Everybody's doing it, right? I don't pretend to be hip or edgy or rebellious. I mean, I grew up on Billy Joel and Madonna and Motown and then the Gen Xer's basic dichotomy of KROQ versus Top 40 in the 90s. I find it increasingly harder to fall in love with albums in the downloading age, and am one of those people who obsessively compiles mixed cds for friends and iPod playlists full of......

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge) Gogol Bordello - Super Taranta! (Side One Dummuy) Mark Ronson - Version (RCA) Oh No! Oh My! - Between The Devil And The Sea (Dim Mak) Gravy Train!!!! - All the Sweet Stuff (Cochon Records) Danzig - The Lost Tracks of Danzig (Evilive) The Monkees - Headquarters [DELUXE EDITION] (Rhino) Chris & Rich Robinson - Brothers of a Feather: Live at the Roxy (Eagle) They Might......

So last weekend I finally made it out to catch Shakespeare By The Sea, after being invited a few times last year and not being able to get my act together. (Unintended, sorry.) This one was The Taming of The Shrew, the only version of which I can confess to seeing is the Moonlighting version. But hey, it made me laugh. So since I knew the story, and since un-miked Shakespearian dialogue can be......

A Word or 26: Welcome to the land of reruns and late night TV. Someone give me a heads up on other stuff on basic cable that's perhaps worth watching. Tonight - Tuesday - June 5th, 2007 Dodgers @ Padres (PRIME, 7:00 p.m.) Twins @ Angels (Fox Sports, 7:00 p.m.) On the Lot (Fox, 8:00 p.m.) The first 5 finalists present their films. The Sea Wolf (TCM, 8:30 p.m.) Edward G. Robinson stars in......

John Fogerty, Blind Boys of Alabama, Lowrider Band, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers, James Cotton, others @ Doheny Blues Festival, Dana Point Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Contest featuring Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan, Molly’s Revenge, Peter Feldmann & The Very Lonesome Boys @ Paramount Ranch Embrace the Hate Festival starring Demoncy, Nokturne, Sumeria, Crimson Moon, Incursus, Tenebrous, Legions of Asatroth, Ashdautas, Infinitum Obscure @ Knitting Factory Backbiter,......

Al Green, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jr. Watson & The Texas Horns, others @ Doheny Blues Festival Stevie Nicks, Chris Issak @ The Greek The Sea & Cake, Robbers on High Street @ The Troubadour The Turtle Island Quartet @ The Jazz Bakery Pit er Pat, Priestbird, Ima Fucking Gymnast @ The Smell Armored Saint, Chingalera, Cockpit @ The Viper Room Grant Lee Phillips @ Largo Thank You Drive Through, Couzin It, Erick Macek @......

Björk - Volta (Atlantic) Bone Thugs -N- Harmony - Strength & Loyalty (Interscope) Barbara Streisand - Streisand: Live In Concert [2 CD] [LIVE] (Sony) Keren Ann - Keren Ann (Blue Note) Brakes - Beatific Visions (Rough Trade) Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls (Too Pure / Beggars) Elliott Smith - New Moon [2 CD] (Kill Rock Stars) The Clientele - God Save the Clientele (Merge) Page France - Page France and the Family Telephone......

Patti Smith @ Roxy Chris Cornell @ Avalon What Made Milwaukee Famous @ Spaceland The Teddybears @ El Rey Theatre The Sea Hags @ The Cat Club The Supersuckers @ Viper Room Herb Alpert and Lani Hall @ Vibrato Grill & Jazz Castledoor, I Make This Sound, Ari Eskandarian @ Silverlake Lounge Dear Nora, Anna Oxygen, Devon Williams & the Allen Bleyle 3 @ The Smell Taylor Hicks @ Grove of Anaheim......

We used to think we loved everything about pop culture; we could even get some twisted enjoyment out of The Simple Life. But the appearance of Nicole Richie's book at #9 on this week's LA Times bestseller list is just wrong. If you said that hardcover purchases by people who read People is good thing, we'd agree with you. But The Truth About Diamonds is categorized as fiction, sharing the list with popular novels......

It's time for the LAIST prize roundup in the book world. John Banville, in a surprise turn, has won the Booker Prize for his novel, The Sea, beating out favorite Julian Barnes, Kazuo Ishiguro, Zadie Smith, Sebastian Barry, and Ali Smith. Apparently the voting was as close as it's ever been. There's a great 3-part interview with Banville at the litblog The Elegant Variation. The Nobel Prize for Literature has not yet been announced......

THURSDAY • Bernhauser, Anchors for Architects, Seven Times On The Sea, Sticky Children and El Ten Eleven are playing tonight at the Knitting Factory. The show starts at 8 PM. Tickets are $5. • The UCLA Live season kicks off with live theater, featuring plays by Charlie Kaufman and Francis Fregoli, plus music by Carter Burwell and featuring Hope Davis, Peter Dinklage, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom Noonan, Meryl Streep and David Thewlis. The plays......

THURSDAY • Sam Prekop (of The Sea & Cake) will be performing tonight at the Troubadour with Pit er Pat. Doors open at 8 PM. Tickets are $15. • At the Silverlake Lounge, SF/Berliners The Vanishing will perform with Dame Darcy, New Collapse and Shoot Out the Lights. Cover is $8. • Locals Killola will be performing tonight at the Viper Room with The Binges and Oliver Future. Tickets are $7 with flyer. •......

Unfortunately, the death of Hunter S. Thompson on Sunday stole our attention from the passing of a true Los Angeles icon. Before Blue Crush, before Roxy gear, even before Sally Field, there was Sandra Dee playing Gidget on the big screen and, perhaps single-handedly, letting girls know that they could surf too. She died Sunday at the age of 62. We particularly like what movie critic (and California native), Carrie Rickey, had to say......

• Tonight at The Echo, " target="_blank">The Section Quartet will be performing at 8:00 PM. Cover is $7 at the door. [18+] • Show up at Amoeba Music around 7:00 PM for a free in-store performance by Ulysses (Rober Schneider of The Apples in Stereo). • Also in music, The Fold at Tangier hosts Devics acoustic, accompanied by Bedroom Walls, Lamps and Emma Zunz starting at 8:00 PM. Admission is $10. • At the......