How do you say "circling vultures" in Spanish? | Photo courtesy of Paramount Vantage I'm still a bit surprised that Into the Wild was so completely overlooked during awards season. Sure it meandered a bit, but the acting and directing were all top-notch. And how on earth was Eddie Vedder's "Hard Sun" skipped over by the Academy in favor of three--three!--songs from Enchantment? This may sound weird, but I liked everything about Mr. Magorium's......

In 1995, Pearl Jam toured in support of their third full length, Vitalogy. Though the album wasn't the traditional send up to the band's unparalleled Ten, it was to be an otherwise ordinary tour of the best that grunge rock had to offer, save for one looming message: Ticketmaster is the devil. Thirteen years later, that well-intentioned boycott is deader than a mummy as lead singer Eddie Vedder and Ticketmaster prepare for an upcoming Wiltern......

Artist: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan + Gaudi Album: Dub Qawwali Label: Six Degrees Records Release Date: August 7th, 2007 I count myself incredibly fortunate to have seen Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan perform while he was still alive, this was back in 1990, at a little hamlet called Santa Barbara, a year or so after Martin Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ came out, which featured Khan on the soundtrack. The essence of one......

The nicer the weather gets, the busier we get across the Ist-A-Verse. But we like being busy. Here's a peek at what we've been up to since last week! Chicagoist had an interview with Audrey Niffenegger, whose popular book, The Time Traveler's Wife, was based in their fine city. They also had a heated discussion about Rush Limbaugh's controversial Barack Obama parody, talked about whether Uncle Julio's Hacienda is a good place to get......

The third annual Silverlake Music Conservatory Hullabaloo put on quite a show at the Henry Fonda Theater Saturday to raise money towards music programs for children of low-income families. Organized by Flea, who we talked to last week, the concert delivered big names headliners like Eddie Vedder and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and also showcased students from The Conservatory, showing us some of the best musical acts around haven't even gotten their drivers'......

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eddie Vedder, Ditty Bops (above), Woody Harrelson, others @ Henry Fonda Willie Nelson, George Strait, Lucinda Williams, many more @ Stagecoach Cypress Hill @ Vault 350 The Jerry Garcia Band @ Fais Do-Do Manic Hispanic @ Galaxy Theatre Rosanne Cash @ Disney Hall One+One (James Zabiela & Nic Fanciulli) @ Vanguard David Grier @ Boulevard Music Victor Wooten @ El Rey Suzanne Somers @ La Mirada Theater for Performance Arts......

The Red Hot Chili Pepper’s legendary bassist Flea, walks through the front door of the Silverlake Music Conservatory’s sun-filled lobby. He’s in the process of putting a shirt on over his tattooed torso and he looks like he’s still recovering from headlining Saturday's show at Coachella. Flea is back at the music school that he established in 2001 to talk about the upcoming fundraiser May 5 at the Henry Fonda Theater. Called the Hullabaloo, the......

Can we fast forward through the rest of the American Idol season? We already know the two finalists will either be Melinda Doolittle vs. Lakisha Jones (if America has its way) or Antonella Barba vs. Sanjaya Malakar (if the site votefortheworst.com has its way). It was boys' night out on American Idol and as a bunch, they were pretty bad sucked. Some of the lowlights included: >> Sanjaya with a new, straighter (more masculine???)......

Every morning at 6am we will be posting a video of someone singing or playing the "Star Spangled Banner". Back in the day television stations would end their "broadcast day" with an instrumental of the National Anthem accompanied by images of dandelions blowing in the wind, of flags being held by children, and olde fashioned barbers using leeches on alleged witches. When the song was over, the screen would flicker and a test pattern......

Now that the weather is more normal we can go back to enjoying the fact that we live in LA and do Southern Californian things like skating, surfing, and editing movies on our Macs. "A Brokedown Melody" is a beautiful new surf film starring the likes of Kelly Slater, Tom Curren, Gerry Lopez, the Malloys, Rob Machado, CJ Hobgood, Jack Johnson and others. It features two tunes by Johnson, a previous unrelease solo number......

We missed the Guns KROQ Inland Invasion metal fest. We're sure they were even better without all the guys whose names we know. We're sure Alice in Chains was better without their singer. But since we weren't there, we will remember Guns back in the day. This is GNR circa 1988 in Halifax Canada opening for Iron Maiden. Axl starts the tune by telling some fan to blow him, and then, almost in the......