helped

Thundering drums and shredding guitar solos cut through the crowd as pyrotechnics and streamer cannons blast. The energy and production feel like a show at the Hollywood Palladium or the Forum, but we’re at Knott’s Berry Farm, on the rooftop of a big red doghouse — that is if we can suspend our disbelief for an evening. The educational rock band Jelly of the Month Club along with guest musicians Charlie Brown, Lucy, Schroeder and Linus set up the show’s finale with a question: “Where’s that crazy dog?” Hundreds of fans scream as “All aboard!” resonates through the park, watching in anticipation as a spotlight searches for its fuzzy rock ‘n’ roll star to emerge.

Chances are you’ve seen Snoopy dressed as Doggy Pawsbourne on your Instagram or TikTok feed, complete with Ozzy’s signature round sunglasses, long hair and trench coat, punctuating the Prince of Barkness’ “Crazy Train” entrance. Snoopy’s Legendary Rooftop Concert became an instant hit with park patrons and with fans internationally thanks to a viral video posted on opening night. Sharon Osbourne shared the “Peanuts” tribute to her late husband with the all caps message “I LOVE IT” to her social media from the floor of the 68th Grammy Awards. But it’s more than witty puns and costumes that make Snoopy’s Legendary Rooftop Concert special.

The show at Knott’s tells the story of Snoopy learning to be a rock star at Jelly of the Month Club’s Music Academy and touring the world with the band. Snoopy takes on fursonas like Dog Lennon, Paw Prince, Fido Mercury, Flying Ace Freely and even a lost member of Devo wearing the signature Energy Dome hat. Jelly of the Month Club hits every beat and chord with precision, with arrangements of songs and medleys that bring together the power of rock’s past with the whimsy of “Peanuts.” Woodstock gets a solo moment too, whistling on Dog Marley’s “Three Little Birds,” set to a perfect one drop beat as Charlie Brown spirals out in a chicken suit while rubber chickens sway.

“We got rows of kids bringing their own rubber chickens,” show director Rob Perez tells me. “Its almost like watching ‘Rocky Horror’; kind of bizarre, really funny, and charming.” When Charles Schulz’s daughter Jill came to see the show, she told Perez that her dad used to say “there’s nothing funnier than a rubber chicken.”

Snoopy as Doggy Pawsbourne at Knott’s Berry Farm

(Dick Slaughter)

It makes sense that rock ‘n’ roll appeals to Snoopy; he’s a bit of an outsider with an internal life seen by almost none of his friends. It makes more sense that the feeling of family promised by rock touring life would appeal to Charlie Brown; it often calls to creative dreamers and outcasts with a subconscious need to belong. Schulz explored why all humans have the feeling people don’t like us in his cartoons and admitted that Charlie Brown was loosely based on himself. “People who win are the minority,” he told BBC in 1977, “most of us lose a lot.” The solution he provided to overcoming life’s most difficult conditions was simply to never give up.

Nobody cheers on Charlie Brown in Snoopy’s Legendary Rooftop Concert more than Jelly of the Month Club guitarist and vocalist Michael De La Torre, a.k.a. Mic Dangerously, who has become accustomed to encouragement working with youth. Active since 2013, Jelly of the Month Club is a family-friendly band who use music to inspire, educate and entertain kids and adults. It has played countless elementary schools, children’s hospitals, civic events and theme parks with interactive songs that teach musical concepts and life lessons. The band also offers free online lessons called the Jelly of the Month Club Music Academy, which turned live gigs into cartoon-based educational games. The band members have partnered with nonprofits including UNICEF’s Kid Power initiative to provide concerts to schools across Southern California, often donating their time.

“Studies say music helps with math, English and science, but it also helps you as a person,” Dangerously says. “It helps you understand feelings better. Look at how adults use music therapeutically. Kids are doing just the same.”

Dangerously first recognized the power of music education as a young boy at St. Pius elementary school in Buena Park, when a man with a bushy mustache and a Hawaiian shirt quieted the boisterous students in seconds with only an acoustic guitar. But hearing Louis Prima’s voice in “The Jungle Book” solidified his desire to become a singer.

Playing at Knott’s has forged meaningful connections to the community in ways Dangerously never foresaw in his early rock ‘n’ roll days. He’s become close to a father and his usually nonverbal son who can’t keep quiet at shows, asking questions and singing along. Last year an older woman who he’s built a friendship with for years suddenly disappeared. Dangerously learned from her daughter and granddaughter that she suffered a stroke. She credits singing and dancing to his music at Knott’s as instrumental in recovering her speech and movement. “She told me that she loved me like a son,” Dangerously says. “I’ve never had anything like that happen with my rock band. It makes you really want to show up.”

On the night The Times experienced Snoopy’s Legendary Rooftop Concert, Dangerously’s biggest fan, Abbey, stood in the front row playing a light up tambourine above her head to “The Blooz Beagles,” wearing a head-to-toe matching outfit to him. In her sequin blazer, red pants, black boots, bow tie and wide-brim hat, the 11-year-old mirrored his musical gestures, never missing a beat. Abbey loves “everything” about the music and dancing she tells me, excited to share that Mic personally gave her the tambourine and a few other instruments too.

Crowd at Jelly of the Month Club show at Knott’s

“They’ve known her since she was 3,” says April Guerrero, Abbey’s supportive mom who has helped her daughter make replicas of Jelly of the Month Club’s looks since 2017. Abbey learned to play music because of the band’s online resources.

“Many of us have a background in education,” Dangerously said. Matt Kalin is a teacher and pro saxophonist who has shared the stage with legends like Social Distortion and Louis Bellson. Dr. Todd Forman is a practicing physician who went to Harvard, taught at USC, and played sax with Sublime. Bassist James Kee is an educator who has taught kindergarten through fourth grade for the last 15 years. Dangerously’s own mom was an art teacher who encouraged him to teach after he finished his audio engineering degree at Musicians Institute, something he’s used in a junior producer’s course he created for an after-school program in Long Beach.

Like the members of Jelly of the Month Club, director Rob Perez is a multi-instrumentalist and producer with a deep reverence for classic rock and Charles Schulz cartoons. Perez is the man responsible for turning Snoopy’s Legendary Rooftop Concert from a dream into a reality. The concert grew out of a 2017 show called Woodstock’s Music Festival. When Snoopy walked out as Jimmy Hendrix, the crowd went wild, and Perez’s boss and Knott’s fans wanted more.

“The Rooftop Concert is a little bit of a nod to the Beatles, but it’s much more about Snoopy’s rooftop,” Perez tells me. “When you see Snoopy as the great writer, or the World War I Flying Ace, it’s always on the roof of his doghouse. So why wouldn’t he be a rock star on his rooftop?”

Knott’s rebrand of the show let Perez incorporate more storytelling, a task he shared with Jelly of the Month Club. The show opens with Snoopy traveling from his fictional cartoon town to a rehearsal where Dangerously gifts him a tambourine to join their jam. He sends Snoopy home with a pile of records which he listens to obsessively in his doghouse, a relatable experience for fans who have found solace and inspiration in old LPs, hiding out like Snoopy with pizza, root beer, and the complicated dream of leaving the only place you’ve ever called home to follow music’s call. Snoopy dons a leather vest, proclaims he’s a “Golden Dog,” and runs away from home to take lessons at Jelly of the Month Club‘s Music Academy and tour the world. After receiving criticism in the recording studio about his howl, Snoopy finds himself missing his best friend Charlie Brown. He asks the Peanuts Gang to team up with Jelly of the Month Club for one final performance on top of his doghouse, legendary enough to land them in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Perez’s writing and producing shares the attention to detail present in Jelly of the Month Club’s approach to the music. Perez had the honor of voice acting for Snoopy. He digitally re-created a technique he learned from researching Bill Melendez’s 1960s approach in which he recorded barks and grumbles directly to reel-to-reel tape, sped it up, then cut and pasted it randomly to create Snoopy’s signature pentameter-less cadence. Perez worked closely with costume designer Tim Barham, creating every wig, accessory, and costume with exacting detail. The storyline and graphics pay close attention to “Peanuts” lore and rock ‘n’ roll film history, with Easter eggs from “La Bamba,” “Rocketman,” “This Is Spinal Tap,” “Almost Famous” and many others hidden throughout the 30-minute show.

“We don’t try to change the Peanuts from who they are,” Perez says. “We have to bring Charlie Brown along as he constantly fails at being a rock star. We have to give him a shot and prop him up, because he’s usually on the ledge. We bring him back. That’s been the premise of many Peanuts TV specials and movies.”

Mic Dangerously with Snoopy at Knott’s

(Dick Slaughter)

Jelly of the Month Club’s original song “The Magic Is in the Music” meets Charlie Brown where he’s at, encouraging him to take on the challenge of becoming a guitarist. As he fumbles with his out-of-tune Flying V, looking ready to shred in a thrash band, the crowd cheers for his success despite his self-doubt. When Charlie withdraws during the Elton John number, Dangerously responds by saying that that music can be a safe place when you’re feeling lost, saying “Charlie Brown, you are home.”

“We’re out there singing we ‘want to bark and howl all night’ but we’re teaching Charlie Brown and Snoopy is that it’s not just about your clothes, it’s about what’s in here,” Dangerously says, touching his heart. “It’s important not to take yourself too seriously. We’re showing that it’s OK to have fun. And that silliness is a big, important component of rock and roll.”

This spirit is the core of Snoopy’s Legendary Rooftop Concert on stage and on the floor. At the show I see a sea of grandmas shaking babies’ fists in the air, a little boy in a Woodstock hoodie headbanging, rockers in studded vests with huge smiles on their faces, and teenagers momentarily dropping their defenses against cringe in exchange for a moment of sheer joy.

Hanna and Ellie, teens from South Gate and Silver Lake, respectively, can’t contain themselves, pogoing, screaming and singing along. “I’m at a loss for words,” Hanna says, giggling. The girls agree that the show was better than they expected.

On Snoopy’s rooftop everyone is a rock star: Abbey, a rubber chicken and even Charlie Brown.

MILAN — Alysa Liu wore a hollow smile on the ice. She had achieved a dream, skating at the Beijing Olympics at just 16, but in a mostly empty arena, few were there to see the moment.

Perhaps that was what Liu secretly wanted.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to be seen,” Liu said. “It’s just I had nothing to show.”

The 20-year-old now proudly presents Alysa Liu 2.0.

Four years after shocking the sport by retiring as a teenage phenom, the Oakland native could win two gold medals at the Milan-Cortina Olympics. She is a title contender in her individual event that begins Jan. 17 as the United States tries to end a 20-year Olympic medal drought in women’s singles figure skating, and she will skate Friday in the women’s short program of a team competition the United States is favored to win.

Armed with a new perspective from her two-year retirement, Liu now smiles genuinely on and off the ice, no matter if there’s a medal around her neck or not.

“I have so much I want to express and show, whether that’s through skating or just through my presence,” said Liu, who placed sixth in Beijing. “It’s exciting to think about that being seen.”

When she made her Olympic debut, Liu didn’t feel like her career belonged to her. Her father, Arthur, was a driving force in her skating career. In a sport where coaches and choreographers often call the shots for young athletes, Liu entered the Olympic stage with programs she didn’t like and clothes she didn’t pick. She was behind a mask and couldn’t express herself. She barely knew how to.

Skating had consumed her entire life. She felt “trapped and stuck” in the sport. So she left.

After retiring following the 2022 world championships — where she won a bronze medal — Liu got her driver’s license. She hiked to Mount Everest base camp with friends. She went shopping for not-skating clothes, played Fortnite until 4 a.m. with her siblings and enrolled at UCLA. She loved studying psychology.

“I found what I like and what I didn’t like,” said Liu, who took time off from UCLA to prepare for the Olympics but hopes to return before her friends graduate. “Really got to know myself, because [when] I had skating, I didn’t really know myself. I couldn’t know myself. I only ever did one thing.”

Alysa Liu practices in Milan on Thursday ahead of the Olympic team competition, which starts Friday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

After a casual ski trip reminded her of the joys of skating, Liu made the decision to return to the sport that shaped, and nearly stole, her childhood. But she would only do it on her terms.

The choreography, the music and the costumes would all be her choice. She doesn’t compete to win. She skates to show her art, she said.

In the process, she’s winning more than ever.

She won the world championship in 2025, becoming the first U.S. woman to win the world title since 2006. She won the Grand Prix final in Japan in December, the last major international competition before the Milan-Cortina Games to announce herself as a potential Olympic champion.

The day before her last performance at the U.S. championships, the final competition that would decide her Olympic bid, Liu ran to a St. Louis salon to dye her hair to match a new skating dress. Unbothered by the pressure of the moment, she debuted a Lady Gaga free skate that brought fans to their feet and earned her a silver medal.

“When you are an Olympic athlete that has a chance in front of the world every four years, it literally is your life’s work that’s on the line,” NBC analyst and two-time Olympian Johnny Weir said. “And she has found a way to compartmentalize that and put it down. … I just think it’s so wonderfully healthy and brave and strong to be doing what she is, because it takes a lot of bravery to put down the pressure that the sport naturally has.”

Liu is just a natural talent in the sport, 2022 Olympian Mariah Bell said. Bell remembered during the Stars on Ice tour in 2022 when the skaters rolled into a new city, tired, groggy and sore from the long bus ride, Liu, dressed in a baggy hoodie and billowing sweatpants, could go on the ice and throw perfect jumps without warning. Bell stood in awe.

U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu practices on Thursday in Milan.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

After Liu’s short program at the U.S. championships last month set a national championship record, Bell was blown away for different reasons.

“She’s so sophisticated and mature and emotional,” Bell said. “When she was younger, she was incredible. But when you’re 13, you don’t skate the way that you do like how she did the short program [at the U.S. championships].”

Skating to Laufey’s “Promise,” a haunting piano ballad, Liu glided through a flawless short program that she said nearly moved her to tears. Fans showered her with stuffed animals.

Liu has always commanded attention in the sport. She was the youngest skater to perform a triple axel in international competition at 12, became the youngest U.S. champion at 13 and followed with another national title at 14. She was the first U.S. woman to complete a quad lutz in competition, doing so in the 2019 Junior Grand Prix in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Six years later, back in that same arena for Skate America in 2025, Liu told her coaches she didn’t remember her historic accomplishment.

“It feels like I’m watching or I got someone else’s memories,” said Liu, who had similar, disconnected, but overall positive memories of her Olympic experience in Beijing. “It feels like a totally different person, but we are definitely the same person.”

U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu practices in Milan on Thursday as she prepares for the team competition, which starts Friday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Exchange the delicate, ballerina-like skating dresses with bold, modern asymmetrical designs. Undo the tight, slicked back bun and bring in halo dyed hair, dark eyeliner and the piercing she did herself on the inside of her upper lip. With three horizontal stripes dyed into her hair, each layer represents a year of the new life Liu is finally happy to put on display.

“I want to be seen more because I like what I have going on,” Liu said. “I like what I’m doing.”

Moscow ‘strongly condemns’ attack on airport in the capital, Niamey, where 20 rebels were killed, and four soldiers were wounded.

Russian soldiers helped repel an attack claimed by the ISIL (ISIS) armed group on Niger’s main airport in the capital, Niamey, last week, according to Moscow’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The attack was repelled through the joint efforts of the Russian Ministry of Defence’s African Corps and the Nigerien armed forces,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Niger’s governing military earlier said that “Russian partners” had helped to fend off the rare assault on the capital, which saw 20 attackers, including a French national, killed and four army soldiers wounded.

At least 11 fighters were also captured, Niger’s state television reported.

“Moscow strongly condemns this latest extremist attack,” the Foreign Ministry added in the statement, according to Russia’s state TASS news agency.

“A similar attack took place in September 2024 on the international airport in the capital of Mali. According to available information, external forces providing instructor and technical support are involved,” the ministry said, according to TASS.

Niger’s military chief, Abdourahamane Tchiani, visited the Russian military base in Niamey to express “personal gratitude for a high-level of professionalism” by Russian forces in defending the airport, the ministry added.

ISIL claimed responsibility for the “surprise and coordinated attack” on the airbase at the Diori Hamani international airport near Niamey on the night of January 28.

A video published online through the ISIL-affiliated media Amaq showed several dozen attackers with assault rifles firing near an aircraft hangar and setting ablaze one plane before leaving on motorbikes.

Ulf Laessing, the head of the Sahel programme at Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation, told The Associated Press news agency that the sophistication and boldness of the attack, including the possible use of drones by the attackers, suggest that the assailants may have had inside help.

Previous successful attacks in the region appear to have increased the group’s confidence, leading them to target more sensitive and strategically important sites, Laessing said.

Niger’s military had initially accused Benin, France and the Ivory Coast of sponsoring the attack on the airport, which also houses a military base. The military, however, did not provide evidence to substantiate its claim.

Ivory Coast’s Foreign Ministry denied the allegation and summoned Niger’s ambassador to relay its protest. Benin also denied the claim, describing it as “not very credible”.

France has yet to comment.

Niger is a former colony of France, which maintained a military presence in the country until 2023.

Russia rarely comments on its military activity in the Sahel region, where Moscow has been increasing its influence in recent years.

Facing isolation since its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has tried to build new military and political partnerships across Africa.

Apart from Niger, Russian troops or military instructors have been reported to be deployed in Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and Libya.

Russia’s African Corps has taken over from the Wagner mercenary force across the continent. According to Moscow, the corps helps ” fighting terrorists” and is “strengthening regional stability” in the Sahel.

Niger’s authorities have been fighting the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) and the ISIL affiliate in the Sahel (EIS) for the past decade.