Our friends over at Austinist asked us to pass along this casting call for Lucky magazine--one of their writers, Breanna, made the cut and will be striking a pose in the mag's glossy pages come March '08--and now they're looking for some lovely Angeleno ladies for a local shoot. Could you be one of them? The shoot is going to take place here in Los Angeles on Friday, January 4th. According to their press info,......

Overnight rainstorms brought at least a dozen motor accidents on slick roads and freeways, and the light rain that is gracing the Los Angeles area right now is "expected to intensify later in the day, prompting forecasters to issue a flash flood watch for fire-denuded areas of Los Angeles and Orange counties" according to KNBC.com. These areas are particularly vulnerable to disastrous mud slides as well. The watch goes into effect at noon today and......

Slim pickings to choose from this Thanksgiving week and that makes it hard to choose just one. Friday through Sunday, the LA Phil will be playing Brahms' "Double Concerto" and Dvorák's killer Symphony No. 9 "From the New World," while the LA Opera opens two shows that will play on alternating dates: Don Giovanni and La Boheme. Tonight at Sundays Live, the free concert at LACMA, is Franz Schubert's "Quintet in C Major, D. 956"......

BarCampLA-4 is here! LAist has been a friend, attendee and proponent of BarCamp since the beginning and this time is no different. What is BarCamp? Here is their definition (it's really the best): BarCamp ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees. If you like, it can be overnight, like camp! BarCamps - and......

I'm really looking forward to StartUp LA which is kicking off today! It's a conference and an un-conference together. The idea came from a BarCamp LA session (which by the way is next weekend) and it's to bring together start ups, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and let us all mix and mingle. For more information and to register click here.......

Welcome to the all fire, all the time edition of Extra Extra! The weather is not expected to abate until tomorrow, and fire fighters are still days away from containing major blazes. The New York Times is liveblogging the fires; they are reporting that over 500,000 people have been forced to evacuate so far (although other reports are estimating up to one million people have had to flee their homes). The Daily News is......

We get a lot of announcements in our email box throughout the week. A lot of press releases, tips, and nudes from the ladies. Thank you. But the other day we got a very interesting one from Scion announcing an art exhibit curated by one of our favorite magazines, Swindle. Maybe you've seen the really well-done hardbound (and recently also in paperback), colorful books, basically, that Shepard Fairey puts out when you least expect......

Following in the footsteps of Matthew Good and Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor announced today that he has come to the end of the downward spiral. He has fulfilled his contractual agreements with Interscope and will see if he can avoid the middleman and allow his audience to deal with him in a more intimate arrangement, he said on nin.com. Hello everyone. I've waited a LONG time to be able to make......

Okay, the Dodgers are done, 'SC and UCLA are done, and let's be honest- the Lakers are already done. But fear not, the coolest races of the year are just getting started- the Nobel Prize awards. That's right, everyone's favorite Swedish prize named after the guy who invented dynamite. The best of the best, the elite of the elite, the few (hopefully) good people finally getting recognition for doing things that are by and......

I don't know how I missed this, but there have been a slew of major announcements regarding the upcoming release of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and lemme tell ya, this shit is serious. Apparently even Lars Ulrich got the memo about GH being an incredible (and lucrative) game, because Metallica's classic "One" has been confirmed to be a part of the set-list for the fall release. ("Enter Sandman" will be appearing on......

For once I'm not going to bitch about the Dodger's pitching or offense. Yesterday Dodger's Owner and Chairman Frank McCourt announced the launch of ThinkCure, a charitable fund in conjunction with City of Hope and Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, as the official charity of the Dodgers organization. ThinkCure will raise funds to help both institutions to develop new approaches to the treatment and hopeful cure of cancer. Today it was announced that KCAL9, the......

Here at LAist we've been a tad OCD about things lately. We had our little Spoon-fest last week, and our green movement today with Green LA Girl as our guest editor, so I suppose it's only fair that DAFT PUNK is our new obsession. Yes, we shared with you one of our favorite videos of all time for Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster (and what else those hands can do is on our list of......

Do you walk your dog in Elysian Park? And maybe sometimes you did not collect the dog's poop in the plastic grocery bag or the corn-starch bio-degradable bag because the damned dog was chasing a lizard or squirrel or some un-neutered hound a half-mile away? Well, here is the Brunch of Your Nightmares: Sunday, July 15 is the Dog Poop Scoop Event, from 8 a.m. to Noon. Bags are provided, as are snacks and......

LAist has been a little Spoon crazy lately, but there is lots to go Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga over. Their once secret show for Monday night is no longer secret and the special golden ticket you could get through buying their album at Amoeba are now going on sale. So if you want to get down to Little Radio on Monday night for the Spoon show, click here and see them before they......

As most of you know, LAist is all over the Kwik-E-Mart phenomenon happening around Los Angeles. Who would we be not to give you the latest update? Today the two Kwik-E-Marts at Olive and Verdugo in Burbank, and also at Sepulveda and Venice in West LA, are providing squishees F-R-E-E. Yes, it's a shameless marketing move. But do we care? Hell no. This LAister has been twice to go all goo-goo and gaa-gaa over......

Now that his extramarital shenanigans with Telemundo newscaster Mirthala Salinas have firmly supplanted his other accomplishments in the eyes of many Angelenos, pundits' tongues are a-wagging over the potential ramifications to his long-term mayoral career. Or, put more simply, can he move beyond Mirthala? While some commentators, such as San Jose State's Larry Gerston, have already written off Villaraigosa's future prospects, advising him not to "make any plans to run for the Democratic nomination in......

Despite some resentment about yesterday's fare hikes and attitude from some that Metro has failed this city, they continue to win awards. Today, the San Fernando Business Journal announces that Metro has won a top honor from The Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD): The Washington, D.C.-based organization chose Metro because of its new paint schemes for the bus fleet, new building façade for the Wilshire Customer Center and new signage and identification for......

Crash Mansion, a live-music venue and nightclub owned by the Bowery Restaurant Group and located at 199 Bowery in New York City , is opening their Los Angeles outpost tonight. They have transformed Myron's Ballroom downtown into a club. We read that is has a capacity for 1200 guests, 5 bars and two stages. Bands that have performed in the New York venue include: Beyonce, Janet Jackson, Norah Jones, Joss Stone, Usher, Gavin DeGraw,......

CURE, is a quarterly magazine that combines the science and humanity of cancer for those who have to deal with it on a daily basis. CURE provides scientific updates in an easy to understand langauge and is a sister publication to Heal. CURE is looking for breast cancer survivors (including those who are currently receiving treatment) who took or is taking hormone replacement therapy, including estrogen plus progestin therapy such as Prempro, Premarin, and......

You never know who you might run into at a KCRW membership phone-a-thon. An old LAister, Ethan Lindsay, used to swear by the free food, musician run-ins and quality stories that he would come away with after volunteering. Out of work actors - practice your phone voice or accent you screwed up in a previous audition! Plus volunteering brings good karma and you'll think twice about the next time someone cold calls you. KCRW's......

Here in Los Angeles, we're not used to feeling the change of seasons like some other parts of the country are, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't celebrate them! Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. What exactly does that mean? A solstice occurs twice a year, whenever Earth's axis tilts the most toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun to be farthest north or south at noon.......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

Veteran LA Times sports writer Mike Penner today explained why he will be away for the next couple of weeks. Here's how it starts: During my 23 years with The Times' sports department, I have held a wide variety of roles and titles. Tennis writer. Angels beat reporter. Olympics writer. Essayist. Sports media critic. NFL columnist. Recent keeper of the Morning Briefing flame. Today I leave for a few weeks' vacation, and when I......

On Sale Tomorrow: Daft Punk with Sebastian and Kavinsky, July 21 @ L.A. Sports Arena, $50 - on sale at noon Modest Mouse, May 13 @ Greek - on sale at noon Jamie Foxx, Apr 21 @ Gibson Amphitheatre - on sale 1pm On Sale Monday: The Police, June 21 @ Honda Center, Anaheim - on sale 10am After the jump check out the Police's very unique North American tour. Wrigley, Fenway, and Churchill......

More than fifty local communities and sixty local schools & colleges will come together this Saturday to mark the fourth anniversary of the ground invasion of Iraq. This massive anti-war protest will be one of more than two hundred nationally coordinated protests, rallies and marches this weekend. Saturday, March 17 @ 12 NOON ~ GATHER with thousands of like-minded people at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. ~ MARCH at a leisurely (but outraged)......

What Oscar Says... Here are the street and sidewalk closures according to them: Friday, Sautrday, Sunday, Monday. City Streets (According to the City) The City of Los Angeles will strictly enforce the parking restrictions and will cite and/or impound vehicles parked on streets at times shown (complete list after the jump). Hollywood Boulevard has been closed between Highland Avenue and Orange Drive since Monday for the construction of press risers, fan bleachers, and pre-show......

What happens when you're skateboarding, hit by a car, severely injured and undergo four brain surgeries? In the case of dancer Kim Hagen, tonight a bunch of artists and musicians throw a benefit to help pay off nearly a million dollars in medical bills. If your you, ten bucks gets eight hours of live music, DJ's, and registered for some nice door prizes (like wine tastings, gift certificates and a good bottle of tequila.)......

With less than a week to go until the Oscars, tonight's traffic impact is still at a minimum. Like last night, closures will begin at 10 p.m., ending at 6 a.m. the next morning. The only major difference is a full closure of the sidewalk in front of the Kodak Theatre, causing your walk to the Knitting Factory to be about 2 seconds longer. Closing will start up again on Friday throughout the weekend, and......

If only all festivals and projects could be as clear and consice about communicating this kind of information to the public. The Academy of Motion Pictures of Arts & Sciences has a webpage dedicated to just this. Tomorrow's closures only take effect starting at 10 p.m., but being a holiday three-day weekend, Hollywood should be busier than usual for a Sunday. The pink on the map signifies the closures, but one should take note that......

Valentine’s Day is less than two weeks away and the scent of love is in the air. For some, it’s a sweet smell of that someone special, and for others, it’s a stench filled with the one that got away (or the one you never had to begin with). Regardless of whether 2/14 is a day of celebration or mourning for you, you’ve undoubtedly got a memory of a past relationship that fell by......