In the 1960s, blues rocker Janis Joplin turned the music industry upside down with her soulful ballads, becoming the emblem of San Francisco rock and the hippie movement.

If the small portions of upscale Los Angeles restaurants annoy you, a trip to the Griddle Cafe is well worth the money.

With a mathematics degree and a dread of writing and public speaking, UCLA alumnus Philip Yaffe would not have expected to be the Daily Bruin editor-in-chief, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, a journalism teacher with the Peace Corps and, most recently, the author of the writing and speech book “In the “˜I’ of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing and Speaking (Almost) like a Professional.”

It’s never fun to encounter a person wearing the exact outfit you just bought, or to find a replication of your favorite painting hanging on someone else’s living room wall.

Neil Labute’s “Some Girl(s),” staged in the intimate Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater of the Geffen Playhouse, transports the audience to the interior of various hotel rooms across the country to meet Guy (Mark Feuerstein), a full-time writer and heartbreaker.

An announcer steps onto the stage before the curtain rises at the Wilshire Theatre and informs the audience that recording devices and flashes are prohibited ““ and that the show is in no way associated with the Mafia or any other crime organizations.

With the success of PostSecret and its anonymous personal submissions, the obsession with unlocking others’ secrets has expanded to an even juicier subject: matters of the heart.

When I see people at bookstores buying a newly released hardcover novel, I scoff. Who buys books for full price anymore?

The stereotypical image of Los Angeles involves Hollywood premieres, crowded night clubs and spoiled, drunk celebs crashing their cars at every stoplight.

Summer is a great time for catching up.