Zooey Deschanel

Music Picks: Gilles Peterson, Boris, Gothic Tropic

Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti Duel Over Celebrity Vote in L.A. Mayoral Race

It's always fun to see who the cool kids -- i.e., celebrities -- line up with come election season, and this year's mayoral race is starting to attract that kind of attention. L.A. City Councilman Eric Garcetti recently rolled out a video starring a gushing Salma Hayek. Now it's City Controller Wend ... More >>

Carl Reiner on His New Memoir, Holding Steve Martin's Baby and His Love of Zooey Deschanel

See also: *10 Best Stand-Up Comedy Shows in L.A. *12 L.A. Comedy Acts to Watch in 2013 *5 Best Comedy Shows in L.A. This Week He tweets. He Tivos. He's excited about the video components included with the eBook version of his new, self-published memoir, I Remember Me. Carl Reiner may be 90, but the ... More >>

These Christmas Songs Are Not Actually About Christmas

Many so-called Christmas songs don't celebrate Christmas so much as the act of shopping. Other holiday tunes confuse that warm Christmas spirit feeling with that warm feeling in your pants. So, which of these songs are genuinely talking about the holidays, and which are just talking about raking in ... More >>

Ruby Sparks Review: Paul Dano Invents a Girlfriend

Q & A With Professor Amy Rowat: Food and Science at UCLA, Danish Gastro-physical Societies Experimental Cakes

If you've been attending UCLA's Science & Food lectures, which began in April and continue through next month, you'll know who Professor Amy Rowat is. She's the one who put the series together, whose happy task it was to find sand fleas and an old electric blanket for Rene Redzepi and Lars Williams ... More >>

Doritos Locos Tacos: A Visit to the Taco Bell HQ Test Kitchens Doritos Existentialism

Since our first story on Taco Bell's Doritos Locos Taco, Taco Bell's Doritos Locos Tacos Taste Like Broken Dreams, we've received an abundance of new information courtesy of the friendly people at Taco Bell Corporate. We were invited to the new Taco Bell HQ in Irvine to re-sample the Doritos Locos T ... More >>

James Franco Clowns USC 'Undergrads' With New Reality Show: VIDEO

It looks like reality show footage produced by actor James Franco during his time on the USC campus in 2010 is coming to fruition. The renaissance man who has written a book, taught poetry as a post-graduate and starred in major Hollywood roles -- none of which he's apparently done very well -- tak ... More >>

Music Picks: Overdoz, The Cure, Lucinda Williams

Also, K. Flay, The Civil Wars, Bob Mould tribute

Our Idiot Brother Review

Michael Cera No Longer in Indie Band Mister Heavenly. Turns Out He Never Was?

Evan CulbertsonMichael Cera​Story by Ian Joulain Back in December the music blogosphere got all hot and bothered. Turns out there was a new indie supergroup afoot, with Michael Cera on the bass! The band was tweely named Mister Heavenly, and it featured Islands' Nick Thorburn, Man Man's Hon ... More >>

Miranda July's The Future and 'Eleven Heavy Things': This Week's LA Weekly Cover Story

Kevin Scanlon​ In case you haven't seen it on newsstands, this week's LA Weekly cover story is on Miranda July, written by our film critic Karina Longworth. Karina tags along with July during the installation and then the opening of her new exhibit "Eleven Heavy Things," an interactive sculpt ... More >>

Miranda July's New Film The Future and MOCA Exhibit "Eleven Heavy Things"

With her talking cat, T-shirt dance, interactive pink thought balloons and unicorn fans, the filmmaker-artist just wants us all to connect

Ximena Sariñana at The Echoplex 7/16/11

Erica E. PhilliipsXimena Sariñana​WHO: Ximena Sariñana WHERE: The Echoplex WHEN: 7/16/11 Better than... the movies. Cut from a similar dainty-floral-patterned cloth as Zooey Deschanel and Jenny Lewis, child actress turned cheerful indie darling Ximena Sariñana has led an ... More >>

Live Review: Scott Weiland at Viper Room (Plus! Book Signing at Book Soup)

Jena ArdellInside Scott Weiland's sold-out show at the Viper Room.​ Scott Weiland signed copies of his new memoir Not Dead & Not For Sale at Book Soup in West Hollywood last night before heading across the street to the Viper Room, where he performed a sold-out show. Jena ArdellScott Weilan ... More >>

Music Picks: Elvis Costello & the Imposters, Prince, Ricky Martin, Carrie Rodriguez, The Low Anthem, Mogwai

Also, Gutbucket Chamber Orchestra, Pegi Young, Mike Stinson and others

Music Picks: Prince, Amanda Jo Williams, Kendrick Lamar, Xzibit, Civet,

Also, Miguel, L.A. Bluegrass Situation, Heidecker and Wood, the Ditty Bops and others

Rock Picks: DJ Spinna, Bodega Girls, Andre Nickatina, Elevated Suspects

Also, Hilary Hahn, People Under the Stairs, KROQ Almost Acoustic Xmas and others

Music Picks: Cobra Lilies, Gaslight Anthem, Shelby Lynne, Die Antwoord

Also, The Dead Weather, New Pornographers, the Swell Season and others

Driving Mr. Greenberg

Noah Baumbach on the DIY ethos, L.A. without a car and his new film starring Ben Stiller and Greta Gerwig

Guest Blog: Five Great Kenny Loggins Movie Moments by '(500) Days Co-Writer Scott Neustadter

Editor's note: Screenwriter Scott Neustadter struck gold in 2009 with his script for (500) Days of Summer, which he co-wrote with Michael H. Weber. The film, shot in downtown Los Angeles, stars Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt; viewers watch the rise and fall of the pair's relationship throu ... More >>

Guest Blogger: '(500) Days of Summer' Co-Screenwriter Scott Neustadter on Music & Film

By Scott Neustadter​ Editor's note: Screenwriter Scott Neustadter struck gold in 2009 with his script for (500) Days of Summer, which he co-wrote with Michael H. Weber. The film, shot in downtown Los Angeles, stars Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and viewers watch the rise and fall ... More >>

(500) Days of Summer Screenwriter Scott Neustadter To Guest Blog for West Coast Sound This Week

If you've seen last year's hit film (500) Days of Summer, you know that music plays a central role in the story; as in most relationships, songs are connectors that glue a couple together, that reveal something important about personality and taste. For Scott Neustadter, who co-wrote the acclaim ... More >>

Os Hermeticos: Triorganico

Three Angelenos make a modern-day bossa nova classic (just don’t call it that)

Lights, Camera, IKEA! Burbank Store Attracts Filmmakers

Today's L.A. Times' biz section touts a new and improbable addition to Burbank's media studios -- the IKEA store on San Fernando Road. After listing some odd and varied appearances that IKEA made in the news during the past year from China to Scotland, writer Dan Neil looks at the role of IKEA's Bur ... More >>

Movie Reviews: Death In Love, 500 Days of Summer, Severed Ways

Also, The Poker House, The Queen and I, and more

Film Reviews: Blood: The Last Vampire, Herb & Dorothy, I Love You Beth Cooper

Also, An Unlikely Weapon and Weather Girl

Movie Reviews: American Violet, Crank: High Voltage, Sleep Dealer

Also, Every Little Step, Lymelife and more

Over the Weekend: John Mayer's Cruise, Tom Morello's Justice Tour, Lucha VaVoom's Girlie Girl Catfight, Chris Anderson's "Venice"

It's only been a week since we returned from the deafening, drunken mayhem that was SXSW but that didn't keep us from spending our weekend cruising the concert circuit here in L.A. We'll sleep when we're dead (or when they cut off our bar tab). In addition to live performances by John Mayer, Tom Mor ... More >>

Ordinary Life in a Flooded World: Chris Anthony's "Venice" Opens at Corey Helford Gallery

Liz OhanesianChris Anthony (center) with Ben Gibbard, Zooey Deschanel, Davey Havok and guest, Jan Corey HelfordFor the past few years, artist Chris Anthony has had the urge to travel to Antarctica to photograph melting polar caps as part of an idea of a future world forming in his mind. "It seemed ... More >>

Rock Picks: Everest, Mumiy Troll, Busta Rhymes

Also, Faun Fables, Chris Darrow tribute, Allen Toussaint and others

Movie Reviews: The Tale of Despereaux, The Yellow Handkerchief, Yes Man

Also, Tunnel Rats and Where God Left His Shoes

Rock Picks: Amanda Palmer, Metallica, War Tapes

Also, J.D. Souther, Von Iva, Juliette Commagere and others

Rock Picks: The Kooks, Neil Young, Jerry Cole Memorial

Also, Kaki King, The Notwist and more

Last Night: M. Ward Sits in with Giant Sand at the Echo (MP3)

As is always the case with a Howe Gelb experience, last night's Giant Sand gig at the Echo was not without its quirks. A buzzy cable was as annoying as a horsefly in a pup tent. Gelb's dinky keyboard wouldn't stay situated on the even dinkier piano stand, so the longtime Arizona songwriter (who go ... More >>

Yosi Sergant and the Art of Change: The Publicist Behind Shepard Fairey's Obama Hope Posters

The facilitator talks Obama, art, the DNC and Fairey's Denver arrest

Movie Reviews: The Happening, Poultrygeist, Savage Grace

Also, Meet Bill, Quid Pro Quo and more

L.A. Phil Contemplates the Sound of the City

"Frequency" Response

Rock Picks: Circle Jerks, Money Mark, No Age

For the week of Jan. 3 - 10

Year of the Dog: Petaphilia

Molly Shannon shows some puppy love in Mike White’s Year of the Dog

Harry, Dykes and Gays

Stuck On Rainbows

Petro Zillia designer Nony Tochterman invites us to view the world through her candy-colored lenses

Elizabethtown

In the new Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen’s most celebrated heroine continues to bedevil suitors and filmmakers alike

Fluff, Glorious Fluff

Love Actually, Elf and the simple pleasures of pre-holiday moviegoing

Form and Dysfunction

Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things and Jordan Melamed’s Manic

Transports and Transplants

Affairs of the heart in The Good Girl and Blood Work

Gonna Make You Groove

Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous