Ray Bradbury will receive France's highest Arts & Letters Award, the Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, tonight at 6pm in Beverly Hills for his contributions to literature all over the world....

Washington DC based minimalist postpunk trio, Antelope, is hitting town tonight at The Smell along with Bad Dudes Mi Ami (ex-members of Black Eyes from SF) and Bipolar Bear. Since we love classical minimalism, we thought to ask the band a few questions before tonight's show: 1. First, you've...

[O]ur friends at Found LA have decided to get together and throw us a party at their amazing gallery in Silverlake (Google Map here), with free drinks and a cake to boot. It goes from 8PM - 10PM this Saturday (12/15) and is bound to be a blast......

COMEDY: Good for the Jews brings their rock/comedy show to the Knitting Factory tonight. Check out their MySpace page for their hits like “Jews for Jesus,” “JDate” and “They Tried to Kill Us.” ...

LA Ink star and tattoo artist Kat Von D is out to set a Guinness World Record today for doing the most tattoos in a 24-hour period. She's kicking things off at noon today at her LA shop High Voltage, and word on the street is that a large...

ART: Downtown’s Art Walk happens the second Thursday of each month. The Art walk is a monthly, self-guided tour of the art exhibition venues in Downtown Los Angeles, which includes commercial art galleries, public museums, and nonprofit arts venues. Museum of Contemporary Art on Grand Ave (MOCA), Los Angeles...

We comb through LA's listings so you don't have to. THEATRE: Feel like pondering human existence tonight? Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot -- a classic play about nothing (or maybe everything) plays in Glendale tonight. 8 pm // A Noise Within // 234 S Brand Blvd , Glendale // $28-$40. DANCE: The Debbie Allen Dance Academy presents Alex in Wonderland – a “re-imagining” of Alice’s version with a few other fairy tale characters mixed......

Did you know LACMA has a research library? Well, they do. It is open to the public by appointment, and materials don't circulate. They do what museum libraries do best -- serve the curatorial staff, provide information about items in the museum's collections, and help collectors research the art market. This Thursday and Friday, December 13th and 14th from 12-4 p.m., the LACMA Research Library will be holding its first annual holiday book sale.......

TALK: Pulizer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold moderates a Zócalo discussion that focuses on “The Mexican Restaurant in Los Angeles.” Joining in on the roundtable are Gilberto Cetina of the Yucatecan restaurant Chichen Itza, Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu of La Casita Mexicana, and Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger of Border Grill. 7 pm // Central Library – Mark Taper Auditorium // 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles // Free. (Reservations are recommended.)......

MUSIC: The Los Angeles Master Chorale performs Handel's Messiah tonight at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. But the audience has a part in this fun sing-along. So get your "hallelujah" ready. 7:30 pm // Walt Disney Concert Hall // 111 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles // $16-$69 (Cheaper tickets are getting scarce). OUTDOORS: Santa Monica pretends its Pershing Square with an ice rink of its own. It’s a stone’s throw away from the Third Street......

Monday Maggie Nelson presents The Red Parts: A Memoir 7pm @ Pomona College, Claremont Rich Eisen presents Total Access 7pm @ Book Soup Sue Grafton signs T is for Trespass 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble, 3rd Street Promenade Tuesday Sue Grafton signs T is for Trespass 6pm @ Vroman's...

The Mods and Rockers invite all Beatles fans, Anglophiles and latent mods and rockers to attend A Holiday Rave-up: A Very British Sixties Christmas! tomorrow night. This celebration of sixties music will feature The Ravers, the premier sixties cover band. Special guests performing with The Ravers will be Stephen...

MUSIC: CalTech isn’t just about nerdy rocket scientists. They have glee clubs, too! All kidding aside, tonight's concert will feature traditional holiday favorites as well as the Women's Club taking on Porpora’s Magnificat, written in the 1730s. 8 pm // Dabney Lounge at California Institute of Technology // 1200 East California Blvd., Pasadena // Free. DANCE: From CalTech, we’ll head over to CalArts in Valencia. The Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance is holding its......

MUSIC: Machine Project is back with an evening of experimental folk music mix. The evening features the sounds of Ryan Fuller, Julie Carpenter, Laura Steenberge, Ruthann Friedman, rickyricky, Pilar Diaz, Pawko and Marshweed. 8 pm // Machine Project // 1200 D. N. Alvarado, Downtown // Free. THEATRE: The Anteus...

FARMERS MARKET: Downtown’s latest farmers market takes place in the Fashion District. So hit up some holiday shopping then treat yourself to some of the freshest foods around. 4-7 pm // Fashion District // 716 S. Los Angeles St., Downtown // Free. ART: Diego Cardoso is the Executive Officer of Transportation Development and Implementation for the MTA who headed the East Side Gold Line project. He's also on the city planning commission. But his......

Today, December 5th, is the 4th annual International Day of the Ninja. While we don't recommend taking swords to work, come nightfall, you can let out your inner ninjutsu at the El Rey Theater on Wilshire. Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine of Ask a Ninja will host. The Ninja awaits...

Remember back in the mid 90s or so, when MTV used to play videos? Think hard. Okay, and then there was this period where, right before they cut to a commercial, there was a clip of a Sinatra wannabe singing the song you just saw a video for? Like a snazzy rendition of "Kharma Police" or something of the sort. (Okay, that would've been late 90s. Whatever.) Well, that dude is "Rudy Casoni", a character......

FASHION: Inside Project Runway hits Beverly Hills tonight. Get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the production, the catfights and, oh yeah, the fashion. Heidi Klum will be there, and organizers promise a few surprise guests. (The main auditorium is sold out, but a few tickets remain for the overflow theatre.) 7 pm // The Paley Center for Media // 465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills // $7 for closed-circuit viewing room. OPERA:The LA Opera brings......

There's no such thing as a quiet Monday in this town. Here's a quick look at what's happening: FILM: If you're a historic film buff, then head over the Academy Linwood-Dunn Theatre for A Century Ago: The Films of 1907. The event celebrates the year 1907 and its developmental contributions...

One of the highlights of holidays past for me has always been getting to taste some of the the delicious chocolate goodies that seem to appear everywhere this time of year. So the idea of checking out and tasting some of our city's finest chocolate makes absolute sense, which is where next weekend's Los Angeles Luxury Chocolate Salon comes handily into play. The event, which is presented by TasteTV, will include speakers and demos, as......

We at LAist love Zocalo's Public Square Lecture events (especially when they're either about porn or food porn) and we know lots of you love Mexican food. So we're excited about their event coming up on Tuesday December 11th called The Mexican Restaurant in Los Angeles, which will be moderated by Jonathan Gold, L.A. Weekly Restaurant Critic and idol-worthy food writer. The scoop and the lineup, from their website:Zócalo has gathered together some of the......