
Reporter
Peter Larsen
Peter Larsen has been the Pop Culture Reporter for the Orange County since 2004, finally achieving the neat trick of getting paid to report and write about the stuff he's obsessed about pretty much all his life. He regularly covers the Oscars and the Emmys, goes to Comic-Con and Coachella, reviews pop music, and conducts interviews with authors and actors, musicians and directors, a little of this and a whole lot of that. He grew up, in order, in California, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oregon. Graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. with degrees in English and Communications. Earned a master's degree at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Earned his first newspaper paycheck at the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat, fled the Midwest for Los Angeles Daily News and finally ended up at the Orange County . He's taught one or two classes a semester in the journalism and mass communications department at Cal State Long Beach since 2006. Somehow managed to get a lovely lady to marry him, and with her have two daughters. And a dog named Buddy. Never forget the dog.
All Stories

The rock musician who also founded Third Man Records and Third Man Hardware also rocked out the TEC Awards on Thursday with a pair of songs that sizzled.

NAMM 2025: Scenes (and sounds) from the first day of the Anaheim music event
From guitars and amplifiers to musicians and producers, the National Association of Music Merchants Show had a whole of lot of everything.

How Tom Petty’s friendship led to Lucinda Williams’ coheadlining tour with the Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell
The rootsy rock singer-songwriter comes to the Sound in Del Mar that will feature Williams and Campbell separately and together.

Comic-Con: 13 things to see or do this week at Comic-Con
We did a deep dive into the Comic-Con schedule to pick some offerings that appealed to us for the long weekend in and around the San Diego Convention Center.

For legendary L.A. punk band X, there’s a final album and tour, but not a farewell
The four of X talk about their new album 'Smoke & Fiction,' the End Is Near Tour that's coming to Southern California, and what lies ahead.

Joyce Maynard got letters after her last book. So she wrote a sequel
Maynard's new book picks up the story of Eleanor, a New Hampshire wife and mother, where the previous book 'Count The Ways' left off.

Cold War Kids celebrate 20 years with album, tour visiting San Diego on Monday
Singer Nathan Willett said he rarely ever paused to think about the history of Cold War Kids, the indie rock band he and three friends started in an apartment over...

Why Kristin Hannah decided to write about Vietnam War nurses in ‘The Women’
The idea to write about nurses in combat zones in the Vietnam War came easy, novelist Kristin Hannah says.The writing? Not so much.“The Vietnam War was such a shadow across...

UCSD professor emeritus Quincy Troupe reflects on Miles Davis, poetry and more
Back in the 1980s, Spin magazine asked Quincy Troupe who he'd like to write about and the poet, journalist and UC San Diego professor emeritus didn't hesitate to answer."I said...

Why Kristin Hannah decided to write about Vietnam War nurses in ‘The Women’
The idea to write about nurses in combat zones in the Vietnam War came easy, novelist Kristin Hannah says.The writing? Not so much.“The Vietnam War was such a shadow across...

Coachella 2024: 5 takeaways from the lineup and one crazy prediction
The lineup for the 2024 edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival finally arrived last week, delivering a trio — or maybe a quartet? — of headliners with...

Priceless rock ‘n’ roll art collection and all-star concert to make one-day stop in Los Angeles
The Jim Irsay Collection includes Kurt Cobain's guitar from Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" music video, Bob Dylan's Stratocaster from the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, and one of Ringo Starr's...

How a Southern California artist created one of the world’s largest stained-glass windows
When artist Tim Carey and Judson Studios won the bid in 2014 to make one of the largest stained-glass windows in the world, it was a coup for Carey and...

Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Randy Bachman describes music’s time-traveling power
Ask Randy Bachman to explain the enduring appeal of classic rock and the singer-guitarist — and cofounder of both the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive — points to ... Sting?"I...

‘Laugh-In’ creator George Schlatter is ‘Still Laughing’ in new memoir
George Schlatter was working in the mailroom at a talent agency when he first met Frank Sinatra. It was 1948 and Schlatter was so fresh-faced that Sinatra told him, "I...

Astronaut Jose Hernandez credits California farmworker family for his success
WEST COVINA, Calif. — Early in "A Million Miles Away," young José Hernández adjusts the TV antenna as his migrant farmworker family gathers to watch the launch of Apollo 17 in 1972.It's...

After 56 years, 100 million in album sales and 21 top 10 singles, Chicago band are still rolling
If it's summer, the rock band Chicago must be coming to Southern CaliforniaChicago arrives at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay in San Diego for sold-out concerts on Tuesday and Wednesday...

After 30 years of Jimmy Eat World, Jim Adkins looks back on band’s earliest gigs in San Diego
There's a reason Jimmy Eat World has been such a constant presence in Southern California over the three decades since the alternative rock band formed in Mesa, Ariz., in 1993.Just...

San Diego Comic-Con 2023: Highlights of Day One
Mike Phillips and Sean Craig cut a wide, colorful swath through the crowds outside the convention center on the first day of San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday.Along with the sidewalk-sweeping...