Sea Wolf - "You're a Wolf", UCLA, 11/29/07 Sea Wolf @ Rhythm Lounge The Lemonheads, Racoon, The New Rivals @ The Troubadour Adolescents, Agent Orange @ Galaxy Theater Slightly Stoopid, Fishbone @ Wiltern Youssou N'Dour @ Royce Hall Too $hort @ House of Blues Jewmongous @ Tangier Steve Forbert @ McCabe's Ojos Rojos, Chuck Dukowski Sextet, The Sundowners @ Knitting Factory Big City Rock, Everybody Else, The Hanks, Girl in a Coma @ Roxy......

Monday Edmund White presents Hotel de Dream: A New York Novel 7pm @ Central Library Patricia Hampl presents The Florist's Daughter 7pm @ Dutton's Red Hen Press poets read their work 8pm @ Boston Court Main Stage, Pasadena Tuesday Oliver Sacks presents Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain 7pm @ Central Library Roger Director presents I Dream in Blue 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble, The Grove Francisco Goldman presents The Art of Politcal......

We like it when our parents come to the Big City to visit. We like our parents generally, but when they decide to fight traffic down the 101 on a Saturday, they do it cause they're coming for something special - and not just the immeasurable pleasure of their darling offspring. A meal someplace like Mozza is the perfect thing to tempt our suburbanite folks away from their golf-course-view-jacuzzied backyard out to the urban......

The Binges @ King King Ratatat @ Henry Fonda Rooney, Big City Rock, Golden State, Scanners @ The Roxy The Minor Canon @ Spaceland Anavan, Health, A++, Foot Village @ Pehrspace Quan & the Chinese Take-Outs, The Changos @ The Scene Wires on Fire, Sabertooth Tiger, Antarticans @ Silverlake Lounge The Kevin Kanner Quintet, The Parker String Quartet @ The Mint......

The Key Club gets top billing tonight because The Bronx headlines a benefit for Wheels for Humanity, which supplies wheelchairs. Also on the bill : Chuck Ragan (ex-Hot Water Music) with members of Flogging Molly, and some rock star karaoke. Everyone will probably be there for either the ice skating or Great Northern, but The Submarines came out with a haunting CD that we played all summer long. Go downtown and ice skate from......

Yesterday, Gothamist was happy to report they are in the safest city in America, or at least they were in 2005 for which the FBI report is for. Today, we get to say we are the #2 safest big city, as reported by the Daily News. While it is a big cheer for us, there is, of course, the angle of unreported crimes: His car has been burglarized, but he never reported it, figuring......

Being stranded or alone in Los Angeles can be a bit daunting, and sometimes downright scary. On the other hand, the freeways and streets turn into traffic free islands of Shangri-La that make staying in town worth it. Even if you don't have to go anywhere for anything, just pretend you're running a big errand, and marvel at how little time it will take you to go from Santa Monica to Glendale and back.......

Beverly Hills Weekly's Tuesday cover story by Susan Monahan profiles Vendome Liquors on Olympic in Beverly Hills. The literary tone of the article, which Monahan wrote in the second person, reminds us of Bright Lights, Big City. You won't find "Bolivian marching powder" at Vendome Liquors (at least we don't think so but some BH households are still stuck in the '80s), but it does offer all the other beloved vices: an extensive selection......