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Vagina Panther, Bearstronaut, Milk Dick: Why CMJ Bands Chose Their Names

By Elliott Sharp New York's CMJ festival started yesterday and goes through Saturday. Our sister music blog at the Village Voice has complete coverage, including these funny flow-charts about which panels you should see. Most folks come for the bands, of course, and about all said bands have in ... More >>

Fuck Guilty Pleasures: John Mayer's Body of Work is a Wonderland

[Editor's Note: Fuck Guilty Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever.] John Mayer has been persecuted for years. Way back in 2003, the Village Voice mocked his music in an article called "Phal ... More >>

How to Survive a Plague Review: New Doc About AIDS Organization ACT UP

The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wiltern - 6/12/12

The Tallest Man on Earth The Wiltern 6/12/12 Better than... going to a sideshow to gawk at the actual tallest man on earth. Last night The Wiltern had assigned seating, creating a more formal setting for Kristian Matsson, aka The Tallest Man on Earth, and his intimate brand of folk music. The sta ... More >>

Voter Suppression Efforts Could Take Out Barack Obama This Fall

Crossing the Line: A Village Voice Media Special Report on Freedom Under Fire

The Best of SXSW Music: Thursday 3/15/2012

If you're familiar with chaos theory, which in its basic form is the attempt to find patterns in the random acts of shit on Earth, then you may understand the difficulty that comes with describing a full day at SXSW. To break down the bright, scintillating chaos, Village Voice Media's roving music e ... More >>

Super Bowl 2012: No Matter Who Won, Los Angeles Still Loses

Last night's Americana showdown at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis was blaring on the TV sets of 47.8 percent of the nation's households -- Los Angeles very much included. After all, we couldn't bear to be out of the loop on all the Super Bowl tweets and commercials and pop-culture commentary ... More >>

Sundance Film Festival 2012: Chris Rock Talks to Barack Obama, and Other Random Festival Notes

After eight days in Park City, I'm back in Los Angeles; the festival continues through the weekend, with the awards announced Saturday night. Here are some notes on films I didn't get a chance to write about at length. Keep an eye out for my wrap-up of the festival in next week's print edition. 2 D ... More >>

Harry Burkhart's Mother Dorothee Linked to Erotic Massage Business: Alleged L.A. Arsonist Reportedly Upset Over Her Possible Extradition

Updated at the bottom with allegations that the mom committed fraud as a member of a gang. Really. First posted at 2:08 p.m. The mother of L.A. serial arson suspect Harry Burkhart has been linked to a massage services website and to online advertisements for "body rub" services. A woman with the ... More >>

Occupy L.A. Clashes With LAPD at Midnight OWS March: Are We Next in Line for Eviction?

ABC7LAPD officers face off with protesters.​Updated at the bottom: LAPD Chief Charlie Beck is negotiating with protesters, hoping Occupy L.A. will voluntarily dismantle "without confrontation." Last night was a long one for uprooted protesters at Zuccotti Park in New York: Hundreds of cops re ... More >>

Concussions Take a Terrible Toll on America's Young Athletes

Benjamin Ring, L.A. Sheriff's Deputy, Appears in Mailer Endorsing Costly Scientology Services: Inquiry Underway

Deputy Ring, looking kind of creepy.​An L.A. County Sheriff's deputy was under internal investigation this week after he appeared in uniform in a mailer for the Church of Scientology. He appeared to be encouraging members to buy spiritual services that can cost as much as $8,000 a pop. The re ... More >>

Dr. Dre Raps on Game's The R.E.D. Album, But Do We Care?

​Confidence is key, as Compton rapper Game knows. Like our sister paper Village Voice said last week, Game (we hate that he dropped the "The") is "the ultimate company man ... he has kept admirably cool while the years pass by; instead, when asked about the delays in interviews, he responds w ... More >>

Justin Bieber's L.A. 'Never Say Never' Premiere to Be Attended by Kardashian Girls, Winners of NoHo Dance Contest (VIDEO)

2space.netAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA​OK, we admit it: We've got the fever. So do the Kardashian sisters, apparently, because they can't seem to stop Tweeting about their Valentine's Day plans to go see "Never Say Never," Justin Bieber's new biopic. Even the least-hot married one is trippin'. Borderin ... More >>

#Snowpocalypse Replaced By #SnowLoko As Official Hashtag Of New York Blizzard; Sweet Time-Lapse Video; Rare 'Thundersnow' Sighting

KOMOnews.comWhadya know -- a Snow Loko!​Hey there, New York. How's the weather? Hehe. Anywho, while we were collectively kicking it by the pool out here in Los Angeles -- half scoping Twitter for real-time updates on your misery and half gazing up at the heavens in partly-cloudy satisfaction, ... More >>

Year in Review: Top Food and Pot Stories of 2010

N. GalutenThe famed KFC dispensary, which even spawned a South Park episode​Marijuana has been in the news a lot this year. Prop 19 brought the legalization debate to the national forefront, even though it never had much of a shot at passing (despite our Governator's well-documented use during ... More >>

Tonight: My Morning Jacket, Avi Buffalo, Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, Coheed and Cambria, Porcupine Tree, Budos Band, Hot Club of Cowtown

​ My Morning Jacket, Avi Buffalo at the Greek "Of late, My Morning Jacket singer Jim James has been devoting the majority of his time to projects sporting his inexplicable Yim Yames moniker, so it's a bit of a relief to find him once again at the helm of the exceptional band that first put the ... More >>

Music Picks: BB King and Buddy Guy, Silversun Pickups, Hard Summer, W.A.C.O.

Also Lady Gaga, Frazey Ford, Whispertown 2000, Ludacris and others

Music Picks: Buzzcocks, Diana Ross, Isis, the xx

Also, Compton Metal Night, Health, Thao and Mirah

Theater Reviews: More Lies About Jerzy, Second, Supernova

Also, U.S.S. Pinafore, Den of Thieves, Man Verses Moon and more

"Seasonal Depression Was a Big Inspiration": An Interview with High Places

Katelyn Reeves​"If we lived in LA, people would be stoked," High Places Rob Barber said in an early interview. And despite lots of love for their debut album for Thrill Jockey from East Coast tastemakers like Pitchfork and the Village Voice, and from the blogosphere, soon enough, Barber and HP ... More >>

10 Headlines You Will Never See After SXSW

Craig Hlavaty"SXSW Attendee Doesn't Want That Free Beer" 1. "Random Guy With Guitar On Street Signed To Major Record Label" 2. "AT&T Makes Up For Past SXSW Coverage With Zero Dropped Calls, Lightning-Fast Connection" 3. "Wristband Holders Have Nothing But Love And Respect For Badge Holders" 4. ... More >>

East Coast Clobbers West Coast in 2009 Pazz & Jop Music Poll

Well, if you're keeping track at home, the so-called "west coast sound" got clobbered this year in the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll of the year's best music. And when we say "clobbered," we actually mean "beaten to a bloody pulp." Consider this: In the list of the top 100 albums o ... More >>

Hellfire and Camp Nation: Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures

Movie Reviews: Casi Divas, Post Grad, Shorts

Also, Earth Days, Gotta Dance and more

Los Angeles CityBeat: Final Edition

"I had a great morning today," says Los Angeles CityBeat publisher Will Swaim. "I came to work and hurled in the 'executive bathroom,' brushed my teeth and made the announcement." The announcement that Swaim made to his small staff was that the issue they had just put out would be the alternative ... More >>

Stage Raw: Don Shirley and City Beat

CLICK HERE FOR COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSThe news that L.A.'s City Beat is folding leaves the prospect of the former L.A. Times arts reporter and City Beat theater columnist/critic Don Shirley without gainful employment -- temporarily I hope. It also mutes the opinions of one of L.A. theater's m ... More >>

Notes from the Road: Yak Ballz and Kosha Dillz Survive Root Canal, Arrive at SXSW

Though I just returned to L.A. from Austin, Texas after a week working SXSW Interactive with the top players in tech and social media, it doesn't mean I'm not rocking SXSW Music in spirit. When I found out that my early return home meant I'd be missing hip hop acts like Yak Ballz, Kosha Dillz and Ca ... More >>

SXSW Life in the Lobby: Wavy Gravy and Pet Fish at the Hilton

SXSW Life in the Lobby: An L.A. Weekly Moment with Wavy GravyErin BroadleyWho: Wavy Gravy - Peace Activist, Comic, "Official Clown" of the Grateful DeadLocation: Lobby on the ground floor of the Hilton on 4th Street, across from the SXSW convention centerQuote: "You! I used to have a desk at the L.A ... More >>

Let It Rip

Another New York-only (for now) film retrospective that will, with any luck, eventually make its way West centers around the volatile, Texas-born character actor Rip Torn and, in particular, the rarely screened independent and underground cinematic experiments (including two films directed by Norman ... More >>

GO LA: Lewis Black, German Cinema, Sheryl Crow for the Congo, and more

Where to go in L.A., February 13-19

Run Naomi Run

For the next 10 days, I'll be posting regularly from the Berlin International Film Festival (a.k.a. the Berlinale), generally considered to be the second largest festival in Europe (after Cannes) and, at 59, one of the oldest. This year, the Berlinale's international competition will feature the wor ... More >>

Berlin Film Festival: Run Naomi Run

For the next 10 days, I'll be posting regularly from the Berlin International Film Festival (a.k.a. the Berlinale), generally considered to be the second largest festival in Europe (after Cannes) and, at 59, one of the oldest. This year, the Berlinale's international competition will feature the wo ... More >>

You Can't Spell Obama With B-A-M-F-O-R-D

A funny fund-raiser and other things to do this week

the Misfits

The Films of Lee Chang-Dong

2007 Film Poll: If It Bleeds, It Leads

Dark and violent movies top the year’s best. What are we — at war or something?

Elizabeth Tobias, Dear Mr. Saltz

Calls and response

Notes On Readers and Reading Comprehension

Being firm believers that a film review should only be the beginning, rather than the end, of the conversation between the critic and the moviegoer, we here at the L.A. Weekly film pages recently launched a special email account, askfilm@laweekly.com, with the intention of facilitating reader feedba ... More >>

The Critics Speak

The First Annual L.A. Weekly Film Poll

Theater 2005

The year of indignant irony and bloody machinations

Letters

Miscellaneous Works

New books from our contributors

Two Guys Walk Into a Bar . . .

Wayne White, Mixed Media

The Year in Media

I'm sorry Momma

Richard Meltzer, Noise Boy

Weekly Publisher Departs

The Last Picture Shows

Film’s heroic age at the American Cinematheque

Vertical Ascent

Lila Mae Watson and the search for the perfect elevator