Forget the Laker girls, with names like GiGi and Nikki and Britten. This fall, for the first time, the Boston Celtics will introduce a crew of dancers. Choreographer Marina Ortega has been leading tryouts all month to try to find the 20 ladies who,...

FIRE By Sebastian Junger Norton. 224 pp. $24.95Sometimes you can get off on the wrong foot with a book. In Sebastian Junger's solemn introduction to "Fire," his new collection of short pieces, he talks about a job he once had trimming trees;...

When firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne died in a fast-moving restaurant fire in August, they were hailed as heroes _ the first Boston firefighters to die in the line of duty since 1999.But leaked autopsy results that reportedly showed the two may have been...

When firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne died in a fast-moving restaurant fire in August, they were hailed as heroes _ the first Boston firefighters to die in the line of duty since 1999.But leaked autopsy results that reportedly showed the two may have been...

Understanding the singer songwriter's gift involves tracing a pattern of personal evolution … rather than isolating the most impressive material. Court and Spark (1974) may be Joni Mitchell's finest album, but the continuum that brought her to that point is more exciting than any single effort. Hindsight helps, of course: when Mitchell made her 1968 recording debut, it would have been difficult to peg her as anything more promising than an obviously gifted but dour and arty poet, more c...

On first listening, Joni Mitchell's Court And Spark … sounds surprisingly light; by the third or fourth listening, it reveals its underlying tensions. The lyrics lead us through concentric circles that define an almost Zen-like dilemma: The freer the writer becomes, the more unhappy she finds herself; the more she surrenders her freedom, the less willing she is to accept the resulting compromise. Joni Mitchell seems destined to remain in a state of permanent dissatisfaction—always knowi...