It’s arguable that there’s no better environment in which to accidentally mess up your phone than college. There’s a lot of ways, some more creative than others, to lose or break that disproportionally important little rectangle of technology. Even if you haven’t recently pulverized the smartphone in your back pocket after a late-night leap of faith from a fraternity rooftop, chances are good that your phone is out of date. Maybe it doesn’t take pictures. Maybe it doesn’t have a full keyboard. Maybe it doesn’t even have (brace yourself) Internet access. It’s probably time for a new one. But when you find that two thirds of your last paycheck have been spent on Top Ramen, your options suddenly become somewhat limited. That’s when BlackBerry® and UCLARadio (once again!) save the day.

We’re giving away the new BlackBerry® Torch 9810 on November 14th on our Facebook page, and on-air on UCLA Radio News (Thursday, Nov 17th at 6PM) and The Friday Night Fuse (Nov 18th at 8PM)! The Torch 9810 is the latest in smartphone wonder designed by the magicians at Blackberry®. Running on the AT&T network, it offers the best of all phone worlds by combining an all-touch display with a slide out QWERTY keyboard. Texting and maintaining your social networks has never been easier. You won’t want to miss a chance to get one for your very own.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to find out how you could win! Also, don’t forget to listen live on Thursday Nov 17th at 6PM and Nov 18th at 8PM!

Also, check out BBM Generation — an online-hub designed to help promote collaboration and achievement through social media. For more info, visit http://us.blackberry.com/bbmgeneration/.

Tune in! Win big!

This should not happen and deserves more coverage.

UCLA Radio is giving you a chance to go to an epic boxing showdown between Bruins and our rivals over at USC!

November 11, 2011 at the Los Angeles Athletic Club:

Boxing at The Los Angeles Athletic Club has been around since the club’s inception over 130 years ago. Maintaining the boxing tradition today, The Los Angeles Athletic Club and Espada Boxing are, once again, teaming up for the L.A. Collegiate Boxing Invitational. The night’s events will feature over eight NCBA sanctioned bouts with the main event taking place between two of the oldest crosstown rivals UCLA versus USC.

Three levels of seating are available for this black tie (optional) event. Exclusive balcony VIP seating that includes a special whiskey tasting along with complimentary wine and beer. VIP ringside seating is available for groups of four or more and general admission seating is available. All tickets will include lavish hors d’oeuvres, pre-fight buffet and post-fight desserts. Cigars will be available throughout the night to enjoy the breathtaking views of the club’s outdoor rooftop.

Doors open at 6PM and the fight starts at 7:30PM. Black tie optional.

You can make a reservation by calling 213.630.5255 for General admission ($75), Ringside ($110) or VIP Balcony Seating with Whiskey Tasting, Beer and Wine for ($150). Or, you can head over to our Facebook page to enter to win FOR FREE!

When you cross six recently graduated college students, a cello, and a few striped sweaters, there’s a couple of things you could end up with. One is the beginning of a dumb joke. The other is young indie rock band Ra Ra Riot, playing at the El Rey Theatre this Thursday, November 10.

Since their birth on the Syracuse University campus in early 2006, Ra Ra Riot’s progression has been as fast-paced as one of their songs. In less than two years following their formation, the group was invited to open for artists such as Art Brut, Bow Wow Wow, and Tokyo Police Club, and was hailed as “one of the best young bands in a really long time” by SPIN.com. Their first album, The Rhumb Line, was released in 2008, and was followed up by The Orchard in 2010. Both received critical acclaim from sources like Pitchfork.com and NPR.

Ra Ra Riot has the delightful ability to mix paralleled bouncy rock with original, creative elements. Their music bursts with poppy energy (think Vampire Weekend), but the dizzying string arrangements (courtesy of violinist Rebecca Zeller and cellist Alexandra Lawn), crisp vocals (Wes Miles), and lively lyrics bring an altogether unique signature to the sound. I was really excited to find out that “Dying Is Fine” is based off of an e.e. cummings poem, even borrowing a good amount of its lyrics from the word-whirling poet. (Really!) Ra Ra Riot’s sound is fun and fast and light-hearted, but thoughtful and polished at the same time. It’s like having a dance party while reading Goethe’s Faust, or something.

The band headlines at the El Rey this Thursday, with notable openers Yellow Ostrich and Delicate Steve. Doors open at 7 PM and tickets are still on sale for around $30. More info about the show can be found here.

If you’re the type who prefers to win free tickets rather than buying them, tune in to Pretentious & Pop from 12-2 PM on UCLARadio.com this Monday, November 7! We want to hook you up with a pair so that your musical mind can be blown this Thursday. Catch ya at the El Rey.

Mixtapes keep musicheads spoiled–supplying us with little treats between albums is the best way to keep us excited and for an artist, staying relevant. They can offer superb work, as artists usually find a freedom sometimes suppressed by music company restraints and such. Check out some mixtapes that continue to give me life:

1 Maluca | China Food

It took only one listen of Maluca’s China Food mixtape to make me wish I was a Dominican chick from NYC spending my Friday nights at some vogue club. You don’t have to feel the same way but you need to know that the explosive album (which is in my top 5 releases of anything in 2010) has put this ’slick Dominican chick’ on the underground alt/dance scene… just don’t be surprised if you catch yourself yelling “WEPA!!” from time to time. China Food is the product of a list of Mad Decent producers and Maluca, a new-age club diva who raps and sings over Latin-influenced dance music and dance-influenced Latin music. Electronic merengue y hip-hop, house, vogue music, punk, mambo… girl does it all. Thematically, China Food takes its listeners on a biographical and sonic journey from Maluca’s point-of-view–seeing where she’s come from, as far as musical influences are concerned, and courtesy of a sample from dialogue in the movie Precious, the whimsical-dance-party-from-the-future she’s heading to. This virtually flawless mixtape’s just a sample of what is to come from Maluca and is surely like nothing anyone has ever heard before!

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November 2, 2011: Grauman’s Chinese Theatre

The premiere of the third installation of Harold & Kumar series, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, was a star studded event, bring out the movie’s stars, like John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris, and Amir Blumenfeld, and other notable names like Roselyn Sanchez, Chris Klein, Mena Suvari and Jason Biggs. In time for the beginning of the holiday season, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre was festively decorated to get the audience ready for the Christmas themed shenanigans to come.

The comedy catches up with your favorite stoner Asian-Americans many years after the antics at Guantanamo Bay, once Harold has gotten married and become an established businessman and Kumar has, well, stayed pretty much the same. The two no-longer-close friends are brought back together by the spirit of Christmas and, as usual, encounter a series of drugs, sex, the Yugoslavian mafia, and White Castle. Ultimately, it’s Christmas and Santa Claus that help them rekindle their friendship and come to terms with adulthood.

Highlights:

• 3D: The movie is self-aware enough to poke fun at its 3D format, while still making use of the glasses with eggs, weed smoke, glass, trees, and all other kinds of flying objects.
• Clay-mation sequence: This drug induced ode to traditional Christmas stories was definitely unexpected and made for an entertaining little detour into a gory land of killer snowmen.
• The baby: Unlike past Harold & Kumar films, children played a large role. But if you think that means that they have toned down the cursing and drug use in favor of a more family friendly image, you are mistaken. They just brought the under 5 crowd along for the ride, making a little girl the butt of many weed, cocaine and ecstasy jokes.

Scene stealers:

• Wafflebot: This little invention was like a Wall-E for the rated R audience, loyally following orders and making waffles on command.
• Neil Patrick Harris: Good ol’ NPH appears again in this installment of the series, continuously poking fun at this public persona and being the epitome of a womanizer. Now, he has his own Holiday special, which was definitely my favorite part of the whole movie!

Overall Grade: A-. I highly recommend seeing it for 90 minutes of laughter! My only suggestion, more Neil Patrick Harris.

For more information, like the movie on Facebook or follow Warner Bros. on Twitter. You can catch A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas when it hits theaters today, November 4th!

Also, check out the official trailer for the movie, here:

1. The Seven Samurai: Akira Kurosawa’s epic This Seven Samurai’ appeared throughout 1954. According to people who care about these kinds of thing, The Seven Samurai’is looked at as the first true activity adventure film. This epic film with regards to a squad of samurai self employed defending a village invented many techniques found in action movies today. Kurosawa’s film was the primary to use slow movement for dramatic effect, and introduced the world for the stand-alone prologue. Akira Kurosawa is some sort of master of filming struggle scenes, and he pioneered many procedures for filming action and fighting that you will find used for the subsequent half a hundred years. Using extreme close-ups while in fight scenes just has not been done before this video, and that particular technique remains to be used today. The Magnificent Seven is the simple example, but many movies are heavily influenced by The particular Seven Samurai.

Want to see the complete list? (more…)

Saturday, October 29 marked the debut of Insomniac Events’ newest festival, Escape From Wonderland. Following the same theme as two of their other annual festivals, Nocturnal Wonderland and Beyond Wonderland, Escape was advertised as a darker, Halloween-themed festival.

With the cancellation of Go Venture’s Monster Massive due to the lack of venue, and, in many people’s opinion, the unprofessional manner in which they handled the situation, it may be safe to assume that Escape From Wonderland will (if it already hasn’t) take the title of “America’s largest Halloween dance music festival”. The event sold out its 45,000 tickets two weeks before it took place and only a week after the announcement of Monster Massive’s cancellation, which suggests that concertgoers had no problem switching from one to the other. After my experience at Escape, especially compared to my experiences at past Go Ventures events, including Monster Massive, I definitely agree that Escape From Wonderland will definitely replace Monster Massive as the top Halloween dance event. (more…)