From the LAFD Photo Album Collection There's a new neighborhood fire station opening up at 3690 Motor Avenue in Palms this Saturday. The dedication ceremony and official grand opening will take place at 10:00 a.m. followed by food, entertainment and tours until 2:00 p.m. Station 43 was built to be energy efficient and features a "'drive through' feature that prevents the need to block traffic on busy Motor Avenue when rehousing Fire Department vehicles,"......

Part of an ongoing series. Last month, local band Lavender Diamond (MySpace) performed at The Wiltern (MySpace), opening with the Seattle-based Smoosh (MySpace) for The Dresden Dolls (MySpace). Tonight, Lavender Diamond and Benji Hughes (MySpace) perform at The Greek Theatre, opening for Rilo Kiley (MySpace). And next Wednesday, Lavender Diamond lead singer Becky Stark performs a solo show at The Echo (MySpace), with Palms (MySpace), who were formerly known as The Finches (MySpace), and......

Palms is lousy with apartments, though I've never thought of them as particularly crappy. Both the buildings have recently had a bunch of work done, new paint, new fencing, and as a finishing touch, new signage. See the other building after the jump.......

You still have time to take part in the Lunar New Year festivities in Chinatown today! CELEBRATE THE YEAR OF THE RAT The annual Lunar New Year Festival continues today in Chinatown. Catch pan- Asian entertainers including Chinese acrobats, as well as Thai dancers and Taiko drummers. Food, games, children’s activities, and more will also be on tap during the free festival. Until 5 p.m. // Chinatown // Free FUNDRAISER BASH! OPEN BAR! The......

If it's a day with the folks tomorrow, you might want to head out to Heritage Square Museum as anyone over 65 gets in free ($10 if your a youngin'). And if they know something about Los Angeles in the 1940s or before, they may participate in an oral history project too. "Old-Timers" Day aims to bring together true Los Angeles veterans from 12 to 4:00 p.m. at the museum located in Highland Park (if......

Have you had enough of $5 coffee? $99 burgers? $125 martinis? I know I am -- doesn't anybody in this city want to find the cheapest drinks, meals, and booze? Los Angeles Magazine comes through this month with a feature on great deals and bargain finds on everything from martinis to furniture to underpants. We went straight for the food section, of course -- and here are our top food bargain picks from the......

Think your Super Bowl Sunday went sour? Try being a resident of Coachella Valley at kickoff time. According to The Desert Sun, Time Warner Cable is reporting a sustained outage in the cities of Twentynine Palms , Yucca Valley, and Barstow. Officials have not said what caused the outages, but according to a recorded message at Time Warner offices, engineers are "aware of the problem" and there is "no estimated time of repair." Super......

New Year's Day, most in LA seemed to be up in Pasadena watching either the Rose Parade or the Rose Bowl, or getting over their New Year's Eve hangover at home watching TV. Why do I think that? Because the roads were EMPTY! It seemed that no one was on the roads. My goal was to head out with a friend, with cameras in hand and hit the roads and drive around LA on......

Officer, police thyself: Sherrifs are looking among their own ranks for DUI-free behavior this NYE. And they're looking at you, too, pal. Drive safe, designate a driver, take the Metro, or call for a Tipsy Tow. The darkest hour is just before dawn--but not on our freeways. 4.2 million Commuters in the Southland get a start on their daily drives before 6 o'clock each morning, proving there are increasingly fewer "good times" to get on......

I'm a total cooking-show whore, I'll admit it right up front (although Sandra Lee's "open a can of crap and put a marshmallow on it!" school of cooking has never sat right with me). I have a long long queue of Jamie Oliver and Mario Batali cooking shows on my DVR, since they play them at odd hours, either when I'm asleep or at work. I know that Anthony Bourdain would gladly put a......

Farm Boy Palms (probably also known as Farm Boy Culver City) is finally open. With a pretty substantial workload, I haven't had time to go there a lot, but I did manage to take some pictures. They have loads of fruits and vegetables, all described on their handwritten cards as "sweet and fresh." The sushi looks about on par with Ralphs, and they have fruit flavored yogurts with all the Pinkberry trimmings.......

Strobe lights. Fog. Serial killers. Screams. God damn, I love Halloween. Not only do I love dressing up in costume, eating lots of candy and carving out Jack-O-Lanterns, I love all the frightening fun Halloween entails. And for me the pinnacle of spooky good times always involves a haunted house. But there’s a problem. I’ve been to Knott’s Scary Farm and Halloween Horror Nights so many times that they have lost the element of......

Last week when we were at the MTV VMAs we got to spend a quick minute with Common backstage at the Palms. We not only got to ask him about what he thinks is the reasoning behind his single "The People" making it to the top of the charts, despite it being nothing like 50 Cent, but we also got to ask him about Britney Spears' opening performance. What's interesting is we also got......

We can see it now, a new bestseller hitting the shelves just before Christmas: "If I Did It: Confessions of a Sports Memorabilia Armed Robber." Ohhhh, OJ Simpson, you and a cadre of other celebrities just like to entertain the masses in a different way. A special way. The "criminal" way!Las Vegas police arrested former football star O.J. Simpson on Sunday in connection with a hotel room break-in, CNN said. A source with the......

Of all the restaurants in Thai Town, Thai Patio had to fill the biggest shoes. After Palms Thai took their Elvis and moved west down Hollywood Blvd. last year, Thai Patio redecorated and moved in. You can still hear music every night as you eat, and there's still an ever-changing policy with the parking, currently you have to pay a few bucks. The food is good, the menu is large, and the mood is......

Sunday MTV had some pretty memorable Video Awards out in Las Vegas. Britney Spears allegedly made a fool of herself, Kid Rock allegedly clocked Tommy Lee in the face, and Kanye West got pissed that he was shut out of winning any awards and swore never to work with the music network again. Before all of that took place, many of the musicians and stars walked past the gauntlet of press on the red......

LAS VEGAS, NV - Right before the end of the final musical act of last night's MTV Video Awards, Puff Daddy got on the mic, looked into the camera, and invited everyone to a party at the 32nd floor of the Palms hotel here in Las Vegas. Well, I just happened to be in the Palms hotel, and I had a pair of pretty nice laminates, so I was able to make it to......

Did you know today is the 226th birthday of El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles -- aka L.A.? The old bitch is looking pretty good for her age! Although the city did not incorporate until 1850, September 4th, 1781 is the date that 44 Mexican pobladores set out from San Gabriel with a military escort to settle alongside a great river -- then called the Rio de Porciuncula, later to......

For almost a year now, the southern corners of National Boulevard and Overland Boulevard have not had anything on them. Now, in the last week, they're bustling with activity. On the eastern corner, where there was once an Arco, a plywood fence has gone up (now it's festooned with posters) and on the western corner, where the stripped Blockbuster still advertises the video release of The Omen remake last October (saw it, not great)......

If Hollywood's Thai Town has a center, it is the bustling block of Thailand Plaza. The two-story Plaza houses not only a restaurant, but is home to a Thai bookstore and a giant, well-stocked grocery. Thailand Plaza is easily identifiable by its elaborately decorated shrine to the Thai Buddha of four faces. Off to the side stands a spirit house, meant to entice spirits to take up residence. The idea is they will be so......

Kennedy - "Your Mama" One of the weirdest singles we've heard in a while. We're not sure if it's good that he's lovin our momma, but whatevs. He sorta looks like John the Stutter so it's cool. Clipse, Lucky.I.Am @ The Roxy Subhumans, Witch Hunt, Peligro Social @ The Knitting Factory Kennedy, Eastern Conference Champions, Voxhaul Broadcast @ Silverlake Lounge Palms to Pines, Dora Flood, Moving To France, Garden of Earthly Delights @ Safari......

Maybe we should take things like this more seriously, but last week "vandals" broke into a vacation home in Palm Springs and caused some eyebrows to rise when they turned over furniture (very nicely), arranged foliage and sticks to create pentagrams and clog toilets, and wrote words like "Pigz" and "Helter Skelter" on a window and on the fireplace... with soap! It was right around the 38th anniversary of the Manson Family murders of......

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LAist Editor Tony Pierce has blogged here non-stop for more than a year deserving a well-earned vacation (and did he ever earn it). While out of town, we decided to have a little fun and bring some guest day editors in from around the blogLAsphere. Monday we had Green LA Girl and Tuesday saw Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA.Zuma Dogg took Wednesday and LA City Nerd yesterday. Today, former LAist Editor Carolyn Kellogg makes a comeback!......

LAist Editor Tony Pierce has blogged here non-stop for more than a year deserving a well-earned vacation (and did he ever earn it). While out of town, we decided to have a little fun and bring some guest day editors in from around the blogLAsphere. Monday we had Green LA Girl and Tuesday saw Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA. Yesterday was Zuma Dogg and today is the official nerd him/her/itself, the LA City Nerd. 1.......

There's gunna be some more traffic for you 'der late night commuters and all... Why? To remove temporary structures at the Palms Avenue Bridge. Tonight and Wednesday 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Northbound 405 from Venice Boulevard to the 10 Thursday and Friday 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Southbound 405 from the I-10 connector to Venice Boulevard The Big Picture The closures are connected to the $167 million carpool lane project on 405 from the......

- Jonathan Gold pays tribute to the late, great Al Langer in this week's LA Weekly. - Losanjealous interviews Palms Thai's Thai Elvis: um, does he put fish sauce on his peanut-butter and banana sandwiches? -EaterLA is totally representing our Tom Colicchio obsession; here they're peepin' on the continued progress of Craft over in Century City. - Go see Rescue Dawn: and sneak in a bottle of Baron Herzog wine in honor of the......

5. The Melbourne, Australia-based sextet will perform a high-energy, boogie-inducing set featuring songs from their third LP, "Places Like This" (due August); so if you've seen them before, it's time to go back for more. AIH incorporates what's best described as Australian bush yelping reminiscent of early Midnight Oil while managing to sound at times like the B-52s, Gang of Four, Devo, and Talking Heads. Oh, and vocalist / multi-instrumentalist Kellie Sutherland has a most......

A Word or 39: It feels like Wednesdays are going to be the night with new programming this time of year. It feels like it, but it doesn't look like it since not much of this stuff is watchable. Hidden Palms?? For effsake. Tonight - Wednesday - June 13th, 2007 Mets @ Dodgers (PRIME, 7:00 p.m.) Hidden Palms (the CW, 8:00 p.m.) Country club party time The Next Best Thing: Who Is the Greatest......

A Word or 77 (or so): ABC has a lineup of new episodes and shows tonight - bucking the other networks, with the exception of Fox and the CW, who were always trend-buckers [hey, I said "buckers" ok, you dirty-minded individuals]. You might have also seen on the AP that the kids are trying to keep Jericho on the air - if CBS doesn't want to run it, they should sell it. I always......