Caspian Rain is a novel about longing and belonging. Set just before the Islamic Revolution in Iran, 12-year-old Yaas narrates the story of her family – a family that’s just as divided as the country. Her father, Omid, is from a wealthy Jewish Tehranian family. He feels restricted by the rules dictated by the upper-class society, the rules imposed on him as a son and rules he must keep in order to not disgrace......

Sam Watters, author of Houses of Los Angeles,1885-1935, will be discussing the homes of Eva Fényes tonight @ 7:30pm. Her homes are just two of 75 historic, famous, and outlandish homes Watters explores in his new set of books. A watercolorist and an insatiable traveler, Fényes built and lived in two well-known Pasadena houses. How well known are they? One is the first Moorish style house in Pasadena and the other one is now part......

"Didn't you all feel really cool tonight driving over here?" Jeremy Townsend, founder of the underground supper club Ghetto Gourmet, posed this question to a diverse group of about forty foodies, all sprawled out on cushions on the floor of a beautiful Venice home. And as we opened our bottles of red wine, stretched out our legs, and gazed down at a beautifully crafted shooter glass filled with warm squash soup, we had to......

Bill Maher returned to HBO last night with his hilarious political talk show "Real Time with Bill Maher". His guests were actor Tim Robbins (who had a pretty good take on "experts"), NPR's Michel Martin who did get a tad ghetto on the host, and Stephen Hayes, a dude who wrote a pro-Dick Cheney book. Maher had an interesting interview with a NY Times reporter who is in Iraq, and he talked with GOP......

I have a note to anyone who goes to Dodger Stadium. If you have a seat in the front of a section, MAKE SURE YOU DON’T LET YOUR TRASH FALL OVER THE LEDGE. In Wednesday’s rubber game against the Rockies, I was sitting in the field level in right field right behind the foul pole. I became distinctly aware of the loge section right above me in the seventh inning when someone’s discarded soft-serve......

I am in shock. Despite a ton of promotion, great reviews and legions of Quentin Tarantino fans, Grindhouse opened in only fourth place. That would be $3.4 million behind the "former ghetto rapper heads to the burbs" comedy Are We Done Yet? and only $1.5 million ahead of the "I'm Hilary Swank, and I've won two Oscars, so I can star in whatever piece of poorly conceived commercial dreck I want to" horror film......

When the former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, said that bi-lingual education taught "the language of living in a ghetto" and not the language of prosperity, many were outraged. Since Los Angeles is the second largest Spanish-speaking city in the world, the offense couldn't have felt stronger in the US than here. Then Newt said that he meant ghetto in a Jew way... because they're not prosperous? Preposterous! We're sure LA's chosen people......

The LA Times has nominated five books in each of nine different categories for the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. In the weeks leading up to the Festival of Books where the winners will be announced, LAist will take a quick look at each category and will wax poetic on a few favorites (or least favorites) along the way. The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate......

That was the Talking Heads and the next 24 videos will either be love songs, romantic songs, sexy songs, or tunes you should download and get on your mix list tonight bitches. And although it's not in our nature to apologize for a post during the post, we apologize for the versions of the songs that we are presenting today. Viacom has decided to shoot itself in the foot by demanding that YouTube take......

It was Superbowl Sunday morning when we were eating brunch at Le Pain Quotidien on Ventura Blvd. One table over, two women were talking about their previous night in Gelson's in Studio City. Apparently, one of the two women could not get over this huge nasty ass on this young and petite girl. I mean, she thought this was the nastiest ghetto white girl ass she had seen in a long time. Talk about......

Trey Anastasio - Bar 17 (Red Ink) Beck - The Information (Geffen) Lindsey Buckingham - Under the Skin (Warner Bros.) Cirque Du Soleil - Corteo (Cirque Du Soleil) Dears - Gang of Losers (Arts & Crafts) Decemberists - The Crane Wife (Capitol) Plácido Domingo - Moments of Passion (Sony Classical) Don't Die Cindy - Most Imperfect Skies (Cake) Evanescence - The Open Door (Wind-Up) Goldenboy - Underneath the Radio (Eenie Meenie) Robyn Hitchcock &......

Giant Drag, The Thermals, Envy, Dios Malos, Tussle, Silversun Pickups, Darker My Love, Foreign Born, Toys that Kill, Brother Reade, Whiskey Biscuit, Rolling Blackouts, Strange Boys, The Minor Canon, Sleeping People, Subtitle & Friends, Graf Orlock, Chuck Ragan, Hit Me Back, Carry the Casket, Upsilon Acrux,Shapes and Sizes, Thee Make Out Party, Michael Runion, Life with an Astronaut @ Fuck Yeah Fest Ted Nugent @House of Blues Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker @ Key Club......

Trace Adkins - Dangerous Man (Capitol) Christina Aguilera - Back to Basics (two CDs; RCA) Carmine Appice - Ultimate Guitar Zeus (Escapi) Patricia Barber - Mythologies (Blue Note) Rory Block - The Lady and Mr. Johnson (Rykodisc) Cham - Ghetto Story (Atlantic) Cherish - Unappreciated (enhanced; Capitol) Philip Glass - "The Illusionist" soundtrack (Rykodisc) Joanna - This Crazy Life (Geffen) Andy Fairweather Low - Sweet Soulful Music (Proper) Maria Muldaur - Heart of Mine:......

As if the ghetto birds weren't enough, now the LA Sheriff is checking out unmanned drones for survelliance. Farewell privacy! The long-awaited Biggie Smalls retrial pushed back to 2007, American Airlines red-eye flight from LA to Chicago lands at O'Hare this morning without its nosegear lowering and locking. Pilots are amazing. The editors of the LA Times are bashing their parent company's CEO today. Hugh Hewitt says "This is a classic hit piece, standard......

Paris, 2010. The French government, plum out of ideas about what to do with its crime-ridden housing projects, has surrounded them with a high concrete wall topped by razor wire. Drugs have taken over the ghetto. Except for one apartment block, where wiry Leïto is fighting to keep the nasty dudes at bay — even if it means stealing a load of cocaine and washing it down the tub. That's when la merde really......

LA has unveiled a plan to spend $100 million on the homeless. The allocation includes many housing solutions, including establishing five "stabilization centers" around the city, which would be open 24-7 to provide services, treatment, and housing. Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky says it's "a proposal of historic proportions." The Board of Sups is expected to vote on the plan next month. A mistaken-identity gang shooting of a teenager has people paying attention to the Pico......

Morning traffic in downtown was a nightmare as two freeways (the 10 East to the 110 South) were shut down and harried commuters shunted off onto clogged surface streets. Don't blame the St. Patty's parade — an 18-wheeler packed with cotton collided with a minivan and, as the truck toppled into the crash refuse, its cargo burst into flames. Amazingly, no one was injured. The freeways weren't reopened until 2pm. (We would have posted......

Universal CityWalk gets the big WTF for what we witnessed in our short 45-minute jaunt to pick up a friend there last night. In that small period of time, there was much to witness: one hiccupping drunk laying on the parking garage men's bathroom floor, three separate fights and one bartender who didn't know how to make a Madras (you know, it doesn't need cranberry juice or anything). Security with their out-of-place ranger hats......

Heather at Dancing Brave thinks the Oscars are going ghetto. We think they are going interesting. First, a confession: we're not a fan of awards shows. We find them boring so the idea of Chris Rock harassing stuffy Hollywood types who are believing their own hype at the Academy Awards is amusing to us. We're pretty sure that there's only so far you can go with sanitizing Chris Rock at a live event with......