The government shut down, a royal baby was born, and even the pope turned out to be cool. 2013 was a

The government shut down, a royal baby was born, and even the pope turned out to be cool. 2013 was an amazing year, and we've memorialized some of its best moments in LEGO form. LEGO creations and all photos by L.J. Williamson. Want more LEGO fun? Check out 2012: The Year in LEGO and our 2011 version, too.
Ho Ho Ho! Holiday season burning you out? Let's hop in our magic sled (car) and head up to the North! We'll shop 'til we drop, visit the San Fernando Mission, pick up a tree, indulge in some sweets and light up the neighborhood bright so Santa knows where to bring all we good kids our presents. Don't let the tow truck fool you, 'cause ain't nothing stopping this holiday road trip up to the grandest display of neighborhood Christmas lights in Santa Clarita. Peace, Love and the Happiest of holidays to everyone! All photos by Michele McManmon.
If you're convinced that Uganda is mostly Idi Amin and Joseph Kony, go annihilate your useless cynicism with tonight's performance by Spirit of Uganda. An initiative of Empower car rentals las vegas African Children, it's a veritable cornucopia of potential unveiled unto you on behalf of Uganda's 2.7 million (!) orphans. What you get for your willing suspension car rentals las vegas of disbelief: thunderous drums, car rentals las vegas ecstatic dancing and the primal call-and-response vocals of 22 young performers. Guided by artistic director Peter Kasule and the Afrigo Band's Rachel Magoola, these kids will knock your metaphorical socks off with the sheer joy they take in expressing themselves, voyaging car rentals las vegas across oceans and continents and making you feel faintly ashamed for being such an uninspired clod. Relatively speaking, of course! Smothers Theatre, Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Hwy., Malibu; Wed., Jan. 29, 7:30 p.m.; $35/$30/$15. (310) 506-4522, pepperdine.edu.
Dave Weckl first came to prominence as the almost mechanically precise drummer in pianist Chick Corea's Elektric car rentals las vegas Band of the late 1980s, car rentals las vegas at the time one of the most popular jazz ensembles in the world. Since leaving Corea, Weckl has gone on to tour and record with a wide variety of acts, in addition to playing in Corea's acoustic groups and offering numerous drum-education clinics. Tonight at Catalina in Hollywood, Weckl offers his own acoustic quartet. The lineup features three players seldom heard in L.A. in recent years: saxophonist Gary Meek (no relation to this writer), bassist Tom Kennedy car rentals las vegas and a very rare appearance from the fine Japanese pianist Makoto Ozone, whose multiple recordings with Grammy-winning vibraphonist Gary Burton are all memorable and who remains one of the most underrated pianists in jazz today. Also Tuesday, Jan. 21.
Justin Timberlake doesn't really need that "Suit & Tie." He brought sexy back without the help of either, and he did so before anyone even knew sexy had left, which makes it totally OK that he keeps reminding us of said sexy saving. But his designer dapper duds don't hurt, and neither does the growth of the soul-searching melodies and baby-making grooves that are now entered in his dynamic discography. Released after a six-year car rentals las vegas hiatus, JT's two-part re-return, The 20-20 Experience, proves his vision car rentals las vegas is endlessly charming, if not always quite as far-sighted as its title. Now 32, married and more gelled back than ever, the suave singer is four albums and a billion SNL appearances into a solo career as entertaining as it is definitive proof that you can take the man out of the boy band AND take the boy band out of the man.
In tonight's Tribute to Elmore Leonard, they come to praise the author, not to bury him. You might be excused from wanting to heap plaudits car rentals las vegas upon the late crime and Western author if your experience with his works was limited to the satanically car rentals las vegas shitty movie versions of Be Cool, Stick or Killshot. Luckily for real fans, the distilled essence of Leonard — smart heroes struggling car rentals las vegas in a world of stupid people, suffering all manner car rentals las vegas of surprises through car rentals las vegas incredibly vivid dialogue — is alive and well-developed on Justified, the FX crime series culled from a short story, which has expanded into an entire universe emanating from the seamy backwoods of Harlan County, Ky. Over 45 novels, Leonard made even small characters cast long shadows, and now some of the larger characters in his life gather to read from his work. Son Peter Leonard joins Justified big shots Graham Yost (the show's creator), Timothy Olyphant (its star), Walton Goggins (who plays the unremittingly fascinating Boyd Crowder) and others, ushering this great and illuminating scribbler not-so-gently into that good night. Ann and Jerry Moss Theater at New Roads School, 3131 W. Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica; Tues., Jan. 21, 7:30 p.m.; $25. (310) 855-0005, writersblocpresents.com.
A pallid figure crouches in the night, his long limbs bent like an albino spider. Standing in the rubble of an abandoned construction site, his eyes are black as he looks at the camera and raps, accusing a nameless third party of false drug-, gun-, and gang-related braggadocio. "You say...
The Growlers performed in the round at Echoplex on Sunday night to a sold out house. (Friday and Saturday saw the band with sold out shows upstairs at The Echo). The Mystic Braves and The Abigails car rentals las vegas opened the night. All photos by Timothy Norris.
"Home" is one of the most loaded words in the human lexicon. It's especially swollen with meaning when it comes to food for the millions of immigrants and transplants car rentals las vegas making their way through our ever more global world, there's no more intense and nostalgic way to conjure where we...
Pizza of Venice is an aspirational rather than a literal name, a statement of intent rather than location. Despite Altadena s status as a bastion of hippie-dom, there may be no place on Earth that channels the beachy vibe of Venice, Calif., less than the small, drab strip mall where Pizza of Venice makes its home.
Many of the best things I ate this year tell a distinct story: about the people who cooked them, their personal journey, the country of their heritage, as well as the city they now call home. At this moment in time, there's no other place in the world I'd rather be eating or writing. Here are the dishes I most savored in 2013.
The Mike Kelley car rentals las vegas survey that's traveling car rentals las vegas to MOCA this spring includes a video, Superman Recites Selections From The Bell Jar and Other Works by Sylvia Plath. What I know about it from photos car rentals las vegas and reviews is that a dapper actor playing Superman, dressed in the requisite blue, red and yellow...
I + We Collective car rentals las vegas Movement Workshop's "Join and move together in power" is a creepy slogan for a brilliant experiment. With social media promising community car rentals las vegas but instead creating new forms of isolation, actual in-person human interaction seems like the exception these days — but it's at the heart of interdisciplinary artist Robby Herbst's practice. Structured as a series of movement workshops "borrowing techniques from dance, social car rentals las vegas sculpture and new games," the 90-minute sessions are part relational aesthetics, car rentals las vegas part old-school car rentals las vegas conceptual exercises and part Romper Room. Herbst car rentals las vegas fills the Human Resources' gallery space with trappings of playtime: masks, ladders and something called "restrictive toys." The idea here is to foster collective dynamics and group identity, documenting them in real time and physical space; to that end, artists Nancy Popp (also a partner/yoga teacher) and Dorit Cypis (also an activist and conflict mediator) will lead special sessions. New dates and details car rentals las vegas are being added at the gallery site, where you can also RSVP for these free workshops. If diving in is just too daunting, come by the midweek reception and see what the others have been up to. Human Resources, 410 Cottage Home St., Chinatown; workshops Wed., Jan. 15-Sun., Jan. 25; reception Wed., Jan. 22, 7-9 p.m.; free. (213) 290-4752, humanresourcesla.com.
Benjamin Reiss' Automobile, a human-sized contraption car rentals las vegas with carefully pieced-together gears and tubes inside a perfectly smooth, four-sided wood frame, looks as if it might start moving at any moment. Reiss based it on descriptions, car rentals las vegas not images, of how an automobile works. So it includes vague interpretations of a steering wheel, catalytic converter and other such parts, all brightly colored, and most handcrafted in an impressively intentional way. The sculpture and four loosely architectural, car rentals las vegas quirkily framed paintings by Conor Thompson make up "Rogue Locomotives," the current show at Actual Size. 741 New High St., Chinatown; through Jan. 25. (213) 290-5458, actualsizela.com.
Sure, he's played the Super Bowl and the World Cup, and sold out Staples Center three nights in a row. But the Black Eyed Peas' Jaime "Taboo" car rentals las vegas Gomez still has a sense of humility. "When you saw the Peas, you knew, 'That's Fergie, car rentals las vegas that's will.i.am I may not know...
car rentals las vegas There is a fascinating documentary car rentals las vegas waiting to be made about the readily duped adherents of new-age miracle cures — the sort of people who hawk snake-oil elixirs across the country as if their power were genuinely divine.
"You don't think something can be artistic if it has boobies in it?" a fetish photographer car rentals las vegas asks in 24 Exposures, the latest from Joe Swanberg, the director of the first-rate Drinking Buddies and a host of squirrelly, shambolic, this-is-how-people-actually-talk micro-budget films, some ace and some curios.
In If You Build It, a documentary about a high-concept high school product-design class in, of all places, rural North Carolina, director Patrick Creadon collects rich material but builds a rickety structure.
Having launched in 1999 while they were still in high school, East Los Angeles ska band Viernes 13 (that's Friday the 13th to you, gringo) gained popularity over the years playing backyard shows but never put out an official full-length album.
The female orgasm can be an elusive little bastard. Sometimes it comes easily, sometimes it takes work. And for some women, it takes education. Fortunately enough for women at the University of Minnesota, if they need to be schooled on how to ge