When an Orange County woman asked her husband to go clean the car, he came back with some old lottery tickets. Turns out one was worth $1, another was $3 and the final ticket was $198,468. The woman had bought the tickets back in March at a Fountain Valley liquor store and forgot about them until her husband came up with them. The next time your mother, your wife, your girlfriend or whoever tells you... [continue]

100 Hamburgers! from Invisible Engine on Vimeo. This is perfect since G4 is holding an "Unbeatable Banzuke" marathon on Sunday starting at 8:00pm... [continue]

It looks like Time Warner Inc. will be spinning off Time Warner Cable and announcing that sometime today. No word yet on how that might affect subscribers (like yours truly) of the TV, phone, and web services that the cable entity offers. 9:00pm MI-5 BBCA - This show kicks butt over any similar US show: "CSI", "NUMB3RS", etc. 9:15pm Brief Encounter TCM - (1945) Hey romantics, this tale of unrequited love directed by David Lean... [continue]

Comedian Brian Regan has been on "The Late Show With David Letterman" an astonishing 19 times - if you haven't seen him there, then how about Conan/Johnny Carson/Dr. Katz/etc.?? The man that has been everywhere is coming to The Wiltern, this Saturday, May 3rd at 8:00pm. LAist had a chance to talk to the Las Vegas-based Regan about his recent Comedy Central Presents Special "Brian Regan: Standing Up" which is now on DVD, and his... [continue]

Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD, died at his home near Basel, Switzerland on Tuesday. Hofmann synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25) in 1938 and five years later became the first person to experience a full-blown acid trip. On April 16, 1943, Hofmann inadvertently absorbed a little LSD-25 compound in his fingertips at the Sandoz laboratory (now Novartis) where he worked. In a note to the lab director he described what happened next:“I was... [continue]

Late night TV is looking really good this week, with at least one good guest per show per night (with the exception of the deplorable "Last Call With Carson Daly"). Was anyone at the Pacific Design Center in Hollywood last night? There was supposed to be the debut of a new TV series called "Scarlet" but in reality, according to the Wall Street Journal, the whole thing was a ruse to launch a new series... [continue]

Advertising Age is reporting on the possible end of the nightly network newscast as another 1.2 million viewers in the US stopped tuning in last year. The article points out that the reason why people aren't tuning in at 6pm is because.... they are still at work. Hey networks, instead of constantly going off on red herrings like Terri Schiavo and WMD in Iraq, how about creating a frenzy over the fact that Americans work... [continue]

Artist: Clinic Album: Do It! Label: Domino Records Release Date: April 2008 Listen to "Free Not Free": Long-established fuzz-masters Clinic have a ringer with Do It! In this parallel reverse universe, LA's No Age is the Beach Boys' answer to Clinic's Beatles question - even though I now have this answer, I don't know which Spock I am, but I know that I can say "She's dead, Jim" with conviction and authority. With not a... [continue]

Artist: Jef Stott Album: Saracen Label: Six Degrees Records Release Date: 04/22/2008 Listen to "Lamaset (Miami Mix)": Jef Sott is the multiimstrumentalist cofoundeder of SF-based bands Lumin and Stellamara - Saracen is his first full-length solo effort. Featuring his virtuosity on Arab and Turkish lutes, Stott plays everything on this album:hammered dulcimer, bass, synth, and layers and layers of hand percussion. There are some excellent Persian and Arabic vocals by MC RAI, Reda Darwish, and... [continue]

Car Bangers | Kids In The HallUploaded by kidsinthehall Dave, Kevin, Bruce, Mark and Scott are back and doing an original series for 60Frames - this is the newest sketch. [NSFW - again, sorry about that and sorry if you are at work at this late hour, I will have a beer in your honor]... [continue]

This weekend it's all about BBC America's programming with new seasons of "Robin Hood", "The Graham Norton Show", and "Wire In The Blood". I've seen previews of "Robin Hood" and it's a more than worthy replacement for "Torchwood" whose season (dramatically) ended last Saturday with the (supposed) deaths of at least two main characters. Of course, you'll have to be able to emotionally handle the incredible switch from science fiction to fantasy in order to... [continue]

"Lost" is back! Thursday night is truly the best night on TV, hands down. If you saw yesterday's TV Junkie you might have read that post about Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. taking over NYC media - today there's a story in the New York Times about News Corp. hiring a hacker to break into the DISH satellite network, steal codes and flood the market with pirated smart cards costing the network almost a billion dollars... [continue]

Now the predictions are really getting people's attention: "Surging crude prices, which could surpass $200 a barrel in four years on tight supplies, could push gasoline prices to as high as $7 a gallon, CIBC World Markets analysts said Thursday," MarketWatch said early this afternoon. Currently, U.S. oil is $116 a barrel, down $3.90 from Tuesday's "historic high." The national average is $3.56 and in Los Angeles, the upward trend pushes the local average to... [continue]

When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "recommend" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities for us. So here's this week's top posts, as endorsed by you via the recommend feature, or as indicated by the level... [continue]

Hey "Gossip Girl" fans, The CW is pulling the show off of its website because too many of you are choosing to watch it online vs. TV (where its ratings are slumping). So, I get it, restrict the viewing of the content and everything will get better. What do you want to bet that this won't fix the problem? Tonight 7:00pm The Stepford Wives TCM - (1975) The ORIGINAL and much better version, with the... [continue]

Photo by alistairmcmillan via Flickr In response to a comment in yesterday's piece, Train to LAX Getting Closer, Metro Doesn't Want It, Kymberliegh Richards writes a good history of what happened and why. Richards runs a website called the San Fernando Valley Transit Insider as well as a Metro San Fernando Valley Governance Council member and a board of directors member at the Southern California Transit Advocates. I always love seeing people who say... [continue]

LAist has been at ad:tech SF 2008 this week - this is the second part of our report. ad:tech featured several keynotes and "power panels" (not to be confused with a fuse box) that were remarkable. There was an emphasis on how companies can effectively maintain their brand in this new media era of blogs, forums, and podcasts. Day one started off with Keynote Roundtable: The Art of Conversation - Building Great Brands in the... [continue]

So while TV is still recovering from the writers' strike another strike looms on the horizon. According to Variety, the Screen Actors' Guild signed a pact with producers of indie films that will ensure that an indie film in production will be completed in the event that SAG goes on strike. This sounds like a good thing but it's being interpreted as a move to put pressure on major producers to get inline with SAG... [continue]

LAist is at ad:tech SF to cover developments in media as well as how advertisers are planning on targeting you everywhere-anytime. There are ad:tech conferences all over the world but this is the big one with their annual awards ceremony and everything - winners were announced tonight and are HERE. (see tomorrow's post). If you think this is boring you should be aware that the method by which every ad is delivered to you on... [continue]

MTV's "The Real World" returns for its 20th season which is scary because I remember the premiere of this show back in 1992. My roommates and I, and our significant others (or not) would get together and watch the show which seemed scarily innovative at the time - _anything_ could happen! From being an innovator in reality programming to just another in a field of crowded participants, another season of "The Real World" seems like... [continue]