University of California-Berkeley

Blaak Heat Shujaa: Desert Rockers

Paris is considered one of the most romantic cities in the world. But guitarist/vocalist Thomas Bellier and bassist Antoine Morel-Vulliez -- co-founders of psych-rock outfit Blaak Heat Shujaa -- had no problems high-tailing it out of there for Los Angeles in 2010. "Paris is the most fucking borin ... More >>

Traffic Experts Crap All Over Eric Garcetti's Million-Dollar Gridlock Prize

At Thursday's mayoral debate, Councilman Eric Garcetti suggested offering a $1 million prize to whoever can solve L.A.'s traffic problems.You might think that traffic experts would be excited about that. But you would be wrong."The solution to L.A.'s traffic problem is a political issue," said Marti ... More >>

The Top 3 Ways Restaurants Can Raise Their Yelp Rating

This week, I was on a panel at the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference in San Francisco. The panel was about restaurant criticism in the age of Yelp, and one of my fellow panelists was Morgan Remmers, Yelp's Manager of Local Business Outreach. The issue of how restaurateur ... More >>

Dream Act, Drivers Licenses for Illegals Opposed by Majority of Californians

The California Dream Act, which gives undocumented people who came to the United States as children in-state tuition at state colleges, isn't favored by a majority of California voters. Neither is the renewed drive to let illegal immigrants obtain California drivers licenses. That doesn't mean you ... More >>

Is Ok to Spoof the Dead? Comedy Writer Jim Earl's Book Mourning Remembrance Tries It

It is said that one shouldn't speak ill of the dead. No proverb, however, seems to proscribe writing about the dead with a dark, cutting sense of humor and a jaundiced appraisal of their worldly accomplishments. Mourning Remembrance: A Collection of Mocking Obituaries Ripped From the Headlines is t ... More >>

Lalo Alcaraz: Most Mexcellent

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here. Shortly after it was revealed that Mitt Romney's father was born in Mexico, a mysterious alter ego cropped up on Twitter: Mexican Mitt Romney (@MexicanMitt), who wears a huge s ... More >>

What's a Hyperopera? Avant-Garde Director Yuval Sharon Shows Us

A funny thing happened to Yuval Sharon on his way to a planned career as a film director. While studying at UC Berkeley, he decided to go to the opera. The production was Wozzeck by Alban Berg. To prepare, he listened to a recording at home and found his imagination fired by Berg's searing, atonal c ... More >>

Texting While Driving Could be Federal Crime Soon

The federal government has been getting all up in your business lately. One federal whistle blower last year said he believes the National Security Agency is storing all our emails. You know, just in case. And President Obama recently flip-flopped on medical marijuana, saying flat out that pot busin ... More >>

William Hung Speaks, Fresh Off Being Crowned The Greatest Musician Of All Time, In Any Genre

​See also: Top 20 Musicians of All Time, In Any Genre: The Complete List Last week we crowned former American Idol contestant William Hung the greatest musician of all time, in any genre, beating out luminaries including Beethoven, the Beatles, Michael Jackson and Guido D'Arezzo, the guy who ... More >>

Constantinos Sioutas, USC Professor, Helps Save Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper From Decay

​Italian officials who wanted to find out how they were doing in their quest to save Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper from five centuries of decay knew just where to turn: USC professor Constantinos Sioutas. An expert on the huge effects of tiny particles in the air, Sioutas coauthored thi ... More >>

Steve Cooley, L.A.'s District Attorney, Vows to Prosecute Criminals Back to Prison Despite Inmate Reduction Plan

Save Sessions LA

Billy CalderonColby Evans, one of Sessions LA's producers​Eighteen-year-old Argento Zavala (not his real name) became homeless this summer. After an argument with his mother, he got kicked out of the house. He'd been exposed to drugs since he was in 8th grade, but he began a new daily routine: ... More >>

Faces of Occupy L.A.: The Student, the Actor, the Addict, the Vet

Walking through the tent city out front L.A. City Hall last night, spirits were high. A man in a ragged suit balanced on a fire hydrant, waving a sign with "Join us, don't be scared!" magic-markered in Spanish. Another man, in dreads, lit up some sage on the lawn next to him. Little kids with "99 p ... More >>

Torpedoed Science

Huntington Park High School Becomes Guinea Pig for Radical LAUSD Reform: 50 Percent of Teachers to Get the Boot

Huntington Park High School Alumni Association​Updated after the jump: Hundreds of Huntington High students walk the four miles to LAUSD headquarters to fight for their teachers. Here's where the reform debate gets sticky. Usually, teacher cuts can be blamed on the recession -- but these are ... More >>

Torpedoing a Top Science Program

Low-income Lawndale kids were getting into elite colleges. But the adults went to war

USC, UCLA Muggles -- Broomsticks in Crotch -- Prepare for 'Largest Quidditch Event Ever to Occur West of the Mississippi' This Weekend

Trojans vs. Bruins, for the snitch! (Really though.)​Updated after the jump: USC's quidditch captain tells us his team has fewer players than UCLA (shocker), so their chances are slim. He also shares with us the plight of the HUMAN SNITCH. This just keeps getting better. Holy nerdball. We've ... More >>

DUI Checkpoints Net 17,419 Cars, Mostly From Illegal Immigrants, Last Year in Calif: LAPD Leads The State With 1,008 Impounds

Alex ThompsonAfter your car in 2010?​Cops called it the "Year of the Checkpoint" in California. But it might as well have been called the Year of Taking Your Car. Because, while the number of DUI checkpoints in fiscal 2010 was double that of 2009, there were six cars impounded for every one D ... More >>

Lieutenant Governor of Paper Clips

Janice Hahn, a product of the L.A. City Council, hopes to be a heartbeat away from governor of California

Jason Shiga's Meanwhile Lets You Choose Your Own Adventure

Tonight at 6 p.m., cartoonist Jason Shiga will be signing his latest book, Meanwhile, at GR2. Written as a "choose your own adventure" story, there are 3,856 different possibilities within the graphic novel. Check out this matrix Shiga built for the story. ​ An award winning cartoonist, Shig ... More >>

Like a Rainbow in Curved Air: An Interview with Terry Riley

Legendary composer-performer Terry Riley is the creator of such groundbreaking "Minimalist" works as In C, A Rainbow In Curved Air, Poppy Nogood and, with the Kronos Quartet, decidedly un-Minimalist works as Cadenza on the Night Plain and Salome Dances for Peace. He'll perform solo and in collabora ... More >>

High City Official Andrew Adelman in Rape Investigation

The LAPD search warrant didn't mince words. It stated that shortly after a July 10 pub crawl involving Andrew Adelman​half a dozen friends and acquaintances had begun near downtown's Music Center, a woman in the group blacked out and hours later "woke up naked in bed." That wouldn't be the end of ... More >>

Great Beginnings: An Obama Camelot?

Historical allusions cling to Barack Obama and they usually compare the president-elect with Lincoln or FDR. Not a few writers have drawn parallels between Obama and John F. Kennedy, which, together with this pre-inaugural season, have reminded me of how the late David Halberstam had opened his Vie ... More >>

Feed Me! Carnivorous Plants and the Bloody-Fingered People Who Love Them

"Theoretically you could raise a plant entirely on human blood . . . "

La Bohème: Opera Everlasting

Teeming with life, this Puccini work retains its appeal

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

Also this week's pick, Colma: The Musical

Looking for Mr. Begley

Earth Day in L.A.

Canyon Lady

Legendary experimental filmmaker Chick Strand, vital and vibrant at 75

Jersey Girl

Rachel Pally’s fashion for all

The Imageers

Science shows its (new) visual side

Arnold’s Faltering

The governor spends $5 million on TV ads trying to win back public favor

The Girl and The Fury

Frame This!

Will George Lakoff’s linguistic ideas help Democrats regain the White House . . . or are they just the progressive flip side to conservative Luntzspeak?

Dissing the Republic To Save It

A conversation with Chalmers Johnson

Capitol Gains

10 points to usher in the Arnold regime

Letters

Recall's Side Effects

The frantic push to get a health insurance bill to Davis in what could be his final days in office

Four, Five, Six

Who Should Die?

Blinded by the Fight

The miseducation of David Brock, snot-faced warrior for the right

Changing Lanes

The Clampdown

Teenagers are better than ever. So why are we treating them like criminals?

This Is the End

American History 101

Bad News

L.A.'s Low-Definition TV Journalism

Stageworks

Breaking into L.A. theater on, off and around the stage

Letters

The World in a Box

Conclusion of a Three-part Series

Weapons of Mass Distraction

U.S. arms dealing leads Project Censored’s list of the Top 10 underreported stories of 1997