The event has been going on for a couple years now, although a bit under the radar. Like Echo Park's First Saturdays, it's more of a neighborhood event with lots of locals. The concept: local merchants open up their doors a little later than usual for a Friday night and invite musicians and supply wine to those perusing the store -- it's all in the name of community and making the boulevard a more popular......

Photo by pink_fish13 via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Getty has its first fridays program. So does the Natural History Museum. However, there's a smaller First Friday in Los Angeles, one with a less grandiose budget, little advertising, but is worth a look at. For the past couple years merchants of Abbot Kinney in Venice stay open until 10pm and often host art gallery openings, live music, or in store events. And if you......

It may be a holiday, yet Mondays are always a guaranteed good night for music with all the residencies in addition to tonight's appearance of Venice local Harry Perry (pictured right) in WeHo We Barbarians, The Morning Benders, Rio Bravo @ Silverlake Lounge Idyllists, The Movies, Light FM, C.R.A.F.T. Club @ Viper Room Radar Bros., Tigers Can Bite You, Kárin Tatoyan, Holloys @ The Echo The Parson Red Heads, The Shaky Hands, Francisco The Man,......

I didn't want to just do a "best of" list. So this year, I've decided to take a years worth of personal New Year's Resolutions, ask around for those of friends and put a call out to readers (email me here) about things you've always wanted to know, always wanted to do and then take those requests and ask an expert, an insider to help out. The result? Here goes... Today's Resolution: "I want......

Blind Boys of Alabama Christmas Concert, Belly Up Tavern 12/19/06 Great Northern, Happy Hollows @ Viper Room Blind Boys of Alabama Xmas Show @ Disney Hall Guns in Hands, Deadly Sins, Lost Remorse @ Cobalt Cafe Hit Record @ The Troubadour The Lamps, Exit Music, In Waves @ Bordello Metal Skool, Weapon of Choice @ Key Club The Binges, The Ringers, Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip @ Spaceland The White Coffin, Terror @......

Remember that car chase scene in "The Da Vinci Code?" Yeah, that car chase is coming to an LA near you. Last Thursday, the weekly LA Green Drinks was hosted at The Smart Car House in Venice. We get an introduction to the Smart Car and learn that the first Smart Car dealerships in Los Angeles will be in North Hollywood, Beverly Hills, West Covina, Riverside and Laguna Niguel. The smart house at 1319......

The LA County Fair comes to end tonight, and if you can't make it or county fairs just aren't your thing, there's plenty of festival happenings today around Los Angeles:Swerve Festival @ Barnsdall Park National Geographic's All Roads Film Festival Feast of San Genaro Italian Festival Abbot Kinney Festival Grand Avenue Festival West Hollywood Book Fair Just Lives Festival Santa Clarita Street Arts Festival Polska Parafia Bazaar SGV Greek Festival Nigerian Independence Day Celebration......

Spin Gallery presents paintings by Carlos Vera....

Remember when you moved to LA just south of Downtown, and you thought all those people who got to live in Santa Monica and Venice and Manhattan Beach were so lucky? Or maybe that was me. Either way, you were (I was) overlooking one of the major advantages of living so far from the beach -- you can bike there and get a great workout! Back in August I used bikemetro.com to figure out......

We love the creative culture of Venice Beach. Somebody actually took the time to create this metal sign and install it at an intersection on Abbot Kinney. Instead of pointing across the street, the arrow guides pedestrians to a liquor store.......

On a search for a good drink at a bar and maybe some ice cream down Abbot Kinney in Venice, the smell of good pizza switched those priorities around. We'll spare you a second review and let you read ours from last year, where pizza was compared to sex and readers commented about it being hipster and foo-foo and that nothing tastes better than Chicago deep dish. Whatever. The pizza is damn tasty. Sitting......

In a town where most restaurants last about half as long as Nick Lachey’s and Jessica Simpson’s marriage, the Venice staple -- Joe’s Restaurant -- proves that its California-French menu has staying power to last at least thru the rest of Jess’ singing career -- and then some. Joe’s opened in 1991, making '06 its 15th year in the business. Along the hip Abbot Kinney Blvd., Joe's exudes the same aura: the stylishly cool,......

WEDNESDAY • Raul Malo (of The Mavericks), Greencards and Vaquetones are on stage tonight at The Coach House. Tickets are $17.50. • The Viper Room features Diablo's Darlings Burlesque tonight at 11:30 PM, preceded by Mozella, Geoff Byrd and Thriving Ivory. • Breakestra, People Under the Stairs, Cut Chemist, DJ Dusk and Chali 2na hit the stage at The El Rey tonight at 8 PM. Tickets are $20. • Beyond Baroque is celebrating Abbot......

LAist is going on a delicious spree around LA. This week: A is All About Indian. However, we're in need of a quickie. At one point, LAist couldn’t quite understand the analogy between pizza and sex, but finally understood the parallel as a guy’s simple, straightforward logic. Yes, of course you’ll take some if it’s there, and like sex, pizza can never really be bad. For the ladies, the analogy is, of course, much......

We've all had negative experiences in various types of businesses that were horrendous to the point of putting us in a unique brand of foul and livid mood. This temperament then requires mustering every ounce of restraint to stop ourselves from spreading the bad mojo around. However, perspective makes us understand that these types of service snafus hardly rank high among greater injustices in the world, but they leave us in need of somewhere......

April Fools Day is almost here. LAist, for one, can't wait. This year it seems like Angelenos are getting into the playful spirit of things and are ready to frolic, rain or no rain. 1. Equator Books seeks all fools to enjoy an opening reception for the "April Fools" exhibit, featuring the work of John Evans, Matthew Weidmann, Albert Reyes (aka Give), and Neil Wax's Abject Goods. 7-11 PM, Friday, April 1, 2005. EQUATOR......

We're big fans of exploring different L.A. neighborhoods on foot, and one of our favorites is the Venice Beach area. We can happily while away half an hour exploring what's left of the canals, or head to the east and burn a few hours exploring the mix of stores and bistros on Abbot Kinney boulevard. We're still using our Maphawk (available at a lot of businesses in Venice) to pick out new retail landmarks......