I had the good fortune to watch three legends perform together at Catalina Bar & Grill in Hollywood, CA, on May 15, 2012. They were drummer Jack DeJohnette, bassist Stanley Clarke, and pianist Chick Corea; and they were in concert celebrating Jack DeJohnette’s 70th birthday. The sounds coming from Catalina’s stage that evening could send a jazz lover straight to heaven.

“The point is there’s so much going on; and if you only had a chance to experience it and taste it, you may to have the opportunity to—not convert—but become more open to what else is out there.” —Esperanza Spaulding

Watch the Esperanza Spaulding interview from iRock Jazz.

This thought provoking photo essay conjures up all kinds of images of our country. In honor of our Independence (and fourth of July), Agenda Magazine and “The Statement” present “Green America.”

Ash Gupta’s Face of the Month for July comes from a place many people have only read or heard about, Transylvania. Lavinia Postolache left Romania and came to Los Angeles to continue her studies in acting, but she began her career on the runways of Europe. “When I was 15 years old, “she explains,” I accompanied a friend of mine to a casting.

Check out this edgy swimsuit editorial “My True Religion” by photographer Alex Barakat of 838 Media Group. Styled by Kimberly Yatsko, Makeup by Jyoti Nair, and swimwear by True Religion.

Kaylene Peoples interviews Jerome Courshon, creator of “Secrets to Distribution,” who talks about genres and a niche within a niche with the idea of writing your script for distribution before you even shoot the movie.

Kate Morton’s second novel, THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN (copyright 2008), is a beautiful mystery “. . . of unknown parentage, family intrigue and generational secrets that keeps the reader turning pages into the wee hours of the night.”

One of the worst kept secrets in history is that music has a way of affecting how we feel about people. Music also makes us feel a certain way about the artists that create the music. Whatever emotions the message and the melody conjure up for us, we subconsciously associate the artist with those virtues and flaws. Brian McKnight has sold millions of records by writing songs about love and loss and singing them with alarming range and ability.

You don’t have to be a beauty professional to amass an incredible amount of makeup and beauty products. And once you’ve bought it all, the next question is: how do you store it? We found a few storage solutions that are both fabulous and functional.

If you’re Christian it’s a person at conception. If you’re just moral it’s a person once it forms fingers, toes and a face. If you’re a democrat it’s a welfare check. If you’re republican, it’s a means to control a woman’s place. Women still make only 56% of a man’s salary doing the exact same job. Oh yeah . . . we’re all equal. Just sayin’!