Houston (Texas)

The Illuminati Is Real, and Other Shit My Students Taught Me

My school year is officially over. Last Thursday was the last day of school for the eighth graders in my science class. Teachers came on Friday to clean rooms and begin prep work for next fall and gossip about basically everyone who has a heartbeat (and, in some instances, even those without). Thi ... More >>

Flooding Kept Me From Going to the Juicy J Concert and OMG Kill Me

[Editor's Note: Shea Serrano sometimes writes about Why This Song Sucks, and sometimes about his hilarious and poignant life and times. Better put your shoes on because your socks are about to be blown off.] Saturday was to have been maybe the greatest day that's ever been because Juicy J was in to ... More >>

L.A. Daters Are Massively Superficial, Poll Says

Prepare for shocking news from a dating site that looked at different American cities' online courtship rituals: Los Angeles is superficial. So says WhatsYourPrice.com, which checked Google Analytics and surveyed 3,401 of its L.A.-based members to measure its users' habits. What's really surprising ... More >>

How Medicare Fraud Became the Nation's Most Lucrative Crime

It costs taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. But the feds say they're finally trying to crack down

Los Angeles Sugar Daddies Spend $5,448 A Month On Their Ladies?

The economy is dire. People are selling their used underwear on Craigslist. You've downgraded from DirecTV to YouTube. You buy your fresh produce from a freeway offramp! And yet Los Angeles sugar daddies are spending $5,448 a month on their chickadees? Yep. So says the latest annual sugar daddy rep ... More >>

Food & Wine Best New Chefs 2013 Announced

Food & Wine announced their highly anticipated list of 2013 Best New Chefs this morning. They did this not by sending out a memo -- well, there was one of those eventually -- but by tweeting out the list with a hashtag (#BNC25). Welcome to life as we know it. Congratulations, @MVoltaggio! Chef Micha ... More >>

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

Friday, March 8 Nickodemus SUBSUELO AT KOBO'S Nickodemus' multicultural Turntables on the Hudson compilations and New York City-based events have brought together flavorfully funky house and Latin-based sounds from around the world. The DJ then took the series global with his creation of the ongoin ... More >>

Los Angeles Is A Boss-Dating Capital

The firm PayScale, which calculates market salaries for employees and employers, didn't rank L.A. as a top city in America for finding love at work. Nor did we make the list of top towns even for finding a workplace fling. Los Angeles is not known for coworkers who are "on the prowl." Bummer. But, ... More >>

Machu Picchu, Texas

Where The Chefs Eat: Animal's Jon Shook

Where the Chefs Eat is an ongoing series in which we ask a local chef to give us his or her favorite dining options. This week, Animal and Son of a Gun chef Jon Shook tells us his favorite spots to eat these days. Like most of us, Jon Shook is looking for two things when he's eating out: good food ... More >>

Announcing the Winners of the First Voice Media Group Music Writing Awards

Each week in our print editions and every day on our blogs, the 13 Voice Media Group papers feature some of the best music writing in the country. That's why we're excited to announce the winners of our first VMG music writing awards. The honor goes to the authors of one blog post and one print pi ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Weekend

Friday, December 28 Fishbone, Quinto Sol KEY CLUB Fishbone have gone through a lot of changes since emerging from South Central L.A. in 1979, but the group can always be counted on for a funky good time. Lead singer/saxist Angelo Moore, bassist Norwood Fisher and crew have evolved from a ska-reggae ... More >>

The Best Rap Singles of 2012

Let's be honest: It's been a great year for hip-hop. Mainstream and underground MCs made some of the most refreshing and innovative work in years. It's been a good year for albums, for sure, but also a dynamite one for singles. Here are our picks for the five best five, from artists around the count ... More >>

5 Best New Gift-Worthy Cookbooks

The beauty of cookbooks: there is truly something for everyone. Whether you've got a boss who has a thing for handmade pasta, a friend who thinks they're Gordon Ramsay (but doesn't own a pepper mill), or a cousin who's obsessed with every Michelin-starred chef, you can find a cookbook to suit their ... More >>

What the Hell Is Trap Music (and Why Is Dubstep Involved)?

You may have heard the term "trap music." You may even realize that what people are calling "trap music" today (which sounds a whole lot like dubstep) is not necessarily what people were calling "trap music" a few years ago. See also: Flying Lotus' Nocturnal Visions: Once believing himself destined ... More >>

Murs and Fashawn On Their Kinship and Their New Album

California-bred rappers Murs and Fashawn have much in common. They're both former graffiti writers, skateboarders and independent-minded rappers who have affinities for collaborating with one specific producer per album. But they're also more than a decade apart in age -- Murs is 34, Fashawn 23. *M ... More >>

Dylan's Candy Bar to Open First Shop in L.A.

If you were only one of the special people, you could join Janet Jackson, Kris Jenner and Apolo Ohno at the grand opening of Dylan's Candy Bar's first West Coast store on Sat., Sept. 8 at the Original Farmers Market, across from the Grove on the corner of Third and Fairfax. The candy emporium will ... More >>

International Cosplay Day is Saturday. But Why Do People Cosplay in the First Place?

Dressing up as famed characters from across the pop culture landscape for events other than Halloween is nothing new. Certainly, people were doing it well before the term cosplay came into being. But, with every passing year, the image of the superfan dressed in detailed, oftentimes complicated, cos ... More >>

Bobak Ferdowsi: Meet The NASA Curiosity Mission's 'Mohawk Guy'

As live shots of Mars rover Curiosity's Pasadena-area control room went viral, America was in awe ... over one guy's mohawk or, maybe, fauxhawk, depending on your point of view. Yes, as NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory celebrated the unprecedented move of setting a car-sized rover on the red plan ... More >>

[Updated] Indio: New Mexican Beer in Town Debut Tonight at La City Bar

Update: 4:28 p.m. The event tonight at La Cita was originally a private event and is now officially sold out. But don't fret, Guelaguetza has confirmed that there is plenty of Indio available at its restaurant. By now, you've probably seen a few Spanglish billboards around the hipper parts of town ... More >>

LAPD Cops Shoot Young Boyle Heights Man Holding Rifle in His Own Backyard

A Latino man in his 20s or 30s was killed this morning by LAPD officers while standing in his Boyle Heights backyard, reports City News Service. Officers responded to Houston Street around 5:50 a.m. on a report of shots fired -- and heard more shots coming from the man's backyard. When they went ar ... More >>

Is Riff Raff Serious?

One thing's for certain: This maddeningly inscrutable white rapper is more entertaining than you are

Top Ten Rap Albums For People Who Don't Know Shit About Hip-Hop

Hip-hop is nearly 40, but many still find this slightly-disorienting world of beats, rhymes and oversize personalities a bit daunting. So consider this our hip-hop Cliff's notes; here are the albums you should know about if you don't want to look silly at cocktail parties. We're not saying these a ... 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 >>

Pau Gasol So Happy He Wasn't Traded Today He Made a YouTube Video

Pau Gasol was loathing the idea of being traded away by the Lakers. Kobe Bryant even came to his defense when rumors were swirling that the lanky Spaniard would be shipped off as part of a multi-way deal. Today the Lakers made the deal -- with longtime player Derek Fisher going to Houston and Luke ... More >>

A February Roundup of Restaurant Openings and Closings

The elderly browse the obits for long-lost friends; foodists check the blogs for restaurant passings. This week, sushi fiends flooded a Studio City strip mall for Nozawa's last days. After only two years, Elements Kitchen in Pasadena bid its patrons farewell. "Thank you all for the wonderful memorie ... More >>

The Cookbook Christmas Tree: Inglewood Public Library, Blue Bird Circle Cookbook The Joy of Cooking as Ornament

Inglewood Public LibraryChristmas tree​Everyone gets into the Yuletide spirit differently. In the case of Bri Webber, a library assistant at the Inglewood Public Library, her version of decorating for the holidays did not involve jingle bells, shiny ornaments or boughs of holly. Instead she ... More >>

Henry Rollins: The Column! Copping MP3s For 
Free Is Not Cool

[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.] See also "People Who Pirate Music Are Assholes" Yesterday, I met up with a longtime pal, a v ... More >>

A September Roundup of Restaurant Openings and Closures

Though the days of summer and beersicles have ended, some zip codes are still feeling the heat. The restaurant forecast seems a bit more chilly. Venga, which opened less than two months ago, announced its closure, but owner Shahriar Besharat recently told Eater that the rumors were false. "Apparentl ... More >>

For the Record: The Coen Bros.: a Cabaret Show About Big Lebowski Filmmakers, and Other Reviews

​Anti-Semitic graffiti found on a market wall in central Houston last month is just one symptom of why The Merchant of Venice belongs on our shores. The Porters of Hellgate have their version running at the Whitmore Theatre in North Hollywood. See Theater feature on Wednesday​Capsule reviews of ... More >>

'Scuse Me While I Kiss My Squeezebox

405 Closure Got You Down? Check Out the Five Craziest Design Ideas for Saving Our Transportation System

Courtesy Van Alen Institute.​ Without harping too much on that inconvenient thing happening on a big road somewhere in West L.A. this weekend, let us begin this modest post by agreeing that transit in L.A., in California, and in the vast majority of the US, could stand a few more efficient alt ... More >>

Cocaine Flows Through L.A. Despite Drug War, Border Beef Up

Max Sparber​If the celebrity nightlife scene seems as giddy as ever and your favorite party girl remains quite chatty, you know why: Cocaine is economical and plentiful in these here parts. And despite a build up of more than 40,000 of agents along the U.S.-Mexico border, bloody Latin America ... More >>

Ass, Cash Used by Mexican Cartels to Move Grass Past U.S. Border Agents

U.S. Border agents' new motto?​The U.S.-Mexico border has been shored up with thousands of new agents in what appears to us to be the Obama administration's attempts (and Bush's before that) to get right wingers to STFU when it comes to immigration enforcement. While it might have been a good ... More >>

Odd Future's Cosmic Cousin: Meet Spaceghostpurrp and Sip Sum Intergalactic Gangsta

​Rick Ross and Spaceghostpurrp are both from the Carol City community in Miami. Both are steeped in Uncle Luke's 2 Live Crew carnival of raunch--Ross' women wear panties that look like shoestrings, and Spaceghostpurrp's strippahs have already lost theirs. But Ricky Rozay has employed the J.U.S ... More >>

The Young Man From Atlanta

Stage Raw: Groundlings Singles Cruise

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSStage FEATURE on Re-Animator the Musical and AlcesteL.A. WEEKLY THEATER AWARDS NOMINEESNEW REVIEW GO GROUNDLINGS SINGLES CRUISE ​Photo by Shawn Bishop Sketches by the Groundlings' "A" cast of master improv artists reliably fall into three catego ... More >>

Pete Licata Wins 2011 Southwest Regional Barista Championship

[For the record, an earlier version of this post incorrectly named Chris Baca as a the barista champ. In fact, Pete Licata is the barista champ and Baca, the winner of the Brewer's Cup. This is what happens when we try to write before having our morning coffee.] Intelligentsia Coffee produced tw ... More >>

Judging the 2011 Southwest Regional Barista Championship: March 4-6

Images courtesy of the SCAA.​ Aside from an ironclad stomach, what does it take to judge a coffee contest? We don't know, but we're about to find out. The Southwest Regional Barista Championship happens this weekend, and for the first time, members of the media (i.e. us) have been invited to ... More >>

Wu-Tang Clan, Yelawolf and Many Others to Play SXSW Party, Courtesy of the Village Voice and Frank151

Wu-Tang: Forever bridging the gap between hip-hop and indie​ We've just received word from our sister publication the Village Voice in NYC that they have something pretty special planned for the upcoming SXSW music and media conference in Austin, Texas. The 2011 Village Voice SXSW party, cosp ... More >>

Four Loko Can Stay -- If Purged Of Everything That Makes It Delicious

Houston PressQ: What do you get when you pour out all the good stuff? A: One depressing chance at re-entering society. No thanks.​It seems just yesterday we were making fun of New York City for its lonely state of Four Loko-less-ness, sitting around playing Edward Lokohands like we were untouc ... More >>

Happy Hour: Kabuki Japanese Restaurant in Westchester

Celia SoudryFirecracker at Kabuki​ The Place: Kabuki Japanese Restaurant (inside Howard Hughes Center): 6081 Center Dr., Los Angeles; (310) 641-5524. The Hours: Monday-Thursday, 9 p.m.-close; Sunday, 8 p.m.-close. The Deals: $2.95-$5.95 appetizers and sushi rolls; $1.95-$9.50 beer, wine an ... More >>

JUST DESSERTS

Best Coast Extends Headlining Tour, Offers Free 'Boyfriend' MP3

Best Coast Extends Headlining Tour, Offers Free 'Boyfriend' MP3

Los Angeles Traffic Congestion Is Worst In America, But Doesn't Have A Thing On Beijing

​Big surprise. According to a recent study by IBM, Los Angeles ranks the worst in "commuter pain" among American cities. On an international scale, however-- it could be worse. The survey interviewed 8,192 motorists in 20 cities on six continents. Beijing ranks number one in commuter pain, f ... More >>

Walking Away

Country poet Mike Stinson's farewell letter to the "Late Great Golden State"

NYC's BLT Steak

Send in the clones

Hidden Yoga

Best savasanas off the beaten track

Letters