Gary Richards

The British dance-punk band Bloc Party returns to the U.S. on Friday night as headliner of the two-day Hard Summer festival in Chinatown's Los Angeles State Historic Park. The huge popularity of the annual electronica-heavy festival owes a debt to bands like Bloc Party, who helped make dance music safe for young rock fans in the 2000s. Yet Bloc Party's Hard headlining date comes just as the band shed most of its pioneering club influences on its new album "Four," a fanged and heavy record that focuses on live musicianship and ferocious guitar work.

We're all used to hearing snide remarks about L.A. from Northern California, which has never gotten over the failure of a bill in the 1850s to make Southern California a separate state. But ex-Angeleno Marcia Simonson of Fremont actually found a complimentary article about these parts in the San Jose Mercury News. Gary Richards, author of the "Mr. Roadshow" column, praised L.A.

"Par for the courts!" quipped Ken Ayeroff of Beverly Hills. He sent along a continuing education program for California lawyers in Hawaii that included "Dress Code in Court" (one hour) and "Golf Law" (1 1/2 hours). The golf law course was half an hour longer than the "Ethical Duties in the Courtroom" course. Wonder if any of the barristers, by coincidence, brought their golf clubs along?

Two local school districts Tuesday lost their campaigns to generate badly needed revenue by increasing property taxes. Parcel tax increases in the Claremont and South Pasadena unified school districts were each supported by a majority of voters but failed to gain the required two-thirds majority. The vote in the South Pasadena district was particularly close, with the proposed $100-a-year increase falling just 3 percentage points shy of the 66.7% mark.

Simi Valley school officials can move forward with new construction and building improvements. Oak Park school officials will be able to keep a lid on class sizes. And Santa Paula residents will see their library's hours expanded. Voters in each community demonstrated their generosity this week by passing bond measures and property tax increases to help pay for these school and library programs. More than 14,650 Simi Valley voters, or 61.

Mercury, a marque whose big cars haven't topped the under-50 crowd's gotta-have-one list in years, wants its youthful machismo back. And what better way to regain it, the Irvine-based company's newly transplanted executives figure, than to bring back a model whose very name evokes the hot-rod image that once defined the Ford Motor Co. unit's offerings. Think big. Think Marauder. The roaring Merc V-8 of the 1960s, a car that could seat six people and scoot along at up to 140 mph.

"How old was Louis Armstrong -- in years and months -- when he sang 'Hello, Dolly'?" Voices hush as 11 teams of four to six people huddle around tiny bar tables, noodling over the answers between sips of Guinness. It's Thursday Quiz Night at the Fox and Hounds pub in Studio City, and the mood is playfully competitive. Will the team that calls itself "The Churchills" remain No. 1?

There's no denying that Dana Point-based Surfer magazine has clout. In a letter to that publication, 10-year-old Philip Salter of Langley, Wash., wrote: "My dad's friend gave us a Surfer magazine. I threw it from my treehouse at a deer eating the roses. Surfer is tough!" * GUIDE TO ADVENTUROUS DINING: Robert Patterson sent along a photo that reminded me of the hot rodder's boast of making a rival in a street race "eat rubber" (see photo).

Joe Maashoff of Moorpark College and Robert Nelson of Glendale set school records Thursday in the men's 400-meter intermediate hurdles and 3,000-meter steeplechase, respectively, in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in Walnut. Maashoff, a sophomore from Westlake High, timed 53.04 seconds to win the intermediates and lower his school best (hand-timed 53.0) set earlier this season. Maashoff's mark Thursday, which was a fully automatic time, is equivalent to a hand time of 52.9.