SCI-Arc is conducting a series of Monday discussions throughout November with new media artists in conjuction with the current exhibition Blow x Blow. Hosted by Joe Day, principal of deegan day design, the talks explore current practice and the challenges of new media installation. The series begins tonight at 7:30 pm with a discussion between artist/architect An Te Liu and ForYourArt founder Bettina Korek.

Photo rights advocate blogger Shawn, otherwise known as discarted, recently was taking photos inside the Hollywood/Western Metro Station when two L.A. County Sheriff's approached him. Shawn, who always wears a video camera, caught his whole 25-minute ordeal and uploaded it to YouTube yesterday (an abbreviated version is posted above), sparking off some good debate on photographer's rights vs. public safety.

Tonight London-based electronic singer-songwriter Imogen Heap will be performing to a sold-out crowd at Henry Fonda Music Box. Local indie rockers the Happy Hollows (LAist Review, #2, #3) are continuing their month-long residency at Spaceland. And, lastly, LA-based lo-fi pop act Best Coast will be gracing the Smell in Downtown. But we strongly suggest heading to Club Nokia to catch South Carolina-by-way-of-Seattle folk rockers Band of Horses. LAist favorites Warpaint (LAist Review, #2, #3) are slated to kick things off.

              

Earlier this morning, we showed you the video of The L.A. Wall being torn down. Now, here are photos of the art before it was destroyed in celebration of the Berlin Wall's falling 20 years ago.

          

For past week or so, the people behind the Buttermilk Truck have been sneaking around town, previewing its food to whoever came upon it. Although the truck officially debuts Wednesday evening with its late-night menu (think fried chicken and waffles and the Buttermilk Brick--hash browns, eggs over easy, buttermilk biscuit and a housemade chorizo gravy), the truck arrived for a not-so-secret sneak peek of its morning menu at yesterday's Silver Lake Art Craw event at Barnsdall Art Park.

Last month we had the chance to talk to Bill, who has been signing his 700 page long NBA book in cities like Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego and of course, Boston. "LA signings are weird. They had the lowest turnout of any city," said Simmons over the phone when we spoke with him just days before hitting the road for his book tour. "I think it’s because there’s so many celebrities out here that I’m like Z-list. I’m on whatever list the guys from "The Ruins" are on. If I go to Providence or somewhere like that, it seems like a much bigger deal."

Commuter rail service Metrolink is considering a fare increase to be implemented at the start of the new year, reports the Daily News. "The five-county Metrolink agency board is scheduled to meet Friday to decide whether to hike ticket prices for tens of thousands of daily passengers by as much as 6 percent."

Apparently, a 76 Station in Sherman Oaks has been dispensing messages to customers for some 10 years now. "t’s not the cheapest gas in town, but it’s clearly the most articulate," said blogger Lucinda Michele, who posted about it on Los Angeles. Metblogs. Adding to that, a commenter wished that life had more cheerful easter eggs like this, hidden all around." So do we, so do we...

Legendary Bay Area restaurateur, chef, cookbook author, and educational garden advocate Alice Waters is in town today to take part in the launch of the first Los Angeles branch of her Chez Panisse Foundation's Edible Schoolyard.

Carpool lanes added to the Southbound 405 Freeway as part of a $167 million project were opened up this weekend, in the hopes this will relieve some congestion on the road. "Caltrans workers Saturday took out barricades on the southbound 405 freeway's carpool lanes from the Interstate 10 Freeway interchange south to the 90 Freeway," explains CBS2, adding that the last step was to replace the surfacing material in the center divider.

This morning, as the countdown clock to the 2010 LA Marathon declares there's 131 days until the big event, the official "Stadium to the Sea" course map was released. Beginning at Dodger Stadium, this brand new route takes participants and their supporters through some of Los Angeles' iconic and familiar-the-world-over city and county sights and neighborhoods, including El Pueblo, City Hall, and Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Downtown...

       

While Disney's A Christmas Carol won the weekend with an underwhelming $31M, the real story at the box-office was Precious. The darling of this year's Sundance Film Festival earned an astonishing $100,000 per theater, breaking the record for the largest opening EVER for a specialty film (A Christmas Carol, by contrast, earned a little over $8400 per venue). Michael Jackson's This Is It had a solid second weekend ($14M | $57.8M), just topping the fantastic The Men Who Stare at Goats ($13.3M) and the weird and phony The Fourth Kind ($12.5M). Not surprisingly, Paranormal Activity continued to print money ($8.6M | $97.4M).

The 20th Anniversary for the falling of the Berlin Wall was a big deal here in Los Angeles, a sister city of Berlin's. Thanks to the Wende Museum of the Cold War, Wilshire Boulevard last night was bisected by the 60-foot L.A. Wall, donned with images by such artists as Shepard Fairey and Thierry Noir, who began painting the Berlin Wall in 1984.