Antoni. If Friday or Sunday at home is feasible, the Lakers certainly downplayed the possibility. A return against the Warriors on Friday would seem scripted, seven months after an injured Bryant hit two free throws to help seal the Lakers' win over Golden State.

  On Tuesday, Lakers guard Kobe Bryant practiced for the second time  since April, after tearing his Achilles tendon in a win over the Golden State Warriors. Bryant's return date remains a mystery, although he suggested it could be before the end of the month. "We'll see," was said by both Bryant and Coach Mike D'Antoni. If Friday or Sunday at home is feasible, the Lakers certainly downplayed the possibility. A return against the Warriors on Friday would seem scripted, seven months after an injured Bryant hit two free throws to help seal the Lakers' win over Golden State.

It's not that angels have ever really disappeared--at least not the kind we imagine to have wings, announce death and shadow our every move. But they do seem to be having a rather high-profile run in the '90s. Making its contribution, Iona Pear Dance Theatre brought "The Mythology of Angels" to the Shannon Center for the Performing Arts at Whittier College on Saturday night.

On Aug. 7, the head of the Southern Nevada Water Authority called for federal disaster relief to address the consequences of water scarcity in the Colorado River system. On Friday, the Bureau of Reclamation announced it would be forced to cut the flow of water into Lake Mead in 2014 to a historic low. Dominoes may now fall from California to Washington, D.C. A nearly century-old body of agreements and legal decisions known as the Law of the River regulates water distribution from the Colorado River among seven states and Mexico.

The shot was long, tantalizingly slow and agonizingly effective. Philadelphia goalie Tommy Soderstrom saw it, then didn't see it again until he was fishing it out of the net behind him. The Flyers might have lost a playoff spot because of it. Gord Murphy's lazy back-hander from just inside the blue line at 6:11 of the third period gave the Florida Panthers a 3-3 tie at Philadelphia.

If a Boeing 747 with more than 300 passengers plunged into the desert between Los Angeles and Phoenix, it would be big news. And if, a year later, a jumbo jet filled to capacity crashed en route from El Paso to Dallas, that would get our attention too. Imagine the reaction if the two tragedies were linked: that a technical problem in the air traffic control system was to blame or that terrorists had brought down both aircraft.

Some plays look like TV. Others imitate the movies. "Slow Love," at the Harman Avenue Theater, resembles nothing so much as that landmark French film, "Last Year at Marienbad." Australian playwright Richard Murphet acknowledges his debt to Alain Robbe-Grillet, who wrote "Last Year." Both writers broke up their narratives into tiny pieces and mixed up the chronology.

"Ah, here's where I do the 'forehead pluck,' " Patricia Racette says, laughing as she raises an arm and thrusts her fist from her face. Moments later, she performs another ungainly gesture -- a perpendicular chop, as if to slice some imaginary object. She calls that "the karate Noh." Though she is wearing a black tunic, albeit strapless, and following step-by-step instructions, Racette is not in a martial arts studio.

The jurors who delivered a verdict of "not guilty" in the case against the police officers who beat Rodney G. King were quoted afterwards as saying that the slow-motion replays of the taped beating in the courtroom "made all the difference." As the images progressed in super-slow motion, the defense attorneys asked their clients, the police, over and over, "Was he complying here with your order to stay down? Was he complying here?"

"Craig Kauffman: A Retrospective of Drawings" begins with a whimper. The first piece you see is a lifeless doodle: painted and drawn on a tautly stretched 3-by-6-foot swath of white silk, "Stepping Out" is a row of overlapping red and black circles that resembles a grade-school penmanship exercise. The next piece is similarly scaled and equally inert: a tidy jumble of numbers and letters swiftly scrawled atop one another on a large sheet of clear vinyl.

"Survive and Advance," which premieres Sunday on ESPN as part of its excellent "30 for 30" series of sports documentaries, is a sweet and moving depiction of the sweet and moving story of the 1983 North Carolina State men's basketball team, the Wolfpack, and its colorful coach, Jim Valvano. You will need a handkerchief or two to get through it, unless you are some sort of soulless, inhuman monster. Directed by Jonathan Hock ("Unguarded"), it is a tale of great deeds, inspiring speeches, comical sound bites and big, long hugs in what was a legendary time for college basketball - the days when Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing were still in school and players tended to stick around for three or even four years of play rather than taking off early for the pros: "The games were better," says University of North Carolina Coach Roy Williams.

The Grammys, live . . .  8:55 p.m.: The Grammys saved the most fascinating performer for one of its final performances, and the Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch finally received a Grammy tribute, albeit a brief one. First, to introduce Frank Ocean, Juanes declared him one of today's “more compelling singer-songwriters.”  He gave a performance that lived up to that bill, although it may not widely expand his fan base. Ocean's “Forrest Gump” began with a striking guitar solo, which gave way as Ocean appeared onstage.

Ah, it's the time of year when avid football fans and people who have no interest in the sport gather to laugh or cry among heaps of buffalo wings and nachos -- some watching the game, others the commericals. A few Super Bowl commercials have been leaked in advance of the event and they're already drawing various reactions. Below is a sneak peak of some of the commercials, which cost close to $4 million to air in a 30-second spot, according to Forbes. Here's a Mercedes-Benz commercial featuring supermodel Kate Upton, which begins with sultry music playing as the camera pans from Upton's feet to her head.

While the voters argued over who won which debate, while the presidential conventions produced their speeches, while Californians pondered tax initiatives and condom use in the pornography industry, and the shuttle Endeavour wowed us as it flew over our heads but angered the people on the ground whose trees would make way for its slow procession through Los Angeles, Andrew Lyon was out of the picture, thinking about issues as immediate as whether he...

On Oct. 31, 1985, Los Angeles Police Det. Thomas C. Williams was shot to death while picking up his 6-year-old son from church school. The 42-year-old had just come from the San Fernando courthouse, where the trial of a robbery suspect he'd apprehended would end the next day. In the split second before Williams was struck by eight shots from a fully automatic assault pistol, he ordered his son Ryan to duck. By immediately complying, the boy was spared. His father died instantly. In addition to his son, Williams left behind a 17-year-old daughter, Susan, and his wife, Norma.

Director Guy Ritchie's updated "Sherlock Holmes" is far more physical than past portrayals but what's really shocking is how brutal those punches look in slow motion. To capture the jaw-cracking and rippled skin of the fisticuffs, director of photography Philippe Rousselot shot the fights with a Phantom HD camera, which shoots in excess of 1,000 frames per second (as opposed to the normal 24 frames per second). The results surprised even Rousselot, who says the punches weren't enhanced at all in post.

Slow and steady Scott Navarro stopped Cal State Northridge cold on Saturday night. The Fresno State left-hander used a devastating changeup and a fastball clocked at all of 77 mph to defeat Northridge, 7-2, in a Western Athletic Conference game before 3,140 at Beiden Field. "I usually pitch well when it's cold and it was kind of cool tonight," said Navarro, a senior from Sunnyvale, Calif. Navarro (7-2) entered the game with a 6.

"Survive and Advance," which premieres Sunday on ESPN as part of its excellent "30 for 30" series of sports documentaries, is a sweet and moving depiction of the sweet and moving story of the 1983 North Carolina State men's basketball team, the Wolfpack, and its colorful coach, Jim Valvano. You will need a handkerchief or two to get through it, unless you are some sort of soulless, inhuman monster. Directed by Jonathan Hock ("Unguarded"), it is a tale of great deeds, inspiring speeches, comical sound bites and big, long hugs in what was a legendary time for college basketball - the days when Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing were still in school and players tended to stick around for three or even four years of play rather than taking off early for the pros: "The games were better," says University of North Carolina Coach Roy Williams.

Italian supermarkets report an increase in shoplifting by first-time offenders, especially among the middle class and the elderly. The most popular target for rookie thieves: Parmesan cheese. French shoppers, famously insistent about freshness, no longer snub foods that are close to the expiration date. Discovering an underground market for almost-expired products fished out of dumpsters, stores decide to keep the spoils on the shelves.