We've never watched Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel, but since they're coming to Los Angeles we'll definitely be checking out this episode next Tuesday at 10:00 p.m.......

The first ad for opponents of Prop 8 was calm and cool--it had this sense of peace about it. But after proponents of eliminating gay marriage launched their first and second ads touting alleged facts, opponents got together and made a second and more direct ad that was launched today. Buzz phrases used are "scare tactics," "that's a lie," and the best, a good one for Republicans--"keep government out of all our lives."......

The murder of 17-year-old high schooler and football player Jamiel Shaw made headlines and had reverberations not only in his community, but city-wide. Now rapper Ice Cube has voiced his heartbreak over the death of a young man with a promising future--a death caused by senseless violence. His video for "Why Me?" uses the Shaw case a reference point for this kind of tragedy. The Daily News explains that "Cube says the Shaws are......

SMCM RIDES THE FREEWAY from Flunky Carter on Vimeo. The Santa Monica Critical Mass is at again, this time with a little more balls (and stupidity as many will add in). Earlier this year, a different group (with many of the same members) did various freeway rides garnering themselves a lot attention. Check out these photos that include rollerbladers on the freeway during rush hour.......

From before 6:00 a.m. to about 9:00 p.m. (with a four and a half hour nap in between), Metrolink Engineers have a very long day, CBS2/KCAL9 found in an investigative report. And that's not even adding in their commute times.......

Reverend Donald Ashman, who "leads a small congregation at the Anglican Church of Our Saviour on the Westside of Los Angeles, where he has been for a quarter of a century [and] teaches Latin and world history at Hoover High School in Glendale," was on board Metrolink Train 111 on Friday, September 12th at 4:23 p.m. when it crashed head-on into a Union Pacific Freight Train. Despite his own back injuries sustained in the......

h/t LA Now for the video KTLA did a special report on city employees parking for hours on end at metered spaces for free near the Van Nuys Civic Center with city issued permits. Problem is, there's a parking garage built for the center and the parking permit reportedly only works if you're block over a block away, not across the street.......

Cultural critic and South LA blogger Jasmyne Cannick was at a gas station at Crenshaw and Adams in West Adams yesterday morning when a car chase came to an end. Being a blogger and all, she got it on videotape. That was, of course, after the first moments after it scared the bejesus out of her... "Apparently, they had been chasing a suspect that had refused to pull over and I guess after there......

The text of this video may be slightly over the top, but it brings up some great questions. Why were 37 cyclists detained last Saturday night after a manager at the CVS on Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks allegedly called about a cyclist looking fellow shoplifting, but with little description other than that. When police arrived, they detained and searched people of all ages, race, height and gender. What would have happened if the......

In case you missed all four-plus hours of it last Friday.........

Just in case you need a good laugh today... (thanks Rory!)......

Mahalo took a day and tagged along with Pacific Graffiti Solutions, one of the city's many graffiti cleanup contractors. Pacific untags a large area, from Mulholland Dr. to the 105 Freeway and from the Ocean to La Brea. The best ways to report graffiti are via calling 3-1-1 24 hours a day or on the city's online graffiti reporting page. And as usual, approaching a tagger could result with deadly consequences. The best is......

Whew! This one's not in LA, but with all the bicycle drama happening around town, it's worth noting that it is a national issue. This weekend in New York City, a cyclist was knocked to the ground by a NYPD officer. "The cyclist in this video was arrested, held for 26 hours, and charged with attempted assault and resisting arrest," according to LAist sister site, Gothamist.......

Cable network Current TV has recently launched this pod that features the LA Times' Homicide Report, which happens to be the only blog of its kind in the country. Although the Times is struggling these days, the Homicide Report is one of the best things about our city's biggest newspaper. The documentary focuses on reporter Ruben Vives, who believes the victims are people who deserve to have their stories told.......

Gizmodo caught wind of this gem of local TV news reporting from one of the Friday's iPhone long line reporting stories, an ubiquitous scene played across the nation, channel after channel. KTLA Reporter Eric Spillman became Mr. Sassypants and poked fun at the people waiting in line. Instead of being funny, it just turned into one of those "awkward turtle" moments. These type of waiting-in-line-events are usually good fodder for funny videos and reporting,......

Dan Guitierrez and Brian DeSousa of Dual Chase Productions spent the weekend riding Mandeville Canyon and videotaping their experiences, creating a video that demonstrates the relationship between good cycling behavior and good motoring behavior. Dan and Brian are boardmembers of the California Association of Bicycling Organizations (CABO) and are also League of American Bicyclist (LAB) Certified Instructors (LCI) and have a strong track record of performance as educators using their unique approach to video......

Mahalo Daily has been locally focused the past couple of days. Yesterday, they spoke to people at the Santa Monica promenade about the effect of gas prices on their lives. Today, they tag along with the city's Bureau of Sanitation in South LA for a day of bulky item pickups. Good times.......

Mahalo Daily hit the streets of Santa Monica and interviewed people about gas prices and how it was affecting them. They also asked gas price predictions for January 1st, 2009. Everyone said at least over $5. The current average price of a gallon of regular gas in Los Angeles is $4.576. The highest reached was 4.626 on June 21.......

On Saturday, two paparazzi were reportedly injured when a group of surfers ousted them from Paradise Cove in Malibu. One paparazzo said his camera was tossed in the ocean and on the video you can hear someone make a slight death threat: "you're going to drown." It all started when Matthew McConaughey said he wished they would go away. The other surfers took it upon themselves to do so. The confusing part is that......

Yesterday the infamous and ill-fated ficus trees of Santa Monica went on the chopping block. Despite a heroic battle by advocates and environmentalists, the trees were doomed to be downed. The use of Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" on the video is a bit much, albeit apropos to a certain extent. So long, ficus trees. [h/t: LA Now]......

You're going to be thinking scrumptious cupcakes, but don't even try... you're too cool for that, right? That's Johnny Cupcake for ya. Coming soon to a Melrose Ave. storefront soon. Johnny Cupcakes LA shoppe SNEAK PEEK 1 from Johnny Cupcakes on Vimeo.......

One of the best documentations of last year's May Day was from local blogger Game Jew. From start to end, he captures the excitement of the day and how it turned to complete chaos. The LAPD has done some retraining and today at the May Day marches and rallies, that will put it to test. Or else, as put in the headline of this video feature last year, "this shit isn't going to be......

GueriLA, the LA sister offshoot of Improv Everywhere, has done it again and they're growing. A couple weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon, they hit the Getty Museum and did a simple exercise of follow the leader... with 200+ people. They released only raw footage, but here are the highlights if you want to skim around: 1:40 - 2:20 (An outdoor staircase) 4:10 - 4:50 (On a walkway) 5:55 - 6:20 (Staircase inside the......

Via GOOD Magazine's blog, we find Andy Bower's video report for Slate.com on the "stupidest bike lane in America," which happens to be in the same neighborhood as one of the most respected schools in the nation -- UCLA. The 275 ft. class II bike lane runs on Gayley between Levering and Weyburn Avenues (interactive map below, lane marked in orange, try finding it!) If you've got a stupider bike lane, he welcomes you......

This has nothing to do with LA, other than the fact that certain people on LAist have been Rick Rolling the begeezus out of each other the past few weeks. If you don't know what a Rick Roll is and you've never experienced a two-day long orgasm or won a free iPod, welcome back to the internet. We've missed you the past year. There's even a Rickroll database out there for your protection. Anyway,......

Seen earlier today on Gawker and Dan Savage's blog via YouTube, but taken down (because it's so amazingly homophobic and hateful?), only to remain on MySpace, here is the craziest video of the day, "God Hates a Fag". Here at LAist, even though we (still) believe that the Freaked Out Bride video is real, we will have to assume that this is satire. However, if you notice, very few people are willing to participate......

1. Mayor Lashes Out at KFI's John and Ken [Mayor Sam] 2. VenturaCountyStar.com Video of the Day Fire just north of Los Angeles in Castaic [Ventura County Star]......