University of California-Santa Barbara

What Music Do Immigrant Janitors Listen To? And Other Questions at L.A.'s EMP Conference

The Seattle-based EMP Pop Conference -- Shangri-La for music nerds -- has this year split into five regional ones, and the Los Angeles incarnation starts tonight. Musicians, scholars, and music writers from all over Southern California will discuss and debate, with specific focus on everything from ... More >>

Francisco Solorio: Shark Attack Death At Surf Beach Near Santa Barbara

Updated at the bottom with the victim's ID. Headline has changed. First posted at 1:10 p.m. Tuesday. A man was killed in a shark attack today off Surf Beach in Santa Barbara County, a sheriff's official told the Weekly. A Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman told us the beach is off Vand ... More >>

Centri Coffee: A New Roast-To-Order Coffee Purveyor

Even with a dizzying number of farmers markets on our home turf, Dillon Miskiewicz epitomizes why produce and pantry road trips are so gratifying. His Centri Coffee stand is tucked near the end of a winding maze of produce and sundries at the Sunday Ojai Farmers Market. There, you will find bags of ... More >>

Caltech is World's Best University; UCLA Ranks 13

Los Angeles: Home of the Playboy Bunny, Ashton Kutcher and pet spas. This we all know. But who knew that our town is where the smartest nerds in the world get their degrees on? It's true. According to the latest World University Rankings by Times Higher Education in the UK ...

Santa Barbara Never Tasted So Good: Epicure.sb in October

Two crates of Pinot Blanc grapes have arrived at Margerum Wine Company on Industrial Way in Buellton. Owner Doug Margerum and winemaker Jason Barrette are excited about the delivery; the lull between the white and red grape harvests has made it quieter than usual. A group of wine enthusiasts has tra ... More >>

UCLA Ties USC in Annual U.S. News & World Report College Rankings

UCLA is, frankly, the nerdier, more scholastic of the two crosstown rivals in Los Angeles (just look at USC's recent accolade of a top hipster college). But in recent years USC has outranked the Westwood school in U.S. News & World Report's annual battle of American academia, called "Best Colleges ... More >>

Art Students Blow Up the Blue Whale

Varun Soni: The Real Spirit of Troy

One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here. When he was named dean of religious life at USC, Varun Soni became the first Hindu in American history to serve such a role. Even today, four years later, he's the only non-Chr ... More >>

Researchers Study How to Carry Coffee Without Spilling

"In our busy lives, almost all of us have to walk with a cup of coffee. While often we spill the drink, this familiar phenomenon has never been explored systematically." And so begins the abstract for a paper entitled, "Walking with Coffee: Why Does It Spill?" in which researchers in the Department ... More >>

Comedian Moshe Kasher's Memoir Kasher In The Rye: 'I Was Violent. I Was Sexist. I Was a Pig.'

To say Moshe Kasher had a tumultuous upbringing would be an understatement at best. The 32-year-old comedian and author now appears regularly on E!'s Chelsea Lately and his clean-cut look, slicked back hair with thick black glasses, appears to dispel the notion of any momentous regrets. But Kasher I ... More >>

Is Rick Santorum Gay? New Study Says Homophobes May Dig the Same Sex

Do you hate gays and lesbians with all your heart and soul? We've got news for you: a new scientific report says you may actually have same-sex desires yourself. Does this mean that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is gay? Hmmmmmm... Conducted by a research team from the University o ... More >>

Cindy Reyna, Model and UC Santa Barbara Student, Faces Deportation

Updated at the bottom: She was arrested on suspicion of DUI. First posted at 1:58 p.m. Immigrants' rights activists are coming to the aid of Cindy Reyna, a UC Santa Barbara student and sometime model who they say was arrested and now faces deportation despite being a potential DREAM Act student. T ... More >>

Sean Flynn and Jon-Kane McCullough, Venice High Grads, Arrested for Attempted Murder in Party Town of Isla Vista

Two young regulars around Venice have been arrested for attempted murder in Isla Vista, a small party town adjacent to UC Santa Barbara. Jon-Kane McCullough, 19, and Sean Flynn, 21, were tracked down in their hometown -- a joint operation between the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department and th ... More >>

Campaign to Ban the Word 'Awesome' Launched by L.A. Poet, Echo Park Bookstore

Local poet John Tottenham hates the word "awesome." Not in that passive, party-annoyed sense where he's like, please stop being so dull, you overstoked American, or there's a small possibility I'll float away and start talking to somebody else, soonish. Nope. Tottenham, who's an L.A. transplant fro ... More >>

Paul Zak: How Do You Medulla?

Q & A With Municipal Winemakers' Dave Potter: On Surfing, Sourcing Grape Stigmas His New Tasting Room

JGarbee Potter In The Former Scuba Shop That Will Become His Tasting Room​If you need an excuse to for a coastal drive, winemaker Dave Potter is your man. He is the face behind Santa Barbara-based Municipal Winemakers, a small but mighty 600 cases per year operation that he tends to between ba ... More >>

Freebirds World Burrito to Open in Marina del Rey

​Freebirds, known for its 7-pound Super Monster burrito, will open its second L.A.-area location on May 20th. Unlike the first one, which opened back in January near USC and drew heavily on the university's students for its customer base, the newest Freebirds is going into The Shoppes at Marin ... More >>

Kiplinger's best value colleges: UCLA makes the list

​Several University of California schools are among the nation's best deals and offer the most bang for the buck. According to Kiplinger's annual list of the 100 best bargains among the country's public colleges, no UC school makes the top ten, but several do make the cut. Which ones, you ask?

Freebirds Expands To USC: 7-Pound Burritos For All

Foodforfel via FlickrFreebirds nachos​Freebirds, known for its bulging burritos (the Super Monster weighs in at 7 pounds), nachos, and salads -- all custom made from a row of over 40 ingredients -- is expanding to USC, and 16 locations throughout California. A staple for UC Santa Barbara stude ... More >>

Extrapolation Exercise of the Day: Female Rats Prefer Cocaine to Actual Food

A. ScattergoodPSA: This is Turkish delight, not cocaine​ If you spent a lot of time in college dorms in the 80s, the results of a new University of California, Santa Barbara, study won't come as too much of a surprise. Earlier this week, scientists reported at the annual Society for Neuroscie ... More >>

Shark Attack Turns Deadly After 20-Year-Old UC Santa Barbara Student Bleeds To Death At Surf Beach

​A UCSB body-boarder minding his own business just off the Vandenberg Air Force Base this morning had his leg bitten off by a shark, the Santa Maria Times reports. The unidentified 20-year-old was pulled to shore by his friend, who was surfing nearby (except on a surfboard, like a normal pers ... More >>

Tinga Opens on La Brea

N. GalutenInside Tinga on La Brea​ This past Friday, Tinga, a new, casual Mexican restaurant, opened its doors on La Brea Avenue. It is the first sit-down endeavor for Chris and Jerry Baker, the husband-and-wife team who also run catering company The Food Matters. As the story goes, Jerry was ... More >>

Adam Cooper: The Mayor's Twitterer

I Love Rock & Roll (Movies): The Nightranger's Guide to LA Band-dom On Film

[Lina Lecaro writers our amazing Nightranger column every week. Check out her explorations of LA nightlife here.] With The Runaways bringing rock n' roll to movie theaters this week (see a report from the premiere here), we've been thinking about our favorite band n' beat packed films lately. Docum ... More >>

Man on Man: The New Gay Romance ...

... written by and for straight women

South Coast MLPA Proposals May Impact Area Chefs

Your favorite Santa Barbara spot prawn dish, like Michael Cimarusti's signature salt-roasted ones at his Melrose Avenue restaurant Providence, may be a thing of the past if the most extreme versions of the South Coast Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) proposals pass. Local uni may be harder to get ... More >>

When a Black Man Sees Himself Through White Eyes

That sweet spot

Ladies Love Gay Male Porn

SXSW Flashback: Interview With Del Tha Funky Homosapien

It was my third night in Austin. Devin had just blazed through an epic set that had been celebrated in the appropriate fashion , El-P was currently on-stage and I was wandering around the Def Jux party with four cups of Jack in my stomach, a head full of smoke and the strange desire to approach p ... More >>

The Slow Death of a Chocolate City

Geeks in the 'hood and L.A.'s black exodus

Mr. Wilson's War

Former ambassador Joseph Wilson warns the country-club crowd about the “theo-con” threat

Steeling Beauty

Richard Serra’s advance party

Man-Made Reefs or Oily Eyesores?

In a raging debate, some say Mother Nature has warmed to California’s offshore oil rigs

UCLA's Black Shadow

The Liberated Chicano

Rodolfo Acuña

Polished Diamond

Schooling the Schools

At South Gate, and elsewhere, ambitious students demand more from LAUSD

Byrne, Baby, Byrne!

Give Us Back Our Damn Flag

The leftist case for patriotism

A Writer’s Life

Jervey Tervalon on pootbutts, knuckleheads and contemporary literary fiction

Queers in the Military

Ten years later, the casualties of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” may be nearing an end

Brain Worlds

Hawking, Derrida and living with the other

Bill’s Gong Show

The art of Kraft

Sound and Beyond

The music of art, the art of music

The Noise of Art

Audio visuals

Synthetics

“Big Plastic,” Sean Duffy, Terri Friedman and more

Early and Often

Twenty-eight years ago, Arizona easily solved the Palm Beach County problem

Sweating It Out

UC’s ban on sweatshop products may be hard to enforce

Horse Sense

John Lofaso's equine aesthetic

Literary L.A.