I recently finished reading Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food", and I couldn't wait to get out to the Studio City farmer's market this morning. I stuck a couple of twenty-dollar bills in my back pocket and threw a "Ventura County Fair!!!" tote bag over my arm. $22.50 and about half an hour later, I lugged this load home: one bunch of sweet carrots, one large head of cabbage, one bunch rainbow chard, three......

I am thankful for… Thanksgiving - even though I think it’s a stupid holiday, and I pretty much hate all the food associated with it - for giving me the opportunity to spend the day with family that I love and actually enjoy being around. I am thankful every day that I am able to make a living being creative and doing something I love. (Except for when I’m on strike) I am thankful......

The LA County Board of Supervisors and the City Council are set to vote today on a "Lights Out Los Angeles" proposal, which would encourage all city employees to "voluntarily turn off all non-essential lights between 8 and 9 p.m. on Oct. 20, replace at least one incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb and pledge their participation on www.lightsoffla.org." Mirthala Salinas didn't show up to work today at her new gig......

The LA County Fair comes to end tonight, and if you can't make it or county fairs just aren't your thing, there's plenty of festival happenings today around Los Angeles:Swerve Festival @ Barnsdall Park National Geographic's All Roads Film Festival Feast of San Genaro Italian Festival Abbot Kinney Festival Grand Avenue Festival West Hollywood Book Fair Just Lives Festival Santa Clarita Street Arts Festival Polska Parafia Bazaar SGV Greek Festival Nigerian Independence Day Celebration......

Bands, Food, Carnival, Rides, Animals, Shopping, an Indoor Snow Park, Monster Trucks, Freestyle Motocross, and a Demolition Derby. Everything you would expect at a County Fair. The Carnival has the usual assortment of rides, games, and carnies. There are air conditioned shopping areas with over 2,000 vendors, a 4H style animal area with petting zoo, cows, and some bulls with 4' horns. When you get hungry you can get some over priced bottles of water......

Thank goodness the heat has beat a hasty retreat, because the Los Angeles County Fair begins today, with $1 admission until 5pm (it'll cost you $15 for an adult weekend ticket after that). There is an absolutely ridiculous variety of things to see, rides to enjoy, and most importantly, fried foods to eat: in fact, the theme for this year's food vendors is literally "deep-fried-everything-on-a-stick". I kid you not. The Los Angeles Chowhound board......

Unless you are stocking up on earthquake supplies or stuck at the O.C. County Fair, stop wasting your money on bottled water -- it's as good as a Los Angeles tap:A group called Corporate Accountability International has been pressuring bottled water sellers to curb what it calls misleading marketing practices. Aquafina is the single biggest bottled water brand, and its bottles are now labeled "P.W.S." The new labels will spell out "public water source."......

Weird Al - "Bob" Weird Al Yankovic @ Orange County Fair The Psychedelic Furs, The Fixx, The Alarm @ Pacific Amphitheatre Eastern Conference Champions, The Vampire Weekend, Faker @ Silverlake Lounge Spoon @ Cinespace Crowded House @ The Troubadour Puddle of Mudd @ Viper Room OK Stranger, She's your Sister, Shiloe @ Spaceland Adam Franklin, the Black Watch, Benni Hemm Hemm @ The Echo Maxeen, MS90, The Audio Club, The Kids of Widney High......

After 16 years of living in LA, we finally checked out the LA County Fair!......

Hard to believe that the son of a Nazi police chief has a hard time apologizing for being culturally insensitive, but, you know, That's Our Gov'n'ah! Last week it was revealed that the Governator had been caught on tape stereotyping African-Americans, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans in March when he was corrected about the heritage of assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, who he originally called Cuban. He was corrected, and told that she was Puerto Rican. Either......

LAist loves those LA County Fair commercials with the tagline: "If there's any place that could use a county fair, it's LA." Ain't that the truth. Where else can you see the wonders of nature -- like deep fried Snickers -- first-hand? So which one made you chuckle more? Was it the commerical where a teacher asks her students, "Can anyone tell me what comes from a cow?" And they answer: "lattes" -- among......

FRIDAY • X and The Plimsouls perform at 7 PM at the Pacific Amphitheater as part of the Orange County Fair. Tickets are $19.99. • A blast from the past hits the Canyon Club when Vanilla Ice takes the stage at 9 PM. Tickets are $19.50. • Les Sans Culottes headline at El Cid, with Dengue Fever and Porterville. Tickets are $10; the show starts at 9:30 PM. • Beyond Baroque features readings from......

Ed. Note: Adrienne Crew is a new LAist contributor. This weekend LAist visited the California Gift Show at the LA Convention Center. Sunday's show was pretty well attended. We look forward to attending the Gift Show every year in the way we used to anticipate visiting the County Fair. There are favorite booths to revisit, but it's best to wander the different halls in wonder of all the crap coming to a gift store or......