Studios

She launched the careers of some of the most successful actors of the 20th century. Marlon Brando, her most famous pupil, once wrote that "she imparts the most valuable kind of information -- how to discover the nature of our own emotional mechanics and therefore those of others." Stella Adler, the high priestess of the American theater, was known for her boundless generosity toward young actors.

Indie rock has become the old guard. Forged in the early '80s, at a time when musicians looked to small labels to release music that would otherwise never find a home, its network of small labels, innovative artists, hand-made fanzines and passionate fans unleashed a creative counterrevolution. But what is the role of an independent label in 2009, a time when every bedroom musician can record tunes on a laptop and distribute them on the Web for far less money than it costs to record and press a few dozen 7-inch singles?

Tom McCauley didn't plan on making house calls when he started in the music business. As a recording engineer, McCauley made a good living working out of the many commercial studios that had grown up throughout the Los Angeles area to serve the music, film and television industries. But with the advent of software that allows high-end recording from a personal computer, the 53-year-old Sherman Oaks resident has traded the quasi-industrial atmosphere of the commercial studio for his customers' garages or living rooms.