Yeah, this is how I feel. / Photo "Supervisor Zirves" by db via LAist's flickr pool. This morning was a rough start for everyone and we still got a little sleepies in us, but we'll definitely be awake for these events tonight. After another latte. CLASSICAL* The LA premiere of "The Axe Manual" happens tonight at Zipper Concert Hall as part of the Monday Evening Concert series. The program includes important recent works by......

I discovered this street art on 8th, just west of Grand in downtown LA last week. But where is the chair? It looks like Brooklyn chalk artist Ellis Gallagher has decided to grace Los Angeles with his presence and art. His cryptic signature, "© Ellis G. 2007" seems to be barely decipherable on the other side of the parking meter, along with "NYC". Well-known artist Michael Neff has identified it for me as an authentic......

Grizzly Bear, via Grizzly-Bear.net Of all the indie bands with some sort of animal in their title, Grizzly Bear might be the top dogs. After all, can Deerhoof, Deerhunter, Caribou, Panda Bear or even Animal Collective claim they are co-headlining a show with the Los Angeles Philharmonic? Nay. It is just the Brooklyn-based quartet who will share a stage at the Walt Disney Concert Hall for a one night only performance with the L.A.......

Talib Kweli is your favorite rapper's favorite rapper. On his first farewell, The Black Album, rap superstar mogul Jay-Z gave Kweli the greatest sign of respect when he spit the following line "If skills sold/Truth be told/I'd probably be/Lyricly/Talib Kweli." The son of two college professors, the Brooklyn native is far from your average emcee. In the fall of 2007, Kweli released the critically acclaimed and commercially successful album Eardrum, the first from his new......

Fear not, fans of Posh and Becks, the high-profile pair are not going to be packing up and heading out of our fair city, as rumors have been circulating. While Los Angeles Galaxy's star midfielder has been passing the ball as part of some MLS off-season training of late, he has not been in talks with the Newcastle United team about a possible signing. The UK's SkySports reports that Beckham "played under [Newcastle's new manager......

Stage and screen choreographer Michael Kidd died this past Sunday in Los Angeles at the age of 92, according to the New York Times. From his beginnings in Brooklyn, Kidd moved over to Manhattan to dance and create dances for dance companies including Lincoln Kirstein's Ballet Caravan (1937), Eugene Loring's Dance Players (1941) and Ballet Theater, the predecessor to the American Ballet Theater (1942-47). Soon after dance critic Edwin Denby opined that Kidd’s talents “leaned......

Power-pop is above all feel-good music, designed to hit all your pleasure centers at once, which makes it a natural fit for Christmas time. Click below for five super-charged riffs to restore your faith in humanity. THE SHITBIRDS - Christmas is a Comin' (May God Bless You) With a name like that you may be expecting sonic assault, but this local troupe, led by elfin chanteuse April March, aims for maximum joy and adorable-ness. &righticonhover=0x333232&text=0x333232&slider=0xF2F2F2&track=0xFFFFFF&border=0xFFFFFF&loader=0x838383&soundFile=http://aprodxn.com/laist/Shitbirds......

The Holiday season is in full swing in NYC, with holiday lights in Brooklyn, a giant snow globe in Bryan Park and Chanukah specials for ham. One citizen decided to go vigilante on annoying car alarms, a murder suspect used a fake Asian accent on the stand and a video of a man being beaten up by teenage girls on a subway shocked the city. And we interviewed soon-to-be-leaving-Gawker editor Choire Sicha, who said,......

1. That I have two healthy, happy, sometimes crazy kids. 2. That, against all odds, I've found in Los Angeles a city I'm as comfortable in as my hometown (that would be Brooklyn, NYC). 3. That I have a better adult life than I could ever have imagined back during my stickball-playing childhood in Flatbush. 4. That being a square actually became the cool thing to be. 5. That I have a family and......

I'm thankful for my family, even when they're "challenging." I'm thankful for my husband, who for some reason has signed on to sleep beside me, watch lots of tv, do the dishes and read every draft (even though he won't see movies more than once.) I'm thankful to be lucky enough to pursue my passion, so few people have that luxury! I'm thankful for Los Angeles, where the sky is big and the horizon......

Artist: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings Album: 100 Days, 100 Nights Label: Daptone Records Release Date: 10/02/07 Promo Track "100 Days, 100 Nights": When I first listened to this CD I thought it was a reissue of some '60s soul supergroup but no, this gem came out just last month! This album made me nostalgic for my first car, a '79 Honda Civic 4-door hatchback with an AM radio and the only music station that......

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......

As one blogger so delicately phrased it, "CMJ goes out with a whimper". There wasn't a whole lot I wanted to see on Day Five of CMJ. So I rested my weary bones, wandered around Williamsburg, and caught a couple of shows. One highlight was Ha Ha Tonka's performance at Union Pool in Williamsburg at a homey, jam-packed venue. I believe there was a BBQ going on as well. Williamsburg was lovely, flourishing with......

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just......

Day Four began with jazz hands. I started off at Cake Shop to see NY native Patrick Cleandenim. He struck my interest with his brand of flamboyant, jazz-infused pop. However, it'd be nearly impossible for him to replicate the orchestral backing live and thus his live performance seemed a bit flat. Regardless, Patrick is destined for large things. His latest effort Baby, Come Home was recorded in Kansas at a studio I am quite......

Whew! We're a little more than half-way through this music marathon in New York and I'm starting to realize how similar this experience is to an actual marathon. It requires a lot of endurance, patience, and you'll wish you were an amputee afterwards. With two more days left, I'm still yearning for more and I'm certain that CMJ's final days will sate me. Yesterday started off a bit slow. I began my trek in......

!!! aka Chk Chk Chk (or any other triple repeated expletive) played at the Avalon a couple weeks ago to a large crowd of friends, supporters, party-people, and folks who just effing wanted to dance. The band is 8 months into touring to support their incredible album Myth Takes and are about to embark for another pass through Europe. !!! loves LA - they have a lot of friends here, they make a pilgrimage......

While all the cheesy babybooming douches like Costas and McCarver harken back endlessly about the good ole days of the Boys of Summer before they left NY and moved to LA, keep in mind one thing - people in Brooklyn don't miss the Dodgers. They might miss Vin Scully, or decent National League baseball, but miss or care about the Bums? Faggitaboutit. "When Pee Wee Reese died," said Marty Adler, who has spent years......

This week, Phillyist saw the waters of a landmark fountain run red for a Showtime marketing stunt, the Phils pull ahead, and some serious nostalgia. They also got a chance to review an awesome tribute album, reminded folks to see the King, and appreciated their beautiful skyline. Chicagoist knows what it's like to like the Cubs. But naming your kid Wrigley Fields? At least they can breathe a little easier now that Grossman's out and......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers......

Necro grew up in Brooklyn listening to rap and heavy metal, and took all those influences and fused them together. Like if death-metal and hip-hop had a baby after a failed abortion. And while it's so good you will want to memorize every word, don't let your girlfriend listen to it... Not unless you want a lot of explaining to do, "No baby, i'm not a psycho, Necro is, but im just a fan!"......

An epic battle of apathetic grandeur. Outside of carrot cake, scruffy beards and driving home from work in record setting time, there is nothing I like more than spoofs on hipsters. Granted, actually liking something like this bears a certain amount of hipsterness, which I mean, whatever man. I don't care. In watching this video, I have identified my five favorite quotes. It was hard to choose. "Exclusivity, that's what it's all about today."......

If you've wondered to yourself, "What the hell does Posh do besides blowing Becks?" It may or may not come as a surprise that Posh likes to blow his money too. Victoria Beckham was just given a $5 million dollar credit limit at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills. It's not just Posh either! Brooklyn, Romeo, and Cruz (ages 8, 4, and 2) are on a spending frenzy too, because nothing is more embarrassing than having......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Steven Schmidt We've told you about the Sundays Live tradition stemming from 1948 here in Los Angeles before, but we'll tell you again: this is essential LA. 1) It's at LACMA. 2) It's Free. 3) It's Quality. Tonight, they present percussionist Steven Schmidt alongside Mládí, the conductor-less chamber orchestra known for their concerts at the historically famous Los Altos Apartments in Wilshire Center. The diverse program includes Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů, Schmidt's own Images......

Vampire Weekend rocked out two shows last week and it seems the hype is worth the, ahem, hype this time. The first at the Troubadour Monday night we heard was a blast. We managed to catch their second show at the Silverlake Lounge the following night and it was packed. Like really really packed. A William Morris agent friend of ours remarked that the Silverlake Lounge has never been so crowded. And after a......

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too - two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the......

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the (insert tongue firmly into cheek) hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic......

LAist was comped front row seats by the Dodgers due to Malingering being struck by a foul ball last week, and she came back with some great photos, and earlier made fun of 4th of July on Venice Beach. But the biggest stories of the week was that the Mayor's Hot Tamale was revealed, and that a Kwik-E-Mart was erected in Burbank. Phillyist was busy doing the Fourth of July up right, exercising their......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......