T Bone

"T Bone N Weasel" reworks the buddy movie genre--in this case the misadventures of two drifters in the South--to produce a surprisingly jaunty comedy enlivened by the flavorful duo of Gregory Hines and Christopher Lloyd (on TNT at 5, 7 and 9 p.m.). Two bums named T Bone (Hines) and Weasel (Lloyd) endure racism and other human scourges in a backwoods odyssey that is almost picaresque in structure and tone.

Before I tell you about one of the finest music clubs in the city, and before I tip you off to the best red-bricked little bar this side of SoHo - down a slender alley, a swanky place that ought to have a CIA operative as a bouncer and a guy with a serious scar mixing drinks for rich men's wives - let's talk about Thursday night football for a moment. What a disaster. Sitting in a sports bar in Little Tokyo as the evening begins, in front of the most expansive big screen I've ever witnessed, watching one lousy team play another lousy team: It should be a blissful moment, for it is a Thursday evening, and I'm with my running mates T-Bone and Paul.

The story behind the hard-core country music at the center of "Crazy Heart," the buzzed-about new film for which Jeff Bridges is winning accolades for his portrayal of singer Bad Blake, would make a movie every bit as poignant as writer-director Scott Cooper's tale of a down-but-not-entirely-out musician in desperate need of redemption. The real-life tale would be a buddy movie about the friendship between two musicians whose lives charted divergent paths, one leading to multimillion-selling albums and multiple Grammy Awards, the other hewing closer to the hardscrabble life on the outskirts of fame as portrayed in "Crazy Heart."

It seems fitting that one of the earliest scenes in the premiere episode of ABC's music drama series "Nashville" is set in a recording studio. An excited producer tweaks the controls on the mixing board during a session with a bratty young country-pop singer. He drops everything out of the sound mix but her voice, which is noticeably off-pitch. "Don't worry," the producer says, "we can fix that. " The singer's manager, sitting nearby on a couch reading, nonchalantly responds, "Thank God for Auto-Tune.

If you were to invent a restaurant whose specialties include a cauliflower T-bone, you probably couldn't do any better than Superba Snack Bar. It occupies what looks like a corrugated shoe box sliced open at one end, a giant version of the dioramas you may have constructed for social studies in fourth grade. Superba is at the heart of its Rose Avenue neighborhood in a stretch of Venice Beach where the fixed-gear bicycles outnumber cars some afternoons and even the elderly seem acquainted with kombucha and Lululemon.

* * * T BONE BURNETT. "The Talking Animals." Columbia. T Bone Burnett used to be known for singing about life's mysteries. With his latest album, he has become something of a mystery himself. Though he even interjects his own character by name into the odd narrative "The Strange Case of Frank Cash and the Morning Paper," little on this album reveals much of what makes T Bone tick.

A member of the Los Angeles "gangsta rap" trio Da Lench Mob has been arrested on suspicion of murder in a slaying last month at a bowling alley in the Athens area, authorities said Wednesday. Terry Gray, 24, who goes by the stage name T-Bone, is the second member of the hit rap group to be arrested on suspicion of murder since last summer. A Los Angeles Sheriff's Department spokeswoman said murder charges could be filed as early as today against Gray, who was arrested Tuesday.

Bill Graham knew something was wrong when his 3-year-old German shepherd, T-Bone, didn't come home Thursday night from his evening romp through the neighborhood. Graham had raised the dog from a pup and knew that he always returned from his 20-minute run when he heard his master's whistle. Graham whistled twice for the dog, but only his malamute, Tori, came home. The next morning, Graham said, he found T-Bone lying dead beneath an avocado tree in a grove about 100 yards from his home.

Rapper Terry Gray, a member of the group Da Lench Mob, was acquitted of murder charges late Thursday by a Torrance Superior Court jury. Known as "T-Bone" in the music industry, Gray had maintained his innocence throughout the case. "From day one, I have said that it was mistaken identity," Gray said after the verdict. "I think (police) were going after rap and using me as a way to do it." Gray was accused of murdering a man at a bowling alley in the Athens area early last year.

Sometimes what I think the Pulitzer committee is after, humor-wise, isn't just one epic exposé, as per last week's gem on rotten-tomato fights. It's a body of hard-hitting work. That's what leads me to this steamy parking garage in Burbank, looking for Deep Throat. My investigative partner is my buddy T-Bone (not his real name), who is also overdue for a Pulitzer, which is named - bet you didn't know this - for a St. Louis publisher responsible for some of the most exploitative journalism of all time.

If you were to invent a restaurant whose specialties include a cauliflower T-bone, you probably couldn't do any better than Superba Snack Bar. It occupies what looks like a corrugated shoe box sliced open at one end, a giant version of the dioramas you may have constructed for social studies in fourth grade. Superba is at the heart of its Rose Avenue neighborhood in a stretch of Venice Beach where the fixed-gear bicycles outnumber cars some afternoons and even the elderly seem acquainted with kombucha and Lululemon.

Sometimes what I think the Pulitzer committee is after, humor-wise, isn't just one epic exposé, as per last week's gem on rotten-tomato fights. It's a body of hard-hitting work. That's what leads me to this steamy parking garage in Burbank, looking for Deep Throat. My investigative partner is my buddy T-Bone (not his real name), who is also overdue for a Pulitzer, which is named - bet you didn't know this - for a St. Louis publisher responsible for some of the most exploitative journalism of all time.

A federal law banning compensation for organ transplants doesn't extend to bone marrow harvested from a donor's blood, a federal appeals court said Thursday in a ruling that could attract thousands of new donors in a national campaign to save the lives of those afflicted with cancer and genetic disorders. The 1984 National Organ Transplant Act included bone marrow in its list of "organs and parts thereof" for which donors could face criminal charges and five years in prison for providing them in exchange for money or other "valuable consideration.

Musician T Bone Burnett has sold his Brentwood home for $2.75 million, the Multiple Listing Service shows. The Cape Cod-inspired house, built in 1945, features four bedrooms, four bathrooms and 3,090 square feet of living space. French doors off the family room, which has a bar, open to a garden. There is a swimming pool and a spa. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article said T Bone Burnett has worked with John Elton. The musician has worked with Elton John.

Why do so many of us smirk when a Hollywood movie star picks up a guitar and walks toward a live microphone? Maybe it's because, as songwriter Harlan Howard once said, music is about "three chords and the truth" and, really, an actor's day job is about the closest you can come to lying for a living. The question brought a sage smile to the 61-year-old face of Jeff Bridges, the Oscar winner who this week will release his first major-label album, a 10-song collection from Blue Note/EMI called "Jeff Bridges.

Soy tablets do little to stave off bone loss among menopausal women, according to new research.  Women taking soy supplements also reported more hot flashes andconstipation. After the landmark Women's Health Initiative showed that hormone replacement therapy carried health risks , many women gravitated toward soy products as a safer alternative because soy is rich in isoflavones, so-called “dietary estrogens.” Western women were also encouraged by studies that showed that their Asian counterparts, who eat a soy-rich diet, have lower rates of bone fractures, breast cancer andcardiovascular disease.

--David Ralla's 82nd birthday present looks like the best he'll ever receive: sight. Ralla, who was blinded 41 years ago in an industrial accident, got a corneal transplant in Milwaukee. When the bandages were removed and a doctor adjusted Ralla's new glasses, he was asked what he could see. "I can see the doctor," he replied. "He's wearing a nice suit, a shirt and tie." Then he looked at the woman across the room. "And I can see my daughter," he said, shedding tears of joy.

Before I tell you about one of the finest music clubs in the city, and before I tip you off to the best red-bricked little bar this side of SoHo - down a slender alley, a swanky place that ought to have a CIA operative as a bouncer and a guy with a serious scar mixing drinks for rich men's wives - let's talk about Thursday night football for a moment. What a disaster. Sitting in a sports bar in Little Tokyo as the evening begins, in front of the most expansive big screen I've ever witnessed, watching one lousy team play another lousy team: It should be a blissful moment, for it is a Thursday evening, and I'm with my running mates T-Bone and Paul.

Not so long ago it would have been a dream come true for sisters Laura and Lydia Rogers of Muscle Shoals, Ala., to find themselves sitting in the balcony of Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium and looking down upon their country music heroes onstage at the longtime home of the Grand Ole Opry. After all, less than two years ago Laura had never even ridden in a plane, much less visited country music's premiere live performance venue. But when the siblings settled in on a recent spring day onto one of the Ryman's wooden benches, which have been polished for decades by the backsides of countless country music enthusiasts, it was simply an interlude, one that pales in comparison to the surreal highlights they've experienced since the October release of their self-titled debut album, "The Secret Sisters.

As an actor, Jeff Bridges followed his Oscar-winning turn as down-but-not-out country singer Bad Blake in "Crazy Heart" with an Oscar-nominated spin as down-but-not-out lawman Rooster Cogburn in "True Grit. " Now comes the news that Bridges will pick up a guitar once more, not for "Crazy Heart II," but for an album slated to be produced by his longtime friend, producer and "Crazy Heart" prime mover T Bone Burnett. Bridges has signed with Blue Note Records and is scheduled to release his major-label debut album late this summer, according to a statement released Tuesday by Blue Note.