LeBron James

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 >>

Best of Coachella: Weekend One

Karen O's Outfit Karen O's wardrobe on Friday night was bad ass. The Yeah Yeah Yeah's front woman appeared on the main stage in a technicolor cape draped over a suit that looked like it was made of mercury. The vibrant collage was topped with a headpiece that Liberace might have worn had he ever bee ... More >>

NBA Players Love the Card Game Bourré. Now Some Reality TV Vets Are Plotting to Make It as Big as Poker

Get a book. Collect a stack. Raise the stakes. Repeat. That's the objective of bourré, the underground card game popular with the pro athlete set. Chances are you've heard about it and didn't even know it. Remember when Taft High School alum and ex-NBAer Gilbert Arenas pulled a gun on his the ... More >>

My 5-Year-Olds Face Off With iPhone's Siri

At the end of November, Trinidad James, a 25-year-old Trinidadian rapper living in New York, released a video for "All Gold Everything," the unsuspectingly gargantuan single found on his otherwise mostly middling mixtape, Don't Be S.A.F.E. The video was PERFECT, and flung James, then of a tepid amou ... More >>

Five Reasons The Clippers Will Shock The World This Season

There's a future NBA champion being built piece-by-piece at the Staples Center this year. It has a point guard destined for the Hall of Fame, a dominant power forward, a young, outrageously athletic 7-foot center and a shooting guard with no fear, no conscience and no hesitation. I'm talking, of co ... More >>

Chris Brown's "Don't Wake Me Up": Why This Song Sucks

[Editor's note: Why This Song Sucks determines why particular tracks blow using science. It appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.] Song: Chris Brown's "Don't Wake Me Up" History: "Don't Wake Me Up" is the hyper danceclub track from Chris Brown's latest album, Fortune. Apparently, wherever ... More >>

Eric Yee, Yale Dropout, Allegedly Threatened to Shoot Valencia Schoolkids, Aurora Style, in ESPN Chat Room

Updated at the bottom with personal details on Eric Yee, and the comments that may have triggered his arrest. (Headline has been changed to reflect the suspect's identity.) Originally posted at 9:30 a.m. The L.A. County Sheriff's Department is refusing to release the name of a young Asian man in h ... More >>

The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand": Why This Song Sucks

[Editor's note: Why This Song Sucks determines why particular tracks blow using science. It appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.] Song: The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" History: The Beatles are The Beatles and "I Want To Hold Your Hand" is "I Want To Hold Your Hand." Let's all just ... More >>

Dom Kennedy On 'The Yellow Album,' Maybach Music Group Rumors, And Funkmaster Flex's Tupac Comments

By J. Pablo Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: The Complete List Over the last few years, hip-hop artists who grew up in the hood but wanted to go beyond clichéd gangsterisms have been on the rise; Kendrick Lamar, Curren$y, A$AP Rocky, Big K.R.I.T. Hailing from L.A.'s Leimert Park neig ... More >>

The Time I Whooped a 14-Year-Old Kid at Basketball

You (probably) don't know him, but trust when I tell you that T is a real shitbag. In our little cluster of townhomes, there are six boys who live there. A quick scouting report: There is a family that lives across from us. They have three boys; J and D and L. They're sweet kids, and the boys' ... More >>

Playboy Jazz Festival - Hollywood Bowl - 6/16/12

Playboy Jazz Festival Hollywood Bowl 6-16-12 This past weekend the Playboy Jazz Festival celebrated its 34th anniversary with two days of bands, both jazz and otherwise. It was also a farewell to Bill Cosby, who would be MCing for the last time. The crowd came prepared to party and even caught some ... More >>

All They Do Is Win Try: Kid Basketball Players Talk About Rap Music

For the last couple months, I've run an after school basketball program at a middle school. Much as I'd like to say I Phil Jacksoned 'em into a championship caliber squad, that they've grown from piddly-poop to a run 'n gun offensive juggernaut with impenetrable defense, the truth is that the team - ... More >>

Rick Ross and Busta Rhymes - Nokia Theatre - 1/13/12

Rick Ross feat. Busta Rhymes 1-13-12 Nokia Theatre See also: Fictional Cutting-Room Floor Outtakes From Rick Ross' Amazing GQ Profile Better than: Actually being Big Meech. Or Larry Hoover. At least in 2012. "Schindler and I are like peas in a pod! We're both factory owners, we both made shells f ... More >>

LeBron James' $3,000 Cake Left Uneaten and Unpaid For

Only the best for the King. So went the line of thinking when a $3,000 birthday cake was deemed unworthy of Miami Heat basketball player LeBron James and promptly discarded. And now no one's left to pick up the tab. The Miami Herald reports that Boca Raton baker Alethea Hickman had received a frant ... More >>

Blue Note Records' Troubling New Direction

Few genres are as protective of their past as jazz. Some might say it's all they've got. The discipline is largely defined by the classic record labels that brought the sounds to the masses. Jazz nerds will argue the superiority of one golden recording era versus another just as stubbornly as baske ... More >>

Compton Rapper Game Returns to an Industry That's Gone Soft

Will his old tricks still work?

Bob Gray and the New Cellphone That Made Him a Celebrity. Sort Of.

Impostor Bob with girlfriend Liza, top left, and Andy Dick, bottom left​ There are people who kinda love their cellphone service, and then there is Bob Gray. A refreshingly friendly and stoutly built Cleveland native, bursting with the unfiltered enthusiasm and tendency for "straight talk" ass ... More >>

Food Party Hostess Thu Tran at Everything Is Festival Tomorrow

Food Party​Tomorrow kicks off five days of found footage feting known as the Everything is Festival at Cinefamily. It's a celebration of diggers, curators, and collectors as much as the weird, funny, campy, boogerfaced footage they unearth. Along with Joe Dante's four-hour legend The Movie Org ... More >>

There's No Center Like PEN Center

Lakers: Five Reasons L.A.'s NBA Dynasty Isn't Over Yet

The best player in the NBA is still with us.​The Lakers flamed out like Charlie Sheen in rehab -- in spectacular, unprecedented fashion (via a sweep the likes of which coach Phil Jackson has never seen). And now Phil Jackson says he's coached his last NBA game and Kobe Bryant is talking about ... More >>

Theater Reviews: Lemon Durang Pie, Hyperbole: Origins, Lucia Mad

Also, Into the Woods, Barrymore and more

Stage Raw: Hyperbole: Origins

NEW THEATER REVIEWSStage FEATURE on John Steppling's Phantom LuckNEW REVIEW  GO HYPERBOLE: ORIGINS ​ Photo by Rogue Theatre Ensemble It's not easy to wrap sentences around this fantastical storytelling spectacle created by a collaboration of artists under Sean T. Calwelti's direction, a ... More >>

Can The LeBron James Three Bring The Heat Against The Lakers?

​It's the big question for Angelenos following LeBron James' announcement last night that not only is he going with the Miami Heat next season, but a super-team including Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh will sandwich him with talent: Can this titanic trio block the Lakers' shot at a three-peat NBA ... More >>

Fast Food, Moscow Edition: Caviar Vending Machines

Perhaps the world of fast food drive-thru's, convenience stores and vending machines isn't all that bad. Maybe it simply depends on what goes into all the cases and automated machines. Consider the latest trend in Russian vending machine products: caviar. A Russian company has installed 33 caviar ... More >>

Movie Reviews: The Invention of Lying, Whip It, Zombieland, Paranormal Activity

Plus, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, In Search of Beethoven and more

NBA Player Freestyles On KFC, McDonalds, Chipotle and Raspberry Iced Tea

Jacob GerberIs Delonte West eccentric? You be the judge.​Delonte West is an NBA player for the Cleveland Cavaliers (that, for you foodies, is the team with LeBron James on it). He's also a bit of an eccentric. So what happens when he's waiting in the car with his friend for 7 minutes at a KFC ... More >>

Where to Eat Now

Restaurants for Wine Lovers

Breaking Free: L.A. Wine Culture

Shattering the stereotypes

Counter Intelligence

99 Essential - List Only

Head Games

Zizou’s noggin and Mexico’s recount

All He Wants for Christmas Is a Limited-Edition Nike

Jingo Bells

Prime-time pride, manly girls vs. girly girls and fear of a black dream team

Sore Winners (and the Rest of Us) in George Bush’s America