Beirut: Art blooms anew In recent years, a wave of conceptual artists has helped to cultivate a thriving contemporary art scene in Beirut, despite Lebanon’s history of chaos, tragedy and political instability. A legacy of war and a weave of complicated cultural realities is fueling a movement of art...

Rockin’ for Pakistan For musician Salman Ahmad, the current plight of flood-ravaged Pakistan is highly personal. His country has endured more than 1,100 deaths and millions as a result of the recent flooding, the worst in generations. He’s planning to release a record meant to call the world’s attention...

Netflix’s stream of consciousness Netflix on Tuesday announced a five-year, $1 billion online streaming deal with Lionsgate, MGM, and Paramount that will add titles from those studios to Netflix’s expanding online streaming library. The arrangement, according to Netflix, gives the company the rights...

Livin’ in Life Recently discovered photographs of the legendary Rat Pack of the 1950’s and 60’s have been published at Life.com, released on the 50th anniversary of "Ocean's 11." The gang’s all here: Frank, Sammy, Dino, Peter and Joey are living the high life in the series of revealing photos that look...

Oscar winner Patricia Neal dies at 84                                                                                                       ...

Fighting the powers, 20 years on Twenty years ago, two albums — Midnight Oil's Blue Sky Mining and Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet — addressed a man-made global environmental disaster and an American racial divide that never seemed to close. You'd think these albums would sound dated today. You’d...

They can’t work it out The longstanding impasse between the Beatles and Apple continues. Rebuffing iTunes and other online retailers, the surviving group members and heirs continue to resist a move into the digital age. “Don't hold your breath ... for anything,” Yoko Ono said Thursday. The Beatles have...

A new Newsweek The Washington Post Company has sold Newsweek, the celebrated but financially battered 77-year-old newsmagazine, to Sidney Harman, philanthropist and founder of the Harman/Kardon audio equipment company. "I would be delighted over a period of some years to see Newsweek flourish,” he...

Mitch Miller: He got America singing MICHAEL E. ROSS Mitch Miller, record producer, talent scout, conductor and leader of the band when the band was the American people, died on Saturday, at the age of 99. Miller’s singular way of celebrating musical Americana was a refreshing counter to the velocity of the times, and the last hurrah of the endearingly quaint before the onslaught of rock and roll.  ...