LAist absolutely loves the Redwood Bar & Grill, a pirate-themed hangout close to Disney Hall and the Civic Center downtown -- not only is it a lovely place to wander into on a cold and lonely winter night, but it serves our Editor's Choice for Best Mac N' Cheese in the city. I know, right! So you'll be thrilled to hear that the Redwood is now open for brunch! Beginning this weekend from 11am......

When an Orange County woman asked her husband to go clean the car, he came back with some old lottery tickets. Turns out one was worth $1, another was $3 and the final ticket was $198,468. The woman had bought the tickets back in March at a Fountain Valley liquor store and forgot about them until her husband came up with them. The next time your mother, your wife, your girlfriend or whoever tells you......

Photo by LAist News Editor Andy Sternberg Wait, cancel that, reports The Smoking Gun in March: Major League Baseball has forced the closure of an online business run by a Barack Obama supporter who tweaked team logos to create t-shirts promoting the Illinois Democrat's presidential bid. The web site Obamaofdreams.com began selling the $19.99 shirts last month and had more than a dozen versions available when an MLB lawyer sent proprietor Morris Levin a......

GueriLA, the LA sister offshoot of Improv Everywhere, has done it again and they're growing. A couple weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon, they hit the Getty Museum and did a simple exercise of follow the leader... with 200+ people. They released only raw footage, but here are the highlights if you want to skim around: 1:40 - 2:20 (An outdoor staircase) 4:10 - 4:50 (On a walkway) 5:55 - 6:20 (Staircase inside the......

Video by Zach Behrens/LAist Just like the Los Angeles Pillow Fight, there was another event of "random" fun this weekend and that was Friday night's Mobile Clubbing in Hollywood. Here's a short video (with unexplained black at the end for two minutes) that shows Grauman's Chinese Theatre security escorting the clubbers off their property while having a good laugh, a Los Angeles Sheriff taking photos of the event, a few characters joining in and......

At UCLA, spring break officially begins today after exams, but as tradition states, on the Wednesday of finals week, students must undress and run like there's no tomorrow (it's rumored that former President Bill Clinton will join in on the next Undie Run before he addresses graduates at the main commencement ceremony in June). As usual, here's some of the craziness that took place, beginning at the Strathmore tunnel.........

'Capitalism' by Kwasi B. via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr American Flag. Check. California Flag. Check. City McDonald's Flag. Ha! Location possibly near Wilshire and Western......

The rant starts off with a little resume building: for the life of me, i can't seem to figure out what's going on here. i did all the things that i thought i was supposed to do to put myself in position to score ungodly amounts of hollywood poon. i got an undergrad degree in business from nyu. then i move to LA and complete the Peter Stark producing program at USC. while there i......

God, sometimes we love Orange County. It's such a parody of itself at times, which we admire. Especially when it comes to brilliance like the following found over at Laughing Squid. You see, the city of Santa Ana (oy) wants to help parents determine, via the graphic above, whether or not their child is a rat bastard tagger. The city of Santa Ana's site explains their accusatory and unfair image, along with the final word......

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early The electronic voting machine company, Diebold, has accidently leaked the results of the 2008 Election. Still, the company and the country will go on with the election to please the people. "This country is based on the fantasy that the government is the voice of the people," one Diebold representative said. Related on LAist (and in reality) -- Secretary of State Debra Bowen Checks Out NH Voting......

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist Remember when there was that big freak out in the Santa Clarita Valley? Six Flags Magic Mountain was going to close and quite possibly become torn down for more housing. Not good. The "extreme" roller coaster theme park is the single largest employer in the area, it fills up the hotels with tourists, adding green to the local economy and hey, it's an institution of the little Valley that could......

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......

Another week in February, another Q1 with not many greatly anticipated games. But at least there's always news. This week around the internets, we've learned a few cool things that may pique some interest out there. Check out some news, game releases, and other info for this week after the jump.......

Deadspin's Will Leitch will be signing copies of his new book, God Save the Fan tonight at Book Soup Will Leitch, Deadspin editor, New York Times contributor, and author is in Los Angeles today presenting and signing copies of his new book God Save the Fan: How Preening Sportscasters, Athletes Who Speak in the Third Person, and the Occasional Convicted Quarterback Have Taken the Fun Out of Sports (And How We Can Get It......

Am in a post-Super Bowl stupor. The commercials were so-so, I wasn't unduly impressed, and the halftime show was terrible, they practically had to frickin' wheel Tom Petty and his aging cronies out there. Going for it on 4th and 13?? That made me almost as sick as the above clip. 8:30pm Duty Free TV: Unbeatable Banzuke/Super Big Product Fun Show G4 - Series Premiere. The series is a combination of Super Big Product......

Detail of creepy-cool clown mural painted by "Wizard" in 1975, which marks the entrance to fun! A few weeks back I promised to continue the photo essay of my next-door neighbor, the Redondo Beach Pier, where there is always something weird and wonderful to see and do. The Fun Factory is the next best thing to a cheesy, down-the-shore/midway arcade. Sure, Santa Monica Pier has its Ferris wheel, calliope and similar games of chance,......

The BBQ & Hibachi Marching Grill Team are taking part in the mischief of the Doo Dah Parade, as they did above in '05 Forget the pageantry and regal demeanor of the Rose Parade, the 31st Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade is the ultimate antidote. Billed as being the loud and irreverent twister sister of the aforementioned annual march down Colorado Boulevard, the parade promises to "send up a woolly range of mischiefs, grounded superheroes,......

ALCOHOL One of the most important elements of a new year's eve party is alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol. This will cause people to forget your little mistakes, and turn the big mistakes into hilarious anecdotes that you will chuckle over together for years. Figure one bottle of champagne will yield around 6 glasses. Oh, and get plastic glasses if you have invited over more than 20 people. It's tacky, but beats the......

Too much liquid holiday jolliness? It might be comforting to know today that our friends in the animal kingdom also go a little hog wild (groan!) and gorge on tasty treats that make them, well, shitfaced. These creatures are lucky there's no field sobriety tests they have to pass!......

Last year, my boyfriend and I wanted to go somewhere fun but romantic but local for our New Years Eve. We had just gotten back from a major trip to Belize, so we weren't in the mood for anything that would stretch our brains or require too much planning. Disneyland seemed like the best choice -- an easy drive (holiday traffic), mindless amusement, and maybe we'd get in a nice dinner at one of......

Metal Skool with Kelly Clarkson Wu-Tang Clan @ House of Blues The Signatures, DJ BAD @ Temple Bar Capt. Jeffrey & the Chumbuckets, The Phil Friendly Trio, Darren Stout @ Safari Sam's Devils Playground @ The Bordello LA Jones @ Blue Dog Happenin' Harry & the Hap Tones All Star Band @ The Cat Club The Big Manny Band @ Liquid KItty Metal Skool, Handsome Devil, Eject, Coda Vesta @ Key Club Sumitra @......

I know you haven't been to Gambrinus on the Redondo Pier and had their "Russian style hamburger" called belashi, which they describe as meat-filled fried bread. IF you have, skip this post... But if you haven't then what are you doing wasting your time with these stupid American hamburgers?! Seriously though, people who think they are "in the know" rant and rave about how wonderful it is at Naja's, which is located about 2......

We leaf through various calendars so you don't have to. HOLIDAY FUN: The folks at the Troubadour Theater Company who brought us It's a Stevie Wonderful Christmas and Fleetwood MacBeth are back with A Charlie James Brown Christmas. The show features Charlie Brown singing "It's a Man's Man's World" or maybe James Brown singing "Christmas Time is Here." Or maybe it's both? 8 pm // Falcon Theatre // 4252 Riverside Drive, Los Angeles // $20-$37.50.......

Our friends over at Austinist asked us to pass along this casting call for Lucky magazine--one of their writers, Breanna, made the cut and will be striking a pose in the mag's glossy pages come March '08--and now they're looking for some lovely Angeleno ladies for a local shoot. Could you be one of them? The shoot is going to take place here in Los Angeles on Friday, January 4th. According to their press info,......

Thankfully I had Tivo'd Sunday's Kenny vs. Spenny and Robot Chicken to watch last night because after the first 15 minutes of Saving Grace I couldn't take any more. Unfortunately I tuned back into SG in time to catch Lem giving Holly Hunter a hand job which was so not worth it. In case you missed him last week, you have a couple more chances to go to a Q&A with writer/creator David Milch at......

Part II of ten surprisingly lovely days with a 19-Year-Old Swedish Sex Kitten who turned out to have quite more than Nordic good looks....

We found this awesome present-day shot of the iconic Hollywood Sign doctored to harken back to the golden era using the new Picnik online photo editor. Want to play with your photos online with Flickr and Picnik (and maybe get featured on LAist to boot!)? Check out our primer on using the new editing tool from just a few days ago. And have fun! Photo by C.M. via Flickr......

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

As a send off to photographer, Ann Summa's Los Angelesshow, bands/performers from the bad old days of early L.A. punk played in the gallery. Dude, it was both awesome and bitchin. ...

This past weekend, in the steep hills of Echo Park, there was a Christmas party extravaganza complete with booze, baseball players and bad taste. Described as "Your Parent's Christmas Party," the holiday invite explained that one must "come dressed in what your parent's once thought was their holiday best," because after all, "This is how we do it in 92." With that in mind, I reluctantly put on one of the fugliest xmas sweatshirts......