Anne Plamodon & Victor Quijada | Photo by Natalie Galazka Victor Quijada started dancing when he was a student at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, taking his first classes with postmodern dance pioneer Rudy Perez. Known as "Rubberband" in the clubs and streets of LA, he began breakdancing with the best and soon found himself dancing for Twyla Tharp, Eliot Feld and Les Grand Ballets Canadiens de Montreal. Put it......

Photo by delara-photos via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr The trial of Juan Manuel Alvarez began today. Among his charges are 11 counts of murder for the January 2005 incident involving him parking his car on the tracks and causing a Metrolink train to derail. The stretch of San Diego beach closed to the public last week following a fatal shark attack has reopened. Swimmers are cautioned to keep close to the......

Yesterday, in another timely Earth Day announcement, Governor Schwarzenegger announced California's first natural landmark in Orange County. 40,000 acres of the Irvine Ranch may be recognized with the title, but it does not mean the land is protected or open to the public. Rather, it is to help bring awareness to the land and focus on long-term public preservation. With summer coming, more people will be heading outdoors. Yes, Yosemite may be five hours away,......

Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann, courtesy of the company In 1989, then modern dance bad boy Mark Morris took a seventeenth century opera and turned it into a cause celebre in staging the work for his dance company, then in residence at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. Almost twenty years later, and in a precedent-setting collaboration between the now-world renowned Mark Morris Dance Group. the Irvine Barclay Theatre, the Pacific Symphony......

The Bamboozle Left Festival at Irvine's Verizon Wireless Amphitheater was a punk rock madhouse this weekend. Photos from Sunday coming soon. All photos by David Greenwald/LAist......

Santee Village Apartments | Photo by atomicshakespeares via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr It's not the same thrill as being singled out as a draft pick when it's the police who want you: "An arrest warrant has been issued by the Irvine Police Department for St. Louis Cardinals utilityman Scott Spiezio on six charges stemming from a Dec. 30 incident." Police in Burbank are investigating the mysterious death of 47-year-old Glen Giles,......

See the video of this above picture below | Photo courtesy of the company En route to performances in New York, the highly acclaimed Irish company CoisCeim Dance Theatre, will make a stop at the Irvine BarclayTheater this Tuesday, February 26 -- its premiere West Coast engagement. Pronounced "kush came," the company will present their award winning evening length work, Knots, based on psychologist R.D. Laing 's book by the same title. Both the......

Twisted Sister, Metal Skool, the Iron Maidens, and Jani Lane of Warrant are putting on a benefit concert this Friday to support wounded veterans and the families of soldiers overseas. Expect Twisted Sister to rock hits from their Twisted Christmas album (see video after the jump). Doors open at 5:00pm at the Bren Events Center in Irvine, with the show starting about an hour later. Get there early so you have time to adjust your......

LOUD. Epic. Bombastic. Brooding. Inspiring. Powerful. Political. Rocking. Pounding. Confrontational. Theatrical. Captivating. Dynamic. High Tech. Simply Amazing. Did I mention Loud already? Full review (with 25% less hyperbole) and pics after the jump..........

- You don't have to be in snow to say "mush." Try urban mushing in Costa Mesa. - "Cardinal Roger M. Mahony today apologized to victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese." - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa skips his monthly appearance on KABC-TV's Eyewitness Newsmakers because of personal questions. - By the 1930s, the Los Angeles streetcar system had nearly 600 miles of track and used more than 1,200 cars. Downtown......

According to their little graphic flash animation, you will be able to get from Irvine to Union Station in 27 minutes. Then from Union Station to Santa Clarita in 15 minutes. All this by 2012? So they say: "The $18.7 billion project is planned to be privately funded with a target date for beginning operation as early as 2012." Welcome to the California Orangeline Development Authority, which is trying to gain momentum for a......

Last week an Orange County jury saved a former cop from a 10 year prison sentence when they said that although David Alex Park's semen was found on the sweater of a woman he pulled over soon after leaving her job at a gentleman's club, that the sex was consensual, because, as the defense attorney told the jury, "she got what she wanted, she’s an overtly sexual person." According to reports by the LA......

Bad News - Campus Muslims and Jews are sensing a bit of tension, which the Jewish Collegiate News says stems from the Muslims: “I hate that things like this happen,” [UCI Chancellor Michael] Drake responded, acknowledging that there has been speech on campus promoted by the Muslim Student Union (MSU) that is largely hateful. Drake called hate-speech “vile,” “awful,” and “stupid,” and said it is “weak” human beings who engage in such speech. The......