Artist: Cheb i Sabbah Album: Devotion Label: Six Degrees Records Release Date: 01/29/08 Listen to "Qalanderi": Devotion CD Release Party @ The Temple Bar - Saturday, February 2nd The incomparable Cheb i Sabbah has produced Devotion, his seventh release for Six Degrees Records, once again inviting us to enjoy his updated presentation of the timeless music of central Asia. San Francisco-based Cheb i Sabbah traveled to India to record the vocals for several tracks with......

Nataline Sarkisyan, the 17-year-old Northridge girl who died two weeks ago because her health care provider denied funding of a liver transplant, was buried yesterday. $151 million: That's the amount in salary and benefits that the The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers say that writers have lost since the beginning of the strike. $10.64: The new minimum wage or "so-called living wage" for workers at hotels near LAX. More than a 1,000......

The WGA and the producers are back at the negotiating table, hopefully they will catch the breaks that they need so that the collapse of Western civilization is averted. In a desperate attempt to avoid family time over the holiday, I managed to watch season one of Showtime's Dexter and my optimism for the future of mankind was restored. I missed Dexter when it premiered last year but was happy to cover the zany stunts......

On Friday night, Bill Maher spoke to Michael Scheuer, former head of the now defunct C.I.A. Bin Laden Unit and author of the upcoming book,Marching Toward Hell: America & Islam After Iraq. His previous book, Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror, was mentioned in one of Bin Laden's recent tapes mentioning that if the U.S. wanted to understand why the Iraq War is a losing war, then they need......

This excellent mashup inspires essential questions that remain unanswered years later, including: -- What exactly are we fighting for? -- Will these talking heads ever shut up? -- Can you acknowledge Rosh Hashanah on-air without knowing when Ramadan is? -- What song is that killer sample from? -- Where is Osama bin Laden? -- What would Jean-Luc Picard do? and more.... Courtesy Guerrilla News Network.......

Some fresh AIR would be really great right about now. Har har har!!! I'm such a card. Now, really, how about Air at the Greek this month, courtesy of LAist: head on over to enter our Labor Day Weekend Air Contest. In the category of Thank God It Hasn't Happened to Us Yet: over twenty thousand homes and businesses have lost power this weekend. If you're on the roads tonight, please drive safely, use......

Remember when Sandra Bullock set aside her flourishing, if somewhat formulaic, Hollywood career to make compelling independent films that actually had something original to say? Yeah, me neither. Premonition continues a long slide that I predict will ultimately end in a USA series about a quirky female detective--Bullock to star, produce AND direct a few eps. Factory Girl also drops today. After seeing Sienna Miller in Interview and reading this, I'm renting it. Other......

Monday P.J. O’Rourke signs On the Wealth of Nations 7pm @ Book Soup Adam Gopnick reads Through the Children's Gate 7:30pm @ Skirball Cultural Center Tuesday David Mamet signs Bambi vs. Godzilla 7pm @ Book Soup Edward Humes signs Monkey Girl 7pm @ Vroman’s Norman Mailer discusses Castle in the Forest with David Ulin 7:30pm @ Writers Guild Theater Daveed Gartenstein-Ross presents My Year in Radical Islam 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble Santa Monica......

Blood on the Sand is the new Apple-tini. British-born Muslim extremist Abu Izzadeen (AKA Omar Brooks) declares that the Prophet Mohammed would want nonbelievers to know, "I come to slaughter all of you." Militant + thirsty + batshit crazy = "We are the Muslims. We drink the blood of the enemy..." Yum. -CNN Bill Moyers gives our spineless politicos (and that includes Bill Clinton) a long-overdue verbal spanking for their willingness to bend over and......

As if it wasn't bad enough that she wasn't crowned Miss Universe, now a radical Muslim group is trying to send Miss Indonesia to the pokey for showing off what Allah gave her. Nadine Chandrawinata might have looked like just another dazzling beauty to you on Sunday's pageant held at the Shrine, but some saw red when they tuned in and saw their Muslim sister in a bikini. Bikinis are taboo in Indonesian culture.......

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scene. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. Bostonist sees Boston and Somerville each whip out their art and face off. A plagiarized novel is the......

Anybody want to shed some light on this? KFI and Worldnet Daily are talking about a flyer that showed up last week in South LA suggesting that area gangs end their turf wars, join the Nation of Islam and start a Jihad against the LAPD apparently in response to the Tony Muhammad situation. The problem, though, is that the flyer references a currently defunct phone number for the 87th street mosque. The Nation isn't......

WEDNESDAY • Billy Corgan is performing solo tonight at the Henry Fonda Theater. Doors open at 8 PM; tickets are $33. • Coheed and Cambria perform an acoustic set with Irving tonight at Spaceland. Doors open at 9 PM. • The Scene hosts Los Angeles Exotica Burlesque, featuring Miss Chica Boom, The Indra, Miss Cecellia (fluffgirl) and Count Smokula. Cover is $10. • AFI at ArcLight presents the unique Western classic Butch Cassidy and......