See this primordial ooze, the rest of the Tar Pits and the Page Museum for free today. / Photo by Gamma Infinity via LAist's flickr pool. TALK* McSweeney’s has published the debut novel Bowl of Cherries by Millard Kaufman. What’s different here is that Mr. Kaufman is a 90-year-old ex-Marine who created Mr. Magoo way back when. It’s described as “A bizarre and funny pseudo-take on Great Expectations, Kaufman's book has enough twists and......

CABARET Lucent Dossier brings its vaudeville/cabaret show to the Edison tonight. Who do they have in their talent roster? Little elves, fire dancers, belly dancers, trapeze artists, contortionists, jugglers, burlesque dancers, performance art and the bearded lady. So, really, you never know what to expect tonight. 9 pm // Edison // 108 West 2nd St. 101, Los Angeles // $15. TALK * Iranian authors Azar Nafisi (Reading Lolita in Tehran) and Marjane Satrapi Persepolis......

We caught up with Jonathan Coulton after he participated in a live taping of the Heather Gold show, an experience he blogged as well, without noting the more relevant details -- he sang a duet of Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta" with Gold reading the lyrics from an iPhone and then sang Billy Joel's "Don't Ask Me Why" with Harvey Danger's Sean Nelson. We had a couple minutes (before running out of hard drive space)......

Trent Reznor is a free man. In the year since he officially released his last album -- Year Zero -- under contract to Interscope Records, Reznor, 42, developed an Alternate Reality Game built around Year Zero and released a Year Zero remix CD which included a data disc with raw WAV files meant to encourage mass manipulation. He also produced and performed on Saul Williams' excellent free-or-$5 downloadable. Ghosts I-IV is Nine Inch Nails' seventh......

From Los Angeles to the deepest parts of the universe, it's nothing but nonstop presidential talk. But here in California -- the land of liberal legislatin' -- there are SEVEN statewide ballot propositions to consider once you step inside the voting booth tomorrow. One L.A. City prop is also on the ballot. Just so happens, LAist has your back. You give us ten minutes, we'll keep you from hastily punching "yes" or "no" on......

The following photos of this unique week in Southern California weather were handpicked from your contributions to the LAist Flickr Photo Pool and elsewhere with permission or via Creative Commons license. Keep 'em comin'! Contribute to LAist by joining our Flickr Pool or send photos directly to zach@laist.com From the 20th floor of the Sunset Media Tower aka 'The House of Blues Building,' 6255 W. Sunset Blvd. by Michael J. Lambie. Daily rain records set......

It sounds like the plot of a Charlton Heston film from the 70's, but the possibility of meat from cloned livestock has become a reality. The FDA just released an extensive risk assessment whose aim is "determining whether cloning poses any health risks to the animals involved in the cloning process, and whether any hazards arise during the development of clones or their progeny that may pose food consumption risks" (you can check out......

[O]ur friends at Found LA have decided to get together and throw us a party at their amazing gallery in Silverlake (Google Map here), with free drinks and a cake to boot. It goes from 8PM - 10PM this Saturday (12/15) and is bound to be a blast......

Foothill Ranch, Orange County, CA. Santiago Canyon Fire. Canyon hills behind homes on Viaggio Ln. Alex Miroshnichenko is a freelance photojournalist who shared his neighborhood with some nasty wildfires this past week. As a photographer, he naturally snapped shots of the fire in and around his house and community. But he didn't want to try to profit off these photos. "This wasn't just another photojournalism job," he wrote in an essay he posted online.......

It was an odd pairing of acts at the Creative Commons benefit presented by Wired Magazine with indie darlings Spoon headlining the first of three nights at the Fonda and underground hip hop legend Dr. Octagon aka Kool Keith opening. Billed as the kick off event for this weekends Wired NextFest, the show was dynamic and entertaining.......

Last night Spoon played alongside Kool Keith at the Henry Fonda Theatre. Need I say more? Oh and it was for a great cause! Both artists rocked out to raise money for the non-profit organization Creative Commons. This was the third time they've held a CC Benefit. Prior CC Benefits featured David Byrne, Gilberto Gil, Girl Talk, Diplo, and Peeping Tom. I had no idea who was opening this special event until I arrived......

I've complained about the scheduling of my beloved Trojans' games in recent years. We seem to have had a lot of late starts. 5:00, 5:30, 7:30pm... someone seemed determined to maintain the oft-speculated upon "East Coast bias" by making sure half the country was getting into bed before USC had finished its first quarter of ball. My feelings were reinforced when I saw that this year there are only three games that start by 1:30pm......

Tonight is the first-ever Creative Commons Salon in Los Angeles. Entertainment peeps, techies, and creatives of all walks are encouraged to check it out. Drinks, networking, and short multimedia presos. LAND 366 E. 2nd Street (MAP) Los Angeles 7-9 p.m. FREE Animated short describing the Creative Commons Licensing Project after the jump. photo by Dawn Endico via flickr using CC license.......

- LAPD called out to protest in Leimart park today. CBS2 says it's a rally called "Choose Black America - Not Amnesty - Not Illegal Immigration." LAIndyMedia calls it a MinuteKlan march. Confusing! Better explanation at Daily News. - Come on, he was just trying to find a parking space. A genius in the LBC was charged yesterday with a DUI after hitting two people and 24 cars in Long Beach back in February.......

Flickr is full of pictures of women. The only ones worth a damn are the hot ones of women in LA. We will make an exception for photos of cute women. Thanks to Creative Commons it was easier to whittle down the best ones by using those which we are legally able to post on this website / blog / whatever this is. 21 more pictures after the jump so sit back and enjoy.......

- The always outrageous kids at T-Shirt Hell have done it again, this time featuring KKKramer - T-Shirt Hell - Black leaders ask comedians to stop saying "nigger". Richard Pryor laughing in his grave - LA Times - CBS2 shows the Tustin apartment complex and front door of the OC high school teacher accused of blowing her student - CBS2 - Bush appoints extremist pro-lifer to head federal family planning office - LAT -......

- Felony possession was the case that they gave him. Big Snoop Dogg gets busted for having a retractable baton in his computer bag, and the OC authorities have nothing better to do than charge him with what could get him three years in the hizzy. - AP - College student who created the homemade (but still illegal) Boarding Pass generator was a Google intern - CNET - Google digs around in the cushions......

In a coup of who cares, the LA Times Home section today features a story on the sleep industry. Yawn. The lead, with 9 whole pictures of the Getty Villa's gardens, is better than usual for them. But click on over to the NY Times and once again, our hometown rag wilts in comparison. New York has a gorgeously photographed Park Slope brownstone complete with audio tour slideshow, a Texas butler, and fantasies of......

Martini Republic is trying to figure out what role local blogs played in the CD 14 council race. Blog favorite Nick Pacheco didn't win but there were some other oddities in the outcome that suggests that blogs have an effect. The flickr pool on the special election is heavy with photos of the No on 73 crowd. Lost amongst the big battle between The Gov and The Unions is this hotly debated issue. That......

As we shook the cobwebs out this morning, LAist heard something on Today in LA about this being the start of a local pet adoption week but now we can't seem to find anything online with the specifics. LA Animal Services has nothing on their oddly designed site and no news articles or press releases have popped up. From what we can remember, though, it is $37 to adopt a dog or $32 to......

We love when Las Buxoticas and Los Luchadores come together at the Mayan Theater and entertain the eclectic masses. Having become so popular in its 3 year history, Lucha Va Voom added another show to their usual downtown Halloween massacre and LAist was there drunk off of tequila shots and vodka laced drinks poured with a heavy hand. We arrived just as the lovely ring managers and burlesque dancers drove up in their classic......