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Coachella 2013 Recap

Coachella 2013, by the numbers: 

Bands seen (all or part of set): 29
Beers consumed: 2
Slices of Spicy Pie consumed: 3
Extremely high women who left kind words in my notebook: 1
Sunburns: 0 (suck it, desert!)
Preview articles: 2
Festival recaps: 3
Festival features: 1
Word count: 5,392 

Coachella 2013, Superlatives:

Favorites, 2012

Ranking art is hard.

How am I supposed to compare the Japandroids album to Frank Ocean's? “Lincoln” to “Beasts of the Southern Wild”? The gastropub fare of The Parish to the newly-relocated Mo-Chica?

There are enough top 10 of 2012 lists floating around the Internet for me to make a top 10 list of top 10 lists, so instead I'm going to take all semblances of objectivity out of it. This is not the “best of” 2012. This is the stuff that wouldn't leave my CD player, that made me smile, that made me think or just made me, as an aspiring artist, ridiculously jealous. Here are my favorites for 2012:

Travel With A Ticket: Rodeo in Las Vegas

Las Vegas is in the American west in the same fashion that Florida is in the American south: Geographically, sure, but spiritually? The glitz, the glamour, the nightclub lines … none of this suggests spurs and saddles.

But for one ten-day period each year, the National Finals Rodeo brings western culture to the gambling capital of the world and sets up shop at the Thomas and Mack Center on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Combined with Cowboy Christmas and the NFR Fan Fest, it's a week and change worth of fun for cowboys and lasses alike.

Tie-down roping, barrel racing and bull riding can only fill so many hours of the day, though. What's a cowboy to do with the rest of the time during ten days in Sin City? Here's a guide to a rodeo enthusiast's vacation in Las Vegas:

Los Angeles Band Residencies, December 2012

Image: Courtesy of The Dead Ships

Each months, established bands and up-and-coming acts alike set up shop at concert venues around Los Angeles, looking to hone a sound, develop an audience or prepare for a tour. For the month of December, here are the top free residencies in and around the city:

 

Travel With a Ticket: Soccer in Los Angeles

There is no official home of the MLS Cup championship match, the game that decides the champion of Major League Soccer each season. However, since the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. opened its doors in 2003, the Cup winner has celebrated in southern California four times. That's more championship matches in Los Angeles than in any other city, despite the rest of the league getting a seven year head start.

On Dec. 1, one of the finest of America's soccer-specific stadiums will again host the Cup final, with the hometown Los Angeles Galaxy hosting, for the second straight season, the Houston Dynamo. Once again, Los Angeles will be the epicenter of American soccer. For Dynamo fans or others coming to L.A., here's where to go and how to celebrate the Beautiful Game: