ART* We luuuurrve us the kitch and pop culture around here. So when we got word that artists were creating artwork based on classic toys in honor of Hot Wheels® 40th anniversary, we got really excited. Running tonight through April 25 at Gallery 1988, see more than 40 artists works, including customized 1:18 scale Hot Wheels VW buses. 7pm // Gallery 1988 // 7020 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles // Free. THEATRE The Sacred Fools......

Test Your Reflex plays this month at Hotel Cafe on Wednesdays | Photo by Luke Wooden via their MySpace Despite SXSW starting up this week with 100+ Los Angeles based bands heading over there, residencies are growing stronger and more venue-diverse across the line, especially on Monday nights where the volume makes it hard to choose from. Here's to a great month of residencies, rock on. Mondays The Chapin Sisters @ The Echo (Free),......

photo by swanksalot via Flickr Tomorrow is the finish up the AMGEN Tour of California in Pasadena. But before hitting the old money city, they're headed towards Santa Clarita this afternoon (where Six Flags Magic Mountain has decided to stay put). From 4 to 10 p.m. tonight “Rock the Bike,” a free outdoor cycling expo and music festival, will bring together an array of people following the stage 6 finish. Various bands will be......

Twilight Sleeps is one of the bands that opens for Pity Party tonight at Spaceland | Photo by Joya Martuscello Sometimes Monday nights lead to tough choices. For Jax at Rock Insider, it's between The Pity Party (who we interviewed this morning) and The Henry Clay People. Luckily, both bands are playing all month. Still, there are many choices. If you like your music Folk, your drinks cheap and have never been to Joe's......

We've never been to the Celebrity Center for a concert, but we can vouch for Cowboy (not Country!) musician Dave Stamey if you're into that kind of thang. Still, for those inclined to roots music, The Arthur Adams Band will be at the Baked Potato in Studio City playing blues. The Arthur Adams Band @ The Baked Potato Editors, Hot Hot Heat, Louis XIV @ The Wiltern Manic Hispanic, Death by Stereo, GG Elvis &......

UCLA 67, Washington State 59 - The #5 Bruins returned a favor by knocking off the #17 Cougars on their home court. Darren Collison scored all 18 of his points in the second half and Kevin Love had 16 on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. UCLA improves to 21-2 overall, and at 9-1 in the Pac-10 hold on to first place by a game over Stanford. USC 73, Washington 59 - USC looked strong in......

Smash Fashion plays Monday nights at Crash Mansion | Photo via their MySpace page Month-long residencies are one of the best ways to catch up-and-coming bands in Los Angeles. You have at least four times to catch a band, and each time, if they are gaining popularity over each show, it will be harder to see them. Last Thursday at their final residency concert, The Airborne Toxic Event played a sold out show with......

SFist worried over drugstore chain Walgreens celebration of Black History Month.Gothamist was surprised that apparently New York City is the fourth most miserable city in the country, after Detroit, Stockton, CA, and Flint, MI.Shanghaiist finds out what the Chinese think of Hilary and Obama.It was with a healthy amount of schadenfreude that Phillyist reported that former Eagle, and now Cowboy (ew), Terrell Owens owes the Eagles a significant wad of cash.Torontoist is two weeks......

Clippers 95, Hawks 88 - The Clips got an unexpected performance from rookie Al Thornton, who exploded for a career high 33 points the day after a major stomach virus. Los Angeles fielded their 20th different starting lineup of the year, and are currently missing Chris Kaman and Corey Maggette. Next up, a seven game road trip. That's not so bad -- the Lakers have a 9 game trip lined up. Wild 5, Ducks 1......

It would have been a much prettier victory had the Lakers played the New York Knicks at home three weeks ago. Today’s Knicks are hardly the bruisers of yesteryear, and it often appears as though Isiah Thomas rates coaching his team a distant third priority behind office poon and gourmet popcorn. But these last few weeks have been tough on the Lakers, with Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza out for 8 weeks each, resulting in......

Red Wings 3, Kings 0 - The best hockey team in the NHL was in Staples Center on Tuesday night. Unfortunately for local fans, the worst team in the NHL calls it home. The Kings lost to Detroit for the 17th time in 18 games. Next up, LA hosts Anaheim, then gets some time off for the all star break. That means plenty of rest, since it's not like the Kings will have many......

Two weeks ago, local singer/songwriter Inara George (MySpace) and her band The Bird And The Bee performed as the headliner at Detroit Bar (MySpace) in Costa Mesa. Opening for The Bird And The Bee were Two Guns (MySpace) and Charlie Wadhams (MySpace). On Wednesday, The LA Times' Kevin Bronson confirmed that The Bird And The Bee will be performing at Coachella the weekend of April 25th-27th. More photos and a video of "Again And......

Video by Roxanne Musterer Thanks to LAist reader and Toronto local, Roxanne Musterer, we have this video showing the fire at 6th St. between Detroit and La Brea in the Miracle Mile neighborhood. Quite intense! Read more about the fire here.......

On scene photos by Roxanne Musterer, LAist Reader The Los Angeles Fire Department is reporting a two story apartment building with fire showing from the attic that began shortly before 2:30 p.m. at 5449 6th St. between Detroit St. and La Brea Ave. CBS2 reports:Flames engulfed a two-story apartment building near Park La Brea Tuesday, sending a thick plume of black smoke into the air and forcing residents to evacuate, but there were no......

Ducks 2, Avalanche 1, OT - Even in a loss, Colorado's Peter Budaj proved why the goalie is the most important player in hockey. He made 36 saves to keep the Avs in the game, while his teammates managed just three shots in the third period and none in overtime. The final shots-on-goal margin was 38-12, so the scoreboard could have been a lot worse for Colorado. Anaheim showed a major improvement over their 16......

Lakers 103, Bulls 91 - Los Angeles spread the scoring around to down Chicago. Sasha Vujacic scored 19, Kobe Bryant had 18, and Lamar Odom had 17 (plus 16 rebounds). Raptors 80, Clippers 77 - As if the Clip Show wasn't missing enough performers, Cuttino Mobley was out sick. Both teams shot under 40% from the field. UCLA 77, Western Illinois 52 - In a breeze of a game, K-Love was 5-of-5 for 16 points.......

Barry Bonds was in federal court today to face the music ... sort of. Southern California's least favorite son pleaded not guilty to four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. After showing off his latest threads (the wire reports had little else to say so they raved about his "impeccably tailored" look), Bonds walked back out a free man. He was essentially released on his own recognizances, but would owe Uncle......

I was going to do this in anapestic pentameter, but screw that. Beyond the typical scope of these sort of things (life, family, health, friends, etc.) here are five things I'm thankful for: 1. The Dodgers. Without the Dodgers I wouldn't have a chance to torture as many people on this forum with my mangling of the English language. As torturous as some of the games were to watch, it was still gratifying to......

After years of pressure from stats geeks thoughtful mathematicians, the NBA has started keeping a new official statistic — the old plus/minus. It’s a simple idea that hockey has used for decades: How much does a team outscore its opponent (or get outscored) when a specific player is on the floor. It’s pretty simple. Off the top of your head, who leads the Lakers in this new stat (if averaged per game)? Kobe Bryant?......

Lakers - The Lakers punished Detroit with 41 points in the 4th-quarter on Friday. Six Lakers hit double-digits in the game. They stayed hot through Sunday, when they destroyed Chicago 106-78. Five reserves hit double-digits on that night, and the bench outscored the starters 73-33. The Bull's bench, by comparison, had 31. Clippers - With their full roster back, the Warriors put together a 122-105 drubbing of the Clippers on Friday. The Clippers fell again......

We told you they were coming to speak on global warming, now here's what happened at yesterday's Presidential Forum in West LA. For the second time this month, fire officials are preparing for more wildfires as dry winds approach. Mission Viejo in Orange County is dubbed safest city in America. Sorry Detroit, you're back at the bottom of this list. However, these numbers came from a private research group and people, including the FBI,......

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......

But first - Kobe vetoed a trade! Baseball in the Coliseum - Just after it was announced that the Red Sox will open the exhibition season against Oakland in Japan, the Dodgers confirmed that the defending World Champs would play three games against the Blue Crew. The cool part? One of the games will be in the Coliseum as part of the Dodger's 50th anniversary in Los Angeles. Yes, it can be configured that way......

Feist, Spoon @ Gibson Spiritualized @ Vista Theatre Little Brother, Evidence, Black Milk @ El Rey Sondre Lerche @ The Troubadour The Parson Red Heads, Or the Whale @ The Echo Gliss @ The Viper Room The Jealous Girlfriends, A for Attack @ Silverlake Lounge The Airborne Toxic Event @ Detroit Bar Stars @ Glass House......

Wyclef - "Sweetest Girl" Wyclef Jean @ Nissan Live Shout Out Louds @ Henry Fonda Paul F. Tompkins, Morgan Murphy @ Largo Casxio, Voxhaul Broadcast @ Silverlake Lounge The Airborne Toxic Event, The Western States Motel @ Detroit Bar Brand New, Thrice, mewithoutYou @ The Wiltern The Pity Party, Io Echo @ Viper Room Shannon Hurley, David Ryan Harris @ Hotel Cafe Resident Hero, Whitey @ Roxy......

Dethklok - "Bloodrocuted" The Pogues @ The Wiltern Michelle Shocked @ Temple Bar West Indian Girl, The Mae Shi, Ashkon @ The Highlands Dios Malos @ Rio Honda College Jon Brion @ Largo Danzig @ Grove of Anaheim Northern @ The Troubadour Matt Costa @ Detroit Bar Vincent Fernandez @ The Gibson The Ringers, Dutch Pink @ Viper Room Bad Dudes, Planets, Totally Serious @ The Smell You Me & Iowa, Coco B's, Saint......

Ducks 6, Red Wings 3 - Anaheim piled on three goals in the final period to pull away from Detroit. It was an impressive late surge from a team with seemingly as many players on ice as on the ice. Todd Bertuzzi, Todd Marchant, Mathieu Schneider, and Jean-Sebastien Giguere weren't healthy enough to play, and Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer were still thinking about going out on top. Ilya Bryzgalov had 32 saves in Giguere's......

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the first game in LA Kings history. Your Los Angeles Kings celebrated by losing 4-1 to the Detroit Red Wings. Though if you live in LA and are reading this, you’re probably a Detroit fan anyway. Seriously, were there any Kings fans at the game last night? The Kings loss was its fifth in a row after winning the season opener against the Ducks in London. The lone......

With week 5 done in the NFL season, what have we learned so far? Thing learned the first: Norv Turner really isn’t that great a head coach. Granted they beat the Chicago Bears in week 1, but to lose to the Kansas City Chiefs who still have a question at quarterback is inexcusable. Thing learned the second: Rex Grossman is bad. True the ole ball coach Steve Spurrier named him Sexy Rexy, but he’s......

Red Sox 4, Angels 0 - Josh Beckett was good. Scary good. He threw eight strikeouts and retired 19 in a row in a complete game shutout, the third of his playoff career. That put him second on the all-time list, one behind Christy Mathewson and tied with Whitey Ford and Mordecai Brown. In other words, only one other pitcher has been this good in about 100 years. He was also the only pitcher to......