Ambient

Lance Rock is best known for his work as the proverbial ringleader of the "Yo Gabba Gabba!" world. As the orange-suited human among the fanciful characters on the Nickelodeon kids show, it's his job to wrangle Muno, Foofa, Brobee and the rest and guide them through a vivid world that features among its regulars musical luminaries Biz Markie and Mark Mothersbaugh. Wrangling is a job that's not necessarily new to Rock, born Lance Robertson. Before he became a celebrity for the preschool set, he was a regular DJ whose dance sets mixed old school and new school, a member of the band the Ray Makers, and a longtime Amoeba Music employee with voracious appetite for new sounds.

The Montreal band Godspeed You! Black Emperor is famous for its collages of doomsaying street sermons and sad-eyed orchestrations. But the website You Are Listening to Los Angeles gives that formula a local and often spooky revamp.  The site pairs dueling live-streams of instrumental ambient music culled from Soundcloud with chatter taken from the LAPD Citywide Dispatch and Hot Spots radio frequency. It's a simple idea, but the tandem streams make you feel as if you're starring in your own private " Collateral " or " Drive.

From our Culture Builds Big Bodies 12 Ways pamphlet: Researchers at Jerusalem's Hebrew University released a statement Monday saying their work shows chickens exposed from birth to classical music get plumper faster than "culturally deprived" birds. Experiments by Dr. Gadi Gvaryahu show that chicks played soft, soothing music, such as the keyboard works of J.S. Bach, gain weight faster than those raised in normal ambient sounds.

Lance Rock is best known for his work as the proverbial ringleader of the "Yo Gabba Gabba!" world. As the orange-suited human among the fanciful characters on the Nickelodeon kids show, it's his job to wrangle Muno, Foofa, Brobee and the rest and guide them through a vivid world that features among its regulars musical luminaries Biz Markie and Mark Mothersbaugh. Wrangling is a job that's not necessarily new to Rock, born Lance Robertson. Before he became a celebrity for the preschool set, he was a regular DJ whose dance sets mixed old school and new school, a member of the band the Ray Makers, and a longtime Amoeba Music employee with voracious appetite for new sounds.

Hans-Joachim Roedelius sat unceremoniously at a keyboard in LunaPark's downstairs cabaret Friday and casually remarked that he was "going to show you what I've been doing for the last 30 years." That was no mean feat, given the German-raised, Vienna-based musician's stature as a pioneer of ambient music. Today the genre is a global industry.

Much of the best music to come from Los Angeles in 2008 was about obscuring, misdirecting and pressing forward in the dark. The five standout acts (and one bonus selection) below nod to local traditions -- punk ballistics, free jazz, feral psych and heat-wave hip-hop -- but are more interested in breaking them down and rebuilding them in difficult new ways. Expect to hear more from these groundbreaking Southern California artists in 2009. If your band writes songs under two minutes long, employs a stockroom worth of noisemaking gadgets and enjoys the tasty vegan snacks of Crops and Rawbers, you probably had a good 2008.

The day after the Academy Awards, Lily Rabe was recovering from a night of hard partying around Hollywood. Against her better judgment, she and a friend had danced until dawn even though she was battling a persistent cold. As an experienced theater actress, Rabe isn't one to let illness or fatigue get in the way of punctuality. The 30-year-old actress arrived early to an interview to discuss her upcoming performance in "Miss Julie" at the Geffen Playhouse. And though she had trouble finding the right words to express herself, she was remarkably alert for someone operating on so little sleep.

"This is music for shootin' people in the face," jokes Jake Duzsik, lead singer of the experimental L.A.-based rock band Health as he listens to the single "Tears," which the band recorded as part of the soundtrack it created for the recently released video game Max Payne 3. "It's for the ladies. " The third installment of the Max Payne video game series, which sold 3 million copies during its initial launch May 15, is this year's blockbuster offering from the influential and profitable Rockstar Games.

If you love outdoor cooking, there's nothing like taming a tough cut of meat through the mastery of a low and slow fire, or deftly handling a lean cut quickly over a hot grill. But often it's that signature touch -- a thoughtfully honed sauce -- that separates barbecue masters from weekend warriors. At once sweet, sour and spicy, the best sauces achieve a controlled balance of what might initially seem like contradictory flavors.

What do interstellar alien visitors listen to in their flying-saucer sound systems? Here's one thing they may want to pick up on their next Earth trip: An album of music created for "The X-Files," the Fox TV cult hit about two government agents tracking down ghosts, aliens and other "unexplained" phenomena.

Music and noise, art and politics, sound and vision: Composer, musician, occasional actor and environmental activist Ryuichi Sakamoto says we're living in a world in dire need of reconciliation. Sakamoto, who performs at El Rey on Friday, is best known as the founding member of Japan's genre-defining techno- pop band Yellow Magic Orchestra who went on to great acclaim as the composer of film scores including "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence," "The Sheltering Sky," "The Last Emperor," "High Heels" and many others.

Eight time zones ahead of Los Angeles, Brian Eno's cellphone is ringing. He's cycling along the Thames River towpath, savoring the shank of a summer afternoon. "Could you call back in an hour?" he asks politely. The appointed moment arrives and Eno is ready to chat, having come to a temporary halt in the tranquillity of his London home. Like his fellow harried humanoids, the British multimedia artist intimates that he's constantly trying to carve out a few minutes of quiet, contemplative space for himself within the manic, tech-driven modern world.

Sometimes, stress begets success. Take the genesis of the Manana floor lamp by Marie-Louise Gustafsson. While doodling to relax, she drew an armless stick figure that later became the basis for this kicked-back light for Design House Stockholm. The lamp leans against a wall, secured by a nail that fits into a hole in the tubular upright. Five and a half feet tall and equipped with an adjustable shade and dimmer switch, it's ideal for reading or ambient light.

Much of the best music to come from Los Angeles in 2008 was about obscuring, misdirecting and pressing forward in the dark. The five standout acts (and one bonus selection) below nod to local traditions -- punk ballistics, free jazz, feral psych and heat-wave hip-hop -- but are more interested in breaking them down and rebuilding them in difficult new ways. Expect to hear more from these groundbreaking Southern California artists in 2009. If your band writes songs under two minutes long, employs a stockroom worth of noisemaking gadgets and enjoys the tasty vegan snacks of Crops and Rawbers, you probably had a good 2008.

LLADRO, Waterford, Villeroy & Boch -- they're venerable companies whose names evoke images of fussy figurines, classic crystal and traditional china. So then what's this? A teacup with a horse-leg handle? A goblet with Indian etchings? A soup bowl shaped like some modernist sculpture? Convention-defying surprises set the mood at Ambiente, the tabletop-heavy design show that ended Tuesday at the Frankfurt Fair and Exhibition Centre.

Barbra Streisand, according to columnist Liz Smith, once entered a party at a friend's house, froze, took her host aside and said, "Overhead lighting? Come on, can't we do something about this?" The lighting was quickly dimmed to be more flattering to her. You don't have to be a celebrity to suffer from harsh overhead lighting. "Everyone should invest in inexpensive dimmer switches for the home," says lighting designer Robert Tant of Monrovia.

Of the 90% of Americans who have used LED or CFL light bulbs to save energy and cut costs, most use CFLs, according to a Consumer Reports study released Thursday. Almost 75% of consumers who have switched from incandescent bulbs currently use CFLs. About 25% use LEDs, or light-emitting diode bulbs,  even though LEDs use 75% less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs, last as long as 25 years, brighten immediately and often offer better light quality than compact fluorescents. Price is the biggest consumer complaint about LEDs and CFLs, according to the study, which tested 744 light bulbs to determine which ones performed best.

The Montreal band Godspeed You! Black Emperor is famous for its collages of doomsaying street sermons and sad-eyed orchestrations. But the website You Are Listening to Los Angeles gives that formula a local and often spooky revamp.  The site pairs dueling live-streams of instrumental ambient music culled from Soundcloud with chatter taken from the LAPD Citywide Dispatch and Hot Spots radio frequency. It's a simple idea, but the tandem streams make you feel as if you're starring in your own private " Collateral " or " Drive.

See Fred. See Fred dance. See Fred Astaire tap-dance and spin in circles like a cyclone--over and over again. You'd think the late film legend would get desperately tired in Kevin Hanley's eye-blurring video "Recounting a Dancing Man," part of the ongoing "One Wall: A Video Series" at the Orange County Museum of Art. Instead, Astaire's image keeps frantically tapping--making Hanley's work the most dizzying of the 10 videos you can see at various times now through Sept. 9 at the museum.

Hans-Joachim Roedelius sat unceremoniously at a keyboard in LunaPark's downstairs cabaret Friday and casually remarked that he was "going to show you what I've been doing for the last 30 years." That was no mean feat, given the German-raised, Vienna-based musician's stature as a pioneer of ambient music. Today the genre is a global industry.