"Why is this night different from all other nights?" you might ask. Well, it's the first night of Passover, and even folks who will be sitting down to a seder somewhere in the Southland tonight will also be asking the same thing, because it's one of four questions that are posed in the traditional pre-dinner ceremony. Passover is a hands-on Jewish holiday, where families and friends gather around the table to honor the Israelites' exodus......

Don't be angsty like this lady...go out tonight! / Photo by Plankton 4:20 via LAist's flickr pool. FILM “Animation Nite: From Halifax with Love” is a program at the Echo Park Film Center that features short animated and semi-animated films by women who’ve all lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, eh. The screening includes work by host Siloën Daley and six others. Music by local band Foot Foot follows. 7:30 // Echo Park Film......

Family, the great little bookstore on Fairfax is celebrating its one-year anniversary with a huge art show that opens tonight at 8pm and you're invited. The show is a "Thank You" to all those who've made Family's first year a success. And what a Thank You it is - the 26 artists they've assembled for this celebratory art show are impressive and reflect everything about the store that we love - eclectic and slightly off-kilter,......

Photo from inside LACMA's new Broad Contemporary by Sundogg via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr In honor of the opening of the brand new Broad Contemporary modern galleries, LACMA is hosting a free community weekend, opening their doors to the public at no charge for the next three days. In addition to full access to the current galleries of the museum, the weekend's festivities are set to include live music; workshops; roving......

My relatives on the east coast just don't understand California weather. For a time, it seemed they saw Southern California as the land of rainbows, unicorns and constant, seasonless, unrelenting heat. The gifts they sent me reflected these beliefs - bikinis that would embarrass a stripper, all manner of atrocious patterned terrycloth 'loungewear', big, cheap plastic sunglasses that they thought all the movie stars might wear whenever they ventured out of their fabulous mansions to......

If you ask me, it doesn't really feel like Christmas. Of course, what I then ask myself is: What is Christmas supposed to feel like? My answer is: I'm not sure. For the first time in a long while I'm here in Los Angeles doing Christmas solo. With airfare out of my budget (you'd be horrified to find out what CSU lecturers make, I'd bet) and the flight schedules whacked to boot, instead of joining......

The Human Calender, a Brady Bunch-esque representation of the calender....

Not about to throw his back out. With the holiday season coming up, many of us become nostalgic with the sights, smells, and sounds of relatives and good times past and present. Some of us turn to photographs to settle these hungry feelings, others slides, others old film reels. The main problem in this endeavor, though, comes when you try to actually find the photos you're thinking of. I know, in my house, we have......

When asked what I was thankful for this year, I really had to step back and think for a while. I know life is full of blessings, but writing about what makes me want to keep breathing everyday isn't as easy as it sounds. So without further ado here are some things, good and bad, big and small, that made me feel thankful this year in no particular order... 1. Guitar Hero III I’m......

Strobe lights. Fog. Serial killers. Screams. God damn, I love Halloween. Not only do I love dressing up in costume, eating lots of candy and carving out Jack-O-Lanterns, I love all the frightening fun Halloween entails. And for me the pinnacle of spooky good times always involves a haunted house. But there’s a problem. I’ve been to Knott’s Scary Farm and Halloween Horror Nights so many times that they have lost the element of......

Years ago, I found a book called Sister Crazy, wedged in on an unassuming shelf in a used bookstore called The Cabin, in a small town called Three Rivers CA. Finding the book reminded me of when I was a kid and I used to root through the old books at my grandparents' house, or wander through the library during the summer. (Yes, I was a nerd, basically Hermione.) But it has since become my......

Photo by Pinky P. The Autry museum is hosting the second annual Barbeque Championship and Festival tomorrow, Saturday, April 14, 2007, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Griffith Park. 32 teams will be competing for some kind of smoke-and-meat-infused title -- and for the greater glory of barbecue. Because what could be better than marinated, rubbed, glazed and barbecued animal flesh? **If you want to prove yourself a true glutton you can enter......