Album poises locals for breakout success


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Local Natives is an energetic five-piece whose fame train seems to have gained enough steam to carry these Los Angeles locals into a much larger eminence. The band recently made an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, secured a spot on the top of festival bills with My Morning Jacket and even found itself […]

Google’s failed plot for world domination


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These days it might seem like Google is a villain in the style of old pulp adventures, plotting to take over the world from its secret lair. Googleplex isn’t an underground, Ken Adams-designed base and CEO Eric Schmidt isn’t Ernst Stavro Blofeld, but the analogy isn’t far off. The Internet and software company has been […]

Weekend Picks


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thursday, february 18 Divine Demons: Wrathful Deities of Buddhist Art Noon — 6 p.m. > Norton Simon Museum > $8 For students seeking to enrich their understanding of world religions or explore their individual cultural backgrounds, this L.A. museum provides an ideal opportunity by featuring an exhibit with fang-bearing, demonic Buddhas in sharp contrast to […]

Microwave cooking not just for freshmen


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Ah, freshman year — when makeshift kitchens consisted of a microwave, mini-fridge and a contraband blender. Hard times indeed but those who resigned to living off of Lean Cuisine and Top Ramen have only themselves to blame. Because when it’s not ruining your gold-rimmed plates or pulsating invisible radiation into the air, the humble microwave […]

Colorful musical theater at its most interactive


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Theater is immersion. So when some chump a few rows over is making moment-killing noises during a show — whether that’s pneumonic coughs or ill-timed whoops of praise — standard protocol is to give them the stink eye. I have never known an exception to this rule. I like my theaters kept relatively silent, especially […]

Romances that capture the comedy and tragedy of love


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The new film Valentine’s Day, which opens today, offers audiences “a day in the life of love,” but, as most could easily predict, the film will not be offering anything new. Most Hollywood films about romance tend toward the same dull conventions of narrative and form — as is the case with Valentine’s Day. This […]