In addition to providing you with an excellent cardio and lower-body workout, the Hollywoodland Staircases Walk also has amazing views of the city, the landscape, and two major landmarks (the Hollywood Sign and Griffith Observatory). Throw some local history (concrete staircases joining hilly residential streets installed in 1923 as part of the Hollywoodland real estate development) and a wide variety of architecture and you have more for your eyes to drink in than you bargained......

The Flat Stanley project was started in 1995 by Dale Hubert, a Canadian schoolteacher. The project is based on the title character in Flat Stanley, a 1964 children's book. In the book, Stanley Lambchop is squished flat, which gives him unique abilities, like being able to slide under doors and travel in envelopes. The project is intended to increase literacy and educate children about geography. Classes participating in the Flat Stanley Project make their......

On the heels of the recent SoCal beef recall and a property being sold abut the Hollywood Sign, PETA announced an idea yesterday of buying or, at least, renting the next-door land to place 5-letters to the left of the Hollywood sign. If all becomes said and done (they wish), Hollywood's icon would read "Go Veg Hollywood." PETA does not have the $20 million needed to purchase the property, but they "did write to the......

Photo by el daverino via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr A Musical Valentine to Santa Monica: Sia just announced a last-minute show (definitely her last before Coachella!) for tomorrow, February 14th at 2PM in Santa Monica at the Starbucks Hear Music Coffeehouse on Third St. Promenade, first come first serve. She kicks off her North American tour the following day, Friday, in San Diego. The 15-year-old boy shot on Tuesday at a......

Photo by manmadepants via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr The relationship between real estate and the Hollywood Sign is as old as, well, the sign itself. Built in 1923 as a promotional billboard to attract buyers to make their homes in the hills of the burgeoning Hollywood community, the sign that once read "HOLLYWOODLAND" has become one of the most iconic landmarks in LA. Now real estate and the sign have a......

So many times those of us who live in LA play host to out-of-town visitors who want to see all the sights that our amazing city has to offer. It's pretty routine to get asked if and how one can get up to the iconic Hollywood Sign to see it up close, and, sadly, it must be admitted that the sign is off-limits to regular folk. This means that looky-loos, locals, and pranksters who......

We found this awesome present-day shot of the iconic Hollywood Sign doctored to harken back to the golden era using the new Picnik online photo editor. Want to play with your photos online with Flickr and Picnik (and maybe get featured on LAist to boot!)? Check out our primer on using the new editing tool from just a few days ago. And have fun! Photo by C.M. via Flickr......

1. Engadget: Next Friday Circuit City will be selling $99 laptops, sorta 2. BoingBoing - Cemetery 2.0 links your real headstone to your Facebook Memorial page. 3. FC2: Windows Vista doesn't work with the Zune? 4. Gizmodo - Blender capable of blending 40 pens 5. Xujing Lei - still loves her cat 6. Huffington Post - Guest blogger John Murtha writes: "Iraq is key... Let's get to work." Hey John, don't quit your day......

The German biker gang Avalanche of Steel showed up at Bronson Park this afternoon for a quick sightseeing stop. They spent about 10 minutes snapping pictures under the Hollywood Sign before climbing into their white, unmarked van and driving off to the next attraction.......

It's nearly zero hour for the industry love fest -- better known as the Academy Awards -- and many Oscar get-togethers, soirees and partaaays are just revving up. To help dull the pain of spending three hours plus in front of the boob tube, LAist highly recommends the use of alchohol (responsibly, of course). So without further ado, here are some rules to add to your homemade Oscar telecast drinking game: - When the......

Nestled just above Franklin Ave. is Hollywood’s not-so-best-kept secret: Runyon Canyon, the hiking trail to stars and regular folks alike. It’s perfect for the Hollywood hiker who doesn’t want to fight traffic to get to the Palisades. There are several entrances (on Fuller, Vista and Mulholland) (on Fuller, Vista and Mulholland) to the very dog-friendly, but not bike-friendly park and paths. Many of the trails lead to the summit, which on the clearest of......

It's been a year since French artist Invader touched down in Los Angeles. Invader, of course, is the anonymous French artist whose cute-yet-ominous invader mosaics have been proliferating around Los Angeles since 1999. The occasion last April was a show at hyper-cool Subliminal Projects gallery, during which time he successfully tagged the last few letters of the Hollywood Sign with his artwork. Next Saturday, June 11, he returns to this planet for a show......

We spent the weekend at the Festival of Books trying desperately to figure out how to get into Hogwarts Platform (or Diagon Alley) but we spent the last week doing the following: - We tried to get someone to lose their job. - We wanted to tear the Hollywood Sign down. - The war on oversized cars in compact spaces was renewed. - We got tourist trapped at Universal Citywalk. - You told us......