Do you think this is part of the Reno 911! marketing campaign? / Photo by Bernard Mickey Wrangle via flickr. COMEDY* Paging Reno 911! fans: Robert Ben Garant, who plays Deputy Travis Junior, hosts The Armando Show tonight. (It’s an hour-long improvised comedy show inspired by an audience suggestion). He’ll be joined by a few other Reno castmates: Carlos Alazraqui, Thomas Lennon, Niecy Nash, Kerri Kenney and Cedric Yarbrough. 8 pm // iO West......

The LA River in all its glory. DEBATE WATCHING Now with John Edwards out of the picture, Hillary and Barack only have eyes and one-liners for each other. Watch them duke it out during the Democratic candidates debate tonight with friends and bloggers in the comfort of CineSpace (because really, you don’t want to be anywhere near Hollywood and Highland). RSVP at RSVP@gatherinc.com. Doors open at 4:30 pm // CineSpace // 6356 Hollywood Blvd., Los......

If you want to do something else tonight besides the mind-numbing seventh season opener of American Idol, here are a few options: WORDS Nobel Prizewinner Mohammad Yunus has a conversation with Rick Wartzman, director of the Drucker Institute, Claremont Graduate University (and former editor of the Los Angeles Times' West) on "Creating a World without Poverty." The evening will focus on questions like: "What if you could harness the power of the free market......

Welcome Home LA, a group of students from the USC Roski School of Fine Arts, recently hit Skid Row using performance/public/street art to draw attention to the Downtown neighborhood and its issues. "We want to utilize public art and the reproduction and documentation of public art to bring attention to marginalized urban space," the Welcome Home LA website explains. "These images, which allude to homes, human presence, security and comfort, will be juxtaposed with......

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

Orlando Bloom will not be prosecuted after an October 12th incident in which he injured his two passengers in a car crash involving parked cars. He said he was avoiding a photographer who suddenly changed lanes. Seeing these paparazzi in action, we suspect it was them who caused the crash, most likely on purpose for some higher dollar photo sales. Starting from last week today, the San Jose Mercury News has a great timeline......

Whitney Bedford is a truly unique artist. Her subjects- shipwrecks, pirates, and impending disaster, are far from the norm of what L.A based painters are doing these days. In her most recent exhibit at Cherry & Martin, Bedford takes on one of the biggest celebrities of the roaring 20’s Harry Houdini. The life-sized images in ink & oil on paper catch the showman mid –escape, in his most harrowing moments. Some of the lines......

Monday Edmund White presents Hotel de Dream: A New York Novel 7pm @ Central Library Patricia Hampl presents The Florist's Daughter 7pm @ Dutton's Red Hen Press poets read their work 8pm @ Boston Court Main Stage, Pasadena Tuesday Oliver Sacks presents Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain 7pm @ Central Library Roger Director presents I Dream in Blue 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble, The Grove Francisco Goldman presents The Art of Politcal......

Beginning this Sunday, LACMA will be rolling out Dali: Painting & Film. Regarded as one of the greatest surrealist artists of the 20th Century-the exhibit will examine the influence that cinema had on his works, and the contribution that he himself made to film. Featuring about 100 works from various collections, LACMA will also screen Dali’s many film projects, and host a series of lectures. Born in 1904 in Figueres, Spain; Dali discovered impressionism at......

Los Angeles based artist, Tom Neely took some time out of his schedule to talk with LAist, about his new graphic novel The Blot, his current exhibit Self Indulgent Werewolf, and art & life in L.A. LAist: Why/how did you choose L.A. after graduating from art school? Neely: I went to grad school at the San Francisco Art Institute to get my MFA in painting. While I was in grad school I got so......

Coming your way in the next week are Ulrich Schnauss, who was interviewed and whose album Goodbye was reviewed on LAist this month, and and Welsh minstrel Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals fame. Gruff Rhys will be playing on Wednesday, October 3rd at the Rec Center Studio in Echo Park. UIrich Schnauss will be performing at the Troubador on Friday, October 5th, with Manual and LA's own Fleeting Joys. LAist had a chance to......

It's easier to name bands that Rodney Bingenheimer didn't discover on his long-running KROQ show, but if you're familiar with the works of Blondie, the Ramones, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, and The Smiths, it's probably because Rodney first spun it on 106.7 soon to be followed by other stations across the country. The Mayor of the Sunset Strip is the doc released in 2003 about Rodney the gentle, high voiced, mop topped LA deejay......

Hey jetsetters, tonight marks the kick off of SHAG’s biggest show in L.A. ever! Sophisticates, beatniks, shriners, tiki’s, monkeys & retro chicks are part of the exhibit entitled Conspicuous Consumption, and a continuation of the SHAG style we have come to know and love. Painting from his mid-century modern style home in Los Angeles 7 days a week, his hip colorful portrayals of living the high life are heavily influenced by advertising art from......

LAist was comped front row seats by the Dodgers due to Malingering being struck by a foul ball last week, and she came back with some great photos, and earlier made fun of 4th of July on Venice Beach. But the biggest stories of the week was that the Mayor's Hot Tamale was revealed, and that a Kwik-E-Mart was erected in Burbank. Phillyist was busy doing the Fourth of July up right, exercising their......

Last Wednesday’s show at the Billy Shire Gallery in Culver City had all the elements needed for a typical Los Angeles VIP event – work by a world renowned artist (Tim Biskup), a celebrity host (JJ Abrams), sponsorship from two hip brands (Vanity Fair and Helio), and a roster of guests most people only read about in the usual arts & culture magazines (Matt Groening, Mark Ryden, Adele Mildred, and Shepard Fairey, among others). The......

Alonzo King has a dance company called LINES Ballet in San Francisco. Last night he received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts (DFA) in the annual graduation tradition at CalArts. His speech is short and simple, but his message is so very true for artists entering into the "real world" for the beginning of the end of the beginning.......

Monday Barney Hoskyns presents Hotel California 7pm @ Book Soup Christopher Nyerges discusses How To Survive Anywhere 7pm @ Vroman’s Robert Crais signs The Watchman 7pm @ Borders Torrance Dennis Cooper in discussion with the writers of Userlands 7:30pm @ Skylight Books Tuesday Chad Kultgen presents Average American Male 7pm @ Book Soup Jane Smiley discusses Ten Days in the Hills 7pm @ Vroman’s Allison L. Bailey, Frances A. Butler, Margaret Heritage, and Norma......

Monday Robert Fagan discusses The Notebooks of Robert Frost 7pm @ Vroman’s Rebecca Liebermann signs We Are Still Here 7pm @ Dutton’s Brentwood Josh Peter discusses Fried Twinkies, Buckle Bunnies & Bull Riders 7pm @ Studio City Branch Library Tuesday David Lynch presents Catching the Big Fish 7pm @ Borders in Westwood Martin Amis discusses House of Meetings 7pm @ Central Library Robert Stone & John Densmore in conversation about Remembering the Sixties 7:30pm......

Monday Barbara Taylor Bradford discusses and signs The Ravenscar Dynasty, 7pm @ Vroman's Frank Warren of postsecret.com fame speaks, 7pm @ Borders Books in Torrance Tuesday Vendela Vida presents Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, 7pm @ Book Soup Anthony Swofford (award-winning author of Jarhead) presents Exit A: A Novel, 7pm @ Vroman's Patricia Marx signs Him Her Him Again the End of Him, 7pm @ Dutton’s Brentwood Portia Iversen signs Strange Son,......

You've probably seen his photos on Flickr or around the blogosphere under the name "eecue". A. David Bullock is more than just a talented local photographer, he's also a Search & Rescue volunteer, a practicing blogger, and contributor for our pals over at blogging.la. This interview was originally meant to be part of our 20 Under 30 series this spring, but David was busy getting hitched to a fellow caver. 1. What inspires you......