Popular

NYC transplants decry LA's apparent lack of hardcore Italian delis. That is, until a clued-up Angeleno points that Negative Nancy to Bay Cities Deli and Bakery. If New York were a sovereign nation (it's not,) its local embassy would be this Santa Monica hotspot.

The two anonymous bloggers at the popular vegan blog, Quarrygirl, went all out and published a large investigative report today, finding that a handful of vegan restaurants, mostly Thai in nature, are in fact not vegan.

Nestled between Turntable Lab and some kosher groceries stores on Fairfax, The Golden State serves delicious burgers, Let's Be Frank hot dogs, and Scoops Ice Cream all under one roof. The beer list features a small but mighty selection of local brews and a few from around the world.

100,000 electronica fans dance for two days at the L.A. Coliseum.

On Sunday May 31st, 5am would become the new rush hour for the 2,150 riders and 500 volunteer-roadies as they filtered into San Francisco's Cow Palace, waiting with anticipation and excitement for the kickoff of the 2009 AIDS/LifeCycle.

After much pushing and prodding by the public and media, Metro finally succumbed, quietly launching Google Transit this past weekend. Go ahead and play, it's like we're in a real big city now, catching up with most other major ones.

Chris Hardwick is a nerd. He humbly embraces this now, and he’s happier for it. The trick was to align his career with his passions -- even if they’re frowned upon by jocks. The comic/writer/TV personality has a deep affection for science, technology, and his love affair with “Dungeons and Dragons” is in its third decade. While Hardwick isn’t the type of nerd whose busted eyeglasses are fastened with Scotch tape, when meeting with LAist he sported mismatched shoes -- one sneaker, and a blue soft cast.

Twice a year, Metro makes a slew of changes to their schedules and transit routes in an effort to improve service and efficiency. Sunday was one of those days. Usually, there is something new and flashy to show off like a new Rapid bus route, but this summer there's no such thing. In fact, one Rapid line was discontinued in the Valley and another lost its weekend service in South LA.

With the new fiscal year looming on Wednesday and Democrats refusing to cut programs in their entirety, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday presented his budget Plan B. In it, he backed off from eliminating "welfare assistance, health care for poor children, and financial aid for college students," according to John Myers of KQED.

Unless Sunset Junction Festival organizers address local resident concerns and businesses, the festival is unlikely to be permitted by the city. So far, the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, who represents the area at a grassroots neighborhood level, has voted against the festival in its entirety. For their meeting tomorrow, the agenda (.pdf) lists has a motion for consideration that seeks to alleviate some of those concerns:

As the summer emerges from June Gloom, sure, the clubs were still hopping. But above that, June saw the largest electronic dance music event in LA's history, the Electric Daisy Carnival. The 13th annual megamegarave featured 135,000 revelers over two days (daze?) If were weren't in a recession there might have been 135,007 attendees. It was Coachella meets Burning Man meets a sweaty warehouse meets a USC football game. That's a good thing.

Superintendent Ramon Cortines is going apeshit over photos of Sacha Baron Cohen with Lake Balboa high school football players published as part of a GQ magazine cover story. Cohen's salacious poses with the stars of Birmingham High's football team appear in the middle of this GQ fashion spread.

Some resourcefulness and a little money has gone a long way this past week with the city's Bikeways Department. With parking meters being replaced by the new Park & Pay system kiosks, those meters, which often doubled as handy bicycle parking, were threatened to be taken off the street. Not so fast. In key areas around the city, crews spent four nights last week reconfiguring the meters into the new bicycle meter hitches.

Ben Ford, head chef and owner of Culver City’s Ford’s Filling Station speaks of the farmer’s market and its farmers with great reverence. Chef Ford grew up with his hands in the soil, gardening from a very young age so his respect for the food grown by the farmers comes naturally.

Yesterday, Tustin's Lt. Dan Choi was told by the military's Federal Recognition Board that they were recommending his discharge from service, citing his violation of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. The Board determined that his declaration of his sexual orientation during an appearance on MSNBC's Rachael Maddow Show and his serving in the military while openly gay was an act of "moral and professional dereliction," according to a letter by Choi sent to his supporters in the Courage Campaign. Choi adds, however, that this is only the beginning of his fight:

The board's decision to fire me is not the end. Now that this panel of four officers has recommended my discharge, it still must be approved by senior officials in the Army, a process that could take a few weeks to a year. Unless something unexpected happens, it may be just a matter of time before the Army officially fires me.

Continue reading "'Moral and professional dereliction' Cited in Recommendation to Discharge Openly Gay Lt. Dan Choi"

By Lindsay William-Ross on July 1, 2009 3:30 PM 6 Vote 6 Votes

The beyond ironically-named "Love Crusades" of Westboro Baptist Church is on its way to Los Angeles to demonstrate at Michael Jackson's memorial. The crusades are part of a hate-based mission started in Kansas by the WBC and Fred Phelps in order to picket the funerals of people who had died of AIDS, demonstrate against the "fag lifestyle" and other loving Christian activities. It appears their main beef is well, Michael Jackson's very existence, his death, and any mourning by anybody. If you are still unclear, here is the official announcement from the website's picket schedule. I am intentionally not linking to their site, because this is probably more attention than they deserve already.

While it might not be surprising that American Apparel has made the headlines once again for their business practices, it is a touch ironic that the company who is behind the "Legalize L.A." movement for immigration reform revealed today "that the government has found that 1,800 of its employees are either illegally working in the U.S. or potentially illegal to work," according to USA Today.

We may be cut short by 80 miles for the train to Vegas, but the one to San Francisco is moving along. Yesterday the California High-Sped Rail Authority met electing Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle as the chairman and approving the scope of projects that qualify for federal stimulus funds. “We have obtained environmental certification for the general statewide alignment and station locations for the 800-mile system designed to carry over 100 million people by year 2030, as well as secured California state bond proceeds resulting from passage of Proposition 1A," explained Pringle. "These are the kinds of things that position the state very competitively to secure matching federal funds through ARRA to begin construction on three key segments and to complete the preliminary engineering work on the linking segments.”

Although the city is fighting a $534 million budget deficit, they will dip into special funds for extraordinary events such as Michael Jackson's memorial service planned for next Tuesday. The situation is reminiscent of when the LAPD spent $25,000 on an operation escorting Britney Spears from her home to the hospital, about 6 miles away. Of course, if private donors want to help out as some did with the Lakers parade, the city welcomes them with open arms.

Thomas J. Barrack Jr. has lived near Neverland Ranch for decades and recently came into ownership of the property, via his private-equity firm, when Jackson defaulted on a loan. Although Jackson partially still had a stake in the land, he moved to a large Holmby Hills estate where he died last week. Now there is a chance a public viewing of Jackson later this week will occur at the ranch in Santa Barbara County, which has officials worried about traffic anywhere Jackson's body is taken. If that happens, the quiet countryside of Santa Ynez Valley could temporarily quintuple (or more!) it's population in a matter of hours, prompting Barrack to write a very poetic open letter to the community (posted below). Also under consideration for a ceremony is the Staples Center, says the LA Times.

It's been one year now since a California law went into effect making it illegal to drive while using a hand-held cellphone. The Automobile Club of Southern California has released the findings of "observational roadside surveys of drivers on Orange County roads," and have determined that the "use of hand-held cell phones by drivers declined sharply from pre-law levels."

After 30 years of planning, the MagLev project between Anaheim and Vegas lost one of its biggest proponents last month to a train part of the federal high-speed rail corridor. Nevada Senator Harry Reid is now behind the DesertXpress between Southern California and Las Vegas that would mainly go along Interstate 15. Unfortunately, the phase planned right now only goes between Vegas and Victorville. Why Victorville? Their website explains:

The Cocoanut Grove, a supper club where the rich and famous dined and danced, opened 3 months after the Ambassador Hotel, in April 1921. It was designed in Moorish style. The palm trees that decorated the room were rumored to have come from the Rudolph Valentino film, The Sheik and they had stuffed monkeys hanging from them. The ceiling was painted midnight blue and sparkling stars were strewn across its firmament.

When Casey Schreiner graduated from Boston University, the Connecticut native moved to Los Angeles, like many, with a dream of landing an entertainment industry job. "I flew out here with a duffel bag and an air mattress, hoping to land some sort of writing job," he explained. And a job he got--a fun one, too. The 28-year-old West Hollywood resident (just moved from the Miracle Mile) has been writing for G4’s “Attack of the Show” since its beginning days. "It’s a great place to get my hands the latest gadgets, technology, and web sites--and has been a good outlet for all of the jokes about Mac OS X and Star Trek fan-fic that I can’t make in mixed company."

In her inaugural speech as the City Controller, Wendy Greuel vowed to continue former Controller Laura Chick's quest to legally audit--financially or performance-wise--the offices of the Mayor, City Attorney and City Councilmembmers. Chick had tried to audit former City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's office, but he balked and the matter went to court where Chick lost. “If there is any question about this, I shall take this issue to you, the voters of the city of Los Angeles,” Greuel said yesterday. If you follow city politics, answer this question: if she fills the role just like Laura Chick did for the past eight years, will we be soon calling her Mayor Greuel?

Before the Smog Cutter was East Hollywood’s most infamously decrepit karaoke joint, it was reportedly one of Charles Bukowski’s dives of choice. While this has yet to be corroborated by the ninety-year-old hunchbacked regular who apparently takes a vow of silence between spirited performances of Clarence Carter’s “Stroke It,” one look at the dingy, faux-wood paneled interior and world-weary patrons seems like evidence enough. You may not be as lucky as I am and live spitting distance from the place, but if you share old Hank’s penchant for stiff drinks, small time hustlers and hard women, you just may have found yourself a home away from home.

AEG officials announced today that 17,500 tickets will be available for Tuesday morning's memorial service for popstar Michael Jackson at the Staples Center. A website has been set up for people (U.S. Residents only) to enter for a chance be selected for a pair of tickets, meaning a total of 8,750 names will be drawn. You have until 6 p.m. PST, July 4th to enter, so don't delay! Names drawn will be notified on Sunday by 8 p.m. PST (Update: It seems the server has crashed as the whole world tries to enter their info for a ticket)

On behalf of all of us at LAist, happy 4th of July! Here's an hour-long mix suited for cold beers and BBQ in the blazing hot sun. Amen.

There hasn't been much rain these days, but that's not stopping the city from trying to maximize the usefulness of rain when it comes. A new rain water harvesting pilot project will start in Mar Vista and a nearby neighborhood in mid July, thanks to a $1 million grant. Gray water, as it's called, is one part of greening ones property and is often used for water gardens and lawns. The project's goal is to enlist 600 properties--whether they be residential or commercial--to take part in the program. Those who take part might receive a free rain barrel (usually costs $200) or have experts re-route gutter downspouts off impermeable surfaces like sidewalks and onto permeable ones like gardens. All the details are not set yet, but more are to come in next month.

It takes, frankly, balls, to name your album as an homage to a man whose music has remained popular for almost three centuries. Touring in support of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, French import rockers Phoenix took to the stage at the Wiltern Sunday night not just as alt-rock stars, but rather as alt-rock gods, playing a remarkably high-energy, finely-tuned show that gripped the worshiping crowd with every note.