Gregory Kloehn of Berkeley, CA championed a personal project to define "home." Using the shell of a dumpster, Kloehn has fashioned a cramped but accommodating shelter. In local filmmaker Kim Aronson's video, "Luxury Living... with a twist!" posted by Curbed LA, Kloehn invites viewers into his crafty abode and explains his mission. more ›

If you were a kid growing up in Southern California, learning about the Chumash Indians was no doubt a part of your third-grade curriculum (probably right around the same time you were building a mission out of sugar cubes). The Chumash were the original inhabitants of much of SoCal's coastal areas, and did cool stuff like leech the acid out of acorns so they could make food out of it without being poisoned. Of course, it wasn't until high school that we learned about things like imperialism and colonialism, and how the Europeans did crazy stuff like pass out syphilis blankets. (Many of you might also know of the Chumash tribe from the "Pangs" episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" where Xander got infected with all sorts of spirit-Indian diseases; it was also a really sad episode where Angel comes back to visit and Buffy doesn't know it, but anyway, that's neither here nor there.) more ›

One of my favorite food writers, Jeffrey Steingarten, once did an elaborate and methodical taste test of several different varieties of tap and bottled water. After much research and even more adjectives, he came to the shocking conclusion that New York tap water was most pleasing to the palate. more ›

The Kooks and The Morning Benders showcase a plateful of indie pop rock goodness at The Echo on February 8, 2008. more ›

Joel David Moore is one of those character actors whose name you can never place but whose face you recognize instantly. He often works in broad comedies (--and relies heavily on a tightening, claustrophobic mood for its suspense. Some might find it slow; I found it refreshing. more ›

Lakers 112, Pacers 96 - The purple and gold have won six of seven and 12 of their last 15 games. Against Indiana, several players had big nights. All five starters hit double-digits in scoring, including 26 from Kobe Bryant, 23 from Andrew Bynum, and 22 from Derek Fisher. The Pacers are 0-9 against the Lakers in Staples Center. more ›

Ed LaDou, the father of modern California-style pizza, has died of cancer at age 52 in Santa Monica. LaDou is best known for his work at Wolfgang Puck's legendary Spago; LaDou was the first to experiment with unusual and innovative pizza toppings like duck and smoked salmon, and he also helped develop the menu for the casual dining chain California Pizza Kitchen. From The LA Times:

"Ed really set the tone for the pizza," said Mark Peel, a former chef at Spago who now owns Campanile in Los Angeles. "Wolfgang had a great sense of taste, but he was not a pizza maker by any means. Ed was highly skilled, fast and clean; he was an intelligent guy who made a great, great crust. There are people who have built empires on less." more ›

After playing Signor Adolfo Pirelli in the recent movie release of "Sweeney Todd", it looks as Sacha Baron Cohen (of Borat fame) might be becoming a choice pick for directors, or maybe just the soup du jour. more ›

Los Angeles is working on being the second city in the state to successfully reduce pigeon and squirrel populations by using birth control rather than killing the animals. more ›

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Photo by kpe II via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr more ›

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Last Thursday, pornstar and director (and Fleshbot Crush Object, link NSFW) Dana DeArmond (MySpace) and her boyfriend Daniel (MySpace), along with pornstars Justin Long (NSFW) and Jon Jon (NSFW), were featured guest speakers in Professor Kassia Wosick-Correa's Sociology of Sexuality course at UC Irvine. more ›

"Didn't you all feel really cool tonight driving over here?" Jeremy Townsend, founder of the underground supper club Ghetto Gourmet, posed this question to a diverse group of about forty foodies, all sprawled out on cushions on the floor of a beautiful Venice home. And as we opened our bottles of red wine, stretched out our legs, and gazed down at a beautifully crafted shooter glass filled with warm squash soup, we had to... more ›

While the Great UCLA Versus USC Debate may never reach a resolution (those damn Trojans are too hard-headed and engorged with pride to recognize true superiority when they see it), all Californians can hold their heads up with pride thanks to our excellent universities. I don't know if you noticed the recent Washington Monthly ratings of the nation's top schools, but they're giving the U.S. News and World Report a run for their money.... more ›

Gearing up for another War on Christmas, combative conservative columnist David Horowitz and the College Republicans are calling out to their hate squad and killing Halloween (not to mention a week of breast cancer awareness month) with what they've dubbed "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week." Ann Coulter, recently listed as charging a $25,000 speaker fee by the Premiere Speakers Bureau (and now "call for fee") will speak in the name of Islamo-Fascism Awareness tomorrow night at USC.... more ›

Best known for her rendition of Rihanna's "Umbrella" on acoustic -- here she's singing Britney's "comeback" single... A Los Angeles native and former UC Berkeley attendee, she recently drew controversy for using YouTube to get her name out à la LonelyGirl15. It worked. Local radio station STAR 98.7 started plugging her single and it soared in sales on iTunes as a result. You can currently catch her touring the country in small venues.... more ›

View Larger Map They are on trial, facing possible felony charges if convicted, for unauthorized access to city's computer system in order to make traffic even worse at four busy intersections last year August. Who are they? Meet Gabriel Murillo and Kartik Patel, both in their 30s and both high level Department of Transportation transportation engineers with the Automated Traffic Surveillance Center.Prosecutors said the men changed computer codes preventing transportation managers from reprogramming and reactivating... more ›

On any given day we have the chance to see major theatre, dance, and music performance in Los Angeles. Many organizations bring performing arts to our local kids. The city is full of generous volunteers who make mentoring a priority. One of these non-profits, the Virginia Avenue Project (VAP) celebrates its fifteenth year of changing the lives of the kids they serve by inspiring them to work hard, have fun creating theatre, and plan for college. more ›

He opened the first Peet's Coffee & Tea in 1966 on a rundown street in Berkeley. He mentored the founders of Starbucks letting them work in his store. And even though he sold the coffee business in 1979, Peet's Coffee & Tea still serves their high quality roasts for many addicted coffee lovers. Peet died yesterday in his home in Ashland, Oregon of cancer. He was considered a connoisseur of gourmet coffee: "Peet was known... more ›

According to Berkeley Breathed's official website, this morning's and next Sunday's "Opus" comic strip will be pulled from a "large number" of newspapers around the nation including The Washington Post. The famed Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist of "Bloom County" returned to the funny pages in 2003 after an 8-year hiatus, and it appears that he is back where he belongs, getting under the skin of the conservative and easily-offended. Metafilter has an interesting thread about... more ›

Photo by letujimbo via Flickr The Daily Bruin has done great coverage of the UC scandals over the last several years -- this week they ran a front page article about the resignation of UC President Robert Dynes. He is also the former Chancellor of UCSD, and a current physics professor at UC Berkeley. Dynes leadership came under fire during a 2005 scandal when it was revealed that top officials in the UC system... more ›

Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network. more ›

5:46 - Total number of celebs who have visited the Blogghetto: 0. 5:44 - It's time for the next movie spoof, something about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 5:41 - Sacha Baron Cohen (looking handsome as ever) berates Will Ferrelll for not calling him after their tender on-set moment in Talladega Nights. He pulls Will Ferrell in for a long, shameless lip-lock that leaves them both rolling on the floor like fictional teenagers in a... more ›

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The US Postal Service this week implemented their newly inflated rates, again. And to distract us from the fact that the government agency is sticking it to us despite continuing making hundreds of millions of dollars in profit, they rolled out the new Forever Stamp. The Forever Stamp allows you to buy a 41-cent stamp today and use it for a regular letter, like, say, a nice card to your favorite city-based blog with... more ›

Watch out, Westwood! The color spectrum in Bruinville just got ever so slightly darker. Today's L.A. Times reports that a whopping 203 black students have decided to enroll in next fall's freshman class, out of the nearly 400 that were accepted. This is a 100% increase from last year's debacle, when only about 100 black students enrolled for the fall quarter. Campus officials attribute the rise in minority enrollments to a new "holistic" admissions... more ›

Yes, that's Alex Trebek. No, he hasn't lost it. The Jeopardy! College Championships are going down at the University of Southern California and it looks like he's feeling the Spirit of Troy. College students could always use some extra cash, so one smart-Alex is going to walk away with $100,000 to pay for books and Ramen a new plasma TV and Trump steaks. A potpourri of California schools have been represented on the program this... more ›

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam died yesterday in a car crash in Menlo Park, CA. He was 73. Halberstam’s work as a journalist ranges wide and delves deep. He covered the Korean War, the Vietnam War and civil rights but he was also fascinated with the humanity and spectacle of sports. He did not simply document the history he lived through – he explained complex societal constructs and cultural shifts in a way that anyone could easily understand. He was one of the only journalists who questioned the Vietnam War early on and it was this same questioning – throughout his life and his work – that allowed him to uncover facts that other journalists side-stepped. more ›

Just a teeny bit shy of Daydream Nation's twenty-year anniversary in June, Sonic Youth is hitting up festivals this summer with their performance of their classic album, in its entirety. Their first stop is in Chicago on July 13th as part of the Pitchfork Music Festival in collaboration with ATP’s Don’t Look Back Series. From there, the foursome (Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, and Steve Shelley) will move onto dates in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Munich, Berlin and three shows in London. more ›