Last weekend, the 24th Annual Abbot Kinney Festival took place in Venice. One longtime attendee noted that in past years, the quality of musical entertainment wasn't particularly memorable, so she was pleasantly surprised at the lineup this year, which included locals WAZ (MySpace), Buddy (MySpace), Laura Jansen (MySpace), Holly Conlan (MySpace) with Pedestrian (MySpace), Steve Reynolds (MySpace) with Cary Brothers (MySpace), Brian Wright (MySpace) with Sally Jaye (MySpace), Jesca Hoop (MySpace), Greg Laswell (MySpace),......

A few minutes before 8:00 p.m. last night, a small 3.0 earthquake shook the Westside. The quake, located two miles north of El Segundo caused no reported damage, but a cat might have jumped and tipped over a glass of milk or something. Nevertheless, each little microquake is a good reminder to think about preparing oneself for "the big one." One good way is to participate in The Great Southern California ShakeOut where 3.7 million......

LAPD on Patrol on Venice's Ocean Front Walk | Photo by cliff1066 via Flickr In a community that cares, people want to know what's happening when someone gets murdered. After Sunday's shooting death in Venice, people started talking. Things said: it was gang related, it was random, it took thirty minutes for ambulances to arrive, Venice is going down hill, etc, etc. And to that end, the LAPD is stepping in. The business and......

Photo by Jonathan Alcorn via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Someone who allegedly was at last night's shooting in Venice after the Abbot Kinney Festival is making comments on Yelp and on the blog Yo Venice. Here's part of what he had to say on the blog: I was standing 20 feet from the guy shot last night. There was no argument, just gun shots. I had just walked out of The Other Room.......

As the Abbot Kinney Festival winded down last night, shots were fired, hitting a man and a woman. "The shooting may have been due to a dispute," Cecil Manresa of the LA Fire Department said in an e-mail alert at 10:10 p.m. "Both patients were critical and transported to a local hospital." But later, one victim, Adam Pacheco, died. The other victim, a 25-year-old woman, was still critical with a gunshot wound to her face.......

This Sunday's free festival on Abbot Kinney in Venice is always a popular community event. What's nice this year is that Hotel Cafe, who is prepping to launch their own record label with its debut "Live from The Hotel Cafe" on iTunes next month, is booking on of the three stages at the festival. Part of their line-up includes recognizable names such as Jesca Hoop, Greg Laswell and Laura Jansen. Also, War Tapes will be......

To see a larger image of this map, download this version of the map here (.pdf, 1.9MB) If you live or plan to travel around the areas of this year's Los Angeles Triathlon on Sunday morning, you might want to pay attention to this map by the city's Department of Transportation showing street closures and other pertinent information. Basically, the race begins at Venice Beach and goes down Venice Blvd. for seven miles to......

Venice it getting a Whole Foods tomorrow. It makes for one less reason to leave the gridlocked, non public transit friendly area. And if you add in a Trader Joes and a Target to neighborhood, Yo Venice's Keri "will never have to leave." The new store is located at 225 Lincoln Blvd. at Rose Ave.......

Photo by Ty Parker via their MySpace Looking for something to do after Barack's acceptance speech tonight? Local psychadelic indie powerpop outfit West Indian Girl is headlining a night of music that also includes Mick Kelleher, Todd Hannigan and DJ Caparro tonight at Air Conditioned Supper Club in Venice. A $10 donation at the door goes to the West LA/Malibu chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and their effort to "clean up the 'bu!" In......

Jesca Hoop at the Temple Bar by Koga/LAist More details are coming out regarding The Temple Bar closing its doors at the end of next month. The venue's booker, Dexter Story, described closing as bittersweet. "We're going to miss this place," he said over the phone this afternoon. As to why owners Louie and Netty Ryan are choosing to close the venue, Story forwarded a letter they have been sending out (the full letter......

Author Dave Freeman died at his home last week in Venice. The USC graduate and later advertising agency executive wrote in his co-authored book, "100 Things to Do Before You Die: Travel Events You Just Can't Miss," that "this life is a short journey. How can you make sure you fill it with the most fun and that you visit all the coolest places on earth before you pack those bags for the very last......

If you've enjoyed legally walking topless around the streets of New York City (yes, it is legal there and if you do get busted, you can take the police to court and win), then you might be interested in protesting for the equal opportunity to go topless in California, too. Tomorrow is National Go Topless Protest Day (with one protest at the Democratic National Convention next week) where those in support of this constitutional cause......

Venice Beach has a lot of stylish people, here is a small sampling of what you might see.......

Lightning is usually not seen in Los Angeles when compared to other cities where it pretty much happens anytime it rains. So last night, those lucky enough to see it, probably enjoyed the sights. A couple LAist Featured Photos contributors on Flickr submitted their photos.......

Photo by pink_fish13 via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Lots of people wish for good public transportation into Venice. But for now, it ain't happening. And either way, the Abbot Kinney area is not known for its great parking situation. To that end, tomorrow is the groundbreaking ceremony for two new parking lots at Electric Ave/Santa Clara Ave and Abbot Kinney/Palms Ave. The two-phased project begins this week with paving the alleyways and refurbishing......

This doesn't even look like a crosswalk, but this is is a scramble crosswalk in Tokyo | Photo by Julie Wolfson/LAist If you felt your neighborhood should deserve one of those new scramble crosswalks, which allows for diagonal crossing at intersections (see a video example here), there's more than just the one in Westwood Village announced the other day (and the older one near USC). Here's the list of ten scramble crosswalks planned across......

We just spoke to Ed Boks, the general manager of the Los Angeles Animal Services Department. He said that the department's Wildlife Manager identified the injured bird in the Venice Beach rescue post as a Night Heron (congrats to Will Campbell for being the closest to guessing what it was in the comments section).......

Yesterday evening at sunset, the Los Angeles Fire Department arrived to Ocean Front Walk at Venice Blvd. on a bird rescuing mission. A caller from her fourth story patio saw a seagull (gannet? heron?) dangling in a palm tree across the walk and called Animal Services, who in turn called for the help of a fire truck ladder. Here's what happened.........

At about noon yesterday Drug Enforcement Administration agents showed up at Organica Collective at 13456 Washington Boulveard in Venice and conducted a raid that yielded no arrests, but left a tremendous amount of disarray in their wake. According to the LA Times, the DEA was there serving a search warrant and with the intent of enforcing the fact that "Marijuana remains a controlled substance, and it is illegal under federal law to possess, dispense or......

Every weekend, usually at around sunset, groups of people gather on Venice Beach to play and dance their hearts out. Yesterday's crowd was smaller than usual (around 100 people), but was still a fun and joyous time for everyone.......

A sign at Hollywood & Vine | Photo by discarted There's a common law that most bicyclists know in Los Angeles: sidewalk riding is legal as long as you do not have "a willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property." LAMC 56.15 also "disallows the riding of bicycles on Ocean Front Walk in Venice." Reading that, you would think that you can ride your bike on all the other sidewalks......

According to Daniel Mitchell, Senior Engineer with program oversight for the new fancy Park & Pay Meters, the next scheduled "roll-out" is in Venice in three separate areas on Main Street, Winward Ave. and Washington Blvd. The estimated completion date is July 31. To date, the only on street location of these new credit-card taking, cell-phone paying machines is located in Silver Lake on Sunset Blvd. More are to come throughout the city over the......

The former owner of Images of East and West art gallery located at 12627 West Washington Boulevard in Venice. After fleeing Los Angeles in 2002 with art property from more than 45 artists and customers, Kajorn Lekhakul Howard was arrested during a routine traffic stop in Seagoville, Texas. "Art theft detectives recovered over 290 stolen artworks from storage locations in the Dallas area," LAPD statement said. "The detectives transported the art back to Los Angeles......

Last weekend's record high temperatures got people out of the house and into the natural air conditioning of the beach. And while a select (and dumb) few decided to get into fights (two times, no less), most enjoyed the hot weekend among each other sharing one of this region's dearest assets. Temperatures are to rise slightly over the weekend. By Sunday, expect to be feeling the weather in the upper 80's. With that, here are......

Left: Hollywood | Right: Venice Walking the streets of Los Angeles, you meet many from different walks of life. Some just have a style about them, you have to take note, whether it is for the good or the bad.......

Some of us are feeling a little sunned out these days. But no one is ever tired of sunsets. The day is beginning to cool and suddenly everything turns gold, then the sun is gone and the thick summer twilight rules, with its astonishing array of colors. It's tough to find a place in LA to enjoy sunsets, with a laid back attitude and good food. Beechwood is one of those places. If you go......

Photo by malingering via flickr Has it really been a year since the last Go Skateboarding Day? Well, the world will ride again this Saturday, June 21 at the Venice Skatepark. I'm not sure what events are being planned in the Arctic Circle, but here in LA there's stuff to do. What better way to cool off than a shirtless glide through Venice Beach on your board? Plus, you'd be saving gas! If that's......

Few words overcame LAist Featured Photos contributor concheven when he posted this photo taken in Venice over the weekend: "I love LA." Yes indeed, so does LAist.......

Photo by Paul Antico, courtesy of the artist You know you've experienced it, talked about it or even watched it somewhere along the line, but Christine Suarez DanceTheater is taking female orgasm and, together with an intergenerational group of women, she's presenting dance theater about it in the ecologically-sound Eco Cottages this Friday and Saturday nights on the Venice Beach.......

Flight of the Conchords hit Venice back in April, showing off their sexy skating skills for all the "Ladies of the World." And hey, there's no better place than Los Angeles to find all those worldly ladies -- this is one of the most diverse cities out there.......