Killing on the big screen at the New Beverly tonight, courtesy of Eli Roth. / Photo by hemmob via flickr. TALK Author Katha Pollitt discusses her new book On Learning to Drive: And Other Life Stories with UC Irvine Professor Jon Wiener as part of the ALOUD at the Central Library series. Pollitt is a poet and columnist for The Nation who’ll discuss her latest essays that deal with sex, death, ex-lovers, politics, motherhood,......

An interview with Souther Salazar about his upcoming show 'Make It Real', opening Saturday October 13th at GR2....

Parking Lot Art Show at the Sunset Junction, in the parking lot behind Cafe' Stella, from 5-11pm....

Now that the winds seem to have subsided, we're ready to dive into what promises to be a beautiful weekend, and we're pretty much ready for it to start now. Say it with us: T.G.I.F! Doesn't that feel good? We thought we'd tell you what we were up to this weekend, in case you needed a little inspiration, or in case you wanted to tell us something else you think we can't afford to......

Daily News tells tales of earmarked federal funding to go to the wayside in the Valley due to Democrats going lean on the budget. Of course, it won't be just the Valley. Watch out basin/metropolitan LA. The California Report looks into the future of rest stops along California's highways. Coffee vendors, farmer's markets, solar power, wifi and more. (Download Audio Here) Closer to home, Art Center College of Design's downtown campus's roof is green.......

New York City has won the honor for America’s Top Arts Destinations in AmericanStyle Magazine for the past three years. This year, let's change that. Vote Los Angeles because... 1. Musicals really aren't that great anyway. Small 20-seat theatres rock. 2. Barnsdall Art Park. 3. We don't destroy our murals. Wait, shit, that's us. 4. Festivals, festivals, festivals. 5. Green Umbrella Series. 6. Public Art everywhere. 7. Street Art. 8. Otis, Art Center, CalArts.......

In the LA-based movie Collateral, Max (played by Jamie Foxx) had only one way of taking a vacation: vicariously, through a photo of a tropical island in his taxi cab sun visor. Now, in two weeks, Max will have another choice. From National Geographic's All Roads Film Project comes (bet you can't guess it) the All Roads Film Festival. Los Angeles is the first stop of this traveling Film Festival, which goes to various......

In some ways, French artist Orlan resembles many LA women of a certain set. She’s vague about her age. She favors trim black suits. She’s not afraid to undergo a little nip ‘n tuck to improve her God-given form. A little might be an understatement. In the 1990’s, Orlan underwent a series of plastic surgeries-cum-video performances that reconstructed her face a la Old Masters. In one, she gained Mona Lisa’s forehead; in another, Psyche’s......

We're just not able to get upset by another story of fat salaries and benefits for museum heads. The latest kerfluffle in the LA Times is about the housing expenditures for the new Getty Museum director, whose rental is $15,000 per month, which is $180,000/year. The Getty purchased a house for him that (oops) was mold-ridden so they're putting him up elsewhere. But if we want to have world-class museums we have to pay......

Ed Note: We postponed publication of Monday's LAist Interview until today in honor of the Independence Day holiday. Craig Havens, a graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, is a fine art photographer whose commercial assignments have appeared in magazines such as Rolling Stone, JANE, Los Angeles Magazine, WYWS, and Detour. In 2004 he became the first American photographer to be honored with a solo exhibition at the Grand Hall Artists Union......

Since it appears the solstice wiped away June gloom for the time being, this looks to be a great weekend for getting out and about. Fortunately, there's plenty going on: This Saturday is the opening of Supersonic at the LA Design Center, a group show by graduate students in art programs at eight local colleges. Participants include 139 MFA students from Art Center College of Design, California Institute of the Arts, Claremont Graduate University,......

• Indie 103 presents The Wedding Present with Crystal Skulls at the Troubadour tonight. Doors open at 8 PM; tickets are $15 advance. • At the Hotel Cafe, see AM with Buddy, Brad Byrd, Single File and others TBA, starting at 8 PM. • At the Egyptian Theatre, an 8:00 PM screening of Raging Bull preceded by a boxing demonstration by former Golden Gloves Champion Mickey Jones in the courtyard at 7:30 PM. •......

Tonight is Art Night in Pasadena, and several museums and gallery spaces will be opening their doors to the public for free from 6-10 p.m. with free shuttle service between venues. Participants include the Armory Center for the Arts, the Student Gallery at the Art Center College of Design, the Norton Simon Museum, Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena Museum of California Art, the Pasadena Museum of History, and many more. At the Norton Simon you can......

150 bucks doesn’t get you much these days. Maybe a few tanks of gas, some nice new running shoes, or a romantic dinner for two. That’s usually about it. So imagine LAist’s surprise when we stumbled on the news that one lucky Angeleno will walk away with a gorgeous Palos Verdes home for the price of a pair of Diesel jeans. (If they’re on sale, that is) The home, pictured at the top of......

There is a beautiful, stately white mansion nestled in the hills above Glendale. Built in 1904 by Leslie C. Brand, El Miradero was the Brand family home for forty years. Noteworthy not only because of its stark whiteness against the rolling green of the hills, architect Nathaniel Dryden employed Saracenic architecture styles, incorporating the crenellated arches, bulbous domes and minars associated with Spanish, Moorish and Indian architecture to mimic the East Indian Pavilion from......

Keeping up with cultural goings on is one of the joys and burdens of living in a big city. As July draws to a close, LAist recommends catching the following exhibitions before the opportunity vanishes. Inventing Race: Casta Painting and Eighteenth-Century Mexico (La invención del mestizaje. La pintura de castas y el siglo XVIII en México) is at LACMA through August 8. As described by the museum, this extensive exhibition "explores the complex process......