Photo of unrelated puppy by droid via Flickr In Lancaster last night, a six month old dog was lit on fire. Luckily, witnesses heard the yelping puppy and extinguished the fire with a jacket. The dog, a pit bull mix, was taken to an animal shelter while police investigated looking for the culprit. More odd news came out of Lancaster earlier this year when a man was killed by an arrow while crossing the......

I've always been intrigued by other "best of" lists, but this year I decided to take it to a whole new level. I e-mailed a handful of bands that I've seen this past year in order to unearth what exactly captivated them in '07. As music listeners, it is our duty to take a keen interest in our favorite musician's influences. After all, they rocked our little world, might as well see what rocked their......

Ike Turner, ex-hubby to Tina Turner and a "rock and roll pioneer", died this morning in his northern San Diego county home. The cause of death is not immediately known. Despite winning a Grammy this year in the traditional blues category ("Risin' With the Blues") , being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and known for having the first rock 'n' roll record ("Rocket 88," 1951), Turner's image is marked in the media......

Cardinal Roger Mahoney revealed that he had been assaulted in July outside of Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral; the attacker was "enraged by the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal within days of a record settlement with hundreds of victims." Karl Dorrell will not be coaching UCLA in its upcoming Las Vegas Bowl game. Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker will coach in the interim. If the world weren't already all shook up by Jakob Lodwick's departure......

"You see this watch? You see this watch? That watch cost more than your car. I made $970,000 last year. How much you make? You see, pal, that's who I am. And you're nothing. Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good father? Fuck you -- go home and play with your kids! You wanna work here? Close! You think this is abuse? You think this is abuse, you cocksucker? You can't take this......

Even my beloved Thursdays are starting to fill up with reruns. We do have a great Fellini movie on tonight though, so open a fine Chianti (or my preference of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo) and drink it all in. Also kids, the Style Network notified me that they are looking for folks for a new reality show. Here's the deets: If your business, club, band, school, organization, or team is in need of a make-over then apply......

What? There are unnecessary quotation marks in the title? Better report this to the good people over at The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. I especially like the ones with people selling "chicken" "hamburgers" or "maple syrup". The blog that started my obsession with punctuation police was Apostrophe Abuse, which is my pet peeve. It blows my mind that somewhere out there stands a tombstone that says, "MOM - Alway's there for us." Literally a......

"You don't actually think they spend $20000.00 on a hammer, $30000.00 on a toilet seat do you?" ~ Independence Day Well, it's the difference between what the new LAPD headquarters currently under construction should cost and is costing. And City Controller Laura Chick, who is responsible for auditing city spending to find misuse, abuse and savings, is making headlines by putting departments city who oversee contracts and contractors themself on notice, starting with the......

Amy Winehouse got booed offstage during the opening of her new tour after ranting about her husband's incarceration - BBC Britney Spears runs over another photographer last night while leaving The Four Seasons - TMZ Rumer Willis has been named "Miss Golden Globe" by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association - Defamer Little Zahara's family wants her back in Africa! They are claiming that Angelina Jolie's adoption paperwork is wrong - Digital Spy Dave Letterman opens......

She has her eye on becoming City Controller and maybe she has a knack for it. After working on a "Clean Money" system for City elections and helping to create the Waste, Fraud and Abuse Investigation Unit in the City Controller's office, Councilwoman Wendy Greuel introduced a motion yesterday that asked the City Ethics Commission to expand the City's ethics code to ex parte communication with City Commissioners. Whoa, what? Ex parte communications are communications......

Sorry for the lateness of this column...computer problems just bite. Anyway, this week's theater picks are filled with abuse, angst and comedy -- but not necessarily in the same show: Lost Angeles Ten Gen Xers – including a scientist who’s gotten himself a date with a beautiful woman whom he had been stalking and a woman who’s scored a MySpace date with “the world’s hottest lesbian” – are trying to find their way in the......

There’s something for everyone in LA theatre scene this week: old stuff, new stuff and stuff that’s just out there. Canned Peaches in Syrup The Furious Theatre Company presents this post-apocalyptic comedy, where two tribes of humans remain: cannibals and vegetarians. “Can star-crossed lovers Rog and Julie cross tribal lines?! Can Rog's taste for flesh be suppressed?! Can Julie deny her parents' "meat is murder" mantra?! And, who exactly is Blind Bastard? A lone can......

Have you entered LAist's contest to win Arcade Fire tickets yet? Head on over and comment to become eligible: are you a wine drinker or a beer drinker when at the Bowl? Or, are you like some people we know who bring in a couple of forties and a bucket of fried chicken? An infant was shot and killed last night in MacArthur Park; the baby was hit by a stray bullet while his......

David Lee Roth w/ Steve Vai - "Yankee Rose" Art Brut @ Key Club Spoon @ The Henry Fonda Steve Vai @ The Wiltern Jon Brion, Dana Gould @ The Largo Brandi Carlile, A Fine Frenzy @ House of Blues Maserati, El Ten Eleven, Good to Be @ Silverlake Lounge Acid Mothers, Guru Guru, The Phantom Family Halo @ The Troubadour Papillon, Longevity, Hornz & Halos, Subtance Abuse @ The Knitting Factory Teaneck, New......

In order to cover the costs of their $600-million-plus priest abuse settlement, the Los Angeles Archdiocese is selling off its Santa Barbara convent, leaving the nuns with no place left to go. Aw, how cute, the 818 thinks it's just like the 310! The San Fernando Valley may be getting a 747 area code overlay in the very near future. Are we seeing a theme here yet? A thirteen-year-old boy was killed by an......

After 2002 when Dave Mustaine broke up Megadeth due to his weirdo arm-injury nerve-thing, nobody suspected he would make a roaring comeback with two new albums debuting at #18 and then #8, and now they'll be coming to the Grove of Anaheim on Sept. 12th with their "Tour of Duty". If you don't know much about Megadeth, let me tell you that they are thrash metal legends. Some say they are part of the......

- David Garcia, KNBC's environmental reporter died of liver failure yesterday in Palm Desert at 63. Adios, Earthman! - KNBC - If you are an illegal alien and you got pulled over, and the LAPD discovered that you didn't have a drivers license, your car would be immediately impounded. That practice might be illegal, somehow, so the LAPD are stopping that. The Sheriff's Dept., however, is a different story - LAT - Frisco man......

"Constance" by Mr. J. Medeiros of Echo Park Being stuck on the Hollywood Freeway during rush hour, trapped in a metallic expanse of automobiles, counting the minutes of your life that you will never get back on the dashboard clock is a nasty predicament to be in...But that isn't the kind of traffic I'm talking about here. I'm talking about the human traffic -- the trafficking of people. Human cargo. Coerced labor. The exploited......

KCBS and its KCAL affiliate picked up seven awards at the Los Angeles Emmy Awards last night, with the award for live coverage of an unannounced event going to the team for the Esperanza fire. Let's all share in a joyous chorus of "Hell yeah!!": teen drivers may be barred from using cell phones while driving, under state legislation passed today. And while we're at it, give another whoop of joy for the resignation......

CBS says it is one parent distorting the picture of Kid Nation, a reality show about 40 kids, 40 days and no adults that premieres on September 19th. But news outlets are on the attack with Lisa de Moraes of The TV Column at The Washington Post rounding up the media coverage: The news reports on "Kid Nation" to date are the stuff PR-nightmare legends are made of: charges of thwarting child-labor laws; parents......

Things got off to a rocky start between us and TD Camp. We think he possibly knee-jerk reacted to our review of the new album "From The Ground Up" (see the comments), and wanted to give the San Francisco native a chance to tell his side. Bored Stiff's album comes out today, click here to check it, blah blah blah... OK! here's the interview: LAist: Whats life like as a musician/record label owner? TD Camp:......

I don’t know who first said “never judge a book by its cover,” but I think it is safe to assume that for a theatre junkie such as myself, that a play should never be judged by its title. I mention this because as I go through my weekly play-picking ritual, I tend to avoid attending any and all plays that are about love and romance. It just seems to go against my bitter,......

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has launched an inquiry into allegations of racism and discrimination within the LAFD. Two men have filed suit against the L.A. Zoo and the city to stop construction of a $40 million elephant exhibit and to prevent it from having elephants on the grounds, alleging instances of abuse and neglect. Bring on the air pollution: the South Coast Air Quality Management District board voted to approve, 8-3, rule changes......

Guest Day Editor Zuma Dogg will be joining LAist with a few posts throughout the day. Read his introductory interview here and check out his site as well as Mayor Sam where he contributes. He also wrote an article in the current edition of the LA Weekly Dear Los Angeles City Council, We all know legislation, administration and meetings take up a good amount of your time, whether ZD shows up that day, or not.......

LAist Editor Tony Pierce has blogged here non-stop for more than a year deserving a well-earned vacation (and did he ever earn it). While out of town, we decided to have a little fun and bring some guest day editors in from around the blogLAsphere. Monday we had Green LA Girl and Tuesday saw Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA. Today, get ready for Zuma Dogg who has his own website, but also contributes to Mayor......

Photo by idealterna via Flickr I had wanted to see the Edith Piaf biopic La Vie En Rose ever since I first saw a poster. My mom used to blast The Voice of The Sparrow: The Very Best of Edith Piaf around the house when I was kid, and I always remembered how strong her voice was, and how great the vibrato in it sounded, as well as the playfulness and sarcasm that came......

Last night, alt-country hero Ryan Adams and his backing band, The Cardinals, played his only Los Angeles show on his tour for his 9th album, Easy Tiger, at the Wilshire Theater to a sold out audience. Adams is known for his lengthy sets and last night was no exception, playing for over two hours both old and new songs (mostly new) - all very well done. The Cardinals, his favorite back up band and......

A culture of secrecy that led bishops to place the interest of the Catholic Church ahead of the safety of the children. Sound familiar? That was one of the conclusions of The Ferns Report, which was a study that found 24 priests in a tiny enclave in Ireland that was responsible for the sexual abuse of over 100 boys and girls. Another conclusion was that the Catholic Church knew of their dirty little secret......

- You don't have to be in snow to say "mush." Try urban mushing in Costa Mesa. - "Cardinal Roger M. Mahony today apologized to victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese." - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa skips his monthly appearance on KABC-TV's Eyewitness Newsmakers because of personal questions. - By the 1930s, the Los Angeles streetcar system had nearly 600 miles of track and used more than 1,200 cars. Downtown......

- Stubborn week old fire in Northern Santa Barbara County still not contained. - Fire in Banning took 19 acres before it was under control after 45-minutes. - Orange County bus strike could be now over. - "The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of L.A. will reportedly fork over the largest payout to date in the church's sexual abuse scandal." - "At least 33 infants were infected in the 1980s by HIV-tainted transfusions at Cedars-Sinai." -......