Many LAist staffers, contributors and readers were deeply troubled by the news of Dutton's closure. We all have a favorite memory of Dutton's - a particular book we discovered there, an admired author we met at a reading, a certain afternoon spent browsing. We'd like to honor the many unique memories of Dutton's that we all share with a series of posts about what Dutton's meant to us and what it meant to you. Our......

Bobcats 107, Clippers 100 - As if they haven't had enough injuries this year, Los Angeles took on Charlotte without big man Chris Kaman (bruised shin) and leading scorer Corey Maggette (flu-like symptoms). Of course, the biggest loss for the Clippers might just be their biggest fan. Only in LA - Guess who's back, back again? Teemu Selanne will return to the Ducks. It only took him until the All Star break (53 games into......

The media is certainly getting a little whacky. Today, the Chicago Tribune has an interview with Hizzoner, the former and now deceased Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago. deceased or not, here's what's up:He's bothered by news reports that Steven Spielberg is planning a movie of the disastrous 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention, starring the guy from "Borat" as leftist protester Abbie Hoffman. "Are they going to paint the administration in a favorable light?......

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. Steven Spielberg is making an adaptation of the "Trial of the Chicago 7" and Cohen is to be cast as the "self-identified Jewish Road Warrior, communo-anarchist, social and political activist," Abbie Hoffman. The co-founder of the Youth International......

Actor and comedian-chameleon Sasha Baron Cohen admitted in an interview yesterday that the characters that made him famous, Ali G and Borat, will be retired from his repetoire. Borat, the improbably cuddly anti-Semitic Kazakhstani innocent abroad, whose antics and exploits were made famous in a highly successful 2006 film, transformed Baron Cohen from a popular British comedian to a world-wide phenomenon. But he broke the news in a Daily Telegraph interview that Borat, he......

Monday Shalom Auslander presents Foreskin's Lament 7pm @ Vroman's Valerie Plame Wilson presents Fair Game 7pm @ Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Long Beach Barbara Firestone presents Autism Heroes 7pm @ Dutton's Slash presents Slash 7pm @ Borders, Torrance Lawrence Wright presents The Looming Tower 7:30pm @ UCLA Tuesday David Plante, with host Mark Danielewski, presents ABC 7pm @ Book Soup Michael Lent presents Christmas Letters from Hell 7pm @ Vroman's Tommy Lasorda & Bill Plaschke......

Last Friday night, I went drinking with my friends to celebrate the end of the 40-hour workweek. With the assistance of free sake and Asahi beer, I was buzzed by 10 PM, couldn’t feel my face by 12:30 AM, and was on top of the world by 1. Admittedly, I drank more than I usually do, but not too much. By the end of the night I was feeling pretty good/pleasantly drunk. As the......

I'm not really sure how to review a movie like The Ten. It's more a collection of skits than a movie anyway and much like, say Jackass or Borat, there's really only one question to answer: is it funny? I would enthusiastically say 'yes' to all three, but the humor in The Ten is so specific that I expect a lot of people won't like it. This was definitely the case in the screening......

6:22 - It's your last chance to text in your vote for Best Movie. I know it hasn't even opened yet, but I bet that somehow Transformers will win. 6:21 - Mike Myers gets a well-deserved laugh after he thanks his parents for teaching him to "never sell out" and immediately follows it with a deliberately over-the-top promo for a Pontiac sedan. Plug away. 6:19 - "Shall I shag him now or shall I......

Reviewed for LAist by David Grossman. When I hear the name Goethe (pronounced ger-the), my mind goes to the writer's remarkably sad book The Sorrows of a Young Werther and the copycat suicides that it inspired (a trend only slightly more bothersome then hearing people still say "Not!" à la Borat). Despite the gloomy connotations of its name, the Goethe Institute has found a way to stage some pretty cool events like this year's "Starring......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

Curated by… Guy Maddin Bizarro Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin (Tales From The Gimli Hospital, Careful, The Saddest Music In The World) has been invited to curate a program of films culled from the extensive collection of the UCLA Film Archive. His choices include On Dangerous Ground, Make Way for Tomorrow, Ministry of Fear and a slew of his own short films, all of which will screen over the next couple of weeks. But tonight Maddin......

(l-r): Billy Bob Thornton, Marty Stuart, Porter Wagoner, and Dwight Yoakam perform a surprise set before Neko Case @ The Henry Fonda Theatre. Photo courtesy Ice Cream Man. For the first time in recent history, Hollywood was rattled by bonafide foot-stomping. Many in the audience at the Music Box last night had no idea what was taking place when Neko Case announced Porter Wagoner's intention to take over Hollywood. But a historic buzz took......

Of the three characters that Sasha Baron Cohen does, Bruno is my least-favorite. Does that make me a Tim Hardaway? I hope not. While we were watching the NBA dunk contest we started fighting about Borat vs Bruno vs Ali G and the Bruno supporters pointed to this video that just happened to be about our town.......

When we read New York Times' vacation on Ventura Blvd. last fall, we were happy the Valley got noticed with better geography skills than our local news outlets. And ever since La Di Da in West Hollywood closed (probably 'cause someone [see previous link] said its neighborhood was Miracle Mile), nothing in LA has been able to impress like Misti Chamkunthod's Brie mac and cheese (you can find Misti at The Backstage in Culver......

- The case of the Drunk Frat Boys v Borat has been rejected by an LA judge who basically ruled in such a way that it would cockblock pretty much any other "He embarrassed me while cameras were clearly rolling" case in the future - Defamer - However a California judge opened the flood gates for people who want to sue Big Tobacco - LAT - Good news continues to be in the economic......

- Local Doc prescribed Anna Nicole methadone not only while she was eight months pregnant and also rode with her in the WeHo Gay Parade. My kind of doctor. Think he's single? - TMZ - Does Ashley Olsen live in such an isolated world that she doesn't know that it's no longer cool to call black people "Negroes", call women "toots", or wear fur coats? Leather, fine. But fur? Not so much - CityRag......

Kazakhstan 90, World 1 - Borat isn't the only phenom from Kazakhstan. The nation's Olympic ice hockey team has won their last two games by a combined score of 90-1. That's no typo. UCLA 4, UCLA 3, um, 4, yeah, 4 - According to a school press release, "UCLA was selected third in the Pac-10 Conference's preseason baseball coaches poll." Except they were really ranked fourth, as both the headline and complete rankings indicate in......

- J.Lo defends Scientology by saying that her dad is one and she turned out fine - People - The Police are rehearsing in Vancouver for a possible surprise Grammy appearance? - stereogum - Gotta love Jessica Simpson's dress as she walks with John Mayer - Pop on the Pop - Is Diddy diddling Sienna? - Dlisted - Poor millionaire pop record "producer". None of his big name female clients went to his birthday......

Every morning at 6am we will be posting a video of someone singing or playing the "Star Spangled Banner". Back in the day television stations would end their "broadcast day" with an instrumental of the National Anthem accompanied by images of dandelions blowing in the wind, of flags being held by children, and olde fashioned barbers using leeches on alleged witches. When the song was over, the screen would flicker and a test pattern......

Overheard at the Golden Globe Awards: "'Everyone's drinking,' said Weeds star and supporting-actor nominee Justin Kirk. 'You sit at a table and they feed you and drink you.'" -- AP "Cameron Diaz was probably the worst dressed at the entire awards show." -- Worst Dressed List at HollyScoop "I love gay. I wanted to be gay," said Grey's Anatomy's Isaiah Washington on the red carpet. "Please let me be gay." -- AP. "Washington took......

One Minute Review: So Courteney Cox Arquette's new venture, 'Dirt', was, as Borat would say, "Dirt from anus". Also, did anyone catch Letterman last night? The first half of the show was devoted to jokes about Saddam's execution, including the Top Ten. I don't think it went over that well, except for maybe at the White House. Tonight - Wednesday - January 3rd, 2007 Blue Jackets @ Kings (Fox Sports, 7:30 p.m.) "Friday Night......

Tonight, when the Lakers take the floor in the underrated city of Charlotte (5:30, KCAL9), it will be their 10th game since Lamar Odom went down with a sprained knee. It also is the end of their first long road trip. How have they done through a tough stretch of the schedule without the guy assistant coach Tex Winter called “the foundation” of the team? An inconsistent but pretty good 5-4, thank you very much.......

Rarely do we at LAist hype the opening act of a show twice in the same hour, but Gogol Bordello deserves the love. If The Pogues, The Clash, and Borat were molested by a traveling pack of female Gypsies on the outskirts of Turkey and produced soccer-jersey wearing rockers, you'd have this band who was one of the highlights of last year's SXSW festival. They are loud, funny, fun, raucous, and their energy is......

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is officially over, and I’ve never been happier to see Dec. 1 pop up on my calendar. November – especially the last week – has been hell. But today, I can officially call myself a “novelist” because with nearly 13,000 others, we reached the 50,000 word count by midnight yesterday. The beginning of this crazy writing marathon started out with optimism and hope. The goal seemed relatively easy: Write......

- Ashlee Simpson's redesign isn't all that bad, but we still lurve her sis - CityRag - Take Amtrak to Santa Barbara and get hotel discounts - LA Times (h/t green la girl) - Is Borat the reason that Pam Anderson is single and ready to mingle? Very Niiiice - Defamer - Good thing Tom Waits reads LAist and the paper or he wouldn't have known that our girlfriend Scarlett is going to cover......

Jagshemash! Borat is a hit. It's getting rave reviews, grossing millions, and definitely the most quotable thing we've seen in ages. But Borat seems to have missed most of the -ist cities, and we were all wondering how the film would have been different if he'd made his way around the world on the -ist tour. In Shanghai, Borat would be observing Inane Learnings of Penis Photos for Make Benefit Glorious Flat World of......

Monday Night "Monday Night Football" (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.) Buccaneers @ Panthers "Kingdom Come" (IFC, 6:00 p.m.) Feel good neo-blacksploitation flick starring LL Cool J, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox "College Football" (PRIME 42, 7:00 p.m.) Oregon @ USC "NHL Hockey" (Fox Sports, 7:30 p.m.) Sharks @ Kings "Prison Break" (FOX, 8 p.m.) see if these guys finally make it out of prison before the show goes on extended hiatus "Two and a Half......

By now much hay has been made over "Borat", both as a box office smash and as a mockumentary in which the innocent bystanders who participated in it were duped and cheated. When Borat opened over a week ago Fox booked it in about 800 theaters nationwide, that's less than one-fourth the number of theaters that "Santa Clause 3" opened in and still Sacha Baron Cohen crushed Tim Allen (Yes! There is a God!).......

Over the last two days, LAist has told you - where to get free gas - where to get free red hot chili peppers tickets as they play at a small club - why jd drew was a lazy douche - everything you'd ever want to know about the LAPD beat down scandal - where to dine with your valley hos - where to say hi to emilo estevez - that ray parker jr......