Moby Dick

Moby Dick in L.A.: Searching for the White Whale with Colin Hanks, Mark Z. Danielewski and, Yes, Moby

Mark Twain said a classic book is a work that everyone wants to have read but no one actually reads. For many Angelenos, Herman Melville's Moby Dick is just such a classic. It's a book set in New England at a time when whaling was an enterprise and tattoos were terrifying. Melville's world is a star ... More >>

5 Taco Facts We Learned From LeáLA's La Tacopedia Panel

`La Tacopedia is out. Well, kind of. If you can find it here in the States. And it's exactly what the title infers: an epic, thoroughly researched encyclopedia about regional Mexican tacos. Five years of research to be exact. And in an attractive, very contemporary Lucky Peach-ish layout. If you don ... More >>

Solo Show At the Flash Looks at a Single Gay Bar Through the Decades

Happy National New England Clam Chowder Day: Call Us Ishmael

Today is National New England Clam Chowder Day, which, if you're a Patriots fan, probably couldn't come at a better time. After all, a very good clam chowder can be remarkably comforting, as Ishmael discovered in Moby Dick: ... a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the apparently che ... More >>

First Frankenfish Poised to Hit Your Plate

Anti-GMO fanatics, start your engines. The first genetically altered fish is about to hit your plates. According to The New York Times, "government regulators moved a big step closer last Friday to allowing the first genetically engineered animal -- a fast-growing salmon -- to enter the nation's fo ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Week

Monday, July 23 The xx FONDA THEATRE These U.K. goth-soul ghouls haven't played in the United States since 2010, when The xx wrapped up support of their self-titled semi-hit debut and subsequently went into studio-hibernation mode. This summer, they're back on the road ahead of the Sept. 11 release ... More >>

Music Picks: Rome, The xx, Aretha Franklin

Also, Cannibal Corpse, I See Hawks in L.A., Smokey Robinson and others

Ze Frank, Online Video Pioneer, Is Back With a $146K Kickstarter Campaign. But What Is His New Show All About?

Ze Frank sometimes makes you feel a little stupid. But it's not on purpose -- he's pretty brilliant. In case you've forgotten, Mr. Frank was the occasionally singing, speed-talking, non-blinking (he edited out his blinks) online genius from the The Show, an early exercise in interactive internet vid ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 2/27-3/2

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "This may be the only standard restaurant dish anywhere in the world whose origin points to a bored 6-year-old on a playground." Jonathan Gold's 60 Korean Dishes Every Angeleno Should Know. "Nelson once worked in the lumber b ... More >>

Gay Hist-Orgy! Part 1 & 2, by Ian MacKinnon

5 Koreatown Beer Joints: Hite Requirement

If you had to choose a part of the city to do a beer crawl, Koreatown would have to be a top pick: There seems to be at least one beer joint at nearly every corner of every block in the neighborhood. Inside, you'll find long lists of flavored soju, soju cocktails, beer and sometimes spirits, usuall ... More >>

I'm on a Boat: Why So Many Places in Koreatown Have Nautical and Pirate Designs

At the center of the city, there is a 100-foot-long ocean liner dry-docked in a parking lot. It would seem out of place in many if not most L.A. neighborhoods. Except here. Landlocked Koreatown is bobbing with nautical-themed restaurants, and you can't walk the length of a plank without stumbling in ... More >>

Alina Szapocznikow at the Hammer Museum: Sexy Sculptures of a Forgotten Polish Genius

The Problem Solverz Creator Ben Jones: Using Video Games 'Like Religion'

Ben Jones doesn't like nostalgia. "I hate those wedding DJs who have mash-ups of two songs from your childhood and it's totally wrong," says Jones. "However, I do want to be like the Geto Boys, using a loop from some awesome Detroit soul record and then it transcends the sample." Jones is a multi ... More >>

Music Picks: Amanda Palmer & Jason Webley, Tinariwen, Mastodon

Also: Wadada Leo Smith's Ten Freedom Summers, Danzig and others

Orson Welles' Moby Dick, a Beatles Cabaret and Romeo and Juliet: Monsters in Love

Craig SchwartzThis​ The Playwrights Horizons production of Melissa James Gibson's domestic comedy, This, opened on Sunday at the Kirk Douglas Theatre (presented by Center Theatre Group). In an excellent production, it's an absorbing soap opera with a metaphysical reach it can't quite grasp. See ex ... More >>

Torpedoing a Top Science Program

Low-income Lawndale kids were getting into elite colleges. But the adults went to war