Results tagged “staplescenter”

Jay-Z's show at UCLA this Sunday has long been sold out. Damn college kids and their disposable incomes! Don't worry, LA-based Hova fans. Sean Carter just announced he's coming back. This time he's bringing his show to the Staples Center, March 26th. The rap icon who's currently on the road with Wale and N.E.R.D. finishing up the final dates of his college tour, will pack up his Yankee hat and hit the road again for "The Blueprint 3 North American Tour." The BP3 tour starts on February 22nd in Houston and takes Jay's "Empire State of Mind" to arenas across the country to places like New Orleans, Boston and San Jose before wrapping it up right here in LA. Young Jeezy will serve as the opening act. Tickets go on sale November 13th, with various pre-sales beginning November 10th.

The office supply store, which first purchased the naming rights to the Staples Center in 1997, has scored a deal with AEG to keep their name on LA's busiest arena in perpetuity. The original agreement was $100 million for a mere 20 years. Exact terms of the new arrangement have not been disclosed. It's the first time a major-market arena has inked a lifetime deal.

Starting late last year, the Downtown "destination" LA Live began to host all sorts of events, including a Grand Opening celebration, a Christmas tree lighting ceremony starring Britney Spears and the Mayor, a big screen broadcast of Obama's inaguration, and the openings of specific "on campus" spots like the Conga Room and the ESPN Zone. Touting itself firmly as LA's answer to Times Square (a promo video shown to some invited bloggers last year at the Ritz Carlton sales office declared as such), the LA Live-ers asserted that the development joining Staples Center, the Nokia Theatres, Club Nokia, and the Convention Center would be both a destination and a pit stop for locals and tourists alike.

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich announced this afternoon in a session of City Council that his investigation into tax payer money being used for the Michael Jackson Memorial has revealed "civil and criminal aspects." He would not speak publicly about details, including a lawsuit's target, but offered to go into closed session about the civil aspects. City Council agreed and went to the back chambers to discuss at 12:30 p.m. As this publishing, they are still in closed session.

Staples Center is used to hosting a media circus, but sometimes they get the real thing. A few weeks after the Lakers parade came an elephant parade, which happened to be a few hours before Michael Jackson's memorial service. The pachyderms have been there ever since and will be entertaining Southland crowds until August 2 as part of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.

Say what you will about the entertainer, the headline-maker, the musician, the defendant, the humanitarian, and the man who was Michael Jackson, but as she briefly took the microphone on stage, surrounded by her siblings, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, 11-year-old Paris Jackson's few tearful words said the world about Michael Jackson--her dad. "I just wanted to say...Ever since I was born...Daddy has been the best father I could ever imagine...and I just wanted to say that I love him...so much."

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa may be out of town until the end of the week, but his office is still working to keep the finances of the City under control. One unexpected expense this week: The estimated $4 Million cost of hosting the public memorial service for the late King of Pop Michael Jackson. Although City Councilmember Jan Perry, acting in her capacity as Mayor pro tem, went public with a plea for donations, much like the manner in which the costly Lakers Championship parade and rally was funded, no major donors, including the Jackson family or Staples Center owner AEG have come forward with funds.

       

In plans that were revealed only this morning, Michael Jackson's casket journeyed from the private family service held around 8:30 a.m. at Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills to inside the Staples Center where it was put on display during the public memorial.

       

Up to a million people were expected to be hanging around the perimeter of Michael Jackson's memorial service this morning at the Staples Center. But walking downtown streets a few blocks away, the scene was relatively normal, save for the heavy police presence, the constant drone of helicopters and a handful of vendors selling Michael Jackson buttons and t-shirts.

       

He may have been the King of Pop, and his public memorial service at Staples Center an unprecedented spectacle featuring live tributes from Motown stars, pro athletes, and celebs, but a set of parading pachyderms aren't on the guest list.

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton revealed this morning during a live radio interview that despite days of plans indicating otherwise, the coffin containing the body of the late King of Pop Michael Jackson will be taken from the earlier private funeral at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills to the Staples Center, where it will be on stage during the memorial event.*

Today might be a little chaotic, but remember this: what usually would take months in planning was done in only a few days. Yesterday, various agencies alerted the media and public of closures to streets, freeway on and off-ramps and public transit service changes. Here's what you need to know...

       

A lot of people wouldn't be caught dead in downtown LA around midnight. But to catch a glimpse of the dead? That's a whole different story. One of several dozen fans standing on the corner of Olympic and Figueroa checked her iPhone and squealed when TMZ reported that Michael Jackson's body may be brought to the Staples Center for today's memorial service, even though she didn't have tickets.

Tomorrow morning's public memorial service for Michael Jackson has not only been an epic ticketing drama and financial burden, but will also impact how vehicle and public transit traffic moves--or, rather, doesn't move--through the streets of Downtown Los Angeles tomorrow.

Details about the Michael Jackson memorial event tomorrow have been kept under wraps, but the Jackson family has just come forward with a list of people who they expect to be participating in the highly anticipated service, according to KTLA. As of now, "the list includes family friend Ron Boyd; Kobe Bryant; Mariah Carey; Andrae Crouch Choir; Berry Gordy; Jennifer Hudson; ``Britain's Got Talent'' finalist Shaheen Jafargholi; Magic Johnson; Martin Luther King III; Bernice A. King; John Mayer; Lionel Richie; Smokey Robinson; the Rev. Al Sharpton; Brooke Shields; Pastor Lucious Smith; Usher; and Stevie Wonder." Prior to this public memorial, which will be broadcast live on all three major US TV networks, the King of Pop will be laid to rest in a private service at Forest Lawn in Hollywood Hills. Jackson's ex, Debbie Rowe, mother to his two eldest children, will not be in attendance at the Staples Center.

1.6 million people signed up to be eligible to win tickets to attend Tuesday's highly anticipated public memorial service for late music icon Michael Jackson, according to MyFoxLA. The Staples Center's website caved under the pressure of the hits several times since the lottery was announced and until the cut off time last night at 6 p.m. local time. Initially the registry was open only to US residents, but soon expanded to allow anyone around the world to sign up for the chance to win a pair of tickets to the event, about which few details are known, save that there will be no funeral procession, and that it will cost the City of Los Angeles a pretty penny to host.

So the City of Los Angeles is going to put their hands deep into the Piggy Bank to pull out the cash needed to foot the bill for Tuesday's public memorial service for Michael Jackson at Staples Center. That means shutting down the streets around LA Live's Downtown "campus" and lots of bucks to pay LAPD officers to serve as security to police the anticipated throngs of crowds. And don't bother showing up if you aren't on the list: "Officials said that there would be no funeral procession and that no one would be allowed inside a large area around Staples unless they had a ticket and a wristband, a media credential or could prove they live or work there," notes the LA Times.

AEG officials announced today that 17,500 tickets will be available for Tuesday morning's memorial service for popstar Michael Jackson at the Staples Center. A website has been set up for people (U.S. Residents only) to enter for a chance be selected for a pair of tickets, meaning a total of 8,750 names will be drawn. You have until 6 p.m. PST, July 4th to enter, so don't delay! Names drawn will be notified on Sunday by 8 p.m. PST (Update: It seems the server has crashed as the whole world tries to enter their info for a ticket)

After days of speculation, it was finally confirmed yesterday evening: Michael Jackson's public memorial will be held Tuesday morning at the Staples Center. 11,000 tickets will be distributed for free via a process yet to be announced. It's safe to say, ticket or not, hundreds of thousands of people will show show up. It's going to be quite a day in downtown Los Angeles.

              

Even before the parade got underway news agencies in Los Angeles reported that the Coliseum was at max capacity, and traffic from most parts of the city headed towards Downtown was backed up before and all through the a.m. commute. People bedecked in purple and gold lined the streets, shouting and waving as any reporter and camera crew passed by. After the players boarded the bus and greeted the adoring fans at the Staples Center, the parade made its way just over 2 miles southbound on Figueroa, where those assembled were first greeted to performances from the Lakers Girls and had lots of opportunities to shout their devotion to our winning team.

It's 6 a.m. and beginning right now, you can park at the Coliseum for the noon rally that will last until 1 p.m. The later it gets, the more street and freeway onramp closures you'll face. Gates open at 9:30 a.m. and space is limited to 95,000 (it could definitely fill up). When the parade begins, Coliseum attendees will be able to watch it on big screen TVs.

Talk of a victory parade for the NBA's Lakers began before the team had even cinched the victory itself, which, if you're in LA and live under a rock, happened last night in Orlando in game 5 of the championship.

       

Around 700 people gathered outside the Staples Center tonight to celebrate the Lakers' win in Orlando. Mostly peaceful, but it only took a small group of fools to ruin it for everyone. Small fires, fireworks, thrown rocks, bottles and flares, street signs torn down, attempts at turning over police cars cued the LAPD to try to end festivities sooner than anyone had hoped. As Larry Welk said on KCAL9, "they're sort of leaving a path of destruction."

Ah, Dane Cook. Regarded by some as the aggressive and rugged face of fun, energetic comedy. Sort of the anti-Mitch Hedberg. For others, Dane is a posterboy for an altogether different type of comic: the plagiarizer, the man without a punchline. Personally, I have long held that Dane Cook is a performer and not a stand up comedian, in the way that Bob Villa was a TV show host and not a licensed contractor. For the better part of a decade, you couldn’t be handed a transcript of a Dane Cook set, read it, and think it was funny. There just weren’t any JOKES in the conventional sense, just a lot of stage direction and exclamation points where the punchlines should be.

ESPN Radio's "All Night" host, Jason Smith (LAist Interview) recently received a special tour of the Staples Center. His guide was by AEG's V.P. of Communications, Michael Roth (AEG owns Staples.) In a wonderfully colorful and humorous piece on ESPN Radio's site, Smith wrote of the unique way the pair emerged into the Lakers' home . "We started out by entering the Nokia Theater, where concerts and events like the ESPYS are held on a routine basis. We walked through an underground tunnel that connects Nokia to Staples, a 30-second walk," Smith said. "Roth told me Seal came to Game 2 of the Rockets-Lakers series, watched the first half from his seats, then at halftime walked through the tunnel to perform his concert at the Nokia." No word on whether Seal was joined by Luke Walton.

The franchise destroyer that is Isiah Thomas has been in talks with the Clippers about joining the team's front office. ESPN.com reports that Thomas, whose resume includes running the CBA into bankruptcy and taking the New York Knicks from a perennial playoff team to perennial punchline, talked to "Clippers owner Donald Sterling in a meeting arranged by current coach/general manager Mike Dunleavy," back in February.

Late night radio isn't typically where you'll find an energetic sportstalker -- much less one who would easily reference Brett Favre's retirement to the ‘80s movie “Can’t Buy Me Love.” ESPN radio host Jason Smith does that five nights a week (Sunday through Thursday.) Heard locally on 710AM, from 10:00 at night to 2:00, All Night with Jason Smith is high quality radio at an hour where most station's broadcast as though their audience is half-dead.

The 51st Annual Grammy Awards will take place in a couple of weeks here in LA at the Staples Center, and the Recording Academy has announced another batch of artists slated to perform live as part of the show, the Daily News reports. In addition to previously named performers Kenny Chesney, Coldplay, Jennifer Hudson, Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne, Katy Perry, and Carrie Underwood, comes word some of music's heavy-hitters will take the stage: Rock icon Paul McCartney (who will be at this year's Coachella fest), Radiohead (their first US tv performance in almost a decade), T.I. and Justin Timberlake together, and Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, T.I. and Kanye West performing "Swagga Like Us." Of course, to see all these performances live you'll have to be part of the select few with a ticket to the Feb. 8 show; as is the norm with awards show telecasts, we'll have to wait for CBS to air it 3 hours later at 8 p.m.

Continuing the saga of fighting the thousands of illegal billboards in Los Angeles (to catch up on the controversy, watch this video), City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo today filed criminal charges against three property owners along the 110 Freeway near the LA Live/Staples Center area today for erecting illegal billboard support structures (see the map here). A construction company also was charged.

Before he was old enough to rent a car, trumpeter Christian Scott had garnered a Grammy nomination, played alongside Prince, appeared on the big screen with George Clooney and earned countless accolades from fellow musicians, industry heavyweights and members of the media alike. The 25 year-old New Orleans native who has been called "the new voice in jazz trumpet" and "a young talent on the rise" recently released his third album Live at Newport. Recorded at the renowned Newport Jazz Festival, Scott masterfully performs new material along with songs from his sophomore album Anthem and Grammy nominated debut Rewind That. Scott, who is in town for a series of shows at the Catalina Jazz Club tonight through Saturday, took some time to speak with LAist.