LA Weekly LP

Preview for SoCal Restaurant Show on KLAA-AM 830: Marcus Samuelsson, Montage Eating, and Our Own Bill Esparza!

If it's a Friday afternoon, that means it's time for the SoCal Restaurant Show on KLAA-AM 830 to give us a scoop on what they'll have on their Saturday morning show. Without further ado, here's producer (and kinda-co-host) Andy Harris with the details!

Announcing OC Weekly's First-Ever "People Issue," Out March 7!

When we started doing Best Of issues for this infernal rag years ago, we always insisted on including mini-features we called "Personal Bests"--profiles of awesome people (with the accompanying glamor shot) who never could quite make it into the regular rotation of our paper of crime, sex, and taque ... More >>

The Worst Moments from SXSW 2012

The last few days, Village Voice Media's indefatigable music staff has been regaling you with stories of the best from SXSW 2012. In the midst of these discoveries, we've been culling another list: the worst shit. The acts that ranged from huge bore-fests to downright lame. Below, you'll find our cr ... More >>

The Blank Tapes

Detroit Bar

Susan SurfTone: Former FBI Agent, Surf Guitarist Coming to Long Beach

​Nothing cooler than a surf guitarist with a past--especially if, like Susan SurTtone, it's a past that involves Russian spies and such. According to Rebecca Haithcoat at our sister publication LA Weekly, In the early '80s, SurfTone (real name: Susan Yasinski) was an FBI agent in New York, chosen ... More >>

LA Weekly's Gold Standard is Back on March 4

​Gold Standard is an annual event put on by our sister paper LA Weekly featuring restaurants handpicked by food critic extraordinaire Jonathan Gold. It's a chance to sample some of the most exciting dishes our neighboring county to the north has to offer, all in one swoop, so you can later restaur ... More >>

Stream Blu and Exile's Just-Released Album, give me my flowers while i can smell them

​Blu is known for being unpredictable, so the fact that this morning he dropped -- with zero fanfare -- his and producer Exile's highly anticipated sophomore release shouldn't be surprising. The Los Angeles duo's 2007 album and Blu's debut, Below the Heavens, made LA Weekly's "Top 20 Greates ... More >>

[UPDATED with Director Hating 3D:] Bong Joon-ho Opens Busan West Festival at Chapman University with 3D Version of The Host

​UPDATE, NOV. 12, 9:37 A.M.: Introducing a new 3D version of his 2006 South Korean smash hit The Host to Friday's opening night Busan West Asian Film Festival audience at Chapman University's Knott Studios, director Bong Joon-ho said, "I don't like 3D."Cue nervous audience laughter and a smatteri ... More >>

[UPDATED with Long Beach Journo's Take:] ACLU Sues Sheriff's Deputies for Hassling LA and Long Beach Photographers Under Anti-Terror Policy

ACLU/SCGreggory Moore shares with the media his brushes with sheriff's deputies.​UPDATE, OCT. 28, 9:54 P.M.: The Long Beach Post's Greggory Moore has graciously agreed to share with Weekly readers his real-time coverage of moves officers from two separate police agencies made against him and colle ... More >>

[UPDATED with Not Enough Signatures:] OC Groups Rally to Overturn Gay History Law

In the children's book King & King, a prince falls in love with a prince. ​UPDATE, OCT. 13, 4:17 PM.: Stop SB 48, the group that aimed to repeal the so-called Gay History Law, was unable to gather enough signatures from voters by this week's deadline.    "Despite the overuse of the ... More >>

Kreayshawn Books Galaxy Concert Theatre for Dec. 30 Show

​Love her or hate her (and we've done both, believe us), there's an undeniable curiousity here at OC Weekly about what white-chick rapper Kreayshawn is really like live. Looks like we're finally going to find out: Galaxy Concert Theatre just announced it has booked Kreayshawn for a Dec. 30 perform ... More >>

OC Groups Rally to Overturn Gay History Law

In the children's book King & King, a prince falls in love with a prince. ​In July, Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 48, also known as the FAIR Education Act, which requires that California public schools incorporate the contributions of gays and lesbians in their lessons.Or, as Anaheim-based Tradi ... More >>

Lykki Li at the Greek Theater

photo by Timothy Norris/LA Weekly​Lykke LiAugust 3, 2011 Greek TheaterLykke Li has thus far straddled the line between star and anti-star. She's drop-dead-gorgeous but strange and aloof; her vocals are soft but she has great stage presence; her songs are catchy but mellow and often stripped-down. ... More >>

Feist Reveals 'Metals' Album Cover--and Tour Dates

LA Weekly​Feist's latest opus--her third, called Metals, is set for an Oct. 4 release date. To promote it, she's been releasing a series of video vignettes that offer a glimpse into the record. To be honest you can't even really glean what the songs will sound like when watching the vignettes, so ... More >>

'OSAMA FOREVER!' Graffiti Surfaces on the 405 in Westminster

Sam Gangwer, The Orange County Register​Putting a thorn of shock and bafflement into this decidedly "good day for America," some party-foulin' mystery tagger decided to blast a local freeway wall with a seemingly pro-terrorist declaration.  "OSAMA FOREVER!" was scribed in black spray paint th ... More >>

Pulitzer Prize Winning Food Critic Jonathan Gold Reviews...The Olive Garden

​Sometimes an April Fools prank can backfire on the prankster. It happened to Jonathan Gold, our esteemed colleague and Pulitzer Prize winning food critic at the LA Weekly. His planned joke on his longtime food photographer Anne Fishbein to meet him at Olive Garden didn't go exactly as planned. ... More >>

Just What We Needed--An Email Hoax Warning California Residents of 'Acid Rain'

Go ahead and sing in the rain. It's OK.​In case you weren't freaked out enough over last week's report of a radioactive plume heading this way (which officials say was innocuous), a prank email with the heading "Acid Rain Precautions" has been in circulation, warning California residents that part ... More >>

More Than 40 Bibliophiles Listen to Daniel Hernandez Read From His New Book on Mexico City

​Daniel Hernandez, formerly of the Los Angeles Times and our sister paper LA Weekly, is what's called a reporter's reporter--one that his contemporaries, colleagues and rivals read religiously. And there were more than a few scribes last night at Calacas in SanTana to hear Hernandez read from his ... More >>

2011 LA Weekly Gold Standard Final Restaurant List

​In case you missed our announcement to get a discounted ticket for the 2011 Gold Standard, it's not too late to get yourself in. Tickets are still available, but they are expected to sell out. Clear your calendar for Sunday, March 6, and get your tickets now.Restaurant list after the jump!

Binh Dan Gets Some LA Weekly Love!

Photo by Elina Shatkin​Our sister paper LA Weekly has always had a strange relationship with Orange County. Every once in a while, it'll write news stories about happenings in the county, even though, you know, we're OC and it's LA. It's less so on the food side of things--I think the only OC rest ... More >>

Jon Wiener, UCI History Professor, Advocates Arming Some But Not All Faculty Members

​The Weekly has chimed in when author/KPFK radio host/UC Irvine history professor Jon Wiener has pressed the federal government to release secret FBI files on John Lennon, academia to better police historians and our owners to loosen what he perceived to be a stranglehold on our sister paper, LA W ... More >>

Ineffective Drive-Thru Robber With a Plastic Bag on His Head Caught in Laguna Beach

All he needs now is a toy gun.​​We love stupid criminals. Which is why this story about a stupid, completely ineffective criminal is better than most.Last Tuesday, a man with a plastic bag over his head pulled up to a Fullerton Wendy's drive-thru window, pointed what appeared to be a gun at the ... More >>

Massive Attack and Thievery Corporation at Gibson Amphitheatre Last Night

​Danielle Bacher/ OC Weekly​Massive Attack and Thievery CorporationNovember 7, 2010Gibson AmphitheatreBristol, UK trip-hop stalwarts Massive Attack joined D.C.-based dub/electronic collective Thievery Corporation for an evening of downbeat musical exploration. The gig capped off the LA ... More >>

Local Music News Links: Tom Petty, Rascal Flatts, and Other Oldtimers

Christopher VictorioPetty, please​Another week, another list of links to music coverage around the OC music blogosphere.

Gustavo Arellano Helps One Alma Mater, Gets Snubbed by Facebook Group at Another

​Gustavo Arellano will be one of two investigative journalists talking about the future of newspapers at Orange Coast College tonight. Meanwhile, a Facebook group has started in the campaign to prevent the Weekly's very own Mexican from taking part in a different higher-education gig: a scheduled ... More >>

Five Real Mexican Drinks for Cinco de Mayo

Let's just get this straight right away, OK?Yes, Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican holiday. It's a Mexican holiday the way Patriots' Day is an American holiday. Patriots' Day is only observed in two out of the 50 American states (Massachusetts and Maine, in case you were wondering); Cinco de Mayo is only o ... More >>

Ann Mah Reading And Signing in Laguna Beach

Ann Mah​Ann Mah, the Orange County-born author of Kitchen Chinese, will be reading from her novel and signing copies of her book at Laguna Beach Books, this Thursday at 6 p.m.If you're at all into food-oriented fiction (think Like Water For Chocolate), consider heading down to her signing.If Thurs ... More >>

[UPDATED] UC Budget Protest at UCLA is Rowdy. Cal State Protest in Long Beach? Not So Much

​UPDATE: University of California Regents voted for a 32 percent tuition increase today, with a dissenting vote coming from the student-regent. The vote was taken and debated over loud protests outside from hundreds of demonstrators. Our big sis' LA Weekly reports one arrest today. See also the Lo ... More >>

Oprah- and Tyler Perry-presented "Precious" Opening Brings Out Irvine Academics Tonight

In "Precious," newcomer Gabourey Sidibe "carries the alternately exhausting and exhilarating narrative on her formidable shoulders."​Precious, the film adaptation of poet Sapphire's best-selling novel Push, has generated buzz since its Sundance premiere, added Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry as its ... More >>

Your Chance to Save Money on Train Tickets Finally Here

Teehee, "Train tickets."​At the end of the month, October 27 to be exact, Train--you know, "Drops of Jupiter," "Meet Virginia" Train--will release their first new studio album in nearly four years, Save Me San Francisco (named after their city of origin). Just two days before that, Train will play ... More >>

Good Food's Map of Holes-in-the-Wall Includes OC Dives

For local foodies, Good Food needs no intro; for everyone else, it's a long-running show on KCRW-FM 89.9 hosted by famed L.A.-area chef Evan Kleiman on everything food--books, recipes, trends, articles, and holes-in-the-wall. The main voice in the latter field, of course, is LA Weekly's Jonathan Gol ... More >>

Weekly's Only Circulation Chief Succumbs to Cancer

The faces, bylines and staff-box names come and go (and come back again) at OC Weekly, but through it all the best alternative newsweekly in Orange County that is based near the corner of Kalmus and Red Hill has only had one circulation director, Mike Menza.Until now.Employees learned in an email fr ... More >>

Slave Labor in LBC

Miguel SaavedraThe Long Beach woman featured in this LA Weekly story a month ago pleaded guilty today, along with her husband, to charges of forced labor for illegally harboring two Philippine women in her home and forcing them to work in her elder care businesses after tricking them into coming to ... More >>

Citizen of the Week!

The sadomasochistic onetime X-Files actor (1), who shoved a hot crack cocaine pipe inside a south Orange County woman's vagina because he believed she worked for the devil, recently placed an ad in LA Weekly:"Busy businessman/producer needs immediate project assistance . . . Experience not necessar ... More >>

[This Hole-In-the-Wall Life] Thai This Now: Siam Taste of Asia

Arthur Magazine Faces a Grave Deadline

The great LA-based counterculture magazine Arthur needs to raise $20,000 by July 1 or it will have to cease publishing. LA Weekly's Randall Roberts summarizes the sorry scenario on our sister paper's blog here. If you're so inspired, you can donate money to Arthur's worthy cause by using the widg ... More >>

Coachella, Day 3

Holy Fuck: Holy fuck! Awesome Canucks! Coachella dealt me a TKO, so I missed Sunday. Ouch. Beware the undercooked brown rice... or something. Sadly, my illness prevented me from witnessing Holy Fuck, Swervedriver, Spiritualized, Justice, Modeselektor, Booka Shade, Black Mountain, Deadmau5, Lint ... More >>

Beneath the Batter

A synergy of cultures at Mario's Peruvian Seafood

VVM top dogs arrested for writing an article—and released

Village Voice Media execs and New Times founders Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin (aka the guys who sign our paychecks at OC Weekly, and at LA Weekly) were arrested at their Arizona homes late Thursday night for revealing grand jury information in a story they published earlier in the day, "Breathtaking ... More >>

Letters

Allow me to write a similar column to !Ask a Mexican! called Ask an American, and lets see which column people like more

Never Mind the Shit, Here's Coachella

Is this annual desert festival an ordeal or orgasmic experience? Yes

Beating Mexicans and Fox News Reporters

Yesterday, with little or no warning, LAPD officers attacked unarmed Fox News personnel as well as men, women, children and the elderly gathered peacefully in Los Angeles--during the May 1 immigration rallies. Women? Children? Elderly? And Fox News personnel? We can guess that those cops rarely ... More >>

Same Old Story

Sequels, prequels, and threequels headline Hollywood 2007

The New Crips

An ex-drug dealer and burglar leads a wheelchair posse terrorizing Southern California businesses. Would you believe he has the law on his side?

You Love Our Crappy Website!

We know, we know: our website sucks. Search engine barely works, our former archived issues section is gone and this infernal blog rarely is updated--and even then, mostly by Brennan and yo. Nevertheless, ustedes love us. A recent study by the Center for Media Research discovered that your favorite ... More >>

A Clockwork Orange

!Ask a Mexican!

Eight Days

'Shadow of Suspicion'

OC consultant figures prominently in state report blasting school projects

Letters