Dear Tony Pierce, can you please tell your new employers at the LA Times to fix their streaming American Express advertising pop-up so that it does not crash my brand-new computer every five minutes? Thank you, signed, LAist.com. When we are not struggling to cope with adverse side-effects of inexorable technological progress, we are keeping track of the striking writers' negotiations with venture capitalists to begin producing Internet programming. Baby needs a new pair......

When you consider the numerous fiascoes that afflicted the production of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, you realize that it's sort of a miracle it was ever even finished (much less that it turned out to be a minor epic). What seems even more improbable, though, is that two relative newcomers like George Hickenlooper and Fax Bahr would be hired to cobble together footage shot by Coppola's wife, Eleanor, and that the resultant documentary......

I have never been an improv fan. Another empty back room? Another watered-down drink? ANOTHER bunch of folks asking me to “name a city” so that they can squeeze some cheesy hilarity out of it? No thanks. Me and my Friday night are gonna hang out on the solo tip. However, I will drop everything I have when there’s an improv show at the Hothouse in the NoHo arts district. Every Friday night until the......

You'd think that two years after the slow-as-molasses response that President Bush was justly criticized for in the wake of Katrina, that he would have learned from his mistakes and treated the most recent California fires the way a leader should: quickly, decisively, and compassionately. Instead, he flew out to Cali on the fourth day of the fires (progress from the five days that it took him to set foot in the Gulf Coast......

On a sticky dance floor at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Orange County this past Saturday, pretty girls screamed and jumped up and down in their too-high heels, hipster boys bobbed their heads as they sipped their Stellas, and baldish, grayish dad-types belted out memorized lyrics, flashing devil's horns of approval with both hands. They were all Iranians there to see Kiosk, a blues/rock outfit that started in the early '90s in Iran's underground......

Since its launch in March 2006, Hot Chicks With Douchebags has delivered exactly what it promises, "Pictures of hot chicks with total and complete douchebags. With commentary." While the pictures themselves, like the one seen above (fittingly a photo taken in LA) or of our beloved editor here, are incredible, it's the commentary from the site's creator Jay Louis that has helped this blog reach legendary status. HCwDB has become so popular it's been......

In today's LAFD updates, a structure fire at Fuller and a passenger car is trapped underneath an 18-wheeler. Will fewer fast-food restaurants mean healthier citizens? The City Council will be asked to consider a moratorium on new chain restaurants in South Los Angeles. Oscar-winning actress (and first wife to Ronald Reagan) Jane Wyman died today at the age of 93 at her home in Rancho Mirage. Students at forty LAUSD schools will be competing......

Damages is the prime time choice for me but check out late night TV: Bill Clinton, David Duchovny, Kirk Douglas, Gogol Bordello! 9:00pm Big Brother 8 CBS - The veto battles continue [look for Tony Pierce's commentary as this is a fave of his] 9:00pm i-Caught ABC - Consumers fight back with video, plus a profile of comic Tom Green's online talk show. 10:00pm Damages FX - Yeah baby! Damages is back after a......

Dear Metrolink: I've been a daily, faithful rider on the Antelope Valley line for nearly two years now. I love me the public transportation. It saves me the grief that I know all those dead-stopped drivers along the 5 freeway are going through each morning. But here's the deal. You raised my train fare this month. The monthly cost for my pass from Newhall to Union Station went from $187.50 to $193.25. Fortunately, my......

... but there's not much Los Angeles in the latest issue of Plenty, a bi-monthly magazine on environmental news and commentary. There's a feature story on the negative environmental impact of surfing and good tips for going to the farmer's market (use it with the new Farmer's Market Google Map), but our dear home is not but a mere mention in a small, but fun brief. With the fact that "urban areas are responsible for......

The LA Times has definitely had its fair share of scandals in the near past with firings and hirings. Yet recently, content wise, the watchdog coverage of scandalicious politicians has been riveting. There is Mayor V and then there was the daily pounding of Rocky Delgadillo. The newest politician in the ring is 74-year-old 2nd district county supervisor Yvonne Burke who represents Watts, Culver City, Compton, South LA, Hollywood, Marina Del Rey, Inglewood to......

As Guest Day Editor, Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA, will be joining LAist with a few posts throughout today. Read his introductory interview here and check out his site. Last weekend, the LA Times had a commentary piece by Michael Balter wherein he proposed the "radical" idea of forgoing the subway-to-the-sea (claiming its construction to be unlikely) and instead changing the entirety of Wilshire Boulevard into a car-free bike, pedestrian, bus, and light-rail thoroughfare. Clearly......

Imagine the opening scene of Midnight Cowboy. Now imagine that John Voight is in a Superman costume. And Ratso Rizzo is Marilyn Monroe. Surround them with a cast straight out of Pink Flamingos, and set it all to the soundtrack of a sweet 10-year-old German girl singing “Hotel California” This might give you some idea of what Dave Markey’s long-anticipated film, The Reinactors, is like. In this documentary, Markey delves into the lives of......

Yesterday marked David Beckham’s last day as a respectable European footballer before he makes his move to the Los Angeles Galaxy. Given the high caliber of the European soccer teams as compared to the naïve American Major League Soccer (MLS), this last game is surely the beginning of the end for the legendary Beckham. He is now doomed to a life of over-done, over-rated, Hollywood middle-brow trashiness. The poor man has already begun to......

While a small number of hockey fans are still paying the electrolysis bill to remove "Mighty" from their bicep, many are just catching up with post-lockout rule changes. Around the Southland, people are scratching their heads over the possibility that the Anaheim Ducks may win the NHL crown. The Stanley Cup in Orange County? It almost sounds like a Chris Rock joke about the best golfer being black and the best rapper being white. Next,......

A Word or, I dunno, like 80: It seems to be coming together a bit on Lost - another good episode last night. If you want the producers' perspective, they're on tonight after Grey's. Delay goes to his base tonight on Colbert. Tonight the networks will have the typical struggle between comedy and young-doctors-in-love, what will you succumb to? Tonight - Thursday - May 17, 2007 Angels @ Mariners (Fox Sports, 7:00 p.m.) Bob......

Picture yourself lounging on a divan surrounded by nubile, young interns fanning you with palm leaves and feeding you peeled Muscat grapes, as you type yet another hilarious stream-of-consciousness film review for Los Angeles' leading group blog. Sound too good to be true? It isn't. It's a typical workday here at LAist headquarters, AKA Tony Pierce's lavish hilltop mansion, where the weed flows like water and the toilet paper is made of silk. All this......

- Dodgers donate $100k to help rebuild Griffith Park - MLB - LA Voice suggests that if there wasn't so much nature in the park, there would have been less of a chance of a fire - LA Voice - Three Glendale schools were locked down this afternoon under fear that a kid had a gun. It turned out to be a pellet gun - CBS2 - Paris Hilton ate corn with me -......

John Marshall Evans became the US ambassador to Armenia in August 2004. Six months later he visited California and was convinced by Armenian-Americans here to cut the political B.S. and simply say that the 1.5 million Armenians who were the victims of genocide at the hands of the Turks from 1915 and 1923... were indeed victims of genocide. Today President Bush will tapdance around the word in fear of insulting our ally Turkey, a......

• Apple makes a deal with Music giant EMI to offer music at the iTunes Store with no DRM. If you don't know what DRM means, don't worry. It may not be around much longer. • Like Apple, Microsoft is apparently going to be making a deal with EMI for no DRM music too. Microsoft copying Apple? I'm shocked. • The saga continues for VOIP provider Vonage. First, they lose to Verizon. Then, they......

Kobe has been amazing. The only guy who has scored 50+points in more consecutive games than Kobe is Wilt Chamberlain. It’s heady company, basically the answer to every NBA scoring trivia question is Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt did a lot of things that were amazing. But not only has Kobe scored 175 total points the last three times he stepped on the court, he’s done it efficiently. Most players who score that much take and miss......

Barack Obama's campaign says it had nothing to do with this brilliant ad, which parodies one of the greatest campaigns of all time to take a stunning swipe at Hillary Rodham Clinton. If not, maybe he should hire the person who put this one together? In other Obama news, today's LA Times op-ed examine's the presidential hopeful's Magic Negro-ness. Obamamania's runnin' wild!......

Brian Doherty of Reason just wrote a big honkin book about Libertarianism. He will be signing "Radicals For Capitalism" tonight at 7pm at Book Soup (8818 Sunset Blvd., W. Hollywood), talking about, reading from, and answering questions about all things Libertarian. We were lucky enough to get all the dumb questions out of the way for you. LAist: The Dems are the Left, the Repubs are the Right, what are Libertarians? Brian Doherty: Libertarians......

Seriously, folks -- friends don't let friends sit through State of the Union addresses sober. In fact this year, we fear that the more SOBER you are, the more sick you might get. Here are a few SOTU drinking games to help keep it real. Play one or play them all. DrinkingGames.us: The State of the Union Drinking Game 2007 Notes: This long guide is very easy to reference but will undoubtedly require a......

- Too costly, Cingular sucks, Battery life concerns - Infinite Loop - Top 10 things to Hate about the Apple iPhone - APC - The Five Biggest Issues with iPhone - Infectious Greed - Cisco Sues Apple over the name iPhone, Cisco's had it for Six Years, Yo - Cisco - Carriers lukewarm on iPhone - The Australian - History of false rumored photos of the iPhone - Gizmodo - How Apple Kept the......

As usual, New DVD Tuesday is a day late, but here it is anyway. Idiocracy - It's no Office Space (then again, what is?), but this wry satire of anti-intellectualism and pop culture directed by Mike Judge is well worth watching. Luke Wilson stars as a barely average Joe who wakes up 500 years in the future to discover he's the smartest man alive. Maya Rudolph and Dax Shepard co-star, but the scene stealer......

Los Angeles accounted for 25% of the Young America's Foundation's "Dirty Dozen" list, as showcased in the "Current" section buried in Sunday's Times. The YAF site is a joke -- but apparently this feature, published since the '60s, is not. "America’s Most Bizarre and Politically Correct College Courses" (and I'm sure they missed the REAL good ones). Eagle Rock's Occidental College takes two of the top five:......

Snakes on a Plane - Was it really only five months ago when something as simple as a crate of ophidians roaming an airplane could soothe the angst of a wounded but mighty nation? It seems like another era, one where every American -- from slick, jaded marketing executive to slick, jaded hipster -- could come together for a single, selfless cause. C'mon… admit it. You fell for it. Just a little bit, right?......

Tonight - Monday TV Junkie is desperate, there ain't crap for new stuff on tonight other than late night talk - and the (free) movie channels have nothing inspiring on AND I have no new DVDs to look at, somebody help me for effssake! Monday Night Football: Bengals @ Colts (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.) Flames @ Ducks (PRIME, 7:00 p.m.) "Identity" (NBC, 9 p.m. EST) A new game show with Penn Jillette, let the magic......

- The Simpsons have their Tire Fire, LA has its Tire Store Fire - LAFD blog - Some Hollywood women too Busy to shave their armpits? Say it ain't so! - Reuters - Martini Republic asks "who's the bigger idiot, Instapundit or Bill Kristol?" Which makes us finally understand that IT WAS A CONTEST ALL ALONG! - Martini Republic - Mom calls cops on her 12-year-old son for opening his videogame before Christmas -......