New York University

Christopher Shinn's Acclaimed Pulitzer Finalist Dying City at Last Arrives in L.A.

"When I grew up," recalls playwright Christopher Shinn, "I grew up with the image of the artist as somebody who could be central to the culture in a big way, and that was the kind of artist I wanted to be. And I remember feeling with Dying City that I might get to be that kind of artist." Shinn is ... More >>

Smiley Stevens and Philippa Price: The Heights of Fashion

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2013 issue. Check out our entire People 2013 issue here. Six-foot-something Philippa Price glanced across a New York City bar and locked eyes with a fellow skyscraper, a blonde named Smiley Stevens. That night, as the young women conv ... More >>

5 Offbeat Things To Do in L.A. This Week

See also: *10 Best L.A. Art Galleries For Partying *Our Calendar Section, Listing More Great Things to Do in L.A. *10 Best Stand-Up Comedy Shows in Los Angeles Tired of frequenting the same routine haunts for entertainment? Suffer no longer with these fantastically quirky events, from Kathy Griffin ... More >>

Professor James Franco: A UCLA Student Talks About What It Was Like to Take the Actor's Screenplay Class

See also: *More L.A. Weekly Film Coverage James Franco: actor, director, screenwriter, poet, painter and now professor. Last quarter, the man with many talents decided to take his gifts and share them with the students of UCLA. Franco is still teaching at UCLA for the winter quarter and then will ... More >>

Chris Stroffolino Lives and Plays In His Van. Is He the Next Daniel Johnston?

Recently, filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig, the director of indie smash The Devil and Daniel Johnston, was riding his bike on Sunset near Maltman. He heard somebody playing piano and singing his heart out. "I'm looking around, I don't see anybody," says Feuerzeig. "I'm thinking, man, that sounds like Danie ... More >>

Rap Genius Got $15 Million in Investor Financing. So Why Does Everyone Hate Them?

In Malibu last weekend, an ebullient crowd including rappers Mike G and Shawn Chrystopher have gathered for the birthday party of Mahbod Moghadam. Champagne is poured into red solo cups, while a volvano vaporizer circulates. Moghadam is an eccentric character who is the face of the extremely succes ... More >>

USC Ranks As A Top 'Hipster College' in U.S.

USC has beaten UCLA in recent academic rankings, and you know the Trojans are a dominant force in football. But did you know the students on the campus next to Exposition Park were cool kids, too? A new ranking of "Hipster Colleges" by Unigo says ...

Voter Suppression Efforts Could Take Out Barack Obama This Fall

Silicon Beach: 5 People Making L.A. a New Tech Industry Capital

Los Angeles may be 350 miles south of Silicon Valley, but it's making strides to close the distance between the two in terms of sheer brain power and inventiveness (with a little bit of entertainment thrown in for good measure). Here are five people from our People issue helping to make that happen.

Aubrey Plaza: Stare Appeal

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here. Nobody does "jaded twentysomething" better than Aubrey Plaza. The 27-year-old NYU- and UCB-trained actress has mastered the art of the dry wit and judging stare. And that's no ... More >>

Adam Lisagor: The Video Guru

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here. If you've been to the website of a buzzy new tech startup in the last few years -- Groupon, Airbnb, Square -- chances are you've seen the work of Adam Lisagor. Not just his sho ... More >>

Alice Shin: Curbing Our Appetite

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here. When Alice Shin's brother-in-law phoned her to say that he'd gotten his hands on a truck they could use to begin peddling tacos filled with Korean-style barbecued meats, as the ... More >>

The Band Harriet Slept With All Your Mothers

"I knew it was a provocative title. But the song isn't as provocative as the title makes you think," says Alex Casnoff, singer-songwriter of Los Angeles indie rock quartet Harriet, referring to "I Slept With All Your Mothers." It's the first single off his band's debut EP Tell The Right Story. Seat ... More >>

Gangrene Get High, So High

Alchemist and Oh No's label gave them a weed budget

James Franco Clowns USC 'Undergrads' With New Reality Show: VIDEO

It looks like reality show footage produced by actor James Franco during his time on the USC campus in 2010 is coming to fruition. The renaissance man who has written a book, taught poetry as a post-graduate and starred in major Hollywood roles -- none of which he's apparently done very well -- tak ... More >>

Bingham Ray, Indie Film Distribution & Marketing Legend, Dies While Attending Sundance

Jaw-dropping news came down around noon Park City time Monday, when Sundance issued a press release confirming that Bingham Ray -- indie film legend, co-founder of seminal '90s indie distribution outlet October Films and current executive director of the San Francisco Film Society -- had died. Ray, ... More >>

Study Names 10 Worst Children's Cereals

Flickr/Dalboz17Apple Jacks ranked as the 8th worst kids cereal​According to a new study by the Environmental Working Group, some children's cereals contain more sugar than Twinkies and Chips Ahoy! cookies. The worst offender, Kellogg's Honey Smacks, is nearly a whopping 56% sugar by weight. Fo ... More >>

Limelight Review

Martha Marcy May Marlene Review

An Olsen sister falls in and out of a cult

Pacific Standard Time Is 'Overcompensation' for L.A.'s Cultural Inferiority Complex, Says New York Times

From Ed Ruscha's "Standard Editions."​Dude. New York can't stand to see us happy! Here we were, totally lit on our 1960s selves, museum-hopping in our California sundresses whilst trying to forget the "hopping" part took 30 minutes in traffic, and the East Coast's Times of record has to jump i ... More >>

Julie Taymor Talks Lions and Beatles (But Not Spiders) for a Packed House at LAFF

Julie Taymor​ A former child actress and a performer to the core, a cheerful Julie Taymor balanced a passion for her projects with an obvious compulsion to entertain in an event last night at the L.A. Film Festival. She catered to both by dividing the night up into parts, screening footage fro ... More >>

R.I.P. Leonard Stern, Inventor of Mad Libs

Leonard Stern, turning everyman to funnyman since 1958​We don't normally obit every Hollywood vet who dies a peaceful death after a golden old age in the Hills, but Leonard Stern, who Deadline Hollywood reports died Tuesday at 88 years old, transcended the film/TV industry to bestow a gift upo ... More >>

David Wojnarowicz's A Fire in My Belly Comes to L.A.

Censored by the Smithsonian, now at the Hammer

Movie Reviews: Enemies of the People, Step-Up 3D, The Other Guys

Also The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest, Patrik Age 1.5 and more

Life During Wartime: Happiness Recast

Todd Solondz on the new roles, and new life, in his latest film

We Are the Mods, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead

Also, Inception, Predators, Kisses

Are 'No on 8' Leaders Geoff Kors and Kate Kendell Off the Hook?

EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors​With closing arguments for the Proposition 8 federal trial wrapped up, honchos at Equality California and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, who were major players in the disastrous "No on 8" campaign, are touting a so-called "groundbreaking" study on P ... More >>

$9.99: Tatia Rosenthal’s Mighty Tenner

Director expands the form of the animated feature

The Sly Life: Music-Biz Escapee Matt Robinson Finds Happiness as DJ Mattnifique

He spins at Stone Rose Lounge, Circle Bar and, on Friday afternoons, the Center for Yoga

Mister Lonely, Harmony Korine's Way

The director on flying nuns and his Mexican Michael Jackson

Have Movie Stereotypes Returned?

Back in black (and yellow) face

Endangered Radio

. . . Is Good is really good, but are its days numbered?

Theater Reviews: Ray Bradbury's Green Town, Last Call at Moby Dick's and More

Also reviews of Zombie Joe's Victims, Richard III and Malcolm-Jamal Warner's Love and Other Social Issues

Crosstown Rivals

When USC and UCLA put on their academic game faces, nothing less than the future of the city is at stake

After the Fall

Oliver Stone at ground zero

Theater Reviews

Including this week's pick, The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer-Trash Housewife

Howard’s Beginning

Despite her industry pedigree, Opie’s daughter charts her own course

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Like his steely antihero, Transporter 2 director Louis Leterrier has a no-nonsense approach to taking care of business

Space Race

The territorial imperative in Crash and Another Road Home

Boys Do Cry

Antony and the Johnsons’ uncut emotions

Alchemical Reaction

Hassan Christopher: Moving Force

Lie of the Land

Some of our favorite art hoaxes

Compound Interest

The Talented Mr. Ridley

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

Yukking Like Rabbits

Raves on the Run

Feds jack up sentences, enforcement against Ecstasy

Om Nia Merican

Rave On

Iara Lee's brave new world

Affirmative Abstraction