By now with Stephen King, it's easy to think this is all kind of ridiculous. An invisible dome descending upon a small town in Maine? People trapped inside, trying to figure out what on Earth is going on and -- as always in a Stephen King story -- dying in droves?

Boy loses girl, boy meets new girl, boy and girl make lovely love and pain-filled music.

: Rice's new novel follows hit man-turned-angel aide

It's a touching moment, increasingly familiar to fans watching the E Street Band make its entrance: As the audience howls in anticipation and the rest of the band stands at the ready, Bruce Springsteen gently and lovingly helps Clarence Clemons walk to his saxophone at the front of the stage.

The singular experience of becoming a father can change everything. This seems to include - for literary papas - what you want to write about.

Jeonghwan "James" Kim hasn't devoted half his young life to practicing the cello to be rich, famous or even earn all A's at the prestigious Walnut Hill School. Instead, the 16-year-old South Korea native who won a $10,000 award given to "deserving young musicians" practices several hours a day for a reason as ethereal as his music.

Regularly traveling to other countries, Stella Johnson, Rania Matar and Susan Bank have photographed Mexico, the Middle East and Cuba with a native's immediacy and the detachment of a visitor.

How often do you come away from an evening at the theater feeling that the play has respected your intelligence and ability to pay attention? Probably not often enough. Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing" is a play that does both.

Actress and director Valerie von Rosenvinge juggles theater productions in Hopkinton and Wellesley.

One can assume that certain moviegoers have been violently opposed to movie violence since the first fist was thrown on the silver screen. Degrading, desensitizing, disgusting. Pick a negative adjective, it was uttered with vehemence. On the other hand, one can assume that certain moviegoers have been receiving a visceral thrill from movie violence ever since that first fist connected with that first jaw.