When we saw this video on Boing Boing today, it sounded too good to be true. Who knew that Fred Astaire's moves edited to Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal would make the perfect mashup. Take a look to see the master dancer at his best. You can't go wrong with the intro with Leslie Caron in "Daddy Long Legs" and scenes from "The Band Wagon" with the gorgeous Cyd Charisse too. Enjoy!......

Photo by Daniella Zalcman via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Maybe actor Dennis Farina was taking his former role as an L&O detective too seriously when he packed his suitcase and headed to LAX this morning. Authorities arrested Farina on charges of carrying a concealed weapon when a .22 caliber handgun was found in his carryon. Homicide detectives are working on the case of an infant found dead inside a Lancaster home......

The famous Neverland Ranch, which has hosted thousands of children in the past, was set to be auctioned off on March 19th. But yesterday, Michael Jackson made a deal with the company he owed $24.5 million to, avoiding the auction and the rumors that David Beckham was going to buy into the property according to an Associated Press news report. 150 miles north of Los Angeles in Los Olivos, the ranch is a 2,500 acre......

Photo by Jonathan Alcorn (aka Sundogg) via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr An update on last night's Midnight Movie (you really need to watch this): Curbed has the rendering of the proposed development and for five-stories, it looks a bit... out of proportion. Authorities are on the hunt for the killer of a 25-year-old homeless man whose body was found Sunday night in Venice. The victim was apparently beaten to death. Another......

Oh L.A. and your crazy kooky vagrants! Please meet Crazy Doll Lady (as we are calling her), pictured in the photo above. She and her scary puppet friends hang out around Sunset and Vine every day, and wait outside the Hollywood Public Library every morning for food handouts. Say hi to her if you see her...or drive by real real fast like I do! Even if the Globes are cancelled, Academy Awards organizers are......

With reports of The King of Pop's financial troubles continuing to moonwalk all over the press, it's hard to feel sorry for the middle aged superstar, considering he hasn't really seemed to try to work out his issues - literally. You'd think a guy like Michael Jackson could do a few concerts and collect the $212,963 that's reportedly outstanding on his $23,212,963 mortgage on his sprawling ranch north of Santa Barbara. This summer Pollstar......

As one blogger so delicately phrased it, "CMJ goes out with a whimper". There wasn't a whole lot I wanted to see on Day Five of CMJ. So I rested my weary bones, wandered around Williamsburg, and caught a couple of shows. One highlight was Ha Ha Tonka's performance at Union Pool in Williamsburg at a homey, jam-packed venue. I believe there was a BBQ going on as well. Williamsburg was lovely, flourishing with......

The most talked about post on Metafilter today was in reference to a blog entry by a fellow who came out to visit our lovely city. Two excerpts from his post: L.A. is the apocalypse: it's you and a bunch of parking lots. No one's going to save you; no one's looking out for you. It's the only city I know where that's the explicit premise of living there – that's the deal you......

It's scary song season at LAist. Thanks to Finetune for getting things started with a playlist of spooky songs for All Hallow's month. This broad selection just cracks the surface of the zombie-sphere... we'll have to dig up even tastier Halloween gems later in the month.......

Lindsay Lohan was busted by her medical director for using drugs while in rehab - Female First Speaking of Lindsay, she should be getting a visit from her estranged father, Michael Lohan, any day now as part of her "healing process" - NY Post As Owen Wilson recovers from his suicide attempt, pal Courteny Love is openly blaming Wilson's hard partying pal and her former lover Steve Coogan for being a bad influence on Owen's......

Pink's, shminks. No, honestly. Who wants to stand in that line on a hot summer afternoon just to get a middling dog covered in shitty chili on top of an untreated white flour bun? Not me, dudes and dudettes: but I sure will walk far (twenty minutes tops, depending on footwear and levels of drunkenness) for a Skooby's Hot Dog. I want my bun infused with garlic, my dog compact with flavor and deep-fried......

How does one become a success in the music business? Is it who you know? What you know? Does dressing like Michael Jackson help? Or does it all come down to...how you lick the competition? Honor Student has an answer: and it is today's 4:20 Video. Very, very, VERY NSFW. Video courtesy of Superdeluxe.com.......

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take......

A teacher friend of mine recently mentioned she was preparing an 80s theme party for the graduating seniors of her school. I asked, "Why 80s?" She replied that the seniors were born in 1989 and thus, they were the very last high school class to be born in that decade. I just about spit my drink all over her. I'm aware that we all age, but it still surprises the bejeezus out of me......

Happy 36th Birthday Corey Feldman! It seems like only yesterday that you were impersonating Michael Jackson and snorting your way through Hollywood. Lets not forget your underrated talent as the snarky know it all in Goonies, the old man trapped in a 16 year old's body in Dream a Little Dream and a teen vampire in Lost Boys. And within just a couple weeks you will have something else to celebrate- the premiere of......

Eva Longoria begins her bachelorette weekend in St. Tropez - Daily Mail "Crazy Cabbie" gets fired from the Howard Stern show last week for claiming that he possessed a copy of a Stern sex tape - TMZ Grey's Anatomy spin off having some internal trouble already - PerezHilton Liz Hurley has her son pose in a pink bikini, for her new line of clothing for kids. Inappropriate much? - News of the World Today......

- Long Beach teenager, Samantha Larson, pictured, becomes the youngest American ever to climb Mt. Everest. No word yet on at what altitude she lost the ability to IM on her Sidekick - LA Times - Say What? The Hoff Gets The Kids - TMZ - "Stand and Deliver" high school, Garfield High, intentionally set aflame - KABC - Dude tries to kill his girfriend by parking their car on the train tracks and......

The Good News: Nancy Grace will no longer be on Court TV, at least not until she finally gets to sit in the defendant's seat herself. The Bad News: The diminutive Southern blond rabble-rouser will continue her work as a nightly nuisance on the one-time news channel known as CNN Headline News. In her career as a talking head taking on all kinds of imagined and otherwise biased and inaccurately portrayed wrongdoers, Nancy Grace has......

The remaining 10 guys performed on American Idol last night, and thankfully, it wasn't two hours of excruciating torture like last week. First, it was only a 90-minute show to make room for Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. (Hence, the shameless Jeff Foxworthy shots in the AI audience. He hosts the show, so you know it's gonna be redneck good.) And while the guys greatly improved from their first outing, they still......

- Michael Jackson is being sued again, this time by the family of a woman who died in a hospital in SLO and whose room he popped his head into when he had the flu during his last trial - SLO Trib - Oki Dog has always been an "A" in our hearts, now the Health Dept. has given them the top grade - Los Anjealous - How the Internet Superhighway makes its way......

We've gotta admit that John Mayer hadn't impressed us. His music was fine if you wanted to give your mom something safe for Mother's Day (anything but that "Your Body is a Wonderland" we should say). But hooking up with Valley Girl Jessica Simpson is a pretty great score regardless of your feelings about the politics of tuna fish and/or chicken. However, when we were passed along this link from the blog by an......

Teeming with dolled-up jailbait and smelling like a fraternity house basement, The Music Box at The Henry Fonda Theater was ground zero for trendy sneakers, ballet flats and perky ponytails on February 5th as Lily Allen played a sold-out show at the only LA stop on her MTV-sponsored “Discover and Download” tour. Her album Alright, Still dropped domestically one week prior, and had already taken the #20 spot on the Billboard 200, selling over......

LAist loves video games. Loves them. And we love Black folk. Half of LAist's Editors over the years have been African-American. Which makes you think that we should be covering more Black History Month stories than what we have, but, whatevs. LAist sees no colors. Last week the blog microscopiq wrote a wonderful post called "The First 11 Black Videogame Stars" where they listed and summarized 11 video game main characters that you *had*......

Every morning at 6am we have been posting a video of someone singing or playing the "Star Spangled Banner". Depending on how many people stuck around to halftime to hear Prince, this was probably the most-heard song in the entire world yesterday. We've got to say, Billy Joel was a safe choice, but a good one. We would have preferred someone from Indiana or Chicago, like, say, John Cougar Mellencamp or Billy Corgan or......

- Hi New LAist Readers: Skid Row gets an Internet Cafe - UPI - Best LA Daily News Headline of the Week: "Moms + kids + wine = big-time buzz" - Daily News - Those Aqua Teen Hunger Force "bombs" were headed to LA - LA Times - Mello and Brand jockeying for Yao's All Star spot - AP - Rush Limbaugh nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize - PR Newswire - Wisconsin Police......

According to E! News, the greatest pop trio of the '80s will not only reunite for next month's Grammy Awards, but they will open the show. The gig marks the first time the Police have taken the stage together since a much heralded reunion at the 2003 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Famed for a fusion of reggae with elements of pop, rock and jazz, the bleach-blond threesome scored a slew of......

Clearly, things are amiss in Memphis. Maybe it’s something in the water. Maybe it’s too humid there. I really don’t know. Whatever the reason, it brought some truly special behavior to last night’s auditions. Simon yelled at cheerleaders and band nerds. Paul pinched nipples and hugged strangers. Ryan cursed and got huffy. And everyone was either being flipped off or giving someone else the finger (yes, I know the finger). Talentwise, the episode was......

Has it really come to this? Today Jermaine Jackson (one of the less-insane Jacksons) was the first guest to enter the Celebrity Big Brother UK house. Things we learn from this clip: 1) Jermaine was not taught how to moonwalk 2) Jermaine doesn't say LA, he says Los Angeles 3) Someone else sang in the Jackson 5 other than Michael......

While some debate about who created rock and roll, there has only been one Godfather of Soul, James Brown, who he died this morning of pneumonia. Yesterday he went to the dentist for a "routine appointment" when it was discovered that the "Hardest Working Man in Show Business" had the illness. Rarely has an artist inspired legends with his voice, his songs, his style, and his dancing. Prince, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Sly and......

Earlier this year USC Daily Trojan editor in chief Zach Fox's re-election got cockblocked by the SC VP of Student Affairs. USC, like many colleges has a process of choosing their EICs by having a staff vote followed by a conformation vote by a group consisting of students, staff, and faculty. Because Fox had the audacity this fall to request the financial paperwork in regards to the Daily Trojan from USC, the VP of......