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West Indian Girl at this weekend’s Lightning in a Bottle Festival. They play Thur. @ Temple Bar | iPhone Photo by Scott Kampmeyer/LAist
The stars must be aligned, this week is full of music goodness. Today may be a holiday, but that doesn’t mean there is a sonic dry spell out there. And while Lightning in a Bottle has ended, two festivals still go on today: Jazz Reggae Festival at UCLA and Topanga Days up in Topanga. And you can’t beat getting into the Viper Room for free by taking Metro, can you?
This week also marks many beginnings and celebrations. For one, Green Day side project, the Foxboro Hot Tubs, play two concerts locally as part of their first tour (from the band’s website: “Tickets for these shows will not be available until the day of the show at the venue box office ONLY. Tickets will be $20 cash. There is a two ticket maximum per person”). Also playing two concerts are the ingenues, The Like, who’ve had a long break since last Fall. Over at the Hollywood Bowl concerts start picking up with The Police, R.E.M., Modeest Mouse and others.
And on a more level, there’s a benefit concert for Griffith Park featuring Ludacris and Tommy Lee at the Greek Theatre, Afro Funke, Zanzibar’s Thursday night club, will celebrate its fifth anniversary and three very good new bands play Tuesday night at the Silverlake Lounge in a show presented by Rockinsider and Web In Front.
Listings are below after the jump…
Topanga Days @ Topanga, CA
Jazz Reggae Festival @ UCLA
Castledoor, Hecuba, Fire in Cairo @ Detroit Bar (Costa Mesa)
Anavan, Attractive & Popular, Voodoo Organist @ pehrspace
Le Switch, The Minor Canon, The World Record, Vanessa Micale @ The Echo
Mezzanine Owls, The Quarter After, Asteroid #4, Exitmusic @ Spaceland

laist.com

SAN ANTONIO — They were seated in Section 121, Row 2 of the Alamodome.
The father, Camille Moute a Bidias, wore a leopard-skin waist wrap and a tan, floppy hat. The mother, Agnes Goufane Ziem, had on a Final Four baseball cap and a No. 23 UCLA jersey.
Seated to mom’s left was Aunt Danielle.
Twenty minutes before tip-off of Saturday’s NCAA national semifinal game between UCLA and Memphis, the family was handed blue pompoms to cheer on the Bruins. They stood for the national anthem.
And then, as a family, they watched UCLA forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute play a basketball game in person for the first time.
“I feel happy to see him play,” Camille said. “I hope they win. For the team, for the coach and for Cameroon.”
It took 18 plane hours to get from Cameroon to San Antonio, through Paris with a stop in Houston.
This is the third Final Four for Mbah a Moute but the first his parents have attended.
Why did it take so long?
“Not only are we busy, but to come here costs money,” Camille said. “Plus it was also matching the calendar.”
Camille wanted to go to last year’s Final Four in Atlanta, but a vision problem, since corrected, wouldn’t allow it.
Two years ago, Camille said, his work schedule ruled out going to the Final Four in Indianapolis. He said he works for public services in Cameroon.
Agnes, more comfortable speaking French than English, said she was not nervous seeing her son play.
“I am excited,” she said.
Danielle, who is Mbah a Moute’s aunt, said she was nervous.
“This is the first time to see Luc play,” she said.
Mbah a Moute came to the United States five years ago to learn basketball at the Monteverde Academy in Florida.

latimes.com

For the man that Deadspin.com editor Will Leitch calls “everyone’s favorite screaming announcer,” Johnson may not want you to know that he hears you about as well you hear him.
“It’s funny about that crazy criticism, it weighs more on some of us than the praise does,” said Johnson, who did last Saturday’s USC-Stanford regular-season finale and will call CBS’ coverage of the Pacific-10 Conference tournament final from Staples Center on Saturday afternoon (3 p.m.).
“Unfortunately, I think I spend more time reading the critical stuff. Vicious stuff. And it does evoke an emotion - anger, embarrassment, it’s like, ‘Dang, is that how people see me?’ My skin is really thick now.
“To a lot of listeners, just being different from the others may not be what they’re accustomed to. I do worry sometimes (about being too over the top). Sometimes, I try not to bug out and just let it go. I’ll hide how I feel and what I see (during a broadcast) and try to be more conservative, so I don’t subject myself to more (criticism).
“But then the moment comes, and I can’t help it. It’s that simple. Especially if I’m feeling good.”
One time, Johnson tried to artificially rein it in was when calling a San Diego Chargers game on CBS a few years ago. LaDainian Tomlinson broke off a long touchdown run, and “instead of being myself, I was like Chris Schenkel,” Johnson said, referring to the late ABC broadcaster who had a far more subdued personality on the air.
“I hear a voice in my ear right away, ‘What was that?’ ” Johnson said. “My boss had called the production truck (and said) ‘Tell Gus to stop messing around. Be himself.’ “
That boss was executive producer Tony Petitti.
Petitti actually made one of the more controversial calls during the 2007 NCAA Tournament. In luring James Brown away from Fox to do CBS’ NFL studio show, Petitti inserted him, along with Jim Nantz, Verne Lundquist and Dick Enberg, as the four play-by-play men to call games during the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. That pushed Johnson out of the group, and created some media and more Internet backlash.
This year, Johnson is back in the rotation (paired with Len Elmore) to call games beyond the upcoming first weekend. Brown isn’t calling any games in this tournament.
“We care about how the viewers react, and are careful not to overreact ourselves,” said Petitti. “The NCAA committee felt the same way - they saw Gus’ connection to the game. And honestly, nothing against JB, but Gus called more games during the regular season and it made more sense to bring him back.”

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The Dodgers and the San Diego Padres play a historic two-game series in Beijing, the Lakers and the Houston Rockets meet in a matchup of new-look NBA Western Conference elite and dozens of college basketball teams continue the buzzer-beating winnowing process to claim conference tournament championships across the land.
Yet the most-anticipated and eagerly watched piece of sports programming this weekend will be a recitation of 65 names, setting off a frenzy of Internet hits and media over-analysis that won’t be seen again until next month’s NFL draft.
(If the Dodgers and the Padres truly wanted to stage an exhibition of our national pastime in Beijing, they would wear blazers, sit behind studio desks and get very worked up reading long lists of names.)
Selection Sunday is upon us, with CBS announcing the seedings and the brackets that will dominate our lives for the next three weeks. The network’s selection show will air at 3 p.m. Sunday, followed by two hours of “bracket breakdown” analysis.
After the announcement, ESPN will counter with two hours of “ESPNU Bracketology” beginning at 4 p.m. and featuring Bob Knight among its usual cast of studio analysts. Knight switching over to the enemy side — as Digger Phelps spelled it out for him on Wednesday, Knight is now a member of the “m-e-d-i-a” — has sparked a lot of speculation about what the future holds for this experiment. The online betting site bodog.com is offering odds on whether Knight curses on the set during his tournament run.

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