If Britney Spears were an avid reader, she might pick up a copy of Anne Tyler’s “The Amateur Marriage” and think twice about hasty Las Vegas nuptials. Read more...

The hardest part of being a musician is finding your own voice, or at least a way to express yourself. Fear not, aspiring indie rockers, John Vanderslice is here to help. Read more...

“Topdog/Underdog” Ahmanson Theater From the beginning, playwright Susan-Lori Parks sets up history to repeat itself with two brothers named Lincoln and Booth in her Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Topdog/Underdog.” Parks pushes the pun further with Lincoln’s job: role-playing as President Abraham Lincoln in white face makeup at an arcade as kids re-enact the assassination of the president by shooting him in the back with a cap gun. Read more...

Hidden between an abandoned Japanese movie theater and a Latin bar just off of Main Street in downtown Los Angeles, adventurous music fans can only access The Smell through a nondescript back alley entrance. Read more...

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You hear that? Shirley Temple just let out a sigh of relief. And before you ask, yes, she’s still alive. During her heyday in the mid-to-late 1930s, Temple wasn’t just Hollywood’s premiere child actress; she was one of Hollywood’s premiere movie stars. Read more...

The Mountain Goats “We Shall All Be Healed” 4AD Records Album No. 11 brings Mountain Goats mastermind John Darnielle’s song count to a frightening 403. But if you’re to believe the man, these last 13 are the first to tell the story of real-life headcases, instead of made up ones. Read more...