Entertainment

It's been 10 long months since we last witnessed existential crises masked by Canadian Club and brothel visits, or pondered the difference between capris and cigarette pants, or marveled at how grown up that Sally Draper was getting.

Channy Leaneagh's haunting, ethereal voice doesn't really sound haunting or ethereal these days.

When we shell out upward of $100 on dinner for two, we're always on the lookout to be impressed, if not dazzled. We expect good food, maybe great food. As so often happens, we look forward to that moment or two when we come face to face with the "wow factor."

Broadway Sacramento has announced its 2013-14 season with a six-show package that includes five regional premieres.

The landmark City Lights Booksellers & Publishers in San Francisco is celebrating its 60th year, to be highlighted by an open house June 23.

A native New Yorker with extensive experience staging opera, symphonic music and other art forms has been picked to lead the soon-to-be merged organizations of the Sacramento Philharmonic and Sacramento Opera.

As mall food courts go, the one at the Galleria in Roseville is a cut above.

The best five episodes from the first five seasons of "Mad Men":

LOS ANGELES – Shirley Caesar used to refuse to infuse contemporary styles with her traditional gospel sound, but now the pastor and 11-time Grammy winner has changed her stance.

America's best-known film critic, Roger Ebert, was an intellectual populist who bridged the gap between old-school academic criticism and the blogosphere's quick-hit movie reviews.

To meet Kristen Stewart is to want to defend her. A young-looking 22 , she's practically still a kid.

Eugene Jarecki won the 2012 Sundance Film Festival documentary Grand Jury Prize and then kept going.

"Kind of Like a Sound," a bouquet of trumpetlike flowers, greets you on the first wall of Robert Ortbal's exciting show at Jay Jay. It's quirky yet beautiful, an elegant comedian made of unexpected materials.

One summer day in 2011, we stopped in Truckee on a roundabout trip to Lake Tahoe and noticed a tiny bakery-cafe called Trokay. We went inside for breakfast, but nothing was being cooked on the stovetop that day, as the new hood fan hadn't arrived. However, if we liked baked goods …

Welcome to The Beer Run, a place that brings you news, opinion and all kinds of information about the developments in the local and regional beer scene.

TODAY-THURSDAY - The River Cats, the hometown AAA baseball team, extend opening weekend into next week, first against the Las Vegas 51s and then against Tacoma's Rainiers.

"John Dies at the End" (R, 99 minutes, Magnolia Home Entertainment): This dark comedy is a mash-up of grindhouse gore, film-noir narration and a headache-inducing sci-fi premise about a drug that opens a portal to a parallel universe inhabited by evil creatures bent on human destruction.

It's not easy being Pervis.That's according to Spinners singer Jessie Robert Peck, who gained a spot in the legendary smooth-soul group in 2008, supplying the bass vocals once performed by original band member Pervis Jackson.

When asked how the 27-year-old Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain has managed to stay together through many tours and other challenges, founding member George Hinchliffe likened it to how the Rolling Stones have kept it together so many years.

Depending on your generational vantage point, Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel "On the Road" was the defining literary event of its generation or, as Truman Capote famously observed, "just typing."

Sam Raimi's 1981 indie-horror classic "The Evil Dead" and its smarter, cooler followup, "Evil Dead II" from 1987, are the Rosetta Stone for the hack-and-splatter crowd.

ON SALE TODAY - Fall Out Boy, The Heartbreaker Tour: Heart with Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience, Pitbull and Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Dustin Lynch

Longtime Bee features reporter Dixie Reid wrote this story, published March 20, 2005, after interviewing Roger Ebert. A noted film critic, Ebert died today.

Athol Fugard's slowly simmering 1982 drama "Master Harold … and the boys" encapsulates the tragic complexities of apartheid-era South Africa in one dismal rainy afternoon. The fine new production of the classic at the Sacramento Theatre Company's Pollock Stage benefits from a strong trio ensemble and careful, sensitive staging from director Buddy Butler.

Music-loving entrepreneurs Gabe Meyers and Bob Vogt saw an opening: a spot on the calendar in between April's Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals, held in the Southern California desert, and late May's Sasquatch! Festival in Washington state.

Most of the founders of country music are gone – Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, Roy Acuff – along with most of the original "outlaw" band of brothers that included Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

Don't be fooled by the crowds (and the fact they're not here yet). Trio is still struggling to get the right message out that it serves delicious food prepared with creative flair and exotic twists.

If you haven't been inside a library lately, here's news: Things have changed. More than ever, librarians have gone high-tech in their jobs as gatherers and distributors of information, and they're very much involved in the communities they serve.

Photographers Jay Spooner and Allyson Seconds wrap up their joint "Retrospectives" show with a fun-for-all closing night shindig Saturday at midtown's Little Relics Galleria.

SATURDAY - Kristine Flaherty, known in her entertaining persona as K. Flay, found music to be a way to express what mattered to her. Her days at Stanford set her on a path of self-inspection and bouncy wordplay. The San Francisco-based rapper often works alone, but won't mind sharing her talents with a crowd.

"Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor," opening today, moves filmmaker Tyler Perry into sexier territory. Sacramento-raised actor Robbie Jones provides the passionate story's spark.

Here is a list of activities celebrating Easter in the Sacramento area.

Robert Ballard has spent a great deal of time beneath the waves. During an ongoing career as a maritime archaeologist, geophysicist and educator, the world's most- notable deep-sea explorer has launched more than 120 undersea expeditions.

"I get a huge kick out of the audiences," said Linda Collins, producer of "Moonwalker: The Reflection of Michael," which plays at Harrah's Tahoe on Saturday. "They come up to the cast afterward and cry. They grab Michael and hug and hug him. They don't want to let (him) go.

Saoirse Ronan had a voice whispering in her ear while working on the new sci-fi romance "The Host." And it wasn't the film's director.

"Lincoln" (PG-13, 149 minutes, DreamWorks/Disney): A peculiar, powerful alchemy takes hold in Steven Spielberg's masterful portrait of the 16th U.S. president. Through that strange mix of realism, artifice, intimacy and scope that cinema uniquely possesses, viewers find themselves transported to 19th century Washington, D.C., where Abraham Lincoln – in an Oscar-winning performance by Daniel Day-Lewis – has just been re-elected to a second term. But instead of a grand tableau vivant that lays out the great man and his great deeds, Spielberg brings the leader and viewers down to ground level. Contains an intense scene of war violence, some images of carnage and brief strong language. DVD extras: behind-the-scenes featurette. Also, on Blu-ray: "A Historic Tapestry: Richmond, Virginia," about the choice of this landmark area as a shooting site.

A better-than-average gravity-defying ninja duel leads to an epic chase – by leaps, swings and ziplines – through the Himalayas in the big set piece sequence of "G.I. Joe: Retaliation." Masked villains in red ninja suits chase Snake Eyes and Jinx as they attempt to spirit a ninja villain out of a mountaintop lair. They scamper, by rope, across impossible slopes, swinging their swords.

Logic with Skizzy Mars, John Mayer, Pitbull with Ke$ha, Old Crow Medicine Show, Steve Miller Band & The Doobie Brothers, Chris Tucker,

Current films are reviewed each week to provide parents a guide to decide what may be appropriate to younger viewers.

In the future, hunger, violence and money have disappeared. Lying is unthinkable. And stealing – from the place where one acquires one's every need, a building labeled "Store" – is pointless.

She was the one with the dreadlocks, the baby son and the colorful past as a busker at Chicago train stations.

For what seemed like a couple of years, the faded wood house (circa 1894) on Sutter Street in Old Folsom was under- going a seemingly endless renovation. The house stood vacant after the dust had finally settled, surrounded by construction debris and a chain-link fenc

Abstraction was a staple of art in the 20th century until it was rudely displaced by Pop Art in the 1960s. While abstraction took a secondary role for a time, it is once again popular with artists in the 21st century.

April 4, 1968, Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn.. The date and place are famous as the setting of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

Sacramento's vivid poetry scene make it clear that people of all ages still want to connect in face-to-face settings to share a sense of community, exchange ideas and express themselves through creative use of language. Sacramento's vivid poetry scene offers that chance.

Here's some recommended reading for foodies: the menus at Bacon and Butter.

The most revelatory moment in the HBO film "Phil Spector," premiering at 9 tonight, occurs after Spector (Al Pacino) takes the stand in a mock trial meant to prepare him for his actual murder trial.

Ballet and humor aren't the most common dance partners, yet the Sacramento Ballet has found comic charm in its new program at the Community Center Theater.

Randy Paragary would love to see Neil Young performing at his new nightclub, Assembly.

Life for comedian Josh Wolf wasn't always just backward ball caps and making fun of celebrities on "Chelsea Lately."