Circle December 25 on your calendar. It's a pretty important day. The Lakers may unwrap some gifts in the morning, but the big moment will have to wait a few hours. That afternoon, they hope to open up a can of whoop ass on the Celtics. That's right -- David Stern has announced his Christmas gift to LA. Boston will make their first trip to the Staples Center since beating the Lakers for this year's......

Sometimes, what happens around San Francisco applies to Los Angeles. Editor Brock Keeling catches this sign of the times with some humor: Freeway Blogger brought these sings to our attention, placed on the overpass above (the) eastbound I-80. A great message about global warming. Good job. Also: how mean! Christmas is canceled!......

Campaign Buttons, by JSF539 via Flickr Thomas Pynchon once said, "If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." But if they find you in the romantic embrace of a lobbyist and you happen to be a Senator from Arizona, it doesn't matter what they're asking, just what they are reporting and late Wednesday, the New York Times broke it wide open. In a piece that had......

In anticipation of their March 4 album debut, What Made Milwaukee Famous will be in LA for five shows this week | Photo by Cambria Harkey As usual on Mondays, it's a big residency night in Los Angeles. Lots of free shows or, at least cheap ones, to pick from. Outside the residency radar, Buddyhead is throwing a belated Christmas party tonight at La Cita. Santa Casper will be there for you to sit......

Why not surprise your Valentine with a homemade treat this year? Fresh, pillowy marshmallows are a refreshing change from the usual chocolate, and surprisingly addictive. My nephew's girlfriend, Julianna, whipped up a batch of these last Christmas and people are still talking about them. Check out The Brownie Points Blog where Julianna found the recipe. It is also reprinted here after the jump for your convenience. Marshmallows will keep for several weeks at room temperature......

Can I just say that after giving up TV, I have had a bitch of a time trying to find Family Guy and Sex and the City episodes (which I have recently gotten re-addicted to over the Christmas holiday) online. I found a solution (and something else to get addicted to) – OVGuide.com. OVG is now on my Firefox toolbar – and that's a big deal to me, though maybe not you because you......

Instead of careening around town three sheets to the wind, actor Kiefer Sutherland has spent the last forty-odd days washing sheets while serving laundry duty in a Glendale jail as part of his drunken-driving sentence. The 24 star has been a model prisoner, according to recent reports. He had asked to do his time in Glendale instead of downtown in the LA County Jail, and the request was granted with the stipulation that he not......

In its first weekend of wide release, The Bucket List charged to the top of the box office. Its tally of $19.54 million ($20.9M) just edged Ice Cube's First Sunday which debuted with an even $19M. There was some talk that upstart Juno might win the weekend crown, but it had to settle for a still healthy $14M ($71.2M). It now seems certain to reach $100M while holiday stalwarts National Treasure: Book of Secrets......

There is a common misconception that we don't have seasons in Los Angeles. We know when the seasons are changing. There are two distinct events that herald the coming winter: the Christmas displays replace the Halloween merchandise, and the lunch trucks start selling champurrado. Champurrado is a type of atole, which is a hot drink popular in the winter. There are a variety of atoles, but chapurrado is probably the most popular. It is......

The holidays are over and many of us have to resolve ourselves to getting back to work and responsibilities. Everyone except the writers, anyone who works in the production of tv and film and of course, the AMPTP. Except they are at work. It was just before Christmas that Nikki Finke reported that the moguls (which is who the AMPTP are. The name is misleading – there are few, if any, actual producers involved)......

I was looking through the recipe box for ways to use up the old Christmas carcass, when I re-discovered a little gem from days gone by: 1969 to be exact. It's one of those tiny paperbacks that they used to sell, a Flash World Library For Modern Living publication called: bachelor's cook book (all lower case for style's sake). The bachelor's cook book was created to help those fellas with just a hot plate,......

LAist Featured Photos pool photog Susan Sabo (aka smalldogs) nabbed this fantastic shot in Long Beach of a solitary holiday tree planted guerrilla gardening-style in the median. She explains: i just noticed this tiny tree that someone planted on this divider. it looks like someone in the neighborhood got a live tree for xmas, then went out and planted it when they were done with it. i think that fucking rocks! i hope the......

A second victim of this weekend's street racing-related crash in Hollywood has died from his injuries. The first victim was Nigel Gudray, the driver of the Infiniti struck by the speeding BMW driven by an intoxicated Carlos Steven John, was burned past physical recognition in the accident and died on scene. The passenger of Gudray's vehicle died overnight as a result of his burns. The six-month-long search for missing college student Donna Jou continues......

SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others. Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish list. Gothamist looked at the wooden bikes being offered for NYC's first bike share program on Governors Island. LAist received a Christmas present in the form of a drunk Santa Claus in a g-string. Bostonist launched......

ALCOHOL One of the most important elements of a new year's eve party is alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol. This will cause people to forget your little mistakes, and turn the big mistakes into hilarious anecdotes that you will chuckle over together for years. Figure one bottle of champagne will yield around 6 glasses. Oh, and get plastic glasses if you have invited over more than 20 people. It's tacky, but beats the......

Officer Down: A SWAT team was dispatched late today to a Reseda home on the 11800 block of Blythe Street where it is believed an officer was shot. The gunman has barricaded himself in the home and it's unclear whether he has been apprehended. The injured LAPD officer was transported to a local hospital. The funeral was held today for 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan, who died after her insurance company refused her liver transplant. Mourners......

So you've been bowled over by our Best of the Year lists, but do you demand more? Scratch that, do you crave more? Because if you do, you're in luck. Here's a round up of some of 2007's more creative year-end round ups. Time's Top Ten Underreported Stories of the Year. You gotta love how Time gets into the list spirit this, well, time of year. Twenty-five top tens, with everything from kids books......

It's a family tradition: every year on New Year's Day, we toast slices of panettone and drink mimosas. The warm, buttery, alcohol-infused bread is the perfect compliment to a nice, dry champagne and nothing says ring in the new year like a little more liquor (provided you've survived the night before.) Before you complain about how gross panettone is or how it resembles the much-maligned fruit-cake, listen up: don't be fooled into trying it......

The list is a little long this week since I'm including the Christmas Day openers. Having already raved about There Will Be Blood yesterday, I'll lead off with what some are calling the best horror film of the year, The Orphanage. For any horror fan who's tired of torture porn and bad Japanese re-makes, this is the movie for you. Grim and spare, it's a horror film for adults and Spain's foreign-language entrant for......

If good things come in threes, it seems bad things come in twos, at least today in LA: Edward Gage, a 31-year old Lancaster man, has been arrested for an alleged Christmas Day rape of a 16-year-old girl. When Gage's victim ignored his attempts to get directions as she walked to a friend's house, he pulled her shirt and tried to remove her clothing. She punched him in the face and got away! Francisco Santiago......

Last night's Old Town Pasadena shooting that left an Arcadia man wounded is reportedly a result of a drug deal gone awry. Police today released the name of the accused shooter, who is 18-year-old Mark Cole of Claremont. It's awful hard to put a plain brown wrapper on the porn you check out online. A New Jersey-based company that runs several internet porn sites revealed they recentled suffered a security breach that made its users......

California Highway Patrol Officer Joshua Blackburn, charged with stealing $1 million worth of cocaine being held as evidence, has had his arraignment postponed at his lawyer's request until early next month, KTLA is reporting. The 32-year-old Murietta man (pictured) has been with the CHP for six years, and remains in the Orange County Jail on $4 million bail. His arraignment had been scheduled for yesterday, but the alleged drug nabber's attorney has stated that he......

Whats even more shocking than Jamie Lynn Spears being preggers? That it may not be Casey Aldredge's baby. Thats right, reports are that the real daddy is an older man that would surely be charged ith statutoryw rape charges if revealed - Showbiz Spy Stacy Ferguson aka Fergie and her boyfriend of over three years, actor Josh Duhamel are engaged - TMZ Our favorite heiress's fortune has just been pulled out from right under her......

Vitals details in the killings of two South LA residents who were found shot to death in their 11th Ave apartment remain unknown. The LAPD was notified late Monday afternoon of gunshots heard, and soon after discovered the bodies of Shelton Sumerall, 32, and Monica Youngblood, 23, both of whom suffered fatal shots to their heads. The motive and a shooting suspect have not been determined. A Van Nuys man was stabbed yesterday when he......

Earlier this month, Metro announced the usual free rides on Christmas and New Year's Eve special that they do every year. Tonight, we received a short and brief, but extremely exciting e-mail: "On New Year's Eve Monday, December 31 (into Tuesday, January 1), all Metro Rail lines will run all night, every 20 minutes." Yes, that's all it said. No further details were mentioned (we're sure they are forthcoming, we are curious what "all night"......

Within 48 hours, building fires in Los Angeles did not take a holiday vacation. Early this morning in the Westlake neighborhood, a fire broke out in a three story converted-to-apartments Victorian home. Eleven residents, including two children were displaced while one man died. The cause is unknown. Early last night on Budlong Ave. near 117th St, a fire, most likely caused by a space heater, killed a 48-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman in......

The bestests Christmas present ever a vintage Jiffy Kodak Series II camera used in World War II....

Father Dollar Bill (a.k.a. Reverend Maurice Chase) was at it again yesterday, handing out money on Skid Row. While he often hands out money to downtown residents in need, Christmas is his no-holds-barred attempt to spread a little more love in the form of Christmas cash. Skid row residents have lined up every year for 24 years to see what luck might come their way from Father Dollar Bill on Christmas Day. Reverend Chase gives......

A Christmas Day United Airlines Boeing 757 flight to Kauai returned to LAX 10-minutes after take off when the windshield cracked. The jet and its 178 passengers landed safely and began their journey to Hawaii three and a half hours later. Earlier this year, news broke that commercial airline safety these days is extremely better than just a decade ago (contrasting that, on Sunday, a small plane in Panama crashed killing a California businessman, one......

Well, it's over. The cookies are gone, the dishes are washed, and the trash is overflowing with crumpled-up paper. One more week of madness until the New Year's party and then all will return to normal. Assuming, that is, that you don't celebrate Three King's Day. In which case, you are on your own. One more week of tinsel, and I'm out. For those of you whose appetite was whet by Lori Nyx's creepy......