England

Motorcycle Plows Into Bike Riders In Malibu (VIDEO)

It's been a bad year for bicyclists getting hit by motor vehicles in Los Angeles. Often the collisions are of the hit-and-run variety. Sometimes they're fatal. More and more, they're caught on video. This week a YouTube video surfaced of an amazing motorcycle-versus-bicycle crash in the hills above ... More >>

How a Sardine Surplus in India May Change Our Daily Diet

Sardines may not be what's for regular seafood dinners in Los Angeles, unlike in Mumbai where there is plenty to be found at a local wholesale fish market. There is a more direct tie, however, between L.A. and Mumbai seafood supplies than a comparison of what goes onto one's dinner plate. As reporte ... More >>

Q & A With Nigella Lawson: On Her New Cookbook Nigellissima, The Taste, And Whether There's Too Much Food on TV

As always, Nigella Lawson has a lot of balls in the air. Her new show The Taste with Anthony Bourdain, Ludu LeFebre and Brian Malarky, has turned out to be quite a hit. At the same time, she's just released her 9th cookbook, Nigellissima, which celebrates the flavors of Italy. We sat down with her o ... More >>

Cocktail Nerdom: Happy Birthday Queen Mary I The History of the Bloody Mary

See also: 7 Best Bloody Marys In L.A. On this day in 1516, Queen Mary I of England was born, the daughter of King Henry VIII and his first of six wives, Catherine of Aragon. Why do we care? Because booze -- duh. Queen Mary would eventually earn the title Bloody Mary, after executing her cousin, L ... More >>

Eating Berries May Cut Heart Attack Risk

Eating three or more servings of red and blue berries a week may help reduce a woman's risk of heart attack, a new study suggests. The study included nearly 94,000 young and middle-aged women who took part in the Nurses' Health Study II, according to U.S. News & World Report. The women completed qu ... More >>

Color of Cup Influences Perception of Flavor, Study Finds

Would cocoa in a cup of a different color taste as sweet? Maybe not, according to new research by scientists in Spain and England. University researchers found that different colored cups can affect the perceived flavor of hot chocolate, UPI reports. "The color of the container where food and drin ... More >>

Hyde Park on Hudson Review: Bill Murray Is Excellent as Franklin Roosevelt, But Is That Enough?

End It Like Beckham: L.A. Galaxy Won the Championship, But Is Major League Soccer a Retirement League?

Is Major League Soccer the league where great players go to retire? That's the question that arose Saturday afternoon before the league final between the L.A. Galaxy and Houston Dynamo, a rematch of last year's final. The Galaxy beat its opponents 3-1 for its first back-to-back Cup win in its histor ... More >>

Twilight Fans Freeze In LA Live Tent City As They Wait For Premier (PHOTOS)

Despite a "freeze warning" overnight Twihards camped out for days for a chance to see tonight's premier of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 at LA Live. Weirdos People came from as far away as England to pitch tents and geek out in the cold. Estimates had ...

Begley/Huffman in November, Roger Robinson in Fraternity, Brushing up Our Shakespeare, Plus All the Latest New Theater Reviews

Our critics were brushing up their Shakespeare over the weekend, with reviews of CymbelineJulius Caeser and Henry VI, Part I Jeff Stetson's 1987 retrospective drama on the effects of church Bombing in Birmingham, Alabama is this week's Pick of the Week. For all the Latest New Theater Reviews, go to ... More >>

Scientists Create Low-Fat Chocolate With Juice

Juice and chocolate seem like a decidedly unpalatable combination. But, through some complicated chemical mumbo-jumbo, British scientists have figured out a way to cut the fat content in chocolate by half by adding fruit juice, CNN reports. They claim their new concoction tastes pretty much the same ... More >>

5 Archaic Alcohol Words That Should Be Revived

Because we began this week with Tales of the Cocktail, and because we all know how much serious bartenders love archaic things, and because old words are fun, I thought I'd compile a list of fun booze words that have fallen out of favor but should totally be brought back. Here are five words I hope ... More >>

Olympic Drinking: Beer, Gin Whisky

By now you're fully ensconced in the full-on drama of the Games of the XXX Olympiad, a global event featuring feats of human skill so thrilling that you're likely to have to endure a few marathon sessions yourself -- in front of the telly, that is, unspooling TiVo recordings hour after hour, devotin ... More >>

Casey Lane's The Parish Opens Friday

Not too long ago, many Angelenos had never heard of a "gastropub." (Some of us confused it with "gastropod" -- a snail or slug with one big foot doubling as a stomach.) The word emerged in London in 1991, combining "gastronomy" and "pub" to describe bar fare more sophisticated than the traditional s ... More >>

The Heavy - The Bootleg Theater - 6/28/12

The Heavy Bootleg Theater 6/28/12 Last night under the watchful gaze of the half moon, a line stretched down Beverly Blvd. outside of the Bootleg Theater. The street lamps flickered in the warm summer air and the curious cockroaches scuttled across the pavement, to the consternation of the well-gro ... More >>

Top 5 Belgian IPAs: More Fun With European Hops

Sorry England and Germany -- if the American craft beer revolution owes its adventurous and hoppy spirit to any country's brewing tradition, it's Belgium's. While brewers next door in Germany were stuck abiding by a beer purity law, Belgians were free to experiment with yeast, herbaceous plants an ... More >>

California Assembly's Stadium-Violence Bill Has Been Completely Gutted, Won't Apply to Latest Dodger Beating

Last summer, in the painful aftermath of the Bryan Stow beating at Dodger Stadium, Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) offered a beacon of hope for baseball fans who wanted their national pastime back: His Assembly Bill 2464, as it was originally proposed, would have created "sentencing enhancem ... More >>

The New York Times Announces Meat-Ethics Essay Contest Winners

Last month, The New York Times' Ariel Kaminer announced an essay contest in the paper's op-ed section: Carnivorous readers must defend, in 600 words or less, why it is ethical to eat meat. Entries were judged by some of the foremost authorities of modern food practices including Peter Singer, Michae ... More >>

Kutmah's 
Deportation Blues

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] You can't sort 30 years of life in 30 seconds. But that's what confronted Kutmah on the morning of May 5, 2010. Except that he didn't know it at the time ... More >>

Roller Derby for Guys? Check Out the Drive-By City Rollers

He got into it because of his girlfriend: "I saw the movie, then a few months later I was introduced to her and roller derby at the same time. She invited me to come along to watch her, and I was immediately enthralled -- girls hitting each other."Another guy came over from England last year and sig ... More >>

The Merchant of Venice

5 Great Foods of Great Britain: Spotted Dick More Hilarity

Jodi Louie, via Flickr​The United Kingdom has such a confusing culinary reputation. At once birthplace to a few of the world's blandest dishes, and yet, the same place that brought us Gordon Ramsay and some of the most hilariously named foods imaginable. It's those foods that we honor today: ... More >>

Pulp Shakespeare

Baconlube (aka Naughty Bacon) Finally Exists. Just in Time for Christmakwanzakah.

Many of you may remember when the Internet exploded with excitement and share buttons when word of a bacon-flavored lubricant broke onto the scene last year. Carnivores and nymphos alike scoured the interwebs to discover where this miracle elixir could be purchased. But all you ended up with were b ... More >>

In Defense Of "Fratstep:" An Open Letter To James Blake

​See also: *Porter Robinson: The Libertarian Dubstep Guy *Wait, Now Korn Invented Dubstep?! [Editor's Note: Fuck Guilty Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever.] Hear me out, James Blake. ... More >>

Everything All at Once

Music Picks: Shelby Lynne, Marsha Ambrosius, John Scofield Quartet, Wiz Khalifa

Also, Leon Russell, Chris Brown, Azar Lawrence Quintet and others

Tandoori Masala: The Rub King of the Spice Jungle A Recipe

Sudha Koul Tandoori masala​In India, people always go out for Tandoori; now hardly anyone owns a tandoor, the North Indian clay oven after which the cuisine is named. Even when they did back in the day, it was more for baking quotidian nans and other mouthwatering breads, than for roasting the ... More >>

The National, Neko Case & Sharon Van Etten - Hollywood Bowl - September 11, 2011

Timothy Norris​The National, Neko Case and Sharon Van Etten Hollywood Bowl September 11, 2011 See also: The National's Matt Berninger On Shutting Down Honolulu's Airport and Finally Ending Their Tour Better Than: Listening to these bands perform on "Morning Becomes Eclectic." It was only t ... More >>

Daphna Edwards Ziman, NY Times Bestselling Author of The Gray Zone: Our 'Ask the Author' Interview

Ziman's first novel, The Gray Zone, published by Greenleaf Book Group Press in June 2011.​ Local author Daphna Edwards Ziman garnered a lot of attention for socially aware novel The Gray Zone, which chronicled the fate of kids put in the American foster care system via a fast-paced thriller o ... More >>

Attack the Block Review

Organic Water? Straight Outta West Wales

​Wales, that wee country that perches on England's lap, is known for its harpists and sheep. But if llanllyr SOURCE has its way, it will be adding organic water to its portfolio of admirable assets. For the past eleven years, the company has been sucking water from under its swath of certifi ... More >>

Music Picks: Duran Duran, Jessie Evans, k.d. lang, The Dodos, Swahili Blonde,

Also, Janet Jackson, Greg Laswell, The Crystelles, Big Audio Dynamite and others

EXCLUSIVE: Lemmy Talks about the Decay of Good Strip Clubs in LA, Asshole Politicians, and What He's Reading Right Now ("Winnie the Pooh"--No, Really)

Gustavo TurnerAt the Rainbow: Lemmy's buddy Scottie, Lemmy's son Paul Inder, Lemmy's movie co-director Greg Olliver, lovely Rainbow bartender Kristin, some English dude, Lemmy's movie co-director Wes Orshoski​Last week, more than usual, it was Lemmy-Geddon in L.A. Starting with the icon-studde ... More >>

ATM Keypads Are As Dirty As Toilet Seats (And Charlie Sheen's Sheets)

You dirty girl. Now where's my money?​Here's something you didn't need to know: ATM keypads are as dirty as public toilet seats, according to British researchers. The enterprising scientists put their gloves on and took swabs from England's cash machines and finest porcelain and found both to ... More >>

Henry Rollins Column: Rollins' Predictions for 2011 (Protip: It Gets Better)

Maura LanahanOur eminent columnist, Mr. Henry Rollins!​[The one and only Henry Rollins contributes a weekly column and far-reaching reportage to the music section of the LA Weekly. Look for your weekly Henry Rollins fix right here on West Coast Sound every week and make sure to tune in to Henr ... More >>

THE KING'S SPEECH

Tonight: The Futureheads, Broken Bells, Slash, Mexicans With Guns, CocoRosie, Nightmare & the Cat

The Futureheads​The Futureheads streaked out of Sunderland, England, in 2004 in jetstream of U.K. post-punk bands such as Franz Ferdinand (the respective quartets' debut albums came out only months apart) who looked to the likes of Wire, Gang of Four and XTC for inspiration. The difference-ma ... More >>

Tonight: Kele, Ratatat, Funeral Party, the Parson Red Heads, Furthur, Efterklang

Kele​It's been a revelatory year or so for Kele Okereke. His band Bloc Party put on the brakes in 2009, announcing mid-tour that they were going on hiatus. (Surprise.) He quickly retreated to a London studio to make a solo album, The Boxer. (Surprise.) This spring he came out in Butt magazine ... More >>

Chef Changes at Church & State: Jeremy Berlin Replaces Josh Smith

Lawrence MooreChef Jeremy Berlin​Church & State has had not a few chef changes in the few years since it's been open downtown, and today comes news that there's been another. Chef Joshua Smith has left the restaurant, as of today, and has been replaced by Jeremy Berlin, most recently of The Lo ... More >>

Stage Raw: The Browning Version

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on Rachel Rosenthal at 83NEW REVIEW THEATER PICK THE BROWNING VERSION​Photo by Victor MartinsThough not as widely known or acclaimed as his contemporary British playwrights, Terence Rattigan was a superb dramatist and chronicler of hum ... More >>

On Chandler, L. Ron and a treeless L.A.

Plus: In defense of Michael Jackson

Murder on the Bounding Main

Seeker of the Legend

Capsized Flotsam

Poor Beast in the Rain

Frozen

STAY FOREVER: THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF DUSTY SPRINGFIELD