The piano man is also a guitar man I’m not ashamed to admit that somewhere among my Jon Brion, Of Montreal and Vampire Weekend albums, you’ll find a bunch of Billy Joel CDs. Although I wasn’t even born when he first hit the airwaves, I’ve always had a soft spot for his music. Since I didn’t get to see him perform during the days when he was releasing and performing new music, I was......

I've managed to avoid watching NFL playoffs and college bowl games but I'm getting worn down, I'm tellin' ya. If I got the Fox Movie Channel I would watch Less Than Zero tonight at 7pm because I'm just about as strung out as Robert Downey Jr.was in that flick. I'm not begging for the writers to capitulate, I want them to win, I'm just begging the networks to send me some shite to write about.......

Okay, so in case you haven't heard, Green Day now has a new side project to tack onto the list, right smack under The Network. (You remember the Fembot song. Billie Joe's vocals did sort of give them away, but it was still exciting.) This one was reportedly leaked in a Green Day blog (are we talking "The Idiot Club" or what? I can't get in there, you have to pay), and is titled Foxboro......

A favorite of locals and a darling of restaurant reviewers, Ackee Bamboo on Degnan helps to alleviate LA's need for some good Jamaican food. Kingston-born proprietress Marlene Sinclair and her husband Delroy serve up generous portions to the hungry customers who are often making a special pilgrimage to Leimert Park just to try her jerks and curries. The oxtails may be the best I've ever eaten. Of course, oxtails are kind of like sex.......

Did anyone else catch SciFi's Tin Man last night? Definitely worth watching into Part Deux (they will repeat Part One at 7:00pm). I wish I could say the same about Comedy Central's Last Laugh '07 - I love Lewis Black, Dave Attell, and D.L. Hughley, but they crammed their acts, a lengthy animated intro, and a Q/A session into one hour. The end result left a lot to be desired. 7:00pm David Copperfield TCM -......

If you heard the hysterical sounds of laughter coming from the Los Feliz, Little Armenia, Thai Town and East Hollywood section of Los Angeles Saturday night, it was me. First of all the UCLA Bruins lost to Notre Dame? The fact that Ben Olson got injured in the first quarter and they brought out walk-on quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson to replace him shows something fundamentally wrong with this Bruin program. When Patrick Cowan went down......

Although I usually write about art, here on LAist, I jumped at the chance to join in on a group project of reviewing restaurants in Thai Town. All these cool, different types of people writing about L.A. because they love it, gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. And speaking of warm fuzzy feelings, I sure lucked out with the restaurant I was assigned. Ord Noodle, is a very homey, neighborhood kinda place. Decked out......

Suspension in Los Angeles...

After two years of college I had to drop out for financial reasons. I had stopped talking to my family, and needing loans to pay for school I had no one to cosign for them. Being wary of those bank loans I decided it better to drop out. I went to a temp job and they placed me in an accounts payable position for a non-profit. Nine years later here I am still working......

Anastasia Griffith plays the hot, and somewhat indiscreet drug-using and slutty restauranteur Katie Connor in "Damages" (FX, Tuesdays, 10:00pm) - you might also remember her from "Alfie" and "Dirty Rotten Love". The story so far as we know it shows Katie getting played by both corporate scumbag Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson) and no-holds barred harpie lawyer Patty Hewes (Glenn Close). Sorry about the pigeonholing stereotypes - everybody plays there characters well beyond those cookie-cutter......

Artist: Kraak & Smaak Album: The Remix Sessions Release Date: April, 2007 Label: Quango Dutch remix demi-gods, Kraak & Smaak, are not a duo, but a trio composed of Mark Kneppers, Oscar De Jong and Wim Plug and 'The Remix Sessions' is a 2 disc collection of 16 remixes of various artists and 3 original tunes. This double album is being distributed by LA's own Quango label, who specialize in electronica, dub, and dance......

The Dodgers made a better showing of things Friday night against the Diamondbacks. The game ended up being a good pitcher’s duel between Chad Billingsley and the D-Back’s Doug Davis. Bills ended up making one mistake, an eighth inning lead off homer to Chris Snyder which was the only offense mustered by either team. Bills tamed a D-Back’s locomotive that had won 10 of their last 12 games, five of which they scored seven......

I called my friend today to tell him that I attended The Format's show last night at the Avalon and he promptly responded with, "Wow, so you went to a real pop-punk show last night?" Yes, I did and I survived. Although I wouldn't place The Format and Limbeck in the pop-punk genre, their fan base and roots are set firmly in those pre-pubescent yesteryears. Both of these bands have been sitting on a pile......

July was a bittersweet month for LAist. We had a record-breaking month with nearly a million visitors coming to our humble site. Little did we know that some of the guests were big wigs from the venerable Los Angeles Times who left with two of our editors. Indeed, several weeks ago our Film Editor Elina Shatkin was snapped up from our midsts to become Content Producer for CalendarLive at LATimes.com, and yesterday our Sports......

Because I work in fashion, I’m able to purchase most of my clothing for wholesale. This comes has a huge benefit since my fashion taste is pretty expensive and my paycheck doesn’t exactly support a whim buy of Christian Louboutin heels. With that said, shopping isn’t always an easy experience. There are a lot of hours spent forking through mounds of clothing at sample sales and making calls to showrooms to see if there’s......

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......

While I was deciding whether or not to break things off with Aroma, I thought I might go check out their sister restaurant, Alcove. It was only in Los Feliz. I mean, it was right there on the way to Wacko. It would almost be rude not to stop. I had my nephew along for the ride too, so it wasn't like a date or anything. I mean, I'm still getting over Aroma. No......

I live in East Hollywood. I get my mail at the Los Feliz post office. The neighborhood sign near my apartment says Little Armenia. My zip code says 90027. You'd think a magazine called Los Angeles would know which part of the LA I lived in. But perhaps the publication is outsourcing its subscription-hustling duties to the same guys covering the Pasadena city council meetings because not only did Los Angeles mail me an......

This video was recorded after the Knitters' "Friday Nights at the Getty" performance last night. Although I got permission from everyone to post this, I forgot to ask for the Knitter's fan/mystery interviewer's name. If you're out there, let me know who you are so I can give you credit. Unfortunately, the tram makes some of the audio difficult to hear. At first, everyone is talking about Exene's aprons, which are the trademark of......

Alright folks the 2007 baseball season upon us, so I thought I’d take a look at who the Angels will likely start in the field, compared to the squad that the Halos fielded going into ’06. Catcher: 2006: Jeff Mathis/Jose Molina 2007: Mike Napoli Impact: Positive Going into last season, the Angels had let Bengie Molina go so that they could hand Jeff Mathis the job behind the dish, with Jose Molina expected to......

My whole experience at Bondage Ball started hours before I showed up due to the email spankings I got from whoever was in charge of the guest list. They were unamused by my obnoxious last-minute request to be added (a few hours before the event), but kindly did it anyway and then, because I'm a glutton for punishment, I wrote again and asked if I could get me a plus one. They didn't bother writing......

Although I know my way around the kitchen, for years I considered bread baking a specialized talent that took patience and a certain cast to character that I did not have. This didn't bother me; in fact, I confess that I looked down a bit on my breadbaking friends, raving about yeast and living dough and all manner of crunchiness. Until this fall, when the New York Times' Mark Bittman offered a bread recipe,......

Dear Reader, This is my last LAist Interview. I have appreciated all your feedback, but I'm especially grateful to all the interviewees who graciously gave me their time and knowledge. Writing this feature validates my belief that everyone in LA has a fascinating story to tell and an interesting opinion to share. I'm confident that Tony will lead LAist on to bigger and better things, including more riveting interview features. It's been a fun......

photo of Belle and Sebastian with the LA Philharmonic by chotda Slowly creeping my way down Highland Boulevard in some of the worst LA traffic I've ever experienced, almost completely surrounded by my soon-to-be fellow audience members, I was mentally preparing myself for a night consisting of sweet little diddies and teen misfit anthems from not only Belle and Sebastian, but Belle and Sebastian backed by the LA Philharmonic, with The Shins opening for......

In an environment so focused on creation of media content, there are also those who take a step back to critically evaluate it. Nor do we mean straight-up critics, but rather thinkers whose fields of knowledge are honed in the halls of the academy and other types of research institutions. Aram Sinnreich is a media analyst and Ph.D. candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication at USC. While not blogging his qualifying exams prep,......

Soccer star David Beckham was in LA yesterday to open up his new soccer academy at the Home Depot Center, and rumors were flying that he could one day play for the Los Angeles Galaxy. "I never thought that I would ever be playing anywhere apart from Manchester United, and then I make the move to the biggest club in the world, Real Madrid," Beckham said. "… Things happen. Playing in America does interest......