Sound

Hollywood again sounded off on same-sex marriage Tuesday, as many celebrities took to Twitter -- and went to Washington -- in anticipation of the Supreme Court hearing on California's Proposition 8. Actor-director Rob Reiner was the first person in the public line to go into the courtroom, saying afterward in a statement that Tuesday was a "historic day for all those who believe in freedom and equality. " "I'm proud of the powerful argument presented today by our legal team, and the courage and perseverance displayed by our plaintiffs over these last four years," the statement said.

If you've managed to keep up with the array of singing competitions on the air without succumbing to exhaustion, kudos. With "American Idol," "The Voice," "The X Factor," "America's Got Talent," "Duets" and more, there's no shortage of series vying for ratings and votes for their would-be superstars. With revamped seasons of "The Voice" - Usher and Shakira are subbing for Cee Lo Green and Christina Aguilera - and "Idol" underway (expect a reboot for "The X Factor" this fall following the departure of half of its judges)

The Strokes "The Comedown Machine" RCA Records 1 star One of the key axioms of the acting trade is to never seem desperate for a role. To be a hot commodity, behave like you couldn't care less; those who appear to need a job are at a disadvantage. "The Comedown Machine," the fifth album by New York band the Strokes, exudes nervousness; you can almost see beads of sweat forming on the band's foreheads as it works, and fails, to stay relevant while tossing off harmless 1980s-style ditties.

Holly Williams "The Highway" (Georgiana Records) On her third album, "The Highway," Holly Williams shows that she got maybe the three most important genes from her grandfather, Hank Williams, and her outlaw daddy, Hank Jr. - the ones having to do with the writing of a song, telling compelling stories and developing a fierce individualistic streak. "The Highway" is the most country-sounding record she's made, suggesting that as time goes by she's less insistent on emphasizing her distance from her celebrated forebears.

Listening in on the electrical currents of teenagers' brains during sleep, scientists have begun to hear the sound of growing maturity. It happens most intensively between the ages of 12 and 16 1/2: After years of frenzied fluctuation, the brain's electrical output during the deepest phase of sleep -- the delta, or slow-wave phase, when a child's brain is undergoing its most restorative rest -- becomes practically steady. That reduced fluctuation in electroencephalogram signals during delta-phase sleep appears to coincide with what neuroscientists have described as major architectural changes in the brain that pave the way for cognitive maturity.

WASHINGTON - Jesus Gonzalez, a Catholic school janitor from Yuma, Ariz., tried to register to vote on the day he became a U.S. citizen. He tried again when he got a driver's license, but he was rejected both times. He became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that came before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, testing whether Arizona and other states can demand extra proof of citizenship before residents can register to vote. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund sued Arizona, contending Gonzalez and 31,000 other eligible voters were wrongly rejected when they tried to register.

AUSTIN, Texas -- By many accounts the South by Southwest music festival is about discovering new talent: the fresh-faced indie-pop outfit, for instance, or the precocious laptop wizard just stepping beyond the walls of his bedroom. Dave Grohl doesn't share that view. On Thursday night, hours after delivering SXSW's keynote speech at the Austin Convention Center, Grohl and a handful of his famous friends took over Stubb's for what he described as the final performance by the Sound City Players.

Philip Anschutz doesn't get pushed around. He's a billionaire who makes business deals with his head, not his heart. When he sets his mind to something, he stands firm. In other words, he's not likely to bring an NFL team back to Los Angeles. Throughout the Farmers Field process, it was Tim Leiweke, then president of AEG, who was keeping the concept alive, scrambling to keep all parties engaged, always selling the notion that a downtown L.A. stadium would not only work but would be the gem of the NFL. Without Leiweke as a buffer, we have two behemoths of business - Anschutz and the NFL - poised to bang heads again, each with distinctly different ideas of what a fair deal is. Anschutz told The Times that his decision to pull AEG off the sales block actually makes it more likely a team will return, not less.

WASHINGTON - Cyber-attacks and cyber-espionage pose a greater potential danger to U.S. national security than Al Qaeda and other militants that have dominated America's global focus since Sept. 11, 2001, the nation's top intelligence officials said Tuesday. For the first time, the growing risk of computer-launched foreign assaults on U.S. infrastructure, including the power grid, transportation hubs and financial networks, was ranked higher in the U.S. intelligence community's annual review of worldwide threats than worries about terrorism, transnational organized crime and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Travis Garland was seated behind the control board at Shortbus Studios in Century City, previewing tracks from his upcoming EP, “Fashionably Late II,” which continues the 23-year-old's reintroduction as a solo artist. He grabbed one of the switches on the sprawling console midway through a lustful R&B jam entitled “Homewrecker” and turned up the volume. As the tempo of the guitar-laden track slowed, the song transformed into a synth-filled futuristic romp that sounded like a formidable pastiche of Drake, Miguel and Justin Timberlake.