Trend

BMW has been striving to reconcile its dueling images for years. Best known for its luxurious, sport-oriented cars, the German manufacturer's motorcycles are only beginning to shed their reputation as wheels for safety-conscious old men, thanks to exciting new bikes like the S 1000 RR and K 1600 LT. At this weekend's International Motorcycle Shows event in Long Beach, BMW is likely to confuse its image even further when its first scooters make...

Since Morgan Spurlock is known for fully immersing himself in his movies - famously subsisting onMcDonald's menu items for "Super Size Me" and pounding the pavement for every last product placement dollar in "The Greatest Story Ever Sold" - it seemed only appropriate to ask the man behind"Mansome" about his go-to grooming products and tools, most of which happen to come from boutique shaving brand the Art of Shaving, which signed on to sponsor the...

As we should all know by now, three examples equals a trend. This summer, we saw the official declaration of the "no pants" trend, thanks to the sartorial exhibitionism of precisely three women: Victoria Beckham, Beyonce and Lady Gaga. Now that that's over, the trifecta du jour is rudeness. Everyone's doing it. You don't need me to go over the details again. Suffice it to say: Serena Williams at the U.S. Open, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson during President Obama's healthcare speech and rapper Kanye West at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Cranberry is not vodka's best friend. Real vodka drinkers know this, but for years their taste has been marginalized by a craft cocktail scene obsessed with whiskey. Change is on the horizon, however. As Los Angeles bartenders vie to keep up with the next trending drink wave, venues all over town are favoring clear spirits. Well-regarded mixologists including Aidan Demarest and Marcos Tello of the cocktail consulting firm Tello/Demarest Liquid Assets are leading the way, serving as brand ambassadors to Stoli Elit vodka and Bols Genever (a grain-based, gin-like spirit)

Things have changed a bit since Pete Carroll made his USC coaching debut against the Spartans in 2001, a game that drew fewer than 46,000 die-hards and curiosity seekers. Today, a crowd of more than 90,000 is expected as USC begins its drive for a spot in the Jan. 7 Bowl Championship Series title game. Times staff writer Gary Klein looks at some of the key issues and matchups when the Trojans play the Spartans: Quarterback quandary Pete Carroll knocked the college football world off its axis last week when he announced that first-year freshman Matt Barkley would start at quarterback.

On a recent afternoon, a dozen cinematographers, directors and camera assistants huddled inside a sound stage on the Sony Pictures lot in Culver City, wearing black plastic glasses as they watched a monitor. The object of their gaze: the body movements of a USC acting student sitting at a kitchen table on a set a few yards away. "Hold up one finger," bellowed the instructor, cinematographer David Drzewiecki. The student obliged as a technician several yards away used a remote-control device to adjust the position and angle of the left and right lenses (one for each eye)

The number of nonwhite children increased dramatically across the nation in the last decade, with one notable exception: Los Angeles. An analysis, released Wednesday, of U.S. Census Bureau data showed that the number of nonwhite children had grown by almost 22% over the last decade, while the number of white children had declined by 4.3 million, or almost 10%. But the study by the Brookings Institution singled out Greater Los Angeles as...

Diminishing returns The Angels, in signing Albert Pujols, now 32 years old, to the third-richest contract in baseball history — $240 million over 10 years — are taking a chance that a two-year slide in his offensive production isn't the start of a long-term trend. A look at some of his numbers the last three seasons: Year; Batting ave.; on-base %; slugging %; HR; RBI; BB; K 2009; .327; .443; .658; 47; 135; 115; 64 2010; .312; .414; .596; 42; 118; 103; 76 2011; .299*; .366*; .541*; 37; 99*; 61*; 58 *-career low.

I find it unconscionable that you devoted so much of your Spring Fashion Issue (Feb. 24) to L.A. motorists who find it fashionable to tool around in gas-guzzling monstrosities. This is not a trend that Angelenos should extol. When I was 24, I drove a '73 Datsun 1200 that got 44 miles per gallon. At the time, auto manufacturers focused primarily on fuel economy--a "fashion trend" that garnered Los Angeles the best air quality it had had in years. Now I sit in traffic in my '88 Honda Civic, shoulder to shoulder with a growing sea of SUVs and oversized sedans, watching the acrid pall of smoke over our city grow denser and wondering what happened to greater fuel-economy vehicles.

Ever since anyone can remember, the sign above the entrance to Hollywood's Ski Room on Sunset Boulevard has read, "Sk Room." The blue lettering, which still includes a star dotting what would the missing "i," gives you an indication of what's in store once inside the 50-year-old bar. The decor is minimalist drab, at best. The one-room club is renowned for having arguably the worst pool table in Hollywood. The regulars--as well as a few of the bartenders--pretty much define the term "motley."

The butcher is back. After decades of laboring in obscurity, seeing their craft slip away to the point it was practically extinct, butchers — real meat cutters, not guys who repackage steaks from Cryovac bags — are regaining their respected place in the food chain. You can see it in the crowds at Lindy & Grundy on Fairfax Avenue and at McCall's Meat & Fish Co. in Los Feliz, where customers line up outside when word comes in that a whole pig has been delivered. Southern California meat market standbys, including the Huntington Meats and Marconda's Meats in the original Farmers Market, high-end supermarket chains Bristol Farms, Gelson's and Whole Foods, are seeing business pick up. There's even a MEAT club at UCLA — the Meat Education and Appreciation Team — that sponsors meat cooking events, including trips to butcher shops for private lessons.

KABUL, Afghanistan - In many ways, the two young soldiers were not so different from each other. Each was tough-minded and physically powerful. Each worked hard to win a place in an elite military unit, and spoke with pride of serving his country. They were 25 years old, these two: one newly married, the other planning a wedding this year. Their upbringings were as disparate as their homelands were distant, but religious faith was entwined with the family lives of both.

Earlier this week, long-languishing NBC ordered a fall sitcom with an apt title: "Save Me. " As they get ready to roll out their fall lineups next week in New York, rival networks know the feeling. TV executives are scrambling to counter steep drop-offs among young-adult viewers and some record-low series ratings this spring. Fox's once-dominant singing show"American Idol" has seen ratings tumble by nearly 30% to its lowest totals since summer 2002, according to Nielsen. Of the Top 10 programs this season among total viewers, not a single freshman series makes the cut. And for viewers ages 18 to 49 - the category most advertisers care about - the only first-season shows to attain genuine hit status areCBS' raunchy sitcom"2 Broke Girls" and Fox's over-the-top singing contest"The X Factor" - both barely scraping under the wire at Nos. 9 and 10 respectively.

Last year, when the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals curtailed the Federal Communications Commission's powers to punish networks for "fleeting expletives," many worried that network television would become a battlefield of exploding F-bombs and barely bleeped C-words. Turns out, all the decision, currently under review by the Supreme Court, did was unleash the "bitches. " Sure, there have been a few more "damns" and "hells" and S-words, some F-bleeps and a lot of playful word compounds beginning with "ass.

Michael Voltaggio has no idea how many tattoos he has. The question makes him laugh. The wise-cracking 33-year-old chef is pretty well covered. The name of his restaurant, after all, is Ink. Before dinner service on a recent Friday, Voltaggio plays around with an insulated bucket of liquid nitrogen, dipping his hand in it and tossing the residue on the floor where it morphs, CGI-like, into little rolling marbles of chemistry before dissolving into wisps...

Six teenagers have shown up in two San Fernando Valley emergency rooms in the last few months with alcohol poisoning after drinking hand sanitizer, worrying public health officials who say the cases could signal a dangerous trend. Some of the teenagers used salt to separate the alcohol from the sanitizer, making a potent drink that is similar to a shot of hard liquor. "All it takes is just a few swallows and you have a drunk teenager," said Cyrus Rangan, director of the toxicology bureau for the county public health department and a medical toxicology consultant for Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

Regarding "A Refuge Off the Beaten Track" by Robert Smaus (March 9): If you haven't read any of Harry Dent's books ... his background is in demographics and he focuses on lifestyle and economic trends. He points out that the second-home market is going to grow as baby boomers start aging and want to retreat from their urban lives. He even lists desirable places. The other trend he points out is the exact reverse of a rural or recreational second home. He contends that as technology and communications progress, people will be able to live in more rural or decentralized locations (college towns, recreational locations, etc.)

HOT: Soju The romper for summer Daniel Radcliffe tribute cocktails Cramming into Rosewood Tavern NOT: Candy-flavored spirits The mini-dress for summer Mel Gibson and Lindsay Lohan tribute cocktails Cramming into the Dime matt.donnelly@latimes.com

At dress shops across Los Angeles, mother-and-daughter pairs dressed in jeans and high school sweat shirts that read "Seniors 2012" are on a mission. It's officially springtime, and for many a young woman in high school, that can mean only one thing: prom season has arrived. The hunt for just the right dress can be a challenge. The little black dress may be the suitable go-to for almost every other occasion, but for prom, a simple black dress won't do. The perfect prom dress has to dazzle in pictures, make the wearer feel like a princess and hold up to a full night on the dance floor.

The consensus in polling this week is that jobs and the economy are the top concerns for voters in the presidential election. And if that's the case, there was mixed news for the White House in the release of new state-by-state unemployment data on Friday. Overall, the unemployment rate went up in eight states, held steady in 12 and dropped in 30 from February to March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The five biggest declines came in Oklahoma and Mississippi (down 0.6%)