True Blood

Alexander Woo, a Playwright Who Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the 'Idiot Box'

Why Be a Playwright in L.A.? 5 Writers Share their Reasons

The pay stinks. Hollywood is more glamorous (and pays more). And Broadway is 3,000 miles away. So why be a playwright in L.A.? That's the question posed by our theater issue this year, which comes out just in time for our theater awards on Monday. Check out Steven Leigh Morris' main story in the i ... More >>

Low Cut Connie Is the Coolest Critically Lauded Band That You've Never Heard Of

Low Cut Connie is a band that basically defies all laws about how a band is supposed to make it in 2013. I know this because instead of sending me a CD or asking me to review a show, the duo's singer took me out to lunch and invited my band to open for them. Combustible frontman/upright pianist Ada ... More >>

Winter is Brewing: Game of Thrones Brewery Ommegang to Release Beer

First True Blood got it's own drink, now comes news that HBO's newest action-packed hit Game of Thrones will be getting its own signature beverage, with some help from New York-based craft beermaker Brewery Ommegang. According to The New York Times, the first beer will called the "Iron Throne Blon ... More >>

Luci Romberg Is the Queen of Freerunning, an Extreme Sport That's Like Running But More Awesome

Luci Romberg is practicing corkscrews over a blue gymnastics mat on a sweltering day. Most of the other 16 members of Team Tempest are here at the gym, too, also rehearsing methods of launching themselves airborne: flipping off ledges, leaping between walls, vaulting off foam blocks. They're rar ... More >>

Bed Bugs Reported at L.A. Central Library

See also: "Report: Los Angeles Now Has More Bed Bugs Than New York" and "Women Surprised to Find Bed Bugs at $62 Glendale Motel, Sue." At least two bed bugs have been spotted at L.A. Central Library in the last month -- one on August 9, crawling across a reference desk in the Science & Technology D ... More >>

Season's Greetings

See also: "Report: Los Angeles Now Has More Bed Bugs Than New York" and "Women Surprised to Find Bed Bugs at $62 Glendale Motel, Sue." At least two bed bugs have been spotted at L.A. Central Library in the last month -- one on August 9, crawling across a reference desk in the Science & Technology D ... More >>

Top 5 Pop Culture Snacks at Comic-Con 2012

Because it's like Wimbledon for weird shit, because man cannot subsist on breakfast burritos alone, because there's three months allowance burning holes in pockets, and because shuffling laps around the San Diego convention center in an homemade Iron Man suit will work up a mighty appetite (even if ... More >>

Cats For Cats

Because it's like Wimbledon for weird shit, because man cannot subsist on breakfast burritos alone, because there's three months allowance burning holes in pockets, and because shuffling laps around the San Diego convention center in an homemade Iron Man suit will work up a mighty appetite (even if ... More >>

Hollywood's Favorite Haunted Hospital Is Being Flipped Into $40M Old Folks' Home

Even the handiest of set designers would be hard-pressed to recreate the years of organic decay that have made Linda Vista Community Hospital into the ultimate film set -- streaks on the walls, peeling paint, broken pipes, the occasional stray syringe. (Mixed in with some Hollywood props, left behin ... More >>

Top 10 Weirdest Stores in Los Angeles

Looking for a book about the Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society? Perhaps you need a Jolly Roger doormat for the house. Maybe you just want to pick up some time-travel sickness pills, a spray-bottle of barbarian repellant or a few fresh dinosaur eggs before you blast to the past. Whatever yo ... More >>

Improv Comedian E.J. Scott Will Run the L.A. Marathon (and 11 Other Marathons) Blindfolded

There is rain the forecast this weekend, and that makes E.J. Scott nervous. He is supposed to run the 26.2-mile Los Angeles Marathon, a task that usually takes him five and a half hours. Exposure to the elements for that long is enough to make anyone a little anxious, but Scott is more worried the r ... More >>

"Game of Thrones"-Inspired Fire & Ice Cocktail: A Recipe for the Golden Globes

HBO is hosting its 10th annual Luxury Lounge at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills on January 13-14 to ply the stars of its hit shows, plus all of the Golden Globes nominees who deign to show up, with gifts, services and booze. Basil Hayden's Bourbon, one of the event's sponsors, asked hot L.A. mixol ... More >>

Dan Rebert, Maker of Monsters for True Blood and More

HBO's True BloodIt's all just rubber and plastic.​Dan Rebert's job is the stuff of nightmares -- literally. As the makeup effects producer for Masters FX studio, he and his team have created ghosts and goblins and creatures mutated larger-than-life for television shows, such as True Blood and ... More >>

Top 11 Fashion Trends of 2011

Lina Lecaro ​The barrage of blogs tallying the year in trends and fashion has begun, and of course, we are totally participating. We do it every year, after all. And while we try to note the obvious, we also strive to call out the stuff you're not likely to see on the other blogs, stuff we no ... More >>

Top 5 Halloween Treats for the Kid-At-Heart

​No matter how you slice it, Halloween brings out the sweet tooth in all of us. Sure, you can raid your kid's bag for something sweet, or grab that family-size bag of Kit Kats at Target (you feel the pull, whether you're giving out candy or not), plenty of local restaurants, bakeries and confe ... More >>

MAKE US LAUGH, FUNNY BOY!

ALEC MAPA

Bring on More Bad Boys Who Suck

ALEC MAPA

A Cure for the Monday Funk

ALEC MAPA

Music Picks: Nicole Eva Emery, Hard NYE, Peter and the Wolf,

Also, Jesus Makes the Shotgun Sound, Octavius, Cosmologic and others

Betty White: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Betty 365​ Octogenarian Betty White was the unofficial "it" girl of 2010, proving that old is the new young. For the Golden Girls/Betty White fan in your life, thank your friend for being a friend (cue the theme song) with these last-minute, better-than-cheesecake holiday gift ideas. Hoodie ... More >>

13 Badass Bob Cut Girls: Quorra, Aeon Flux & Other Short-Haired Antiheroes

​ Why is it that every time they need an edgy, bad-ass, anti-hero-type chick, they stick her in a skintight bodysuit and a bob cut? Presented here are a baker's dozen of pop-culture's greatest bob cut women. An homage, if you will, to the hairstyle preferred by little girls, dominatrixes and f ... More >>

NIGHTRANGER: Monster's Ball

​ Why is it that every time they need an edgy, bad-ass, anti-hero-type chick, they stick her in a skintight bodysuit and a bob cut? Presented here are a baker's dozen of pop-culture's greatest bob cut women. An homage, if you will, to the hairstyle preferred by little girls, dominatrixes and f ... More >>

We Met Outside The Mummy Ride: The Best Of Halloween Weekend's 'Missed Connections'

PHOTO BY NICHOLE O'CONNORDon't be fooled -- he's as lonely as Mark Zuckerberg​The only thing harder than making a lasting connection in L.A. is making a lasting connection when you can't recognize the person the next day. In the tradition of our sister news blog at the Village Voice, we've be ... More >>

THE HORROR!

PHOTO BY NICHOLE O'CONNORDon't be fooled -- he's as lonely as Mark Zuckerberg​The only thing harder than making a lasting connection in L.A. is making a lasting connection when you can't recognize the person the next day. In the tradition of our sister news blog at the Village Voice, we've be ... More >>

Former Saved By the Bell Star Joins Jack Nicholson in Rocky Horror Picture Show Tribute (a.k.a. The Greatest Thing Ever to Happen to Mario Lopez)

myprettyrose/Photobucket​Some serious stars have aligned to pay tribute to the 35th anniversary of cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show this month at the Wiltern. On October 28th, Jack Nicholson will lead a cast of movie reenactors including Danny Devito, Billy Idol, Evan Rachel Wood of ... More >>

Stage Raw: Loveland

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSTheater Feature on La Razon Blindada and A Wolf Inside the Fence and NEW REVIEW GO LOVELAND ​Photo by Leland Auslender What a rare experience it is, when a character that's as maniacal, sexually overheated and as transparently off the rails as a ... More >>

Titus Andronicus

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSTheater Feature on La Razon Blindada and A Wolf Inside the Fence and NEW REVIEW GO LOVELAND ​Photo by Leland Auslender What a rare experience it is, when a character that's as maniacal, sexually overheated and as transparently off the rails as a ... More >>

Theater Reviews: Titus Andronicus, Debbie Reynolds: Alive and Fabulous

Also, The Phantom of the Opera, State of the Union and more

Stage Raw: Take Me Out

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSTheater Feature on Tim Robbins' Break the WhipNEW REVIEW GO TAKE ME OUT ​Photo by Michael Calas Baseball star Darren Leming (Ary Katz), the central figure in Richard Greenberg's provocative 2002 comedy-drama, is a paragon of talent, skill and vi ... More >>

Cambodian Pop Freaks Dengue Fever Sign to Concord, Pick Up 'Jeopardy' and 'True Blood' Nods

Dengue Fever appear (in name) on "Jeopardy!"​The last L.A. indie band to get featured on Jeopardy! wound up going to the Grammys. That was Silversun Pickups last May, of course, and now it seems the Cambodian-Angeleno weird-pop ensemble, Dengue Fever, has earned that rare gameshow designatio ... More >>

Ever Get the Feeling You've Been Conned?

The search for authenticity at Comic-Con 2010

HOW DARK IS YOUR LOVE?

The search for authenticity at Comic-Con 2010

Picks from San Diego Comic-Con's Friday Schedule: Adult Swim, Yo Gabba Gabba!, Archer and More

Friday, June 23 is Star Wars Day at San Diego Comic-Con. Bring a lightsaber. SDCC announced its Friday schedule this morning. Even if you're one of the few that isn't into Star Wars, there will be plenty to do. Here are our picks from the schedule. Feel free to leave your own in the comment section. ... More >>

IMPROV AT ITS BEST

Friday, June 23 is Star Wars Day at San Diego Comic-Con. Bring a lightsaber. SDCC announced its Friday schedule this morning. Even if you're one of the few that isn't into Star Wars, there will be plenty to do. Here are our picks from the schedule. Feel free to leave your own in the comment section. ... More >>

Music Picks: Neil Innes, Korean Music Festival 8, Avi Buffalo, Lupe Fiasco, Coheed and Cambria

Also, No Age, Sheila E & the Escovedo Family, Greg Laswell and others

THE FANG'LL COME OUT GOMORRAH

Also, No Age, Sheila E & the Escovedo Family, Greg Laswell and others

Good Friday? Try GREAT Friday!

Also, No Age, Sheila E & the Escovedo Family, Greg Laswell and others

Fang Fever

Also, No Age, Sheila E & the Escovedo Family, Greg Laswell and others