Photo by Andy Sternberg/LAist A posthumous tribute wall dedicated to singer/songwriter Elliott Smith sat defaced by graffiti for months on end -- LAist said enough, so did the fans and city council.SFist was surprised to learn that chronic presidential candidate Ralph Nader picked former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez as his running mate.Phillyist explored the possibilities of green cleaning.In the latest edition of Reel Toronto, a bi-weekly feature looking at films shot in Toronto......

Monday Tanya Lemani presents Have Belly, Will Travel 7pm @ Book Soup Kim Sunee presents Trail of Crumbs 7pm @ Vroman's Tuesday Marc Porter Zasada presents The Urban Man: Staying Human in LA 7pm @ Book Soup Patrick Conyer presents Pasadena: A Business History 7pm @ Vroman's Elizabeth Pomeroy presents Pasadena: A Natural History 7pm @ Vroman's Muhammad Yunus discusses Creating a World Without Poverty 7pm @ Central Library Lewis Hyde discusses his books......

The week in Los Angeles bookish events from Monday, January 7th - Sunday, January 13th. Readings, signings and bookish events this week include Andy Summers, Jami Attenberg, Judith Freeman, Alice Fulton, J.A. Jance and Robert Gottlieb....

Monday Porochista Khakpour presents Sons and Other Flammable Objects 7pm @ Dutton's Kenneth Turan presents Never Coming to a Theater Near You 7pm @ Studio City Branch Library Tuesday Susan Faludi presents The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America 7pm @ Central Library Max Brooks presents World War Z 7pm @ Book Soup Walter Mosley presents Blonde Faith 7:30pm @ Skirball Cultural Center President Vicente Fox discusses and signs Revolution of Hope......

Yes, we have some new seasons and series awaiting us over the next couple months but it's remarkable that we've settled into a similar groove from the previous season. We know what's good and has held up over at least a season. It's a shame that 30 Rock continues to lag in the ratings despite being so consistently well-written and funny. We're nearing the end of the season for the remarkable program, Mad Men -......

The last time we caught up with Wounded Cougar they were also at Safari Sam's where they play tonight. Singer dude had on these skin tight pants that were showing us everything (yet we still had to squint), there was one guitarist with a beard in a cheesy leather 70s jacket that was unzipped, another guitarist looked like he had just done some serious hall monitoring - but best of all was a dude......

Grab a beer friends, we survived the week. I still got hours of junk Tivo'd that I'm supposed to watch but on the calendar it says it's Friday and that's a great thing. Late night TV is super busy tonight, check it out: a free Paris Hilton, Michael Douglas, Seth Myers, Jenny McCarthy. Also, LeBron James is on SNL tomorrow - have a great weekend. 5:00pm-11:00pm Body Switcharoo Marathon TCM - A rock block of......

Fuck Bill Plaschke. Fuck TJ Simers. Fuck the LA Times. Fuck Grady Little. Fuck Ned Colletti. Fuck Frank McCourt. Fuck Jeff Kent. Fuck the Dodgers. When I read Plaschke’s column Wednesday morning that basically put Matt Kemp in the hangman’s noose, my blood started to boil. How does he have the unmitigated gall to scapegoat Kemp and let the veterans have a free pass just because they have “experience”? This entire mess became public......

A dead body was found early this morning in Irwindale, KNBC is reporting. Backups in traffic that the investigation is causing will probably be substantial as rush hour quickly approaches, so plan accordingly. All lanes of the southbound San Gabriel River (605) Freeway were shut down in Irwindale early Tuesday following the discovery of a body. The body was found on the freeway just north of Live Oak Avenue at 3:57 a.m., according to......

What will it take for the Dodgers to score a run? I’ll give Grady Little some credit in tweaking the lineup a little in Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to the Reds. Juan Pierre was the leadoff batter with Rafael Furcal hitting second. Andre Ethier was put in the fifth spot, and Luis Gonzalez was given the night off. But that’s about all the credit I’ll give him for now. Something that absolutely confuses me is......

The word for the day is picayune. The main definition of picayune according to Dictionary.com is "of little value or account; small; trifling." To use it in a sentence: The Dodger's offense in Thursday night's 4-2 loss against the Giants was picayune. It's taken over 19 hours for the bad taste of the game to leave my mouth. Hell, I've even had to use a dictionary to describe it other than "fucking pathetic". Where......

Dodgers 10, Houston 2 - Los Angeles has been consistently inconsistent since the All Star break, and didn't show true dominance until going on the road. Chad Billingsly improved to 7-0 with a complete game, and even held the Astros scoreless until the final out. The Dodgers also looked good at the plate, with 3 RBIs from both Luis Gonzalez and James Loney. Jeff Kent (who scored on a wild pitch) had four hits before......

What in the world is going on? On Tuesday night the Dodgers give up 15 runs to the Phillies, and now on Thursday night the Mets get 13. I was going to write off Tuesday’s game as a fluke. It happens, and the Dodgers just had to forget it and move on. Now I sense some bells starting to ring. Prozac gave up eight earned runs in only three innings pitched. Actually the only......

Dodgers 5, Phillies 4 - Los Angeles recovered from a shellacking to take the series from Philadelphia 2-1. Andre Ethier and Luis Gonzalez both hit jacks and the team got strong support from the bullpen. Russell Martin stole his 17th base, one shy of the team's all time record for a catcher. Could he be a five tool player? Devil Rays 7, Angels 2 - The Angels have lost 11 of their last 17 (including......

Four men in their 20's were arrested Saturday in connection with a series of robberies that went down Friday night in North Hollywood. Despite only two of the men having the same last names, police are saying that they are all brothers in crime. Jose Alberto Garcia, a 25-year-old construction worker from Reseda, and Jose Cruz Ibarra, 22, from Reseda were arrested in the 7300 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood. Juan......

The inning was like getting a proctology exam when you have a gigantic hemorrhoid. At least that’s what I said during the Padre’s six-run fourth inning that lasted about 45 minutes. Little did I know about Malingering’s incident with Luis Gonzalez’s foul ball which now makes me very thankful that my seats of choice are in the top deck. I guess you can say Viejito still has some pop in him. The Padre’s 7-6......

Last Saturday, my friend and I headed downtown (a bit late) to check out Night Vision: MOCA After Dark. We made a spur of the moment decision to go, after wandering around aimlessly a bit, eating Pinkberry (the reason being only one of us could get in to see What We Do Is Secret, and that just wouldn't be fair). So we found ourselves driving around and around and around looking for parking, ultimately......

Monday night came news that Nomar Garciapopup would be the third baseman in the near future. Who knew the near future meant Tuesday? Nomar felt he was ready for third base duties and in he went, however that wasn’t the end of it. Grady Little also moved Nomar from third in the hitting lineup to sixth. And just what did Nomar do? With Russell Martin on second and Luis Gonzalez on first with two......

Which team has the best record in the National League? Two teams share this distinction: the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yes, the same Los Angeles Dodgers team I ripped in my last post has the best record in the National League. Actually I take that back. This is not the same team I ripped the other day. In Friday’s 6-3 win against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Grady Little posted this......

The Chuck Dukowski Sextet, May 5, 2007. This interview was recorded outside of the very glamorous rock-and-roll Big Lots next to Suzy’s in Redondo Beach, where the live footage was recorded. The Chuck Dukowski Sextet is made up of Chuck, his wife Lora Norton, guitarist Milo Gonzalez, and drummer Tony Tornay. Chuck and Nora founded Nice & Friendly Records. Chuck was a founding member and driving force behind Black Flag, SWA, and Fishcamp. In......

The LAPD's civil rights consent decree just got extended this past summer for another three years. Do videos like this and witness accounts help end this decree and get more officers back on the street instead of desk duty for consent decree paperwork? Not really. Here is some excerpts from Daniel Hernandez's blog: "The sight of cops standing shoulder-to-shoulder menacingly holding batons drew more onlookers, which drew more cops, which drew more onlookers. The......

Clippers 103, Suns 99 - The sun hasn't set on the Clipper's playoff hopes yet. Los Angeles surprised Phoenix, who played their regular starters despite a lock on the #2 seed in the West. The Clippers need to beat New Orleans (a/k/a Oklahoma City) on Wednesday and root for Portland to beat Golden State. That scenario would tie them with the Warriors at .500. The teams split their season series, but the Clippers would advance......

Dodgers 5, Diamondbacks 1 - Off to the best record in baseball, Los Angeles scored in five different innings to earn their ninth win. Brad Penny allowed one run in seven innings to record his third win of the young season. Nomar Garciaparra had a home run and double to earn his two RBIs. Luis Gonzalez was 0-4 in his return to Arizona. Red Sox 7, Angels 2 - The Angels were outscored 25-3 in......

Suns 115, Lakers 107 - Kobe led the game with 34 points, but Steve Nash used his 50th double-double (25 points, 11 assists) of the season to lead Phoenix past the Lakers. Los Angeles has now lost five times in the last seven games and fell to the seventh seed in the West. They're half a game behind Denver, who will host the Lakers on Monday. Dodgers 10, Giants 4 - Journeymanstar Luis Gonzalez hit......

Well after two games, there's sure a lot to wallow in. New acquisitions Luis Gonzalez and Juan Pierre are 0-for-15. Starting pitchers Derek Lowe and Randy Wolf have combined for a not-so-stellar 9.00 ERA in 10 innings. And Rafael Furcal remains mired on the disabled list with a sprained ankle (not necessarily the best of injuries for a speedy lead-off hitter). However, as Rocky Balboa mentioned to Clubber Lang repeatedly in the third round......

It’s only the preseason, but goddamn that was a snoozer. You would think that winning a game 13-4 would set off absolute pandemonium, but the sound of boredom set through the crowd during most of the game. With the exception of the moments when the 13 Dodgers crossed home plate, the sporadic plays of beach balls amped up the crowd the most. I was actually caught up in one of these episodes when the......

The baseball off-season creates a brewing anticipation that crescendos to the molto-fortissimo of Opening Day. Before I start waxing poetic about the Dodgers, I'll present to you a list of facts about the changes to the team in this off-season: * Right fielder J.D. Drew, reneging on his word, declined his option on his contract and ended up signing with the Boston Red Sox. The Princess (as T.J. Simers of the LA Times called......

Valentines Day left you feeling dirty? Cleanse yourself with these heartwarming tracks from the cyberspa. I'd like to thank God, my parents, Rick Ruben and The Hype Machine for making this possible. Happy Mondays - The Boys Are Back In Town (Sound of the Suburb) Fuzzy sonics… Mountain Goats - The Boys Are Back In Town (Sound of the Suburb) Just as you’d imagine… Wilco - Cars Can’t Escape (The Music Slut) Clearly, Jeff......

I do not remember who told me this, but he must have been important. We were at a fundraising party all wearing fancy suits and the Mayor Villaraigosa was there. He started talking about the Director of the Bureau of Street Services for the city, Bill Robertson: "There's a thing about Bill you have to know." At this point, the tone of his voice sounded like it was going to turn into an angry......

Overheard at the Golden Globe Awards: "'Everyone's drinking,' said Weeds star and supporting-actor nominee Justin Kirk. 'You sit at a table and they feed you and drink you.'" -- AP "Cameron Diaz was probably the worst dressed at the entire awards show." -- Worst Dressed List at HollyScoop "I love gay. I wanted to be gay," said Grey's Anatomy's Isaiah Washington on the red carpet. "Please let me be gay." -- AP. "Washington took......