North Korea

Comrade Kim Goes Flying Is the First Fiction Film Shot in North Korea and Co-Produced with the West. How Did It Happen?

By Doug Cummings Comrade Kim Goes Flying is one of the most unique and entertaining features at this year's Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. The first fiction feature shot in North Korea and co-produced by both Western and North Korean companies, it sidesteps current political tensions to o ... More >>

Four Movies to See at the L.A. Asian Pacific Film Festival

North Korean Missiles Could Reach California; U.S. Beefs Up Interceptor Defense

Can North Korea hit Los Angeles with a nuclear missile? Yes, theoretically. Its tests have been inconclusive and perhaps even unimpressive so far, but the United States government isn't taking any chances. Today Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced that 14 interceptor missiles would be added to ... More >>

How Much Should I F***ing Tip?: The Internet Just Made Tipping Abroad Easy

So there you are in Belarus, supping on beet soup and rye bread, getting all stinky on kvas. The bill comes and you reach for your wallet. To tip or not to tip, you wonder. You try to remember the advice dispensed in your uncreased copy of Lonely Planet: Belarus, but the details are pretty fuzzy ... More >>

Dennis Rodman Visits North Korea?!

Basketball bad boy and former SoCal party man Dennis Rodman was expected to arrive in North Korea today. That according to Associated Press, which reports exclusively that Rodman is headed to the most politically isolated nation on the planet with a crew from Vice Media. He's being billed as "an un ... More >>

The Movies of Kim Jong Il, Now Available Via Bootlegs and YouTube

We Love You, Music Center!

Inline Skaters Take To 405's Carmageddon II In Lamest Action Sports Video Ever

In what has got to be the lamest Carmageddon stunt yet -- surpassing, we would argue, last year's super kooked-out planking display (anyone still remember planking?) -- some inline skaters took to the 405 during the Carmageddon II freeway shutdown this fall. They recently posted a video (after the ... More >>

Martin Crimp's The City and How Obama Got His Groove Back Show the Art of Escaping Reality

Kim Jung Un Clowned on Ashley Madison Billboard Near LAX: Anyone Offended?

Conservative radio talk-show hosts John & Ken aren't the only people in town who think making fun of Asians is okay. The cheaters'-dating website Ashley Madison today announced it has erected a billboard near LAX that punks Korean dictator Kim Jung Un and his portly, vertically challenged appearanc ... More >>

Food News Roundup: Ken Frank on Foie Gras, PETA Protest in Echo Park No Food Aid to North Korea

Daily Dish: Chef Ken Frank of Le Toque in Napa Valley argues that the upcoming foie gras ban will "will create the biggest black market since Prohibition." He recommends replacing it with "the world's highest standards for humane foie gras." Reuters: In the wake of North Korea's failed missile lau ... More >>

Henry Rollins: The Column! Hands Are Groping Me, Breasts Are Pushed Into Me

[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.] Time becomes fluid and is then smashed, compressed, elongated by miles and then slammed into a ... More >>

Norwegian Video Blogger Tommy Churning-Mad Over Butter Crisis Mockery

A. Scattergoodbread and butter at The Tasting Kitchen​There's a lot going on in the world as the year steams towards a close. In North Korea, Kim-Jong-Il is dead. In Pakistan, military leaders and government officials are wrestling for power. U.S. troops have finally left Iraq. There's als ... More >>

Monday Morning Food News Roundup: It's National Bologna Day!

SpecialKRB / FlickrNot Oscar Mayer bologna.​It's National Bologna Day. Not the day we honor the Northern Italian city famous for its ragù, but a day to honor pressed, sliced tubes of meat. Let the lunchmeat reign -- and rain. It's also National Food Day! [LA Weekly] Drinking whiskey in the ... More >>

Your Weekly Movie To-Do List

Juche on the Loose

Welcome Back, Pyongyang BBQ Truck: We're On To You

​To quote the ever articulate George W. Bush, "Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me... you can't get fooled again." Yes, the taco truck/marketing ploy that duped a lot of us last summer is back in L.A. slinging cheap tacos and promoting Communist ideals, as well as shoot 'em up vid ... More >>

Henry Rollins Column: Rollins' Predictions for 2011 (Protip: It Gets Better)

Maura LanahanOur eminent columnist, Mr. Henry Rollins!​[The one and only Henry Rollins contributes a weekly column and far-reaching reportage to the music section of the LA Weekly. Look for your weekly Henry Rollins fix right here on West Coast Sound every week and make sure to tune in to Henr ... More >>

Kobe Bryant, Drop This Turkish Airlines Deal Already

Kobe.​Not since a guy named Joseph Coors opposed Chicano studies classes at the University of Colorado, thus denying Coors beer a very thirsty Latino market for decades, has someone shot himself in the foot in such a d'oh way. Yeah, we're talking about you Kobe. We forgave you for that, er, s ... More >>

You Can't Go Home Again: Henry Rollins on Being Back in the USA, Autumnal Feelings and his Favorite Thomas Wolfe Passage!

Maura LanahanOur eminent columnist, Mr. Henry Rollins!​[The one and only Henry Rollins will be contributing a weekly column and far-reaching reportage to the music section of the LA Weekly. Look for your weekly Henry Rollins fix right here on West Coast Sound every Friday and make sure to tune ... More >>

The Globe Trottin' Mr. Rollins: Henry Rollins Visits a Dead North Korean Leader, Ponders the Relationship Between State Communism and Scientology, and Finally Finds Time to Chill Out in Mongolia (also, HR's Musings on Jimi Hendrix!)

Maura LanahanOur eminent columnist, Mr. Henry Rollins!​[The one and only Henry Rollins will be contributing a weekly column and far-reaching reportage to the music section of the LA Weekly. Look for your weekly Henry Rollins fix right here on West Coast Sound every Friday and make sure to tune ... More >>

Movie Review: Chosin

Our Man in Pyongyang: Our Intrepid Reporter Henry Rollins Ventures Into North Korea

Maura LanahanOur eminent columnist, Mr. Henry Rollins!​[The one and only Henry Rollins will be contributing a weekly column and far-reaching reportage to the music section of the LA Weekly. Look for your weekly Henry Rollins fix right here on West Coast Sound every Friday and make sure to tune ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 7/19-7/23

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "Even the third or fourth time around, Fu-ga seems like a discovery, a small piece of a better downtown preserved 20 feet underground."

6 SXSW Film Must-Sees

​ If you're heading to Austin for the SXSW Interactive or Music festivals and have a Gold or Platinum badge, you can use it to get into screenings at the SXSW Film Festival, which starts today and runs all the way through the end of the Music fest next week. SXSW Film has made a name for thems ... More >>

Stuck in a Moment: U2 at the Rose Bowl

Safe sex with Bono and the boys

Soul Food Meets Seoul Food, Courtesy of Next Food Network Star Finalist

Food NetworkDebbie Lee is making good old fashioned soul food, by way of North Korea.​Starting September 10th, "Next Food Network Star" finalist Debbie Lee will unveil a new menu at Culver City restaurant Gyenari, which will draw from both her Korean and southern U.S. heritage. "We are showca ... More >>

Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee's Actions Questioned

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two L.A.-based journalists who work for the Al Gore-founded Current TV channel, were greeted as heroes earlier this month when they arrived in Burbank after Bill Clinton arranged for their release from North Korean captivity. The Communist regime had charged the reporter ... More >>

Freed Journalists Arrive in Burbank

Perhaps  Burbank was the last destination Laura Ling and Euna Lee had figured for a fantasy getaway, but for the two Los Angeles journalists imprisoned in North Korea, it was the happiest place on earth. They and former president Bill Clinton arrived at Bob Hope Airport at dawn today, ending a ... More >>

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vs. North Korean Schoolgirls: You Decide

You go to talk about nuclear disarmament and end up being called a schoolgirl. Then, like, the whole world gossips about it. Don't you hate when that happens? I'm not certain how advisable it is to get into a (yet another) war of words with North Korea, but Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ... More >>

Make Plants, Not War: Intercontinental Ballistic Seedbombs

So, North Korea wants to bomb us, but how much better would things go if they'd send over these instead? They're called Seedbombs. They're only a concept design so far. Each bomb is made of biodegradable plastic. The shell contains artificial soil and seeds. The plastic eventually melts away. They ... More >>

Laura Ling and Euna Lee Face Silence

In L.A., the Current TV employers of the imprisoned local journos duck and cover

Greg Sandow on Art vs. The Arts

Sandow: "So why am I telling this story? To introduce my thought that art and the arts aren't the same thing." ALSO, some kid in a diaper covering The Beatles.

Movie Reviews: Berkeley, The Heartbreak Kid, Lust, Caution

Also this week's pick, Colma: The Musical

This Is Iran, Too

North and South

Visions of the DPRK at Pusan 2006

No news is good news

Here are 3 that I've done over the last 48 hours that I don't want to space out over the next 3 days because I like to be as current as I can be with my posts, particularly when all the other North Korea cartoons I've seen suck, nobody's doing anything about the Israeli President, and everybody is t ... More >>

In the Land of the Brother Leader

Vacation in Libya? Totalitarian tourism and the search for truth... and a good meal

A Nuclear Standoff

Rummy’s Secret Hand

The Ultimate Reality Show

Scenes from the first days of war coverage

Who Would Jesus Bomb?

The protests in San Francisco proved that the peacenik universe is expanding

Watching Big Brother

Volunteers monitor round two of Ashcroft’s “special registration” program

Following the Flags in San Francisco

The Shrinking Saddam

Bush blows off CIA report that cites higher risks from al Qaeda

Naturellement

Axis of Insanity

George, the war’s history

Behind Bush

Those “wag the dog” Democrats

Heart and Seoul

Strange and wondrous kimchi in Koreatown