In Montreal this morning, some time between 6:30 and 7:30 am, the legendary Iggy and the Stooges had their rented truck with tons of equipment inside stolen from outside the Embassy Suites hotel. Current Stooge, local hero, and occasional LAist photo contributor, Mike Watt, forwarded an email late this afternoon urging anybody with any information to contact Eric Fischer via cell phone - (646) 932-1907, or via email at nycentral13@gmail.com. Watt will be providing......

Photo by Mike Watt San Pedro (or as he would say, "Pedro") local Mike Watt kayaks just about every morning and always takes beautiful beautiful beautiful sunrise photos. Here's one recent morning over at the Harbor. Previously: Mike Watt's Top Ten Pedro Sunrises of '06......

To celebrate the life and music of Richie Hass, a local musician who passed away in March from Myeloma, his friends have organized a marathon benefit concert tomorrow at the Echoplex. Many of the bands Richie once played with will be performing, and include some of the best punk, jazz, and experimental bands in LA. Saccharine Trust, one of LA's old school punk bands will be playing their jazz-punk fusion in tribute to Richie, who......

This last Tuesday at the crack of dawn, famous San Pedro local Mike Watt snapped this shot. "I'm paddling my kayak down in the harbor here in Pedro and I saw the Angels Gate Lighthouse being reflected down onto the water and took a shot of it as I was about to pass her and head out into the open sea. I flipped the picture 180 degrees to give it a trippy perspective. It......

Last night Madonna was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by none other than Justin Timberlake. In another unusual spin, she chose The Stooges, fronted by Iggy Pop to perform two of her hits, "Burning Up" and "Ray of Light.". Stooges bass player and occasional LAist contributor Mike Watt rocks out in the above clip. Stay tuned at the end of the video for some backstage scenes from last night's induction,......

I love Watt's photo of sunrise over this mast. The lines look like spiderwebs. It started me thinking about masts and general sailing terminology. People make jokes about the mizzen mast on Talk Like a Pirate Day. It is the most poetic-sounding mast. These are the actual names for the masts:Fore-mast - the first mast, or the mast fore of the main-mast. Main-mast - the tallest mast, usually located near the centre of the......

A wonderful bird is a pelican, His bill will hold more than his belican. He can take in his beak Food enough for a week; But I'm damned if I see how the helican. "The Pelican" (1910) by Dixon Lanire Merrith, often misattributed to Ogden Nash Modern pelicans are found on all continents except Antarctica. From the fossil record,[6] it is known that pelicans have been around for over 40 million years, the earliest......

Now that the rain has gone away, Spaceland on Ice can continue this week with The Chapin Sisters and their folk/pop. Meanwhile, at Spaceland itself, The Airborne Toxic Event continues their residency tonight with The Morning Benders, The Weather Underground. ALSO TONIGHT Mike Watt and the Missing Men, Monster Cock Rally @ The Prospector Birds & Batteries, The Karabal Nightlife, The Lonelyhearts @ The Fold/Silverlake Lounge Ollin, Omar Torres, La Verdad @ Temple Bar Six......

Here is a self-portrait of Watt braving the frigid January waters off of San Pedro in the 37th annual Cabrillo Beach Polar Bears Plunge on New Year's day. As far back as anyone can remember, an informal New Year's day swim has been led by lifeguards or the Dept of Parks and Recreation at noon off of Cabrillo Beach. In 1953, John Olguin and Jack Cheaney started the Cabrillo Beach Polar Bears. John's wife, Muriel......

Mars Volta - L'Via L'Viaquez Mars Volta @ The Echoplex The Young Dubliners, Elevaters, Eject, Sugarwall @ The Roxy The Aggrolites, Los Hooligans @ The Knitting Factory 9 Volt, Timbuk II, RVC, Jonathan Shue, Nuttie, Drea, Darcy, Sabri @ Tangier Dirty Sweet, Year Long Disaster, Get Back Loretta, Sea of Air @ Spaceland Mike Watt & the Missingmen @ La Conga Mexican Cantina Hello Astronaut, Goodbye Television, Black Black, Devon Williams, Maria, Her Girl......

LAist has polled a number of our favorite LA locals to find out their New Year's Resolutions! In the spirit of fairness, here is mine: I'm cutting up the credit cards! Let's see what everyone else has to say: Pamela Des Barres: To live right smack dab in the NOW! Neil Hamburger: I want to try and put all the years behind me. Keith Morris: 2 try & not B a DICK!!!! Not 2......

At the end of each month LAist attempts to review some of the music and musicians that were covered over that four week period. Below is a mix of just some of the month's musical moments: Listen to the December 2007 LAist Music Medley here: Billy May - "Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo" (Malibu Remix) - cuz it's the season Jim Noir - "My Patch" CD Review by tomdog Pinker Tones - "Sonido Total"......

One of the great things about Pedro are the cliffs, which provide beautiful views of the harbor. At the same time, the harbor is getting some beautiful views of the cliffs ( and the Point Fermin building). Here is a sea-lion's-eye view from Watt's kayak. A Watt's-eye-view.......

Happy 50th to our weekly photo contributor Mike Watt! This is a self-portrait taken this morning, kayaking around Angel's Gate in the rain at dawn. He'll also be marking the occasion tonight by rocking DiPiazza's in Long Beach. Watt will be joining Nels Cline and Steve Perkins in Banyan, Perkins' experimental, mostly instrumental project. Opening bands are Alfajerk and Horrors of Toledo. Banyan goes on at 11pm, so you can still catch them if......

This Saturday Dec. 22nd @ the Key Club there's going to be a Joe Strummer Tribute thing-thang honoring the late rock legend, by not only performing many of the songs he wrote but also putting all the money raised towards Strummerville (the charity set up in his name) The press release states the following:Joining Zander Schloss & The Wilderness Years, Three Bad Jacks, David J (Bauhaus), Hellride (featuring Mike Watt, Steven Perkins & Peter......

As a send off to photographer, Ann Summa's Los Angelesshow, bands/performers from the bad old days of early L.A. punk played in the gallery. Dude, it was both awesome and bitchin. ...

This is a picture of a bait raft in Pedro. I love this one because the seagull looks so blase as the sea lions go at it. I am not a fan of cheesily talking for animals. But he just seems to be thinking, "There go those goddamned sea lions again. If I wanted to listen to that crap I'd get married again." OK, the anthropomorphizing is over. You can open your eyes now.......

This photograph is somehow both beautiful and sad. Broken, abandoned things can be just as meaningful, sometimes even more meaningful, than natural beauty. It is just one more thing for the sea to claim and make its own. Photo by Mike Watt......

Sometimes Watt sends out pictures of found objects that he comes across while pedaling around Pedro. My favorite thing about this photo is Watt's DIY self-painted helmet on the ground. True, he probably took it off to look through the viewfinder of the camera. But it also makes me wonder just a little bit whether he was going to try on the hat.......

Mike Watt & The Missingmen @ Westside Eclectic Johnette Napolitano @ Roxy José González, Cass McCombs @ El Rey Jill Sobule @ Largo Honeycut, The Library @ Knitting Factory Gym Class Heroes, Plain White T's @ Long Beach Arena The Color Fred, Dear & the Headlights @ El Rey The Dirges, Disk Jockey Full of Bourbon @ Safari Sam's Head of Destiny, Killing Jonis, Killing Bees @ The Scene So So Glos, The Black......

This weekend I thought we'd take a break from the sea and the red thing to check out the animal kingdom version of Thanksgiving. Are these not the fattest racoons you have ever seen? It's as if they are a new species. Don't mess with Pedro racoons, man. - Elise The Raccoon (Procyon lotor), also known as the Northern Raccoon, Common Raccoon, Washer Bear or Coon, is a widespread, medium-sized, omnivorous mammal native to......

From Mike Watt for LAist Entrance into the fourth world Two main versions exist as to the hopi's emergence into the present (or fourth) world. the more prevalent is that spider grandmother caused a hollow reed (or bamboo) to grow into the sky, and that it emerged in the fourth world at the sipapu. the people then climbed up the hollow tube into this world. typically, the location of the sipapu is given as......

As I previously mentioned, the red thing is a recurring subject of Watt's photos. Here it is hanging from his handlebars. So I asked Watt what the deal was with the red thing. I asked him if it had some kind of symbolism or if it was a good luck charm. He told me the package said it has no magical properties, it just claimed ...but it make you look good.........

Since Watt is just coming off of a mini-tour, having just played the Vegoose Music Fest and playing a gig with Thurston Moore, it seemed appropriate to post a photo of his boat. Actually, it's a picture of the red thing in the boat, which is a recurring subject, like the red couch, but smaller. In case you didn't know, the boat is Watt's van. Watt has his own language. It's a combo of Pedro......

MIKE WATT AND THURSTON MOORE, HALLOWEEN 2007 IN VISALIA Oh man, these were too good to wait for Saturday. Watt just sent me these, fresh off the road. Thurston Moore asked him to do a 10-minute Bass solo version of Young Man Blues at a pizza place in Visalia last night. (More pics after the jump)......

I don't know when I've seen a picture with such intense colors. The zig-zagging of the breakwater makes such a balancedcomposition, and the tanker in the distance is the only sign that you are not on an island in the south seas. The breakwater is 9,250 feet long and contains nearly three million tons of rock, brought over from Santa Catalina Island. (Pedro Chamber of Commerce) The initial western section of the breakwater, called......

"This historic lighthouse has marked the entrance to the port since 1913. Designed differently than any other California lighthouse, Angel's Gate is situated on a forty-foot concrete square. Built to withstand rough seas, the framework is structural steel, with steel plates to the second floor. The lighthouse is so well-constructed that, after a five-day storm in 1939 sent violent seas smashing into the building, the 73-foot Romanesque tower leaned slightly toward shore, but still......

The majestic California sea lion. I like this photo because the sea lions are so interested in Watt's kayak. They are almost posing. Just imagine the sea lions as drunk sorority girls, and this photo could be on any Myspace page. I was just reading about sea lions on Wikipedia and I came across this curious fact, "Non-breeding populations live as far north as British Columbia." Non-breeding populations? Of course, they could be protecting......

I think a lot of people imagine San Pedro as a gray town at the end of the freeway. Oil tankers, canneries, and smokestacks make up the landscape of Pedro. What I like about Mike Watt's pictures is that they show you the color. When I look at this photograph, I can smell the ropes, damp with saltwater. It makes me think about my dad's Chinese junk he kept docked in San Pedro. It......

My friend Mike Watt is many things. Most of all, he is a man who loves San Pedro. As he walks (hoofs), bikes (pedals) and kayaks (paddles) around this beautiful but under-appreciated part of our city, he takes the occasional photograph. It could be anything that catches his eye - a pelican, a sunrise, or a shoe he finds lying on the ground. Watt has an unerring eye for zeroing in on that one interesting......