The Balkans

Winner of Lay's Potato Chip Flavor Contest: Cheesy Garlic Bread

It's official: America loves cheesy garlic bread over Sriracha and chicken 'n' waffles. At least in potato chip form. Lay's announced Wisconsin native Karen Weber-Mendham's flavor as the winner in its "Do Us a Flavor" contest on Monday. The contest in one form or another has been around since last s ... More >>

There Are Three Incredibly Geeky Conventions in L.A. This Weekend

If you're looking to relive television shows from the '70s through the '90s and profess your fandom for long-forgotten action heroes, this weekend offers a bevy of conventions to satisfy your inner geek.

The Coarse Acting Show and Dirty Filthy Love Story, Reviewed

Disney's Latest Princess, Sofia, Is Latina!?

Updated below. Um. Maybe she's not Latina after all. First posted at 2:04 p.m. Oct. 18. Disney has a black princess (Tiana, from New Orleans -- yeah), a native American one (Pocahontas) and an Asian one (Mulan). But, until now, America's largest minority group has been shut out of this me-to pagea ... More >>

Handbags of Ostrich, Crocodile, Elephant Skin Seized at LAX

Kate Spade. Chanel. Hermes. Girls got to have their four-figure designer handbags these days. But ostrich, stingray, crocodile and elephant skin purses? Maybe some ladies are taking the high-end handbag trend a little too far. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said today that they have seized sev ... More >>

Three Horses Die in Stable Fire in Unincorporated South L.A.

Three horses and one goat died in a stable fire in the unincorporated Athens area of South Los Angeles last night, according to the L.A. Fire Department. What were horse stables doing in such an urban area (right around the corner from the Rio Gentlemen's Club)? It's not clear. We found a Google Ma ... More >>

Los Angeles Film Festival 2012: International Showcase

Los Angeles Film Festival 2012: Summer Showcase

Murder on Montana Ave.

Was LAUSD teacher Sasha Merman slain to hide Daniel Becerril's greed?

Barbarians Destroy Broadway

Ashley Huizenga on Sex, Starvation, and Art

Our music feature this week focuses on Ashley Huizenga, an L.A. musician and performance artist known for her academic-minded -- and also quite flithy -- shows under the guise of her alter ego Actually Huizenga. Trained as a classical pianist, she creates epic '80s inspired dance scores that featur ... More >>

Attenberg Review

33rd Annual L.A. Weekly Theater Awards

L.A. Members of Congress Paid Hundreds of Thousands in Campaign Cash to Themselves, Relatives

You contributed cash to your favorite U.S. representative's campaign, hoping he'd use the money to fight the good fight and knockout his foe. But in many cases a lot of that money is going to "babysitters, five-star hotels in Athens, six-figure salaries for candidates' family members and thousands ... More >>

Food News Roundup: Greece's "Potato Movement," 60 Cool People Homemade Booze

The Guardian: In Greece, consumers save money by buying straight from farmers. It's called the "potato movement." The Daily Meal: The 60 "coolest" chefs, restaurateurs, bartenders, farmers and food writers. Plus a food performance artist (think cheese block sculptures; a room stuffed with cotton c ... More >>

Kevin Barnes: Of Montreal's Front Man Is Depressed

It's no secret that some of the most creative and talented artists have also harbored intense feelings of anxiety and depression. (See Whitney Houston.) Kevin Barnes, lead singer of Athens-based indie rock group Of Montreal, has managed to channel his depression in to spontaneous whirlwhinds of cr ... More >>

The Great Greek

Aliki's Greek Taverna: Lemon Potatoes

When we visited Greece at the age of 20, we ate well without spending much. There were nests of fried smelts piled around puddles of skordalia. There was blistered octopus served next to the foil-wrapped brick that once smashed it against the grill's grate. There were yellow loaves of dense-crumb ... More >>

Who Could Ask for Anything Más?

The Whistleblower Review

Cookbook Review: Saveur's Got The New Comfort Food Down

​Yes, we know we are supposed to be at the farmers market cooing over those Blenheim apricots meant to be slowly savored and imagining the simple tomato-basil salads that will satisfy us after just a few bites with their intense summer flavors. But even this time of year, some nights all we re ... More >>

EXCLUSIVE: Megadeth's Dave Mustaine On Embracing the Big 4 and Finally Getting Over Metallica

Stephanie CabralFlame-haired shredder Dave Mustaine and Megadeth​ Of all the musicians onstage at Saturday's epic Big 4 Festival of thrash, Dave Mustaine arrives with the most complicated history. He is an essential figure within this loud-fast genre of metal, and the originator of a certain ... More >>

Geeky on the Radio

Do You Know What 'Austerity' Means? 250,000 People Searching Merriam-Webster.Com In 2010 Sure Didn't

How does a musty old dictionary business stay relevant in the age of Spell Check, auto-correct and the all-important educated guess? Zimbio"Austerity" in Greek? Why don't you go search it or something​In the case of Merriam-Webster this year, the answer was to track all online free-dictionary ... More >>

Sofia Coppola: Lost at the Chateau Marmont

From party girl to Oscar winner, a journey to the stripped-down Somewhere

Grouplove Relocates to Los Angeles, Releases Free MP3

A Little Grouplove Feels So Good [MP3]

Gladys Bloodworth, Jeremy Bloodworth, L.A. Homicides No. 209, No. 210: Mother And Son Shot To Death At Home In South L.A.

Google Maps​A black woman and her son, who were fatally shot on Thursday, Oct. 21, have been identified as 64-year-old Gladys Bloodworth and 25-year-old Jeremy Bloodworth. The shooting took place at about 2:30 a.m. in their single-story home at 12613 South Harvard Boulevard in unincorporated A ... More >>

Tonight: Phosphorescent, Villagers, Jesca Hoop, Midnight Juggernauts, Polls, Twin Sister

Sebastian MlynarskiPhosphorescent​Good things some to those who ... make good music? Ah, it'd warm our blog band-besotted cackles if it were always so. But there is a happy story to tell about Phosphorescent, the Brooklyn-based, Athens, Ga.-born alt-country band who this spring released the t ... More >>

You Wear Eyes On Your Ears: Cracked Eye Earrings

​This week's Etsy Weirdness of the Week: cracked eye earrings. Lots of people wear those "evil eye" amulets to ward off evil, but this particular execution seems especially disconcerting. Why are they eyes? Why are they cracked? Did the person cry too much, thus resulting in dried out eyelids? ... More >>

The Thursday Edition: A Roundup of Newspaper Food Stories

SapphireBlue22stack of newspapers​What's the country reading today food-wise? Here's a roundup of some of the food-related stories from other newspapers, many of which print their food sections mid-week. And remember, even if you don't actually buy papers these days (or not; this paper is free ... More >>

Is Your Olive Oil Really Extra Virgin? U.S. Called a "Dumping Ground for Cheap Olive Oil"

Flickr/Kevan"Extra virgin" olive oil may contain safflower, canola or peanut oil--and there's nothing you can do about it.​BP isn't the only disreputable oil company in the United States. Apparently there are no rules regulating olive oil here. Which means that purveyors can sell consumers any ... More >>

Momed Explores the Eastern Mediterranean

Momed, the new Mediterranean restaurant in Beverly Hills, was lucky. It inherited a wood burning oven from the previous occupant, the Italian restaurant Rosti. And so you can have Turkish flatbreads straight from that oven with such toppings as oven-roasted wild mushrooms, akawi cheese and broccoli ... More >>

Restrepo: Film Is a Battlefield

Journalist-filmmakers go to war

L.A. Council Once Again Puts Off Tough Choices

​Surprise, surprise. The Los Angeles City Council on Friday put off a vote on the city's budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, opting instead to issue dire warnings while threatening to finally make a move on Monday that could result in hundreds of job cuts. City Hall is facing $585 ... More >>

George F. Will Compares City Of L.A.'s Economic Situation To That Of Greece

Newsweek​Fiscal conservative and widely read author George F. Will is comparing the city of Los Angeles' economic situation to that of Greece, the debt-ridden European Union nation that many believed touched off last week's roller-coaster stock-market ride. Will makes his comments in a piece f ... More >>

Plate Spinnings: Listings From the Past Week

Some food for thought from local, national and international news sources from this past week: --Portrait of the Food Trucker as a Young Man. [Time] --I'll have a slice of cheese with pigs-in-a-blanket crust, please. Ketchup and maple on the side. [This is Freaking Ridiculous] --Hesperia's Banan ... More >>

Phoenix Frontman Scores Sweetie Sofia Coppola's New 'Ferraris and Los Angeles' Flick

The Freewheelin' Thomas & Sofia​Phoenix's frontman Thomas Mars is domestic-partnered to OG hipster director Sofia Coppola. Sofia is about to release a new movie, Somewhere, where she most certainly downscaled the period-piece ambitions of Marie Antoinette. Mars, riding high on a wave of critic ... More >>

Pregnancy-Related Deaths Have Tripled In California

​The number of women who have died from complications related to their pregnancies has tripled from 1996 to 2006, California Watch is reporting. Two possible reasons: An increase in cesarean sections and a growing number of overweight moms-to-be. Just as intriguing: The state Department of He ... More >>

The Wednesday Edition: A Roundup of Today's Newspaper Food Stories

SapphireBlue22stack of newspapers​What's the country reading today food-wise? Here's a roundup of some of the food-related stories from other newspapers, many of which print their food sections on Wednesday. And remember, even if you don't actually buy papers these days (or not; this paper is ... More >>

WE DON'T NEED ANOTHER GYRO

HACKNEYED AND ACNED

Rated "G" For Globalization

As earlier noted, the 2009 Berlin Film Festival opened with a Hollywood movie (The International), directed by Germany's own Tom Tykwer and filmed in a half-dozen countries around the world, then continued with a French movie (In the Electric Mist) made in the U.S.A. with dialogue spoken in regional ... More >>

Berlin Film Festival: Rated "G" For Globalization

As earlier noted, the 2009 Berlin Film Festival opened with a Hollywood movie (The International), directed by Germany's own Tom Tykwer and filmed in a half-dozen countries around the world, then continued with a French movie (In the Electric Mist) made in the U.S.A. with dialogue spoken in regional ... More >>

JOURNALISM'S DEAD-- LET'S LEAVE TOWN!

It Must Be Belly, ‘Cuz Jam Don't Shake Like That

Sissystrata

Top gymnasts show their stuff

Bosnia’s Big Mac

Kosovo Conundrum

The Collective Confusion of American Progressives