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What's Your Dirtiest Jason Bentley Sexual Fantasy?

Jason Bentley: sexxxy voice, sexxxy look (wait, isn't that "Blue Steel"?!?!?!)​We were talking to an acquaintance (female, late 30s, educated, divorced) and she was telling us that one of the main reasons she listens to NPR every morning has to do with... well, the tingly feelings she gets fro ... More >>

Born In The USA But Still Illegal? It Could Happen

​Forget the green card or American Express gold. It's the ultimate test of one's American roots: Born in the USA? You're in for life. You're an equal among citizens and your stake in this country can't be discounted because of the tone of your skin or the rise of your bread. Some politicians ... More >>

Today in WTF: NPR's Nina Totenberg and Robert Siegel Cover Lady Gaga

NPR's Nina Totenberg​Fishbowl LA found this strange video where several young NPR staffers convinced revered on-air liberal deities Nina Totenberg and Robert Siegel to interpret verses of Lady Gaga's Telephone. It's official now: everyone's gone viral! Watch:

Jaime Escalante's Legacy: Success Doesn't Come Overnight

Edward James Olmos as Jaime Escalante in 'Stand and Deliver.'​It's said that Jaime Escalante's biggest problem with the 1988 movie about his successes with East L.A. Latino students at Garfield High School was that Stand and Deliver made it seem like they achieved academic excellence overnight ... More >>

Mayor Villaraigosa Complains About Not Being Able To Tax Residents More

​Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa decried the hurdles involved in raising city taxes during a discussion about the sources of the city's huge deficit, which will grow to nearly $700 million in July. In an interview with National Public Radio published over the weekend, the two-thirds vo ... More >>

Meth-Face Imaging Software Puts Scare Into Kids

Face2Face​A California sheriff has helped a tech company develop 3D imaging software that can show people what their face would look like if they start and continue abusing methamphetamine for months and years. The results are shocking and compelling enough that law-enforcement agencies from L ... More >>

Rewinding Time with 'The Decade in Mixtapes': The '00s Transform the Art of the Mix

Rewinding Time with 'The Decade in Mixtapes

Stone's Throw/Now-Again Principal Egon Selects His Favorite African Funk Reissues of the Year

If you're talking African funk and want to have someone do the digging for you, you can do a lot worse than Stone's Throw general manager Egon, whose taste and knowledge of 60s and 70s world funk is unparalleled. His Now-Again records released a few great collections last year, including one of our ... More >>

NPR Gets L.A.'s Medical Weed Facts All Wrong

Maybe NPR has been reading too much of the Los Angeles Times coverage of this city's pot shop problem, or maybe one of its reporters is relying too heavily on the word of local politicians, but a recent post on the NPR blog gets many facts wrong about L.A.'s medical weed ordinance and all the hub-bu ... More >>

Plate Spinning: Listings From the Past Week

Some food for thought from local, national and international news sources from this past week: -- Coffee may enhance inebriation. [Fox] -- For the fourth day of Christmas at Meadowood the Food Dudes gave us meat. [EaterSF] -- Tootsie Rolls, Frooties, and Dots go Kosher (Why this made the Crime ... More >>

Plate Spinning: Listings From the Past Week

Some food for thought from local, national and international news sources from this past week: -- Is a spirit's age a worthy indication of flavor? [NYT] -- Bubble gum bandits chew through Michigan [The Daily News] -- Rum may be the new gin. [NYT] -- Fruit juice loses nutritional cred. [LAT] ... More >>

Plate Spinning: Listings From the Past Week

Some food for thought from local, national and international news sources from this past week: --Honey, I'm home (indefinitely). Let's eat in. [LAT] -- Flu shot line at Walgreens too long? Head to the bar! [NYT] -- Annual turkey-shaped Jell-O mold contest at David Byrne's studio. [New Yorker] ... More >>

Plate Spinning: Listings From the Past Week

Some food for thought from local, national and international news sources from this past week: -- Hershey and Ferrero collaborate on a bid for Cadbury. [NPR] -- Pies in the time of pumpkin famine. [NPR] -- Cannibals arrested for selling human steak to kabob house. [Reuters] -- Get ready for r ... More >>

Plate Spinning: Listings From the Past Week

Some food for thought from local, national and international news sources from this past week: -- Let them eat tempeh. Silly parents, vegetarianism is for kids. [LAT] -- Does posting caloric content actually affect food choices? [NYT] -- Dispelling the myth: My big fat French women. [Reuters] ... More >>

SARAH VOWELL AND THE CONSONANTS

ROLLING IN THE NILES

New Har Mar Superstar Track, Originally Intended for Britney Spears, Released: "Tallboy" (MP3)

​So if this isn't a gay club hit this fall, we don't know what from what. The new Har Mar Superstar track has arrived after a musical Har Mar Hiatus of ... has it been five years? It's from his forthcoming album, Dark Touches. In that time, a lot of blue-eyed soul singers have come and gone, b ... More >>

Author Harris' Death: Heart Disease

Amazon.comE. Lynn Harris​The L.A. County Coroner's office announced that successful author E. Lynn Harris, who died suddenly last week at the age of 54, was stricken by heart disease aggravated by high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries, according to Associated Press. Harris, who lived i ... More >>

"You have the right to remain glazed," says Clare City's Cops and Doughnuts

"Fighting Crime One Doughnut at a Time" might not evoke images of police officers going above and beyond the call of duty. That is, unless you happened to catch NPR's 28-second piece on Max Taves and LA Weekly beat NYT for DeBakey biomedical award

LA Weekly freelancer Max Taves is in Washington, D.C., today accepting a cash prize for the best 2008 coverage of biomedical research by a large newspaper for his news story, ""UCLA Profs and Scientists Sued Animal-Rights Radicals."Taves beat several leading papers, including The New York Times. Oth ... More >>

Seven John Smiths, a Bob and a Bamford

What to do in L.A., May 29-June 4

Lemonade Initiative Rallies for L.A. Schools

Embedded video from CNN Video Valley parents, fed up with the fractious fighting between the L.A. Unified School District and union leaders of the United Teachers Los Angeles, have recently formed a third-force movement called the Lemonade Initiative. ("When you're given lemonades," etc.) This morni ... More >>

Swine Flu: One U.S. Death, One Attempt to Change Flu's Name

As of 8 a.m. this morning one U.S. death, in Texas, has been attributed to the swine flu outbreak. The fatality was a Mexican toddler whose family was visiting the state. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 14 Californians are confirmed as being stricken by SF, while New York City lea ... More >>

Tonight at the Orpheum: Andrew Bird Brings NPR/Will Shortz Devotees Together for Show

Andrew Bird's success story has to be one of indie rock's unlikeliest: We're talking, after all, about a whistling, violin-playing dude from Chicago who has somehow managed to outlast his stint with the Squirrel Nut Zippers by penning impossibly erudite art-folk tunes about fake palindromes and S ... More >>

Rock Picks: Don Caballero, Yo! Majesty, Joan Baez, Juana Molina

Also, Extreme Animals, Andrew Bird, Peach Fuzz, and others

Michael Jackson's Thriller on Broadway: Who Wants Werewolves When You Can Have Filipino Prison Dancers?

As we were rolling awake this morning, the radio catching us up on the day's news, a report came on NPR about a new musical that the Nederlander company is producing for Broadway. The producers, who made a bundle off its Mama Mia juggernaut, bought the rights to adapt Michael Jackson's Thriller on ... More >>

Sustained Vowell

Best Place to Stop and Enjoy the Traffic: 10/110 Interchange

Long Beach Calling!

What to do in L.A., August 29-September 4

HIllary Clinton, Working Class Heroine

By Marc Cooper It was far too beautiful a day in Southern California to have spent much time following the West Virginia primary. Taking a late afternoon bike ride is when I finally tuned into the results -- just in time to hear Hillary's victory crow. What a humdinger! She more or less lifted Jes ... More >>

Vintage Evenings at the Ford: Christopher O'Riley

Music Picks

For the week of June 8 - 15

From Our Contributors

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Madame X

The Santa Monica Museum is currently exhibiting a collection of  Exene Cervenka's journals, sketches, and assorted ephemera from the past several decades, and on Thursday night the lady herself gave a reading at the Bergamot Cafe next door. Still beautiful, the elementary school-teacher-by-day, ... More >>

Outisde Looking In

Anger Management

The Growing Pains of Liberal Talk Radio

Talk Radio for Lefties

Getting Out of Town

Terry Allen and his chicken-fried Gesamtkunstwerk

Those Little-Town Blues Are Melting Away

As Fighter Jets Go By

As the World Turns

Not your regular news

The Talented Mr. Ridley

The author, screenwriter and radio commentator keeps his feet on the ground -- and his laptop at the ready

All Things Inconsiderate

Art Talk: Mass vs. Class, Chapter 3,827

Letters

Tiresome Things: 2001 and Beyond

Letters

Remaking Public Radio

KPCC has stopped the music for all-news