The year 1987 marked both the release of the movie “Mannequin” and the final season of the children’s program “Today’s Special,” which featured a mannequin that came to life every night and entertained kids. Obviously, both media ventures were marketed to very different demographics, but what if they had decided to cross-promote? I think I found the answer to that question while shopping yesterday at the Westfield Topanga Mall in Canoga Park. I had......

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA......

The first in an occasional series of posts in which we highlight some added value aspects of so-called Web 2.0 land. Enjoy your ride on the InterTubes™... To better understand the Web 2.0 world, one must be in touch with the specific feelings across online content-generating demographics at a particular point in time and place. Enter WeFeelFine.org, the excellent real-time visualization developed by Internet artist Jonathan Harris and Google personalization tech Sep Kamvar. Basically,......

Last Thursday morning started out great. I jumped in my car listening to mix of morning shows, but left off listening to Kenny Chesney’s “You Save Me” on KZLA. When I returned to my car around noon to venture off downtown, KZLA had a grand surprise – it vanished, leaving the LA and OC counties country-less. LA has now joined the side of New York City and other metropolitan areas in life without a......

a grand idea The LA Times gets a preview of the Frank Gehry design for the Grand Avenue development downtown, which will be unveiled at a press conference this morning. That's Gehry and partner Chris Webb in the photo above, with their model. remembering atrocities Today is Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day; from 1915-1917, about a million Armenians were killed in Turkey. A lecture about Germany's involvement in the mechanics of the genocide drew a......

Gabrielle Middaugh Pascoe is a journalist and webentrepreneur determined to enlighten Angelenos about every fascinating activity that our metropolis has to offer. She edits and distributes a daily email newsletter called Single Shot, which delivers tips and information on the very best people and places and things in the city of Los Angeles. Age: 35 Occupation: Founder, Single Shot How long have you lived in Los Angeles, and which neighborhood do you live in?:......

Our wonderfully cool buddies over at NBC4 report this morning that "according to new census figures, California leads the nation in registration of sport utility vehicles, with nearly 2.8 million of the gas guzzlers in 2002." LAist's good friend and regular all-around nice guy, Louis Kincannon (who just happens to be the Census Bureau Director) says that these figures add up to about 24.2 million SUV's, or one for every eight licensed drivers. To......

Last night at 12:01 AM there was a collective gasp among all obsessive XBOX owners when the game-to-end-all-games, Halo 2 was finally released to the public. Well, the small percentage of the public who felt driven to wait in a line for hours just to get their hands on a copy before the rest of the (sleeping) public. Halo 2, produced by Bungie and Microsoft has been said to be one of the most......