The list of reasons for using public transportation just keeps growing: saving energy, protecting our environment, having fewer traffic jams. Now Bay Area commuters have an even bigger incentive to ride public transportation. The Contra Costa County Library has begun a partnership with Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) to provide an automated book “vending machine” for its patrons. The new “Library A Go Go” machines will appear first in county BART stations in April, then......

And you thought the Burger King Chicken was crazy? Check out the Crazy Chickens this week at the Mayan / Photo by upslases via flickr. TALK Could you not get into Michael Pollan last night at the Central Library? No worries because American eating habits and food policy are a hot topic this week. Tonight, the Center for Healthy Communities presents “Hungry for Change: The Politics of Food with Marion Nestle.” The nutritionist, author......

It’s kinda quiet on the event front, a perfect day to reflect on Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy. But if you're into going out tonight: CLASSICAL Southwest Chamber Music continues its Musical Imagination and Color series with a concert featuring 20th century composers, including Stravinsky, Milhaud, Berg, and Bartók. Violinist Lorenz Gamma, clarinetist Jim Foschia and pianist Ming Tsu are on the bill tonight. 8 // Colburn School Of Performing Arts: Across The Street......

Ever wonder how your local news anchor could read the horrifying details of the latest terrorist attack, natural disaster or political scandal without breaking down and screaming their head off? Playwright, Kyle T. Wilson did, and penned a very funny play in the process, “Walking Into Traffic.” Directed by Chris Covics who was recently named one of the top ten artists to watch in Los Angeles by L.A. Stage Magazine, “Walking into Traffic” is......

Monday Gordy Slack presents The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything 7pm @ Vroman's Tuesday Kimberlee Auerbach presents The Devil, The Lovers and Me: My Life in Tarot 7pm @ Book Soup Gregg Hurwitz presents The Crime Writer 7pm @ Borders, Century City Kirk Douglas presents Let's Face It 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble, Encino Wednesday Laurie Viera Rigler presents Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict 7pm @ Vroman's Helen Gilbert presents Okay Girls,......

Using a sweet ten inch D.I.Y. Bart Simpson Blank Platform Qee Figure as a blank canvas, 50 artists from Doink to Rentals frontman Matt Sharp to Simpsons creator Matt Groening himself have created one-of-a-kind Simpsons art that will be unveiled today in Hollywood. Meltdown Comics at 7522 W Sunset Blvd is hosting an opening tonight from 7 to 11 (still cross-marketing are we?) where one can not only gawk at the sweet 10" figures......

For what seems like the first time in years, The Simpsons actually exceeded expectations. The first movie of America's first animated family took in a whopp(er)ing 71.8 million dollars at the box office this weekend, demolishing even the most optimistic of estimates. Credit Fox's clever marketing campaign and the opportunity to finally see Bart's shrimpy doodle. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry finished a distant second, making 19 million bucks to raise its......

Honeycut @ MOCA's Night Vision, June 16thHosting the San Francisco based Band, Honeycut, on the 2nd saturday of MOCA's Night Vision music/poetry summer series things got funky and arty while LAist sucked down some beers, walked through some art galleries, and boogied down like our bones were made of jelly.Pounding yet soothing sleaze funk to make your ears rejoice with satisfaction, thats the fix Honeycut is dealing out. The band's sound is centered around the......

Ducks 3, Senators 2 - Do you believe in miracles? We're almost there. Sunny, surf-city-adjacent Anaheim drew another step closer to Lord Stanley's trophy by beating Ottawa (a real, honest-to-goodness Canadian team) in game one of the NHL finals. The Senators managed only 20 shots on goal, but connected on one of their three in the first period. Anaheim equaled before intermission, but lost the lead again in the second. The third was all Ducks,......

For all you road weary travelers back from Coachella, heres the juice you missed this weekend... Scientologists unite! Fellow Hubbard follower Jenna Elfman defends Tom and Katie's marriage - People Britney gets pulled over for speeding, gets off with a warning - X 17 She also shows us her undies again - Seriously?!OMGWTF! And in the last and best piece of Britney news, rumor has it she's going to pen a tell-all book....this one might......

Richie Hass Benefit featuring: Potion Box, Present Tense, The Freda Rente Band, The Adz, Backbiter, The Amadans, The Richie Hass Band, Vinnie Golia, The BellRays, Mike Watt & the Missingmen, The Marc Mylar Mob, Joe Baiza's Congress, Saccharine Trust, Carey Fosse, The Atomic Sherpas, Fatso Jetson @ Safari Sams 4pm-midnight TV on the Radio @ Henry Fonda Theater Sweet Honey in the Rock @ Royce Hall Fishbone @ Malibu Inn Goo Goo Dolls @......

Many things make it into the LAist email box. But when anything is sent from Springfield we mark it Spam immediately. Somehow this slipped through the filter. We keeeed. The Simpsons have been on the air longer than most of you could pee straight and apparently this year they have decided to agree on some resolutions. Here they be... In preparation for the New Year, Homer, Marge and many of their fellow Springfieldians vow to......

Council President Eric Garcetti represents the Thirteenth Council District which includes all or part of the communities of Glassell Park, Atwater Village, Elysian Valley, Echo Park, Historic Filipinotown, Silver Lake, East Hollywood and Hollywood. Otherwise known as LAist's 'Hood. Because we're represented brilliantly, when we sent our councilmember a request to take part in this collection of Best Of lists not only did he respond quickly and wonderfully, but he reached behind our ear and......

Excerpt from Day 2 (Nov. 16): Father Comes Home From The Wars (Part 1) Father: Hi honey, Im home. Mother: Yr home. Father: Yes. Mother: I wasnt expecting you. Ever. Father: Should I go back out and come back in again? Mother: Please. We're going to say this right now and get it over with: get off your arses and participate in this yearlong national theatre festival. which is being held simultaneously around the......

The -ists this week had politics on the brain. And what goes better with politics? Partying-- that's two great tastes in one. Oh, and Kevin Federline...can't forget about Kevin Federline. That's three great tastes in one. -Chicagoist celebrated the election news but cried in their Beer of the Week as Da Bears lost for the very first time. And in continuing with our theme, previewed an actual K-Fed show! -DCist caught the President stumped......

Still no word on the future of Bart DeLorenzo's Evidence Room company, but an email on the sadly quiet company mailing list this week recommends two "ER-related offerings": actress Pamela Gordon's poignant last film, The Dogwalker, premiering tonight at the Laemmle Music Hall, and a new novel, The Glass Books Of The Dream Eaters, by ER playwright Gordon Dahlquist (Delirium Palace (2001), Messalina (2003)). DeLorenzo describes The Glass Books as "kind of a Victorian......

Uma Nithipalan, Lee Kissman, Maria O’Brien, and Tom Fitzpatrick (photo: Mike Jansen) Laist really hates to write these words, but this Sunday night is the final performance of the last show by the Evidence Room company in their Beverly Boulevard home. Bart DeLorenzo draws the curtain with a simultaneously riotous and poignant staging of THE CHERRY ORCHARD. His ensemble, sharpened into pain by their years of collaboration and their imminent departure from their home,......

Apartment Therapy helped solve a personal 2 year mystery for us today. We knew we recognized the cover of LA-based DJ & Producer Greyboy's 2004 release Soul Mosaic from somewhere but, for the life of us, couldn't place it. One random ebay auction later and now we know that it was the cover of a classic Sunset Do-It-Yourself book. Why we couldn't place that is anyone's guess. The auction is still super cheap so......

This scrolling sign (that you can't read because it is flickering too much for the camera to capture) at the Metro Rapid 750 Ventura Blvd/Woodman stop says it is currently updating information. Too bad it's been updating since July. Los Angeles is so going to kick BART's ass this year in Public Transportation Awards!......

FRIDAY • The Helio Sequence, King of France (featuring Michael Azerrad, author of Our Band Could Be Your Life) and The Can't See are at Spaceland tonight. Doors open at 9 PM. • Rademacher, Harpeth Trace, The Kris Special and Raymond Richards (of The Idaho Falls) are playing a free show tonight at Mr. T's Bowl in Highland Park. The show starts at 10 PM. • Kristin Hersh's second night at Tangier opens with......

The local papers can't get enough of The Orange Line. The Daily News ran what seems like their hundredth front page story on the new transitway today and the Times took it to the editorial page making the case for more parking at the orange line/red line transfer location. LAist rode the Orange line for the first time last week and was pleasantly surprised with how enjoyable the ride was. It felt a little......

Bart DeLorenzo is the artistic director of the Evidence Room, one of Los Angeles's most unique and adventurous theatres for new works and for avant-garde writers. At the ER, Bart has directed over 20 shows, including No Orchids For Miss Blandish (1999 LA Weekly Award, Best Direction) One Flea Spare, Messalina, Pentecost, Saved, Andromache, Leonce and Lena, and their current show, She Stoops To Comedy. (LAIST reviewed it here.) He has received many awards......

THURSDAY • Tangier features James William Hindle, Bart Davenport, Andrew Goodsight and Hensley tonight at 8 PM. Tickets are $10. • Shannon McNally, Speechwriters LLC, Todd Thibaud and Miranda Lee Richards are at the Hotel Cafe tonight at 9 PM. • For those who didn't get tickets to Le Tigre, check out La Polla Loca at Little Pedro's, with resident DJs Senior and Rudy Blue, plus guest DJ JD of Le Tigre. Things heat......