Elvis Costello and The Attractions essential 1978 record This Year’s Model was re-released for the twenty-third time earlier this week as a deluxe 2-CD set. This year’s model of This Year’s Model includes a bevy of previously released bonus tracks, and a previously unreleased live concert. I was going to review it, but instead I decided not to buy it. On Tuesday, I found myself at Amoeba records. After an hour or so, I’d amassed......

a writer's perspective Something is wrong with my car radio. There’s a short in the wiring or something, so every time I go over any kind of bump, the radio turns off and reboots. Sometimes it works okay. Sometimes, the slightest movement shuts down the stereo. If I try to change the station, or turn up the volume, the radio turns off. If I make a lane change, the radio turns off. It’s really,......

a writer's perspective As I get ready to join my brothers and sisters in the picket line, I’m flipping the channels, looking for some coverage. Fuckin’ Joe Torre is stealing our thunder. Finally, on KTLA, they break in with footage of Jay Leno pulling up on a motorcycle and handing three boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts to some writers. All writers are being encouraged to give 20 hours a week to the cause. No......

Whether you are a devoted fan of Joy Division or simply a casual listener, Control should be high on your must-see list of movies. It is a masterfully and intimately told story about one of the more opaque musical figures of the last thirty years, Ian Curtis (my LAist review of the film is below). Yesterday, I had the chance to speak with one of the film's producers, Orian Williams, who spent ten years......

Before I start with the obvious, let me talk about a positive from the Dodger’s Friday night 6-5 in 10 innings loss to the Florida Marlins. When My Boyfriend homered in the bottom of the fifth, the MVP chants started. It was really awesome since the last time I heard those chants at the Stadium was when Adrian Beltre had his outstanding season in 2004. Beltre would end up second in voting to Barry......

Before I even start this, let me just say that I fall WAY outside of this movie's target demographic, so I'm expecting to be shouted down by hoards of Red Bull-addled teenage boys about this. Also, this movie will probably make more money than we've spent on Iraq in the past three years, but what the hell. Transformers sucks.......

Because LAist loves you and loves the Dodgers, we thought it would be nice to give you some road trip action. Hooray for you. Okay, really I just had to escape LA for a while for fear of vengance from the Victoria's Secret Pink Army and thought Phoenix would be safe. I can blend in with all of the other out-of-town Dodger fans and no one will suspect a thing. Before I go into......

The Dodgers lost to that pitcher. Let me just say that he is one ugly man. That’s all. You can come up with your own insults. Trust me, my friends and I made up plenty ourselves. Back to the game. There is only one word to describe the pitching performance of Brett Tomko: PATHETIC. Another word to describe Grady Little’s managing decisions: ABHORRENT. Before I could settle in and focus on the game, Tomko......

Before I start up with the poetics again, I feel an introduction is necessary. After all, I will be writing here every other day from next week until October. Anyhow it is my birthday today so you’ll have to excuse the self-indulgence. I am honored to be writing on this esteemed website about a team I so love.* I don’t aim to be a reporter spouting stats and box scores. I just want to......

The baseball off-season creates a brewing anticipation that crescendos to the molto-fortissimo of Opening Day. Before I start waxing poetic about the Dodgers, I'll present to you a list of facts about the changes to the team in this off-season: * Right fielder J.D. Drew, reneging on his word, declined his option on his contract and ended up signing with the Boston Red Sox. The Princess (as T.J. Simers of the LA Times called......

Warning: First Person Article. I was sitting at Starbucks in South Pas today, working on my laptop, talking to a client, when the door burst open behind me and a guy reached over, grabbed my computer, and took off running. I jumped up without thinking. Before I closed the cell phone I was screaming "stop motherfucker, motherfuckin thief!" running hell-for-metal in my Spanish boots after this guy in Nikes as he sprinted down the......

Did anyone read the Tom Cruise interview in Parade Magazine (found as an insert in the Sunday Los Angeles Times)? While we heard most of the Tom stuff before, i.e., how he studied at a seminary, how he had a troubled childhood and how he shares his home with Holmes and his younger sister and her kids, blah blah blah. There was one paragraph in the Dotson Rader penned-piece, however, that stood out among......

Jen Sincero is a sexpert, musician, and the author of the bestselling book, The Straight Girl’s Guide To Sleeping With Chicks and the semi-autobiographical novel, Don’t Sleep With Your Drummer. She currently hosts the weekly sex talk radio show Dr. Happypants on killradio.org. Every week in Living in Sin, Jen provides advice for LA's sexually curious. Got a question for Jen? Ask her. We promise to be discreet — all questions will be posted......

North Carolina resident and Huntsville Monitor columnist Judy Rozzelle gives her readers a bracing view of Los Angeles. While the weeks of rain spoiled her pre-fabricated impression of perpetually sunny city, Ms. Rozzelle still found stereotypes to amuse the folks back home. In January, Lee [her friend in Los Angeles] and I were visiting a boutique with my two small Pomeranians, Jipper and Sassy. While I was browsing, a saleslady petted my dogs. Jipper and......

Charles Phoenix posts his impressions of this year's Tournament of Roses Parade on Eye Spy LA. ... I was invited to share some of my vintage Rose Parade slides on KTLA’s live Rose Parade pre-show. My segment was scheduled at 6:10am. Frankly, I’m not used to getting up that early and I was worried my 1977 SEARS alarm clock that I got while still in high school, wouldn’t go off. Sure enough it didn’t.......