There is a common misconception that we don't have seasons in Los Angeles. We know when the seasons are changing. There are two distinct events that herald the coming winter: the Christmas displays replace the Halloween merchandise, and the lunch trucks start selling champurrado. Champurrado is a type of atole, which is a hot drink popular in the winter. There are a variety of atoles, but chapurrado is probably the most popular. It is......

The last time I went to the Beverly Center on a Saturday, I left feeling more hatred in my heart for the LA masses than I have since Halloween. There was pushing, bumping, waiting, complaining, and honking. Awful. I mentioned my misadventure to a more seasoned shopper friend, wondering if she had any sage advice. She first berated me for going to the Beverly Center on a Saturday--or at all, as far as she......

My family were all packrats, but my mom was the worst. For years she kept my closet cluttered with boxes of fabric scraps. She had made a lot of my clothes growing up, as well as Halloween costumes and clothes for my dolls. I could never convince her to throw all of this useless fabric away. One year, it all came together. I was in my mid-twenties when I opened a package to find......

There are two movies that are being scandalously left off the year-end best lists. The first, Rescue Dawn, is already out on DVD. The second, Once, is available today. Simply put, this is one of the best musicals and love stories in years. Buy it and watch it immediately. The Simpsons Movie was much better than I expected. If only the same care was put into the TV series. Why did Stardust bomb? It......

The rain came and delivered traffic, crashes, power outages and no snow in the mountains. Boo! A developer keeps on pushing to build a 1500-home project right next to Disney. Obviously, Mickey wants the area reserved for tourism. He's so greedy. It's probably not a good idea to hang a noose at your workplace, even if it is Halloween at the Port of LA. Just the same, it's not a good idea to take......

Most of us point, shoot and load our photos into Flickr. And then there are some who scan in old photos such as Alan Light. Above is a photo taken outside the Viper Room in 1994, the year after River Phoenix's early morning Halloween death. Fans graffitied the wall between the club and what is now a cigar shop. Today, that wall is painted beige. Almost 10 years later to the day, singer/songwriter Elliot......

A friend said to me yesterday: “Thanksgiving feels like the only holiday left that hasn’t been totally exploited.” And I couldn’t agree more. It seemed like that the day after Halloween this year, most big box retailers declared it Christmas season, totally skipping over turkey day mostly because they couldn’t find many marketing tie-ins with green bean casserole. (Think about it…hasn’t your local Starbucks been decorated in holiday red and green for awhile now?)......

"Welcome to My Home." Written, directed, produced, and starring Brenda Dickson. Part I... ...and Part II. Last Autumn I ate so much Halloween candy, Thanksgiving Tofurkey, and Happy Birthday Jesus grocery store sheet cake that I gained five pounds in two months. This year I'm determined not to let that happen again, so I have decided to start a preemptive diet and exercise plan right now before the holiday fattening season is in full......

As a teenager, the Misfits kind of passed me by. They were an East coast band, and I was listening to local SST bands and 70s glammy-junkie punk bands. Like ANGELIC UPSTARTS, it seemed like MISFITS was just another band to paint on your leather jacket. A few years ago I got turned on to their box set, and I felt like I had really missed out. This Ramones - meets - Sabbath -......

The shiny happy and beehived B-52's have been playing a handful of intimate shows around the country that started with a Halloween show with The Rapture at NYC's Roseland Ballroom. Tonight, for example they will be up at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez (wonder if they'll do a Jackson 5 cover?), tomorrow they're at the Roxy, and Saturday they wind up the mini-tour at the Depot in Salt Lake City. Clearly we are......

Remember in high school when you had a crush on that guy a few grades older than you and you couldn't stop thinking about him or telling your friends about how you were totally going to go to prom together, and fall in love, and go to the same college, and live happily ever after- if only he knew who you were? What about in ninth grade when you dressed up as a “space......

I spent last Halloween on a sort of ad hoc art crawl. Our first stop was John Matkowsky's dkrm Gallery, located in the Capitol Studios Building in Glassell Park. This cool old building is also home to Another year in LA and Shotgun Space so you can hit more than one opening at a time. We mostly hung out in the gallery, chatting with other people there. It was a nice place, and could......

Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without an operator provoking a response from the transport authorities. Elsewhere, London's answer to Central Station is about to open for business, and Londonist got a sneak preview. Meanwhile, spooky goings-on beneath London Bridge, where a cache of skeletons provided an apt story for Hallowe'en.......

A few days ago, I posted about sitting in L.A. traffic on Halloween, and opened the floor for people to make shortcut suggestions. Turns out that the mere mention of the words "shortcut" and "share" in the same sentence can make at least one person go temporarily insane, and others suddenly think that they're in sole possession of highly classified government information. Who knew? Anyway, my friend and colleague Sloane Berrent posted her thoughts......

Do you Lucha? The madness returns in February. A couple more short clips after the jump.......

On Halloween, pornstar and director (not to mention a former girlfriend of Howard Stern Show staffmember JD Harmeyer) Kimberly Kane (MySpace) celebrated the release of her Vivid-Alt (MySpace) movie Triple Ecstasy with a party at the self-described "industrial disco-tech" Das Bunker (MySpace) in Los Angeles. Among those in attendance besides Vivid-Alt head Eon McKai (MySpace) and director Octavio "Winkytiki" Arizala (MySpace) were pornstar-turned-photographer Gia Jordan (MySpace), former porn journalist(?) Luke Ford, and starlets Sasha......

Happy Halloween Britney! Her pink leopard print leotard is amazing. Exactly what I would be doing after I lost custody of my kids- partying at Heidi Klum's Halloween party - Daily News In more Britney news....cocaine use claims are flying all over the place Malibu mansion party - Female First And in more cocaine related news, tennis star Martina Hingis is accused of testing positive for the drug at Wimbleton this year - People Big......

MIKE WATT AND THURSTON MOORE, HALLOWEEN 2007 IN VISALIA Oh man, these were too good to wait for Saturday. Watt just sent me these, fresh off the road. Thurston Moore asked him to do a 10-minute Bass solo version of Young Man Blues at a pizza place in Visalia last night. (More pics after the jump)......

I'm hoping that no one had time for TV last night and if they did they had the class to watch the Boris Karloff marathon on TCM. 8:00pm Ugly Betty ABC - The Halloween Episode. TV Junkie 8:00pm Pick. 9:00pm To Die In Jerusalem HBO - Have heard enough about this documentary on NPR and elsewhere to know it's a good thing. TV Junkie Pick-O-The-Night 9:00pm The Office NBC - If you don't feel like......

A lonesome L.A. cowgirl got stuck in the most horrendous traffic this side of Thanksgiving at LAX, and missed a Halloween party last night. Costumed, eyeliner freckles and all, the cowgirl sat in a parking lot that stretched from before the Sunset Strip all the way to Thai Town—traffic that had even the 5-0 leaning out of their windows, sirens blaring, and begging drivers for a little help. That cowgirl was me. Yes, I......

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people migrate west to check out the West Hollywood/Santa Monica Blvd. Halloween Parade. Spanning from La Cienega Blvd. to Doheny Drive, the parade holds concerts, DJ sets, food vendors, and costume contests to the LA masses. While closing down Santa Monica blvd. may have screwed up everyone's commute last night, nothing compares to the pure elation of dressing incredibly skanky/scary/complicated. And don't worry, while you never know what......

You know those cheesy voice or action-activated Halloween novelties? You pass by, and a hand moves, or a ghost cackles. I have always found them ridiculous. Tonight there was this life-sized girl in a cage, and I swear to God, it just about scared the shit out of me.......

He seems so nice on tee vee, but in real life Dog The Bounty Hunter is more like Dog The Hate Mongrel. The National Enquirer has just released audio of the A&E star explaining that he wants his son to break up with his "nigger" girlfriend. TMZ reports that Rev. Al Sharpton has already been notified and has begun polishing his black ass for the upcoming press summit and standard butt-smooching slash apology slash......

CIA the CIA in North Hollywood WILL BE JUMPING with Haunted Cologne, the McDaniels, and special mystery guests??? Doors open at 8pm, all ages (ps. We suspect THE RADIOACTIVE CHICKEN HEADS!!!) THE BIGFOOT LODGE will be showing scary movies, plus drink specials and DJ Lee will be spinning a scary assortment of Halloween themed records from the 50s - now. Starting at around 9:00 PM! 410 BOYD 410 Boyd (410 Boyd St) combines the......

If you weren't at The Echo last night, then you missed out on an overdue Modular People extravaganza. Aussie one-man band Muscles and London's own New Young Pony Club rocked the house with their dance-laden equations. With Halloween costumes in full effect and drinks a flowin', the sold out house was full of bopping NYPC-a-holics intent on getting their fix. Well, I believe that we all got more than we bargained for. Muscles opened......

IVTV Halloween Special pt 1 The kids up there tell us it still is. If you see some LAisters up there tonight dressed as guest commentors (aka the dead), say hi. And if you go out tonight, be safe, don't drink and drive, and when you take pictures, make sure to upload them onto flickr and tag them "laist", and tomorrow and Friday we will feature the best of them on this very website.......

It's Halloween and that means it's a big day at CreepyLA.com. Among many stories posted today, an interview about today's holiday with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. How does one do a green Halloween? Do like Siel: organic pumpkins, drink and go by public transit and send eco-Halloween e-cards. There's plenty to do in the ghost town that was tonight. Head Downtown! And while Downtown, Mayor Sam has some updates from political ghosting at City Hall.......

In it's 3rd year of existence, this past weekend's Vegoose Music Festival featured quite the impressive lineup. Boasting the final North American Show of the ever incredible Daft Punk and the final stop of Rage Against the Machine's reunion (tour), the fest also included great performances from Gogol Bordello, Muse, M.I.A. and many, many more. Follow the jump for tonnnns (literally) of pics of Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, M.I.A., Gogol Bordello, Queens......

Perspective - The question around town is clear ... "Who's going to upstage everybody next?" Tuesday night should have been about the Laker's season opener. Or was it about Kobe possibly leaving the team? Nope, the Dodgers stole the headlines when manager Grady Little resigned. Could Joe Torre and Alex Rodriguez be reunited in Blue? Or could A-Rod go to LAnaheim? Curt Schilling has expressed interest in both teams. If baseball isn't providing the big......

Halloween only comes once a year. We all know what that means for many of the beautiful people in Hollywood. Time to show it off! I was invited to a slamming party this past Saturday night (one of the hosts in the genie you see below). As for the other 200 people? Never seen 'em, save a few, but I'll tell you this, I started off taking pictures of people's faces and then it......