Angela Carone

Percussionist Steve Schick and architect Mark Reddington explain the complex acoustical design in the new state-of-the-art Conrad Prebys Concert Hall at UCSD. The concert hall is the final project of world renown acoustician Cyril Harris and it's positioned to be one of the finest chamber concert halls in the world.

Mark O'Connor is a violinist admired by lovers of classical, jazz, and country music alike. He's won two Grammy awards, one for his album New Nashville Cats and one for Appalachian Journey an album he collaborated on with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer. O'Connor is known for his varied musical interests and his ability to integrate them in his compositions. One of his projects is a chamber group called Appalachia Waltz Trio.

Award-winning nature writer Richard Conniff tells one adventurous tale after another in his new book Swimming With Piranhas At Feeding Time: My Life Doing Dumb Stuff with Animals.

Chuck Palahniuk's tenth novel is a biting cultural satire narrated by Pygmy, a 13-year-old terrorist who has infiltrated the US disguised as a foreign exchange student. Written as a series of dispatches from Pygmy, the prose doesn't follow grammatical rules or sentence structure, but includes Palahniuk's propensity to push the boundaries.

With all that's on President Obama's plate (recession, wars, swine flu!), what if Obama added people like Philip Roth, W.S. Merwin, Yo-Yo Ma, or Barbara Kruger to his advisory team? Would these artists come up with a different approach to solving our country's problems? Would they provide unique insight?

One of the artist-painted cows in the La Jolla CowParade was stolen from a La Jolla sidewalk sometime between April 25th and 26th, according to organizers of CowParade La Jolla, a public art project that includes 40 cows designed and painted by local artists. The stolen cow (above) was painted by San Diego artist Werc Alvarez, who is also a graffiti artist. The cows in CowParade are auctioned off to benefit Rady Children's Hospital and the Zoological Society of San Diego. Michael Kinsman, Operations Director for CowParade La Jolla, says this cow was estimated to raise between $5,000 and $10,000 at auction on July 11th.