The annual Extravaganza for the Senses, a fund-raising tasting event benefitting the Saban Free Clinic previously mentioned here on LAist was held this past Saturday in Century City on the Fox lot. I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend and have returned with some photos for our readers. I'll be the first to admit that these photos don't really do the event justice, these photos were taken with camera in one hand,......

LEARNING*: Mindshare at the LA Brewery hosts the following speakers tonight: John Smart, futurist and founder of Acceleration Studies Foundation; Chuck Esterbrook, developer and creator of Cobra Language; Tali Krakowsky, director of experience design of Imaginary Forces; and Scott Pagano, creative director of Equilibrium Entertainment; Sissy St. John, wellness yogini, and Sena Koleva, UC Irvine grad student. Their topics include artificial intelligence, immortality and even the chemistry of love. This mind-sharing evening begins at......

Photo by theonetruedevo via Flickr Ready to eat and drink for a good cause? I know it sounds too good to be true, but it's legit, and I'm totally going! Extravaganza for the Senses is a fundraising event held annually to benefit the Saban Free Clinic, (formerly the Los Angeles Free Clinic) and features food from 40 Los Angeles restaurants and wine from more than 100 wineries. The presenting sponsor is the Wine House......

Photo by kpe II via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr. ART* Attend the closing reception for Two Roads Gallery's group show featuring works by Kelly Thompson, Walt Hall, Teri Berman, and Douglas Alvarez. Artists will be in attendance and will be painting together, live. 6 p.m. // Two Roads Gallery // 4348 Tujunga Ave, Studio City // Free FILM The Silent Movie Theatre offers three showings of The Kid, a Charlie Chaplin......

Try hard and you might get this hang loose feeling from checking out the Hawaiian Fest in Northridge Photo by bhollar via Flickr Annual Northridge Ho Olau lea (Hawaiian Fest) Say Aloha to the the 50th state with a taste of the food and fun of Hawaii. Lots of Hawaiian shirts and grass skirts, vendors with all sorts of goods, fresh floral leis, loads of food (shaved ice!!!!), and beer. Luckily it won't be......

A reader commented in today's Tonight in Rock asked about bringing booze to the Hollywood Bowl to this weekend's The Cure show. "Please enlighten me about the Hollywood Bowl's BYOB policy... I've read that is only allowed at LA Philharmonic events and not 'leased' events. BUT I saw plenty of people with booze when I was there for the Jay-Z show. Trying to decide whether to bring stuff tomorrow for the cure... thoughts?" The reader......

Publishers of all stripes are selling books of all types. Jules Asner signed Whacked (she is gorgeous in person), Alan Cheuse signed The Fires, and Garth Stein signed The Art of Racing in the Rain. From fiction and business books to green books and cookbooks (and wine guides -- a bonus for this Wine Novice), writers, publishers and booksellers are hob-knobbing and handing out invites to tonight's biggest book parties. On various panels throughout the......

Photo by toastycakes via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr In an attempt to avoid the voter confusion rampant in the state during this year's Super Tuesday balloting, LA County officials are doing their best to educate the public about the InkaVote Plus system, including the audio options for disabled and multilingual voters. It seems "fire season" in the Southland is now a year-round thing. After yesterday's Griffith Park fire comes news of another......

TALK Matt Welch, editor of Reason magazine and author of McCain: The Myth of a Maverick will be providing his take on the Republican Presidential nominee at the Deconstructing McCain chat. Sure to be a thought provoking and stirring presentation and of growing importance given the fast approaching election. 7:30 pm // Los Angeles Central Library, Mark Taper Auditorium // 630 W. 5th Street, Los Angeles // Free READING Michael Ondaatje, author of The......

Photo of Next Door Tapas interior by Zach Behrens for LAist Next Door Tapas is a swanky and intimate little lounge in Studio City, perfect for a weekend or late evening bite -- just don't plan on being there before 6pm. Despite the 5pm opening that's advertised on most review websites, we showed up at 5:30 only to find half-dressed tables and an unready staff. The wine menu was quick to arrive once we......

On this evening's earlier story about the fire at Off Vine, a reader posted their experience in the comments section: I was eating here with my family and friends for the first time after attending the play Wicked. The waiter had cleared our plates and we heard commotion on in the kitchen. I asked what was happening and was told there was a fire upstairs. We were seated in the table closest to the kitchen......

A fire reported at the address of Off Vine Restaurant on Leland Ave. in Hollywood has left the building with heavy fire damage after a 34 minute aggressive firefight, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey. At 5:20 p.m., a cell phone call prompted 86 firefighters to respond to the blaze, which was originally reported to be at a single family home, but later corrected as a home converted-to-restaurant....

Photo by nailmaker via LAist Featured Photos So maybe some of you kids have it easy when it comes to eating green: you're a vegetarian or vegan, you don't eat dairy, and you shop at your local farmer's market every week. You probably bike a lot and never talk on your cell phone while you're driving. Congratulations, you're our editor! But for the rest of us mortals, the recent explosion of articles and blog......

"Why is this night different from all other nights?" you might ask. Well, it's the first night of Passover, and even folks who will be sitting down to a seder somewhere in the Southland tonight will also be asking the same thing, because it's one of four questions that are posed in the traditional pre-dinner ceremony. Passover is a hands-on Jewish holiday, where families and friends gather around the table to honor the Israelites' exodus......

Artist and forager Nancy Klehm will be holding the last of her highly unique cooking classes at Echo Park gallery/performance space Machine Project this Monday, March 10th, from 6-9pm. There are still a few spots left (tickets cost $85 for members, $95 for non-members), so head on over to the website to sign up for a lesson on making your own fermented fruits and vinegars. Fruit wine sounds like a fantastic way to take......

It's National Cold Cuts Day. That term has always brought to mind those not very fresh, tasteless sandwich fillers served at large functions that you eat because you don't want to eat only macaroni salad. With the beef recall, dashing to your local butcher for some cold cuts sounds less appetizing than ever. However, the term "cold cuts" can include cheese and that's where you can freely celebrate. When I lived in NY, I......

DANCE The State Ballet of Georgia arrives for their Los Angeles premiere at UCLA's Royce Hall to perform Giselle. This historic Russian dance company is taking on a classic, with Nina Ananiashvili in the spotlight as the company's artistic director and prima ballerina in the title role. 8 p.m. // Royce Hall, UCLA // Westwood Plz at Charles E Young Dr S// (310) 825-2101 // $20 - 90 SPOKEN WORD It's an Anything Goes Open......

Tonight is the night to break out that special bottle of vino and head over to one of more than 20 LA-area restaurants that are obliterating the corkage fee in honor of "Open That Bottle Night." The foodie-minded folks over at EaterLA asked around and came up with a list of dining spots who are willing to forgo their usual $20-$35 fee for one night only so that diners could have a special meal to......

Photo by Phillyist's Matt Johnson, SkyscraperSunset.com, December 19, 2007. Phillyist explored an impending implosion and lived to tell the tale.Gothamist marveled at the city's new NYC-branded condom campaign - especially the use of a Toronto landmark in the advertising. (Also, fun fact: Gothamist turned five years old yesterday.)Tired of the worldwide Scientology protests? Torontoist totally isn't: they covered the big downtown protest the day it happened, and followed up with an examination of all......

PEN USA hosts literary panels tonight. WINE Silver Lake Wine is hosting winemaker Maynard Keenan of Tool (yes, you read that right!), who’ll be pouring his Caduceus wines at the shop. Call for reservations: 323.662.9024. 7 pm // Silver Lake Wine // 2395 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles // $20. FILM The Pan African Film Festival started yesterday and runs until Feb. 18. Not only does the festival screen films, but it also holds workshops,......

So the big V-Day is only a week away -- and if you're anything like me, you're making reservations for a fabulous spot and forcing your boyfriend to take you out to dinner. He's gonna take me out, he's gonna express his undying love for me through the purchase of an expensive meal of my choosing, and he's gonna like it.* Thankfully, there are a lot of great Valentine's dinner options in L.A. --......

WINE TASTING Rock 'n Roll Wine brings exactly those two things at the Santa Monica Bar & Grille tonight. Vegas-based The Bends play live music while guests taste more than a dozen wines throughout the evening. No one will judge if you swallow it all and don’t spit – between wines. 7 pm // Santa Monica Bar and Grille // 3321 Pico Blvd., Los Angeles // $40 at the door. OPERA USC’s Thornton Opera......

I should hate Pinkberry for a million different reasons: what it does to neighborhoods, the mom & pops it shuts down in its wake, its fake-yogurty ingredients that are likely very, very bad for me and its off-putting, sour flavor that foodies abhor and I, strangely, adore. I know and I agree and I held out as long as I could....

FILM A Bloody Aria, a film from Korea about a professor, his pretty student and a possible murder, opens tonight for a one-week engagement in Little Tokyo. It’s been compared to Deliverance, but with a dark sense of humor. (We wonder if there’s any pig squealing in this one?) Times vary // ImaginAsian Center // 251 S. Main St., Los Angeles // $7-$10. MUSIC / SPOKEN WORD Tonight the CalArts Creative Music Festival features......

I have always had something against mulled wine. Besides it having the viscousity of blood, I just imagine Will Farrell and Rachel Dratch's "Lovers" characters from SNL drinking hot mulled wine to wash down the juices of their roasted goat meat. Somehow mulled wine always seems to be connected to hippie pagan Ren Faire earthmother people. Not that there is anything elementally wrong with hippie pagan Ren Faire earthmother people. I have friends who dance......

Dudes, it's become clear to me that just by walking about whatever fine neighborhood you happen to reside in (NoHo, WeHo, SilLake, DnTn, SanMo, KTown, HanPark, CulCity, etc), you're bound to happen upon a great little bar with great happy hour deals. Fer instance: this week I was walking around Downtown and ran into some friends, who happily guided me to the Redwood Bar & Grill, a fun and surprisingly classy little pirate bar......

Bodega Wine Bar is all about making wine as unpretentious as possible. The owners opened the bar after searching high and low for "a casual place to grab a glass of wine...somewhere that didn't require us to be wine experts, spend a lot of money, or even talk about wine much (if at all)" but found nothing. Ah - a wine philosophy this wine novice can get behind entirely! So, of course, I had to......

A vast knowledge of fine wine and great Italian food are not a prerequisite for visiting Talia's Restaurant & Bar in Manhattan Beach, because you could pick blindly from the menu and whatever arrived would be delicious. It's "one of those" kinda places. Owned by the same people who operate nearby Mangiamo (another great Italian restaurant) Talia's offers an intimate setting that suits the casual beach neighborhood it is situated in. And although i......

Late in 2007 LAist began weed reviews, a sporadic column featuring a different variety of marijuana while presenting it as though it were a wine review, and of those different kinds of pot 3 stood out as superior to the rest....

Winter really gets me down. It's cold, it's rainy, everybody's on vacation except for me. Worst of all, when I get off work every evening, it's already dark outside. Can we say SADS? So how best to beat the winter blues? Why, BOOZE, of course, the cheaper the better, and there are a ton of happy hours and special events taking place across the city that will lighten your holiday-heavy heart without lightening your wallet.......