Netherlands

Marijuana Shops In Amsterdam To Stay Open Despite National Law (Just Like L.A.)

It looks like Amsterdam is taking a page from Los Angeles' marijuana scene. Like pot shops in L.A., that city's 220 coffee shops will defy home-country federal law which has banned such weed-selling; the city's mayor says they'll stay open after the law takes effect Jan. 1. Whew, said every touris ... More >>

Salmonella Outbreak Tied to Smoked Salmon

Salmonella has nothing to do with salmon. Until now. Smoked salmon tainted with the bacteria has sickened hundreds of people in the Netherlands and the United States, sparking a major recall, the Associated Press reports. (Fascinating fact: The genus Salmonella was named after Daniel Elmer Salmon, a ... More >>

Sexual Attraction Lowers Women's Level of Disgust

Why are disgusting things like sweat and body odor not so bad during sex? Well, the answer is, nobody knows exactly why, but researchers recently did reveal this possibility: Women do let down their guards during sex when it comes to stuff that would normally turn them off. Yeah, that mythical o ... More >>

Henry Rollins: The Column! Some Music Really Does Suck

[Look for your weekly fix from the one and only Henry Rollins right here on West Coast Sound every Thursday, and come back tomorrow for the awesomely annotated playlist for his Saturday KCRW broadcast.] It has become a ritual. Every summer, around late July and into August, I find myself in Europ ... More >>

4 Perfectly Plausible Explanations for the Needles in the Sandwiches on Delta Flights Leaving Amsterdam

First things first: Do not panic. Yes, there is a needle in your turkey sandwich. Yes, it is poking out from its little temporary home between the mayo and the lettuce. The needle is sharp. It is there. But do not panic. Do not necessarily leap to the conclusion that midflight meals are the terrori ... More >>

Rhubarb: A Pop Quiz, A Little History, A Short Story A Minted Rhubarb Soup Recipe

Pop quiz: If you bought rhubarb in any L.A. grocery store in the past six months, do you know where it came from? Choose from: A) Washington State B) Oregon C) Holland D) California Turn the page for the answer.

Rick Steves, Famed Travel Writer and Pot Advocate: 20 Questions

"I'm a travel writer, and for me, high is a place"

The Chaotic Travels of the Theater Company Poor Dog Group

Click on the image to make it bigger Zipping from Malibu to Manhattan, spending a month in Europe, regrouping and conferring with like-minded colleagues in a state-of-the-art "pleasure dome" -- it sounds more like the itinerary of a high-powered executive with a hefty expense account than a contemp ... More >>

World Cup of Baking Winners Announced in Paris

No culinary fragrance can compete with that of freshly baked bread. You can be comforted, exalted, seduced, relieved, or stimulated by nutty yeast tones gently wafting toward you. Or maybe you're just hungry. The Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie, or World Baking Cup, is an event that will make every ... More >>

Cannabis Cup Coming to Los Angeles Next Month: World's Premier Marijuana Contest Near Downtown

It's about time. High Times magazine's Cannabis Cup, the world's most prestigious (only?) marijuana judging competition is finally coming to Los Angeles after decades in Amsterdam and years in San Francisco. What took them so long? We asked associate publisher Rick Cusick:

Binge Drinkers Hit The Bar Once a Week, Get Wasted: U.S. Health Officials Concerned

America, we've got a problem. The first step is admitting it: More than 38 million of us binge drink about four times a month (only?), having as many as 8 drinks in a sitting (lightweights). In some nations across the Atlantic -- Germany, England, the Netherlands -- this is called being a pussy. ... More >>

Marijuana Dispensaries in L.A. Targeted For Closure: Here's The List

This is how Amsterdam does it.​L.A. still has a near-record high number of marijuana dispensaries despite efforts by the City Council to control them. (And we do mean high). But one-by-one the office of City Attorney Carmen Trutanich is knockin' 'em out. (Unfortunately, one of his assistant c ... More >>

New Avi Buffalo MP3 Available For One Week Only!

Avi Buffalo, arguably Long Beach's most successful band to feature an animal in its name, is gearing up to release the new single "How Come" on Sub Pop in two weeks but interested parties can take an early listen by following this link--but beware! This is good for one short week only! (After that ... More >>

Amsterdam Marijuana Cafes Could Close to Tourists: An Opportunity For L.A. Pot Shops?

This could be us.​This could be a great opportunity for Los Angeles, the marijuana capital of America. Turns out Amsterdam might not want your weed-smoking tourist business anymore. Associated Press reports that "the Dutch Cabinet says it will push ahead with plans to force anyone wishing to ... More >>

XXX Porn Domains Approved; L.A.-Based Adult Industry Not Happy

estheraseIt's coming.​Good news for porn hounds. Maybe. You now have your very own domain. Kind of how the White House has .gov. You have .xxx. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the folks who control such things, gave a green light to triple-X this week. It looks l ... More >>

Opium, 8 Pounds Worth, Found on LAX Passenger Arriving From Amsterdam, Authorities Allege

What happened to good ole' fashioned American heroin, anyway?​Hmm. Coming from Amsterdam, eh? Maybe we better take a closer look at those suitcases. That was the case at LAX, and authorities said they busted a 28-year-old U.S. citizen returning from the Dutch city. They allege he had nearly 9 ... More >>

Kush, Cartoons and Camaros

Inside Curren$y's customized culture

Beyond the Buttplug Gnome

Rotterdam's Wunderbaum satirizes the arts-funding debate

First Listen: The Foreign Exchange, "Authenticity"

​Being in love is like being underwater. All outside noise is dulled; all light is ethereal. But, when isolated, your lover's dulcet voice can be deceptive, and that shimmering light can be marred by pockets of shadows. The Foreign Exchange's latest album, Authenticity, is a love letter, but ... More >>

Constumed Superheroes Protest At City Hall For Return To Hollywood

Steve La​ A small contingent of super heroes and one Sith Lord assembled outside the steps of City Hall Tuesday to protest the arrests made by LAPD of costumed characters along Hollywood's Walk of Fame. Superman, The Hulk, The White Ranger and Darth Vader showed up in force holding signs tha ... More >>

Listen: KCRW DJ Jeremy Sole Drops Quantic Megamix Ft. Alice Russell, Noelle Scaggs

Quantic (above) gets the megamix treatment from KCRW's Jeremy Sole​Over the weekend, KCRW DJs including Jeremy Sole turned out in Chinatown for the sorely disappointing Make It Funky Music and Arts Festival. The 10-hour event featured precious few live acts (three bands?) and far too many DJs ... More >>

Food Union Supports California Pot Legalization

There are many good reasons for California to legalize marijuana, not least being that it's cheaper to drive to Mar Vista, say, than it is to fly to Amsterdam, and because one wonders what the folks who design Intelligentsia's high-strung coffee palaces could do with a pot café. There is also the w ... More >>

Weekend Spirits: Genever, Gin Before Gin How Rembrandt Paid His Liquor Bill

Bols GeneverBols of Old​In today's age of anything-goes flavored vodka, it's easy to forget the juniper berry roots of all those smoked salmon and banana vodka shots (salmon first, with a double banana chaser). And so we'd like to thank Genever, a gin-like spirit from the Netherlands dating ba ... More >>

FIFA World Cup: Spain vs. the Netherlands

Airplane Happy Meals: Cocaine Hidden in In-Flight Food

Airplane food has always needed a little something to make it edible, even when it was free. Your average person might pack a sandwich and maybe drink a few more of those tiny bottles of gin to make it all palatable. Now Dutch police have detained 20 people for smuggling cocaine in those in-flight m ... More >>

Volcano Fallout: Cribs Cancel Coachella Slot, Other Stranded UK Acts Iffy

​ Contact Music reports that The Cribs, the UK indie group that has Johnny Marr embedded with it, has cancelled their Coachella appearance after being pulled off the plane that was going to take them from London to California: The Cribs were due to fly to Los Angeles on Thursday (15Apr10) fro ... More >>

Exclusive: Sole Discusses Leaving Anticon Records

Sole, ready for life as an independent​Two weeks ago, West Coast Sound brought you the inside scoop on a major development in the world of indie rap. Only days after El-P announced that he is stepping down from his label duties at Def Jux, his onetime contra costa rival Sole announced that he ... More >>

PICTURE THIS

Droid Behavior Brings Speedy J and Drumcell

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "So you're just going to have to go with me on this: I was a baby bulimic." NYT restaurant critic Frank Bruni. "I'm dabbling in it and looking at becoming a chef." Keanu Reeves on molecular gastronomy. "There, ... More >>

COOPER'S TOWN

Dance Club Picks: Kraak and Smaak, West Indian Girl DJ Set, Dan Sena, Killed By Synth

Mondo Diablo!: Cody's Creepy Cuts

Cody gets up close with Freddy's fingers of fate The filmmaker-orchestrated mayhem at the New Beverly Cinema continues to rage on in periodic, two-week (or so) bursts… always unpredictable, never less than inspiring, not the least because of these double bills’ ability to draw in die-hard afic ... More >>

Queer Town: Gay Marriage and the Religion Card

By the end of last week, the gays got married...even in San Diego County. But things turned a little weird for San Diego County Clerk Greg Smith, who was confronted with at least 14 employees who said same sex weddings and their religious beliefs did not mix. It was the first time gay marriage oppon ... More >>

The Story of a Marriage: Gay Love in the Time of Eisenhower

Andrew Sean Greer's novel is far from real

Pipe Dreams

Stylish quartet brings the recorder into the 21st century

Evidence Grise

Paul Verhoeven returns to the past — his and ours — in the Holocaust thriller Black Book

Progressive Tactics

Orange Crush

The execution of Theo Van Gogh

Rainy Season

Command Decision

The real make-believe world at the Writers Guild

Part-Time Punks

Anthems for a New Century

Committed

Dave Holland’s escape from the assembly line

A Bricklayer's Story

The man who burned down the Reichstag

The Back Story

A Reading List

Mirror, Mirror/Liar, Liar

A pair of comedies set in a ghouls' paradise

Thieves Like Us

Stalking classic rock with the Charlatans UK

World Cup ’98

A fan’s notes (week 4)

Come and Get These Memories

Holland-Dozier-Holland and the sound of young America