Consumer Cyclicals

Koch Brothers Adopt Ayn Rand Stance: "Protests Against Buying the L.A. Times Bore Us"

Yesterday, a Wall Street Journal piece touched on whether the Koch Brothers might buy the Los Angeles Times. Today the brothers released a statement -- OK, a lecture -- straight from the pages of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. They want you to know that they don't give a rip about protests against them. ... More >>

Capital Cities Ponied Up For an Expensive Radio Campaign. It Worked

As they sit in a conference room at Capitol Records, Sebu Simonian and Ryan Merchant can barely hide their smiles. The next day, their Los Angeles based group Capital Cities will play KROQ's Weenie Roast before zipping up the freeway to Mountain View for a big show at Shoreline Ampitheatre. In less ... More >>

Los Angeles Times Could Be Yours: Crowdfunding Campaign Launches

Some folks are really scared that billionaire conservatives are going to run the "free press." News flash: Billionaire conservatives already run the free press. Anyway, there's a crowdfunding campaign afoot to buy the Los Angeles Times so that the ultra-right Koch brothers don't get their Mr. Burns ... More >>

Baby, You Can Drive My Car

Four Most Notorious Times Rhodes Scholar Eric Garcetti Pleaded Ignorance Or Kept People in the Dark When Facing Controversy

For an Ivy League grad and Rhodes Scholar, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti has the uncanny habit of not knowing certain details when the shit hits the fan. This happens so often that L.A. Weekly has come up with four of the most notorious times Garcetti pleaded ignorant -- or personal ... More >>

Eric Garcetti Owned Clear Channel Stock When He Voted For Digital Billboard Giveaway

Councilman Eric Garcetti long ago conceded that he made a mistake when he voted for a legal settlement that allowed Clear Channel Outdoor and CBS Outdoor to erect 420 digital billboards apiece across the city.The vote was one of the bigger debacles of Garcetti's reign as city council president. Resi ... More >>

YouTube Stars Fight Back

Machinima and Maker Studios, two of YouTube's most high-profile networks, have come under fire from their own talent

9 Silicon Beach Office Buildings and What They Say About Their Companies

See also: *More tech stories from L.A. Weekly *Fugly Buildings: Our Series on the Most Hideous Buildings in L.A. Since the arrival of Google in Venice last year, westside beach communities like Santa Monica, Playa Vista and others have seen an influx of tech companies, startups, investors and soft ... More >>

Porn's Mandatory Condom Rule Could Go Statewide As Group Lobbies Sacramento

Emboldened by victory at the polls in Los Angeles County this week, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation says it's taking its campaign for mandatory condoms in porn to the California legislature. Measure B, which mandates condoms for porn production in all but three of 88 cities in L.A. county, passed wi ... More >>

Sean Baker on His Film Starlet, an Insider's Look at the Porn Biz

Porn Production Back This Weekend as New Syphilis Test Saves The Day

The porn industry has a new syphilis test that just might save the day. After a nearly two-week ban on production, adult video shoots are clear to restart this weekend, an industry official told the Weekly. Following a syphilis scare that L.A. county health officials say has infected as many as 9 p ... More >>

Tony Scott Jumps to Death From Vincent Thomas Bridge

Updated at the bottom with a NEW report that Scott DID NOT have cancer. Top was rewritten to reflect our own confirmation of reports of Scott's death. First posted at 9:01 p.m. Sunday. Director Tony Scott jumped to his death from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro today, the L.A. County Coroner ... More >>

Sweatshops Are Fashion's Dirty Little Secret. But They Don't Exist in L.A. -- Do They?

Ryan Cleary Indicted in L.A. For Alleged LulzSec Hacking of X-Factor, Sony, PBS

The FBI today announced it has indicted one Ryan Cleary, an alleged hacker it says was part of the Anonymous spin-off called LulzSec. He's a 20-year-old Brit living in England, so why is the long arm of the U.S. law reaching out to him from Los Angeles? Authorities say he hacked into our Hollywood ... More >>

Porn Condom Initiative Heading For L.A. County Ballot: Signatures Turned in Tomorrow

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation will turn in signatures tomorrow in its bid to put mandatory condom use for the area porn industry before L.A. county voters, AHF chief Michael Weinstein told the Weekly. The group has more than 300,000 signatures, more than 30 boxes worth, that it will haul to the Lo ... More >>

Henry Rollins: The Column! Hunting, Gut Stew, and Sex With Your Sister

[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday, and come back tomorrow for the awesomely annotated playlist for his Saturday KCRW broadcast.] Still in Australia, get used to it! I will be here for quite a while. Things are going very we ... More >>

Eli Broad Wants to Buy Los Angeles Times (Again)

First Magic Johnson and Guggenheim Baseball purchase the Dodgers from the dreaded Frank McCourt. Now local billionaire Eli Broad is once again teasing us with the possibility that he could buy the Los Angeles Times and kick its loathed ownership -- the Tribune Co. and its tard of a chairman, Sam Ze ... More >>

L.A. Chefs Can't Get Any Respect From New York Publishers. Could Comme Ca's David Myers Break the Curse?

Shelf Life 2: A Big Day for Small Press

ForYourArt's 24-Hour Doughnut Marathon: Free Donuts, Starting With Donut Man

Arts group ForYourArt kicks off the opening of its location across the street from LACMA at 6020 Wilshire Boulevard on Saturday with a box of doughnuts to share, as you do on your first day of work when you want to endear yourself to your office mates. Because this is an arts group after all, the s ... More >>

Dave Grohl: His Grammys Speech About Electronic Music Was Bullshit

See also: Dave Grohl "Clarifies" Grammy Speech After We Call Him Out For Sounding Like an Anti-EDM Geezer We like Foo Fighters. They're the Samuel Adams beer of pop -- solid, familiar, a good call in a one-jukebox town. But innovators they're not. Quite the opposite: If one could feed off a dying ... More >>

Top 5 Steely Dan Songs About L.A.

See also: Steely Dan Fans Are Assholes I've long considered Steely Dan the ultimate Los Angeles band. Proof? They're not actually from here, like almost half the city. Like the best Angelenos, they have a healthy hatred for the entertainment industry. And, like all transplants, their memories of th ... More >>

Valentine Comes Early for Wife Who Gets $1 Million Winning Scratchers Lottery Ticket From Burbank Hubby

Awwww. We think. After a million-dollar lottery winner realized his fortune he called his wife. She ordered him home ASAP. This was spun as a pre-Valentine's Day love story by the California Lottery folks. But we think it sounds a little like he's-scared-of-his-better-half coercion:

Lawsuit: If You Bought Grammy Tickets from Western States Ticket Service, You're Screwed

​The folks who run the Grammy Awards want to remind you, dear readers, that you are not important or glamorous enough to score a ticket to the big show that airs every February. So don't even try. For if you do, you will be treated like a common intruder and tossed out on your ass.

Rave Promoters Paid Millions to L.A. Coliseum Union Workers Under the Table and in Cash, Sources Say

Timothy NorrisYoung faces at the 2009 Electric Daisy Carnival.​More than $2.5 million in cash was paid to union hands who worked concerts, mostly controversial raves, at the publicly run L.A. Coliseum and Sports Arena, according to sources and documents obtained by the Weekly. On Tuesday lawy ... More >>

Peninsula Hotels Will No Longer Serve Shark Fin Soup

Flickr/goosmurfShark fin soup​Following Gov. Jerry Brown's signing in October of an act banning the sale of shark fins in California, the Peninsula Hotel chain has announced they are prohibiting shark fin soup, considered a delicacy in Chinese culture, at all food outlets as of Jan. 1, 2012. ... More >>

Porn Convention AVN Lets You Attend Show Virtually, Via Laptop (Which is Probably Less Sticky, Hopefully)

So you've always wanted to attend the L.A.-based porn industry's grand convention in Las Vegas, but were too afraid to ask? Perhaps you don't like hand sanitizer, sticky people, and tattoos (at least in-person)? Well, AVN, the annual industry confab put together by the Chatsworth-based Adult Video ... More >>

John & Ken Radio Show Plagued by Anti-Latino Hate Speech, UCLA Study Says

johnandkenshow.comJohn & Ken under the gun.​A UCLA study of broadcast hate speech, including a look at L.A.'s controversial John & Ken Show (KFI AM 640) found that two thirds of hateful statements analyzed targeted undocumented immigrants "and Latinos." The study (PDF) looked at single segmen ... More >>

Top Five Reasons Why Grouplove is About to Blow Up

Grouplove​You know that autumnal mix of optimism and anticipation that arrives with the electricity in the newly-crisp air? That's what Grouplove's debut full-length, Never Trust A Happy Song, sounds like. The work dropped Tuesday on Atlantic Records, just in time for fall, following a year ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain Gets His Own Line of Books at Ecco

​ Anthony Bourdain can now add yet another title to the long list of those he has already: chef, crime novelist, non-fiction author, television host, HBO writer, and eater of odd foods. No, not political candidate, but publisher. Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, today announced th ... More >>

Congress Forces Redesign of Easy Bake Oven

Dave BradleyYou thought the old Easy Bake Oven was good enough. You were wrong.​ With Congress' recent ground-breaking legislation, baking enthusiasts everywhere now must live with the fear that their lives will never be the same. You guessed it. Due to a bill banning 100 watt light bulbs, Has ... More >>

Is Grooveshark the Future of Digital Streaming?: The Secrets of the Popular Streaming Site You're Probably Listening to Right Now

Did Prince upload all this?​ Article and interview by Jade Shames I got on Skype and called my contact. His name is Ben Westermann-Clark, the VP of Public Relations at Grooveshark's head office in Gainesville, Florida. While I'm writing this article, I'm listening to a band called Masterfac ... More >>

German Shepherd, 14-Months Old, Shot, Beaten by Suspect ID'd as Young Song, Authorities Allege

YouTubeA German shepherd puppy.​Updated after the jump: The suspect worked on some big movie titles for DreamWorks. He pleaded not guilty today. This will go down as a dark spot even in the annals of cruel and unusual behavior. Authorities allege that a Pasadena man sneaked into his neighbor' ... More >>

"Freeway" Ricky Ross Slaps Fake Rick Ross with a New Lawsuit

"Freeway" Ricky Ross vs. Rapper Rick Ross: Who would you put money on? ​He thinks he's Big Meech! Larry Hoover! But Miami rapper Rick Ross might be blowing money fast in court, not in the club, soon if he keeps calling himself the moniker he adopted from "Freeway" Ricky Ross, the Los Angeles ... More >>

DJ of the Week: Dublab's Co-Founder Frosty

​ dublab has been an internet radio station for over ten years now, pioneering the format and introducing L.A.--and the world--to up-and-coming acts from all genres of music. Hip hop, psyche, jazz, funk, punk, beat--you name it, and it's streamed on dublab.com. Flying Lotus, the Gaslamp Kille ... More >>

8 Things You Need to Know About Music in the Cloud

cloud music...​ The future is almost here. Except for the part with jet packs and holographic television. The part that is here? Cloud based music storage. WTF is that, you might be wondering, and why should I care? Herewith we will tell you what it is, why it's important, and how it affects ... More >>

Mark Ridley-Thomas To NFL: Call Me When You're Serious About Coming Back To L.A.

Mark Ridley-Thomas​AEG and Majestic Realty are duking it out in yet another act of the endless drama over whether the NFL will return to Los Angeles.Like Charlie Brown, Angelenos have had this particular football yanked away several times, so they can be forgiven for tuning the drama out. And spea ... More >>

L.A. Stadium Plans Jeopardized by Break Down of NFL Labor Talks

Not yet, L.A.​If you've been waiting expectantly, nachos in-hand, for the NFL's much-teased return to L.A., you might want to get comfortable, because this could take a while. Contract talks between the players and team owners broke down Friday, possibly imperiling the 2011 season. What does ... More >>

Remembering the Battle of Los Angeles: UFOs or Enemy Attack?

ColumbiaBattle: Los Angeles.​Sixty-nine years ago tonight the air raid sirens wailed across Los Angeles as frightened residents looked to the western skies. It was nearly three months after Pearl Harbor and the start of World War II for the United States so, needless to say, people on the lef ... More >>

Anti-Porn Industry Protesters Hit the Xbiz Awards in Hollywood, Try to Shame Larry Flynt, Steve Hirsch

Andy San Dimas: You lick me, you really do.​We're not sure what's sadder, that sources tell us the Xbiz Awards are known in the industry as the Golden Globes of porn, or that anti-porn protesters found the Hollywood event Wednesday worthy of targeting. (If you must know, the Female Performer ... More >>

Public Radio Music Under Attack

Right-wingers’ “Defund NPR” campaign threatens the local music scene (among other things)

WONDERFULLY BAD

Today In WTF: Arizona Officials Headed To L.A. To Drum Up Tourism (Despite That Whole Boycott Thing)

Welcome to Arizona: Now go home.​If you'll recall, last year Los Angeles became one of the highest-profile cities in the nation to get on the boycott bandwagon against Arizona. The City Council didn't like its new law (still not fully in effect) that would have cops asking people they stop if ... More >>

(Video) Metrodome Roof Collapse In Minneapolis Could Raise Hopes For NFL's Vikings Los Angeles

APSnow comes down, L.A.'s NFL hopes are lifted.​That blast of snow that brought down parts of the Metrodome's roof in Minneapolis could bring some new rays of hope to sunny L.A.'s chances of getting a new NFL team. Turns out it's not the first time snow has come through the roof of the venue, ... More >>

Despite Condom Crackdown, L.A. Porn Industry Has It Easy Compared To China's Repressed Adult Business

zazzle.comChina's crackdown has porn on the skids.​The San Fernando Valley-based porn industry is up in arms over attempts by AIDS activists and even the state of California itself to make performers use condoms. Boo-hoo. The porn industry in China has virtually been put out of business by ... More >>

Conan O'Brien Whooped Both Jay Leno And Jon Stewart On Cable TV Last Night -- But Can He Make The Magic Last?

TBSSomewhere between poverty and basic cable​Hot damn, Conan. We knew the comeback would be big, but that was some next-level shit. America's favorite middle-aged carrot set the record for the most-watched show in cable-TV history last night: His brand-new 11 p.m. slot on TBS roped in a baffl ... More >>

L.A. City Councilwoman Jan Perry Supports Tax Exemption For Billion-Dollar Developer To Erect Massive Supergraphic Towers On Wilshire

Proposal for a new-and-improved Wilshire Grand Hotel​While Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa dismantles libraries across the city, City Councilwoman Jan Perry of the downtown district thinks there's still enough money to give a few billionaires a tax exemption on their massive hotel proje ... More >>

(Photos) Rarely Seen Marilyn Monroe Photographs, Documents To Be Auctioned In Hollywood

This shot's not part of the auction; we just like it (and so, apparently, does Madonna).​L.A.'s most-iconic actress is about to get the spotlight again, 48 years after her death. Auction house Bonhams & Butterfields is teasing the world with rarely seen photos of the star that will go up for s ... More >>

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