Vol 06 Issue 09 by Diana James

Hillary Clinton Firewall Fizzle

Richard NATALIE Foss NI Korean TIMCEHOLS WARP Cuisine

Slow BUS RIDE ON WILSHIRE

D Shirleon Robot y s in Love

Ted Rall’s ‘ Left Coast’

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DEEP SELECTION! GREAT PRICES! BOB DYLAN’S AMERICAN JOURNEY an exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center. Visit Amoeba.com and enter our Dylan Contest! You could WIN TICKETS and EXCLUSIVE DYLAN MERCHANDISE!

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Jam-packed with more of their soulful, Detroit-style, fuzztone-fueled garage-punk pop-rock n roll. Twelve slices of sonic thud kick the party into high gear and show off a vast array of unexpected influences.

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KINGDOM OF SORROW Kingdom of Sorrow

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Boasting a line up that includes members of HATEBREED, DOWN, CROWBAR, and more — KINGDOM OF SORROW tears through an 11 track barrage of some of the most punishing, straight-up metal in years.

98 CD

Mat Brooke (Band Of Horses, Carissa’s Wierd) has changed direction with this band. Like the timeless classics of The Mamas & The Papas or The Turtles, it responds to the turbulent times of its genesis with hope, high spirits, and a sense of camaraderie.

MIKE DOUGHTY Golden Delicious

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Mike Doughty’s (Soul Coughing) new album, Golden Delicious, is a loose-limbed, freewheeling set that brings all the aspects of his singular muse together in one smart, humorous and eloquent package.

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Features classic funk hits from the ’70s from Sly & The Family Stone, Ohio Players, War, Curtis Mayfield, and more, as well as Will Ferrell performing his funkadelic version of “Love Me Sexy”.

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KELLEY STOLTZ Circular Sounds

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The fourth LP from Stoltz. Circular Sounds is very much a pop record in the classic ’60s mold. Radio-ready yet retaining the organic warmth that gave his earlier work its character.

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STAFF EDITORIAL Editor Steve Appleford stevea@lacitybeat.com News Editor Alan Mittelstaedt alanm@lacitybeat.com

P C ON T E N T W W W. L A C I T Y B E A T . C O M

VO L U M E 6 ~ N O . 9

Senior Editor Kevin Uhrich Film Editor Andy Klein andyk@lacitybeat.com Calendar Editor Alfred Lee alfredl@lacitybeat.com Editorial Contributors Donnell Alexander, Paul Birchall, Michael Collins, André Coleman, Cole Coonce, Mark Cromer, Perry Crowe, Samantha Dunn, Annlee Ellingson, Dan Epstein, Mick Farren, Richard Foss, Ron Garmon, Andrew Gumbel,Tom Hayden, Erik Himmelsbach, Bill Holdship, Jessica Hundley, Chip Jacobs, Mark Keizer, Carl Kozlowski, Wade Major, Richard Meltzer, Allison Milionis, Anthony Miller, Chris Morris, Natalie Nichols, Amy Nicholson, Donna Perlmutter, Joe Piasecki, Ted Rall, Charles Rappleye, Dennis Romero, Craig Rosen, Erika Schickel, Don Shirley, Kirk Silsbee, Brent Simon, Joshua Sindell, Annette Stark, Don Waller

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LOCALS ONLY MUSIC ’08

H 8 Border Crossings. Dengue Fever combines the indie and the Cambodian to create sounds enigmatic and modern. By MATT DIEHL.

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FRONTLINES 5 Bus Riders to Antonio: Time to back up your talk. ALAN MITTELSTAEDT suggests that the mayor jump-start the EIR for the Wilshire bus-lane project, in L.A. SNIPER.

6 Hillary’s Idea of Fun. Or, how the once favored candidate resembles the most loathed girl on campus. By ANDREW GUMBEL in AMERICAN BABYLON.

Down in the Groove. Turn Off the Radio series offers mashed-up, unpretentious underground Latin dance parties. By KAMREN CURIEL.

Editorial & Letters 4 Left Coast by Ted Rall 4 <============ LA&E ============>

15 SHAVO ODADJIAN, the System of a Down bassist, talks about making music, film, and opening up the Internet, in 3RD DEGREE.

18 Local Heroes Unite. DENNIS ROMERO writes that DJ music from L.A. may still be unknown to much of the world, but Droog is plugged into a global groove, in GROUNDSWELL.

Dangerous Beauty. Youth and temptation collide in Stupid Kids and Robots. By DON SHIRLEY.

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10 Gone Underground. A survey of local rock clubs suggests the pros are turning weirder. By RON GARMON.

Web & Print Production Manager Meghan Quinn Advertising Art Director Sandy Wachs

19 Siren Singer. Janis Mann’s jazz performances are deliciously just right. By KIRK SILSBEE.

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CLASSICAL 21 Three Faces of Madness. Musical manifestations of the Moor, the Wili, the Pierrot. By DONNA PERLMUTTER.

FILM 24 Chicago to Washington to Beijing. Politics can be found in Chicago 10, real life, and Summer Palace. By ANDY KLEIN.

Latest Reviews 26 Movie Showtimes 27 Special Screenings 34

EAT 36 Top Korean. Woo Lae Oak re-imagines a hearty cuisine with elegance and inventiveness. By RICHARD FOSS.

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CITYBEAT

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Metro’s $80 Million Boondoggle .......................................

ow much taxpayer loot should it take to buy a legacy for Yvonne Burke, the county supervisor and member of the governing board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority? A few years ago, we had hoped to get off cheap with a $5 T-shirt bearing the message “I saved King/Drew.” Things didn’t quite work out. Now, the long-tenured member of the state Assembly, Congress, and four-term county supervisor is preparing to leave the public spotlight and head off into retirement at the end of the year. But she is not content to leave without steamrolling a very expensive idea through the Metro board. This morning (Thursday, February 28), the Metro board is scheduled to give final approval to an $80 million, 10-year contract to install turnstiles along the Red Line subway and at select light-rail stations. The numbers don’t add up and the project should be abandoned. We think this boondoggle will likely cost far more to set up than Metro estimates and save less in unpaid fares than the transit agency, in its overly optimistic way of viewing the world – when it serves their interests – says it will. So far, only one of 13 board members – Richard Katz – has risen up to oppose the plan. Last month, when the Metro board was all set to sign off on the plan, Katz came forward with a last-minute letter raising questions about Metro’s assumptions. In the letter, Richard Stanger, the mastermind behind the region’s Metrolink commuter train network, poked holes in all of Metro’s budget numbers and discounted claims that turnstiles would improve security one ounce. Unless the Metro board can satisfactorily address every one of Stanger’s points, and nail down budget figures as immutable truths, it has no business approving the deal. Let reasonable people stop the board from ripping off the public to set up a turnstile system no one needs. It’s time to tell Cubic Transportation Systems, Inc. of San Diego to take a hike. In coming months, the Metro board likely will be out campaigning for a ballot measure from Covina to Santa Clarita, from the South Bay and Santa Monica to Pasadena, asking voters to help pay for an array of transportation projects, from subways to light rail, even some carpool lanes on freeways. If board members approve the turnstile system, they can expect to be dogged at every campaign stop about why voters should consider giving them more money if they can’t prudently spend what they already have. ✶

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L E T T E R S

Keeping Hope Alive

Really Annoyed

Pessimism and a lacking view of the big picture is all I could think about when reading the commentary on the Obama campaign by David Ehrenstein [“Green Like Me,” Feb. 21]. I suppose putting Obama up in contrast with the failure of chlorophyll to clean teeth and freshen breath makes sense to someone with such a flat and playedout point. I suppose the political knowledge of Ehrenstein far outweighs the judgment of a decades-old Democrat such as Ted Kennedy. I would love to do a point-by-point response of this particular commentary; however, I feel as if it would fall on deaf ears. It is a very rare time in America when one single politician can electrify both the right and the left (so who is being duped?). Let me be clear: I do not believe electing Obama will magically change the economic, racial, educational, or health care woes instantly. However, it is the idea that changes can occur one step at a time. The biggest difference between Hillary and Obama is Barack’s view of the world as a place where people can reach out and talk with each other. What a shame. Anyone right, left, or center who doesn’t see this man as a symbol of the American people’s willingness for change, then “we the people” are already too far down the road of pessimism for us to even think about change.

Your editorial misquoted Michelle Obama [“Word Play,” Feb. 21]. She really said “for the first time in my life, I’m really proud of my country.” Fox News recorded the statement and bleeped out the “really,” and sent it to Matt Drudge. If you listened to Air America last week, you could hear the edited sound bite, and you can obviously recognize that the word “really” was deleted. The problem is not Michelle Obama’s statement. It’s the journalism epitomized by Fox News, Matt Drudge (who published John McCain’s so-called “affair” last December), and CNN (a.k.a. Crap News Network).

TIM CULLOTON LOS ANGELES

WILLIAM JOSEPH MILLER LOS ANGELES

our country cannot afford to gamble again with someone who is simply not prepared to take on the enormous responsibilities of Commander-In-Chief. On the other hand, Senator Clinton has spent her whole life working for change. Change that has improved the quality of life for all Americans by focusing on fairness. She truly cares about our country. Given the current state of our economy, she may very well represent the last chance for this country to avoid social catastrophe. For this election is a clear choice between those who have never had it so good, and those of us who know we can do better. Senator Clinton knows we can do better, and her track record reflects that. On Tuesday, March 4, I will vote for Senator Hillary Clinton for president. and help get our country back on track. JOE BIALEK CLEVELAND, OHIO

Change Agent This letter is to explain why I am not supporting Senator Barack Obama and am fully supporting Senator Hillary Clinton for president of the United States. Senator Obama often repeats that he is the candidate for change, but what has he done to work for change? He appears to mimic the candidacy of Senator Clinton in spirit, but not with substance. Clearly, he has not thought the issues through, and perhaps given more time and experience, he will emerge as a fine statesperson. But at this most crucial moment in history, CITYBEAT

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Meat Madness Last Sunday’s recall of 143 million pounds of beef by the U.S. Department of Agriculture should provide a loud and clear wake-up call that federal inspection is not adequate to ensure a safe meat supply. This largest meat recall in U.S. history was actually brought on by an animal rights organization’s undercover video, showing Califor nia slaughterhouse workers using kicks,

FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

electric shocks, high-pressure water hoses, and a forklift to force sick or injured animals onto the kill floor. USDA regulations prohibit sick animals from entering the food supply, because of the high risk of contamination by E. coli, salmonella, or mad cow disease. About 37 million pounds of the recalled meat went to school lunches and other federal nutrition programs since October 2006, and “almost all of it is likely to have been consumed,” according to a USDA official. Parents must insist that the USDA stop using the National School Lunch Program as a dumping ground for surplus meat and dairy commodities. The rest of us must learn to treat all meat, and particularly ground beef, as a hazardous substance to be consumed at one’s own peril. PATRICK LAWSON PASADENA

ttttt SEND LETTERS! Letters to the editor should include a return address and telephone number. All correspondence becomes property of Los Angeles CityBeat and may be edited for space. Send to LETTERS, CityBeat, 5209 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036. Or by fax (323) 938-1661 or e-mail: editor@lacitybeat.com.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY ALAN MITTELSTAEDT

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F R O N T L I N E S

~ TAKING THE OATH: “I, ANTONIO, WILL SEE TO IT THAT WORK BEGINS ON THE BUS LANE BY APRIL 15” ~

Bus Riders to Antonio: Time to back up your talk The mayor should jump-start the EIR for the Wilshire bus-lane project ~ B Y A L A N M I T T E L S TA E D T ~ THE DEAD-END PURPLE LINE SUBWAY station at Wilshire/Western, on the busiest bus corridor in L.A. County, saw back-to-back news conferences Wednesday morning that, with some luck, could speed up two of the city’s lumbering bureaucracies. First off, the Bus Riders Union called on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to come up with $10 million to jump-start the rush-hour bus-only lanes for the nine-mile span along Wilshire to Santa Monica. The city and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority received word this month that a $27 million federal grant will be coming this way in October for the project. But the bus advocates want work to start right now and for the project to be finished long before the target date of 2011. “You have been a verbal ally, Antonio. We know when you have a political will, you can find a way,” challenged Francisca Porchas, lead organizer. With the banner, “Mr. Mayor, fund bus-only lanes now!” draped in the background, the mayor took the podium 30 minutes later to talk about the wonders of traffic light synchronization along Wilshire. Reality check, Antonio: Until the bus lanes are up and running, commuters at 5 p.m. will often sit in gridlock and have a chance to memorize every detail of the new signs you unveiled. They will only annoy and remind commuters in buses and cars alike that, yes, indeed, if only they were moving, the wizardry of synchronized signals would help restore their sanity. To his credit, the mayor didn’t blow off the Bus Riders Union, even though the city is looking at a deficit of $400 million and growing. He agreed to see if there are any innovative ways that the city could front the money and be repaid by the federal government in eight months. We’re thinking maybe moneybags Nick

Patsouras, a former Metro bigwig and developer with his hand in a few Metro projects around town, could make an interest-free loan. Or, Eli Broad might consider such a good civic deed, seeing how some passengers will be taking the bus to his museum. But even if the mayor can’t find the dough, he can do more to move the Wilshire bus lanes project into full gear. You might think the project has already been studied to death, but since it won federal money, yet another environmental impact report is needed. Metro’s Rex Gephart said it’s his job to coordinate that report with the city’s Department of Transportation. Gephart also is working on a presentation for the city of Beverly Hills, and will ask that city to agree to bus lanes along its threemile span of Wilshire. Last fall, Metro approached the city of Beverly Hills, but engineers there said they wanted to wait and see how the bus lanes worked for Los Angeles. Now that the grant has come through, Metro will tr y again and could amend the federal grant to include money for Beverly Hills’s portion. Too bad the good people of Beverly Hills didn’t have the vision to sign on to the project when it was first proposed to them months ago. But there’s no reason to wait for L.A.’s two agencies to get together and make their plans and allow months – or a year – to go by before all the paperwork is in. As an October 29, 2007 report from DoT’s General Manager Rita Robinson to the City Council put it, with the bureaucratese deleted: “Authorization … to begin work before October 2008 may be obtained … but the project will need to be environmentally cleared … first.” So, why doesn’t the mayor wave his wand and order his transportation department to jump through hoops the same way he did two weeks ago to jump-

start the Pico-Olympic mostly one-way project? We asked the mayor what he could do to speed up the environmental review, seeing how the feds will be cutting a check in October anyways. Said the mayor: “I don’t see anyone from Metro out here today. I can ask them that question and I will. It is one of our top priorities.” Well, we already asked Metro. But we bet we might get a different answer if we were the mayor of Los Angeles and called our very own transportation department; you’re the boss over there and should be issuing orders on the bus-lane project. You might even find some residual objections to the bus-lanes that are festering over there. Just a hunch. We were told that Metro and DoT have one year, from the time the money arrives in October, to start construction on the project. The environmental reports, which might end up being an update of a 2003 report on the rapid bus lines along Wilshire, will be finished sometime after October of this year. All of those are acceptable answers, in times of peace. But it’s war out there during rush hour, Antonio. It’s time for you to get those lanes open sooner rather than later. Start with fast-tracking the environmental reports and putting out feelers to your rich pals. Even Ron Burkle, if you explain to him what a bus is, could write the check by the start of the afternoon commute. And, if you want another reason to get moving on the bus-lane project, consider this: It would be an impressive project to be online by the time you find yourself in the gridlock of a very contentious reelection campaign in a few short months. ANTONIO’S PUPPY LOVE OK. OK. OK, this can’t really be true, can it? But from our vantage point in the mayor’s press conference room on the third floor of City Hall, where Antonio had gathered two dozen animal-control officers and animal activists for a law-signing ceremony, it sure looked like the city’s Top Dog was having trouble sharing his attention with the puppies. Every time one of the puppies moved, the mayor stopped talking. “That was just too cute,” said the mayor, as two German shepherd-mix puppies touched noses. “Everybody loves a puppy.” What’s ironic is that the mutt in Antonio’s arms, whom we’ll call “Hahn,” will be one of the last ever born in the city of Los Angeles, if the law signed by the mayor really forces people to spay and neuter their dogs and cats. Exempt from the life-altering procedures, of course, are the legions of boring, often over-bred purebreds, guide dogs, and police dogs. Joining the mayor were Councilmembers Richard Alarcón and Tony Cardenas, who pushed the proposal through City Hall. Last year, Los Angeles city animal shelters took in 50,000 cats and dogs, 15,000 of whom were eventually killed. “It is the animal-rights activist community that educated me and it is time that normal, average people who have cats and dogs and other animals understand how to be responsible owners,” said Alarcón. “You don’t have to be an animal-rights activist to be humane.” Now, if only Assemblyman Lloyd

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Levine could tame the rabid foes who are trying to defeat his similar measure in the state Legislature. COOKING THE NUMBERS L.A.’s chief legislative analyst busted the mayor this week for spinning wild yarns about how he could save millions of dollars by ordering city employees to turn in their cell phones, a handful of the cityissued cars, and take a day off – at their own expense. You’ll recall the mayor called a news conference one week before voters decided in favor of Proposition S, the $237 million communications tax. It was to the mayor’s advantage to paint a bleak picture of the city’s finances so that voters wouldn’t have a second thought about approving the money. But Antonio got a little loose with the numbers as he proposed $35 million in cuts that January day. He suggested, for example, that he could save a pile of money if employees turned in their cell phones. But Gerry Miller, who cut a mean, bulldog figure as he testified in front of the City Council on Tuesday, said it would be impossible to save anywhere near that kind of coin. The city enters into contracts for two years or more, and to back out of the deals now would cost the city the same as if they paid the monthly service fees for the remainder of the contract. Sound like the Verizon salesperson right before you started screaming into the phone about the need for a real PUC? The mayor proposed saving $1.2 million by ordering more than 200 city staffers to turn in their cars. But that’s not feasible because of financing issues. Instead, reducing the fleet by 46 seems doable. Miller uncovered some interesting city history in his pursuits. His understated tone can best be enjoyed by reading a line like this aloud: “Also included on the list of 236 home-garaged executive-fleet vehicles are ones that we cannot or would unlikely sell (e.g., vehicles on loan from the manufacturer, the 1952 Chrysler ‘parade car’).” Miller, who works for the City Council, seemed to enjoy getting his digs in on the mayor. He couched most of his analysis in suggestions and proposals, but when it comes to the cars, he seemed intent on making sure that one Antonio Villaraigosa follows through on turning in the keys for “the 26 that the mayor has already asked his staff to return.” Trying to get 7,000 city employees – the non-emergency workforce – to take 10 days off without pay by the end of the year to save $20 million is another mathematical impossibility. So far, 131 employees have signed up for a total of 133 days. The average daily wage: $290. Yet more evidence that the January press conference was a ploy to get voters to approve Prop. S is the silence that Miller met when he tried to get the mayor’s response to his findings. “We requested, but did not receive, information from the Mayor’s Office, on how these savings could be realized.” Maybe the mayor’s tied up at the police academy, making sure none of the new recruits get cold feet worrying about whether they’ll still have a job come graduation day. ✶ Send insults and ammo to BigAl@lasniper.com.

F R O N T L I N E S

ABOUT 20 MINUTES INTO TUESDAY night’s Democratic presidential debate in Ohio, I finally noticed – perhaps more slowly than the rest of you, perhaps more slowly than the voters in Ohio and Texas – the “tell” Hillary Clinton offers whenever she feels uncomfortable or is peddling a line for strictly political purposes. She smiles. Or even laughs. If she’s talking, her eyes have a tendency to avoid the camera. Her lids droop slightly. About 40 minutes into the debate, I noticed what might be described as the converse phenomenon: that this woman really doesn’t have a sense of humor. And if she thinks something is funny, or “fun,” as she sometimes puts it, it is pretty reliably a signal to the rest of us that something distasteful or outright disgusting is afoot. I mention this not because I think it is important or even particularly interesting to psychoanalyze Clinton’s personality, but because I want to try to understand why a woman this self-assured, this manifestly competent in many ways, this ferocious at defending her corner and putting her passions on the line, is at the same time hurtling toward political self-destruction at warp speed. She had that killer smile on her face at the very beginning of the debate, when Tim Russert and Brian Williams showed the tape of her “Shame on you, Barack Obama” campaign speech of a few days earlier. And she had it again, midway through the debate, when they showed footage of her other most recent attackdog speech, the one where she mocked Obama’s rhetorical style and talked about the sky opening and the light coming down and the celestial choirs singing. That second time, in fact, she burst into nervous titters as soon as Obama started reacting. She was positively howling with laughter when, instead of taking offense, he said she showed some good humor and deserved “points for delivery.” Obama’s answer was, from her standpoint, no laughing matter: He managed to appear supremely gracious while at the same time showing her up in all her ambition-driven unscrupulousness. Then came the coup de grace, as she herself sought to explain away the incident. “Well, I was having a little fun,” she told the moderators. “You know, it’s hard to find time to have fun on the campaign trail, but occasionally you can sneak that in.” Clearly, Clinton’s idea of fun is nothing short of ripping out her opponent’s throat – she certainly hasn’t shown much propensity to having fun any other way this campaign season, unless she’s been turfing disabled supporters out of their wheelchairs or kicking little girls to the ground when the press corps hasn’t been looking. Equally clearly, her idea of a really bad time is when the throat-ripping doesn’t work and she watches her poll numbers sink ever lower. Almost in tandem with her uncomfortably raucous laughter, she demonstrated some nasty flashes of distinctly ill humor. One of them has already been much written about – when she cited Saturday Night Live to suggest the media was out to get her, and wondered if Obama might need “another pillow” to make him more comfortable. But there was another one, arguably even nastier, when Russert grilled her on whether – and when – she and her husband might release their tax returns as they have promised. “I will do it as others have done it,” she said, every pore in her body seemingly

PHOTOGRAPH BY TED SOQUI

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A M E R I C A N

B A B Y L O N

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HILLARY’S IDEA OF FUN

Or, how the once favored candidate resembles the most loathed girl on campus ~ BY ANDREW GUMBEL ~

oozing insincerity. “Upon becoming the nominee, or even earlier, Tim, because I have been as open as I can be.” Russert didn’t let up, and wondered if that meant she’d release the returns before Election Day in Texas and Ohio. Suddenly, her inner harpy flew out. “I’m a little busy right now,” she said sarcastically. “I hardly have time to sleep.” Even if she hoped the line would sound cute, its delivery made its meaning crystal-clear: I’ll make my own timetable, CITYBEAT

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thank you very much, and don’t presume to tell me otherwise in the name of democracy, openness, or any other pompous concept you care to throw at me. Imperious? I’d say so. Unelectable? Very possibly. And so the final curtain dropped a little lower on one of the most extraordinary pieces of American political theatre in modern times – the disintegration of a presidential candidate who, just a few months ago, seemed well-nigh unas-

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sailable, both within her party and in the country at large. Clinton had the party establishment on her side. The electoral calendar played strongly in her favor, with its (deliberately) front-loaded torrent of primaries and caucuses on Tsunami Tuesday that, by their very nature, excluded all but the most prominent and lavishly funded of candidates. She had experience and name recognition galore, not to mention an enduringly popular legacy and a reliably electric fellow campaigner in the shape of her husband. And yet it all fell apart, thanks to Obama’s ability to achieve instant rock-star status, mobilize a vast grassroots operation, and sell the public on the idea that we need to move beyond the divisive partisan dogfights of the 1990s and the Bush years, and refashion American politics from the ground up. People have talked about Clinton’s likeability, about her polarizing effect on the electorate, about the souring effect of having held and, to some degree, abused power in the past. All these are valid issues, but now, as we reach the endgame, I think it is ultimately about authenticity. The voters who really matter in next Tuesday’s contests, the ones who still have a propensity to change their minds, are not the voters who have examined the two candidates’ policy platforms, or analyzed their campaigning styles, or done extensive research on Obama’s state senate career in Illinois vis-à-vis Hillary’s public pronouncements on health care, or NAFTA, or the war in Iraq. Those voters already know which way they are going. The undecideds are people who tend to be much more disengaged, who will go in the end with their gut feeling – a feeling based not on substance so much as a blink. Who can they trust? Who is more comfortable in his or her own skin? On that score, Obama wins hands down. He was far from perfect in Tuesday’s debate. Clinton and the moderators landed some zingers on him, to be sure – his failure as chairman of a Senate oversight committee to hold substantive hearings on the issues he is now pressing on the campaign trail, or his apparent wavering on his commitment to public financing of the general election. The big difference between him and Clinton, though, was in the way he answered these points. Yes, he acknowledged happily, I haven’t held hearings, but that’s because I’ve been running for president since getting that chairmanship at the beginning of last year. No, I haven’t waffled on public financing, he insisted, but I intend to talk it over with the McCain campaign as and when I become the nominee so the playing field is fair for everyone. One can find plenty to criticize in these answers, but the point is he answered them easily, happily, like someone who doesn’t mind taking a knock or two because he has his eye on the bigger picture. Clinton, by contrast, had her nervous laughter and her flashes of anger. Ouch. Sure, she’s hard-working and ambitious and out to show everyone what a fighter she is. But we all knew people like that in high school, and our experience tells us they induce fear and loathing long before they inspire admiration. Clinton wants to be top of the class, the ultimate valedictorian, but as it all falls apart she’s in danger of becoming the most widelyloathed girl in school. ✶

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BORDER CROSSINGS Dengue Fever combines the indie and the Cambodian to create sounds enigmatic and modern ★ BY MATT DIEHL

~ CHHOM NIMOL ~

“WORLD” HAS OFTEN PROVEN A dirty word for music fans – just ask the members of Dengue Fever. Sure, this sextet, hailing from Los Angeles’ hipster Eastside, formed around an interest in ’60svintage Cambodian psychedelic rock, and features Cambodian singer Chhom Nimol frequently singing in her native language. Still, that doesn’t mean they fit any particular pigeonhole. “Starting in the ’80s, world music clichés turned off a lot of people,” Dengue Fever bassist Senon Williams explains. “It was repulsive to

~ ETHAN HOLTZMAN ~

gypsy sounds and urban punk rave-up; Beirut blew up the blogosphere with their Brooklyn-meets-Balkan hybrid grooves; Extra Golden and Vampire Weekend, meanwhile, combine indie-rock stylings with the indestructible beat of Africa, resulting in significant artistic dividends. Having formed in 2001, Dengue Fever – which also includes David Ralicke on brass and Paul Smith on drums/percussion – found themselves at the head of the pack. “It’s like a new little movement,” Williams explains. “It’s happened in the past with

L O C A L S O N LY / / D E N G U E F E V E R

those who were into something more rootsy and raw.” Indeed, much of what was available as world music seemed to embody unfortunate stereotypes – the noble savage, the docile, uneducated native. “So much so-called ‘world music’ seemed frozen in time, trying to preserve tradition rather than move things forward,” Dengue guitarist and songwriter Zac Holtzman explains. “We’re not just like, you know, the Guatemalan hat band,” adds Holtzman’s brother, Ethan, who plays organ in the band. “We need to pick up one of those pan flutes,” Williams groans. “Or maybe stick a bone through our noses.” For Dengue Fever, however, the worldmusic tag has ultimately proven more blessing than curse, especially in the wake of new interest in non-Western sounds from maverick musicians capturing attention of late. Gogol Bordello draws huge crowds for their blend of Ukrainian

people like Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, and David Byrne, but in my eyes that was different; they were grabbing things and using them for themselves. It wasn’t a band. Now it’s like, ‘This is just music.’ We’re not trying to do something ‘authentic.’” “If you’re in your dorm room with a drum machine and listening to Fela, then whatever,” adds Smith. “Yeah, but I never thought I’d see Gogol Bordello on David Letterman!” adds Zac, causing the whole band to crack up. Don’t be surprised if you find Dengue Fever showing up on your idiot box, either. According to Dave Neupert, who heads up the Silver Lake-based digital marketing company, M80, that also serves as Dengue Fever’s indie record company, the band’s latest album, Venus on Earth, has transcended all expectations since its release in late January. “We’ve sold 4,000 units, and the campaign is just beginning,” Neupert

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~ PAUL SMITH ~

claims, adding that everyone from major media outlets like NPR and Spin magazine to influential bloggers are supporting the band. “45 percent of that is digital sales,” he adds, “when the industry standard is under 10 percent. It’s blowing my mind.” It’s refreshing to see such adventurous, border-crossing music growing in acceptance. Decidedly trippy, infused with an eerie, infectious melodicism, Dengue Fever’s music resembles a radio transmission from another dimension, oozing atmospheric nostalgia for a time and place that never existed. Onstage, the band’s front line cuts a decidedly odd yet intriguing persona: Zac Holtzman’s looming beanstalk frame and long, dark beard contrasts with petite, gorgeous Nimol outfitted in elaborately colorful Cambodian traditional dress, swaying alluringly to the unpredictable rhythms. No, this isn’t your mother’s indie rock – unless your mother grew up in Angkor Wat. Dengue Fever’s origin is almost as unlikely as their sound. In 1998, Ethan Holtzman, burnt out from his day job as a case manager specializing in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, sold his car and bought a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia. Traveling for half a year, he found that nowhere affected him like Cambodia. “It felt so lawless,” he explains of his feelings for the nation torn apart by so many struggles – war, famine, revolution, genocide. “The Khmer Rouge were still present, and people were very cautious. Missiles had exploded near where I was staying weeks before; some French backpackers had recently been killed on a train. There were

FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

also still landmines buried around, and I’d seen people maimed from them. But it was such a memorable country, so raw. You could do anything – if you wanted to buy a hand grenade for five dollars and throw it, you could.” Dengue’s distinctive moniker comes from the affliction that beset Ethan’s Scottish travel partner, who fell ill after being bit by a disease-carrying mosquito. “He said it felt like your bones are being crushed from the inside,” Holtzman recalls. “The music, the disease, and the country all blurred together.” When Holtzman returned, he and his older brother Zac bonded over a shared love for ’60s Cambodian psychedelic rock. In Ethan’s absence, Zac – a musician who’d played for over a decade with Bay Area country-punkers Dieselhed – had been given the compilation Cambodia Rocks!, and quickly fell in love with the music’s exotically strange twists and turns. Together, Ethan and Zac haunted the clubs and restaurants of Long Beach’s Cambodian community known as “Little Phnom Penh,” looking for a singer to complete their unexpected musical odyssey. When they found Chhom Nimol singing at a restaurant called Dragon House, they knew their search was over. Nimol had been a star in Cambodia, but had stayed illegally in the United States after being brought over for a series of Cambodian New Year celebrations at a Rochester, Minnesota, temple. “It was fun to pop into clubs and see her because we had a crush on her: she was so cute, and sang so well,” Ethan explains. Despite suspicions – and a limited knowledge of the English language – Ni-

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~ SENON WILLIAMS ~

mol joined the Holtzman brothers, who recruited Williams (also a member of Radar Bros.), Ralicke (who’s appeared with the likes of Beck, Ozomatli, and Brazzaville) and Smith (a studio engineer who’d briefly played with Ethan in another band). Almost immediately, Dengue Fever captured interest: Matt Dillon put them on the soundtrack of his directorial debut City of Ghosts, and even hung out at numerous band rehearsals. Dillon still regularly attends Dengue shows. Indie fans, meanwhile, were won over by the band’s raucous first show at Spaceland and the uncanny sounds captured on Dengue Fever’s eponymous first album, largely a collection of vintage covers by revered Cambodian rockers like Sinn Sisamouth. “The old songs the band covers are golden oldies that everyone in Cambodia knows,” explains John Pirozzi. Pirozzi is the director of Sleepwalking Through the Mekong, an acclaimed documentary about the band’s first trip to Cambodia, where they jammed with local musicians and brought Khmer nationals and expats together for the first time on the dance floor, with “songs that represented a better time for those who survived Pol Pot.” Dengue Fever began exploring original material, however, on their 2005 sophomore effort, Escape from Dragon House; Nimol even began singing in English (Holtzman sends his words to a Khmer translator based in Washington, D.C.). Dengue Fever’s evolution gelled even further on the swirling, evocatively unique sounds on Venus on Earth. “We’re not copying anything,” Williams says. “If that’s what you’re looking for, you might as well hire somebody from … .” “National Geographic,” interjects Zac, to more laughter.

~ ZAC HOLTZMAN ~

At the core of Dengue Fever’s appeal is Nimol, who Williams calls the band’s “siren.” Despite her fondness for caked-on makeup and stripper-style high heels – “Those are her comfortable shoes,” jokes Smith pointing at the strappy, spiky stilettos adorning Nimol’s feet. “She hikes in those! – Dengue’s frontwoman exudes alluring innocence. “A lot of singers strut their stuff and lick the mic stand,” Williams explains, “but Nimol is even sexier because she’s composed and secretive.” Nimol indeed proves enigmatic in person, rarely making eye contact and covering her mouth as she speaks in confident, yet still broken, English. “I like the New Wave, and also the hip-hop and the reggae,” she says of her musical inspirations. “I write songs about love only … guy and girl, broken heart. But my heart is not broken. I’m not in love – I’m too picky! I love myself!” At one point, Nimol’s immigrant status threatened to stop Dengue Fever for good. Returning from a gig in San Diego opening for Jonathan Richman, police stopped Ethan Holtzman’s car at a checkpoint on the 5 Freeway. “They looked at me and thought I was Mexican lady,” Nimol explains. Instead, after checking her identification, authorities discovered Nimol had overstayed her visa. Caught in the wake of post-9/11 hysteria, she was brought into custody, where she entertained her fellow jailbirds with renditions of Celine Dion hits. “Jail was scary,” Nimol recalls. “I was feeling afraid I was going to be sent back to my country. But they said, ‘You have good voice!’” A series of benefits at the Short Stop and the Derby, along with some help from Amnesty International, got her sprung. “Singers have gotten acid thrown in their face in Cambodia for associating with the

FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

wrong politicians,” Smith says. “It was an important part of her defense. If she had been sent home, she could’ve been a target.” Nimol and crew have moved on to greater, more legal successes. Venus on Earth’s sales keep growing, Sleepwalking Through the Mekong has appeared at prestigious film festivals, and Dengue Fever is gearing up for yet another international touring schedule; the band has already played everywhere from Holland and Portugal to Russia, and are now stars in Cambodia, thanks to nonstop media coverage of their tour there. “CTN, the Cambodia Television Network, did a two-hour special on us that aired two to three times a day the entire time we were there,” Williams explains. “I took a break to vacation in Kampot, and when I had to get back to Phnom Penh, I went to grab the bus. The woman selling the tickets was like ‘Why are you taking the bus? You’re famous! Famous people don’t take the bus!’” Even Nimol’s tradition-bound family is coming around. “At first, my sister said to Zac, ‘You never have Nimol sing,” Nimol says. “She is very original Cambodian, so she doesn’t understand. But last time we play Echoplex, she said music is good, but told me I not in Cambodia anymore and need to learn to dance more rock and roll!” It’s this cultural crossroads, in fact, that ultimately gives Dengue Fever its unique place in music today – a fact not lost on the band itself. “We can play both indie-rock and world-music markets now,” Ethan explains. “And when we play the world shows, people are looking at us like we’re this new thing.” “It’s fun not fitting in anywhere,” Zac adds, “but getting to play everywhere.” ✶

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GONE UNDERGROUND A survey of local rock clubs suggests the pros are turning weirder ★ BY RON GARMON

L O C A L S O N LY / / S C E N E

~ RAISING THE ROOF: THE HAPPY HOLLOWS AT PLAY ~

FEW SMART PEOPLE REFUSE AN invite from Tequila Mockingbird. Though inbox and phone were crammed with Saturday night invites, lures, and inveiglements, no one else could’ve got me out of my house on the rain-sodden, deadlineriven eve of February 20th. The punkette aristo’s latest Fluffer party was be-

ing thrown at 01 Gallery downtown, but a (long) walk away for me. The South Los Angeles Street art space was already filling with a party-down cadre of art mutants I’d seen slurping Pinot onto half the cement floors in Gallery Row. The canvases ranged from the iconic (Overton Loyd, Gahan Wilson) to the witty (Gomez

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Bueno) to the trashy (the aptly named Mark Gash), and the vibe was getting looser by the second. Fellow CityBeat writer Mick Farren did a series of Bill Burroughs rants over electric guitar accompaniment, words and music walloped to mush by the concrete echo. The rest of it was like acidhead Ed Sullivan, with a chanteuse

FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

vying with a boy-ukuleleist for surrealism honors inside a room that was acoustically its own wah-wah pedal. DJs took over, the place began to fill with club kids, and a sweet thang tried to brace me for cocaine by the time I kissed the hostess goodbye and slowly made for the exit. Hollywood is certainly a town with no definite borders.

Long March Through the Galleries: As the aboveground L.A. rock milieu contracts to traditional nodes, the underground continues to flex rude tentacles into the trendy, ever-growing local gallery scene. That amplified noise and cheap booze attract eyes to gallery merchandise is old news to curators, but the novelty of DJs fades quickly, so live music has begun to be imported, along with the artier local rockers. The Il Corral on Melrose is no more, but the curators reopened weirder than ever as Zero-Point in south Downtown. Echo Curio on Sunset will pick up the pace of their avant-rock events in mid-March with appearances by advanced likes of Cat Hair Ensemble and The Clang Quartet. As nearby Spaceland and the Echoplex grow into twin bastions of the indie industrial complex, hole-in-the-wall art galleries now replace the hole-in-the-wall dive bars as venues to see four-or-five bands for your five-or-ten bucks. A Man Named Carnage: Filmed during his frantic Monday nights at the old Il Corral, 40 Bands in 80 Minutes is director Sean Carnage’s compression-unto-pemmican of his stint as underground impresario. Bands like Faux for Real, Bipolar Bear and Dog Shit Taco did their gonzo stuff in condensed doses for his camera, like a three-day feedback festival experienced at B-movie speed. Carnage has transferred operations to Pehrspace, a gallery tucked inside an obscure strip-mall in Historic Filipinotown, where I saw Ema & the Ghosts. A tiny singer-songwriter whose odd, adorable ditties like “Whirly Kid” and “Rabbit Hole” bring to mind a milk-fed Syd Barrett, Ema paused briefly to introduce the empty stage as her “ghosts.” As she alternated on accordion and uke, a heavy-footed, mostly male crowd stood in awkward postures of fascination and love. Little could be further from removed from Sean’s 40/80 feedback howl, but the customers were poleaxed by a gifted performer just the same. Carnage understands this oft-unspoken taste for the arresting and the novel very well. As a dropout art history student at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University, he was decisively influenced by what he remembers as “these absolutely mind-blowing, life-altering Monday night concerts. I saw The Jesus Lizard, The Melvins, and Helmet all before they broke big and it totally changed by life. A friend and I published U.S. Rocker monthly for 10 years. The bottom fell out of the local rock economy and the paper folded. Cleveland had been a minor hub in the music industry and, until 1998, all the major companies were in Cleveland. In ’99, none were left.” Out here in “L.A., the center of the universe, and music commerce,” the puckish Mr. Carnage transplanted his experience, applying Midwestern horse sense to scene economics. “Bar owners have certain commercial expectations,” he notes. “All-ages spaces and galleries aren’t like that. They’re looking for a percentage that’s pretty relaxed. This is how I keep admission low-cost, and it relieves me of the responsibility of finding blockbuster bands. The dirty little secret of the underground is that there’s more money to be made off eccentric noncommercial bands than there is in the subpar commercial acts. At the very top, there’s all the difference in the world, but the very top isn’t large.” Mutaytor 2.0: As the house band for Burning Man, The Mutaytor enjoys an eminence approximately to that of Booker T. & the MG’s in the story of Memphis R&B. Like those soul grandfathers, these desert funkateers channel the swagger and sensibility of an entire milieu into one hyper-stylized musical signature. Poised as a Next Big Thing in 2005, the giant performance ensemble was hit badly when its founder was hauled up on Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator” series early last year. The only conceivable way out was for the principal songwriting team of Buck Downs and Atom Smith to come up with a masterpiece, and that’s what has happened.

~ BIG RIFFS: SABROSA PURR ~

Yelling Theater in a Crowded Fire is probably the most formidable work of art to come out of the Burning Man subculture so far, but that’s a secondary accomplishment. An unorthodox re-imagining of classic rock album structure provides the framework for a series of neutron-funk meditations on revolution, extinction, and fornication. A seamless musical Frankenstein with the heart of What’s Going On and the groin urges of One Nation Under a Groove, this album is as much a raised fist for Change as all those ubiquitous Obama posters. “We probably started working on this record about two years ago,” Buck remembered, “Which coincided with probably the biggest touring year we ever had. Last year, with the media fallout, work began on it in earnest. Atom and I started dragging out our all-time favorite records, all the stuff considered the greatest, try to figure out how to make a very big and important sounding record.” The album will be available on the band’s site in a month, with proceeds from the first single to go to Burners Without Borders, a festival-related charity. Buck describes the difference between playing Black Rock City and L.A. as “like the difference between Holy Communion and the Last Supper. Everything we are goes back to that experience and context.” Heavy Purrsonae: Whatever Mutaytor’s travails, their catalog places them at the top of a ramshackle subculture. Providing the soundtrack for a cultural experiment is a handsome niche, but there are others as impressive. More traditional rock has not fallen on such degenerate times that a band like The Warlocks can’t release a masterpiece like last year’s Heavy Deavy Skull Lover even after shedding half their previous lineup. Dense and strontium-heavy even by the gravid standards of 2002’s The Phoenix Album, this release’s monolithic drone is as comparable to trance or post-rock as Velvets-inspired drooginess. Their local disciples include Darker My Love, whose upcoming sophomore album was mixed by Tony Hoffer, who also did the honors for ex-labelmate Silversun Pickups’ apparently deathless Carnavas. The latter, a durable slab of pavement psychedelia with two years on the charts, bids fair to become the Frampton Comes Alive! of indie rock. An equally startling venture into Sunset Boulevard Lysergia is Sabrosa Purr’s latest, To the Crickets and the Ghosts. Will Love is still twisting his conventionally pretty rocker’s voice into razor-gargles and lynx-snarls, but the band has gotten slicker and glossier, making up in chills what they give away in stoner detachment. FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

The insistence on big ’80s-metal riffs is most un-indie of them, but they contribute mightily to the force of songs like “Suckerpunch Kiss” and “The Lovely People.” The “Silver Lake scene” is probably a misnomer at this point. The hillside neighborhood has become too expensive for hardscrabble rocker kidz, as full as it is with respectably tin-eared bourgeois. What gives the name what cachet it still has is the undeniably brilliant haul of local indie rock still showcased at the Echo and Spaceland. Acts like The Minor Canon, Meho Plaza, and The Parson Red Heads would stand out in any assemblage and one like The Happy Hollows is no less than miraculous. The Hollows do upbeat pop of chipper angularity that makes light of weighty matters like the Panama Canal and the monsters hiding in your room. Vocalist Sarah Negahdari is cool as Kim Deal and squeals like her too, her little-girl ululations pumping yet more helium into the mix and giggling as the songs float away. Of course, The Pity Party invites Romper Room metaphors too, but ones from the Wednesday and Pugsley Addams end of the playground. This duo makes and distributes its own weird EPs, using whimsically recycled packaging and gnomic art to hint at the lovingly crafted and deeply strange sounds therein. “Dronebots and Peons for Eons and Eons,” to pluck one Dayglo trifle, is enchanting and willfully strange, with Maurice-Robert’s guitar rivet-slamming behind redheaded moppet Heisenfiel’s blankly tremulous vocals. The lady also plays drum and keys, often at once. Given a third appendage, I don’t doubt she’d throw in a kazoo or Sousaphone. The third show of their Monday residency was a gorgeous detonation in the Hindenburg manner. Film School was finishing up their polished shoegaze set in high style when I arrived and they were sent off with a brief roar of pleasure from the crowd, already drink-swollen and ornery. They clearly wanted to be Shown Something and, the Party provided it, plowing headlong into their set, the eldritch brio heightened by the singer’s flu-cracked voice. By the end, the guitarist walked off to blank faces, then thunderous applause as Heisenfiel’s head sank into her keyboard, making a minor chord that went on until she limped offstage. Punk as fuck. When I called up the lovely Ms. H a couple of days later, she was coughing in deathbed decrepitude and heartsick over a romantic matter. “Yesterday’s catharsis,” she croaked, the frog in her throat now volleyball-sized. “Monday’s show was the worst show I’d played in a long time. I was sick and distracted, but I have a sense of humor about it. It isn’t a tragedy, just a fact.” She and Maurice-Robert were theater kids who “like grew up together, did choir and music theater together and went our separate ways, he in New York and I here. We were talking long distance about a project we’d like to do, all very abstract. Neither of us had been in a band before.” Though clearly living up to experimentalist expectations, Julie insists “We have a lot of convention in us. Because of our backgrounds, we weren’t cool kids. We were listening to musical theater not Nirvana. We have a very structurally traditional aesthetic and do whatever we please tonally on top of that. We’re pretty conventional compared to some of the bands at the Smell and we were used to seeing the usual five-guy acts at Spaceland. So, we’re not crazy experimental. In some weird in-between land.” “To me,” Ms. H. summed, “the “Silver Lake scene” is the bands our friends are in and there’s no sonic cohesion in all of those. We play a lot with The Deadly Syndrome and Eskimohunter and Great Northern. Who am I leaving out? I dunno. We just all love each other and that’s what makes it what it is. It’s a happy fuzzy-feelings concept of a scene, which is kinda weird.” ✶

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DOWN IN THE GROOVE LA ‘Turn Off the Radio’ series offers mashed-up, unpretentious underground Latin dance parties ★ BY KAMREN CURIEL

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PHOTOGRAPH BY OSCAR ZAGAL

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~ MASHED UP L.A.: LUZ CORTEZ AND MELISSA GARNICA ~

Al Borde, after Warped founder Kevin Lyman gave them a free booth in exchange for advertising. “He was like, ‘Yeah, a lot of these kids at our shows are Latin and they have brown skin, why not?’” Cortez remembers. Being in the same Latin music scene – Cortez in print and Garnica in TV – the two shared an equal itch to use their knowledge of the hip Latino market to plan events featuring music not being heard on mainstream radio, and give their guests something nice to reminiscence about the next morning. With Garnica’s last gig as a production assistant on the set of MTV tr3s’ Indie 101 – a video-countdown reality show set in Echo Park and hosted by Marthin Chan of Grammy-nominated indie band Volumen Cero – put on hold after MTV began leaning more toward mainstream reggaeton, and Cortez, now an advertising executive at Long Beach’s Press-Telegram, it was only natural to use their contacts toward self-sufficiency. Business partners (and now best friends), the two consider TOTR a necessary creative outlet and seek inspiration in everything they do. What sets TOTR parties apart from Scarlett Casanova’s just-as-popular Hang the DJs spot at the Echo, Club Transistor Thursdays at the Grand Star, and Obey Giant’s Dance Right, which sadly forced older Mexican men with moustaches out of their favorite La Cita bar, is the emphasis on Latin music. DJ Santi (Mar-

cuerdos (keepsakes). TOTR parties of the past have used pink carpet to cover the Sunset Boulevard sidewalk in front of the Echo, poster-size MySpace comments written by their friends to decorate the walls, a press welcome wall for photographers, and Porto’s Bakery-sponsored munchies. “We went a little overboard with balloons and stuff for the first one and someone said it looked more like a prom,” Cortez laughs. TOTR parties attract a crowd similar to its mashed-up sounds. Seventy percent of their guests are first-, second-, and third-generation Latinos, whose styles vary drastically. Darker-skinned urbanos, who wear black T-shirts and listen to heavy metal, stand out in a sea of trendier types who favor long bangs over the Mexican mullet. Popular acts like Los Abandoned, the Sounds, Peaches, and Ima Robot mingle in VIP, while the usual multicultural Echo Park hip kid floats around aimlessly. “Mashing makes sense because it represents our generation. We’re ‘living mash-ups,’ who like things from our culture and our friends’ culture,” Cortez says. Garnica, who’s also studying public relations and Chicano studies at CSUN, says the white hipsters who tend to be more creído (arrogant) attend their parties too. “They like that the songs are in Spanish. I guess they feel like they’re being cultured,” she says.

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another one that puts me in the pocha (a Chicana who doesn’t speak Spanish) category being third-generation Mexican American automatically sets me up for: I have no idea what Latin alternative music is. I thought seeing Ozomatli, Kinky, and Juana Molina live back in 2004 when my dad bought us tickets to A Latin Christmas at the Walt Disney Concert Hall was enough to say I dab into some rock en español y ingles, but I am so not tuned it. Sitting down with Turn off the Radio founders Luz Cortez and Melissa Garnica, who throw festive yet underground Latin alternative dance parties in trendier-than-ever Echo Park with a following sadly labeled “Latino hipsters” (is anyone else sick of this word?), proved I knew very little about a genre pumping inspiration into the veins of young brown folks like myself who dress to impress but act like they don’t. I stumbled across TOTR on MySpace, the go-to guide for many my age (I’m 28) who are burnt out from partying since middle school, and prefer to get their nightlife and music fix via a dangerously addictive site that more than likely

caused their last fight. Theirs is the kind of page featuring a very informative calendar of events with Los Amigos Invisibles, Si*Se, Shiny Toy Guns, and Los Super Elegantes concert dates, a Smiths/Morrissey convention reminder, and top friends who include Toronto-based Cr ystal Castles, New Yorkborn/L.A.-based Dominicana Chana, and their own in-house dance starter DJ Santi. It makes you wonder why you didn’t get the cool-kid invite to TOTR4, which supposedly drew 900 people to the Echoplex (a question usually followed by a friend request). I get the girls lost from their Pomona and Long Beach commute to my side of the tracks in industrial outer Chinatown. For being such scenesters, Salvadoran-born/ Inglewood-raised Cortez, 27, who graduated from USC with a degree in economics, and her partner Garnica, 26, of Mexican descent – the bubblier and funkier of the two – are surprisingly unpretentious down-toearth females. The pair hooked up at a Vans Warped Tour when Garnica was doing promotions for LATV and Cortez was distributing copies of Latin alternative music publication

tin Santillan), 33, who was born and raised in L.A., has been collecting Spanish albums since he was a kid and doesn’t limit himself to one genre. He does favor the less mainstream culture of music and mashes personal favorites Electrica Miami, Maria Daniela, Plastilina Mosh, and Nortec Collective tracks with more recognizable cuts like U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name,” Morrissey’s “Everyday is Like Sunday,” and soulful sounds of the ’60s and ’70s. The high-waisted jean-wearing crowd is left with no option but to dance the melancholy moment away. “The mashup is taking an instrumental from one song and mixing it with a cappella from another genre,” Santi says. “I’ll take a popular Spanish track and combine it with something more readily available, like a hip-hop one.” Think: Café Tacuba meets Depeche Mode, the Strokes meet Los Bunkers, and Three 6 Mafia meets La Union. Serious about giving their guests something to write home about, Cortez and Garnica, along with interior designer Jeanette Villa, stage producer Moises “Vira Lata” Baqueiro, and Cortez’s sister/fashion designer Liza, deck their parties out with quinceañera-esque touches like flower arrangements and re-

FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

Their first party, back in the summer of 2006, was intended to be a one-time thing, but soon a union of partygoers formed wanting more. Cortez and Garnica are making plans for TOTR5, which is slated for May, possibly at Crash Mansion in downtown L.A. With humble attitudes and an unwillingness to get sucked into mainstream club culture largely driven by money, the women behind TOTR are crowd-pleasing party specialists. “My passion is people, specifically 18 to 35-year-olds. I’m amorous of those born in Mexico who come here with their eccentric style and tastes and introduce us to different music. They’ll be like, ‘Hey, you like Coldplay? Listen to this,’ and let us listen to a band from Mexico that sounds the same,” Cortez says. What’s with the letter “k” being used in place of “c” for their party flyers, and “Eres Kool?” slogans, you ask? “I don’t know what it is, but the kids coming from Mexico and other Latin American countries right now use ‘k’ instead of ‘c’. At first I thought they couldn’t spell, but it’s actually just to be cool,” Cortez smiles. ¡Vive kool! ✶ For more doses of kool, check out MySpace.com/ turnofftheradio.

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SHAVO ODADJIAN The System of a Down bassist on making music, film, and opening up the Internet

BULLETS AND OCTANE Song For the Underdog (Ares Records / REDEYE)

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WHEN SYSTEM OF A DOWN ANNOUNCED that it was going on indefinite hiatus in 2006, it was not just a pause in activity for one of L.A.’s most distinctive, successful rock bands, but the beginning of an intense period of work for each of its members. And that’s no less true for bassist Shavo Odadjian, who has remained busy with a series of projects in music, film, and online. He describes it as “coming out of my shell.” Among these projects is a new band with the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA called Achozen, currently at work on a debut album. He also recently finished collaborating with Hans Zimmer on soundtrack music for the sci-fi thriller Babylon AD, due for release Labor Day weekend. Odadjian recently directed a new video for D.C. punk icons Bad Brains, is working on a script for a feature film, and has just launched a new website for young, aspiring bands and hip-hop artists, urSESSION.com. At his home in the hills overlooking the

West Valley, a small, fluffy, white dog named make it my career because I didn’t know that Chomp wanders the marble floor of the foy- could happen. That was like winning the loter while Odadjian relaxes on a nearby couch. tery. I always loved music. I saw KISS on SolHe wears loose camo pants and a black T- id Gold in ’79 or ’80, and Gene Simmons was shirt and cap, the remnants of black nail pol- singing “A World Without Heroes.” It was ish on his bare toes. A pair of well-used more about the makeup, and being a fiveskateboards are ready by the front door, year-old kid going, “Yeah! That’s it!” and framed posters from The Texas Chain Saw I was always asking my parents for a guiMassacre and Night of the Living Dead decorate the walls. On the L O C A L S O N LY / / M U S I C 2 0 0 8 big-screen TV is Saw IV, with the sound off, though he calls the hortar or something, and they never bought me ror series “very inspirational.” “It looks lived-in,” Odadjian says happily an instrument. But then, at 13, I forced my of his home of five years. “That’s how I like it. dad, we went to Guitar Center and bought It’s not like Cribs, when everything is perfect this little blue Kramer. I took one day of lesand in its place.” He’s too busy for that now. sons – it was my dad’s cousin, who was a gui–Steve Appleford tar player, and he just went too slow for me. I had friends who played guitar, and by the second week I knew how to hold each chord. CityBeat: When did you first get into music? Shavo Odadjian: I’ve been into music ever I just played every day, every day. That’s what since I can remember. I never wanted to you’ve got to do – you’ve got to make it 817 FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

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Shavo continued your passion. It’s not like homework. I’m going to practice, and you guys can go party. You gravitated to a certain kind of sound and energy? Yeah, an energy, always doing something to the left. What I’m doing with Achozen is like what we did with System: Put a twist on rock, now putting a twist on hip-hop. It doesn’t matter that my skin is white, and it doesn’t matter that I come from the rock world. I’ve got the coolest people backing me – George Clinton, RZA. We have 29 songs now. RZA came from a clique, and I came from a clique, and we connected really strongly. It’s like, “Many will come, but only a few are a-chosen.” That’s where the name Achozen came from. It’s the five percent elite, who use their power to make music to guide, to lead, in a righteous way. We always have a good time hanging out together. What does hip-hop have in common with hard rock? The stuff that I love about is the punk-rockness of it. I mean an attitude. Punk rock is an attitude. It’s not giving a fuck and doing it anyways. I think that I can do something, and I’m doing it. [RZA] doesn’t care. He comes from Wu-Tang and he’s picking up a guitar and he’s ripping it, for himself. He’s reinventing things. When did you first start playing around? I started playing out at 17. “Dead Embryonic Cells” by Sepultura was the first song I ever played in front of anyone. System of a Down was the first club band – everyone else was garage bands. I did play parties and I did play Hoover High School once with a band called Van Buren. That was a band we started in stage crew [class] – our teacher was Mr. Van Buren. I recruited people from the class. What was special about playing L.A. clubs when System started? L.A. is L.A., man. L.A. is the mecca of bands: It’s Guns N’ Roses, Mötley Crüe, the Doors. Didn’t Gene Simmons discover Van Halen at the Whisky? That’s crazy. What is urSESSION? It’s a label, it’s a networking site, it’s a music site, it’s an online art district. Right now it’s revolved around music. We’re going to go into comedy. I want to see where this goes. You can audition to UrSession via webcam or digital audio or video uploads. I’m trying to get bands out there. I’m an artist, I’ve made money in other places. Yes, I’m hoping to make money here, too, but that’s not why I’m doing this. Maybe we could [find] the next Eminem, maybe we could have the next Wu-Tang, the next Metallica or the next System or

the next Bad Brains. I don’t mean bands that sound like them, but do what these have done: They have changed something. That’s what I’m looking for. In whatever genre they’re in, starting a movement. How many bands do you have up there now? 5,000 or something. That’s in three weeks. Who discovered System? Rick Rubin. We were getting hits from labels all over the place. There was no money on the table or anything. They just kept coming to shows. So shows kept filling up with suits. One day at the Viper Room, we saw Rick show up. There were labels that had been to their 12th show, already, and hadn’t given us an offer. They saw Rick and shit bricks. That night he goes, “I want you, I’m done. I don’t have to come back. Whatever you guys need, you let me know.” The other labels started a bidding war. We went with Rick. We made the best decision we could have made. Sounds like you’re not taking it easy during his hiatus period. This isn’t a break. This is coming out of a shell. This is a rebirth. I’ve always been an artist, man, and I got wrapped up in only being the bass player in System of a Down. Don’t get me wrong: I love my band, and I love what we’ve done. I will never give that up for nothing. That’s my mothership. Without that, I never would have been given a shot with my ideas. But I’m not just a bass player. I always wanted to step out of my shell. Now that we’re in this hiatus moment, I’m doing whatever I want to do. I’ll score a film because I can; I’ll start a band with my friend the RZA because I want to. Why not? I want to give this opportunity to other people, and that’s why I’m doing urSESSION, so other people get a chance to do what they want. What does your music with the RZA sound like? It’s hip-hop, it’s heavy, it’s me doing all the beats. The Gravediggaz inspired me – but done with the new sounds, with a heavy-metal spice of song arrangement. And I’m playing sitars on them, and bouzoukis on them, and guitar. How did you get involved in film? When I was a kid, I had been a skateboarder, and my dad had this big-ass VHS camcorder. I used to always take that out with us. I would record us skating all over Hollywood. Then we did [System’s] “Sugar” video and the “Spiders” video. Everyone knew I was all about the visuals. The first show we ever had at the Roxy, the light guy was like, “I’m just going to press one color and you guys are going to play … .” I gave him a hand-written pageby-page, verse-by-chorus plan for what kind of lighting I want-

ed. The guy looked at me: “Are you kidding me?” He did it and tried his best. There was also that free show in Hollywood in 2001. The free one that never happened? We couldn’t have bought publicity like that. Channel 7, Channel 5, a helicopter going “I think they’re called ‘Systems of the Downs’ … .” That turned into, “Their album is coming out tomorrow.” We sold 220,000 albums the next week. The fire marshal just didn’t let us play. It got too crazy. They gave us these hotel rooms at the Roosevelt, and I invited all my friends to my room. We could hear the helicopters above us, and we’re in our rooms watching the news live: “Special Report: There’s a riot in Hollywood,” and it’s about us! What the fuck just happened? This is not cool. You could see kids breaking our equipment, like “Fuck System!” for not playing. You know how long we stayed there? My dad and little brother were in that audience. I had to get them out of there. I would have loved to have played. It would have been sick.

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Are you following what the others are doing? Of course. It’s great. I wish everybody the best, because everything that everyone does will just make System better. What we’ll do is up to us. You did a video for Bad Brains. It was an honor. [Bad Brains singer] HR was a sweetheart. I got the call that they wanted me and gave me HR’s phone number. Oh my god, I’m calling Jah. He was so respectful: “You think different, you think to the left … .” I couldn’t even speak. I was that honored, that freaked out. An artist thinks to the left. When you’re a genius you’re not normal. Are you doing other videos? I’ve been asked to do some stuff, but I’m tr ying not to spread myself out too thin right now. I really want urSESSION and Achozen … I really want to follow that for a while. And there’s a movie that I’m writing. It’s an idea, man. That’s all it is. Let’s make it happen. Live righteously, trust your gut. ✶

FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

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5922 N. Figueroa Everybody now asks you if and when System is coming back. Even though System of a Down is not my band right now because I’m not playing with them right now, I am in System. The System is not broken up. Yes, Scars on Broadway exists; yes, Achozen exists, urSESSION exists; yes, the Serj Tankian solo project exists. That’s all good. System also exists. It’s just not working. It’s on a break right now, and it needs to be.

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FROM THE LOCALLY ADMINISTERED Grammy Awards’ relatively new best dance album category to the dance-crazed Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival’s influence on pop currents to the who’s who of part-time, fulltime and onetime residents – Daft Punk, Paul Oakenfold, John Digweed, Tiesto – you could argue L.A. is where it’s at for those who’ve mastered two turntables (and no microphone). Still, you’d have a hard time finding an organic, homegrown DJ scene that has been heard around the world. Certainly the divergent styles of the Crystal Method, Doc Martin, DJ Dan, Christopher Lawrence, David Alvarado, and John Tejada, to name a few, have had their days in the sun at e-music festivals across the world. But if your club-head cousin from Europe ever asked if there is an L.A. sound in e-music you’d probably be silently scratching your head. A group of professionals-by-day is trying to change that notion, one Saturday night at a time. Spend some time on the smoke-filled higher plane that is Avalon Hollywood’s ter-

morning and, as people are leaving, neighbors are walking around doing their Sunday chores,” says Droog’s manager, Matt Zamias. Droog didn’t come to the music as much as it came to them. The web-driven, file-sharing music world has been a boon for DJs, who are fostering a new era of cooperation: Techno talent is just as likely to come from Brazil (Boratto) as Sweden (Adam Beyer) or Los Angeles (John Tejada). When Avalon’s promoters decided last year to eschew trance in favor of these revived, tech-focused sounds, they invited the complementary flavors of Droog to anchor the club’s terrace. This “white collar DJ mafia,” as Griffin calls it, consists of a business attorney (Griffin), a database administrator (Sloe) and a photographer (Osyka). “We’re all overeducated and slightly artsy,” Griffin says. They were clubbing pals who decided to join Sloe on the decks as a collective in 2005. One of the crew’s first gigs was at L’Scorpion, a Hollywood tequila bar, where payment usually came in the form of that liquid gold agave. Even today, the Droog men say, profitability

L O C A L S O N LY / / G R O U N D S W E L L race, and you might be uplifted by the bubbly, propulsive tag-team DJ mix from the steady hands of a three-man, resident crew called Droog. Avalon Hollywood’s upstairs terrace, a place graced by such DJs’ DJs as Hernan Cattaneo, Charles Feelgood, and Kazell, is a coveted perch. Droog’s Brett Griffin, 32, Justin Sloe, 33, and Andre Osyka, 33, might not be seasoned DJ veterans (actually, Sloe has been spinning around town for nearly a decade), but they are in-the-know vibe merchants plugged into a global network of minimal-techno and techhouse artisans. If you’ve been lucky enough to have been handed one of the trio’s 500-pressing promo discs, you know these guys have tapped into a groove that minimizes the “electro” cheese of today in favor of bottomless kick drums and buzzing, evergreen, ever-forward euphony. The trio is also showcasing its sounds after-hours at its Hollywood Hills “Bunker.” The post-Avalon events have attracted some of the club’s major headliners: Tiefschwarz, Radioslave, Gui Boratto, Damian Lazarus, and Josh Wink. “A lot of our parties have gone to the next FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

is not a realistic goal. “None of us get paid to do this, but we spend more time on it than we do at work,” says litigator-by-day Griffin. “To us, it’s not an opportunity to be in front of a lot of people,” adds Osyka, who is Croatian. “I would rather be in a club with 100 people I can feel, and who are feeling me, than in front of a thousand disconnected people.” The guys are pooling their resources and, with the help of manager Zamias, working on a pair of original releases to promote in Miami next month at the global DJ retreat known as the Winter Music Conference. And when they’re not organizing their own oneoff events (the next is March 23 at the Standard Hotel downtown), they’re also working on an ’08 debut for their own label – an outlet to showcase L.A.’s take on the global techno resurrection. “It’s nice to think,” says Zamias, “that people from other world cities will be talking about what’s happening here.” ✶ Check out Droog’s schedule at myspace.com/droog_la.

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SIREN SINGER Janis Mannâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s jazz performances are deliciously just right â&#x2DC;&#x2026; BY KIRK SILSBEE

JANIS MANNâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S A PERFECT TIME (PANCAKE) album of last fall was among the best recordings by a local jazz artist of 2007. Maybe, it was the best. She didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t break any stylistic boundaries or found any new genres with that CD. She just sang the hell out of 14 songs in the company of some of the best mainstream players in Southern California. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a calling card for an artist who has dramatically made her presence known in the past few years. Mann is a full-voiced alto singer who delights in the joys of swinging. At her best, she rides on top of the rhythm section, effortlessly phrasing around the beat. A hallmark of her live sets is â&#x20AC;&#x153;Old Devil Moon.â&#x20AC;? The rhythm section establishes a seductive â&#x20AC;&#x153;Killer Joeâ&#x20AC;? vamp, well before Mann enters. She sings the words precisely; not quite right-on-the-beat, but not behind the beat, either. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s deliciously just right. A native New Yorker (born in Brooklyn, raised on Long Island), Janis began singing folk music and blues. She lived in Venice for 13 years, beginning in 1976. (â&#x20AC;&#x153;I came for the weather â&#x20AC;Ś I did a lot of partying,â&#x20AC;? she confesses.) An interim period in Seattle allowed Mann to gain her jazz legs. Diane Schuur became an advocate and mentor; journalist Paul de Barros endorsed her. More validation came from drum patriarch Roy Haynes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I said hello to him at Jazz Alley because he played with Sarah Vaughan, and I mentioned that I was working on a tribute album to her.â&#x20AC;? Haynes casually asked, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Why donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t you sit in with the band?â&#x20AC;? Mannâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s emotions churned, running from exhilaration to abject terror. When she took the stand, Haynes called for a ballad. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was a test,â&#x20AC;? Mann realizes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;On a ballad they can really see what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got. And what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re missing.â&#x20AC;? Raising the ante, she called for â&#x20AC;&#x153;You Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Know What Love Is,â&#x20AC;? and told the band sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d start, a cappella. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I took my power back and established the mood. When it was over,

Roy said â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Do another.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? In football, the quarterback stays in the game as long as he delivers on the field. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fool with success and continuity. Likewise, a good drummer â&#x20AC;&#x201C; absolutely crucial to any jazz ensemble â&#x20AC;&#x201C; is to be maintained. But on A Perfect Time, the rhythm section has four revolving drummers. Mann used the cream of local trap players: Peter

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L O C A L S O N LY / / J A Z Z Erskine, Roy McCurdy, Joe LaBarbera, and Paul Kreibich. Each of them masters, yet each with a distinct musical personality. Mannâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s triumph is maintaining her consistency throughout. The tour de force is her duet with McCurdy on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Cool,â&#x20AC;? from West Side Story. He plays brushes, but Mann trades rhythmic punches with him throughout, personalizing the lyrics (â&#x20AC;&#x153;Roy, Roy, crazy Roy â&#x20AC;Ś â&#x20AC;?). McCurdyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sublime playing is melodic throughout. If someone ever figures out a way to attach a recording to a tombstone, Mann might well choose this for hers. In 2006, Haynes opened at Catalinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. On the way to the stand, he spotted Janis and casually asked, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Are you singinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; tonight?â&#x20AC;? During one of his raps, Haynes excused himself and burped. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That was in D minor.â&#x20AC;? Finding Mann, he passed her the mic and she took the stage. Allowing her to call the tune, she told the band to follow her and began improvising. When they were done, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d extemporized a song on the spot. The poet Holly Prado â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an adopted Angeleno â&#x20AC;&#x201C; has said that, for an artist, â&#x20AC;&#x153;a town either wants you or it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t.â&#x20AC;? Since returning a couple of years ago, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s impressively established herself within the Los Angeles jazz community. It looks as though L.A. wants Janis Mann. â&#x153;ś

FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

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Rickie Lee Jones gives the Echoplex a long drink of her cool tunes ★ BY NATALIE NICHOLS ~ WE BELONG TOGETHER: RICKIE LEE ~

BING CROSBY “WHEN IRISH EYES ARE SMILING” This is a first-ever collection of Irish songs from Bing Crosby’s popular radio program! Bing was extremely proud f his Irish heritage, and as well known as he was for his classic Christmas songs, Irish recordings are some of the most popular he ever sang. Includes “Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral,” MacNamara’s Band,” and Galway Band.”

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“YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE A ROCK star,” said a smiling Rickie Lee Jones at the end of her Monday show at the Echoplex, where the veteran singer-songwriter had a weekly residency all month. Her run was supposed to end with this February 25 concert, but the local treasure has proven so popular, drawing a bigger crowd with each performance, that she’ll be back again next week. Jones said Monday’s concert aimed to honor the many cowriters she’s had over her 28-year recording career. That was a rare treat for diehards, but even better was that the show lasted two hours and 15 minutes, taking listeners on a fabulous tour from her self-titled 1979 debut through last year’s The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard. She offered rarely-performed numbers like “Tigers” (from 1993’s Traffic from Paradise), along with many fan favorites, inL O C A L S O N LY / / L I V E cluding “Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking” (performed with cowriter David Kalish), “We Belong Together,” and “A Lucky Guy” – all from 1981’s Pirates. Wearing a knee-length skirt, striped sweater, and high-heeled ankle boots that she eventually took off, Jones thanked everyone for waiting in the long line that had snaked down Glendale Boulevard. Eccentric and affable, she made dry asides and humorous offbeat comments about different songs, conducting her young band with the casual authority of an artist who’s used to being in control. While the set list was wide-ranging, the night had a definite jazzy bent, with strong flavors of Hendrix and the Velvet Underground, Van Morrison and Tom Waits, and even a dash of rock pioneer Buddy Holly. Not all of the cowriters were in the house, but first up was Alfred Johnson, who played piano on a slow-ish version of “Young Blood” (from her debut album), while Jones strummed and jammed on acoustic guitar. She recalled performing on Thursdays at a La Brea club called the A la Carte, before crooning the poignant, heartbroken ballad “Company” while Johnson played electric piano. “Sal Bernardi is in Paris, so I didn’t even bother calling him,” Jones deadpanned about her Pirates collaborator and onetime boyfriend, bringing out bassist Rob Wasserman while she took over the piano for the

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FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

Bernardi cowrite “Traces of the Western Slopes.” She sang the ’93 Leo Kottke cowrite “Stewart’s Coat,” another moody, wistful number about pining for someone. The crowd clapped along to her boho slice-of-life “Weasel and the White Boys Cool” (another early Johnson cowrite). And the band got into an almost Stonesy bag when it sprawled out a watery, bluesy groove during the Kottke collaboration “Running from Mercy.” Although the instrumental interplay with Wasserman and the rest of her band made for many fine musical moments, Jones’s singing was the best, most thrilling part. Her reedy, elastic voice has always been one-of-a-kind, and she got almost saxophone-like tones out of it, hanging dangerously behind the beat yet never losing a song’s thread, and punctuating lyrics with breathy intonations and throaty yowls. Ghostyhead collaborator Rick Boston was on hand, and Jones spent a while with that 1997 collection, on which she experimented with trip-hop beats and samples. Highlights included the wry, scatty “Road Kill” and the title track’s keening, wraithlike exhortation. Her pit bull Julietta yelped along to “Lap Dog,” from 2003’s The Evening of My Best Day, and lounged on the stage during that album’s popular Dubya putdown, “Ugly Man.” Jones wrapped up the timeline with songs from Sermon, her collaboration with Peter Atanasoff and Lee Cantelon that offered her own intensely personal take on the life of Jesus Christ, reflected in the testifying crescendo of the Velvet-y “Nobody Knows My Name.” But she closed the night by going back to the beginning, with the quiet rumination “After Hours (Twelve Bars Past Goodnight),” the final track from her debut album. It was an epic circle, a comprehensive reminder that Jones has refused to be predictable since she made her mark with the 1979 hit “Chuck E.’s in Love.” Taking her music wherever she wanted it to go hasn’t been easy – and, indeed, her world is still small enough that her merch table was manned by her adult daughter, Charlotte – but, judging by the attentiveness and enthusiasm of the Echoplex crowd, it’s certainly brought her respect – and love. ✶

Rickie Lee Jones performs Mon., March 3, with special guests Petra Haden, Lili Haydn, Rob Wasserman, and more, at the Echoplex, 1154 Glendale Blvd., Echo Park, at 8 p.m.. Tickets: Ticketweb.com.

L.A. OPERA

Three Faces of Madness Musical manifestations of the Moor, the Wili, the Pierrot ~ BY DONNA PERLMUTTER ~

E’RE SPOILED, FOLKS. EVER SINCE the Los Angeles Opera opened shop back in 1986, the tenor of our time – Plácido Domingo – has been leading the charge for Verdi’s towering tragedy, Otello. Just possibly, without even knowing it, we came to take him and his vast gifts for granted. Now Mr. L.A. Opera himself no longer performs this cruelly taxing role. But the echoes and images of his noble passion and thrilling power stay indelible in our minds. That’s why, when the company unveiled its new multiple-sponsored production – without the singing actor who so brilliantly tapped into the complex core of this Shakespearean character – some of us were at a jaw-dropping loss. His successor, an erstwhile British carpenter(!) turned dramatic tenor, is one Ian Storey. He’s tall, handsome and has – only at times, unfortunately – the steely vocal power or the intensity or the variety of expression so basic to the assignment. In no way, though, does he telegraph that the Moor of Venice is a black man in a white community, a hero who commands a victorious army, or that his murderously roiling insecurities can tip into paranoia, deliberately triggered by an enemy in friend’s clothing. And this, opera lovers, is what the musical narrative is all about. It’s the sine qua non that drives the drama. It’s what makes us mourn the absence of Domingo’s hulking, stalking presence as he steals at last into the sleeping Desdemona’s boudoir with a killer’s obsessed mission in mind. Domingo gave us the Moor’s broken psyche, his demented demeanor, his misbegotten belief in his wife’s betrayal. Storey gave us a man with no gravitas, nor heroic presence, nor mental breakdown, but one who sits onstage like an oarsman rather than a general. In the final scene he even enters in harem pants, partially bare-chested and proudly preening, as though dressed for a party and ready for one. The signs that the lamentably late Edgar Baitzel is no longer overseeing the company’s affairs are everywhere to be seen, worst of all in veteran director John Cox’s inadequate work with Storey. Others in the cast included Mark Delavan as an Iago more buffoonish than sinister and Elena Evseeva, pinch-hitting as a sumptuous Desdemona (yes – she knew how to make that sudden, exposed, high note in her parting with Emilia a chillingly prophetic cry for help). James Conlon led the musical forces with theatrical force and lyric finesse. Johan Engel’s designs, which take place on a ship’s curving hull – look shallow and provide little effective context.

~ VERDI’S TRAGEDY: A MOMENT FROM OTELLO ~

But the “Recovered Voices” double bill – unearthed operas by Jewish composers who had been denounced as “degenerate” by the Nazis – is not only a labor of Conlon’s love but a bracing enterprise that brings enormous pride to the company. Victor Ullman, who ended his days in a death camp, wrote his eerily cheery Der Zerbrochene Krug (“The Broken Jug”) just prior to his internment. It’s a kind of musical counterpart to the sardonic artist Daumier, poking fun at the hypocrisy of the judicial class and exulting in brilliantly sharp-edged orchestration full of character and harmonic interest, with ironic shades of Kurt Weill but boasting greater mastery. Alexander Zemlinsky’s Der Zweig (“The Dwarf”), based on an Oscar Wilde story, takes us back to the Salomé

CLASSICAL theme – a princess possessed by a perverse attraction to a verboten creature, in this case a deformed man who discovers his ugliness only at the end. Much of the luxuriant score, with big women’s choruses, sounds like de-mystified Debussy and smoothed-out Strauss. Rodrick Dixon, in the title role, has just the right heady tenor to sing the unrelentingly high tessitura and ecstatic outpourings. Both productions, led engagingly by our man of all means Conlon, were well directed by Darko Tresnjak and designed in painterly terms by Ralph Funicello. Two bold-faced names from Russia touched down at Orange County Performing Arts Center and UCLA’s Royce Hall respectively – bearing the old and the new, the tried and the untrue. Kirov star Diana Vishneva, who has already conquered the world at 31, came contexted for general audiences, not the cognoscenti. And Bolshoi eminence Nina Ananiashvili, 44, leading her native region’s State Ballet of Georgia on tour, followed the dance lover’s footpath: Contemporary works and the classic Giselle. So if you wanted the sheer Romantic ardor of 19th century sensibility, Ananiashvili’s Giselle was its breathtaking personification. Amid the floating white tulle, her tilt of head, slope of shoulder, bend of wrist, glance of eye illuFEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

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minated the betrayed innocent’s pathos in her afterworld as a Wili. Earlier, she breezed through the hops on pointe etc. like a girl with nothing but buoyant love in her heart. In Vasil Akhmeteli she had a partner whose high-powered technique served to highlight Albrecht’s regal vanity. The mixed-bill program – apart from a single dud, Balanchine’s baroque Chaconne, (because it was performed here like a classroom exercise) – showcased Alexei Ratmansky’s atmospheric Bizet Variations, with all the intrigues of a salon soirée and Schumann-like piano music. But when the same choreographer bit off, days earlier, Schoenberg’s landmark atonal work, Pierrot Lunaire, as a vehicle for the marvelous Vishneva and several others from the Kirov (in a program called “Beauty in Motion,” of all things), it was too much to swallow. What we have here is an eerie fantasy about Loony Peter, a strange mocking specter who both scorns the world and feels menaced by it – coming to us via a soprano’s half-spoken, halfsung utterances in German of Albert Giraud’s Symbolist poems. Bottom line, the piece loses its glinting, moonlit madness when dancers cavort to it balletically. Anyone who saw Daisietta Kim perform it a few years ago – in swooning ecstasy and with quirky question marks – would know that this ballet setting made no sense and had to draw a total blank from the audience. (In fact, we deeply regret the cancellation of Vishneva’s upcoming Music Center appearance in Romeo and Juliet with La Scala Ballet – which would have been a chance to see her extravagant artistry and depth of interpretive insight.) The rest of this Orange County bill proved even less worthy of her: a Moses Pendleton piece was so much optical-shmoptical, the kind that any finished dancer could knock off. Ditto the Dwight Roden ensemble work that used one of those wowie-zowie, clang-bang electronic sound scores to which cheap, erotic routines gain phony drama as ballet-o-cizes. ✶

L.A. Opera performances run through March 9; (213) 972-8001 or Laopera.com

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OST “THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL” Based on the best selling novel by Philippa Gregory, The Other Boleyn Girl is an engrossing and sensual tale of intrigue, romance and betrayal set against the backdrop of a defining moment in history.

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The lovely and dramatic score is by newcomer Paul Cantelon.

OST “VANTAGE POINT” The story of two secret service agents assigned to protect the President at a landmark summit on the

FUTURE DRAG: BRIAN AUSTIN GREEN (R) GETS NABBED BY A TERMINATOR ON SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES ~

Infinite Possibilities

global war on terror. After the President is shot, the terrifying truth behind the assassination attempt is documented through several perspectives leading to the dramatic conclusion.

~ BY NATALIE NICHOLS ~

Vantage Point is a spectacular score composed by newcomer Atli Orvarsson.

N A PARALLEL WORLD, YOU are doing something else. Maybe you’re having exciting adventures, instead of being stuck at a desk. Maybe you’re making an Oscar-winning film, not running the catering truck. Maybe you’re living in your hometown, rather than dying in Iraq. Or maybe you’re begging for crumbs, instead of brushing past homeless people on your way into the limo. It could happen. Recent research by Oxford physicists confirmed that the “many worlds” idea, first published in 1955 by Princeton physicist Hugh Everett, actually works (at least in theory). Everett came up with it to explain some of the more baffling aspects of quantum physics – by saying that, since the universe is infinite, every possible outcome of an event exists somewhere in its own universe. (Appropriately enough, there are variations on this notion.) This, according to such brainiacs as David Deutsch (author of The Fabric of Reality), makes time travel more of a possibility by solving the paradoxes associated with it. Like the famous “grandfather paradox” in which, if you traveled back in time and killed your grandfather, you might never be born. (Not sure why you’d want to do that, but whatever.) But according to many-worlds, if you traveled backward, you’d just slide into a different timeline, so your original timeline would still exist and you could also kill your grandfather. Sweet! Quantum physics, though fascinating, gives me a headache. But I still love the idea of parallel universes, because they’re fun to think about. The scientific theory is kind of a twist on the metaphysical notion of “eternal return” – which is captured in that thing they love to say on Battlestar Galactica: “What is happening now has happened before, and will happen again.” Except, with parallel universes, what is happening now is also happening in a different place, with a different outcome. Alternate-world stories are a grand type of wishful thinking. They’ve been a staple of science fiction since the early 20th century, from authors like H.G. Wells, whose Men Like Gods incorporat-

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ed multiple universes and parallel times, and Philip K. Dick, whose The Man in the High Castle imagined life if the Nazis won World War II. (Indeed, the grandfather paradox is credited to sci-fi author René Barjavel.) DC Comics used parallel universes in its superhero comics so much that they all had to be merged in the epic Crisis on Infinite Earths. Writers of fan fiction create alternate universes related to their favorite TV shows or films: to save beloved characters who die, or hook them up with unlikely lovers, or interact with people from entirely different fictional worlds. TV and movie sci-fi also use the concept a lot. It’s a cheap way to create a different reality, for one thing. Like with the old series Sliders, where a mismatched gang of lost travelers wandered through endless variations of Earth. Or the BBC’s venerable Doctor Who, in which a recent parallel world looked pretty much like this one, with the same bad guys and everything. Or, more “realistically,” the 1998 romantic drama Sliding Doors, where Gwyneth Paltrow catches/misses a train and starts living two lives based on each outcome of that moment. The many-worlds theory has been great, apparently, for quantum physics. But it’s also helped me a lot with Fox’s ripping yarn Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The people (and Terminators) on this show use time travel like we take the freeway. Summer Glau’s hotchick Terminator is supposedly sent back to 1999 by humanity’s hero, John Connor, to protect himself and his mom. Then the three of them go forward in time from 1999 to 2007, where they decide to stop the evil Skynet from ever coming into existence (again). Then one of the architects of Skynet is killed by a commando played by Brian Austin Green (who comes back from the future too). But B.A.G. still remembers the exact same future, where Skynet still burns down the world. That’s OK, because, according to many-worlds theory, there’s no paradox. Sweet! But if the whole reason everybody’s jumping around in time is to stop Skynet, and nobody ever sees how the timeline turns out, how are they ever going to know if it worked? ✶

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Dangerous Beauty Youth and temptation collide in ‘Stupid Kids’ and ‘Robots’

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~ BY DON SHIRLEY ~

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HE CHASM BETWEEN THE beautiful people and everyone else dominates two vivid productions that are set approximately 4,000 years apart. Stupid Kids takes place near the end of the 20th century, while Robots vs. Fake Robots is set in the year 6000. Stupid Kids is a loose, updated homage to Rebel Without a Cause. The sexually charismatic newcomer (Michael Grant Terry) to the suburban high school, originally played by James Dean, is still named Jim Stark, and his girlfriend (Tessa Thompson) is still named Judy. Jim’s rival for Judy’s affections is still named Buzz, although here he remains offstage. The callow kid (Ryan Spahn) who idolizes Jim is now named Neechee (as in Nietzsche) instead of Plato. The three of them meet when they’re hauled in to juvenile hall on the same night. But the biggest difference is that now there’s another girl, the Patti Smith-influenced Kimberly (Kelly Schumann), who is, more or less, a lesbian counterpart to Neechee – she falls in love with Judy. Stupid Kids was produced off-Broadway in 1998, four years after the playwright, John C. Russell, died of AIDS at the age of 31. It’s implicitly set in the ’80s – Kimberly instructs Judy on the cool ’70s stuff that she’s heard about, and the kids have no cell phones. The ’80s was the decade of MTV’s ascendancy, so it feels appropriate to punctuate the high school social traumas that are the play’s main subject with rumblings and occasional explosions of MTV-style choreography (by Marvin Tunney) set to recordings of angry or pensive ’80s sounds. Michael Matthews, directing the stylish L.A. premiere, has cast a downright gorgeous couple in Terry and Thompson, but they don’t rely only on their looks to capture these characters, who aren’t nearly as confident as they appear. Spahn and Schumann are sterling as the more sympathetic gay outcasts (although Neechee doesn’t acknowledge that he’s gay until halfway through the play). They deliver their risibly bad teen poetry with the utmost conviction. The ending feels a little lopsided. The two

glamorous kids seem to have only two choices – gay love affairs or abject hetero humiliations. It’s the kind of problem that might have been addressed if the playwright had lived long enough to work with a professional director. If Stupid Kids suggests lost potential, Robots vs. Fake Robots offers happier prospects – no, not for the future that’s depicted in the play itself, but rather for the professional future of the play’s 22year-old author David Largman Murray. Robots rule in his society four millennia from now, and people are hapless outcasts. The robots aren’t rigid tin men and women. They dress and move like fashion models. Their primary activity is lovemaking, but they do it away from the intrusive eyes of the loathed flesh-and-blood people. One of those pariahs, Joe (Steven Connell), is distracted from his accommodating girlfriend (Ida Darvish) by insatiable curiosity about what life would be like as a robot. For reasons that aren’t clear or compelling enough, one of the older robots (Greg Crooks) is willing and able to arrange for Joe to enter the robot world incognito, where he soon discovers that he isn’t the only undercover human. Murray and director Emily Weisberg deliver their main point, about the essence of being human vs. encroaching dehumanization, with considerable wit and flair. The play could use a little more context about what exactly the characters do all day, and in what kind of world. The ending needs a final polish. But Robots gets more points for originality than Stupid Kids, and it should be fun to see where Murray’s imagination touches down in his next play. ✶

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Stupid Kids, Celebration Theatre, 7051-B Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. (323) 957-1884. Tix.com. Closes March 23. Robots vs. Fake Robots, Powerhouse Theatre, 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica. (310) 396-3680 x3, Powerhousetheatre.com. Closes March 15.

For more reviews by Don Shirley, see Stage listings, page 44. FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

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ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS

~ THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE “OMMM ... “: A REANIMATED ALLEN GINSBERG TAKES HIS CHANTS TO JUDGE HOFFMAN’S COURT. ~

Windy City to Washington to Beijing Politics can be found in ‘Chicago 10,’ real life, and ‘Summer Palace’ ~ BY ANDY KLEIN ~

S SOME OF YOU MAY remember – and those too young may have heard – there was some … stuff … that happened in the ’60s (which, for the sake of this article, encompasses a bit of the ’70s). In fact, a lot of stuff: the Kennedy assassination, the Beatles, the Vietnam War, the increasing public disgust with that war, upfront gay pride, a new wave of feminism, the rise of a more militant response to black oppression, the realization that many pleasurable substances were illegal for totally bogus reasons, and the counterculture that arose from it all. (My apologies if I’ve omitted your fave, but the list would be endless.) I wouldn’t want to pin down any one event as the nexus of all this, but the trial of the Chicago 8 (or 7 or 10) – the subject of Chicago 10, a new documentary from Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture) – is certainly a contender. (To explain the numerical confusion: There were initially eight defendants; one case was severed from the others, leaving seven; and eventually the vengeful judge gave all eight, plus two of the lawyers, unprecedented sentences for contempt of court.) In brief, there had been antiwar demonstrations during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The cops really overreacted: Even a later government inquiry characterized the resultant melee as “a police riot.” Nonetheless, a grand jury indicted some of the organizers for conspiracy, together with some fairly minor cohorts and – not wanting to leave out the brothers – one Black Panther leader, Bobby Seale, who had given two speeches at the demos but didn’t even know the others. Adding Seale to the mix of traditional peace activists (Dave Dellinger), more militant SDS types (Tom Hayden), and counterculture agitators (Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin) cemented the notion that this was a showdown between Us and Them – the government/establishment and the disenchanted/disenfranchised (respectively or not, depending on which side you’re on). Basically, the grand jury had provid-

ed a structural outline for the drama to come, with judge, defendants, and lawyers acting as a sort of improv group filling in the details. Much of the casting was better than could have been hoped for. Abbie and Jerry were consciously comedic figures already, Abbie brilliantly so. Judge Julius Hoffman was a hypocritical, seemingly forgetful fuddy-duddy right out of a Preston Sturges film (but scary). And Seale was the righteously defiant reminder of America’s slave past, who, a century after emancipation, was clearly being dealt with by harsher standards than the others. (Ironically, Seale was the only one of the group who had actually been a professional comic, but his situation didn’t provide a lot of opportunities for humor; it’s hard to articulate a punch line when the judge has you gagged and chained to a chair.) The result was amazing theater. Some of the excerpts in Tales of Hoffman, a book of selections from the trial transcripts published a few months after the verdict, read like Marx Brothers scenes or Clevinger’s court-martial in Catch-22. You couldn’t make this shit up. (Well, Joseph Heller could, but he was a genius.) Morgen crosscuts between newsreels of the 1968 demonstrations and scenes from the trial. But, since this was in the days before cameras were allowed in the courtroom, he has employed animation for the trial material. (Hank Azaria does a stellar job voicing both Allen Ginsberg and Abbie, capturing the latter’s accent more convincingly than Vincent D’Onofrio in the 2000 biopic Steal This Movie.) For the most part, Morgen plays it serious. We get some very funny stuff from Abbie: The guy really was a star. The film covers the history of the central events as well as could be hoped in an hour and 40 minutes and conveys some of the feel of the time. I think it all comes across clearly, but, then, it’s hard for me to judge, since I remember a lot of this from when it was happening. (Let’s make it clear once and for all: Contrary to the saying, one can remember at least some of the ’60s and still have been there.) One of the relevant events I remember CITYBEAT

most clearly was an antiwar demonstration in Washington on November 15, 1969 – the largest political demonstration in U.S. history. Something between a quarter and half-million people gathered at the Washington Monument. After George McGovern and others had spoken and the folkies had sung their earnest songs, a more militant group of roughly 10,000 – including Abbie, Jerry, and at least one future alternative-weekly film critic – split off and marched on the Justice Department to protest the Chicago trial. (Indulge me: This will all connect in another paragraph or two.) The building was sealed tight as a drum. We yelled some slogans. There were speeches and some high-spirited anger. Some rocks bounced off the tall metal doors. As the mood intensified, we heard a pop … a few seconds pause … then another pop. Looking up, we could see previously hidden police atop the Justice Department and neighboring buildings, firing tear gas canisters into our midst. The popping increased in rapidity. Within a minute or so, it sounded like being in a popcorn popper; the air was so dense with gas that we felt like we were suffocating … literally, like we might die before escaping the area. Most of the crowd had been trained not to run, but, even prepared with bandannas for facial covering, the sense of imminent death was so great that a few ran anyway; one 13-year-old acquaintance was lightly trampled and spent several days in the hospital. I had come to Washington with one of my dearest friends, someone I was in love with but not “involved” with; she had been paying attention to another guy during the visit and was at the demonstration with him. I wasn’t thinking about the war or the Chicago trial; I was hurt and jealous and resentful … until the tear gas onslaught scared the living bejesus out of me. Suddenly my head was filled with nothing but “Where is she? Did she get out? Is she hurt?” There’s nothing like a sense of true peril to make emotional pettiness seem … well … petty. (This later inspired me to write the first two verses of a country song entitled “It’s Not the Gas, These Are Real Tears I’m Crying.”)

l FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

The reason I bring this up – besides the fact that it’s a really cool story and a fortuitous segue – is that almost exactly the same setup appears in Lou Ye’s 2006 Summer Palace, only now showing up in the U.S. … except that it’s Tiananmen Square, and people really do get killed. The first half of Summer Palace follows Yu Hong (Hao Lei), a small-town girl who leaves her family and boyfriend to study at Beijing University in 1988. Intoxicated by the new sensations of an urban, intellectual world, the confused, passionate, and manifestly unstable young woman falls madly in love Zhou Wei (Guo Xiaodong); they fuck like bunny rabbits, in scenes amazingly explicit for a mainland production. There is infidelity; her ex comes to town; they excitedly converge at the Tiananmen demonstrations (exactly halfway through the two-hour-plus running time); but then the situation gets really somber, and everyone flees Beijing. After a montage covering eight years, the second half of the movie peeks in on Yu Hong, Zhou Wei, and several of their friends, all leading up to a reunion of the long-distant lovers. I loved Lou Ye’s first feature, Suzhou River (2000) – a fascinating Shanghai gloss on Vertigo – and found points of interest in his subsequent, much slicker, Purple Butterfly (2003). Summer Palace returns to the rougher look of the earlier movie, but it’s much tougher to follow, particularly after the focus becomes more diffuse in the second half. It benefits from a riveting performance by newcomer Hao, but the whole is sadly unsatisfying. ✶ Chicago 10. Written and directed by Brett Morgen. With Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and the voices of Hank Azaria, Dylan Baker, Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo, Roy Scheider, Liev Schreiber, and Jeffrey Wright. Opens Friday at the Nuart. Summer Palace. Directed by Lou Ye. Written by Lou Ye, Feng Mei, and Ma Yingli. With Lei Hao, Xiaodong Guo, Ling Hu, and Xueyun Bai. Opens Friday at Laemmle’s Music Hall 3 and Laemmle’s Playhouse 7.

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LATEST REVIEWS CITY OF MEN Director Paulo Morelli’s companion piece to Fernando Meirelles’s 2003 Oscar nominee City of God lacks its progenitor’s freshness and urgent, passionate melding of style and story. In this less violent, more emotionally invested return to the horrid slums of Rio de Janeiro, absent fathers inform the lives of two protagonists on the edge of 18. Ace (Douglas Silva) never met his dad, who was gunned down years earlier. Wallace (Darlan Cunha) needs to track down his long-gone pop to secure a government ID card. The movie’s other main character is Dead-End Hill, a crime-riddled favela (slum), whose grim, sun-scorched conditions are given full flower by DP Adriano Goldman. The neighborhood is ruled by local gangster Midnight (Jonathan Haagensen), whose territorial supremacy is threatened by former right-hand hoodlum Nefasto (Eduardo BR). Before long, sides are chosen and guns are drawn, but, much like the City of God TV spinoff upon which the movie is based, the emphasis is on character. Still, when you remove the unique locale and flashy style, the story is pretty schematic. Wallace finds his estranged father too easily, and Ace’s brewing confrontation with Wallace bears the signs of forced drama. But the rich and detailed environment Meirelles created years ago still intrigues, especially with the same tragic combination of fatherless boys and inescapable violence happening right

now off the 105. (Mark Keizer) (Pacific’s ArcLight, The Landmark West Los Angeles, Laemmle’s Playhouse 7)

the end; and it’s weirdly nice to see veteran character actor Ed Lauter – trust me, you’d recognize him in a second – actually getting the girl for a change. (Andy Klein) (Laemmle’s Sunset 5)

THE LOST Swaggering small-town sociopath Ray Pye (Marc Senter) murders two campers just for the hell of it and then bullies needy girlfriend Jennifer (Shay Astar) and dim best friend Tim (Alex Frost) into helping him cover it up. Four years later, the event still simmers with explosive potential, while Ray’s alpha-dog personality binds the trio together. But Ray’s compulsion to bed down every mildly desirable girl he sees is a constant threat to Jennifer; and, meanwhile, the police detective (Michael Bowen) who originally investigated the double murder is hot on the trail again, convinced even more than before that Ray did it. Ray, perhaps genuinely smitten (for once) with rich girl Katherine (Robin Sydney), begins to get careless. Chris Sivertson – who has since made the Lindsay Lohan vehicle I Know Who Killed Me – wrote and directed this 2005 adaptation of the novel by apparent cult favorite Jack Ketchum (The Girl Next Door). It’s creepy enough that the near-two-hour running time doesn’t drag, but it’s unpleasant enough that it’s questionable whether you want to put yourself through it. The whole thing revolves around Senter’s portrayal of an obnoxious, arrogant asshole with the seeds of full-on madness ready to blossom at any moment. Senter may look a bit like Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise mashed together, but Ray is so vile and, what’s more, so damned irritating, that it’s hard to believe all the younger townswomen want to boff him. There is, thank goodness, some catharsis near

“ TRIPPY,

AUDACIOUS and EXHILARATING!

No ordinary documentary, and no ordinary anything else either.” - Andrew O’Hehir, Salon.com “REMARKABLE.

If you want to know what it felt like to live through 1968, this is the place to start.”

NOAH’S ARK Elderly Stock (Dezsö Garas) lives in a tiny flat in a rundown Budapest housing complex. He’s a bitter, mean old guff, cranky to his neighbors and estranged from his young granddaughter, Kati (Angéla Stefanovics). However, he inexplicably dreams of owning his own Harley-Davidson – and, when a TV show broadcasts a casting call for a “Hungary’s Best Grandfather” contest, with a big-bucks prize, he forces Kati to enter the contest with him – in spite of the fact that Kati can’t bear him. Meanwhile, news of Stock’s plans circulates through the apartment complex – and soon all of Stock’s oddball neighbors are planning to get their cut of the winnings. Director Sándor Pál’s frequently quirky Hungarian film could have been a maudlin situation comedy about the clash between generations and the fantasy of undeserved wealth, but screenwriter Zsuzsa Tóth’s script filters the goofy premise through a crisply sardonic Eastern European sensibility. The film crackles with irony, with both the grandfather’s and the granddaughter’s generations being presented as crooks and fools, living in a post-Soviet world gone mad. The comic sensibility is often strikingly sophisticated, particularly in the whimsical depiction of some of the incredibly goofy neighbors. Garas is powerful in his restrained turn: He has the perfectly expressive demeanor of a sad old clown – and his kindly expressions often bely the unexpected twistedness of his soul. Amusing performances are also offered by Ferenc Kállai, as Stock’s agoraphobic best friend, and by Mari Töröcsik as a besotted, elderly female neighbor who has the hots for the old man. (Paul Birchall) (Laemmle’s Grande 4)

PENELOPE A precocious fairy tale made for and starring people too old for this sort of whimsy. Penelope (Christina Ricci) is an heiress cursed with a pig nose that will only turn pert when she is truly loved by a blueblood hottie. Naturally, her sta-

tus-conscious parents (Catherine O’Hara, Richard E. Grant) lock her in their mansion and hire a series of scions for the job. Max (James McAvoy) has such crystalline blue eyes you know he’s fated to be her happy ending, but director Mark Palansky duly goes about setting up obstacles, like a money-grubbing tool (Simon Woods) and a barfly friend (Reese Witherspoon), who encourages Penelope to ditch the testosterone quest and embrace her porcine inner and outer beauty. As every page of this feels like we’ve read it before – save for Penelope’s ascension as a media darling – the only sense of wonder comes from grokking Ricci’s costume changes, a jewel-box of bohemian Donna Reed ensembles that I’d totally snog a frog for. (Amy Nicholson) (Citywide)

ROMULUS, MY FATHER For this week’s feel-bad epic, we have director Richard Roxburgh’s grim tale of family misery in the Australian outback. Based on Australian philosopher Raimond “Rai” Gaita’s autobiography, the film essentially depicts the ghastly life of Gaita’s loving, but ever-unhappy papa, Romulus (Eric Bana, looking every inch the dyspeptic, hollow-eyed scarecrow). Romulus, who emigrates from Romania to Australia in hopes of a new start, instead discovers much misery, as his German wife Christina (Franka Potente) dumps him for a mutual friend, with whom she has another child. Christina develops ever more severe emotional problems, which cause her to alternately cling to and then reject Romulus, and Rai often feels forced to act the adult in the family. Roxburgh’s gloomy assessment of the human condition might have achieved its desired goal of being a genuine tearjerker if the film had contained some characters the audience could care about. Instead, it’s basically one long trudge, full of unpleasant people, who are all flaw, with few mitigating personality traits. It drags with ponderous pauses and aimless shots of characters staring morosely at each other. Screenwriter Nick Drake tells the story almost entirely from the powerless point of view of young Rai, as the boy plays in the fields or with his dog, incapable of understanding the hostility, despair, and madness that rage just beyond his sightlines. Bana plays his tight-

WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT MAKES US BEAUTIFUL.

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ly wound Romulus with trademark grimace fully in place, looking more like he has a hemorrhoid than a crazy wife, while Potente is not able to find the core of her troubled female lead. (Paul Birchall) (Laemmle’s Monica 4)

SEMI-PRO Having already tackled soccer (Kicking and Screaming), NASCAR (Talladega Nights), and ice skating (Blades of Glory), Will Ferrell turns his penchant for sports parody on even bigger game in this willfully profane, characteristically careening spoof of B-league basketball in the early 1970s. Ferrell stars as Jackie Moon, an affable, Afro-ed schlub, who’s parlayed his status as a one-hitwonder crooner into being both owner of, and player for, the Tropics, a struggling ABA team in economically depressed Flint, Michigan. Desperately needing to both win games and dramatically boost attendance in order to have a shot at being one of the two teams to survive a forthcoming merger with the NBA, Jackie brings in veteran Ed Monix (Woody Harrelson) and reluctantly takes a backseat to hotshot Clarence Withers (André Benjamin), all while cooking up outlandish promotional schemes to attract more of an audience. There’s no word yet on whether Kent Alterman’s film matches Michael Moore’s memories of his hometown. No matter, though, since the movie isn’t necessarily moored to period detail, apart from its admittedly wondrous, umm, form-fitting costumes. If the film’s success with riffs is never much in doubt, given the comedic timing and improvisational bona fides of its stars, its hitmiss ratio on setups is a bit more scattershot. A Deer Hunter-inspired roulette scene provides genuinely fresh laughs, but other story bits feel a bit herkyjerky or lopped off. Still, like basketball, comedy is a game of percentages, and Semi-Pro hits enough shots to be called a winner. (Brent Simon) (Citywide)

VANTAGE POINT Bunkered in a news van, Sigourney Weaver edits history. Her crew is in Spain covering an anti-terrorism meeting of allied world leaders, and the last thing the folks back stateside want to see is European protesters brandishing photos of President Ashton (William Hurt) labeled “#1 Terrorist.” It’s 12:23 p.m., and, without warning, the crowded town square is rocked by two bullets to the president’s chest and two giant explosions. At this tense peak, Pete Travis’s thriller rewinds to noon and continues replaying the chaos as seen through half a dozen people’s eyes, including a Spanish cop (Eduardo Noriega), a Secret Service bodyguard (Dennis Quaid), and a vacationerturned-citizen-journalist (Forest Whitaker). Barry Levy’s script panders for comparisons to Rashomon but misses the point. Akira Kurosawa suggested that truth was slippery; Levy believes there is one answer, he just likes withholding it. Besides their political beliefs, no one in Vantage Point is in disagreement about the facts – they just don’t know all of them yet, and those who think they do are kidding themselves. It’s a zippy, if contrived, little flick that successfully establishes that the world is dangerously (but not morally) complicated, but then pacifies its audience with unsatisfying coincidences and a gone-commando hero turn by Quaid. I’m sure Quaid can accomplish great things. But resolving the War on Terrorism with a badass car chase? Not so much. (Amy Nicholson) (Citywide)

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Rashomon meets Run Lola Run in writerdirector Angelina Maccarone’s fascinating feminist drama about a young German cabbie (Esther Zimmering) searching for her runaway sister (Kim Schnitzer) and encountering, coincidentally (or not so coincidentally), a mysterious older woman (Hannelore Elsner), who is seemingly the victim of a violent crash-and-run accident. The story is told three times, once from each

woman’s point of view, so as to methodically fill in the blanks and create a complete portrait of life’s seemingly random (or not so random) intersections. It’s easy to imagine an American company wanting to remake the picture, focusing almost exclusively on the tricky structure, which, in all likelihood, is what earned it an American release in the first place. What audiences will most remember, however, are three exceptional performances and a keenly observant script that wallows just enough in archetypal German existentialism to get its points across without veering into the pretentious. (Wade Major) (Laemmle’s Sunset 5)

WITLESS PROTECTION In the last nine months, Dan Whitney, alias Larry the Cable Guy, has belched all the way to the bank with two movies, a cartoon deal, a comedy tour, and a Christmas special. How do his fans – assuredly bitter, powerless men in deadend jobs, who can’t afford a tent to stake on the lawn of Larry’s mansion – afford keeping him in Wild Turkey? It’s not just ticket money; it’s the cost of their souls. “I know these roads like the ingrown pimples on my ex-girlfriend’s front butt!” boasts Sheriff Larry to the uppity, easily repulsed state’s witness (Ivana Milicevic) under his protection. If you don’t find that quip hilarious, then you’re just part of the 98 percent of America Larry disdains. His (ahem) jokes target everyone from Michael Vick to Hillary Clinton to Angelina Jolie’s “jungle pygmies.” Do we laugh at our hero when he calls a mild-mannered Middle Eastern hotel clerk (played by east-Indian actor Gerry Bednob) “Pamper-head” and threatens to turn him in to Gitmo? Or do we laugh with vindication when said clerk’s eyes light up at Larry’s fake grenade? Correct answer: We don’t laugh at all. (Amy Nicholson) (Citywide)

10:25; Sun 11:30 a.m., 2:10, 5, 7:45, 10:20; Mon-Thur 1:15, 4:10, 7:15, 9:50. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Disney 3D Fri-Sat 11:05 a.m., 1:15, 3:25, 5:40, 7:50; Sun 11:05 a.m., 1:15, 3:25, 5:40, 7:55; Mon-Thur 1:25, 3:35, 5:45, 7:50. Jumper Fri-Sat 11:35 a.m., 2, 4:25, 7, 9:30, 11:55; Sun 11:35 a.m., 2:05, 4:25, 7, 9:30; Mon-Tue 2:30, 4:45, 7, 9:15; Wed 2:30, 4:40, 10:20; Thur 2:30, 4:45, 7, 9:15. Juno Fri-Sun 11:45 a.m., 2:15, 4:50, 7:20, 9:50; Mon 1:55, 4:25, 7:05, 9:25; Tue 1:55, 4:20, 7:05, 9:25; Wed 1:55, 4:25, 7:05, 9:25; Thur 1:55, 4:20, 7:05, 9:25. No Country for Old Men Fri-Sat 11:10 a.m., 2:05, 5:05, 8:05, 11:10; Sun 10:45 a.m., 1:45, 4:40, 7:40, 10:30; Mon-Tue 1:35, 4:40, 7:35, 10:30; Wed 1:35, 4:45, 7:35, 10:30; Thur 1:35, 4:40, 7:35, 10:30. The Other Boleyn Girl Fri-Sat 10:50 a.m., 1:40, 4:30, 7:30, 10:20; Sun 10:50 a.m., 1:40, 4:30, 7:30, 10:15; Mon-Thur 1:50, 4:50, 7:30. Penelope Fri-Sat 11 a.m., 1:20, 3:40, 6:05, 8:30, 11; Sun 11:55 a.m., 2:25, 4:55, 7:25, 9:55; Mon-Thur 1:20, 3:40, 5:55, 8:10,

10:25. Semi-Pro Fri 10:55 a.m., 12:30, 1:25, 3, 4, 5:30, 6:30, 8, 9, 10:35, 11:30, 12:15 a.m.; Sat 10:55 a.m., 12:30, 1:25, 3, 4, 5:30, 6:30, 8, 9, 10:35, 11:30; Sun 10:55 a.m., 12:30, 1:25, 3, 4, 5:30, 6:30, 8, 9, 10:25; Mon 1, 1:40, 3:15, 5:35, 6:30, 8; Tue-Thur 1, 1:40, 3:15, 4:05, 5:35, 6:30, 8, 9. The Spider wick Chronicles Fri-Sun 11:05 a.m., 1:30, 4:05, 6:35, 9:05; Mon-Thur 1:45, 4:15, 6:35, 8:55. Step Up 2 the Streets Fri-Sat 11:20 a.m., 1:50, 4:20, 6:50, 9:20, 11:50; Sun 11:20 a.m., 1:55, 4:20, 6:50, 9:20; Mon-Wed 2:10, 4:30, 6:50, 9:10; Thur 2:10, 4:30, 10:20. There Will Be Blood Fri-Sat 11:50 a.m., 3:20, 6:55, 10:40; Sun 11:10 a.m., 2:50, 6:25, 10; Mon 3:55, 10:05; Tue-Thur 1:30, 5, 8:45. U2 3D Fri-Sun 10:05; Mon 10; Tue-Thur 10:05. Vantage Point Fri-Sat 11:15 a.m., 12:45, 1:45, 3:15, 4:15, 5:45, 6:45, 8:15, 9:15, 10:45, 11:45; Sun 11:15 a.m., 12:45, 1:50, 3:15, 4:15, 5:45, 6:45, 8:15, 9:15; Mon 1:05, 3:30, 4:05, 5:50, 8:15, 9:05; Tue 1:05,

2:05, 3:30, 4:25, 5:50, 6:45, 8:15, 9:05; Wed 1:05, 2:05, 3:30, 4:20, 5:50, 6:45, 8:15, 9:05; Thur 1:05, 2:05, 3:30, 4:25, 5:50, 6:45, 8:15, 9:05. AMC Burbank Town Center 8, 210 E Magnolia Bl, (818) 953-9800. Call theater for titles and showtimes. AMC Burbank Town Center 6, 770 N First St, (818) 953-9800. Atonement Fri 12:50, 4, 7, 10:05; Sat-Sun 11:55 a.m., 3:10, 6:25, 9:40; Mon-Thur 1:10, 4:05, 7, 9:55. Jumper Fri-Sat 1, 3:30, 6, 8:30, 10:55; Sun 1, 3:30, 6, 8:30; Mon-Thur 1:30, 3:45, 6, 8:30. The Other Boleyn Girl Fri-Sun 12:30, 3:25, 6:20, 9:15; Mon-Thur 1, 3:40, 6:20, 9:15. The Spiderwick Chronicles Fri 12:35, 3:10, 5:45, 8:10, 10:35; Sat-Sun 12:35, 3, 5:45, 8:10, 10:35; Mon-Thur 1:15, 3:35, 5:55, 8:15. Step Up 2 the Streets Fri-Sat 12:40, 3:05, 5:40, 8:05, 10:40; Sun 12:40, 3:05, 5:40, 8:05; Mon-Thur 1:05, 3:25, 5:45, 8:05. Vantage Point Fri-Sun noon, 2:30, 5, 7:30, 10; Mon-Thur 3, 5:15, 7:30, 10.

ALSO OPENING THIS WEEK: The Duchess of Langeais. Great Nouvelle Vague director Jacques Rivette (Celine and Julie Go Boating, Va Savoir) does Honoré de Balzac, in this story of the flirtation, frustration, and payback between the titular noblewoman (Jeanne Balibar) and a general (Guillaume Depardieu). The cast also includes stalwarts Bulle Ogier and Michel Piccoli. (AK) (Laemmle’s Music Hall 3) The Other Boleyn Girl. Who knew that Anne (Natalie Portman) had a sister who looked like Scarlett Johansson? Eric Bana is the young, pre-Laughtonized Henry VIII in this new version of Philippa Gregory’s novel, previously dramatized for the BBC in 2003. Television vet Justin Chadwick directed from a screenplay by Peter Morgan (The Queen, The Last King of Scotland). The cast also includes Mark Rylance, Kristin Scott Thomas, and David Morrissey. (AK) (Citywide) A Walk to Beautiful. Mary Olive Smith directed this documentary about five Ethiopian women, who suffer horrible injuries from obstructed labor during childbirth and are hence outcasts in their communities. (AK) (Laemmle’s Sunset 5)

SHOWTIMES February 29-March 6 Note: Times are p.m., and daily, unless otherwise indicated. All times are subject to c hange without notice.

BURBANK AMC Burbank 16, 140 E Palm Av, (818) 953-9800. Be Kind Rewind Fri-Sat 11:25 a.m., 1:55, 4:35, 7:10, 9:45, midnight; Sun 11:25 a.m., 2, 4:35, 7:10, 9:45; Mon-Thur 2, 4:35, 7:10, 9:35. Definitely, Maybe Fri-Sat 10:45 a.m., 1:35, 4:40, 7:35, 10:30; Sun 10:45 a.m., 1:35, 4:45, 7:50; Mon 1:10, 7:20; Tue-Thur 1:55, 4:55, 7:45. Fool’s Gold Fri-Sat 11:30 a.m., 2:10, 5, 7:40,

FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

CITYBEAT

CULVER CITY, MARINA DEL REY The Bridge: Cinema De Lux & IMAX Theater, The Promenade at Howard Hughes Center, 6081 Center Dr, Westchester, (310) 5683375. Be Kind Rewind Fri-Sat noon, 2:30, 5, 7:30, 10, 12:30 a.m.; Sun-Thur noon, 2:30, 5, 7:30, 10. Charlie Bartlett Fri-Sat 2:30, 9:50, 12:15 a.m.; Sun-Thur 2:30, 9:50. Definitely, Maybe Fri-Sat 11:55 a.m., 2:30, 5:05, 7:40, 10:15, 12:40 a.m.; Sun-Thur 11:55 a.m., 2:30, 5:05, 7:40, 10:15. Easter in Bunnyland Sat-Sun 10 a.m. Fool’s Gold Fri-Sat 9:45, 12:20; Sun-Thur 9:45. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Disney 3D 11:30 a.m., 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:30. Jumper Fri-Sat 12:15, 2:35, 4:55, 7:15, 9:35, 11:55; Sun-Thur 12:15, 2:35, 4:55, 7:15, 9:35. Juno Fri 12:30, 2:55, 5:20, 7:45, 10:10, 12:20 a.m.; Sat 10:05 a.m., 12:30, 2:55, 5:20, 7:45, 10:10, 12:20 a.m.; Sun 10:05

PICO BLVD Mid-City to South Robertson Throughout the city of Los Angeles, neighborhoods are transforming. In a positive regression of sorts, businesses, are bringing life “to the boulevard” in a way that has not been seen since the middle of the last century. On no street in the city is this more apparent than along the alltoo-overlooked Pico Boulevard, named for the last Mexican governor of California, Pio Pico. Pico Boulevard is populated with a number of retail and service establishments, but a few neighborhoods of late have really come on strong with tremendous retail shopping opportunities, most notably, the “Mid-City” and “South Robertson.” The “Mid-City” neighborhood along Pico is bordered by La Brea to the east and Fairfax to the west. “South Robertson” emanates from Robertson and Pico. Here are some of our choice picks for your shopping pleasure!

El Mercado

Neighborhood Shopping Guide

5287 W. Pico Blvd. – 323-931-4085 www.elmercadoonline.com Four years ago, El Mercado burst onto the scene, and has quickly become the “go to” place for sports and street fashion. As a destination store, El Mercado sets up as a showroom and gallery for some amazing fashions. In a unique twist, they feature an interactive kiosk upon which you can browse their extensive on-line sizes and selections. Find something you like in the store, check out variances on-line, and then they’ll come correct with your wares from the immense stockroom in the back of the retail store. For the guys, El Mercado carries 3sixteen, Stussy, Crooks and Castles, Triko, Cassette, and also hard-to-find European imports from Addict and Dunderdon. For the ladies, you can find a tremendous selection of wares from Cassette Femme, Hellz Bellz, Obey, and Mama. One will also find an eclectic selection of limited-edition sneakers from New Balance, ALife, and Reebok…not to mention a cool assortment of BMX and Cruiser bikes. El Mercado opens weekdays at Noon and at 11am on weekends.

Pico Modern Furnishings 5449 W. Pico Blvd. – 818-480-8800 www.decor8.blogspot.com/2008/pico-modern-furnishing

“Recycle. Renew. Redecorate.” This is the store motto for Pico Modern Furnishings. Open less than a year; the beautiful retail space has fast become a must-visit for aficionados of classic,

5287 W Pico Blvd Los Angeles 323.931.4085

CITYBEAT

FEBRUARY 28~MARCH5, 2008

original mid-20th-century modern furniture. PMF can outfit any room of your house, loft or apartment. In today’s polluted economy, what better way to help save the environment than to buy a classic piece of pre-owned furniture? Stop by Pico Modern today and help save the world and your bedroom, den, living room, or kitchen!

Home Grown Store 5455 W. Pico Blvd. – 323-933-5400 www.thehomegrownstore.com Opened two years ago, Home Grown was established as a destination shop featuring art and home décor created largely by artists and designers from the community. Over time it has grown in stock and selection to include beautiful pieces from all over the world. A trip to the store is like a visit to an exquisite gallery but without the ungodly price tag of shops further north.

Darren’s Unique Gifts 5406 W. Pico Blvd. – 323-965-8181 With its striking half-circle awning and lime green exterior, Darren’s stands as the definitive gift shop for this unique stretch of Pico. Many of the finer gifts available at Darren’s come from local artists, and one can find a phenomenal selection of leather-bound journals, portfolios, candles, gift sets, cards, and other wonderful home décor products. Custom on-the-spot giftwrapping is available!

HARI Natural Fiber/Casuals 1410 S. Orange Grove Ave. – 323-930-4822 (at the corner of Orange Grove and Pico) Located a short walk west from the 5400 of block of Pico is the well-established HARI Natural Clothing formerly HARI Casuals. In business on Pico for 32 years, HARI specializes in fine linen and natural cotton clothing for women. The prices at HARI can’t be beat and the selection is impressive and extensive.

Booty 8591 W. Pico Blvd – 310-358-0204 Located in the South Robertson neighborhood of Pico, Booty is an accessory boutique specializing in high-end luxury brands and one-of-a kind products from emerging designers. Of the many luxury brands, one will find Gucci, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Chanel. Prices at Booty can be as much as 60% off the MSRP for these coveted products. Stop by today and check out the adjacent art gallery space and original antiques! Advertising Supplement

pico>modern FURNISHINGS > recycle > renew > redecorate

BOOTY

A T R EA S U R E T R O V E O F LU X U R Y B R A N D S AT A ST EA L D E S I G N E R CL O T H E S , H A N D B A G S & A C C E S S O R I E S F I N E A RT , A N T I Q U E S & H O M E A C C E S S O R I E S

FEBRUARY 28~MARCH5, 2008

CITYBEAT

Neighborhood Shopping Guide

> 5 49 9 p i c o b l vd . l os a n g e l es > 81 8 4 8 0 8 8 0 0 > p i c o m o d e r n@ y a h o o.c o m

a.m., 12:30, 2:55, 5:20, 7:45, 10:10; MonThur 12:30, 2:55, 5:20, 7:45, 10:10. No Country for Old Men 11:35 a.m., 2:20, 5:05, 7:50, 10:35. The Other Boleyn Girl Fri 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:45, 12:30 a.m.; Sat 10:45 a.m., 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:45, 12:30 a.m.; Sun 10:45 a.m., 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:45; Mon-Thur 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:45. Penelope Fri 12:10, 2:30, 4:50, 7:10, 9:30, 11:50; Sat 10:05 a.m., 12:10, 2:30, 4:50, 7:10, 9:30, 11:50; Sun 10:05 a.m., 12:10, 2:30, 4:50, 7:10, 9:30; Mon-Thur 12:10, 2:30, 4:50, 7:10, 9:30. Semi-Pro Fri 12:15, 2:35, 4:55, 7:15, 9:35, 11:55; Sat 10 a.m., 12:15, 2:35, 4:55, 7:15, 9:35, 11:55; Sun 10 a.m., 12:15, 2:35, 4:55, 7:15, 9:35; Mon-Thur 12:15, 2:35, 4:55, 7:15, 9:35. The Spiderwick Chronicles noon, 5, 7:30. Step Up 2 the Streets Fri-Sat 11:45 a.m., 2:10, 4:35, 7, 9:25, 11:50; Sun-Thur 11:45 a.m., 2:10, 4:35, 7, 9:25. There Will Be Blood 11:45 a.m., 3:10, 6:35, 10. U2 3D Fri-Sat 7, 9:30, noon, 2:20, 4:40, 7, 9:30, midnight; Sun-Thur noon, 2:20, 4:40, 7, 9:30. Vantage Point Fri-Sat 11:45 a.m., 2:10, 4:35, 7, 9:25, 11:50; Sun-Thur 11:45 a.m., 2:10, 4:35, 7, 9:25. Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins 11:45 a.m., 2:30, 5:15, 8, 10:40. Culver Plaza Theatre, 9919 Washington Blvd, (310) 836-5516. Alvin and the Chipmunks SatSun 11:30 a.m., 1:20, 3:15. Atonement Fri 11:35 a.m., 2:05, 4:35, 7, 9:35; Sat-Sun 2:05, 4:35, 7, 9:35; MonThur 1:10, 3:45, 6:10, 8:30. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Fri-Sun 5:05, 7:30; Mon-Thur 3:35, 8:30. Enchanted Sat-Sun 11:40 a.m. Fool’s Gold Fri 12:10, 2:35, 5:05, 7:30, 9:50; Sat-Sun 5:05, 7:30, 9:50; Mon-Thur 1:20, 3:40, 6:05, 8:25. Jodhaa Akbar Fri-Sun 12:15, 4:20, 8:30; Mon-Thur 1:30, 7.

Michael Clayton Fri-Sun 11:45 a.m., 2:25, 9:55; Mon-Thur 1:05, 6:05. No Country for Old Men Fri-Sun 11:55 a.m., 2:25, 5:05, 7:30, 10; Mon-Thur 1:05, 3:35, 6:05, 8:25. Persepolis Fri-Sun 12:05, 5:10; Mon-Thur 3:25. Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins Fri-Sun 2:10, 7:15, 9:40; Mon-Thur 1, 6, 8:30. Loews Cineplex Marina Marketplace, 13455 Maxella Av, (310) 827-9588. Be Kind Rewind Fri 2, 4:45, 7:30, 10:05; Sat-Sun 11:30 a.m., 2, 4:45, 7:30, 10:05; Mon-Thur 2, 4:45, 7:30, 10:15. Definitely, Maybe Fri 1:40, 4:30, 7:20, 10:15; Sat-Sun 11 a.m., 1:40, 4:30, 7:20, 10:15; Mon-Thur 1:45, 4:40, 7:20, 10. Jumper Fri 1:30, 3:35, 5:45, 8, 10:35; SatSun 11:15 a.m., 1:30, 3:35, 5:45, 8, 10:35; Mon-Thur 1:35, 4, 6:45, 9. No Country for Old Men Fri 1:15, 4:15, 7, 10; Sat-Sun 10:30 a.m., 1:15, 4:15, 7, 10; MonThur 1:25, 4:15, 7, 9:50. The Other Boleyn Girl Fri 1, 4, 7:15, 10:20; Sat-Sun 10:20 a.m., 1, 4, 7:15, 10:20; MonThur 1:40, 4:25, 7:15, 10:05. Penelope Fri-Sun 12:45, 3, 5:30, 7:45, 10:30; Mon-Thur 1:55, 4:35, 7:10, 9:30. Pacific Culver Stadium 12, 9500 Culver Bl, (310) 855-7519. Be Kind Rewind Fri-Sun 12:50, 3:15, 5:45, 8:10, 11; Mon-Thur 2:10, 4:40, 7:10, 9:40. Charlie Bartlett Fri-Sun 12:10, 5:30, 11:05; Mon-Thur 4:55, 10:45. Definitely, Maybe Fri-Sun 2:35, 8:30; Mon-Thur 1:45, 7:25. Jumper Fri-Sun 1:20, 3:35, 5:50, 8, 10:20; Mon-Thur 1:20, 3:30, 5:40, 8, 10:20. Juno Fri-Sun 1:30, 4:20, 7:55, 10:35; MonThur 1, 3:25, 5:45, 8:10, 10:35. The Other Boleyn Girl Fri-Sun 1:50, 4:30, 7:15, 10:15; Mon-Thur 1:50, 4:30, 7, 10:15. Penelope Fri-Sun 12:40, 3:05, 5:10, 7:20, 9:50; Mon-Thur 1:05, 3:15, 5:30, 7:40, 9:50. Semi-Pro Fri-Sun 12:30, 1, 2:40, 3:20, 4:55, 5:35, 7:30, 8:15, 10:05, 10:40; Mon-Thur

L. WONDERFUIN.” “ALTOGETHER T TO SEE IT AGA YOU’LL WAN T

A.O. Scott, THE NEW YORK TIMES

E MOVIES WE LOVE “HILARIOUSLY SPOOFS TH E WAY.” GHS ALL TH LAU AND GETS BIG Pete Hammond, M A X I M ’S CRITIC K C I P SHINGTON POST

A THE W

####

“A BLAZI GLY ORIGINAL CN OMEDY.” J e ff C r a i g , SIXTY SE COND PREVIEW

“A TRUE MOVIE FOR THE YOUTUBE ERA.” Kevin Lally , FILM JOU RN AL

1:30, 2:30, 3:40, 4:50, 5:50, 7:20, 8:15, 10:05, 10:40. The Spiderwick Chronicles Fri-Sun 1:40, 4:10, 7:40, 10:10; Mon-Thur 1:40, 4:05, 7:35, 10:10. Step Up 2 the Streets Fri-Sun 2:35, 5:05, 8:20, 11:10; Mon-Thur 2:40, 5:05, 8:20, 10:50. There Will Be Blood Fri-Sun 12:20, 3:40, 7:10, 10:30; Mon-Thur 1:35, 5, 8:30. Vantage Point Fri-Sun 12:45, 2:50, 5:20, 7:45, 9:55; Mon-Thur 1:15, 3:20, 5:35, 7:55, 10:25. UA Marina, 4335 Glencoe Av, (310) 8231721. Charlie Bartlett 11:35 a.m., 2, 4:30, 7:10, 9:40. Juno 11:40 a.m., 2:25, 4:45, 7:15, 9:55. Semi-Pro noon, 2:45, 5:15, 7:45, 10:15. The Spiderwick Chronicles Fri-Sat 11:30 a.m., 1:50, 4:15, 7, 9:30; Sun 1:50, 4:15, 7, 11:30, 9:30; Mon-Thur 11:30 a.m., 1:50, 4:15, 7, 9:30. There Will Be Blood 11:50 a.m., 3:10, 6:40, 10:05. Vantage Point Fri-Sun 11:45 a.m., 2:15, 5, 7:30, 10; Mon 2:15, 5, 10, 11:45, 7:30; Tue 11:45 a.m., 2:15, 5, 7:30, 10; Wed 2:15, 5, 10, 11:45, 7:30; Thur 11:45 a.m., 2:15, 5, 7:30, 10.

DOWNTOWN & SOUTH L.A. Laemmle’s Grande 4-Plex, 345 S Figueroa St, (213) 617-0268. Jumper Fri 5:20, 7:30, 9:40; Sat-Sun 1, 3:10, 5:20, 7:30, 9:40; MonThur 5:20, 7:30. Semi-Pro Fri 5:40, 8, 10:10; Sat-Sun 1:20, 3:30, 5:40, 8, 10:10; Mon-Thur 5:40, 8. There Will Be Blood Fri 5, 8:15; Sat-Sun 1:30, 5, 8:15; Mon-Thur 5, 8:15. Magic Johnson Theaters, Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, 4020 Marlton Av, (323) 2905900. Charlie Bartlett Fri-Sat 10:05 a.m., 12:40, 3:10, 5:40, 8:10, 10:30, 10:45; Sun 10:05 a.m., 12:40, 3:10, 5:40, 8:10, 10:30; Mon-Thur 12:40, 3:10, 5:40, 8:10, 10:30. Cover Fri-Sun 10 a.m., 12:15, 2:35, 5:05, 7:40, 10:15; Mon-Thur 12:15, 2:35, 5:05, 7:40, 10:15. The Eye Fri-Sun 11:35 a.m., 2:10, 4:55, 7:30, 10:05; Mon-Thur 2:10, 4:55, 7:30, 10:05. Jumper Fri-Sat 10:10 a.m., 11:50 a.m., 12:30, 2:20, 2:55, 4:45, 5:25, 7:20, 8:05, 9:40, 10:35; Sun 10:10 a.m., 11:50 a.m., 12:30, 2:20, 2:55, 4:45, 5:25, 7:20, 8:05, 9:40; Mon-Wed 12:30, 2:20, 2:55, 4:45, 5:25, 7:20, 8:05, 9:40; Thur 12:30, 2:55, 4:45, 5:25, 7:20, 8:05, 9:40. Meet the Spartans Fri-Sun 10:35 a.m., 12:50, 3, 5:20, 7:45, 10; Mon-Thur 12:50, 3, 5:20, 7:45, 10. Rambo Fri-Sun 10:30 a.m., 12:55, 3:15, 5:45, 8, 10:20; Mon 12:35, 12:55, 3:15, 5:45, 8, 10:20; Tue-Wed 12:35, 3:15, 5:45, 8, 10:20; Thur 12:35, 5:45, 8, 10:20. Semi-Pro Fri-Sun 10:10 a.m., 10:50 a.m., 12:15, 1, 3:05, 4:45, 5:30, 7:15, 7:55, 9:40, 10:25; Mon-Thur 12:15, 1, 3:05, 4:45, 5:30, 7:15, 7:55, 9:40, 10:25. The Spiderwick Chronicles Fri-Sun 11 a.m., 1:25, 4:10, 7, 9:35; Mon-Thur 1:25, 4:10, 7, 9:35. Step Up 2 the Streets Fri-Sun 10 a.m., 12:10, 2:30, 4:55, 7:25, 10; Mon-Thur 12:10, 2:30, 4:55, 7:25, 10. Vantage Point Fri-Sun 10:45 a.m., 1:10, 3:30, 5:50, 8:15, 10:25; Mon-Thur 1:10, 3:30, 5:50, 8:15, 10:25. Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins Fri-Sat 10:40 a.m., 11:20 a.m., 1:30, 2:15, 4:15, 5, 7:05, 7:50, 9:50, 10:30; Sun 10:40 a.m., 11:20 a.m., 1:30, 2:15, 4:15, 5, 7:05, 7:50, 9:50; Mon-Thur 1:30, 2:15, 4:15, 5, 7:05, 7:50, 9:50. Witless Protection Fri-Sun 11:30 a.m., 2:05, 4:40, 7:10, 9:45; Mon-Wed 2:05, 4:40, 7:10, 9:45; Thur 2:05, 4:40, 7:10. University Village 3, 3323 S Hoover St, (213) 748-6321. Jumper 12:15, 2:30, 4:45, 7, 9:15. Semi-Pro Fri-Sat 12:45, 3, 5:15, 7:30, 9:45, midnight; Sun-Thur 12:45, 3, 5:15, 7:30, 9:45. Vantage Point Fri-Sat 11:40 a.m., 1:50, 4, 6:10, 8:20, 10:30, 12:30 a.m.; Sun-Thur 11:40 a.m., 1:50, 4, 6:10, 8:20, 10:30. Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show FriSat midnight.

HOLLYWOOD SOME SEXUAL REFERENCES

www.bekindmovie.com

MOBILE USERS: For Showtimes - Text REWIND with your ZIP CODE to 43KIX (43549) HOLLYWOOD BEVERLY HILLS ArcLight Hollywood Pacific’s at Sunset & Vine The Grove Stadium 14

WEST LOS ANGELES The Landmark at W. Pico & Westwood

SANTA MONICA Mann Criterion 6

UNIVERSAL CITY CityWalk Stadium 19 with IMAX 800/FANDANGO #707 MOVIE PARKING REBATE

AND AT A THEATRE NEAR YOU. CONSULT YOUR LOCAL LISTINGS. CITYBEAT

ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood, 6360 Sunset Bl, (323) 464-4226. Barbarella Tue only, 8. Be Kind Rewind 11:10 a.m., 1:30, 5, 8:10, 11:10. Charlie Bartlett Fri-Wed 11:15 a.m., 1:45, 4:25, 7:45, 10:15; Thur 11:15 a.m., 1:45, 4:25.

City of Men 1:25, 5:05, 7:55, 10:25. Definitely, Maybe 11 a.m., 1:40, 4:10, 7:30. In Bruges Fri-Wed 11:20 a.m., 1:50, 5:20, 8:20, 11; Thur 11:20 a.m., 1:50, 4:20. Juno Fri-Tue 11:30 a.m., 2, 4:40, 7:40, 10; Wed 11:30 a.m., 2, 4:40; Thur 11:30 a.m., 2, 4:40, 7:40, 10. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington Wed only, 8. No Country for Old Men 11:05 a.m., 1:55, 4:45, 7:25, 10:05. The Other Boleyn Girl 11:45 a.m., 2:25, 5:15, 8:05, 10:35. Penelope 11:55 a.m., 2:15, 4:55, 7:15, 9:35. Semi-Pro Fri-Sun 11:25 a.m., 1:35, 4:05, 10:30, 7:35, 9:55, noon, 2:30, 5:30, 8:30, 11:30; Mon 11:25 a.m., 1:35, 4:05, 7:35, 9:55, 10:30, noon, 2:30, 5:30, 8:30, 11:30; Tue 11:25 a.m., noon, 1:35, 2:30, 4:05, 5:30, 7:35, 8:30, 9:55, 10:30, 11:30; Wed 11:25 a.m., 1:35, 4:05, 7:35, 9:55; Thur 11:25 a.m., 1:35, 4:05, 10:30, 7:35, 9:55, noon, 2:30, 5:30, 8:30, 11:30. The Spider wick Chronicles Fri-Mon 1:20, 4:30, 7:50, 10:10; Tue 1:20, 4:30; WedThur 1:20, 4:30, 7:50, 10:10. There Will Be Blood 12:20, 4, 7:20, 10:40. Vantage Point Fri-Mon 11:40 a.m., 1:15, 2:10, 4:15, 5:10, 7:05, 8, 9:45, 10:50; Tue 11:40 a.m., 2:10, 5:10, 8, 10:50; Wed-Thur 11:40 a.m., 1:15, 2:10, 4:15, 5:10, 7:05, 8, 9:45, 10:50. The Wonder Of It All Thur only, 8. Grauman’s Chinese, 6925 Hollywood Bl, (323) 464-8111. Jumper 12:30, 3, 5:30, 8, 10:30. Los Feliz 3, 1822 N Vermont Av, (323) 6642169. Call theater for titles and showtimes. Mann Chinese 6, 6801 Hollywood Bl, (323) 461-3331. Atonement 12:40, 3:30, 6:30, 9:50. Fool’s Gold 1:20, 7:20. George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead 11:40 a.m., 2:10, 4:40, 7:10, 9:40. Jumper 11:30 a.m., 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30. Michael Clayton 1:10, 4:20, 7:30, 10:20. The Signal 2:30, 7:40. Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins 4:10, 10. Witless Protection noon, 5, 10:10. Pacific’s El Capitan, 6838 Hollywood Bl, (323) 467-7674. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Disney 3D Fri 10 a.m., 12:15, 2:30, 4:45, 7, 9:15; Sat 10 a.m., 12:15, 2:30, 4:45, 9:15; Sun 10 a.m., 12:15, 2:30, 4:45, 7, 9:15. Pacific’s The Grove Stadium 14, 189 The Grove Dr, Third St & Fairfax Av, (323) 6920829. Be Kind Rewind 11:50 a.m., 2:50, 5:30, 8, 10:45. Charlie Bartlett Fri 11:55 a.m., 2:55, 5:50, 8:20, 10:55; Sat-Thur 11:55 a.m., 2:55, 5:50, 8:25, 10:55. Definitely, Maybe 11 a.m., 1:50, 4:40, 7:45, 10:30. Jumper Fri 11:25 a.m., 2:45, 5:20, 7:50, 10:15; Sat 5:20, 7:50, 10:15; Sun-Thur 11:25 a.m., 2:45, 5:20, 7:50, 10:15. Juno 11:20 a.m., 2:35, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10. The Other Boleyn Girl Fri-Sat 5:40, 8:25, 11:10, 2, 5, 7:55, 10:40, midnight; Sun 11:10 a.m., 2, 5, 5:40, 7:55, 8:25, 10:40; Mon 11 a.m., 2, 5, 5:40, 7:55, 8:25, 10:40; Tue-Thur 11:10 a.m., 2, 5, 5:40, 7:55, 8:25, 10:40. Penelope Fri-Sat 11:05 a.m., 1:40, 4:30, 7:15, 9:40, 12:05 a.m.; Sun-Wed 11:05 a.m., 1:40, 4:30, 7:15, 9:40; Thur 11:05 a.m., 1:40, 4:30, 7:15, 9:35. Semi-Pro Fri-Sat 10:45 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 1:10, 2:20, 3:30, 4:45, 5:55, 7:30, 8:30, 9:55, 11, 12:15 a.m.; Sun-Wed 10:45 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 1:10, 2:20, 3:30, 4:45, 5:55, 7:30, 8:30, 9:55, 11; Thur 10:45 a.m., 1:10, 3:30, 5:55, 8:30, 10:50. The Spiderwick Chronicles 10:50 a.m., 1:45, 4:20, 7:05, 9:30. Step Up 2 the Streets 11:35 a.m., 2:25, 5:05, 7:35, 10:05. There Will Be Blood 11:45 a.m., 3:25, 7, 10:35. Vantage Point Fri-Tue 10:35 a.m., 11:40 a.m., 1, 2:15, 3:20, 4:50, 7:20, 9:50, 11:10; Wed 10:35 a.m., 1, 3:20, 11:10; Thur 10:35 a.m., 11:40 a.m., 1, 2:15, 3:20, 4:50, 7:20, 9:40, 11:10. Regent Showcase, 614 N La Brea Av, (323) 934-2944. Call theater for titles and showtimes. Vine, 6321 Hollywood Bl, (323) 463-6819. Call theater for titles and showtimes. Vista, 4473 Sunset, (323) 660-6639. Call theater for titles and showtimes.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, UNIVERSAL CITY Century 8, 12827 Victory Bl, (818) 5086004. Jumper Fri-Wed 12:25, 2:40, 5:05,

l FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

7:35, 9:55. Juno 11:50 a.m., 2:20, 4:50, 7:20, 9:50. Semi-Pro 12:30, 2:45, 5, 7:45, 10. The Spiderwick Chronicles Fri-Wed 11:40 a.m., 2, 4:20, 7, 9:30. Step Up 2 the Streets Fri-Wed noon, 2:25, 5:10, 7:40, 10:05. Strange Wilderness 12:10, 2:35, 4:45, 7:05, 9:20. There Will Be Blood 12:35, 4:15, 8. Vantage Point 12:15, 2:30, 4:45, 7:30, 9:45. Loews CityWalk Stadium 19 with IMAX, 100 Universal City Dr at Universal CityWalk, (818) 508-0588; IMAX Theater (818) 7608100. Be Kind Rewind Fri-Sun 11:50 a.m., 2:20, 4:55, 7:25, 10:15; Mon-Thur 2:15, 4:50, 7:25, 10:15. Charlie Bartlett Fri-Sun 11:30 a.m., 5:10, 10:45; Mon-Thur 5:10, 10:35. Definitely, Maybe 2:10, 7:50. The Eye Fri-Sat 12:55, 3:20, 5:50, 8:30, 11:05; Sun 12:55, 3:20, 5:50, 8:30, 10:50; Mon-Thur 2:55, 5:25, 7:55, 10:25. Fool’s Gold Fri-Sun 11:25 a.m., 2:15, 5, 7:45, 10:35; Mon-Thur 1:30, 4:05, 7, 9:35. George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead Fri-Sun 12:30, 5:40, 10:50; Mon-Thur 5:40, 10:35. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Disney 3D Fri-Sun 11:45 a.m., 1:55, 4:10, 6:20, 8:25, 10:30; Mon-Thur 2:35, 4:50, 7:10, 9:20. Jumper Fri-Sun 12:10, 1:10, 3:35, 5:15, 5:55, 7:40, 8:20, 10:40; Mon-Thur 2, 4:30, 5:30, 7:30, 9:50, 10:30. No Country for Old Men Fri-Sun 4, 9:10; MonThur 4, 6:45. The Other Boleyn Girl Fri-Sun 11:20 a.m., 2, 4:45, 7:35, 10:25; Mon-Thur 1:55, 4:40, 7:35, 10:20. Penelope Fri-Sat 11:55 a.m., 2:30, 4:50, 7:20, 9:45, midnight; Sun 11:55 a.m., 2:30, 4:50, 7:20, 9:45; Mon-Thur 2:20, 4:45, 7:15, 9:40. Rambo Fri-Sat 1:20, 6:45, 11:55; Sun 1:20, 6:45; Mon-Thur 1:35, 10. Semi-Pro Fri-Sat 11:35 a.m., 1, 2:05, 3:30, 4:30, 6, 7:05, 8:30, 9:30, 10:55, 11:55; Sun 11:35 a.m., 1, 2:05, 3:30, 4:30, 6, 7:05, 8:25, 9:30, 10:45; Mon-Thur 1:50, 2:40, 4:15, 5:15, 6:40, 7:40, 9:10, 10:10. The Spider wick Chronicles Fri-Sun 11:30 a.m., 1:50, 4:15, 6:50, 9:20; Mon-Thur 1:40, 4:10, 6:55, 9:25. The Spiderwick Chronicles: The IMAX Experience IMAX Fri-Sun 12:20, 2:40, 5:05, 7:30; IMAX Mon-Thur 2:30, 5, 7:45. Step Up 2 the Streets Fri-Sat 11:15 a.m., 1:35, 2:45, 4, 6:30, 9, 10:10, 11:30; Sun 11:15 a.m., 1:35, 2:45, 4, 6:30, 9, 10:10; Mon-Thur 1:45, 2:50, 4:25, 6:50, 8, 9:30. U2 3D IMAX Fri-Sat 9:50, 11:50; IMAX Sun 9:50; IMAX Mon-Thur 10:05. Untraceable Fri-Sun 3:10, 8:15; Mon-Thur 3, 8:05. Vantage Point Fri-Sat 11:15 a.m., 12:05, 1:30, 2:25, 3:50, 4:50, 6:15, 7:15, 8:40, 9:40, 11:10, midnight; Sun 11:15 a.m., 12:05, 1:30, 2:25, 3:50, 4:50, 6:15, 7:15, 8:35, 9:40, 10:50; Mon-Thur 1:30, 2:25, 4, 4:55, 6:20, 7:20, 8:45, 9:45. Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins Fri-Sat 11:40 a.m., 2:35, 5:20, 8:10, 11; Sun 11:40 a.m., 2:35, 5:20, 8:10, 10:55; Mon-Thur 1:35, 4:20, 7:05, 9:55.

NORTHRIDGE, CHATSWORTH, GRANADA HILLS Mann Granada Hills, Devonshire St & Balboa Av, (818) 363-3679. Definitely, Maybe 11:40 a.m., 2:10, 4:50, 7:40, 10:20. Jumper 12:10, 2:50, 5:20, 8, 10:30. No Country for Old Men 12:30, 3:30, 6:40, 9:40. The Other Boleyn Girl 1:30, 4:30, 7:10, 10. Penelope 11:30 a.m., 2, 4:40, 7, 9:30. Semi-Pro noon, 2:30, 5:10, 7:30, 10:10. The Spiderwick Chronicles 11:50 a.m., 2:20, 5, 7:20, 9:50. Step Up 2 the Streets 11:10 a.m., 1:40, 4:10, 6:30, 9. Vantage Point 11:20 a.m., 1:50, 4:20, 6:50, 9:20. Pacific’s Northridge Fashion Center All Stadium 10, 9400 N Shirley Av, (818) 501-5121. Charlie Bartlett Fri 2:20, 4:45, 7:15, 9:45; Sat 1:50, 4:45, 7:15, 9:45; Sun 1:50, 4:45, 7:15, 9:30; Mon-Thur 2:15, 5:05, 7:20. Definitely, Maybe Fri 1:25, 4:40, 7:35, 10:25; Sat 1:25, 4:40, 7:35, 10:15; Sun 1:25, 4:40, 7:35, 10:05; Mon-Thur 2:10, 5:30, 8. The Eye Fri 2:35, 5:25, 8, 10:30; Sat 12:40, 3, 5:25, 8, 10:30; Sun 12:40, 3, 5:25, 8, 10:10; Mon-Wed 2:30, 5:40, 8:15. Fool’s Gold Fri 1:45, 5, 7:50, 10:20; Sat-Sun 1:35, 4:35, 7:25, 10; Mon-Thur 1:35, 4:55, 7:25.

Starts Friday, February 29 WEST LOS ANGELES The Landmark At Pico & Westwood Blvd. 310/281-8233 On 2 Screens Fri & Sat 11:00 AM, 12:00, 1:45, 2:45, 4:30, 5:30, 7:15, 8:15, 9:55 & 10:50 PM Sun-Thur 11:00 AM, 12:00, 1:45, 2:45, 4:30, 5:30, 7:15, 8:15 & 9:55 PM

HOLLYWOOD ArcLight Hollywood At Sunset & Vine 323/464-4226 Daily 11:45 AM, 2:25, 5:15, 8:05 & 10:35 PM

L.A./BEVERLY HILLS Pacific’s The Grove Stadium 14 • 323/692-0829 #209 On 2 Screens Fri-Sun & Tue-Thur 11:10 AM, 2:00, 5:00, 5:40, 7:55, 8:25 & 10:40 PM Mon 11:00 AM, 2:00, 5:00, 5:40, 7:55, 8:25 & 10:40 PM Fri & Sat Late Show 12:00 Midnight

WESTWOOD The Majestic Crest 310/474-7866 Fri, Mon-Thur 2:30, 5:00, 7:30 & 10:00 PM Sat & Sun 12:00, 2:30, 5:00, 7:30 & 10:00 PM

Free Parking

4 Hours Validated Parking - $2

4 Hours On-Site Validated Parking Only $2.00

$2 All-day parking at 10866 Glendon Ave. with validation.

SHERMAN OAKS Arclight Sherman Oaks At The Galleria 818/501-0753 On 2 Screens Daily 11:10 AM, 1:00, 2:05, 4:05, 4:50, 7:10, 8:10, 10:00 & 11:00 PM

UNIVERSAL CITY CityWalk Stadium 19 with IMAX® 800/FANDANGO #707 Fri-Sun 11:20 AM, 2:00, 4:45, 7:35 & 10:25 PM Mon-Thur 1:55, 4:40, 7:35 & 10:20 PM

4 Hours Validated Parking–Free

Movie Parking Rebate $5 General Parking Rebate at Box Office with Movie Ticket Purchase (Excludes Preferred & Valet)

SANTA MONICA AMC Santa Monica 7 • 310/289-4AMC On 2 Screens Digital Projection Fri-Sun 11:20 AM, 2:10, 5:05, 8:00 & 10:50 PM Mon-Thur 1:00, 3:40, 6:30 & 9:25 PM 35MM Projection Fri-Sun 12:50, 3:35, 6:30 & 9:25 PM Mon-Thur 2:10, 5:05 & 8:00 PM

WEST LOS ANGELES The Bridge Cinema De Lux 310/568-3375 Digital Projection Fri, Mon-Thur 1:30, 4:15, 7:00 & 9:45 PM Sat & Sun 10:45 AM, 1:30, 4:15, 7:00 & 9:45 PM Fri & Sat Late Show 12:30 AM

And At A Theater Near You

For Additional Information Check Local Listings. Sorry, No Passes Accepted For This Engagement.

Jumper Fri 2:15, 4:50, 7:20, 9:35; Sat-Sun 12:30, 2:40, 4:55, 7:20, 9:35; Mon-Thur 2:25, 5:15, 7:30. The Other Boleyn Girl Fri-Sat 1, 4:10, 7:10, 10:10; Sun 1, 4:10, 7:10, 9:40; Mon-Thur 1:30, 5, 7:50. Semi-Pro Fri 12:45, 2:55, 5:05, 7:30, 9:50; Sat 12:30, 2:45, 5:05, 7:30, 9:50; Sun 12:30, 2:45, 5:05, 7:30, 9:45; Mon-Thur 1:55, 5:20, 7:40. The Spiderwick Chronicles Fri 1:35, 4:20, 7, 9:30; Sat 1:45, 4:20, 7, 9:40; Sun 1:45, 4:20, 7, 9:15; Mon-Thur 2:20, 5:10, 7:35. Step Up 2 the Streets Fri 2:45, 5:10, 7:45, 10:15; Sat-Sun 1:15, 4:05, 7:05, 9:30; MonThur 2, 5:35, 8:05. Vantage Point Fri 2, 5:05, 7:40, 10:05; SatSun 12:35, 2:50, 5:10, 7:40, 10:05; MonThur 1:45, 5:45, 8:10. Pacific’s Winnetka All Stadium 21, 9201 Winnetka Av, Chatsworth, (818) 501-5121. Atonement 1:35, 7:25. Be Kind Rewind 1:40, 4:25, 7:20, 9:55. Charlie Bartlett Fri-Sun 2:35, 5:15, 7:40, 10:15; Mon-Thur 2:35, 5:20, 7:40, 10:15. Definitely, Maybe Fri-Sat 1:40, 4:20, 7:15, 10:05; Sun 1:40, 4:20, 7:15, 10:20; MonThur 1:25, 4:20, 7:15, 10:05. The Eye Fri 2:15, 4:50, 7:35, 10:10; Sat 7:35, 10:10; Sun 2:15, 4:50, 7:35, 9:55; Mon-Thur 2:15, 4:50, 7:35, 10:10. Fool’s Gold Fri 2:05, 4:45, 7:25, 10:35; SatThur 2:10, 5:05, 7:50, 10:30. Jumper Fri 12:20, 1:55, 3, 4:25, 5:35, 7:05, 8:05, 9:50, 10:35; Sat 12:20, 3, 5:35, 7:05, 8:05, 9:50, 10:35; Sun 12:15, 1:55, 3, 4:25, 5:35, 7:05, 8:05, 9:50, 10:35; MonThur 12:35, 1:55, 3, 4:25, 5:35, 7:05, 8:05, 9:50, 10:35. Juno 2:20, 4:55, 7:30, 10:05. Michael Clayton 1:50, 4:40, 7:30, 10:25. Penelope Fri 2:30, 5:20, 7:45, 10:10; SatSun 12:05, 2:30, 5:20, 7:45, 10:10; MonThur 2:30, 5:20, 7:45, 10:10. Rambo 12:40, 3:15, 5:30, 7:55, 10:20. Semi-Pro Fri 12:10, 2, 3:10, 4:30, 5:30, 7, 8, 9:30, 10:30; Sat-Sun 12:10, 2, 3, 4:30, 5:30, 7, 8, 9:30, 10:30; Mon-Thur 12:35, 2:10, 3, 4:30, 5:35, 7, 8, 9:30, 10:30. The Spiderwick Chronicles Fri 12:30, 2:05, 3:05, 4:45, 5:45, 7:15, 8:15, 9:45, 10:45; Sat 12:30, 2:05, 3:05, 4:45, 5:45, 7:15, 8:15, 9:55, 10:45; Sun-Mon 12:30, 2:05, 3:05, 4:45, 5:45, 7:15, 8:15, 9:45, 10:35; Tue 12:30, 3:05, 5:45, 8:15, 10:35; WedThur 12:30, 2:05, 3:05, 4:45, 5:45, 7:15, 8:15, 9:45, 10:35. Step Up 2 the Streets Fri-Sat 12:45, 3:20, 5:50, 8:20, 10:50; Sun-Thur 12:45, 3:20, 5:50, 8:20, 10:40. There Will Be Blood Fri-Sun noon, 3:30, 7, 10:25; Mon-Thur 1:30, 5, 8:30.

Vantage Point Fri-Sun 12:15, 2:15, 3:10, 4:40, 5:40, 7:10, 8:10, 9:40, 10:40; MonThur 12:30, 2:15, 3:10, 4:40, 5:30, 7:10, 7:55, 9:40, 10:40. Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins 1:20, 4:10, 7:05, 9:50. Witless Protection 4:50, 10:20.

SANTA MONICA AMC Santa Monica 7, 1310 Third Street Promenade, (310) 395-3030. Fool’s Gold Fri-Sun 11:05 a.m., 1:50, 4:40, 7:45, 10:30; Mon-Thur 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:40. Jumper Fri-Sun 11 a.m., 1:15, 3:30, 5:50, 8:10, 10:35; Mon-Thur 1:05, 3:20, 5:35, 7:50, 10:05. The Other Boleyn Girl Fri-Sun 11:20 a.m., 12:50, 2:10, 3:35, 5:05, 6:30, 8, 9:25, 10:50; Mon-Thur 1, 2:10, 3:40, 5:05, 6:30, 8, 9:25. Penelope Fri-Sun noon, 2:20, 4:55, 7:30, 10; Mon-Thur 2:20, 4:55, 7:30, 10. The Spider wick Chronicles Fri-Sun 11:30 a.m., 2:05, 4:35, 7:05, 9:45; Mon-Thur 1:50, 4:20, 7:05, 9:35. There Will Be Blood Fri-Sun 11:10 a.m., 2:45, 6:15, 9:50; Mon-Thur 2:35, 6:05, 9:30. Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex, 1332 Second St, (310) 394-9741. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days 1:30, 4:20, 7:10, 9:50. Juno 12:45, 3:05, 5:25, 7:50, 10:15. No Country for Old Men 1:15, 4:05, 7, 9:55. Out of the Blue Sat-Sun 11 a.m. Romulus, My Father 1:40, 4:30, 7:20, 9:55. Taxi to the Dark Side Sat-Sun 11 a.m. The Year My Parents Went on Vacation SatSun 11 a.m. The Yiddish Theater: A Love Story Sat-Sun 1:10. Loews Cineplex Broadway, 1441 Third Street Promenade, (310) 458-1506. Atonement Fri 1:50, 4:40, 7:30, 10:20; Sat-Sun 11 a.m., 1:50, 4:40, 7:30, 10:20; Mon-Thur 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:45. In Bruges Fri 2, 4:30, 7:15, 10; Sat-Sun 11:15 a.m., 2, 4:30, 7:15, 10; Mon-Thur 1:35, 4:05, 6:35, 9:15. Michael Clayton Fri 2:10, 5, 7:45, 10:30; SatSun 11:30 a.m., 2:10, 5, 7:45, 10:30; MonThur 1:45, 4:20, 6:55, 9:35. Step Up 2 the Streets Fri 1:40, 4:20, 7, 9:30; Sat-Sun 11:10 a.m., 1:40, 4:20, 7, 9:30; Mon-Thur 1:55, 4:25, 6:50, 9:25. Mann Criterion, 1313 Third Street Promenade, (310) 395-1599. Be Kind Rewind 11:30 a.m., 2:10, 4:40, 7:20, 9:50. Charlie Bartlett noon, 2:20, 4:50, 7:50, 10. Definitely, Maybe 11:40 a.m., 2:30, 5, 7:40, 10:20.

Semi-Pro 12:10, 2:50, 5:10, 7:30, 10:10. Vantage Point 11:50 a.m., 12:50, 2, 3, 4:30, 5:30, 7, 8, 9:30, 10:30.

SHERMAN OAKS, ENCINO ArcLight Sherman Oaks, 15301 Ventura Bl, Sherman Oaks, (818) 501-0753. 10,000 B.C. Thur only, midnight. Atonement 11:25 a.m., 2:10, 5, 7:55, 10:55. The Bank Job Thur only, 12:10. Be Kind Rewind 11:45 a.m., 2:15, 5:10, 7:50, 10:40. Charlie Bartlett Fri-Wed 11:30 a.m., 1:40, 4:20, 7, 9:30. College Road Trip Thur only, 12:05. Definitely, Maybe 11:20 a.m., 1:50, 4:40, 7:30, 10:10. Jumper 12:15, 2:35, 5:15, 7:35, 10:15. Juno 1:05, 4:35, 7:20, 9:55. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day Thur only, 12:15. Murder on the Orient Express Mon only, 7:30. No Country for Old Men 11:35 a.m., 2:30, 5:20, 8:15, 11:05. The Other Boleyn Girl 11:10 a.m., 1, 2:05, 4:05, 4:50, 7:10, 8:10, 10, 11. Penelope 11 a.m., 1:10, 3:20, 5:40, 8, 10:30. Rocky Mon only, 7:30. Semi-Pro Fri-Sun 11:15 a.m., 12:10, 1:35, 2:40, 4:25, 5:30, 7:45, 8:30, 10:25, 10:50; Mon 11:15 a.m., 12:10, 1:35, 2:40, 4:25, 5:30, 8:30, 10:50; Tue-Thur 11:15 a.m., 12:10, 1:35, 2:40, 4:25, 5:30, 7:15, 8:30, 9:45, 10:50. The Spiderwick Chronicles 11:55 a.m., 2:25, 4:55, 7:40, 10:05. There Will Be Blood noon, 3:30, 7:25, 10:45. Vantage Point Fri-Sun 11:05 a.m., 11:50 a.m., 1:25, 2:20, 4:15, 5:05, 7:05, 7:45, 9:35, 10:20; Mon 11:05 a.m., 11:50 a.m., 1:25, 2:20, 4:15, 7:05, 9:35; Tue-Thur 11:05 a.m., 11:50 a.m., 1:25, 2:20, 4:15, 5:05, 7:05, 7:45, 9:35, 10:20. Laemmle’s Town Center 5, 17200 Ventura Bl, Encino, (818) 981-9811. The Band’s Visit noon, 2:20, 4:50, 7:20, 9:40. The Counterfeiters 12:10, 2:40, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10. La vie en rose (French w/e.s.t.) 1:20, 4:40, 8. Michael Clayton 2:55, 8:20. Santoori: The Music Man noon, 2:30, 5, 7:30, 10. The Year My Parents Went on Vacation 12:20, 5:45. Mann Plant 16, 7876 Van Nuys Bl, Panorama City, (818) 779-0323. Be Kind Rewind noon, 2:30, 5, 7:30, 10. The Eye 12:15, 2:45, 5:15, 7:45, 10:15. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Disney 3D 12:10, 2:15, 4:20. Jumper 12:20, 2:50, 5:20, 7:50, 10:20. Meet the Spartans noon, 2:20, 4:30, 6:40, 9:10. No Country for Old Men 12:40, 3:40, 6:40, 9:40.

“

”BEAUTIFUL AND “ Scott, ”PASSIONATE. -A.O. THE NEW YORK TIMES

“

UNFORGETTABLE. “

-Steven Hunter, WASHINGTON POST

“

A DEEPLY MOVING EPIC

that spans the period from just prior to the Tiananmen Square massacere to a little before the present.”-Chris Chang, FILM COMMENT

a film by lou ye

SUMMER PALACE

www.palmpictures.com

EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENTS START FEB. 29th!

CITYBEAT

Beverly Hills

Pasadena

Laemmle’s MUSIC HALL

Laemmle’s PLAYHOUSE

9036 Wilshire Blvd. (310) 274-6869 • Daily: 5:10 8:20 • Sat-Sun: 1:40 5:10 8:20

673 E. Colorado Blvd. (626) 844-6500 Daily: 1:00 4:30 8:00

The Orphanage Sub-Titled 11:40 a.m., 2, 4:20, 6:45, 9:15. Penelope 11:30 a.m., 2, 4:40, 7, 9:30. Rambo 6:45, 9:15. Semi-Pro 11:40 a.m., 12:30, 2:10, 3, 4:40, 5:30, 7:10, 8, 9:40, 10:30. The Spiderwick Chronicles 11:30 a.m., 12:10, 1:50, 2:30, 4:10, 4:50, 6:30, 7:20, 9, 9:50. Step Up 2 the Streets 11:50 a.m., 12:30, 2:10, 2:50, 4:30, 5:10, 6:50, 7:40, 9:20, 10:10. There Will Be Blood 1:30, 5, 8:30. Vantage Point 11:45 a.m., 2:15, 4:45, 7:15, 9:45. Pacific’s Sherman Oaks 5, 14424 Millbank St, Sherman Oaks, (818) 501-5121. Charlie Wilson’s War 1:30, 4:05, 7, 9:50. Fool’s Gold 1:40, 4:15, 7:05, 9:55. In Bruges 1:50, 4:40, 7:20, 10:05. The Spiderwick Chronicles 1:55, 4:30, 7:15, 9:45. Step Up 2 the Streets 2, 4:35, 7:30, 9:55.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, BEVERLY HILLS, CENTURY CITY AMC Century City 15, 10250 Santa Monica Bl, (310) 277-2011. 27 Dresses Fri-Sun 11:05 a.m., 1:45, 4:40, 7:40, 10:25; MonThur 2, 4:45, 7:30, 10:05. Definitely, Maybe Fri-Sat 10:10 a.m., 1, 4:15, 7:25, 10:35; Sun 10:10 a.m., 1, 4:15, 7:25, 10:15; Mon-Thur 1:25, 4:25, 7:25, 10:20. Fool’s Gold Fri-Sun 10:40 a.m., 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 10:20; Mon-Thur 1:40, 4:30, 7:35, 10:15. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Disney 3D Fri-Sun 10:30 a.m., 12:40, 2:50, 5, 7:05; Mon-Thur 1:30, 3:30, 5:30, 7:40. Jumper Fri 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30, 1:55, 3:10, 4:35, 5:35, 7:10, 9:45, 12:05 a.m.; Sat 10 a.m., 12:30, 1:10, 3:10, 5:35, 7:10, 9:45, 12:05 a.m.; Sun 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30, 1:55, 3:10, 4:35, 5:35, 7:10, 8, 9:35, 10:30; Mon-Thur 1:05, 2:25, 3:25, 4:50, 5:40, 7:15, 8:05, 9:40, 10:30. No Country for Old Men Fri-Sat 10:05 a.m., 1:05, 4:05, 7:15, 10:30; Sun 10:05 a.m., 1:05, 4:05, 7:15, 10:05; Mon-Thur 1:20, 4:20, 7:20, 10:20. Semi-Pro Fri-Sat 9:40 a.m., 10:15 a.m., 12:05, 12:35, 2:20, 3:05, 4:55, 5:40, 7:35, 8:20, 10:15, 11, 12:20 a.m.; Sun 9:40 a.m., 10:15 a.m., 12:05, 12:35, 2:20, 3:05, 4:55, 5:40, 7:35, 8:20, 10, 10:45; Mon-Thur 1:10, 2:10, 3:35, 4:35, 6, 7, 8:15, 9:25, 10:30. The Spiderwick Chronicles Fri-Sun 9:50 a.m., 12:15, 2:45, 5:15, 7:45, 10:10; Mon-Thur 1:45, 4:15, 7:10, 9:35. Step Up 2 the Streets Fri-Sat 9:45 a.m., 12:20, 2:55, 5:30, 8:10, 11:05; Sun 9:45 a.m., 12:20, 2:55, 5:30, 8:10, 10:45; MonThur 2:30, 5:15, 7:50, 10:10. There Will Be Blood Fri-Sat noon, 3:25, 7, 10:40; Sun noon, 3:25, 7, 10:35; Mon-Thur 2:40, 6:15, 9:45. U2 3D Fri-Sun 9:30; Mon-Thur 9:50. Vantage Point Fri-Sat 9:55 a.m., 10:35 a.m., 12:10, 12:55, 2:30, 3:15, 4:50, 5:45, 7:20, 8:15, 9:55, 10:50, 12:30 a.m.; Sun 9:55 a.m., 10:35 a.m., 12:10, 12:55, 2:30, 3:15, 4:50, 5:45, 7:20, 8:15, 9:45, 10:40; Mon 1:05, 2:15, 3:20, 4:40, 5:35, 7:05, 8, 9:30, 10:25; Tue 1:35, 2:15, 4, 4:40, 7:05, 9:30, 10:25; Wed-Thur 1:05, 2:15, 3:20, 4:40, 5:35, 7:05, 8, 9:30, 10:25. Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins Fri-Sat 11 a.m., 1:50, 4:45, 7:50, 10:55; Sun 11 a.m., 1:50, 4:45, 7:50, 10:40; Mon-Tue 2:05, 4:55, 7:45, 10:25; Wed 1:15, 4, 10:25; Thur 2:05, 4:55, 7:45, 10:25. Laemmle’s Music Hall 3, 9036 Wilshire Bl, (310) 274-6869. The Duchess of Langeais Fri 5, 8:10; Sat-Sun 1:50, 5, 8:10; Mon-Thur 5, 8:10. Santoori: The Music Man Fri 5, 7:30, 10; SatSun noon, 2:30, 5, 7:30, 10; Mon-Thur 5, 7:30, 10. Summer Palace Fri 5:10, 8:20; Sat-Sun 1:40, 5:10, 8:20; Mon-Thur 5:10, 8:20. Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theatre, 8000 Sunset Bl, (323) 848-3500. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days 1:20, 4:10, 7, 9:50. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly 1, 4, 7, 9:45. The Lost 1:15, 4:05, 7, 9:50. Vivere 12:15, 2:35, 5, 7:30, 10. A Walk to Beautiful 12:45, 3, 5:15, 7:30, 9:55. Beverly Center 13 Cinemas, 8522 Beverly Blvd., Suite 835, (310) 652-7760. 27 Dresses 12:20, 2:40, 5:10, 7:30, 10. Alvin and the Chipmunks 12:10, 2:10, 4:20, 6:50, 8:50. Cloverfield 12:30, 2:40, 4:50, 7, 9:40. Enchanted 12:10, 2:10, 4:20, 6:40, 9:10. Fool’s Gold 1:10, 3:50, 6:40, 9:10.

l FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

The Great Debaters 12:50, 3:40, 6:20. Into the Wild 12:20, 3:20, 6:30, 9:30. The Kite Runner 1, 7:10. Meet the Spartans 5:10, 10:10. Michael Clayton 1:10, 3:50, 6:30, 9:20. The Orphanage 11:50 a.m., 2, 4:30, 7:10, 9:40. Rambo 1, 3:20, 5:30, 7:50, 10:10. Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins noon, 2:20, 5, 7:30, 10. Witless Protection 9 a.m. The Year My Parents Went on Vacation noon, 2:20, 4:40, 7, 9:20.

WESTWOOD, WEST L.A. AMC Avco Center, 10840 Wilshire Bl, (310) 475-0711. Definitely, Maybe Fri 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:45; Sat-Sun 10:45 a.m., 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:45; Mon-Thur 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:45. Penelope Fri 12:45, 2:55, 5:05, 7:15, 9:25; Sat-Sun 10:35 a.m., 12:45, 2:55, 5:05, 7:15, 9:25; Mon-Thur 12:45, 2:55, 5:05, 7:15, 9:25. Semi-Pro Fri 1, 3:10, 5:30, 7:45, 10; Sat 10:50 a.m., 1, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45, 10; Sun 10:50 a.m., 1, 3:10, 5:20, 7:30, 9:40; MonThur 1, 3:10, 5:20, 7:30, 9:40. There Will Be Blood Fri 2:45, 6:10, 9:30; Sat 11:45 a.m., 6:10, 9:30; Sun 11:25 a.m., 2:45, 6:10, 9:30; Mon-Thur 2:45, 6:10, 9:30. Laemmle’s Royal Theatre, 11523 Santa Monica Bl, (310) 477-5581. The Counterfeiters 12:30, 2:50, 5:15, 7:45, 10:15. Landmark’s Nuart Theater, 11272 Santa Monica Bl, (310) 281-8223. Chicago 10 FriSun noon, 2:30, 5, 7:30, 10; Mon-Thur 5, 7:30, 10. The Rocky Horror Picture Show Sat only, midnight. Southland Tales Fri only, midnight. Landmark’s Regent, 1045 Broxton Av, (310) 281-8223. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:45. The Landmark West Los Angeles, 10850 W Pico Bl, (310) 281-8223. Atonement 1:10, 4, 7, 9:50. The Band’s Visit 12:10, 2:30, 4:50, 7:10, 9:30. Be Kind Rewind 12:10, 2:40, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10. Charlie Bar tlett 11:50 a.m., 2:20, 4:50, 7:20, 9:50. City of Men 12:20, 2:40, 5:20, 7:50, 10:20. In Bruges Fri-Sun 11:40 a.m., 12:40, 2:10, 3:10, 4:40, 5:40, 7:10, 8:10, 9:30, 10:30; Mon 11:40 a.m., 12:40, 2:10, 3:10, 4:40, 7:10, 9:30, 10:30; Tue 11:40 a.m., 12:40, 2:10, 3:10, 4:40, 5:40, 7:10, 8:10, 9:30, 10:30; Wed-Thur 11:40 a.m., 12:40, 2:10, 3:10, 4:40, 7:10, 9:30, 10:30. Juno noon, 2:30, 5, 7:30, 9:55. Michael Clayton 11:15 a.m., 2, 4:55, 7:45, 10:25. The Other Boleyn Girl Fri-Sat 11 a.m., noon, 1:45, 2:45, 4:30, 5:30, 7:15, 8:15, 9:55, 10:50; Sun-Thur 11 a.m., noon, 1:45, 2:45, 4:30, 5:30, 7:15, 8:15, 9:55. Penelope 11 a.m., 1:15, 3:30, 5:45, 8, 10:10. Majestic Crest Theater, 1262 Westwood Bl, (310) 474-7866. The Other Boleyn Girl Fri 2:30, 5, 7:30, 10; Sat-Sun noon, 2:30, 5, 7:30, 10; Mon-Thur 2:30, 5, 7:30, 10. Mann Bruin, 948 Broxton Av, (310) 2088998. Vantage Point 12:20, 2:40, 5, 7:30, 10. Mann Festival 1, 10887 Lindbrook Av, (310) 208-4575. No Country for Old Men 1:15, 4:15, 7:15, 10:10. Mann Village, 961 Broxton Av, (310) 2085576. The Spiderwick Chronicles 11:50 a.m., 2:10, 4:40, 7, 9:30.

WOODLAND HILLS, WEST HILLS, TARZANA AMC Promenade 16, 21801 Oxnard St, Woodland Hills, (818) 883-2262. Call theater for titles and showtimes. Laemmle’s Fallbrook 7 Cinemas, Fallbrook Mall, 6731 Fallbrook Av, West Hills, (818) 3408710. Be Kind Rewind Fri noon, 2:30, 5:10, 7:45, 10:15; Sat-Sun noon, 7:45, 10:15. Calcutta News Fri only, 10 a.m. In Bruges Fri-Sun 1:30, 4:20, 7:10, 9:50. Jodhaa Akbar Fri-Sun 1, 5:15, 9:30. No Country for Old Men Fri 1, 4, 7; Sat-Sun 1, 4, 7, 9:55. Ontari Sun only, 10 a.m. The Other Boleyn Girl Fri-Sun 1:40, 4:30, 7:20, 10:10. There Will Be Blood Fri-Sun 1:15, 4:45, 8:15. Vantage Point Fri-Sun 12:10, 2:40, 5:10, 7:40, 10.

“A PULSE-POUNDING THRILLER.” Carrie Rickey, THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

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“...AS SMOOTH, FAST-MOVING AND ENJOYABLE AN ACTION THRILLER AS YOU’RE LIKELY TO SEE THIS YEAR.” Jack Mathews, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

COLUMBIA PICTURES PRESENTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH RELATIVITY MEDIA AN ORIGINAL FILM PRODUCTION “VEXECUTIVE ANTAGE POINT” MUSICBY ATLI ORVARSSON PRODUCERS CALLUM GREENE TANIA LANDAU LYNWOOD SPINKS WRITTEN PRODUCED BY BARRY L. LEVY BY NEAL H. MORITZ DIRECTED BY PETE TRAVIS

NOW PLAYING HOLLYWOOD ArcLight Hollywood At Sunset & Vine 323/464-4226 On 2 Screens Daily 11:40 AM, 1:15, 2:10, 4:15, 5:10, 7:05, 8:00, 9:45 & 10:50 PM

CENTURY CITY AMC Century 15 • 310/289-4AMC On 2 Screens Fri & Sat 9:55 & 10:35 AM, 12:10, 12:55, 2:30, 3:15, 4:50, 5:45, 7:20, 8:15, 9:55 & 10:50 PM Sun 9:55 & 10:35 AM, 12:10, 12:55, 2:30, 3:15, 4:50, 5:45, 7:20, 8:15, 9:45 & 10:40 PM Mon-Thur 1:05, 2:15, 3:20, 4:40, 5:35, 7:05, 8:00, 9:30 & 10:25 PM Fri & Sat Late Show 12:30 AM

L.A./BEVERLY HILLS Pacific’s The Grove Stadium 14 323/692-0829 #209 On 2 Screens Daily 10:35 & 11:40 AM, 1:00, 2:15, 3:20, 4:50, 7:20, 9:50 & 11:10 PM

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WESTWOOD Mann Bruin 310/248-MANN #051 Daily 12:20, 2:40, 5:00, 7:30 & 10:00 PM $3.00 Parking After 6:00 PM in Privilege Parking Lots $1.00 Refund with Paid Admission

UNIVERSAL CITY CityWalk Stadium 19 with IMAX® 800/FANDANGO #707 On 2 Screens Fri & Sat 11:15 AM, 12:05, 1:30, 2:25, 3:50, 4:50, 6:15, 7:15, 8:40, 9:40 & 11:10 PM Sun 11:15 AM, 12:05, 1:30, 2:25, 3:50, 4:50, 6:15, 7:15, 8:35, 9:40 & 10:50 PM Mon-Thur 1:30, 2:25, 4:00, 4:55, 6:20, 7:20, 8:45 & 9:45 PM Fri & Sat Late Show 12:00 Midnight Movie Parking Rebate $5 General Parking Rebate at Box Office with Movie Ticket Purchase (Excludes Preferred & Valet)

AND AT A THEATER NEAR YOU

SANTA MONICA Mann Criterion 6 310/248-MANN #019 On 2 Screens Daily 11:50 AM, 12:50, 2:00, 3:00, 4:30, 5:30, 7:00, 8:00, 9:30 & 10:30 PM

SHERMAN OAKS Arclight Sherman Oaks At The Galleria 818/501-0753 On 2 Screens Daily 11:05 & 11:50 AM, 1:25, 2:20, 4:15, 5:05, 7:05, 7:45, 9:35 & 10:20 PM 4 Hours Validated Parking–Free

WEST LOS ANGELES The Bridge Cinema De Lux 310/568-3375 On 2 Screens Digital Projection Daily 12:15, 2:40, 5:05, 7:30 & 9:55 PM Fri & Sat Late Show 12:15 AM 35MM Projection Daily 11:45 AM, 2:10, 4:35, 7:00 & 9:25 PM Fri & Sat Late Show 11:50 PM

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS. SORRY, NO PASSES ACCEPTED FOR THIS ENGAGEMENT.

SPECIAL SCREENINGS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28 American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Av, Santa Monica, (323) 466-3456. Aerotheatre.com. Happy Anniversary / Paul Newman Double Feature – The Long Hot Summer, 7:30; followed by Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Bl, Hollywood, (323) 4663456. Egyptiantheatre.com. A Tribute to Director David Gordon Green – Snow Angels, 7:30. David Gordon Green, author Stewart O’Nan, and actors Kate Beckinsale, Michael Angarano, and Olivia Thirlby will introduce the screening. CineFamily at the Silent Movie Theatre, 611 N Fairfax Av, Hollywood, (323) 655-2520. Silentmovietheatre.com. Jazz on Film: Capturing Creation – Passing Through, 8. Echo Park Film Center, 1200 N Alvarado St, Echo Park, (213) 484-8846. Echoparkfilmcenter.org. Animation Nite: From Halifax with Love, 8; followed by live music from band Foot Foot. New Beverly Cinema, 7165 Beverly Bl, L.A., (323) 938-4038. Newbevcinema.com. The Blair Witch Project, 7:30; Cannibal Ferox, 9:20. REDCAT at Walt Disney Music Hall, 631 W Second St, downtown L.A., (213) 237-2800. Redcat.org. Mitchell Rose: The Mitch Show, 8:30. Combination of Rose’s comedic shorts and performances. Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N Sepulveda Bl, L.A., (310) 440-4500. Skirball.org. Watching Dylan – Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, 8.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29 American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre Gus Van Sant Retrospective Double Feature – My Own Private Idaho, 7:30; followed by Drugstore Cowboy. American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre 85th Anniversar y Series – Show Boat (1951), 7:30. CineFamily at the Silent Movie Theatre Love Hurts – Brief Encounter, 8. Russ Meyer: Mammaries of Overdevelopment – Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! 10:30; followed by Motor Psycho. Cinespace, 6356 Hollywood Bl, second level, Hollywood, (323) 817-3456. Cinespace.info. Dinner & a Movie – Gone Baby Gone, 8. Film in a restaurant/bar setting; call for reservations. L.A. County Museum of Art, Leo S. Bing Theatre, 5905 Wilshire Bl, L.A., (323)857-6010. Lacma.org. Six Films by Sergei Paradjanov – The Color of Pomegranates, 7:30; The Legend of Suram Fortress, 9:20. Landmark’s Nuart Theatre, 11272 Santa Monica Bl, West L.A., (310) 281-8223. Landmarktheatres.com. Southland Tales, midnight. New Beverly Cinema Bachelor Party, 7:30; Caddyshack, 9:35. Old Town Music Hall, 140 Richmond St, El Segundo, (310) 322-2592. Otmh.org. Has Anybody Seen My Gal?, 8:15; with shorts. Skirball Cultural Center Cinema’s Legacy – The Landlord, 7:30; presented by director John Singleton. Vista Theatre, 4473 Sunset Dr, Los Feliz, (323) 660-6639. So Bad It’s Good Film Fest – The Apple (1980), midnight.

SATURDAY, MARCH 1 American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre Gus Van Sant Sneak Preview – Paranoid Park, 7:30. American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre Maurice Jarre Retrospective – Doctor Zhivago, 7:30; with composer Maurice Jarre, in person. CineFamily at the Silent Movie Theatre Saturday Noir Matinees: Philip Marlowe – Murder My Sweet, 1. Dardenne Brothers: Songs of Redemption – The Child (L’Enfant), 7:30. HolyFuckingShit: Blaxploitation – Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, 10:30. Cinespace Dinner & a Movie – Gone Baby Gone, 8. Film in a restaurant/bar setting; call for reservations. Echo Park Film Center Handmade Films by Robert Schaller, 8. Landmark’s Nuart Theatre The Rocky Horror Picture Show, midnight; with live performance by Sins O’ the Flesh. New Beverly Cinema Bachelor Party, 3:25, 7:30; Caddyshack, 5:30, 9:35. Amoeba Midnights – Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, midnight. Old Town Music Hall Has Anybody Seen My Gal?, 2:30, 8:15; with shorts.

CITYBEAT

l FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

REDCAT at Walt Disney Music Hall International Children’s Film Festival – Four-legged, Finned and Furry Friends, noon. From the Heart of Sweden: Animation with a Global Reach, 1:30. Make a Leap! Films about Growing Up, 3. The Robber Hotzenplotz, 5.

SUNDAY, MARCH 2 American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre 2007’s Best Underrated Films – Youth without Youth, 7:30; followed by Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre Maurice Jarre Retrospective – The Damned (1969), 7:30; with Jarre in person. CineFamily at the Silent Movie Theatre Ozu’s Early Comedies – Walk Cheerfully, 7. You Hit Like a Girl: The Ladies of Kung Fu – TBA, 9:30. Hammer Museum, UCLA Film & Television Archive at the Billy Wilder Theatre, 10899 Wilshire Bl, L.A. Info: (310) 206-3456 or Hammer.ucla.edu. Archive Previews – Snow Angels, 7; with producer Lisa Muskat. LA Film Forum at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Bl, Hollywood, (323) 466-3456. Lafilmforum.wordpress.com. In the Spielberg Theatre: SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT: Works of the London FilmMakers’ Co-operative, Part I – short Threshold, 7; followed by shorts Seven Days, Key, Moment, Associations, Deck, and Colours of This Time. New Beverly Cinema The Paralla View, 3:10, 7:30; Klute, 5:15, 9:35. Old Town Music Hall Has Anybody Seen My Gal?, 2:30; with shorts. REDCAT at Walt Disney Concert Hall International Children’s Film Festival – Wild and Wooly, noon. CanDo Kids, 1:30. Legends to Live By, 3. The Robber Hotzenplotz, 5.

MONDAY, MARCH 3 ArcLight Cinemas Sherman Oaks, 15301 Venutra Bl, Sherman Oaks, (818) 501-7033. Arclightcinemas.com. AFI’s Sports at the Movies – Rocky, 7:30. Hammer Museum, UCLA Film & Television Archive at the Billy Wilder Theatre Archive Previews – Paranoid Park, 7:30. New Beverly Cinema The Parallax View, 7:30; Klute, 9:35. REDCAT at Walt Disney Music Hall Tran T. KimTrang: The Complete Blindness Series, 8. Eight videos exploring blindness and its metaphors, with filmmaker Tran Kim-Trang, in person.

TUESDAY, MARCH 4 L.A. County Museum of Art Tuesday Matinees – Carefree, 1. New Beverly Cinema The Parallax View, 7:30; Klute, 9:35.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5 American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre Heist! Making a Big Score in the Movies – The Bank Job, 7:30; followed by discussion with director Roger Donaldson. American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre Outfest Wednesdays – The Strange One, 7:30. ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood, 6360 Sunset Bl, Hollywood, (323) 464-1478. Arclightcinemas.com. AFI’s Politics in Cinema – Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 8. CineFamily at the Silent Movie Theatre Mary Pickford: Film’s First Sweetheart – Little Lord Fauntleroy, 8. New Beverly Cinema Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice, 7:30; Tokyo Story, 9:45. 7 Dudley Cinema at Sponto Gallery, 7 Dudley Av, Venice, (310) 306-7330. 81x.com/7dudley/cinema. Charles Bukowski Films, 8; with pre-show readings.

and

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Putting P utting the the funk funk into fu into the the dunk. dunk . MUSIC BY

-PRO” WOODY HARRELSON ANDRÉ BENJAMIN MAURA TIERNEYEXECUTIVEWILL ARNETT DAVID KOECHNER NEW LINE CICOSTUME NEMA PRESENTS A MOSAIC MEDIA GROUPPRODUCTION WILL FERRELL “SEMIPRODUCTION DIRECTOR OF CLAYTON HARTLEY PHOTOGRAPHY SHANE HURLBUT, ASCDIRECTEDPRODUCERS LAUREN SHULER DONNER TOBY EMMERICH THEODORE SHAPIRO DESIGNER SUSAN MATHESON EDITORS DEBRA NEIL-FISHER,A.C.E. PETER TESCHNER DESIGNERPRODUCED WRITTEN CALE BOYTER MICHAEL AGUILAR DAVID HOUSEHOLTER KENT ALTERMAN BY JIMMY MILLER BY SCOT ARMSTRONG BY KENT ALTERMAN

LANGUAGE AND SOME SEXUAL CONTENT

SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE ON

www.semipromovie.com

F FEBRUARY EBRUARY 29 29

This film is rated “R” for language and some sexual content. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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CITYBEAT

FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

and love. It was tasty, but I wouldn’t order it again here, precisely because I can get it elsewhere. Other meats, such as ostrich, lamb, and swordfish, will be on the menu next time. On the other hand, I’d happily order the codfish again. The perfectly-done fish was glazed with a thick, sweet-spicy soy sauce and served on a bed of pickled daikon, and was delicious. This is Korean cooking at a Beverly Hills level, presentation and preparation in top form. Our meal continued with the banchan, the array of small dishes that accompanies any Korean meal. The old favorites like kimchi, musky burdock root, and candied dried octopus were there, as was one innovation: Tempura shrimp. These were oddly out of place; though nicely done, they just didn’t fit in with the rest of the meal. I was much happier with the “Forbidden Rice,” a nutty, black rice cooked with dates, peas, and beans. The sticky, purple rice has a popcornlike scent by itself, and cooked with the other ingredients is a mild but very interesting side dish. On each visit we finished with a dessert – the first time with a confection of shaved ice topped with Asian fruits, sweet beans, and coconut ice cream ($9). It was beautiful and enough for at least two people, the flavors more tropical than I expected, but very refreshing. It was topped, though, by the dessert on our second visit – banana-soju sabayon over berries. The rich and fragrant egg-cream mix over ripe strawberries and blueberries was stunning, a dessert worthy of a fine French restaurant rather than a cuisine with no tradition of finishing a meal with sweets. Woo Lae Oak of Beverly Hills is across the street from Fogo de Chão, the restaurant that upscaled a refined version of Brazilian barbecue. It is appropriate company, as both establishments offer re-imagined versions of hearty cuisine in elegant surroundings. São Paulo and Seoul both have their own version of Beverly Hills, and this is a good approximation of how they dine very well. ✶ Woo Lae Oak, 170 N. La Cienega Blvd., Beverly Hills. Open daily for lunch & dinner, valet parking, full bar. Vegetarian-friendly, wheelchair access good; (310) 652-4187.

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Days in Local Music

THURSDAY 28

FRIDAY 29

SATURDAY 1

SUNDAY 2

S AY H L L L - O

S I LV E RY S TA R S

DE LA SOUL

IN WITH THE OLD

The Mae Shi make resiliency sound fun as hell. After five years of grinding it out in the L.A. scene and two-and-a-half spazzed-out full-lengths; latest album HLLLYH finds the L.A. band minus former lead singer Ezra Buchla, but with a newfound sense of shoutalong celebration that furthers distances themselves from more punkish origins. They perform tonight with The Mezzanine Owls, the kind of standard, polished indie band that’s actually not so standard around these parts. 8 p.m. Free; $5 under 21. The Echo, 1822 Sunset Blvd., Echo Park, (213) 413-8200. Attheecho.com.

As far as local indie bands named after animals you’d find in a barn go, The Moonrats are a little leaner and more angular than their Mezzanine Owl brethren. They play with Spaghetti Western-channeling Spindrift and Spirit Army at Spaceland tonight (9 p.m.; $8; Spaceland, 1717 Silver Lake Blvd., Silver Lake, 323-661-4380; Clubspaceland.com). It’s been a lucky 13 years for the Silver Lake club, which celebrates its anniversary on Sunday with the likes of about a dozen relatively high-profile locals, including The 400 Blows, Earlimart, and Radar Bros. Tickets will be available at the door for $13.

Blu and Exile are billed at the bottom of tonight’s hip-hop showcase at Crash Mansion. But here’s a secret: The San Pedro rapper and currently L.A.-based producer teamed up for the best local rap album I heard last year, the soul-flavored and impressively smoothed-out Below the Heavens. The release marked the full-length debut of Blu, who exudes an easy confidence despite his newness on the scene. The rest of the Crash showcase is an international affair, featuring Detroit’s Platinum Pied Pipers and London’s Spacek Sound System. 9 p.m. $20. Crash Mansion, 1024 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A., (213) 7470999. Crashmansionla.com.

You don’t always have to schlep around the club scene to find the city’s most lauded local musicians – some of them are in the decorated halls of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Today, the L.A. Opera can be seen there performing Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello, the very first opera the company ever staged (2 p.m.; $20-$238; Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A.; 213972-8001; Laopera.com). Music director James Conlon has further mined the past, but for something new, when it comes to the company’s other concurrently running production. Recovered Voices, which revives operas repressed by the Nazis, hits the stage again on Saturday, March 1.

CITYBEAT

FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

COLLAGE ‘KID’

STAYING GROUNDED WITH THE MAE SHI (SEE THURSDAY) ~

p p p p p

Written and edited by Alfred Lee MONDAY 3

TUESDAY 4

WEDNESDAY 5

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

J E S U S & M E R RY C H A I N

BIG ME

It may seem like a small world down at the Smell, but the punk DIY ethic there has cultivated a deceptively diverse roster of freshfaced regulars. Abe Vigoda’s own brand of pop-punk stomp, for instance, is steeped in steely tropical sway and Caribbean motifs; the under-agers of Ima Gymnist, meanwhile, have grown up enough to drop the “Fucking” from the middle of their band name, but still stick with bread-and-butter noise-punk. Both bands play tonight with Rhode Island’s Chinese Stars. 9 p.m. $5. The Smell, 247 S. Main St., downtown L.A., (213) 625-4325. Thesmell.org.

Danish pop duo The Raveonettes aren’t exactly L.A. natives, but bassist and vocalist Sharin Foo has relocated to our angelic city, and the group even once recorded an ode to L.A. titled, well, “Ode to L.A.” They perform at the El Rey in support of latest album Lust Lust Lust, which moves them back toward shoegazier distortion and away from some of their sunny ’50s rock influences. Doors at 8 p.m. $16.50. El Rey, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., 323-936-6400. Theelrey.com.

“Local music” doesn’t have to be shorthand for small: Witness the two nights of arena rock planned for the multi-platinum Foo Fighters at the Forum, tonight and Thursday, March 6. It’s been a busy few months for the boys in Foo, who are fresh off a performance at the Grammys and recently released a sixth studio album. They’ll be joined by Serj Tankian, who’s sold a few million records himself as the frontman for the Armenian-American hard-rock outfit System of a Down, currently on sabbatical. 8 p.m. $23-$46. The Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. Ticketmaster: (213) 4803232 or Ticketmaster.com.

FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

CITYBEAT

A raven-haired woman emerges from a building, trying to fix her sweater before heading out to the street. A man wearing a fedora and a black coat watches in the foreground. And at the bottom of this grainy, black-and-white photograph, a paragraph of text is overlaid, phrases reading “The Untouched Germ,” or “Days From Istanbul.” This kind of interspersing of text and photography forms the basis of Your Alimony Check Won’t Buy a Bigger Room, an exhibit of collages of album artwork and photographs by Matt Maust – bassist for Long Beach indie band Cold War Kids – in collaboration with the band’s official photographer Matt Wignall. Opening Saturday, March 1, this is Maust’s second exhibit for Found Gallery in Silver Lake. While on the road for some two years, Maust spent most of his downtime trying to capture the moments outside of performances – mundane events such as picking up friends or getting coffee – via silk-screen prints with text and representational images. In comparison to his last exhibit, which featured colorful pieces the size of record covers, his upcoming one is larger and sticks to black and white montages. Maust’s inspiration for his textual artwork comes from his love of literature and the band’s lyrics themselves, most of them written by lead singer Nathan Willett. “I take what [Willett] writes and interpret them into visual pieces, and vice versa,” he notes. “I just make a visual piece and he interprets them into stories and we use them in our songs. It’s kind of a cycle spun out.” In turn, Willett’s lyrics inspired the title of the exhibit, which is from the song “Every Valley is Not a Lake.” “It’s just a line that Nathan sings in one of our songs,” Maust says. “Johnny, the curator, was bugging me for the name of a show and I didn’t have a name. I was on the phone with Johnny and I was like, ‘Nate, give me a title for the show.’ He told me that, and that’s how it came about. “I’m a big fan of using text,” Maust adds. “You can’t use text with photography unless you take a photo of a sign. There’s a massive literary side to our entourage, and using the silk-screen medium, I can incorporate text in the style of art that I like to do. You can’t really do that with photography.” –Ed Carrasco Your Alimony Check Won’t Buy a Bigger Room opening reception. Sat., 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Free. Found Gallery, 1903 Hyperion Ave., L.A., (323) 669-1247. Foundla.com. ~

HOW TO LIST WITH US Listings in “7 Days” and our world-famous calendar are accepted for arts and community events in the greater Los Angeles area. The deadline to be considered for “7 Days” is at least two weeks in advance of the event. Send all information to: “7 Days,” Los Angeles CityBeat, 5209 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036. Fax to (323) 938-1661, or e-mail calendar@lacitybeat.com. No phone calls, please.

ROCK CRITIC’S CHOICE

The Mountain Goats, Jeffrey Lewis & The Jitters

Times are p.m. unless otherwise indicated. Listing order does not necessarily indicate billing order. All events subject to sudden (hopefully not violent) changes.

For additional listings, visit WWW.LACITYBEAT.COM

UPCOMING IN-STORES at AMOEBA! All shows are FREE and ALL AGES! For full calendar of events visit: WWW.AMOEBA.COM

Thursday • Feb 28 • 7pm

KIDS OF WIDNEY HIGH The Kids of Widney High are a group of students from Widney High School, a special ed. high school in Los Angeles, who write and perform original songs. The group started in 1988 as a songwriting class and changes as the students come and go from Widney. Join them for their second Amoeba in-store to celebrate their new CD Live at the Key Club — out now!

Saturday • March 1 • 4pm

CHARITY AUCTION The first Saturday of every month, Amoeba has a good time and raises money for great causes with host Brently Heilbron!

Wed • March 5 • 7pm

JIM BIANCO Jim Bianco celebrates his new CD Sing — out March 4th on Hotel Cafe’s new record label! “Bianco’s songs . . . products of a clear fascination with old-school jazz, blues and swing, couple with an unabashedly commercial embrace of popular melody.” — Liam Gowing, LA Weekly Also catch the CD release party/show at the Hotel Cafe March 4th!

SOUNDS ROCK, POP, ACOUSTIC Avalon Hollywood, 1735 N Vine St, Hollywood, (323) 462-8900. Avalonhollywood.com. Fri: Stars Aligned, Spider After Dark with Chris Cox. Sat: Mighty Mighty Bosstones, 8. Bordello, 901 E First St, downtown L.A., (213) 6873766. Bordellobar.com. Mon: Warpaint, Micky Adams, Eagle Winged Palace. Wed: Sugar and Gold, The High Society, Bachelorette, Patria Jacobs, 8. Boulevard Music, 4316 Sepulveda Bl, Culver City, (310) 398-2583. Boulevardmusic.com. Call for showtimes. Sat: Whiskey Chimp. Café-Club Fais Do-Do, 5257 W Adams Bl, L.A., (323) 954-8080. Faisdodo.com. Thur-Wed: Call for info. The Canyon Club, 28912 Roadside Dr, Agoura Hills, (818) 879-5016. Canyonclub.net. Shows at 8 unless otherwise noted. Fri: The Fab Four. Sat: Dennis Miller. CIA, 11334 Burbank Bl, North Hollywood, (818) 5066353. Ciabnormalarts.com. Thur-Wed: Call for info. Cinema Bar, 3967 Sepulveda Bl, Culver City, (310) 390-1328. Myspace.com/thecinemabar. Shows at 9 unless noted. Thur: Brother Lawless, Chris Hawley, 9:30. Fri: 50 Cent Haircut, 9:30. Sat: Low Tide 5, 9:30. Sun: Pencils, 9. Mon: Charlie Vargas, 9:30. Tue: Duane Jarvis and the Cinematics, 9:30. The Coffee Gallery Backstage, 2029 N Lake Bl, Altadena, (626) 398-7917. Coffeegallery.com. Thur: Nathan McEuen Trio, 8. Fri: Michael McGinnis and Friends, 8. Sat: Hot Fab Jazz Club, 7. Mon: Riders of the Purple Sage, 8. Cowboy Palace Saloon, 21635 Devonshire St, Chatsworth, (818) 341-0166. Cowboypalace.com. Call for showtimes. Thur: Brant Vogel. Fri: American Made. Sat-Wed: Call for info. The Derby, 4500 Los Feliz Bl, Los Feliz, (323) 6638979. Clubderby.com. Wed: Sleekmonth, Live Nude, Analog, 8; VIP Lounge: Wit’s End, Rosanna, Kim Divine, Adjoa Skinner, Ali Handal, Chasen Hampton, Alyssa Jacey, Darryl Morris, 8. Dragonfly, 6510 Santa Monica Bl, Hollywood, (323) 466-6111. Thedragonfly.com. Thur-Wed: Call for info. The Echo, 1822 Sunset Bl, Echo Park, (213) 413-

8200. Attheecho.com. Thur: Mezzanine Owls, The Mae Shi, Frankel, Eagle & Talon, 8; In the Echoplex: Son de la Frontera, 8. Fri: Tilly and the Wall, Capgun Coup, Buddy, 8; In the Echoplex: I Love Booty Too! 9. Sat: Bootie LA, 9. Sun: Edendale Bobby Matos, Nathan Nice, 5; Part Time Punks, Spectrum, 9. Mon: Chapin Sisters, 8:30. Tue: These Are Powers, 8:30. Wed: The Duke Spirit, The Afternoons, 8; In the Echoplex: The Dub Club, 9. El Cid, 4212 W Sunset Bl, L.A., (323) 668-0318. Elcidla.com. Thur: Schmutzig, 10. Fri: Mash Di Place, 10. Sat: Von Iva, Love Grenades, The Library, 9. Sun: Club Berfday, 10. Mon: Garage Comedy, 8. Tue: Open Mike, 7. Wed: The Muse Project, 10. El Rey, 5515 Wilshire Bl, L.A., (323) 936-6400/4790. Theelrey.com. Shows at 8. Fri: Leap Year, Evergrove, Ynez, Pumphouse Gang, Columbia Circuit, Four Wall, 7. Sun: MSTRKRFT, Z-Trip, 8. Mon: Fair to Midland, Death By Stereo, Alternate Sounds of Life, Middle Class Rut, 6:30. Tue: The Raveonettes, Be Your Own Pet, 8. Wed: Chrisette Michele, 8. 14 Below, 1348 14th St, Santa Monica, (310) 4515040. 14below.com. Call for showtimes. Thur: Jane’s New Addiction, Fat City Reprise, Armada, 9. Fri: Jungle City, Endoxi, Redondo Beee-Atch, 9. Sat: Darius Lux, Fitter, The Marsh, 9:30. Tue: Acoustic Tuesday, 9. The Gig, 7302 Melrose Av, L.A., (323) 936-4440. Liveatthegig.com. Thur-Wed: Call for info. Good Hurt, 12249 Venice Bl, West L.A., (310) 3901076. Goodhurt.net. Thur: Gregg Butler, Fire at Play, Rockchild, 8:30. Fri: Loomis, Casa Do Samba, 10. Sat: Battle of the Bands, 8. Sun: Keefrider, AlterEden, 9:15. Mon: Clyde Bonnie Clyde, The Big Cool, 10:15. Hallenbeck’s General Store & Café, 5510 Cahuenga Bl, North Hollywood, (818) 985-5916. Hallenbecks.net. Tue: Open Mike, 7. The Hotel Café, 1623 N Cahuenga Bl, Hollywood, (323) 461-2040. Hotelcafe.com. Thur: Steve Smith, Jay Nash, Mia Sable, 7. Fri: Howie Day, Jay Clifford, Greg Laswell, Pedestrian, 7. Sat: Kris Delmhorst, The Winterpills, David Ryan Harris, Tony Lucca, The Denim Family Band, 7. Sun: PATH Benefit, 7. Mon: Ashleigh Flynn, Jake Newton, Amber Rubarth with the Paper Raincoat, Kawehi, 7. Tue: Jim Bianco, Everest, Nyles Lannon, Keaton Simons, Daniel Ahern, 7. Wed: Test Your Reflex, Buddy, Israel Cannan, Courtney Jones, Melineh Kurdian, 7. House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Bl, West Hollywood, (323) 848-5100. Hob.com. Fri: Devildriver, Napalm Death, Walls of Jericho, 36 Crazyfists, In Vitro, 8. Sun: Possessed With Sadistic Intent, Leturn Ascensus, Witch Haven, 8:30. Tue: Bad Religion,

Thurs • March 6 • 7pm

HOWLIN RAIN Comets On Fire founder Ethan Miller and one of Sun Burned Hand Of The Man’s expand their band for their 2nd album, Magnificent Fiend — out March 4th on Birdman/American. Playing live at Spaceland, March 5th!

Sunday • March 9 • 2pm

PERÚ NEGRO This Afro-Peruvian musical ensemble was founded in 1969 to celebrate and preserve Peru’s African musical heritage and truly are the “Cultural Ambassadors of Black Peru.” They celebrate their new CD Zamba Malato with their Amoeba in-store and a full performance at UCLA’s Royce Hall on March 15th.

Monday • March 17 • 7pm

NEON NEON Wed • March 19 • 7pm

Nature’s Wonder

CARL STONE

AMOEBA.COM

Broadway Calls, Hi-Fi Handgrenades. Wed: Bad Religion, Miss Derringer, Del Toro, 9. Key Club, 9039 Sunset Bl, West Hollywood, (310) 274-5800. Keyclub.com. Call for showtimes. Thur: Suburban Legends, Andy Frasco, 6:30. Fri: Dead Prez, 8. Sat: DJ Muggs, Sick Jacken, 8:30. Wed: The Ringers, 7. King King, 6555 Hollywood Bl, Hollywood, (323) 9609234. Kingkinghollywood.com. Thur: Wolfie, Dark Matter, Diva Danielle, 10. Fri: The Soul of the Dancefloor, Wagon Repair Party, Cobblestone Jazz, HRDVSN, 10. Sat: DJ Kemal, 10. Sun: Faux Pas Dance Company, 8. Tue: Descargo con Timba with Sono-Lux and DJ Saoco, 10. Wed: No Somos Machos Pero Somos Muchos, 9. Knitting Factory, 7021 Hollywood Bl, Hollywood, (323) 463-0204. Knittingfactory.com. See also Knitting Factory AlterKnit Lounge. Thur: Kelly Dalton, AM, Simon Lynge, NK Band, Low Stars, 6; In the Front: East Bay Ray & Klaus, Fluoride of the Dead Kennedys, Killroy, Society’s Parasites, Small Steppes, Homesick Abortions, 7:45. Fri: In the Front: Jurah’s Oath, Slinky, Grey Haven, Fifth One Down, Staring at Strange, 8. Sat: Pretty Boy Floyd, 6:30. Mon: In The Front: Aerodrone, Intruder Alert!, The Truth and The Deuce, Hyper Crush, Brokencyde, 7:30. Wed: In the Front: The Autumns, The Photo Atlas, The Turf, The Secret 6, 7:30. Knitting Factory AlterKnit Lounge, 7021 Hollywood Bl, Hollywood, (323) 463-0204. Knittingfactory.com. See also Knitting Factory. Thur: The Venus Illuminato, Silver Griffin, Not the Government, Xander Singh, Jonathan Stark, 7:30. Fri: Drew Danburry, 7. Sat: Pretty Boy Floyd, 6:30. Tue: Shining Through, Jessie Brune, 7; Bluebeat Lounge: Rum Boogie, Chris Murray Combo, Dub 8, 9. Kulak’s Woodshed, 5230 1/2 Laurel Canyon Bl, North Hollywood, (818) 766-9913. Kulakswoodshed.com. Thur: Sue and Friends Fundraiser, 8. Fri: The Great Song Swap, 8. Sat-Wed: Call for info. Largo, 432 N Fairfax Av, L.A., (323) 852-1073/1851. Largo-la.com. Call for showtimes. Thur: 2 Headed Dog, Dana Gould. Fri: Grant Lee Phillips. Sat: The Paul F Tompkins Show. Mon-Wed: Call for info. Little Temple, 4519 Santa Monica Bl, L.A., (323) 660-4540. Littletemple.com. See also Temple Bar. Shows at 9. Thur-Wed: Call for info. The Malibu Inn Bar and Restaurant, 22969 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu, (310) 456-6060. Malibuinn.com. Shows at 8. Thur: John West, Lady L., Jason Arryiamto, 8. Fri: Midnite Theory, 8. Sat: Pigeon John, United By Sound, Sirah, Peter Daily, The Weirdoz, 8. McCabe’s Guitar Shop, 3101 Pico Bl, Santa Monica, (310) 828-4497. Mccabes.com. Fri: The 1912A, Matt Taylor & His Laurels, 8. Sat: The Ditty Bops, 8 & 10:30. Sun: Kristin Hersh, 7. The Mint, 6010 W Pico Bl, L.A., (323) 954-9400. Themintla.com. Thur-Wed: Call for info. Mr. T’s Bowl, 5621 1/2 N Figueroa St, Highland Park, (323) 256-7561. Mr tsbowl.tripod.com. Call for showtimes. Thur: Adam Marsland’s Chaos Band, Service Group, Pussy Cow, Rob Shapiro. Fri: Security

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Productions, The Mysterians, Solar Wimp, Angeles of Mischief, Katharsis, Manic Frenzy. Sat: I Make This Sound, Seasons, Bedroom Walls, Boxviolet, Kind Hearts and Coronets, 9. Sun: DJ Israel Vines, Ready the Jet, The Density, F-Stop Serenade, Shiloe, Arms Up Stalk! 7. Mon: Douglas Stewart, Round Is the Shape, Juggle, Ar tichoke. Wed: Tommy Santee Klaws, Banyan, Avi Buffalo Music, Thanks Man. Portfolio Coffeehouse, 2300 E Fourth St, Long Beach, (562) 434-2486. Portfoliocoffeehouse.com. Fri: Jason Luckett, 9. Sat: Eon Burcham, 9. Wed: Open Mic, 9. The Roxy, 9009 Sunset Bl, West Hollywood, (310) 276-2222. Theroxyonsunset.com. Thur: Taken By Trees, 8; In the Rox: Sub Rosa, Spell Toronto, Beautiful Criminal, 9. Sat: 24 Black, Opiate for the Masses, Love Battleground, Vox Noctis, 7:15; In the Rox: Working for a Nuclear Free City, Monster in Sunshine Park, 9. Sun: Mad Ball, Death Before Dishonor, 7. Tue: In The Rox: Sarah Mann, 7:30. Safari Sam’s, 5214 Sunset Bl, Hollywood, (323) 6667267. Safari-sams.com. Thur: Dirty Mercy, 8:30. Fri: Donita Sparks & The Stellar Moments, 400 Blows, Ninja Academy, DJ David Catching, 8. Sat: Electric Frankenstein, Angel City Outcasts, The Chelsea Smiles, The Bourbon Saints, The Amplifires, The Tattooed Millionaires, 8. Sun: Brunch Americana with Brian Jay and the Last Call, noon. Tue: Spacelord, The Red Hearts, Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Nervous Splendor, 8. Wed: The Harpeth Trace, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Cat Hair Ensemble, Chief Nowhere, 7:30. Silverlake Lounge, 2906 Sunset Bl, Silver Lake, (323) 666-2407. Foldsilverlake.com. Thur: Tulsa, This Will Destroy You, Signal Hill, What Made Milwaukee Famous, 9. Mon: Moving Picture Show, Ed Vallence. Tue: Thee Emergency, The Vacation, Thee L.A. Gentlemen Callers, Blackbird and the Feather’d People, 9. Wed: Hello Dragon, The Hard To Get. The Smell, 247 S Main St, L.A., (213) 625-4325. Thesmell.org. Shows at 9. Fri: Shayne Keator, USAforLSD, Nite Jewel, Gary War, Jason Grier, DJs Malcolm Zillion Cash and Whitemare. Sat: Aunt Dracula. Mon: The Chinese Stars, Abe Vigoda, Vultures, Ima Gymnist. Tue: Robedoor, Lemon Bear, The Endless Bummer, Darylaexander. Wed: These Are Powers, Teenage Moms, Bipolar Bear, Ima Gymnist. Spaceland, 1717 Silver Lake Bl, Silver Lake, (213) 833-2843. Clubspaceland.com. Thur: British Seapower, Colourmusic, 8:30. Fri: Spindrift, Spirit Army, Moonrats, Restaurant, 8:30. Sat: Holy Fuck, A Place to Bury Strangers, In Waves, 8:30. Sun: The Blood Arm, 400 Blows, Run Run Run, Oliver Future, The Vacation, 1. Mon: Voxhaul Broadcast, Working for a Nuclear Free City, 8:30. Tue: Amion, Luke Top, Layer, 8:30. Wed: Howlin’ Rain, 8:30. Taix 321 Lounge, 1911 W Sunset Bl, L.A., (213) 484-1265. Taixfrench.com. Shows at 10:30. Thur: Penelope, Danny B. Harvey, Vermouth. Fri: Tiki Night with King Kukelele. Sat-Wed: Call for info. Tangier Lounge, 2138 Hillhurst Av, L.A., (323) 6668666. Tangierrestaurant.net. Sun: Colorforms, 8. Wed: Hackensaw Boys, Restaurant, Michael Mazochi, 8.

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Tues • March 25 • 7pm 6400 SUNSET BLVD. (323) 245-6400

~ THE MOUNTAIN GOATS ~ This is about an apt a pairing as you’ll find all this week. Folksinger … er, sorry, anti-folk-singer Jeffrey Lewis has made an unusual move this year by releasing an entire album of cover versions of one band’s output. 12 Crass Songs (Rough Trade) is just that, but much, much more. Lewis has leavened the of-course-they-fucking-do! vitriol of the Essex anarcho-communal punks with his own regular-guy warmth, to create a winning hybrid; the shout-along tunes retain their righteousness, but sound far less like pedantic polemics. Headliner the Mountain Goats – basically lyricist-guitarist John Darnielle and bassist Peter Hughes, with supporting musicians – are touring a new and poignant disc, Heretic Pride (4AD). Darnielle has that Becker & Fagen-like way of talking around his subject matter: You’d never know he was singing songs about his chance encounters with chicks at death-metal clubs, or various odes to monsters and eerie things from the Goats’ delicate folk-rock tunes, and certainly not by Darnielle’s scrupulous avoidance of an outright explanation. (He saves those for the press notes.) But as far as lyrical eloquence in modern rock goes, there’s few who can currently touch him. (Tue.-Wed. at the Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, 310-276-6168 or Troubadour.com.)

FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

MEDICAL MARIJUANA EVALUATIONS PERFORMED BY LICENSED PHYSICIANS UNDER CALIFORNIA STATE LAW PROP 215 (HS11362.5)

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N O W AVA I L A B L E A T B E S T B U Y RAVEONETTES “LUST LUST LUST” This Danish duo have re-emerged with an album that perfectly distills the band's 60s noir-pop songcraft and fuzz-guitar clamor into a melodic, sensuous voyage through the layers of desire. Showcasing a broader stylistic palette and a newly cinematic sense of drama, on "Lust Lust Lust", the band retains the unique, compelling combination of sexy pop songs and rock 'n' roll urgency that have made them critics' darlings

JUPITER RISING “ELECTROPOP”

SIDE ONE DUMMY

Jupiter Rising have created a pop hip-hop collection of songs that are already experiencing unprecedented success. The lead single "Go!" has become a licensing sensation, being used by Fox Sports (for MLB), NBC, Chevrolet, in the Disney Channel movie "Wendy Wu", and in several arenas and stadiums for The Phoenix Suns, the San Diego Padres, the Minnesota Twins, and the WNBA Liberty.

DUSTY RHODES “FIRST YOU LIVE” Hailing from Anaheim, CA, this six-piece, soulful, melodic rock band has been described by Skratch Magazine as having a "Thom Yorke-goes-country feel". Drawing influences from bands like ELO, Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Beach Boys, and Hank Williams, their ear for harmonies is fantastic.

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CITYBEAT

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Appearing Live - March 4th at the El Rey Theatre

DANCEBEAT

A big new night of Big Top electro and house attractions:

T h e W o r ld- Fa m o us C i rc us, Is home to some of the Largest and hottest parties in the city Los Angeles! Every week Circus brings the best DJs to the decks! Circus is LA's largest nightclub featuring 40,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor clubbing. The sound at Circus is HUGE featuring a 120,000-watt EAW Avalon sound system. Circus also features seven separate areas, ten fully stocked bars, outdoor patio, private bungalow and VIP lounge.

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S AT U R D AY N I G H T AT

Z-Trip and MSTRKRFT You know the borderlines of pop are blurring faster than Kanye West can say “Stronger” when turntablist Z-Trip pairs up with electronic dance music duo MSTRKRFT for a tour. With Z-Trip’s rock-infected hip-hop and MSTRKRFT’s industrial-tinged techno, we’re not sure who got the chocolate in the other’s peanut butter. All we know is this tour’s got something for the cool kids, the candy ravers and the backpackers. See them Friday at the Music Box @ Fonda or Sunday at the El Rey.

MARCH 1

DYLAN RHYMES

–Dennis Romero Z-Trip and MSTRKRFT appear with LA Riots Friday at the Music Box @ Fonda, 6126 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; and Sunday at the El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., Miracle Mile, 18+. Doors 8 p.m. for both. Tickets vary. Info: henryfondatheater.com and theelrey.com.

★★★ THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS ★★★

MARCH 8

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28 Respect is a give and take of drum ’n’ bass at Jimmy's Lounge, 6202 Santa Monica Bl, Hollywood. This week: Tech Itch, Machete, more. 18+. Info: myspace.com/respectclub. Root Down digs deeper than commercial hip-hop with WyaTT Case, Miles, and Loslito at Little Temple, 4519 Santa Monica Bl, Silver Lake, (818) 759-6374. This week: The Rebirth. 21+. Info: rootdownclub.com. Afro Funke takes you to the motherland of dance music with organic grooves at Zanzibar, 1301 Fifth St, Santa Monica. This week: Hyder. 21+. Info: afrofunke.com.

M.I.K.E./KENNETH THOMAS

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29 Spider After Dark goes after-hours for the post-red-carpet crowd at Spider Club, 1735 N Vine St, Hollywood. This week: Chris Cox. 21+. Info: avalonhollywood.com.

SATURDAY, MARCH 1

MARCH 15

Avaland anchors Hollywood nightlife with superior sound at Avalon Hollywood, 1735 N Vine St, Hollywood. This week: Infusion. 21+. Info: avalonhollywood.com. Giant flaunts oversized DJs at Vanguard, 6021 Hollywood Bl, Hollywood. This week: Christopher Lawrence and John “00” Fleming. 21+. Info: giantclub.com. Red raves up the biggest room in town at Circus Disco, 6655 Santa Monica Bl, Hollywood. This week: Dylan Rhymes. 21+. Info: nexxez.com. Interface 22 by Droid Behavior has techno for an answer with John Tejada, Acid Circus, Tony Rohr and more at a location to be announced. 18+. Info: 323-7438419; droidbehavior.com. Balance feng-shuis your house at King King, 6555 Hollywood Bl, Hollywood. 21+. Info: balance-la.com.

DJ IRENE

SUNDAY, MARCH 2 Deep gets down with Marques Wyatt’s all-stars at Vanguard, 6021 Hollywood Bl, Hollywood. This week: Mark Grant. 21+. Info: deep-la.com. Moonshadows Blue Lounge has the ocean motion of DJs Mick Cole, Julien Couly, and Jean Louis, at Moonshadows, 20356 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu. Info: moonshadowsmalibu.com.

MARCH 22

MONDAY, MARCH 3 Monday Social lubricates the dance biz with e-music by Freddy Be, Mick Cole, and global guests at Nacional, 1645 Wilcox Av, Hollywood. This week: John Graham, a.k.a. Quivver. 21+. Info: budbrothers.com.

TUESDAY, MARCH 4

GEORGE ACOSTA CIRCUS is located at 6655 Santa Monica Blvd. 2 blocks east of Highland Ave. Behind Arena

Dim Mak Tuesdays has anti-DJ Steve Aoki and the celebutantes who mix for him at Cinespace, 6356 Hollywood Bl, Hollywood, (323) 817-3456. 21+. Info: cinespace.info.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5 Therapy takes the right steps with local house hero Scott K and friends at Tokio, 1640 N Cahuenga Bl, Hollywood. 21+. Info: balance-la.com. Dub Club has existential dance music producer Tom Chasteen and friends at The Echo, 1822 Sunset Bl, Echo Park, (213) 413-8200. 21+. Info: attheecho.com.

323.462.1291 • www.circusdisco.com 9pm-4am • 21+ • Tickets available at groovetickets.com FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

–Dennis Romero

CITYBEAT

Temple Bar, 1026 Wilshire Bl, Santa Monica, (310) 393-6611. Templebarlive.com. Thur: Judith Hill, Paul Dateh, Introducing Rhedt & Q, Anthony Valdez, 9. Fri: Umoverde, Very Be Careful, DJ Jeremy Sole, 10. Sat: Aceyalone, Crown City Rockers, Speech Impediments, DJ Anthony Valdez, 9. Sun: Jam session, 9. Tue: Marie Marshall-Minderhout, Sarah Dashew, Courtney Chambers, 9. Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Bl, West Hollywood, (310) 276-6168. Troubadour.com. Thur: Punch Brothers feat. Chris Thile, 8:30 & 10. Fri: Blitzen Trapper, Grand Archives, Fleet Foxes, 8:30. Sat: Tally Hall, Audrye Sessions, The Quiet, 8:30. Mon: The Airborne Toxic Event, The Henry Clay People. TueWed: Mountain Goats, Jeffrey Lewis & The Jitters. UnUrban Coffee House, 3301 W Pico Bl, Santa Monica, (310) 315-0056. Unurban.com. Fri: UnUrban Open Mike, 7:30. Viper Room, 8852 Sunset Bl, West Hollywood, (310) 358-1880. Viperroom.com. Thur: The Naked, The Vacation, Run Run Run, Mark Winston & The Reflections, Heavy Mojo, 7:30. Fri: Dirty Knobs, Leroy Powell, Paul Chesne, 8:30. Mon: The Voom Blooms, Last American Buffalo, Big Bang, Hypernova, 8:30. Tue: Mondo the Free Flow Orchestra, Drew Decaro & Danny Chaimson, Thomas Dekker, Dennis Lambert, 7:30. Wed: The Voom Blooms, Halestorm, 8. Zeropoint, 1049 E 32nd St, L.A. Zeropointspace.org. Fri: XDUGEF, Rubbish, Kawaiietly Please, Moment Trigger, Andorkappen. –Ashley Archibald

JAZZ, BLUES, LATIN Arcadia Blues Club, 16 E Huntington Dr, Arcadia, (626) 447-9349. Arcadiabluesclub.com. Shows at 9:30 and 11:30. Fri: Jumpin’ Jack Benny, Bobby Bluehouse. Sat: Delgado Brothers, Bobby Bluehouse. Babe’s & Ricky’s Inn, 4339 Leimert Bl, Leimert Park, (323) 295-9112. Bluesbar.com. Thur: Jam Session with Mama’s Boys. Fri-Sat: Mighty Balls of Fire. Mon: Jam Night, Mickey Champion. Back Room at Henri’s, 21601 Sherman Way, Canoga Park, (818) 348-5582. Shows at 8. Thur-Wed: Call for info. The Baked Potato, 3787 Cahuenga Bl, Studio City, (818) 980-1615. Thebakedpotato.com. Shows at 9:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Sat: Chad Smith, Funk Thang, The Bombastic Meatbats. B.B. King’s Blues Club, 1000 Universal Center Dr, Universal City, (818) 622-5464. Bbkingclubs.com. Café Boogaloo, 1238 Hermosa Av, Hermosa Beach, (310) 318-2324. Boogaloo.com. Thur: Alligator record release party with Eric Lindell. Fri: Ellis Hall. Wed: Kirk “Eli” Fletcher, 9. Café Metropol, 923 E Third St, downtown L.A., (213) 613-1537. Roccoinla.com. Fri: Rez Abbasi, 8. Sat: Noah Garabedian Group, 8. Catalina Bar & Grill, 6725 Sunset Bl, Hollywood, (323) 466-2210. Catalinajazzclub.com. Shows at 8:30 & 10:30 unless noted. Thur: Dave Damiani with the Blue Note Swing Orchestra. Fri-Sun: Joshua Redman Trio. Wed: Holly Cole. Charlie O’s, 13725 Victory Bl, Van Nuys, (818) 994-3058. Charlieos.com. Thur: Emil Porcaro Quartet. Fri: Roger Neumann Quartet. Cozy’s Bar & Grill, 14058 Ventura Bl, Sherman Oaks, (818) 986-6000. Cozysblues.com. Thur: The Screaming Cocktail Hour. Fri: Big Sandy & His FlyRite Boys. Sat: Crossfire: A Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan, 9:45. Mon: All-Star Blues Jam Hosted by John Marx, 9. Wed: CSON Lounge, 9. Csardas, 5820 Melrose Av, Hollywood, (323) 9626434. Mon: The Harmony Club Jam Session, 8. El Floridita, 1253 N Vine St, Hollywood, (323) 8718612. Elfloridita.com. Fri: Jam Sessions with Orquesta Charangoa. Sat: Salsa bands. Mon: Johnny Polanco y Su Orquesta Amistad. Wed: Cuban Jam Session with Conjunto Guama. JAX, 339 N. Brand Bl, Glendale, (818) 500-1604. Jaxbarandgrill.com. Thur-Wed: Call for info. The Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Av, Culver City, (310) 271-9039. Jazzbakery.com. Shows at 8 & 9:30 unless specified. Shows at 8 & 9:30 unless specified. Thur-Sat: Carmen Lundy. Sun: Luciana Souza. Mon: Fischer Big Band with Clare and Brent Fischer. Tue: Sunny Wilkinson with the Tom Garvin Trio. Wed: Peter Erskine, Alan Pasqua and Dave Carpenter. La Vé Lee, 12514 Ventura Bl, Studio City, (818) 9808158. Laveleejazzclub.com. Shows at 8:30 & 10:30. Thur: Rez Abbasi’s Bazaar. Fri: Ron Brown & Friends. Sat: Kevyn Lettau. Tue: Andy Walo, Kenny Aronoff, Roger Bueno. Wed: Scott Kinsey, Scott Henderson, Jimmy Earl, Gary Novak. Spazio, 14755 Ventura Bl, Sherman Oaks, (818) 7288400. Spazio.la. Shows at 8. Thur: John Beasley Trio. Fri: Bevan Manson Trio. Vibrato Grill Jazz, 2930 Beverly Glen Circle, Bel Air, (310) 474-9400. Vibratogrilljazz.com. Thur: Sam Most. Fri: Chuck Manning. Sun: Carol Robbins. The Vic, 2640 Main St, Santa Monica, (888) 3675299. Thevicforjazz.com. Call for showtimes. Thur: Sixth Anniversary Bash and Final Show at The Vic: Sherwood Sledge, Barbara Morrison. –Emma Gallegos

CONCERTS

Note: Unless otherwise indicated, tickets are available through Ticketmaster, (213) 480-3232 or Ticketmaster.com. The Kids of Widney High, Thur, Amoeba Music, 6400 W Sunset Bl, Hollywood, at 7. (323) 245-6400. Cat Power, Fri, The Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Bl, L.A., at 9. (213) 380-5005. “Jewlicious 4.0,” Fri-Sun, Barbara & Ray Alpert Jewish Community Center, 3801 E Willow St, Long Beach. (562) 426-7601. MSTRKRFT, Z-Trip, LA Riots, Fri, Music Box @ Fonda, 6126 Hollywood Bl, Hollywood, at 8. (323) 4640808. Grizzly Bear, L.A. Philharmonic, Sat, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S Grand Av, downtown L.A., at 9. (213) 972-7211. Maria de Barros, Ricardo Lemvo, Sat, Getty Center, Harold M. Williams Auditorium, 1200 Getty Cen-

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FEBRUARY 28~MARCH 5, 2008

CITYBEAT

STAGE OPENING THIS WEEK Closer. Four people’s romantic lives intertwine over several years. Written by Patrick Marber. Directed by Vince Duque. El Centro Theatre, 808 N El Centro Av, Hollywood, (323) 230-7261. Myspace.com/elcentrotheatre. Opens Fri at 8. Thurs-Sats at 8. Closes March 29. Crime and Punishment. A young murderer goes crazy trying to live with his deed. Adapted by Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus from Dostoyevsky’s novel. Directed by Ken Sawyer. The Crossley Theatre, 1760 N Gower St, Hollywood, (323) 462-8460. Opens Fri at 8. Fris-Sats at 8; Suns at 2:30; March 8 and March 15 at 2:30. Closes Apr 13. The London Cuckolds. A Restoration comedy in which three men chase their wives around London to keep them faithful, as the women are pursued by two Don Juans. Written by Edward Ravenscroft. Adapted and directed by Richard Tatum. Ark Theatre, 1647 S La Cienega Bl, L.A., (323) 969-1707. Arktheatre.org. Opens Sat at 8. Thurs-Sats at 8; Suns at 7. Closes Apr 12. My Thing of Love. A dark comedy about a marital love triangle. Written by Alexandra Gersten. Directed by Darin Anthony. Syzygy Theatre Group, 1111-B W Olive Av, Burbank, (323) 254-9328. Syzygytheatre.org. Opens Fri at 8. Fris-Sats at 8; Suns at 2; Thur March 27 at 8. Closes Apr 5. Old Times. A husband and his wife await their dinner guest, a reminder from the wife’s past. Written by Harold Pinter. Directed by John Pleshette. Lost Studio, 130 S La Brea Av, L.A., (323) 933-6944. Opens Fri at 8. Fris-Sats at 8; Suns at 4. Closes Apr 13. Orange Lemon Egg Canary. A young magician running from his past meets a waitress. Written by Rinne Groff. Directed by Talya Klein. The East Theatre of The Complex, 6476 Santa Monica Bl, Hollywood, (323) 960-7862. Plays411.com/orange.

JAZZ CRITIC’S CHOICE

TAKE A BOW After six years of fine programming, Ray Slayton is calling it quits on his jazz series at The Vic (2640 Main St., Santa Monica; at 8 p.m.; 310-367-5299). Before we bow our heads, one last show – with singers Sherwood Sledge and Barbara Morrison – should be nice sendoff, on Thursday. While some complex music makes ~ KEITH JARRETT TRIO ~ ayour head hurt, New York guitarist Rez Abbasi makes it beguiling. He’s a subtle master who weaves spellbinding intricacies. Abbasi is at La Vee Lee Thursday; the Metropol Friday; and Rosalie & Alvah’s Saturday. Tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman moves into Catalina’s for three nights, beginning Friday. He always seems to have acquired something new since the last time you saw him. Saturday at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex (5151 State University Dr., L.A.; at 8 p.m.; 323-343-6600) at Cal State L.A., two blues harp masters – Sugar Blue and Rod Piazza – will undoubtedly hasten the coming of spring with the heat they’ll generate. Luciana Souza, the great Brazilian jazz singer who writes her own beautiful songs, drops into the Jazz Bakery Sunday. San Diego percussionist/composer Nathan Hubbard unveils a new trio at Open Gate Theatre (2225 Eagle Rock Blvd., Eagle Rock; 7 p.m.; $10; 626-795-4989), while Dottie Grossman and Mike Vlatkovich’s Call and Response mixes poetics and tromboneliness. Pianist Keith Jarrett leads his great Trio (with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette) at Royce Hall Wednesday. It’s a sublime unit that finds new facets of standards and can swing like few outfits anywhere. DeJohnette not only plays the changes on his kit, he shows how time, texture, and rhythm lift and carry the music. –Kirk Silsbee For info, see Jazz, Blues, Latin and Concerts listings.

Opens Thur at 8. Thurs-Sats at 8. Closes April 5. The Pit and the Pendulum. A production of the Edgar Allan Poe story, as part of Zombie Joe’s Underground’s “Poe-Fest.” ZJU Theatre Group, 4850 Lankershim Bl, North Hollywood, (818) 202-4120. Zombiejoes.com. Opens Fri at 10:30. Fris at 10:30; Sats at 8:30; Suns at 6:30. Closes March 16. The Tell-Tale Heart & The Bells. A production of two Edgar Allan Poe stories, as part of Zombie Joe’s Underground’s “Poe-Fest.” ZJU Theatre Group, 4850 Lankershim Bl, North Hollywood, (818) 202-4120. Zombiejoes.com. Opens Fri at 8:30. Fris at 8:30; Sats at 6:30; Suns at 4:30. Closes March 16. Tonight At 8:30, Part III. Three Noel Coward plays. Written by Noel Coward. Directed by Jonathan Lynn. Deaf West Theatre, 5112 Lankershim Bl, North Hollywood, (818) 506-5436. Sat at 8; Sun at 5. –Ashley Archibald and Alfred Lee

★★★ CONTINUING ★★★ Accidental Death of an Anarchist. Dario Fo’s dated Italian radicalism is injected with current American references in Diana Wyenn’s staging of Fo’s tale of a clever agitator (Taras Los) who goes incognito in a police headquarters, investigating the titled incident. The quick-talking actors freely admit the artifice of the updates. It works reasonably well. Unknown Theater, 1110 N Seward St, Hollywood, (323) 466-7781. Unknowntheater.com. Thurs-Sats at 8; Suns at 6. Closes March 15. (Don Shirley)

Alice Sit-by-the-Fire. In James M. Barrie’s 1905 comedy, a British couple returns from years in India to reunite with their growing children. Misunderstandings multiply in a delightfully funny second act, but the third act provides a lyrical sense of generations exchanging roles. Joe Olivieri’s cast, with Alley Mills and Orson Bean, is remarkable. Pacific Resident Theatre, 705 1/2 Venice Bl, Venice, (310) 8228392. Pacificresidenttheatre.com. Thurs-Sats at 8; Suns at 3. Closes March 30. (DS) Almost, Maine. Nine 30ish couples in a small Maine town navigate romance in John Cariani’s clever scenes, played by only four actors (Caroline Kinsolving, Louis Lotorto, Donald Sage Mackay, Dee Ann Newkirk) in David Rose’s elegant staging. A series of surreal, literalized metaphors provide sudden jolts of unexpected laughter. The Colony Theatre Company, 555 N Third St, Burbank, (818) 558-7000. Colonytheatre.org. Fris-Sats at 8; Suns at 2 and 7. Closes March 9. (DS) Another Vermeer. After World War II, an imprisoned Dutch art dealer (dynamically desperate Robert Mackenzie) must prove that the Vermeer he sold to Goering was actually his own forged copy. Bruce J. Robinson’s play speaks wryly about art and situation ethics, but Alex Craig Mann’s direction could use a little more clarity. Theatre 40 at Reuben Cordova Theatre, 241 Moreno Dr, Beverly Hills, (310) 3640535. Theatre40.org. Call for performance schedule. Closes March 9. (DS) The Brig. Kenneth H. Brown’s landmark 1963 drama presents one harrowing day in the hellhole where

THEATER CRITIC’S CHOICE HENRY DIROCCO/SCR

ter Dr, L.A., at 8. (310) 440-7300. Also Sun at 3. Larry the Cable Guy, Sat, Nokia Theatre L.A. Live, 777 Chick Hearn Ct, downtown L.A., at 8:15. (213) 763-6000. Dropkick Murphys, Sun, The Grove of Anaheim, 2200 E Katella Av, Anaheim, at 7:30. (714) 712-2700. Magnetic Fields, Sun-Mon, Music Box @ Fonda at 7. RBD with La Banda Nueva Timberiche, Sun, Nokia Theatre L.A. Live at 7:30. “A Tribute to Ella,” Sun, Walt Disney Concert Hall at 7:30. Linkin Park, Coheed and Cambria, Tue, Staples Center, 1111 S Figueroa St, downtown L.A., at 7. (877) 305-1111. Jim Bianco, Wed, Amoeba Music at 7. Foo Fighters, Serj Tankian, Wed, See 7 Days in L.A. Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette, Wed, UCLA, Royce Hall, Westwood, at 8. (310) 825-2101. –Alfred Lee

‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ After seeing the Ahmanson Theatre’s rather leaden version of Oscar Wilde’s comedy two years ago, I wondered if it was finally time to retire this play for a few years. Fortunately South Coast Repertory had other ideas. Warner Shook’s revival is the most delightful Earnest in my memory. The always welcome Kandis Chappell is back as the magisterial Lady Bracknell, but South Coast newcomers play the younger generation (Michael Gotch’s Algernon, Tommy Schrider’s Jack, Christine Marie Brown’s Gwendolen and Elise Hunt’s Cecily), in each case bringing something distinctive to the roles. That the venue has only 507 seats, compared to the Ahmanson’s 1600-plus, is immensely helpful in making sure that the witticisms reach their targets on time. And Michael Olich’s whimsical set, which has Lady Bracknell virtually pushing aside an entire house instead of just a door, adds light touches of its own. –Don Shirley South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa, (714) 708-5555. Scr.org. Tues.-Weds. at 7:30 p.m.; Thurs.-Fris. at 8 p.m.; Sats. at 2:30 & 8 p.m.; Suns. at 2:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. Closes March 9.

four Marines monitor and govern every move of 10 fellow Marines, who are imprisoned for unknown infractions and forbidden to say one word to each other. Tom Lillard choreographs a grim, dehumanizing but remarkably riveting spectacle. Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Bl, West L.A., (310) 477-2055. Odysseytheatre.com. Thurs-Sats at 8; Suns at 2. March 5, 12, 19, & 26 at 8; March 23 at 7. Closes March 30. (DS) Cabaret. Director Jules Aaron creates chilling intimations of the Third Reich in the Kander/Ebb/Masteroff musical about a bisexual writer (Christopher Carothers), a blithe showgirl (Erin Bennett), a spectral emcee (Jason Currie), and a conflicted landlady (Eileen T’Kaye) in 1930 Berlin. Much of the audience sits at tables close to the stage. International City Theatre, 300 E Ocean Bl, Long Beach, (562) 4364610. Ictlongbeach.org. Thurs-Sats at 8; Suns at 2. Closes March 9. (DS) Carnage. Adam Simon and Tim Robbins have barely updated their 1987 satire of two types of televangelists – the greedy (V.J. Foster) and the political (Justin Zsebe). But the vitality of Beth Milles’s staging lifts it above relic status. And the Actors’ Gang’s current high-ceilinged space gives the show’s spectacle and final gravitas more breathing room. Ivy Substation, 9070 Venice Bl, Culver City, (310) 8384264. Theactorsgang.com. Thurs-Sats at 8; Suns at 3. Closes March 29. (DS) Cartoon. Steven Yockey imagined an allegory about vivid and intentionally shallow cartoon characters who commit irrational violence, including the unintended

bombing of a school. Director Tiger Reel and Action! Theatre create a colorful and deeply thought-out group portrait of a micro-society where people never bother to think deeply. Art/Works Theatre, 6569 Santa Monica Bl, Hollywood, (323) 908-7276. Actiontheatre.com. Fris-Sats at 8; Suns at 2. Closes March 2. (DS) The Color Purple. A few superb performances rescue Marsha Norman’s game attempt to corral Alice Walker’s sprawling feminist novel (and subsequent film) into a musical, with a score by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray. Jeanette Bayardelle’s Celie is spine-tingling, but the parade of purple passions over four decades is unwieldy. Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N Grand Av, downtown L.A., (213) 628-2772. Centertheatregroup.org. Regular schedule Tues-Fris at 8; Sats at 2 & 8; Suns at 1 & 6:30. Closes March 9. (DS) The Common Air. Alex Lyras convincingly plays six men who meet, one by one, during an 18-hour airport security incident, in sequence: Iraqi American cabbie, gay art dealer, hyped-up attorney, hip-hop DJ, Texas philosophy prof, and Iraqi American caterer – whose tale is the least plausible. Written by Lyras and director Robert McCaskill. Theatre Asylum, 6320 Santa Monica Bl, Hollywood. Info: (323) 960-4443 or Thecommonair.com. Fris-Sats at 8. Closes March 8. (DS) The Dead. The Richard Nelson/Shaun Davey musical, based on a James Joyce story and set primarily at a party in a parlor in 1904 Dublin, is better suited to this small venue than it was to the Ahmanson Theatre in 2000. Charles Otte’s staging, with Rob Nagle as the narrating Gabriel, is usually intriguing, occasionally joyful, more often melancholy. Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Bl, Hollywood, (323) 882-6912. Openfist.org. Fris-Sats at 8; Suns at 3. Closes March 22. (DS) Dickie & Babe: The Truth About Leopold & Loeb. Daniel Henning’s extensively researched script about the famous ’20s murderers (Aaron Himelstein, Nick Niven), also directed by Henning, is steeped in psychological and sociological veracity and begins to sag only near the ending. The excessively young casting of the victim is a rare misstep. The Blank’s 2nd Stage Theatre, 6500 Santa Monica Bl, Hollywood, (323) 6619827. Theblank.com. Thurs-Sats at 8; Suns at 2. Closes March 16. (DS) Edge. The usual pitfalls of solo shows about famous people have seldom been as obvious as in Paul Alexander’s whiney, repetitive script about Sylvia Plath (Angelica Torn). Unless you’re up for more than two hours of bitter, pre-suicidal rants about the men in Plath’s life, I suggest waiting for a revival of the two-actress Plath play, Letters Home. Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S Sepulveda Bl, L.A., (310) 477-2055. Odysseytheatre.com. Thurs-Sats at 8; Suns at 2. March 2 at 7 only. Closes March 2. (DS) Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. In Terrence McNally’s 20-year-old romantic comedy, a middle-aged short-order cook (lean Darin Cooper) tries to turn a one-night stand with a pudgy waitress (Lisa Lee Cooper) into true love. Silas Weir Mitchell’s staging, with evocative sound by John Zalewski, is effortlessly charming. Hudson Mainstage Theatre, 6539 Santa

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town, where nearly everyone who hangs out at a betting parlor is still reeling, years later. Billy Roche’s play, staged by Wilson Milam for Salem K Theatre, has some strong performances but doesn’t amount to much, withering along with the characters. Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Av, L.A., (323) 9604420. Salemktheatreco.org. Thurs-Sats at 8; Suns at 3. Closes March 16. (DS) Red Herring. Michael Hollinger’s ambitious farce, set in 1952, mixes Joe McCarthy’s daughter’s fling with a Soviet spy, affairs between two FBI agents and between a landlady and her Russian fisherman tenant, and more. Act 1 breeziness turns more strained as complications mount in Act 2, but Andrew Barnicle’s cast is very good. Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Rd, Laguna Beach, (949) 497-2787. Lagunaplayhouse.com. Tues-Fris at 8; Sats at 2 & 8; Suns at 2. Closes March 16. (DS) The Saint Plays. The first two or three of Erik Ehn’s five playlets inspired by stories about saints are relatively lucid, as well as replete with striking visual and aural imagery. But the fourth and especially the world premiere fifth playlet descend into near-total incoherence. Anne Justine D’Zmura’s arena-style staging is often entrancing. National Guard Armory, 854 E Seventh St, Long Beach. Info: (562) 985-5526 or Calrep.org. Tues-Thurs at 7; Fris-Sats at 8. No perf March 1. Closes March 15. (DS) Robots vs. Fake Robots. See Stage feature review.

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Monica Bl, Hollywood. Info: (323) 960-7863 or Plays411.com/frankie. Thurs-Sats at 8; Suns at 7. Closes March 1. (DS) Harm’s Way. As an Army prosecutor (Jack Stehlin) investigates U.S. killings of Iraqi civilians, his unstable daughter (Katie Lowes) runs off with the AWOL suspect (Ben Bowen). Despite a cliched, coincidencedriven reporter character, Shem Bitterman’s second go at a military investigator/troubled daughter play beats the first, Man.Gov. Circus Theatricals Studio Theatre at the Hayworth, 2511 Wilshire Bl, L.A., (323) 960-1054. Circustheatricals.com. Sats at 8. Closes March 15. (DS) The Last Schwartz. A domineering older sister, three brothers, and two mates meet in upstate New York for the anniversary of a father’s death in Deborah Zoe Laufer’s comedy, which overcomes feelings of déjà vu with sharp dialogue and carefully timed revelations. Lee Sankowich’s staging is immensely helpful at illuminating the mishegas. Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Av, L.A. Info: (323) 960-7789 or Plays411.com/schwartz. Thurs-Sats at 8; Suns at 2. Closes Apr 27. (DS) Man.Gov. Shem Bitterman, whose The Job was a hit for Circus Theatricals, returns with a depiction of a Washington-based inspector of Iraqi arms in the pre-war period. The performances are more convincing than the script, which has an implausible ending and a tawdry subplot about the inspector’s daughter’s affair with his persecutor. Circus Theatricals Studio Theatre at the Hayworth, 2511 Wilshire Bl, L.A., (323) 960-1054. Circustheatricals.com. Fris at 8. Closes March 14. (DS) Melancholy Play. In Sarah Ruhl’s whimsical comedy, a young bank teller (Kristen Brennan) has developed such exquisite melancholy that four people fall in love with her, which makes her so happy that she loses her appeal to them. Barbara Kallir’s staging and the plaintive cello music are perfectly in touch with the play’s tongue-in-cheek disposition. Son of Semele Ensemble, 3301 Beverly Bl, L.A. Info: (800) 838-3006 or Sonofsemele.org. Fris-Sats at 8; Suns at 7. Closes March 8. (DS) The Memoirs of Abraham Lincoln. The un-credited makeup on Granville Van Dusen’s face and his physical facsimile of Lincoln are the best features of Peter King Beach’s meandering monologue, restaged by Jenny Sullivan. It’s so predictable that one wishes for some of the recent gossip about his love life – or anything else that might surprise. Falcon Theatre, 4252 Riverside Dr, Burbank, (818) 9558101. Falcontheatre.com. Weds-Sats at 8; Suns at 4. Closes March 2. (DS) The Monkey Jar. A fourth grader brings a gun to a Westside charter school in Richard Martin Hirsch’s realistically detailed script about the agonizing among the principal, the threatened teacher, a psychologist, the kid’s parents, and a PTA president over what to do next. Warren Davis’s Theatre 40 staging will cut close to home for many Angelenos. Reuben Cordova Theatre, 241 Moreno Dr, Beverly Hills, (310) 364-0535. Theatre40.org. Call for performance schedule. Closes March 6. (DS) Poor Beast in the Rain. The man who lured another’s wife to England returns to their small Irish

Some Girl(s). Neil LaBute’s masterfully assembled series of encounters between a soon-to-be-married cad (Mark Feuerstein) and four ex-girlfriends might sound Neil Simonish, but a final surprise widens the focus beyond this one guy to comment on our sometimes cannibalistic culture. LaBute’s Rolling Stonesaccented staging is a sour delight. Geffen Playhouse, Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater, 10866 Le Conte Av, Westwood, (310) 208-5454. Gef fenplayhouse.com. Tues-Thurs at 8; Fris at 7:30; Sats at 3:30 & 8; Suns at 2:30 & 7:30. Closes March 16. (DS) Stay Forever: The Life and Music of Dusty Springfield. This pro forma script about the late pop singer is primarily a showcase for the star and primary playwright Kirsten Holly Smith, who does a respectable job in the musical numbers. But her use of one of the backup singers as a shadowy lover, with no spoken lines, is unnecessarily shallow. L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, Renberg Theatre, 1125 N McCadden Pl, Hollywood, (323) 860-7300. Lagaycenter.org/boxoffice. Fris-Sats at 8; Suns at 7. Closes March 2. (DS) Stupid Kids. See Stage feature review. Thrill Me. Stephen Dolginoff’s musical about Leopold (Stewart W. Calhoun) and Loeb (Alex Schemmer), the 1920s gay couple who murdered a boy. Leopold talks in flashback from his parole hearing, adding a fictitious motive. The two performances in Nick DeGruccio’s Havok Theatre staging are strong, but the one-piano score is a bit prosaic. Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Bl, Hollywood. Info: (323) 960-4429 or Plays411.com/thrillme. Fris-Sats at 8; Suns at 3 & 7. Closes March 16. (DS) Victory. The U.S. premiere of Athol Fugard’s short, moving, deeply pessimistic play is in the expert hands of director Stephen Sachs. A Fugard-like exteacher (Morlan Higgins) in a small South African town confronts the teenage daughter (Tinasha Kajese) of his late housekeeper and a burglar (Lovensky JeanBaptiste) after they break into his house. Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Av, Hollywood, (323) 6631525. Thurs-Sats at 8; Suns at 2. Closes March 23. (DS) Voices From Okinawa. Jon Shirota’s fuzzy script glances at Okinawan-American tension but never puts any American GIs onstage. Especially awkward is a subplot about a genial American teacher with Okinawan blood (Joseph Kim) inheriting the land on which an old relative (Amy Hill) lives. Tim Dang directed for East West Players. David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center for the Arts, 120 N Judge John Aiso St, Little Tokyo, (213) 625-7000. Eastwestplayers.org. Weds-Sats at 8; Suns at 2. Closes March 9. (DS) Wicked. New actors occupy four major roles in the Stephen Schwartz/Winnie Holzman musical steamroller about the formative years of Oz’s witches. Most important are Caissie Levy as a crackerjack Elphaba and Jo Anne Worley, perfectly suited to the overbearing cackles of Madame Morrible. I like the show more each time I see it. Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Bl, Hollywood, (213) 365-3500. BroadwayLA.org. Call for performance schedule. (DS)

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KOREATOWN:213-384-7047 $925+up Large single, ALL UTILITIES INCLUDED, Totally remodeled. A/C, Fridge, stove, refrigerator, ceramic tiles. Gated Entry, Gated Parking Available. Elevator, Laundry room. 509 S Manhattan Pl. 213-384-7047

Artiste Apartments are artsy and charming. A hip place to live, we cater to the entertainment and art industry.

Children and pets are welcomed in all locations:

KOREATOWN: 213-389663.1 Bachelors $800 & up. ALL UTILITIES INCLUDED. Remodeled, refrigerator, Pool, Gated Entry. Laundry Room, Gated Parking Available. 245 S Reno St.

Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beachwood Canyon, Silverlake, Mid-Wilshire & Koreatown.

k Bachelors $600-$900 k Singles $775-$1300 k 1 Bedrooms $1050-$1800 k 2 Bedrooms $1500 and up

MISSION HILLS: 818-9203753. 1BD $1145. Newer building, totally remodeled, gated entry & parking, A/C, Dishwasher, Stove, Fridge, Laundry room, Balconies 9929 Sepulveda Blvd.

TARZANA: 818-708-9554. $925 Large Jr One Bedrooms, Totally Remodeled, Air Cond, Fridge. Pool, Gated Parking & Entry, Laundry Room, No Pets. ASK ABOUT MOVE IN SPECIALS. 18552 Collins St

N HOLLYWOOD: 818-9801277. 1 BD $1150. Newer Bldg. Totally Remodeled. Gated entry & parking, AC, fridge, stove, dw, Pool, Laundry Room, BBQ Area 6253 Lankershim

THE PLACE TO STAY IS PALMS/WEST LA ! Single $1110. 1BD $1360+. 2BD $1695+up. Newer Building, Gated Entry & Subterranean Parking, 2 Elevators, Air Cond. Fridge, Stove, D/W, Laundry Room, 3848 Overland 310-839-3647

NO HO ARTS DISTRICT LOVE WHERE YOU LIVE: Single $945, Jr 1 BD $985+, 1BD $1085. ALL UTILITIES PAID, Totally remodeled. A/C, Fridge, stove. Laundry, Balcony, Ceramic tile, Gated Entry. & Parking. 5751 Camellia Ave 818-761-6620. 2 WEEKS FREE WITH ONE YEAR LEASE

WEST LA: Single $1195 Parking, Gated Entry, Balconies, Laundry Room, Fridge and Stove, Some totally remodeled. ASK ABOUT MOVE IN SPECIALS. 1755 Purdue Ave. 310-479-1079 ALL AREAS - ROOMMATES.COM. Browse hundreds of online listings with

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Allison Margolin

CITYBEAT