New Mural near La Brea & Melrose. Learn more about the artwork here | Photo by bumblebee via Flickr Monday Mark Sarvas discusses and signs Harry, Revised 7pm @ Vroman's Mike Farrell presents Just Call Me Mike 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday Brian May presents Bang! The Complete History of the Universe 4pm @ Book Soup Millard Kaufman discusses Bowl of Cherries 7pm @ Central Library Adam Novak presents The Non-Pro 7pm @ Book......

Nothing quite goes together like kites and Afghanistan. | Photo courtesy of Paramount Vantage The Kite Runner was one of those movies that I obviously should have seen in theaters. I just could never work up enough enthusiasm to actually go out and do it. It's a no-brainer DVD rental. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't The Mist sort of crappy? Why exactly is it getting the deluxe edition DVD treatment? It took......

The courts once again sided with the Bush administration in its warrantless spy tapping program. This time, the liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to rule against the government in its handling of the war on terror. Somewhere, Abbie Hoffman is crying. Following an incident at Cal State Fullerton, in which nooses appeared on a clothesline at an anti-hate rally, civil rights leaders are calling for a federal investigation. College officials quickly took......

Applications for citizenship in September tripled. Why? People want to vote so they are not voted out of this country. Who knew you could be so productive in an hour? A group of five younger adults, one a 14-year-old male, carjacked people, did some armed robbery and kidnapping. All were caught except one. It's been five years since the Valley tried to become its own city. The movement failed when put to the ballot......

Fire crews are optimistic, but not yet looking to declare victory over the multiple blazes that have burned over 500,000 acres and displaced millions. We agree, it's best to be sure before declaring victory too soon. One blaze that has partially kept officials from declaring an end to the madness, the Santiago fire in Orange County, is expected to be contained by Friday. But it could take years to rebuild charred neighborhoods. Seven people......

To no one's surprise, Saw IV handily topped the box office this weekend with a haul of 32.1 million dollars. It's the third consecutive year that a film from the Saw franchise has won the Halloween weekend. I'm sure we all know what to expect next year. Dan in Real Life had a reasonably good debut, taking in $12M and re-establishing Steve Carell as a box-office force after the disaster that was Evan Almighty.......

After the disaster that was Evan Almighty, Steve Carell seems to have recovered (albeit slightly) with Dan in Real Life. Carell stars as a widower who inadvertently falls in love with his brother's girlfriend--hey, who fucking hasn't?! Celebrated French hellcat, er, actress Juliette Binoche stars as said girlfriend (which is good). Dane Cook is the brother, though, which is bad. Which is awful. Which sucks so hard there's no way I'm seeing this movie.......

- Jimmy Carter has been in LA building houses for the needy. He's 82 - Voice of America - Brit and KFed settled their divorce: joint custody, he gets $1 million, sorta - Reuters - Economists at UCLA's Anderson Forecast predict a Californian economic slowdown in the near future, but no recession - Daily Bruin - Local woman sues Petco and the food company who made the dog food that killed her pet -......

The former president of the United States will be signing books tonight at Vroman's in Pasadena, but according to the famous bookstore's spokesperson (well, the nice lady who answered the phone), "please do not come unless you already have a ticket" or you will not be allowed into the bookstore. Mr. Carter is currently traveling around the country in support of his controversial new book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid". Although some who have read......

Tonight - Monday "Breakheart Pass" (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) Charles Bronson starts off Crime/Mystery night on TCM. This is followed by "Murder On the Orient Express", "Sherlock Holmes in Terror By Night", and "The Narrow Margin" "Monday Night Football" (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.) da Bears @ Rams "NBA Basketball" (PRIME, 7:30 p.m.) Spurs @ Clippers "How I Met Your Mother" (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) Xmas episode followed by new episodes of everything else on CBS Monday night.......

- Following up on Monday's story about a female high English teacher who was accused of having a sexual relationship with one of her teen male students... today we got a message from someone close to Alyssa Johnson who said that he had a better photo than the mugshot that we posted. And sure enough, on the right you will see the picture that was sent to us and sure enough Ms. Johnson does......

LAist is increasingly impressed with the early efforts of mayoral hopeful Bob Hertzberg. Bob is currently fielding a great TV spot that's designed to ferry civic-minded Angelenos over to his dynamic Change LA website. It offers a parade of attractive digital photographs and a Hertzberg voice-over that contains fair criticisms about the city's current leadership. The ad demonstrates that Bob, who cut his teeth as an advance man for Jimmy Carter's White House press office,......