Aquatic Animals

John O. Dabiri: The Jellyfish Genius

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here.John O. Dabiri, 32, is the impossibly young chair of faculty at the California Institute of Technology, where he studies jellyfish propulsion and fish schooling behavior — ... More >>

Ultra 2013: Best Inflatable Animals and Blow-Up Dolls

Ultra Music Festival is a zoo. From land sharks to killer whales, pink flamingos to African zebras, UMF 2013 is starting to feel a lot like a World Wildlife Foundation fundraiser, complete with endangered species and cuddly critters. See also: The 13 Most Hardcore Ravers at Ultra, as GIFs Attenti ... More >>

Music Picks: Ghostface Killah and Adrian Younge, and Anthrax

The Best Concerts to See in L.A. This Weekend

Friday, March 15 The Black Ryder THE ECHO The Black Ryder come from Australia but sound like they're from 13th Floor Elevators' own personal Texas, a land of endless desert where the guitars echo to eternity and where it's too hot to move fast. The Black Ryder concoct psychedelia that bleeds and bo ... More >>

The Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

Monday, March 4 Jenny O THE SATELLITE Jenny O's just-out new album, Automechanic (on Holy Trinity/Thirty Tigers), is another strong contribution to L.A.'s new-school canyon-country scene. Produced by the supremely versatile Jonathan Wilson, it fits perfectly alongside Father John Misty's recent Fea ... More >>

85°C Bakery Café: Squid Ink Bread A New Location in West Covina

At first glance, the pastry looks far from appetizing. The exterior is a steely black color and out from the middle, a green, mucus-like spread of garlic oozes out from the freshly baked crust. It's an ugly specimen of pastry -- but a cult-favorite among customers. It's really just a glorified garl ... More >>

Josh Nelson Is On Another Planet

This summer, the Mars rover Curiosity will finally reach its destination after a nine month journey. Tomorrow, while the space module prepares to roam the red planet looking for dust, signs of life and a perhaps a good place to put our stuff once the Earth is destroyed, pianist Josh Nelson will be a ... More >>

5 Scariest Shark Attacks in SoCal History

Now that we're officially in the thick of summer, you'd be a lousy Southern Californian if you didn't take your board down to the beach and get your water-sport on. (Even Lindsay Lohan's trying. Key word "trying.") But because we're part of the fear-mongering mainstream-media machine, and we can't ... More >>

Handbags of Ostrich, Crocodile, Elephant Skin Seized at LAX

Kate Spade. Chanel. Hermes. Girls got to have their four-figure designer handbags these days. But ostrich, stingray, crocodile and elephant skin purses? Maybe some ladies are taking the high-end handbag trend a little too far. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said today that they have seized sev ... More >>

Institute For Figuring's New Space: An Art Gallery For Math and Science Nerds

A new space has opened its doors in Chinatown, and this time it's not your usual funky alternative art gallery. The Institute For Figuring is a center for hands-on discovery of cool scientific and mathematical concepts, with a strong artistic bent. Australian twin sisters Margaret Wertheim, a note ... More >>

Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Birthday Bash - Blue Whale - 5/4/12

Miguel Atwood-Ferguson Birthday Bash Blue Whale 5-4-12 Better than...celebrating Craig Ferguson's birthday. Violist Miguel Atwood-Ferguson is a really a nice guy - a "beautiful cat" as they might say in advance jazz speak. He radiates an openness and familiarity that few musicians possess and that ... More >>

Lost in the Blue Whale

Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, Including Bartering for Paintings

Future and past feel like they're on a collision course this week -- especially in William Leavitt's deceptively mundane drawings of suburbia gone awry and Dennis Hoekstra's and Noah Olmsted's ghostly, garish re-envisioning of the Pacific Design Center. 5. Modern-day mythmaker Charles Garabedian di ... More >>

Claudia Quintet with Theo Bleckmann - Blue Whale - 2/28/12

Claudia Quintet featuring Theo Bleckmann The Blue Whale 2-28-12 Better than...Theo Huxtable. The Blue Whale was filled to the brim last night for New York's Claudia Quintet performing works from their most recent album, What is the Beautiful?, a tribute to the late poet Kenneth Patchen. With hipst ... More >>

SeaWorld Whales Are Slaves Protected by U.S. Constitution? Federal Judge in SoCal Actually Considers It

SeaWorld Facebook​Updated at the bottom: Case dismissed. First posted at 11:51 a.m. on Monday. You might have blown off PETA's claim that whales under the care of SeaWorld San Diego were deserving of constitutional protection barring slavery (we sure did), but a federal judge in the case toda ... More >>

Top Ten Best Live Music Venues in L.A.: #10 - #6

Timothy Norris​California knows how to party. -"California Love" It's the unofficial state motto. But not only do we know how, we know where. Los Angeles is home to a wide spectrum of live music venues, from the teeniest Echo Park hole-in-the-wall only you and five friends know, to grand ol' ... More >>

LA Jazz Collective - Blue Whale - 1/11/12

SJ O'Connell​Matt Otto Duo Ariel Alexander Group Matt Otto Quintet Blue Whale 1-11-12 Better than...watching the People's Choice Awards Last night, after a few technical difficulties and a strict adherence to "jazz time," the second of four residency performances by the LA Jazz Collective go ... More >>

Music Picks: Matthew Sweet, Summer Darling, Billy Childs Quartet, Rusko,

Also, The Aggrolites, Kris Bowers, Chasing Kings, Asher Roth and others

Shark Fin Smuggler Caught at Border

No more shark fin soup in California.​Now that the sale of shark fins for commercial purposes is illegal under both state and federal law, we'll likely see more incidents like this: A Mexican woman was stopped at the border in San Ysidro, California allegedly trying to smuggle shark fins into ... More >>

Walter Smith III Quintet - Blue Whale - 12/17/11

​Walter Smith III Quintet Blue Whale 12-17-11 Better than...a set by Thurston Howell III Houston-born saxophonist Walter Smith III is a busy man. His first-call tenor frequently shares the stage with some of the best young musicians out there, finding a particular affinity with trumpet playe ... More >>

Lisa Mezzacappa's Bait & Switch - Blue Whale - 11-17-11

Sean J. O'Connell​See also: Lisa Mezzacappa Does Not Make Dinner Party Music Lisa Mezzacappa's Bait & Switch Blue Whale 11-17-11 Better than...trying to play those tunes myself. Last night, long after many of Little Tokyo's residents had gone to sleep, bassist LIsa Mezzacappa presented her ... More >>

Lisa Mezzacappa Does Not Make Dinner Party Music

Myles Boisen​Upright bassist Lisa Mezzacappa has been building a steady reputation in northern California for the last decade. Her nimble basslines and arresting compositions have brought her beyond the Bay Area, where she lives, including a rare tour through Los Angeles. Her band the Bait & S ... More >>

Red, White and Blue Notes

The 2nd L.A. Vegan Beer Fest: More Fun Without Alice Cooper

el daybeh/flickrThe taps scene from the last fest.​ We wonder how former Roxy regular Alice Cooper would feel about the vegan festival set to take place at the club next weekend. Remember that Cooper, for all the guillotines and gory lyrics, a relatively sweet-tempered rock personality, once ... More >>

Brick's Picks: Big Bands Blowin'

Brick's Picks: Osama's Dead, but Jazz Goes On

Brick's Picks: You Cannot Change the Laws of Physics, Laws of Physics, Brick

Bye Bye, California Sea Otter? Absurdly Cute Sea Mammal Is on the Outs, Say Scientists

Oh no you did not​Say it isn't so! The California sea otter, our No. 1 draw to water zoos and aquariums for as long as we can remember, has flippered its adorable little way to the environmental danger zone in a recent California Department of Fish and Game count. There's only 2,711 left in e ... More >>

Brick's Picks: Esperanza, the Upsetter

Q & A With Joan Nathan, Part 2: Kosher Wines, "Newish Jewish" How Tom Colicchio (Literally) Saved Her Life

Joan Nathan​In the first part of our conversation with Joan Nathan, we drove around the hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, (via speakerphone) of this award-winning cookbook writer and authority on all things Jewish cuisine, as she explained who loves matzo in France (apparently everybody), ... More >>

BRICK'S PICKS: A Special Kind of Madness

FIGHTING THE VAMPIRE SQUID

FREE: Odd Future Debuts New Album, Mellowhype's Blackendwhite, Featuring Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler the Creator, 'Gun Sounds, Grams of Coke and Dead Cops'

Left Brain (left), Hodgy Beats (right).​Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All strike again with another boundary-pushing collision of abstract electronic beats and heavy, death-obsessed raps. Yes. Also, a lyric about large, flippered marine mammals: "We march through streets like a pack of walru ... More >>

(Video) Los Angeles Ravers Rejoice: Fluorescent Fish Headed To A Pet Store Near You (Some Day)

​As if the glow-stick nation in L.A., thes capital of raving, needs another trip toy, scientists in Taiwan have created what appear to be the world's largest glow-fish so far -- "medium-sized" angelfish that alight in fluorescent warmth. The Jy Lin Company reportedly took three years and almost $ ... More >>

Brick's Picks: Havanarama

Julian Serrano's Paella Tips His Easy (Enough) Chicken Seafood Paella Recipe

Flickr user liuiaOnce you master the basics, weekend recipe tweaking is easy​Turning on the oven this time of year can feel so very wrong, and how many burgers can you possibly consume in one month (granted, a lot)? Enter paella. But does anyone actually ever make the Spanish rice and seafood- ... More >>

More Shark Sightings In Southern California: Warning Issued In La Jolla

​It's been a strange summer all around, what with record-low temperatures, spring-like conditions along the coast and several shark sightings. The latest great white shark sighting happened off La Jolla Shores in San Diego over the weekend. A lifeguard spotted one of the beasts with high-powe ... More >>

Brick's Picks: Redtop's Boogie

Killer Whale Evening Bag: Apex Predator as Super-Cute Fashion Accessory

​Aww, look at this cute little vicious, bloodthirsty killer apex predator evening bag. According to the maker, Tsurubride, it fits just enough for a night on the town: cell phone, lip gloss, money, credit cards, and the mangled bodies of several seals and sea lions. Yeah, I made that last one ... More >>

Brick's Picks: Jazz-People Issues

Natural History Museum Gets Gussied Up: $30 Million New "North Campus" for 2011

​ Hey, Los Angeles, check out your fancy new Natural History Museum! For weeks we'd been getting these cryptic messages from the Natural History Museum's press people about a monumental new project they're working on. Very hush hush. Were they cloning dinosaurs in there, or what? (Anyone ... More >>

Whale Sushi Restaurant Issues Apology, Admits Wrongdoing

thehump.biz.The Hump.​The Hump, the Santa Monica sushi restaurant charged with serving endangered whale meat, admitted to the crime and issued an apology on its website. "The charge against the restaurant is true: The Hump served whale meat to customers looking to eat what in Japan is widely ... More >>

McCall's Meat & Fish Co.: The Arrival of the Rock Star Butcher

For years, people have been asking about artisanal butcher shops, and for years, our list has been pretty much the same: Alexander's Prime Meats in San Gabriel and Huntington Meats and Marconda Meats in the Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax, with the occasional nod to the contents of the meat case ... More >>

HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOBSTER?

Movie Reviews: Adam, Aliens in the Attic, The Collector

Also, Lorna's Silence, G-Force, Not Quite Hollywood and more.

THE FRESHEST SEAFOOD IN TOWN

GOLD DIGGER?