Map of LAPD's Northeast Division | View larger image here or download a PDF In an effort to further community relations, LAPD's Northeast Division is hosting their community open house today from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Along with meeting officers and councilmembers, there will be displays by the Bomb Squad, K-9 Unit, LAPD Dispatch Communications, SWAT and others. And at the very least, if you didn't know that you lived within the Northeast......

Celebrate your weekend. | Photo by ronnie44052 via Flickr Not everyone is going to Coachella this weekend. For those who choose to stay put in Los Angeles, the city is literally filled with events this weekend: AltBuild Expo at SaMo Civic Auditorium: an eco-friendy building & design expo LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA: a must see & do Fiesta Broadway at Downtown: party!......

A puppet show without Kermit: Concrete Folk Variations at The Manual Archives / Photo by Susan Simpson MEET THE PO-PO The public’s invited to meet the police and talk about safety issues at a neighborhood meeting between the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council, the Glassell Park Safety Committee and LAPD. Senior Lead Officer for Atwater Village Gina Chovan, gang detectives and City Attorney Donna Wong will be in attendance. 4 pm // Glassell Park Community......

Igloo Tornado is an East Side based art collective (they actually call it a Fraternity, which when you account for their frequent references to beer, can probably be taken in both the Classical Greek and Collegiate meanings) featuring the work of Levon Jihanian, Tom Neely, Gin Steven and Scot Nobles. They formed in 2004, had their first show as a group in 2006 and after a two year hiatus, they're back with an Eponymously......

photo by Timothy Norris Local duo The Pity Party is playing the second show of their month-long Monday residency at Spaceland tonight. Much has been made about drummer/keyboardist/singer Heisenflei and her triple-threat instrumentation. But even if she weren’t an octopus, Heisenflei and guitarist/singer Maurice-Richard would still be stirring up L.A. with their smartly sparse songwriting and quirky melodies. We asked Heisenflei, who also runs The Little Knittery in Atwater Village, a few questions before......

The Hollow Trees are the best folk band "for families" that you have never heard. By "for families" we mean little kids would love it as much as their parents. Mixing Americana, folk, and pop, The Hollow Trees keep it simple enough for children with the G-rated lyrics. The music, however, is authentic, pure, and as good as anything you'd hear from your grandpa's best bluegrass records. This year the Hollow Trees have gone......

Itching to get out to the latest restaurant or coolest foodie event this weekend? Here's a quick round-up of where to eat this weekend that will have you talking all week. Find out what's going on with LA Mill's soft opening -- this coffee boutique planned for a Silver Lake location has testing out its goods at a clothing store in West Hollywood, but the owners are very tight-lipped about the next steps --......

The wonderful folks over at Arthur Magazine not only organized, but documented the wondrous No Age LA River show Saturday (perhaps you saw the LAist photo essay concert review). This finely edited three-part documentary was conducted by Mark Frohman, Art Director of Arthur Magazine. The videos surfaced merely 24-hours after the show! I'd like to thank Jay Babcock for sending us these links. Parts 1 & 3 after the jump.........

What could have been a humdrum Saturday afternoon turned out to be the most memorable I've had this entire year. No Age and a lucky crowd of about 75 broke history. Actually, I'm not even sure if we broke history. However, I am certain that no other band has had the gall to execute a renegade show of this particular nature before. This is what happens when you combine an Arthur Magazine editor-type guy,......

LAist had the opportunity to catch up with Jonny Coleman, curator of Art Crawl X and also founder of Found Gallery in Silverlake this week to ask him some questions about the art walk this weekend, what not to miss, and why this art walk is sure to kick ass. What is Art Crawl X? Art Crawl X is the tenth annual art walk on the Eastside [excluding downtown]. The Crawl includes both conventional......

Dear _____, Cool! I'm totally in and excited to see you this weekend too! Yeah I totally heard all about Art Crawl X and am excited to check it out. Isn't it something crazy like over 25 galleries and stores all around Echo Park, Silverlake, Los Feliz and Atwater Village are participating and holding shows and exhibits and stuff? And like at night some are having bands perform and tattoo stations and I heard......

Los Angeles based artist, Tom Neely took some time out of his schedule to talk with LAist, about his new graphic novel The Blot, his current exhibit Self Indulgent Werewolf, and art & life in L.A. LAist: Why/how did you choose L.A. after graduating from art school? Neely: I went to grad school at the San Francisco Art Institute to get my MFA in painting. While I was in grad school I got so......

Los Angeles based artist Tom Neely has been on my radar for a long time, so I am really looking forward to his first solo show here in L.A opening this weekend! (Stay tuned for my interview with him next week!) A child with many allergies growing up, Neely spent a lot of his youth in bed reading classic comic books. Trained as a painter, the comic book influence is still clear. His art has......

When foreign dignitaries come to LA, they hang out with the mayor, the celebs, the heads of big business... LAist ends up having to entertain their barely legal daughters. We all have our crosses to bear. Last weekend we got a phone call to spend the afternoon with a young lady who is considering coming to LA for "university", but her parents thought that our fair city would teach her to be a gas......

• The Atwater Village Newbie's wife, Mrs. Newbie, wins the Atwater Village Street Fair cookie contest - AVN • Al Sharpton met with Sheriff Lee Baca today regarding Paris Hilton - Fox 11 • Former Fox 11 TV reporter / LAPD sergeant Rod Bernsen cleared of accusations that he touched two 12-year-old boys in a hot tub - LA Times • Deadly auto accident on the PCH near the Ventura County line claims one......

- Today is visiting day at the Twin Towers facility where America's most famous inmate resides - The Atwater Village Street Fest is still happening till 4pm - They've turned a roller rink into the sweetest named museum in all of Long Beach, The Molaa - The Sopranos finale comes on at 6pm if you're lucky enough to get the east coast feed of HBO - LCD Soundsystem is at the El Rey tonight......

Leave it to the Atwater Village Newbie (at what point are you no longer "new"?) to fill us in on something that we had no clue about. Not only is our favorite neighborhood on Glendale Blvd. hosting their Street Festival this Sunday, but there's also going to be a freakin HOMEMADE COOKIE CONTEST! According to the rules (.pdf), if you think you've got what it takes, and baby we know you do, bring your......

We live in a beautiful part of the world, don't you think? Despite the fact that sometimes it feels like all we ever see are the taillights and inane vanity plates of the car we're stuck behind, if we take some time to check out all the flora and fauna that our soil produces, we might get that nice swift kick in the rear from Mother Nature we didn't even know we needed. On......

Illinois teens arrested in Hollywood Hills fire A wildfire that authorities say was ignited by two teenagers tore through the brush-covered hills surrounding the famous Hollywood sign Friday, putting a scare into the city but doing little damage other than coating the area in a thick blanket of smoke. Spears finalises divorce settlement with Federline Celebrity Web site TMZ.com quoted unnamed sources as saying that Federline, who has tried to launch a new career as......

blogging.la wins for best fire coverage of yesterday's blaze - blogging.la Zuma Dogg wins for reporting that Doug McIntyre of 790 KABC asked him for a hemp tshirt on the air - Mayor Sam We all win when Franklin Avenue takes the Gold Line and shows us what they did and where they ate on their journey - Franklin Ave h/t MetroriderLA Losanjealous wins for the meanest haiku review of the Jill Cunniff show......

- LAVoice is looking for a new editor - LAVoice - Darin Erstad goes to the Chicago White Sox - LA Times - 2 bodes and 3 dead dogs found in Granada Hills house fire - CBS2 - Gehry building torn down - CurbedLA - Press Deputy for the Mayor, Matt Szabo, gets poked at - LAO - $75,000 for leading to the capture of the Ski-Mask Bandits, who have robbed more than 200......

- How would you describe your neighborhood in one sentence? (LACityNerd) - "Los Angeles is Burning" by Bad Religion was yesterday's official theme for LA, apparently (Atwater Village Newbie) - "The Orange Line now brings thousands of commuters through downtown Van Nuys and these riders disembark in an area with a Salvation Army store, a porno shop, an ice manufacturing company, auto painters, Big Valley Dodge and other one story buildings which close down......

Council President Eric Garcetti represents the Thirteenth Council District which includes all or part of the communities of Glassell Park, Atwater Village, Elysian Valley, Echo Park, Historic Filipinotown, Silver Lake, East Hollywood and Hollywood. Otherwise known as LAist's 'Hood. Because we're represented brilliantly, when we sent our councilmember a request to take part in this collection of Best Of lists not only did he respond quickly and wonderfully, but he reached behind our ear and......

Because drinking and driving is beyond passé: This week, local bartenders strutted their best Tom Cruise-in-Cocktail skills, but without any "proof" in their puddings. It was the annual Mocktail contest held at Universal CityWalk, where ten expert mixologists threw their best non-alcoholic mixes into...well, the mix at the annual "Battle of the Bartenders". The event was designed to promote awareness of the dangers of DUIs. Your turn to be the designated driver? Try one......

LACityNerd comments on LA Curbed's commentary on Daily Bruin's article about DOT's proactive enforcement of cars in driveway aprons at sidewalks. We've had our own parking problems in Westwood, but as to parking in aprons, you deserve a ticket -- it gets in the way of our bikes. As one commenter on Curbed said, "Living in the City 101: YOU CANNOT PARK ON THE SIDEWALK." NPR reports that in Los Angeles, 67.8 percent of......

Ok look, when aliens land in your back yard and eat all your Reese's Pieces and dress up in your sister’s clothing and break your favorite Speak and Spell, they don’t give you any notice either. My apologies nonetheless for not finding this sooner... Atwater Movie Night proudly presents: E.T., The Extra Terrestrial TONIGHT @ 7pm Red Car River Park Atwater Village Free On their website you’ll find a helpful map and some info......

We can't say that we're regular viewers of Stephen Colbert's show, but every now and then he hits it out of the park and thanks to YouTube we get to see those moments without having to fill up our TiVos with the times he doesn't. With that said, his 430-part series "Better Know a District" is pure edutainment hilarity. Recently Colbert visited with 7-term Congressman Xavier Becerra, and thanks to Atwater Village Newbie, we......

Every month, LAist ges together and has drinks. Lately, we've hit Atwater Village (The Roost), Los Feliz (Good Luck Bar), Hollywood (The Well) and West L.A. (Don Antonio's). Sometime next month, we will hit The Chimney Sweep in Sherman Oaks. It began last night at the W Hotel's Whiskey Blue with Gothamist, LLC head honcho Jake Dobkin. After many laughs and drinks, we got hungry. Too bad Noodle Planet was already closed. In-N-Out it......

LAObserved points us to Politics in the Zeros who writes about the LAPD brutality press conference. "Several TV news reporters were at the press conference, and there were gasps from the audience when the video was shown." We showed this video yesterday. Now, Zero points us to a video (below) of the same incident from a different point of view. A very close point of view. Still, no word on LAPD's Blog about this.......

Writer Michelle Huneven delves into all aspects of life in Southern California, from the material to the spiritual and everything in between. She is the author of two published works of fiction, Jamesland (2004) and Round Rock (1998), as well as many pieces of non-fiction journalism. She’s also familiar to readers as a former restaurant critic for the LA Weekly. 1. Age and Occupation: 51, Writer 2. How long have you lived in Los......