Lebanon

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Jacobean Incest Melodrama

The scandal surrounding a love affair between a brother and his sister forms the centerpiece of John Ford's 17th century play, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. Archway Theatre's downtown production is this week's pick. See below for all the latest new theater reviews and comprehensive theater listings. Thi ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including a Riveting Drama About Holocaust-Era Poland

Our critic Deborah Klugman found Tadeusz Slobodzianek's drama, about Polish complicity in the German Nazis' persecution of Polish Jews in the 1940s, and presented by Son of Semele Ensemble at Atwater Village Theatre, to be a model of stagecraft and emotional to watch. For all the lastest new theater ... More >>

Theater to See in L.A. This Week

Adapter-performer Brian T. Finney has adapted Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness in what Paul Birchall describes as "hypnotic." It's this week's pick of the week. Neal Weaver found charm and passion in Actors' Co-op's revival of The Miracle Worker. See below for all the latest new theater reviews. ... More >>

Echo Park: Greatest Neighborhood in Los Angeles, Which has 87 of Them

By Hillel Aron Echo Park is, depending on your point of view: the poor man's Silver Lake, the rich man's Highland Park, the Williamsburg of the West Coast, a 40,455-personl working-class burg full of diversity and a wee bit of gang violence. Or, it's that strange little neighborhood you drive throu ... More >>

Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, Including a Festival of Soccer Art

This week, homing pigeons interfere with LCD signs on the I-10, one artist takes narcissism to virtuosic heights and another imagines China bringing the United States to its knees. 5. Soccer as endurance art "You can't be surprised by a good-looking girl playing ball once, maybe twice," says a guy ... More >>

FYF Fest Day Two - The Faint, Converge, Dinosaur Jr - September 2, 2012

FYF Fest Day 2 The Faint, Converge, Dinosaur Jr and Others September 2, 2012 See also: *Our review of FYF Day One *Take our FYF quiz Better Than: Striking for a 40 hour work week. After a series of intense showers and professional-assisted dust removal, we were back for day two of the purporte ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Weekend

Friday, August 31 Mark de Clive-Lowe BLUE WHALE As one might expect from a hapa Japanese-New Zealander who arrived in L.A. via Boston, New York and London, this keyboardist/DJ/music producer is a complex synthesis of musical styles and cultures. Mark de Clive-Lowe honed his craft in the United King ... More >>

It's the End of the World as Serj Tankian Knows It, and the System of a Down Frontman Feels Fine

Top Ten Metal Albums for People Who Don't Know Shit About Metal Top 20 Worst Bands of All Time: The Complete List The Top Five Metal Guitarists Under The Age of 30 Remember back in early 2011, when birds plummeted from the sky, and fish died en masse? These dead critters are at the heart of System ... More >>

FYF Fest 2012 Lineup Announced

See also: *M83's Anthony Gonzalez Makes Soundtracks, Without the Movie *The Descendents, Kid Dynamite, and Ty Segall at FYF last year *Pics from FYF Fest 2011: Death From Above 1979, Explosions in the Sky, Descendents, Simian Mobile Disco and More *Pics from FYF Fest 2010: The Rapture, Dead Man's B ... More >>

Best of Coachella: Sunday, April 22

See also: Our complete Coachella coverage By the third day of Coachella's second weekend -- the sixth and final day of this year's festival -- folks had more or less learned to ignore the dust and the heat. Here are our intrepid writers' favorite things about the final hours of the 2012 event.

Brouwerij West, an L.A. Microbrewery That's Turning Its Bottles Into an Art Gallery

Beer talk runs the gamut from the frat boy refrain "beer is beer" to craft beer enthusiasts sparring in fermentation terminology. If there is any "art" to the drink, it lies within the bottle, and rarely will the conversation veer to what's outside it: the label. "It's not like you can open up the ... More >>

Cookbook Of The Week: Mighty Spice That Mighty Big (Recipe) Legal Disclaimer

Yes, we chose our Cookbook of the Week, Mighty Spice: Fast, Fresh and Vibrant Dishes Using No More than 5 Spices for Each Recipe, in part for the publisher's legal disclaimer (more on that later). It waives them not only from potential recipe disasters but also includes medical warnings (?!). Keep i ... More >>

Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at Crown City Theatre, Reviewed

Marouch: 99 Essential Restaurants 2011

Mantee: 99 Essential Restaurants 2011

National Geographic's Top 10 National Dishes Guess What Americans Like To Eat

Anne FishbeinBurger Kitchen's breakfast hamburger​Food blogs aren't the only publications with endless lists or pictures of pretty things people like to eat. National Geographic, the magazine many of us fondly remember from grade school science classrooms and dentists' offices, is the latest t ... More >>

Music Picks: Esperanza Spalding, Elbow, Toro Y Moi, Blink-182

Also, Glen Campbell, the Smashing Pumpkins, Lanie Lane and others

Bi-curious Girls in Tehran, in Circumstance

Don't Call It a Comeback: Red Hot Rio 2's Paul Heck

​Since the late 1980s the Red Hot Organization has released over a dozen music compilations to help raise funds for AIDS research with help from artists as varied as George Michael, Wu-Tang Clan, Nirvana and Alice Coltrane. This year the Organization will be releasing Red Hot Rio 2 - a star- ... More >>

Taste of Beirut: Shanto's Bakery

Photo courtesy of Shanto's BakeryFreshly made manakish bread with a variety of toppings bubble up in the oven at Shanto's​ Before Shaunt Adessian opened Shanto's Bakery in La Crescenta, he traveled thousands of miles from Los Angeles, arriving in Lebanon to discover the Levantine culinary meth ... More >>

Venn Food Diagrams: L.A.'s Idea of Armenian Food Vs. What Armenians Eat

The Venn Food Diagram train has ventured west of India and landed in Armenia, the ancient landlocked country wedged between Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey, which recently produced the world's earliest leather shoe and wine-producing facility. Steady immigration from Armenian communities in Lebanon, Ira ... More >>

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

Also, Into the Woods, Barrymore and more

Best Turkish Delight: Nory Locum in Canoga Park

A. ScattergoodTurkish delight at Nory Locum​ If you've never had excellent Turkish delight, deceptively simple bits of chewy, gelée-like candy often flavored with bergamot or rosewater, sometimes shot through with pistachios, you haven't been spending enough time in Middle Eastern shops or r ... More >>

The Day of the Jackal

What can't Olivier Assayas do?

Beyond Egoyan

Chefs With Tattoos

A colorful rebellion against kitchen rules

The Thursday Edition: A Roundup of Newspaper Food Stories

SapphireBlue22stack of newspapers​What's the country reading today food-wise? Here's a roundup of some of the food-related stories from other newspapers, many of which print their food sections mid-week. And remember, even if you don't actually buy papers these days (or not; this paper is free ... More >>

Lebanon vs. Israel: World Record Set For Bowl Of Hummus

CNNworld record hummus​ It seems as if Lebanon and Israel have moved the battlefield to the kitchen. This past Saturday Lebanon set the world record for the largest bowl of hummus in the village of al-Fanar, near Beirut, surpassing the previous record set four months ago by Israel in the Arab ... More >>

Middle Culver: Mezza, After Mosque or Movie

Sunnin: Westwood's Middle East

New digs and a new vibe at lebanese cafe

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Aladdin Nuthouse Nuts

I am a regular patron of Aladdin Nuthouse, one of the better Armenian nut vendors in town, a place with a half-dozen kinds of melon seeds, delicious sesame peanuts, and a way of roasting hazelnuts and almonds that not only brings out the full, round flavor of the nuts but leaves them rimed with salt ... More >>

Far From the Lebanese Crowd

Mantee, via Beirut, on Ventura Boulevard

Propaganda, War

​The Toronto International Film Festival doesn't exactly have a reputation for being a lightning rod for political controversy, but it became one in the early days of this year's edition thanks to a new festival sidebar, City to City, designed to explore "the evolving urban experience by immersing ... More >>

Zahle in the Valley: The Middle-Eastern Polish of Alcazar Express

How Do You Say "Oscar Scandal" in Hebrew?

Much as I am loathe to give any further wind to the orgy of self congratulations and poor taste that was this year's Academy Awards, given that it has been something of an ongoing discussion on this blog I do feel obliged to offer a few words to the outcome of the Best Foreign Language Film contest. ... More >>

How Do You Say "Oscar Scandal" in Hebrew?

Much as I am loathe to give any further wind to the orgy of self congratulations and poor taste that was this year's Academy Awards, given that it has been something of an ongoing discussion on this blog I do feel obliged to offer a few words to the outcome of the Best Foreign Language Film contest ... More >>

Good, Better, Best

In search of the Armenian gold standard

Marching Orders

The T-Word

Coming out for Hizballah on the streets of L.A.

Guess Who’s Coming to Iftar

A meal to remember with Hezbollah

A Beirut Diary

Inside the forest of the Cedar Revolution

Ask Mr. Gold

Ask Mr. Gold

Bye Bye, Bonzo

Reagan was double-dealing long before Iran-contra

War Talk: Reserve Judgment

Our Favorite Books of the Year

Keba-ba-ba-bin Along

Lebanese food in Sherman Oaks

Piecemeal Peace

Shifting politics end 14-year siege in Lebanon

Fava Knows Best

Lebanese bean stew in Pasadena