The Brief

Tucked away in the back room of a Santa Monica guitar shop is an unlikely temple to live music.

There's no bar. No cellphone screens glowing in the dark. Just 150 people, sitting shoulder to shoulder in folding chairs, so quiet you can hear every picked note ring out.

For nearly 60 years, McCabe's Guitar Shop has hosted intimate performances by legends of folk, country, jazz and rock, everyone from Joni Mitchell to Elvis Costello to Beck.

Elvis Costello, left, and John Hiatt perform together in 1984 at McCabe's Guitar Shop.

(

Courtesy McCabe's Guitar Shop

)

On a recent Saturday night, the audience is here for alt-country singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks, who, flanked on a tiny stage with a violinist and bassist, flashes a smile into the dark.

"I'm glad to be back for my 27th appearance at McCabe's here in Santa Monica," Fulks told the crowd. "That's a guess, but it's pretty close."

In a music industry dominated by streaming and scrolling, McCabe's offers something increasingly rare: the rapt attention of an audience sitting a few feet from the performer.

Singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks chats up the crowd at McCabe's during a recent performance, accompanied by violinist Jenny Scheinman and bassist Max Schwartz.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

Landing a show at McCabe's carries the kind of prestige reserved for far larger stages, Peter Lesser writes in his new book chronicling the venue's history, Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop.

A flyer for a Jan. 2019 performance by Beck.

(

McCabe's Guitar Shop

)

One artist told Lesser, "Look, there's Carnegie Hall. There's the Grand Ole Opry, and there's McCabe's Guitar Shop."

Lesser, who used to manage live music venues in upstate New York, has long been struck by the big names who played such a tiny room in Santa Monica.

"How were they able to attract the same artists in a 150-seat venue that I was trying to fill 1,000 seats with?" he said.

After moving to Santa Monica to be closer to family during the pandemic, Lesser started attending shows at McCabe's himself and set out to answer his own question.

Peter Lesser, author of Live at McCabe's, chronicles the venue's nearly 60-year history.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

He talked to some 80 people, including artists who performed there like Lucinda Williams, Taj Mahal and Loudon Wainwright III.

It turns out McCabe's road to becoming a music landmark began almost by chance.

An accidental venue

Gerald McCabe, a furniture maker by trade who dabbled in guitar repairs, opened the shop in 1958. A place to browse guitars and accessories, it also became a hangout for musicians during the folk boom of the '60s, hosting jam sessions.

And it was where folk singer Mike Seeger turned in 1969 when a planned show with Elizabeth Cotten at UCLA's Royce Hall fell through.

Walter Camp, left, former co-owner of McCabe's, stands with folk singers Elizabeth Cotten and Mike Seeger at the venue's first live performance.

(

Courtesy Bob Riskin

)

"He came to McCabe's Guitar Shop and said, 'What do you think I should do?'" Lesser said. "And they said, 'Just play here.'"

But there was a problem: The shop didn't have a permit to host concerts.

"They had to put blankets in front of the windows, because they didn't want anybody to see him," Lesser said.

The next month, another folk singer, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, found himself stranded in L.A. after his car broke down. Needing money for a new transmission, he played two shows at McCabe's.

His friend Arlo Guthrie, in town recording an album, joined in on the second night.

By the end of 1969, McCabe's was advertising planned shows.

(

McCabe's Guitar Shop

)

"That's really when [the shop] got the idea," Lesser said. "'We can do this every week.'"

Music royalty

McCabe's became a coveted stop for both rising artists and major acts, including those who'd come up through the venue themselves.

Before he was a star, Jackson Browne regularly played McCabe's, including five shows in 1970 alone. After his 1972 breakout album with hits like "Doctor My Eyes," he kept returning for occasional shows.

Then there was Ry Cooder, the Santa Monica-born roots virtuoso and producer behind the Buena Vista Social Club album. He used to hang out at McCabe's after school, where he perfected his guitar licks and went on to teach others his picking style.

Jackson Browne, used to regularly perform at McCabe's, and would return occasionally after he broke through on the charts.

(

Courtesy McCabe's Guitar Shop

)

Both artists were part of a spectacular night in 1984 held to honor outgoing McCabe's concert director Nancy Covey. They joined a constellation of stars including Richard Thompson, T Bone Burnett and John Hiatt.

Warren Zevon brought down the house with "Werewolves of London," and the evening closed with Elvis Costello leading the room through "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star."

As McCabe's renown grew, Hollywood also came calling.

McCabe's had begun offering lessons, and actors preparing to play musicians in movies studied with its instructors.

Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix were coached for roles as June Carter and Johnny Cash in the biopic "Walk the Line." Christian Bale also worked with a McCabe's instructor so he could channel Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There."

On top of being a concert venue, McCabe's is a guitar and repair shop that offers lessons.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

Speaking of the music icon, the actual Bob Dylan sought out McCabe's instructor Fran Banish after hearing him perform blues standards at his son's wedding. In a surreal moment for McCabe's staff, Dylan showed up at the shop to work through a Blind Lemon Jefferson tune with Banish in one of the upstairs lesson rooms.

"Great artists are always learning," Lesser said.

Among the pillars

Upstairs by the lesson rooms, the hallway is lined with photos of the giants who've played at McCabe's.

Fulks, waiting in the green room ahead of his performance, marvels at being in the company of heroes like Doc Watson and Norman Blake, even after himself playing at the venue since the early 2000s.

Multiple artists have recorded tracks or whole albums at McCabe's including Peter Case.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

"You look at the pictures on the wall and I don't think I belong in that group of people," Fulks said.

Having moved to L.A. from Chicago during the pandemic, Fulks is now able to attend concerts at McCabe's himself, and being on the other side of the stage, he knows the reverential attention given to performances.

"There's a sort of a slightly museum-like respect built into the situation of being in the dark and looking up at somebody like it's a movie screen, and the sound is always wonderful," Fulks said.

But Fulks, whose wry, self-deprecating sense of humor shows up in his darkly comic lyrics, likes to keep things loose. Later, when he takes the stage, he brings the jokes.

By his count, Robbie Fulks has performed at McCabe's 27 times.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

"I don't look like a country singer exactly," he said to the audience. "But I feel like I look like a humanities professor at a small community college."

Still standing

Despite changes over the years — including new owners and different concert directors bringing their own distinct tastes — McCabe's has maintained a fiercely loyal following.

"Even though we say, 'Yes, we're the owners of McCabe's,' we're not really," said Walt McGraw, who now runs the shop with his wife, Nora. "It's the community, it's the musicians, it's the artists."

McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica sits at its third location on Pico.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

Walt McGraw and his wife Nora took over operation of McCabe's from her father, Bob Riskin, who retired during the pandemic.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

The couple took over the business from Nora's father, Bob Riskin, who started working at McCabe's as a teenager in the early 1960s before eventually becoming owner and moving the store to its third and current location at 3101 Pico Blvd.

When an L.A. Times story reported during the pandemic that Riskin was retiring, longtime patrons feared the venue itself might disappear.

"We got inundated with cards," McGraw recalled. "People sent flowers to the shop saying, 'You can't close.'"

But for McGraw, that has never been an option.

"It just seemed too important to sell or close up shop," he said.

The room today

On the night of Fulks' performance, patrons file through the shop to get to the back room, weaving past walls lined with guitars, mandolins, ukuleles and banjos.

While no alcohol is on tap, there is self-serve coffee, water bottles and chocolate bars for sale.

The backroom of McCabe's Guitar Shop holds an audience of about 150 people..

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

Travis Prine wanders the store, pausing to admire the Martins and Collings.

"I can't afford most of the guitars in here, but it's a really cool place," said Prine, who drove from Hesperia in the high desert to see Fulks.

It was his first time at McCabe's, and he can feel the history.

"Almost everybody who's anyone has played here over the years," he said. "Jackson Browne has played here. Townes Van Zandt, I believe — just about everyone."

To see shows, concert-goers must first pass through the guitar shop to get to the backroom.

(

Josie Huang

/

LAist

)

And now it was Prine's turn to get the McCabe's experience.

For an hour and a half, Fulks runs through an acoustic set that at one moment was classic country, the next, spiky bluegrass, mixing virtuosic picking and storytelling, with a nod to forebears.

"This is slightly embarrassing about the set list, but there's three mentions of Hank Williams over the course of the set," Fulks said to cheers and clapping. "The third one comes much later in the set, so we'll give you a free jelly bean if you spot that one."

It's the kind of night that keeps them coming back to McCabe's, show after show.

Federal forecasters say this year the planet could see the strongest El Niño event on record. It's already being called "Super El Niño" and even "Godzilla El Niño." El Niño is a natural climate pattern that has far-reaching impacts across the planet, potentially affecting hundreds of millions of people.

Where those impacts happen can vary drastically from one El Niño to the next. Here are the basics of what this historic event could bring.

What is El Niño?

El Niño occurs every two to seven years. It develops when a vast amount of water in the eastern Pacific Ocean warms up around the equator. That water releases massive heat, redistributing warmth from the ocean to the atmosphere. That shifts weather patterns around the world.

The flip side of El Niño is a La Niña, which is marked by relatively cool water in the tropical Pacific around the equator. These events are responsible for some of the biggest weather variability the planet experiences.

El Niño is like dropping a rock in a pond, says Daniel Vimont, professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Even though you're not where the rock hit, you still may feel the effects of those waves," he says. "El Niño is the same thing, except it's an enormous rock in our entire Earth's system, and we feel the response."

How strong is it?

Sure, "Godzilla El Niño" is catchy, but technically, NOAA forecasters say this year's El Niño will fall into the "very strong" category. It's measured by the temperature of the ocean in a particular region off South America. The warmer the water, the stronger the El Niño. When that water is more than 2 degrees Celsius warmer than average, it qualifies as a "very strong" El Niño.

The last strong events were in 2015-16, 1997-8 and 1982-83. El Niños typically peak in November and December, but already, this El Niño is the strongest ever measured for this time of year. NOAA forecasters expect it to last through early 2027.

What will the impacts be globally?

All that added heat in the atmosphere raises temperatures globally. El Niño years tend to be the hottest on record. Forecasters say this year may get close to taking the top spot, but it's very likely that temperature records could fall in 2027. The planet is already warmer due to climate change, because emissions from burning fossil fuels are trapping more heat in the atmosphere.

El Niño also shifts rainfall patterns globally, raising the chances for destructive flooding in some parts of the world. Other regions get drier, exacerbating droughts. Both impacts can be catastrophic to agriculture around the world. The United Nations World Food Programme estimates that El Niño could push at least 49 million more people into acute food insecurity by the end of 2027.

What will the impacts be in the U.S.?

In El Niño years, the southern U.S. tends to see more intense rainfall because the jet stream shifts to the south. That raises the risk of floods along rivers and in cities. Still, in the Southwest, more rain could alleviate drought and recharge underground aquifers.

"El Niño tends to juice up those storms so that you get more really strong rain events," says Martin Hoerling, meteorologist and adjunct lecturer at the University of Colorado Boulder. "So if you were running a deficit in your water supply, a big El Niño, especially like the one we're having, can really get you into recovery mode that otherwise might have taken you years."

The northern half of the country gets warmer and drier, something that could exacerbate the current drought in the Intermountain West. Some states experience mixed effects during El Niños, like California. The state saw historic flooding in the 1997-98 El Niño, but was drier than average during the 2015-16 one. Climate experts say the current El Niño is so strong, it's more likely California will experience extreme rain.

El Niños can also lead to fewer hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, since it's more difficult for the storms to form. In the Pacific Ocean, hurricanes can get more frequent, fueled by warmer ocean water. Already this year, hurricanes have intensified rapidly in the Pacific, and Hawaii has had close calls with several hurricanes that brought destructive rain and wind.

Can we blame it all on El Niño?

Certain weather changes are common during El Niños, but there are no guarantees that extreme weather events this winter will match those predictions for every region.

"El Niño is like loading the dice," Vimont says. "While we're loading the dice for a certain type of response from El Niño, we still know that in any given year, there are still natural fluctuations that may mask that or cause the response to be slightly different than what we might expect."

In addition to that natural variability, weather events are also being affected by climate change. The most intense storms are already producing more rainfall in most of the U.S., since a warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor. Heat waves and droughts are also getting more intense due to rising temperatures. Climate experts say El Niño and climate change impacts will both play out this winter, but while El Niño will fade, the effects of climate change will continue.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Fans of Hollywood Burbank Airport have a new way to rag on LAX-ers.

Burbank’s ambitious new terminal building has been completed on time and on budget. The long-awaited structure, known as the Elevate BUR project, is ready for prime time.

It’s slated to open to the public on Oct. 13, with a new entrance at Winona Avenue and Hollywood Way. On Monday, LAist got a look inside.

Why now?

The $1.3 billion terminal is a decade in the making. The project comes from Burbank’s Measure B, which voters passed in 2016.

Burbank Mayor Tamala Takahashi said the new building will replace the terminal that opened in 1930, which will eventually be demolished.

“ The old building is not to code, so it can’t be reused. It’s too close to the airstrip. That’s why we had to do this in the first place,” she said.

The new facility is more than 50% larger. Plus, it has a slate of improvements needed to meet FAA safety standards and state building requirements. That includes new seismic and accessibility features and more runaway space.

The new terminal will have the same 14 gates but with a lot more room.

(

Cato Hernández

/

LAist

)

The entrance to TSA. Once you're in, you either go left or right to your gate number after screening.

(

Cato Hernández

/

LAist

)

Takahashi said the new terminal will open up  capacity because all of the gates will be able to accommodate modern planes.

“What that means is that we’re going to have the same number of flights, the same number of planes, the same number of gates, but more people going through the airport every day,” she said.

There’s one thing travelers can count on to stay the same: You’ll still be able to board your plane on the tarmac.

The Hollywood touch

Tyron Hampton, president of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, which owns the airport, said it’s time everyone knows about L.A.’s best insider tip for flying.

“ This is no longer a secret,” he said. “We want people to come here. We want people to see this experience.”

Hampton said the new building has space for more amenities, which feature local retailers like Jones Coffee and Octavia’s Bookshelf.

The specs on the ceiling are supposed to mirror one of Marilyn Monroe's dresses.

(

Cato Hernández

/

LAist

)

Art is also woven into the design. Brent Kelley, who worked on the architecture at Corgan, said one of their themes was classic Hollywood.

For example, small dots on the ceiling are meant to evoke Marilyn Monroe’s glimmering dress during her iconic “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” moment.

A “silver screen” canopy extends across the building outside, alongside an installation that honors the time the buildings were covered in camouflage during World War II.

California State University is betting that artificial intelligence will transform the workplace — and that its 470,000 students need to learn how to use it before they graduate.

Last year, CSU became the nation’s first public university system to pay for students’ access to ChatGPT Edu. It has awarded over $3 million in grants for faculty to experiment with how to use AI in classrooms. Several campuses now train students in how to responsibly use the technology.

Those measures are all pieces of CSU’s strategy to prepare students for a future labor market reshaped by AI. But the investment in AI has come under criticism from some CSU faculty, and some students remain skeptical of the value of knowing how to use AI even as most are concerned the developing technology will threaten their chances of landing a job and keeping it.

The success of CSU’s AI strategy will depend on the extent to which AI affects the workforce that today’s college students will soon enter.

Hiring is frozen in many sectors right now as employers wait to see the true extent artificial intelligence will change the labor market, said Eric Bettinger, a leading education economist with Stanford Graduate School of Education. But it’s not clear if the slowdown in the labor market can be attributed to AI.

As with previous emerging technologies, AI is forcing employers to decide whether they should replace workers with the technology, or hire more employees who can leverage AI to be more productive, Bettinger said.

New graduates are facing a difficult labor market, considering the unemployment rate for this population has steadily risen since 2022, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“The reality is that the world outside of school isn’t slowing down, and we need to prepare our students for that reality,” James Frazee, San Diego State University’s vice president for information technology, told EdSource.

Students worry AI is taking their future jobs

Ismaeel Malik, a San Jose State University justice studies student, said he worries about AI taking over jobs in his desired field.

“Entry-level jobs are work that people don’t want to do,” Malik, who will graduate next spring, told EdSource. Malik said he doesn’t think AI proficiency will make it easier to win a position out of college.

Other San Jose State students who spoke with EdSource say they think some majors will be more affected than others. San Jose State prenursing student Jade Goodewin said the “hands-on” part of her preferred future career seems fairly AI-proof. But second-year student Vien Tang, who is studying advertising, said that AI could replace some of the work of entry-level jobs in the advertising industry.

“It’s definitely a possibility, because I think a lot of companies try to cut costs,” Tang said. “There’s a likelihood of that happening.”

Given SJSU’s proximity to Silicon Valley and many companies whose technologies are reshaping the workforce, the university hopes to be a leader in AI adoption, said Sandra Hirsh, special assistant to the university’s provost for AI initiatives.

“We need to be preparing students with whatever the latest opportunities are, but also prepare students for the fact that change and evolution are going to continue to happen,” she said.

Hirsh said companies want graduates to have a basic understanding of AI and how to use it in their work. Despite the nebulous changes happening in the job market, companies that hire SJSU graduates have told university leaders that students also need skills in leadership, inventiveness and ethics.

The CSU system is paying $13 million a year to provide ChatGPT Edu to all 470,000 CSU students.

Artur Gafurov, president of the California State Student Association and a fourth-year student at San Jose State, said many students appreciate access to AI tools like ChatGPT Edu, but don’t necessarily know how to use them responsibly and effectively.

“I know a lot of students who are taking it upon themselves to learn a bit more about the tool and restrict themselves with how they use it,” Gafurov said.

Some question the value of AI initiatives 

Other private and public universities have signed agreements with companies such as OpenAI to give students access to large language models, including ChatGPT Edu. Large public university systems, such as State University of New York, have also developed systemwide AI policies, and some colleges, such as Northwestern University, have launched AI majors.

But not everyone at CSU has embraced the growing use of AI on campuses. Some professors pushed back on the OpenAI deal after CSU signed it in early 2025. Martha Lincoln, an anthropology professor at San Francisco State University, said CSU administrators did not clearly explain how AI would be used on campuses and in classrooms by students.

“What will students be doing with AI that’s so valuable? If it’s so valuable to them professionally, educationally, where is that value and what does it look like?” Lincoln said.

Martha Kenney, a professor in the SFSU Department of Women and Gender Studies, said CSU’s claims that AI is helping prepare students for the changing labor market are dubious because the university has not clearly identified skills young people should develop for their future careers.

“It’s possible it has no use for our students in this way,” Kenney said.

According to an OpenAI spokesperson, ChatGPT Edu provides students with access to the company’s latest large language model, and includes plug-ins that students and faculty can use to personalize their accounts for teaching and learning.

University officials say providing access to tools like ChatGPT is essential to prevent a digital divide for CSU students who may not be able to afford subscriptions to these technologies.

“We believe we’re doing the right thing to serve our mission to prepare our students for the future workforce,” said Ed Clark, CSU’s chief information officer.

The future workforce

Erika McEntarfer, the former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and a policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, said some experts in recent years have forecast that AI would wipe out white-collar workers’ jobs. There’s little evidence that has happened, she said.

It’s difficult for universities to predict which skills will be in demand in the future, she said, but colleges should prepare their students for disruptions to their careers. She noted that roughly 60% of today’s jobs didn’t exist in 1940.

Universities need to prepare students for a tough labor market, and not just because of AI, McEntarfer said. The recent rise in the unemployment rate among new graduates started before ChatGPT was introduced in 2022, she said.

McEntarfer’s advice to recent or soon-to-be graduates is to develop skills that make you a good “human” worker, such as small talk, showing up to work on time and meeting the needs of company leaders.

“With AI you need to make sure you’re using it as a personal trainer, not a human forklift,” McEntarfer advised future college graduates. “Hopefully that’s what colleges are doing.”

Mariana Sanchez is a fourth-year journalism major at San Jose State University and a member of the EdSource California Student Journalism Corps.

This story was originally published by EdSource.