Video game companies have been capitalizing on their franchises’ special collector’s edition packages for years. But with the economy in shambles, it would make sense for consumers to ignore these flashy, superfluous bundles, right? Wrong. Within the world of video games, it seems the state of the economy is basically irrelevant — even now. Hardcore [...]

They are everywhere. They are impossible to avoid. They are at every major intersection and on every television channel. What are they? Weight loss ads. In this day and age it seems impossible to go even one hour in Los Angeles without seeing someone or something promising dramatic weight loss in less than a month. [...]

From a popular picnic hot spot for upper-crusters, to a gang-infiltrated slum, to a revitalized music festival venue, MacArthur Park, straddling Wilshire Boulevard in Westlake, has experienced many transformations throughout the years. The park’s image has suffered from a bad reputation over the decades but has since sobered up. Take a walk by the lake [...]

From Saw to The Sixth Sense to Piranha 3D, America has slaked its thirst for horror films. Among cranky zombies and evil little ghost girls, another kind of film still carries legitimate creepy factor. It isn’t about supernatural forces, but something far more terrifying: real life.  The film Contagion comes out this week, wherein Kate [...]

The power of photography should never be underestimated. With one shot you can move virtually anyone to tears, anger or happiness. In one photograph, you can even incite the rage of hundreds of people. This fact should’ve been taken into consideration by the Canadian beauty salon Fluid. In a series of photographs, the salon took [...]

It’s no secret that Nintendo has had some problems these past few years. Lately, the company has been garnering more ridicule than it has praise. We constantly hear about the Wii’s pitfalls — how its graphics lack detail, how its games are generic and lackluster and how its target audience is the casual, noncommittal gamer. [...]

When Fright Night premiered a few weeks ago, Colin Farrell turned heads as a creature not seen in vampire canon for years — a genuine, unrepentant bad guy. Vampires have crept through cinema since 1913 as our flashier, crueler and sexier cousins. But in their century of celluloid glory, there has been a shift. Once, [...]

As part of a performance piece in the early ’70s, Yugoslavian-born Marina Abramovic lied in the outline of a burning star until she lost consciousness. Abramovic’s Museum of Modern Art 2010 exhibition “The Artist is Present” had her spending three months in the museum. She sat in a chair with an empty one across from [...]

There will soon be no need for trips to the local GameStop. All of the big-name retailers’ video games are going to be coming straight to your living room with the advent of game streaming. GameStop recently announced plans to begin streaming console and PC games nationwide to PlayStation 3s, Xbox 360s and PCs sometime [...]

Have you ever visited a gym and seen the people benching pounds and pounds of weights, straining with each step until their muscles were so pumped up they looked like balloons? Have you ever seen someone finish a workout and gulp down ounces of a muscle-building supplement drink? Has it ever made you want to [...]