Art Tavana

The Burbank mall is no Arts District.; Credit: Photo by Art Tavana

Confessions of a 30-Year-Old L.A. Mall Rat

Art Tavana
I’m 30 and I work at the Burbank mall. Which sounds like I’ve failed at life. Which is exactly what I want you to think. I say this without irony, because embracing the shopping mall is, for me, a silent protest against yuppiedom’s stranglehold on culture. The mall is my......
A darker Jason Bentley; Credit: By Art Tavana

Dear Jason Bentley: Please Play Some Goddamn Metal

Art Tavana
[Welcome to "Art Tavana vs. the World," a monthly column in which L.A. Weekly's angriest [and nerdiest] music critic, Art Tavana, takes on his many nemeses in an ambitious quest to boldly go where no other critic has gone before.] An open letter to Jason Bentley, KCRW music director and......
Credit: Original Photo by Marc Canter / Designed by Art Tavna

The Ultimate Ranking of Every Guns N' Roses Song

Art Tavana
I discovered GNR in the '90s, when MTV was deciding what we liked. At eight years old, running around my bedroom in Superman briefs, my first exposure to a genuine rock star was Axl Rose, who seemed like a pirate hijacking my TV screen when he told me that we were......
Fans signing the Rainbow's Lemmy mural.; Credit: Photo by Levan TK

Lemmy's Death Has Given New Life to the Sunset Strip

Art Tavana
"I thought it was a line of coke," said Vicky Hamilton, the former manager of Guns N' Roses and Poison – who, it should be noted, has been sober for 14 years. "But it turns out Lemmy gave me speed, so I ended up not sleeping for three days." Forty......
A Lemmy statue at the Rainbow?; Credit: Photo composite: Art Tavana; Lemmy statue: BuyRockNRoll

The Rainbow Needs a Lemmy Statue

Art Tavana
You can bet Kobe Bryant, a basketball player, will get a statue in front of Staples Center. Blech, who cares? I say we give one to the rock god who sang "Silver Machine," then went on to brush his mutton-chops into a metal machine in Motörhead, where his whiskey-soaked vocals......
Royal Machines: Dave Navarro

Dave Navarro Invited Me Over for New Year's Eve, Sort Of

Art Tavana
"Have you ever seen us?" says perennial vampire Dave Navarro, who's the only male that arouses me. Me: "No, but I wanna ..." Navarro cuts me off with searing confidence: "Oh, we should definitely hook you up."  Navarro is a guitar hero for Gen-Xers; an incubus who's journeyed from the L.A......
The Frolic Room; Credit: Flickr/Julie Jordan Scott

10 L.A. Bars That Will Be Open on Thanksgiving

Art Tavana
L.A. is a city full of transplants. Every Thanksgiving, a few pack their bags and head back to the Midwest for Turkey dinner at grandma's house. Locals hunker down, save the dog sitter expense, and drink an exorbitant amount of cheap booze with their takeout. Football is how Angelenos give......