Liquid Kitty's annual punk rock BBQs have been such a success, this Sunday they are hosting a special Winter BBQ. What better to chase away the rain than with colorful drinks and hard-core thrash? Some dogs on the grill? Done! And all for the low, low, price of FREE. Liquid Kitty's BBQs are famous for reuniting long-lost 80s classics and this one is no exception. This year is marked by the return of old-school locals,......

Photo of the March 3rd, 2007 total lunar eclipse by Mr. Last Minute via Flickr Look up! Whether it's a plane, a bird or Superman, the sky is clearing up. And that means earlier fears of tonight's 7:01 p.m. total Lunar Eclipse viewing being blocked by clouds in Los Angeles can go wayside (Update: the moment we published this, the Valley started to get hit by cloud cover, but it seems on and off,......

Is the word Hipster even allowed to be used anymore without disdain dripping from the user's tongue? Is it outdated? What about the connotation - good, bad, both? The Anti-Hipster's Guide to LA is a listing of people, bars/clubs, musicians/DJs, artists, installation, etc etc that may be deemed hipster-centric but don't really carry the negative connotation of the word (meaning pretentious, inaccessible, you get my drift). Sitting in Cafe 101 on Super Bowl Sunday, drinking......

These neighborhood projects are a heck of a lot of work. All of the writing, research, fact-checking, map-making, walking around, metro-riding, photographing, uploading, downloading, sun-block wearing, and image re-sizing is not easy. Trying to maximize my lazing potential, I volunteered to document the Jewelry District figuring that the neighborhood's mere six square blocks shouldn't be too much work. I got off the Metro thinking "I've been here a million times, I know where the......

News on Heath Ledger's untimely and tragic death is still developing. Keep checking our sister site Gothamist for updates. OMG, girls, have you heard? Caroline on Crack is holding the best contest evarrrrr over at her site -- head over now for your chance to win a date with one of L.A.'s most eligible bachelors, Andy Sternberg, our very own News Editor! I can say with utmost confidence that he is totally not a......

Ben Lyons and Jane Lynch at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival LAist caught up with Ben Lyons from E! to tell us what Park City is really like during the Sundance Film Festival. From Charlize Theron to Diddy, Ben's time at the festival is jam packed with screenings, interviews, and parties. We asked him to fill us in on his favorite films, his obsession with "Beverly Hills 90210", and going bobsledding with Ivan Radcliff.......

Another year - another turkey. Last year, on Thanksgiving weekend, my fiance and I were in the car with my brother and some dear friends, all dressed up to go do Patina "on the cheap" - apps and drinks only. (Still not cheap.) On our way there, a man screeched up in his car, rolled down the window, and started screaming at us. Screaming. Waving his arms and gesturing. He got out of his......

I'm thankful for my family, even when they're "challenging." I'm thankful for my husband, who for some reason has signed on to sleep beside me, watch lots of tv, do the dishes and read every draft (even though he won't see movies more than once.) I'm thankful to be lucky enough to pursue my passion, so few people have that luxury! I'm thankful for Los Angeles, where the sky is big and the horizon......

I got the most passionate finger today. From such an angry looking lady. This wasn’t some timid flip. We’re talkin’ full-on digit thrust. She put her whole wrist into it. She was scowling with such gusto, I thought she might bite through the bottom of her scrunched-up sourpuss lips. You can almost spot the finger-givers from a block away. They look unhappy. They wear dark sunglasses at 7am, even though the sun isn’t quite......

Sneaking into my seat in the Skirball Center’s small auditorium, I look around to notice that I may be the youngest person in the audience by about thirty years, with the exception of a painfully bored looking teen two rows back. “The truth,” the emcee is saying in a rich British accent as he introduces the show, “can be inconvenient.” Applause breaks through from the crowd at his tie-in to pop culture. He’s introducing The......

Ellen DeGeneres's dog drama continues with lawyers, death threats, and more tears - US Weekly Lindsay Lohan may have given up the sauce, but not the drama. She's a homewrecker now - Egotastic! Britney Spears talks smack about the judge in her custody case while shopping with puppy London - Popsugar Speaking of Britney, former pop star Lance Bass opens up about how he came out with his homosexuality to her before he told his......

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......

Leave it to JK Rowling to figure out a new way to invoke excitement. When the best-selling author came to LA yesterday to hold a press conference before a book signing for Los Angeles Unified School District school children she was greeted with flash bulbs and applause. However as she walked to the stage and then sat down she exposed a healthy dose of cleavage and bra-action for all the little wizards in the......

There’s certainly no shortage of seasonally creepy movies to choose from, from the cartoonish to the sickeningly realistic, whatever floats your boat. But if you prefer all your eggs in one basket - cartoonishly evil violence in documentary form – prepare to stay glued to the computer screen for half an hour. We all knew kids who were just a little bit TOO INTO heavy metal. Kids who wore Motley Crue make-up to class,......

We've (finally) had enough of Thai Food: this month, we are checking out all sorts of late-night dining options, from the Valley to Hollywood to Culver City to Venice: Mao's Kitchen, Nak Won House, El Gran Burrito, Little Toni's, Gaby's Mediterranean, Nova Express Cafe, Greco's New York Pizzeria, Cinco de Mayo. Psst! Hey, hey, Mr. Gold? Ix-nay on the owards-hay. Nobody's supposed to know about it. You hearing me? Capisce? Otherwise, feel free to......

Lindsay Lohan fires mom, Dina Lohan, as her manager - OK Magazine Bobby Brown has been hospitalized for a heart attack, doctors day it was due to "stress and diet" but is in good condition - TMZ Actress Michelle Rodriguez was sentenced to six months of jail beginning Christmas Eve at the latest, for violation the terms of her DUI conviction - People Jennifer Lopez finally admits what we've all known for awhile, she's preggers......

Glass shards and hacked up pieces of plastic are all that remain of Redondo Beach's Pier's light poles which had to be cut down after one of the poles fell from todays strong winds. The poles are made of plastic, and have been aging in the sun for years. Once one pole fell, the city decided the rest had to come down NOW, before someone gets hurt, and more importantly before this potentially injured......

They're old, they're gray, they steal carbon from the air, they block the sun, they buckle the sidewalks... and they're so ridiculously green it's almost like they're showing off. They are the 50+ ficus trees who have the nerve to stand in the way of progress near the 3rd Street Promenade. And they've got to go. In order to expand the popular shopping district (once known as the Santa Monica Mall), city officials have......

Britney Spears has been having a bad week. I thought it was bad a couple weeks ago when she had a hit and run, bombed at the VMA's and had her lawyer drop her. That was actually sunshine and roses compared to this week... It all started this week when it was alerted to the authorities that Brit was driving without a California license, and had in fact never had one. Us Weekly is......

Due to apathy, a meager attempt to save money, and the rain (seriously! it rained!! I just wanted to say that again), I spent most of this past weekend doing fuck all at home. However, somewhere around 3 o'clock on Sunday, I got dragged out to get a few drinks at Crane's Tavern, a small bar I've only recently discovered, lurking around the corner from The Henry Fonda Theater. It's very cozy inside, like......

As if the past couple of weeks haven't been bad enough for Britney, her former bodyguard has officially testified about her drug use, more specifically a bender she went on with singer songwriter and fellow rehaber Howie Day - News of the World Nicole Richie's pregnant body has her at a normal weight finally - Daily News Dennis Rodman has been accused of sexual battery for smacking a bar patron's ass and leaving a mark......

Monday Mark Danielewski presents Only Revolutions 7pm @ Vroman's Ellen Sandler presents The TV Writer's Workbook 7pm @ Borders, Sherman Oaks Nell Freudenberger & Jennifer Gilmore discuss their work with Bernadette Murphy 7pm @ Central Library Sy Safransky discusses his work and The Sun 7:30pm @ Beverly Hills Public Library Tuesday James Ellroy discusses his work 7pm @ Central Library Diana Gabaldon presents Lord John & the Brotherhood of the Blade 7pm @ Vroman's......

Every time I meet someone who just moved here, I am able to spew out facts that surprise them. For one, except for this past year, it rains here in the winter. Sometimes weeks at a time. Two, we have a subway and if they happened to find their first apartment near it, well lucky them for avoiding some gridlock. Finally, the 1994 Northridge earthquake was nothing compared to what's coming, so welcome to......

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......

I lived in New York my whole damned life up until l made the move to Los Angeles in 2006, and even though I've been here at least a year already, I still get harassing phone calls from my friends that entail the sentence "yo, what you got over there in la-la land that we ain't got here in the greatest city in the world?" I've gone through the natural beauty, beaches and mountains,......

Several years ago, I used to be a Westsider and part of my weekly routine was to hit up the beach, whether playing ball on the blacktop at Venice, laying out and reading a book at Ocean Park, or people watching at Santa Monica. It was super-relaxing to be out in the sun, soaking up the ocean breeze, and enjoying the local culture. Part of the culture was stopping off at some of the......

I’m writing this from bed, plan on returning to sleep when I’m done and will be too busy cleaning up the residue from my birthday celebration last night to post on dear ole LAist anytime soon, but...in my bleary, horizontal state, I felt moved to write while still basking in the glow of the Old Crow Medicine Show’s concert last night. It’s a miracle I made it at all, having hours before returned from......

It's summer in Los Angeles and everyone knows that means heat, rising temps, dryness, wind and dust, which of course results in dirty cars. It happens. You know what else happens? As the heat rises, my patience lowers, especially when I come out of my house to do an errand and see that some jerkface went out of their way to write "Wash Me" on the back of my car- yes, my dirty car. With......

John Travolta, in a wig and fat-suit, tops the list as the most likely thing to draw people to the popcorn stadium this weekend. A decent sci-fi flick about restarting the sun and a sure-to-be-awful movie with all the gay-marriage jokes you can stomach are also on tap. Behold the blandness of the 3rd week of July. Hairspray - I'll take "Movie I won't be seeing" for $400, Alex. Really, this is a remake......

Generously coated with crunchy quirks and utterly bursting from its chewy 60s center, Philadelphia’s lo-fi recording traditionalists, Dr. Dog headlined a packed show at the Echo last week in support of their latest record, We All Belong (Park The Van). The attending cross-section of fandom was something like suburban Silverlake meets overgrown, asymmetrical haircuts meets the Laurel Canyon revivalists. And this makes sense if you believe that Dr. Dog is what happens when The Beach......