Labor Day

Memorial Day Weekend Food Drink Specials

Memorial Day marks the beginning of the summer season, which means sunsets at 8 p.m. (or later), outdoor concerts around the city, and plenty of opportunities to party poolside from this weekend to roughly Labor Day. If you're not throwing your own barbecue or attending one, here are a few specials ... More >>

The Devil's Auteur: Rob Zombie Faces His Fans -- and His Art

The State of the Occupation

From City Hall to suburban Van Nuys: Occupy L.A. looks much different one year later

The Best Los Angeles Concerts of the Summer

5. The Zeros and The Muffs Troubadour, July 20 Though the Zeros and the Muffs began their careers at the start of the punk era and in the middle of grunge, respectively, their billing this summer was inspired. Both play the kind of punk -- catchy pop hooks over wham-bam, cranked-up chords -- that, ... More >>

Yom Kippur Break-the-Fast Tips From Leah Schapira A Leek & Sweet Potato Quiche Recipe

With Labor Day a distant memory, it's time to think ahead. We don't want to stress you out, but if you're hosting a Yom Kippur break-the-fast, it's time to start planning. (This year, break-the-fast is the evening of Sept. 26.) A break-the-fast gathering can be especially challenging to put togethe ... More >>

Books: The Ultimate Guide to Home Butchering Gets Down To Real (Gory) Gutting Basics

Blame it on one too many bites of factory farmed pork ribs on Labor Day, but we can't stop saying, "Oh dear God" -- while being entirely mesmerized by -- The Ultimate Guide to Home Butchering by Monte Burch. Meat and religion tend to have that effect. But wait, there's more substance here. Other r ... More >>

West Hollywood Activists Push Hard for Term Limit Petition Drive This Weekend

West Hollywood community activists are pushing hard with their petition drive to place a term-limit measure for the City Council on a 2013 ballot. They have a tight September 25 deadline to get a little over 2,300 signatures from some 23,000 registered voters in the city. If you're a West Hollywood ... More >>

DUI Crackdown For Late Summer Includes Hollywood Checkpoint Tonight

We're not sure why the end of summer is DUI crackdown season, what with all the other wonderful times of year to find drunktards on the road -- St. Patrick's Day, Cinco De Mayo, New Year's Eve, at. al. It just is. We've got a boatload of info for you in our latest edition of LA Weekly's DUI checkp ... More >>

Is The Dove Shack's "Summertime in the LBC" the Perfect Summer Song?

[Editor's note: Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. Be sure to also check out the archives.] See also: KDAY, the Gangsta Rap Oldies Station, Breaks New Ground by Playing Music From the Bad Old Days This is the city and the season for the summer jam. Yo ... More >>

LAPD Officers Lied About DUI Case, Says D.A.

Update: One of the officers has been fired. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck says: "I do not believe that their intent was evil, just extremely misguided." Read his full statement at the bottom. Originally posted July 25 at 5:15 p.m. So badly did two Los Angeles traffic officers want to prove their case ag ... More >>

Free Frozen Yogurt at Universal Citywalk Tomorrow Hello Kitty

Love Hello Kitty? Love Froyo? Then you'll probably be as giddy as a preteen Japanese schoolgirl to discover that Yogurtland has paired up with Sanrio to debut their line of co-brand merchandise set for release beginning tomorrow through Labor Day weekend. All your favorite characters -- Hello Kitty, ... More >>

14 Essential Items to Bring to Every Fan Convention

It's that time of year where it seems like there's at least one big fan convention going on every weekend somewhere in the country. Whether you're planning on heading to New Jersey for The Steampunk World's Fair later this month or counting down for San Diego Comic-Con in July, there are a few esse ... More >>

Best of the Cons, Part 2: The Top Southern California Conventions of 2011

Shannon CottrellHatsune Miku in concert at Anime Expo​ Read more in "Best of the Cons Part 1: 8 Standout TV Shows, Cosplays, Games and More from 2011." Is Southern California the land of the superfan? Maybe. At the very least, it's the land of the fan conventions. Trying to hit up ever con in ... More >>

FYF Attendee Says Her Neck Was Pierced By A Flying Spike

Rae Deslich's neck, healing​See also: Our review of FYF Fest, September 3, 2011 On Labor Day at FYF Fest, Rae Deslich was enjoying the performance by the recently reunited dance-punk band Death From Above 1979. The 28-year-old Echo Park resident had gotten separated from her friends at the e ... More >>

A Tour Of Beach Boys' Haunts In Their Hometown Of Hawthorne, California - With Pictures!

Sean J. O'Connell​Today Capitol Records releases one of the greatest lost albums of all time -- the Beach Boys' Smile. Brian Wilson intended this "teenage symphony to God" as a follow-up to Pet Sounds and countless tapes were recorded. But owing to a hazy blitz of paranoia and group in-fightin ... More >>

Seven Terrible L.A. Halloween Costumes (With Suggested Improvements)

Yes. Yes it is.​ OMFG! Halloween starts this weekend! Even though CVS put out the candy and the knickknacks right after Labor Day, you still waited 'til the last minute to get a costume, didn't you? Only recent temperate climate transplants that have been waiting for the palm trees to change ... More >>

Dragon*Con vs. San Diego Comic-Con: Which Convention Should You Attend?

Shannon CottrellSan Diego Comic-Con 2011​For the past three years that I've been covering conventions for LA Weekly, people have been telling me to go to Atlanta for Dragon*Con. I've heard it from commenters, friends and professional contacts. There are many who believe that Dragon*Con is the ... More >>

Santa Ana Winds Usher in L.A. Fire Season

The winds are upon us.​It may feel cooler and more wintery outside (OK, still in the upper 60s and 70s; sorry Denver), but don't be fooled: What has the potential to be SoCal's worst fire season ever is only just now settling in. We had a few scares back in the beginning of September -- inclu ... More >>

Los Americans With Esai Morales, Now Screening on L.A. City Buses' Transit TV

Esai Morales (l.) as Lee Valenzuela and Raymond Cruz as cousin "Memo" in Los Americans.​ With his new web series Los Americans, writer-director Dennis Leoni has been resurrected. The creator of the short-lived Resurrection Blvd. series for Showtime has gone from a show about a working-class L ... More >>

InvaderCON II: DOOMCON to Bring Invader ZIM Creator Jhonen Vasquez to Torrance in July, 2012

Shannon Cottrell​Shortly before this year's Dragon*Con event, convention entertainment group Wasabi Anime/Green Mustard Entertainment announced that InvaderCON II: DOOMCON would take place "near" Los Angeles. Today, the team behind the only convention dedicated to Jhonen Vasquez's short-lived ... More >>

Eric Garcetti Makes It Official: He's Running For Mayor

Eric Garcetti​Update 3:14 p.m.: Zev Yaroslavsky will jump in "sooner rather than later."Councilman Eric Garcetti announced this morning that he's running for mayor.Garcetti's entry into the race has been expected for months, and the chatter had been picking up lately that he would announce soon af ... 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 >>

Neighborhood Council Evicted From Constituent Center by L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar

Councilman Huizar.​L.A. neighborhood councils were launched as a way to get grass-roots participation in City Hall's decisions. They're an official part of L.A.'s governing process, and in many cases they occupy taxpayer-funded offices. But one "NC," Northeast L.A.'s "32," was recently kicked ... More >>

The Best and Worst of the Summer Movie Season

Considering the middlebrow question, and assessing the year in film thus far

Support Your State: Drink California Wine During CA Wine Month

Kathy A. McDonaldLearn more about wine this month at a wine tasting seminar​These days, every foodstuff or drink gets a day in its honor. Did you know there's a National Pecan Cookie day (September 21)? One guess on how to observe either National Guacamole Day (September 16) or National Beer D ... More >>

Jerry Lewis no Longer Welcome at Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon (Really)

Jerry Lewis as 'The Nutty Professor.'​They were known as "Jerrry's kids," those young victims of muscular dystrophy. They're somebody else's kids now. It appears that Lewis has been kicked out his his own telethon, the annual end-of-summer snooze-fest that happens the Sunday before Labor Day ... More >>

Hatch Chile Report: If Not New Mexico, Then Ralphs

Frieda's ProduceHatch chiles​ If you're the sort of person who annually packs the car and heads to New Mexico, driving endless ribbons of highways, through the wind farms and burnt deserts of California and Arizona, living on roadside enchiladas and anticipation, to pilgrimage to the town of H ... More >>

The Venture Bros. : Convention Do's and Don'ts for Fans

Shannon Cottrell​See more photos in Shannon Cottrell's gallery, "The Venture Bros. @ San Diego Comic-Con 2011." Adult Swim's cult hit The Venture Bros. was back at San Diego Comic-Con this year. Friday's panel featured show masterminds Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer along with James Urbaniak, ... More >>

DUI Checkpoints Net 17,419 Cars, Mostly From Illegal Immigrants, Last Year in Calif: LAPD Leads The State With 1,008 Impounds

Alex ThompsonAfter your car in 2010?​Cops called it the "Year of the Checkpoint" in California. But it might as well have been called the Year of Taking Your Car. Because, while the number of DUI checkpoints in fiscal 2010 was double that of 2009, there were six cars impounded for every one D ... More >>

Chris Brymer: Head Case

Ex-football players with head injuries often end up in the criminal-justice system. The former USC lineman is Exhibit A

The Best of FYF Fest: Best Fashions, Surprising Bands to Watch, Biggest Bummers (oh, and Ariel Pink: Still Crazy)

Timothy NorrisThere's a thin line between hipster and furry, wethink​[See also Timothy Norris' slideshow "FYF Fest 2010 with The Rapture, Dead Man's Bones, Panda Bear and More".] Given that I refuse to pair a word as lovely as "summer" near detractors such as cruel "end" or the gentler "fade, ... More >>

Telluride: Down From The Mountain

Studios trek to Colorado festival in search of art-film street cred

IF YOUR SUMMER'S A BUMMER . . .

LAPD DUI Checkpoint Tonight In Windsor Hills

​Keep your license, registration and proof of insurance handy for this week's edition of LAPD checkpoint. That's right kids, the Los Angeles Police Department will have a DUI and drivers license checkpoint set up in Windsor Hills Friday night from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. The location is Slauson Aven ... More >>

Comic-Con Interview: Musician/Artist Voltaire is a Convention Renaissance Man

Voltaire is a Renaissance man for the convention circuit. An animator, comic book creator and toy designer, he has a lot of reasons to hit up events like San Diego Comic-Con. But Voltaire's best known occupation, the one that brought the Con crowd out of the Gaslamp Quarter and into North Park venue ... More >>

Perfect Pairings: Recipes From An Italian Summer, Pinot Grigio A Melon Salad Recipe

​While we are content to measure our summer vacations in single day increments (Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day), Italians prefer to measure their holidays in months. Particularly in the summer, when everyone in Italy seems to be on the beach, craggy rocks and sunbathing crowds be damned. ... More >>

The Return of Evan Kleiman's Pie-a-Day Project

Evan Kleiman is baking pies again. This might not seem like a particularly momentous announcement -- a chef baking pies -- were it not that Kleiman, chef-owner of Angeli Caffé, cookbook author and host of KCRW's radio show Good Food, baked pies every single day for months last year as part of her P ... More >>

You’re a Pig!

If you want to be, at Koreatown’s Don Dae Gam

Deadline Hollywood: Shameful Oscar Overspending

Mo' money, more Hugh, less Jerry

Kerry Shoots for the Hip

The candidate know what’s cool, but are the kids buying it?

The 2nd Annual List Issue