Doors won’t open before the middle of January, but owners of the 17-year nightclub Blue Cafe—which closed Aug. 31, following a flood—have found a new location from which to serenade downtown.

Since his days fronting the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert has sold roughly 75 million albums. As the “A” in A&M records, he sold even more. With those trumpet-generated bags of cash, Alpert has become one of the largest supporters of music education, donating $30 million to UCLA and $24 million to CalArts in recent years. [...]

Kathy Griffin reigns supreme, uniting gays and straights under a big, pinkish tent

Kathy Griffin loves the gays. In fact, she claims she’s a gay man—at least that’s her explanation for her obsession with kitschy, campy, pop culture, and her ability to verbally bitch slap just about anyone, including the almighty Oprah. (Of course, Griffin’s also [...]

The legacy of Sonny Rollins’ ‘Way out West’

PHOTO by JOHN ABBOTT
By the end of the 1950s, tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins had recorded enough quality wax to fill a jukebox. Rollins released nearly one record per month in 1957 for a handful of different record companies, and on March 7 of that year, Rollins, passing through [...]

Where in the world is Congressional Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach)?
Well, thanks for asking, and we don’t know how to tell you this, but we know you’d want us to be the ones to tell you that last night, Rohrabacher wasn’t in Long Beach. (Oh, don’t act so surprised!)
The incumbent congressman–who divides our city with [...]

(From Jamie Lidell’s show Saturday at the LAB in Costa Mesa. We’ve been putting out the paper all day yesterday and today—apologies for the delay!)
There he was, bouncing around the stage: singing here, making beats there, creating music everywhere. Wearing pinstripe cotton pants, a loose button-up shirt, black and white wing tips and thick-rimmed glasses, [...]

AUSHUA singer/guitarist Nathan Gammill was beaten badly outside an Orange Circle bar last week. Still in the hospital, without insurance, he won’t be playing in the band’s Detroit Bar gig Thursday night (September 18). That show–also starring Local Natives (formerly Cavil At Rest), The Union Line & Voxhaul Broadcast is now a benefit for Nathan. [...]

Most of the ingredients are at Ikko are familiarly Japanese (save for the foie gras), but there’s still an air of mystery around these meals—some of Ikko’s dishes eat like art, pulled right out of Chef Kobayashi’s dreams and put straight to the plate. Here, curls of crispy shrimp take on dollops of sour plum [...]

Ikko’s superior spectacle

PHOTO by RICK POON
Ikko hums with the tiniest vibration. It’s there in everything from the low tones of the restaurant’s jazz fusion to the clanging sounds of conversations from its six small tables. And that makes for a definite pulse about the place, a gentle resonance that shakes the chairs and plates before [...]

It’s a wonder why the bento box hasn’t gained more ground among the lunch crowds, a concept that covers a literally square meal that’s both affordable and mobile. Plenty of restaurants pack their own bento variations, but few focus exclusively on the things. But that’s why Bentoss makes the perfect lacquered lunch, portioned just right [...]