Last night we hit downtown L.A. for the Edison's weekly event, Incandescence, where vaudeville circus/dance troupe Lucent Dossier was performing from the stage, from the rafters, from the floor amid the audience. We sampled the absinthe cocktails which were served to us in vintage-looking glass bottles that we were allowed to take home. And even some of the liquor shots were handed to us in corked glass bottles that resembled those miracle elixirs con men......

Russian Tatiana Aryasova won the LA Marathon, and the $100,000 "Banco Popular Challenge" with an unofficial time of 2:09:32*, beating out the top "elite" male runner, Laban Moiben of Kenya, who clocked in with an unofficial time of 2:13:50. The petite Aryasova is in peak shape; she recently gave birth and resumed her training rapidly. Both runners received the keys to their new Honda Accords thanks to the race's sponsor, Honda of America, whose headquarters......

Last Thursday evening, photographer/director Octavio "Winkytiki" Arizala (MySpace) celebrated the release of his Vivid-Alt (MySpace) movie The Bad Luck Betties at the Redwood Bar & Grill in Downtown LA. Also in attendance, besides Bad Luck Betties' "Smoking" Mary Jane (MySpace) and Mika Tan (MySpace) and newcomers Sochee and Mika, were Vivid-Alt head Eon McKai (MySpace), photographer/director Dave Naz (MySpace) and his girlfriend Ashley Blue, and director Vena Virago (MySpace). The party was presented in......

Illustration courtesy of the artist. We saw in this week's Los Angeles Downtown News that Doug Davis, the paper's former art director and current contributor of the "Urban Scrawl" political comic strip, has his first gallery show. It opens tonight in Downtown LA and runs until April 30. In "Urban Scrawl," Davis captures the essence of the city with his pen and ink -- skewering government officials, projects and Downtown life in general. At......

For the last ten years, state representatives from Los Angeles have dominated the role of Speaker of the Assembly, including Mayor Villaraigosa, LA City Council Herb Wesson and Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle. Today, Karen Bass, the assemblywoman who represents neighborhoods from West LA to Culver City to Baldwin Hills, had enough votes to become Speaker of the Assembly up in Sacramento. The job of speaker is to be the leader of the California State Assembly,......

To have a continuous bike path along the LA River, it must pass next to Universal Studios. The maroon line marks the disputed path. Back in an October 2006 interview with the mysterious LA City Nerd, we asked a question of hope: when can we realistically bike commute via the LA River Trail from the Valley to Downtown LA? The nerd was not optimistic saying that "the LA River trail may never connect completely......

"Banksy phone booth crashes Downtown LA?" by xxjetlab via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Five are dead and one person was hurt in an apparent murder-suicide in Yorba Linda, close to the Richard Nixon Library. A 14-year-old called in to report that his father had shot him. Police later found that the gunman shot his wife and 3 of his children before turning the gun on himself. As we have pointed out before,......

Zero One Gallery | All photos by Elise Thompson for LAist Remember the good old days, when you would just end up at a random artspace downtown sometime after midnight? People would be walking around wearing bowler hats and bunny suits while loud noise/music/artistic expression screeched out from the next room. So you would wander into the next room and find someone bellydancing or putting on a burlesque show. And you would think to......

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......

Kanye West tickets for the April 21st concert sold out extremely quickly this morning during pre-sale (uh oh!). But we're happy to announce that they just decided to have a second Kanye West concert at NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE taking place the next day on Tuesday, April 22. Lucky for you, we have one pair of tickets to give away here on LAist. To enter the contest, you must submit a comment on this post......

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist UPDATE: Seven Grand is a 21+ bar. We apologize for any inconveniences. There's no better way for LAist to have its first ever public event than next Tuesday, a day where Los Angeles, and all of California for that matter, votes, taking part in one of the greatest Presidential primaries ever. For the Democratic party, California carries more weight than any other state -- that's huge in itself. Locally, several......

Downtown's historic Broadway Theater District could soon be getting a boost from the City. The Downtown News is reporting that a press conference on the area is planned for tomorrow morning, and that City Coucilman José Huizar (14th district) and Mayor Villaraigosa will be on hand to share with local business and land owners their goals and intentions. As revitalization takes place throughout LA's downtown area, many are seeking to extend the developments and improvements......

Street flooding on Rossmore Ave in the Hancock Park of Los Angeles when storm drains became clogged by debris. | Photo by Jonathon Alcom (Sundogg) via the LAist Featured Photos Flickr pool. Through 10 a.m. this morning, here are the rain and snow totals in inches from the National Weather Service. Rain Downtown LA -- 3.43 Long Beach -- 2.85 Santa Monica -- 2.69 Bel Air -- 3.39 Beverly Hills -- 4.20 Hollywood --......

TALK What’s up with all the development in Downtown LA? What’s it going to look like in 5, 10 or 20 years? Moderated by Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times architecture critic, ALOUD at the Central Library features panelists Lauren Bon, Tom Gilmore, Martha Welborne and James Von Klemperer, AIA to discuss all things Downtown and development. 7 PM // ALOUD at the Central Library: Mark Taper Auditorium // 631 Fifth & Flower streets, LA......

A reader submitted a question last week about pigeons in Downtown: pigeons droppings are a major nuisance and a health hazard here in downtown LA, where people keep feeding the birds. Please let me know if there is an ordinance against that, and as a private citizen where does one go to enforce it. Thank you. So, to answer this question, we turn to the Los Angeles Municipal Code (that pesky LAMC that is......

This winter, Seven Grand in downtown LA is offering three specialty winter drinks: The Dublin Flip, Hot Toddy and Irish Coffee....

Yesterday the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved additional steps for Project 50, a three year pilot program that will help get some of the most vulnerable people living on skid row into permanent housing. Volunteers completed hundreds of early-morning interviews to identify the 50 people who were in the most trouble -- people living on the streets with chronic illnesses, like liver disease and AIDS, many of whom are also mentally ill. Now a......

The New Year's Eve celebration at Little Radio in Downtown LA featured locals The Pity Party (MySpace), Fatlip (formerly of The Pharcyde), and Restaurant (MySpace), as well as DJ Lady Michelle Sinclair (MySpace). Not to mention free alcohol (after a $20.00 admission fee). Local music bloggers in attendance included Amateur Chemist and Rock Insider. Monday night was also "...the last event at Little Radio for about 4-5 months while [they] renovate the entire 10,000......

Father Dollar Bill (a.k.a. Reverend Maurice Chase) was at it again yesterday, handing out money on Skid Row. While he often hands out money to downtown residents in need, Christmas is his no-holds-barred attempt to spread a little more love in the form of Christmas cash. Skid row residents have lined up every year for 24 years to see what luck might come their way from Father Dollar Bill on Christmas Day. Reverend Chase gives......

Craby Joe's has been at the corner of 7th and Main in Downtown LA since 1933, and earned its place in local lore as a watering hole near and dear to the well-known downtrodden of the literary scene, like John Fante and Charles Bukowski. In honor of the bar's closing night, there will be a gathering of local historians and preservationists, and anyone else wishing to hoist a memorial last drink at Craby Joe's from......

I went to my 15th Tori Amos concert last night. I still remember the high school days of camping outside of Tower records at 7am on a Saturday morning to get tickets to the her shows, or that time I drove 3 hours in the snow to see her play in Boston on my 21st birthday. And then there was the time we got up at 6am to see her do a show in......

So, you know how MTA is considering ridding our freeways of carpool lanes? One outraged blogger blames Bush because, "local officials in the MTA are being forced to take a more free-enterprise approach to freeway management in order to qualify for federal transportation dollars." In a move designed to empower local Iraqi municipalities, the US Army is planning on concentrating its forces in Baghdad as the army continues to draw down its forces after......

Three people were injured and dozens evacuated after an apartment fire in Sherman Oaks gutted at least two units at 2 a.m. this morning. It was cold last night, but there are better ways to stay warm people. Australian police arrested a man in Melbourne who threatened to attack The Grove Friday. There is no evidence the man, who has never been to the United States, intended to carry out the attack. Still, days......

As traffic worsens on Ventura Boulevard, a new L.A. City report found that developers could add 3 million square feet of commercial space to the Ventura Boulevard corridor under current zoning rules. If you thought getting from Sepulveda to Van Nuys down Ventura was bad before. Umph... Not sure what to buy that ragamuffin who has everything this holiday season? Franklin Avenue found a great set of Lego-ish toys featuring people in casts, babies......

Welcome to Hollywood Today, an LA City commission voted recommending that Charles Bukowski's former home to be designated a historic cultural monument. Yay books and reading! According to state representative Fabian Nunez, who represents the Downtown LA area, the biggest crisis we're facing today is foreclosures. ""It's a more immediate crisis," he told the AP. Meanwhile, protests are beginning to hit the streets over this. Drink up! It's the holidays! Caroline on Crack has......

I love shooting macro photos, especially involving things that don't move. It really allows you to leave the shutter open for a while and get some crazy detail on very small objects. For me, it takes a lot of things that people would find mundane and turns them into objects of beauty. I took a failed trip to McLogan's this morning, not knowing that they would be closed on Friday. As the foremost supplier to......

If you’ve driven through downtown LA you’ve definitely seen the Bonaventure Hotel. Next time you’re stuck in traffic on the 110, look to the side for four cylinder glass towers. Designed by developer and architect John Portman in 1977, the Bonaventure on south Figueroa stands out in the LA skyline as one of the few buildings worth looking at twice. I’d been hoping to visit it since seeing it from the roof of The......

Besides having the same middle name, Wagstaff, Dick Clark and MF Doom do not have a whole lot in common. This year, however, both will be the main attraction at New Year's Eve festivities. While I lied about MF Doom's middle name being Wagstaff (that really is Clark's middle name), I am not lying when I tell you that the masked man will be headlining the Deep Urban Breaks' New Year's celebration. Just like the......

For those of you driving over the river and through the woods to grandma's house for Thanksgiving -- this picture is going to hurt. This particular Chevron is on the corner of Cesar Chavez and Alameda in Downtown LA. And we're sure it's not the only one around town with prices like these. From today's LA Times: California motorists paid an average of $3.395 for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline, up 2.9 cents......

Some call Dutch composer Louis Andriessen the "hip guru for a younger generation," we just call him one of our favorites. And lucky for us locals, the Los Angeles Master Chorale commissioned the composer for a piece that world premieres a week from tonight -- "The City of Dis or: The Ship of Fools." The piece is one of the five sections in Andriessen's opera "La Commedia," with the libretto based on works by......