Hawaii

The Source Family Comes Home to Hollywood, On Its Own Terms

It was not your typical happy hour on the Sunset Strip. Last Thursday, the Standard Hotel hosted the L.A. premiere of The Source Family, a documentary by Jodi Wille and Maria Demopoulos. In honor of the 1970s Hollywood commune portrayed in the film, which is the first feature for both directors, the ... More >>

Pompeii east of L.A.

California Does Well In Gallup Happy Poll

Earlier this month we told you how a study looking at geolocation data and key words on Twitter found that California has some of the happiest towns in America, including a few in Southern California. The latest Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index seems to confirm that, although the Golden State did ... More >>

From The LA Public Library Menu Collection: Barclay Kitchen, a Mystery on a Scroll

Exploring the LAPL menu collection is an ongoing project in which we'll take a close look at the menus owned by the Los Angeles Public Library. Read about the project here. When researching the restaurants responsible for the menus found in the LAPL menu collection, many times the trail leads to th ... More >>

What's In Season at the Farmers Market: Fresh In-The-Husk Macadamia Nuts from Mud Creek Ranch

Macadamia nuts are not very shelf-stable for two reasons: high sugar content and high oil content. Rancidity is the curse around the corner, so a lot of growers opt to sell to processors who then do a quick roast to help stabilize them for sale. This works great for some varieties, but if it's one ... More >>

Cloud Atlas Review: The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer bring their adaptation of David Mitchell's novel to Toronto

One man's ambitious, iconoclastic, like-nothing-ever-before-seen passion project is another man's Battlefield Earth, and so it goes that for some of us who saw the film's world premiere in Toronto last night, Cloud Atlas -- written and directed by Tom Tykwer and Andy and Lana Wachowski from David Mi ... More >>

The Zine Editor Who Helped Me Through the Hardest Times of My Life

Can you remember the first time you were uncool? Most people won't remember themselves like that. Age and nostalgia dull the peaks and canyons of the past, making them look from a distance like gentle, bountiful plains.When I first picked up a copy of Ben Is Dead in 1989, I knew I was violently a ... More >>

Japan Tsunami Debris Headed Our Way, L.A. Sailing Expedition Reports

Yes, the debris from Japan's March, 2011 tsunami is coming to L.A. And a locally based ocean explorer says he knows exactly want's headed our way: An 8 feet by 5 feet fishing boat, an inflated truck tire, about 200 pounds of tangled fishing net, 6 large fishing buoys and several buckets and crates. ... More >>

Alfonso Ribeiro's 'Carlton Dance' Flash Mob Attempts Record (For Dorkiest Moves): VIDEO

Updated at the bottom with crowd estimates. First posted at 5:30 a.m. Alfonso Ribeiro of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air might do the nerdiest, preppiest dance of all time. But that didn't stop hundreds if not thousands of followers from joining him yesterday at Universal CityWalk and other locales in ... More >>

Marijuana as Religious Right? California Court Says It's Possible

Do some folks have the religious right to use marijuana as part of a sacrament? It's a question we joked off when L.A. marijuana dispensary owner NJ Weedman sued the city of L.A. after his Liberty Temple II was targeted for extinction: He claimed the religious right to cannabis because the shop was ... More >>

California's Confusing Food Taxes: Why You're Paying Extra For That Breakfast Sandwich

Have you ever wondered why a sandwich that has been zapped in a convenience store microwave is taxed at a higher rate than one that isn't? Or why you pay a different price based on your answer to the question "For here or to-go?" (...Oh you didn't notice the difference? Well, that's probably why Cal ... More >>

Report: Los Angeles Now Has More Bed Bugs Than New York

Looks like we might have to stop making fun of New York Shitty for its bed-bug problem. According to a new report from giant pest-control company Orkin -- based on the number of treatments it conducted in each major U.S. city last year -- L.A. experienced somewhat of an embarrassing bed-bug renaiss ... More >>

The Barista Who Compared a Coffee to Her Ex-Boyfriends Other Winners at the South West Regional Barista Competition

While some of us were reaching for copious amounts of coffee yesterday to cope with the loss of the hour, the city of Santa Cruz had its fill of caffeine. Over the weekend, more than 40 baristas from California, Hawaii, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado converged onto the beachside tow ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 1/30-2/3

Flickr/Lauren Manning​In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "Is it a deadly bludgeon in the war against the atrocities of Fresh-Mex, Mission burritos or food-court wraps? Not quite." Where Does a Restaurant Critic Go When He's Not on the Clock? "Hallelujah! ... More >>

Michael Scott Moore, L.A. Surfer/Journalist Writing a Book About Somali Pirates, Held Hostage by Somali Pirates

Manhattan Beach native Michael Scott Moore, behind awesome surfing novelSweetness and Blood: How Surfing Spread From Hawaii and California to the Rest of the World, With Some Unexpected Results, told The New York Times two summers ago that he had begun a full-length sophomore effort on Somali pirate ... More >>

Ready Pac Recalls Bagged Romaine Salads

FDAToss your salad.​ Irwindale-based Ready Pac Foods Inc. is recalling 5,379 cases of bagged salad products containing romaine lettuce because they may be contaminated with E. coli bacteria, Reuters reports. The voluntary recall includes a dozen different salad products including Caesar salad ... More >>

What's In Season at the Farmers Markets: Sugar Cane Making Your Own Sugar From Zombie Survivalist Max Brooks

Felicia FriesemaBlack sugar cane from Central Valley Farmers (Fresno) at the Hollywood market.​It's not often we get to advocate eating sugar in this column. Often, it's the opposite: fruits and veggies. But sugar cane is finally in season, the last big seasonal sweet bomb before we hit the bi ... More >>

Deconstructing Tuna: Woori Market's Tuna Cutting Performance

How often do you see an immense animal in its full form just before you eat it? Unless you are serious about fishing and hunting, live on a farm, or spend a lot of time at Lindy & Grundy, that experience is rare. If the idea sounds intriguing, and you enjoy yellowfin tuna, the place to be is the ... More >>

Ali Wong: L.A.'s Raunchiest Vietnamese-Chinese-American Standup Comic

​ Ali Wong is a cutesy-pie, potty-mouth, Vietnamese-Chinese-American comic. What more do you need to know? Here's our Q&A with her: You're hilarious. Were you funny as a kid? I constantly peed in my pants up until the 8th grade and wore an extra-large sailor uniform from kindergarten to 8t ... More >>

MAKE US LAUGH, FUNNY GIRL!

ALI WONG

Sotto Voce

Angry Black Cowboy Responds to Alexandra Wallace: 'Bruce Lee Was Asian!!' (VIDEO)

YouTubeMess with the Asians, and you mess with this guy​Not to keep giving some racist chick from UCLA way more attention than she deserves -- and we know how bad she wants it! -- but we've recently been made aware of the best YouTube response yet to Alexandra Wallace's viral "Asians in the Li ... More >>

U.S. Study: High-School Seniors Smoked More Weed In 2010

Fast times in 2010​Updated after the jump: Both tobacco and marijuana use are on the rise. So why is weed getting all the flack after today's report? The experts weigh in. Don't you just love watching statisticians get all tussled about the numeric rebellions of today's youth? According to a ... More >>

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: "A Storm in a Bloody Teacup"

bravotv.comCamille, totally offended.​What does that mean exactly? Is that a popular British phrase? Regardless, "Like a storm in a bloody teacup" is how Lisa described the rift between Kyle and Camille that took centerstage in the week's RHBH episode. Aye yi yi. Camille invited all the la ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 11/8-11/12

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "But if it's really not too much trouble, could we all declare a moratorium on implicit comparisons between spherical foods and the male anatomy? Thanks. It would mean a lot." A Food-Writing Misstep of Which I've Been Guilty ... More >>

HEREAFTER

The Continuing Adventures of Squeak E. Clean

The star-studded N.A.S.A. project by L.A.'s best-connected producer gets a remix

Chego: Outside Inside

Kogi's Roy Choi goes all strip mall on us

JOURNAL TO THE CENTER OF THE QUARTERLY LITERARY ORGAN

Real-life "Lost" Mystery: Crew T-shirt Found on Anonymous Corpse

​Attention cast and crew of the ABC show "Lost":The L.A. County Coroner's office is trying to identify a body found last month in a wooded area in Castaic. So far the biggest clue is that the young man was wearing a "Lost" crew T-shirt from Season 2 (2005-2006). On the back of the shirt is a pictu ... More >>

White Children Now A Minority In California, States Report (UPDATED)

​(UPDATED with Valley stats after the jump). Don't tell the produces of The Hills or any of the other youth-oriented television shows that seem to portray people of color as background noise in California, but for the Golden State's under-18 population whites are now a minority. This accordin ... More >>

Inglewood's U-N-I Design Lakers-Inspired Hat (MP3)

Inglewood skinny pants-rap duo U-N-I have their own designer brim, available now courtesy of the Bay Area-based Hella Tight Hats. Last night, Inglewood rapper Thurzday announced the news via Twitter, subsequently sharing that the first two sales went to Australia, then Hawaii. That's a pretty wide s ... More >>

Staycations Here to Stay?

Southland residents are looking no further than their own back yards, relatively speaking, when it comes to planning summer getaways. According to a feature in today's L.A. Daily News, 2009 represents the second year so-called staycations are in vogue. Last year holiday travel was cut by skyrocketin ... More >>

Green Scenes

World Festival of Sacred Music (and Dance): Spiritual Movement

The All-About-Me Mayor: Antonio Villaraigosa's Frenetic Self-Promotion

Hours of travel, fund-raising and PR leave little time for his job

Paradise Lost: Surfwise

Parenting off the grid, and off the reservation, in this doc about Doc Paskowitz and family

I Found Salvation in Maui

No, I'm not talking about the surfing, though I did take a lesson with "surf teacher to the stars," Tide Rivers, whose dad founded the Maui film festival...and I got up on the first try! Nor am I talking about communing with the gods at Haleakala, aka House of the Sun, the summit of this volcanic is ... More >>

Snap, Crackle, Punk

And the Winners Are...

As I write this, a fresh blanket of snow has turned Park City, Utah into a veritable winter wonderland and, in an unprecedented occurrence, the jury and audience members of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival have proved unanimous in their assessment of the best of the fest. In the dramatic competition, ... More >>

Taking Down the Vineland Boyz

Another Valley raid targets gang named in two cop killings

Breakfast With The Kooch

Harnessing third-party fire

Playing Politics

Harold Diamond, In the Clinch

Rarotonga or Bust

How We Packed Up the Kids and moved to Paradise— Or So We Thought

Painters Paint

The Weekly’s Person of the Year

John Paul Stevens, Associate Justice, US Supreme Court

Heart Attack

Love to the death

Longest-Living Two-Headed Person

And other noteworthy people and events of the 20th century

The El