Santa Barbara

Betony: An Early Taste

Brasserie Pushkin, that splashy midtown restaurant with gilded walls and an over-the-top Russian menu, didn't exactly get a lot of love from the critics (exhibit A and exhibit B, the latter of which calls the restaurant exhibit D in support for the argument that there's no correlation between wealth ... More >>

My Look At Joe's Pub Was Insane

Theatrical rocker Kenyon Phillips asked me to guest star at his Joe's Pub show last Saturday, and I was thrilled--even after learning I was going to play his mother. But what to wear as a Santa Barbara socialite? I picked through my things and came up with the above eye-popping ensemble.

Get Lost In Mountains' New Album Centralia, Because That's the Point

Eight years in, Mountains albums arrive with certain expectations attached. There will be gently melancholy expanses of sound. There will be lapping-wave dissolves and cross fades caulked with spectral drone. There will be reed-rustling whispers and dry-heaving synthesizers. There will be the illusi ... More >>

Parry Gripp Sings About His Favorite Burrito, and Other Food Ditties

Santa Barbara native Parry Gripp is a writer of satirical songs about popular culture, probably most famous for the video, "Hamster on a Piano (Eating Popcorn)." Indeed, many of his songs concern food, and the tunes are so catchy, you'll find yourself humming them days later. Here are a few more of ... More >>

8 Not Bad Boxed Wines to Pour at Your Next Party

My last memory of drinking boxed wine is from a college football game. A friend duct-taped a Franzia Chardonnay bladder under khaki pants like a wino's version of a flask. During the game, he would roll up his pant leg, flick the spigot and fill-up nearby students' cups with the plonk. Given this w ... More >>

Straw Dogs

Why Shouldn't Mexicans Speak Proper Spanish?

And is Spanglish something to celebrate?

Lance Loud From An American Family: My Exclusive Interview

​In 1973, PBS aired An American Family, a revolutionary look at a Santa Barbara clan's collapsing under the weight of infidelity, deceit, and the son announcing he's gay. It was basically the original reality show and it's just been revived on PBS as well as forming the subject of HBO's Cinem ... More >>

Winter Guide: Mikhail Baryshnikov Hosts the Hoodies

Street kids! Monks! Aszure Barton & artists bring Busk to BAC

The Original Reality Show Is Coming To HBO

​Way before Snooki, there was An American Family--the original reality show, documenting the dissolution of the Louds, a well-to-do, charismatic Santa Barbara family at war with itself. Well, HBO is shooting a TV movie called Cinema Verite, a behind-the-scenes look at that 1973 show, with Dia ... More >>

How to Insult a Mexican

Regional slurs, as promised!

Mexican Women Tired of Your Lazy Ass

Do your chores, Chollo

Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep in It's Complicated

Nancy Meyers can't keep making the same movie over and over again

Say Anything Calm Down

Emo's finest are still plenty caustic and mercurial though, don't worry

Best of NYC: Brooklyn Rocks!

We shouldn't have to tell you this, but we'll try

Cutter's Way

Apiary is the Bee's Knees

The latest New American spot buzzes with life

Bonneville

A Mormon female-bonding fantasy

Letters

Alt-Weeklies Provide Web Links to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Home Address

Marcia Tucker

A hero of do-it-yourself aesthetic rabble-rousing

Al Franken vs. Bill O'Reilly

The Seekers

The birth and life of the '9-11 Truth movement'

Morning Report 1/31/06
U.S. On High Alert

Hostile & Nasty

Angry brutes and tattoo artists whip you with the grease chain

1998

Lust Objectified

Pocket rockets on parade at the annual sex toy convention

Meet the Randalls

Tristan talks to a unique mother-daughter team of pornographers

Punch-Drunk Love

Filmmaker-sommelier Jonathan Nossiter uncorks a vintage wine-industry exposé

Remember When

There was garbage on the street and people were lying on the ground

Top Ten Plus

Hey Get Ya Mom a Crazy Milkshake in Da Club

Those Lips, Those Lies

Is Michael Jackson guilty of more than dysfunction?

Listings

Listings

Letters

Cold Comfort

An Interview With T.C. Boyle

A Rumi of One’s Own

Novelist Pico Iyer Navigates the Spirit Level

Letters

King Leer

California Dreaming

Not Fragile

NY Mirror

Drag Kings Make Me Wet

Mr. Hot Potato

California Lawmakers Keep Condit at Arm’s Length

Porn, Chicken, and Boy Toys

Wizards of Ozone

Thirdhand News

Consumers Complain, Party, Riot, Look for Answers, and Crack Wise

Coming Through the Skin

Women of the World: The Class of '99

Die, Yuppie Scam