Yep, I said it. Ketchup. Now, you, like LAist's editor, might be asking, what does Ketchup have to do with hipsters, doesn't it attract the trendy set? It is owned by the Dolce Group right? Well you would think the place would be packed with that little subgroup of hipsters called trendsters - you know, actors, musicians, those prettier, a lot cleaner and label conscious hipsters out there. Say what you will (and I know......

Because he's too shy (and way too busy) to announce it here himself, I am proud to do the honors: Zach Behrens has officially accepted the Editor position here at LAist and he'll be starting on December 17th. BloggingLA has the announcement, as well as a nice picture of the new editor's "Sexy Face." That's how you get your Canadian fanbase, Behrens!!! Rain. Please. Rain. Effects of the strike are starting to ripple out......

The sweetened, spiced tea drink we know as chai originated as a hot drink in India. Traditionally it’s a combination of looseleaf black tea, spices, sweetener, and hot milk. The chai latté has become a recognized staple in restaurants and hipster cafés throughout the western world these days, served hot or iced. There are many ways to make a chai latté, and the ubiquity of readymade pre-sweetened mixes makes a chai composed of unprocessed ingredients......

A couple of weekends ago, my friend and I went bar hopping in LA. On our last stop, we headed into, in my opinion, the shittiest dive bar off of Sunset Blvd. Needless to say, I wasn’t looking forward to it, yet my friend convinced me that I should turn the frown upside down and make the most out of the evening. Once inside, we realized it was cash only, and neither of us......

Upright Citizen’s Brigade has the hipster comedy scene cornered in a way that could make Wes Anderson weep. The lines to get into their shows look like Urban Outfitters threw up on them, past performers have included the likes of Sarah Silverman and Janeane Garofalo, and one of the founders is uber-hip comedienne Amy Poehler. Their dominance of alt-funny Los Angeles is pretty much undisputed. So, it seemed a little odd for them to......

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the......

It has been a long time coming, but after a temporary hiatus, we're happy to announce that today our ongoing Neighborhood Project makes its return to LAist. We're hoping to bring our readers a new neighborhood entry on a (fairly) regular basis. First up in this second round of Los Angeles neighborhood tours is Franklin Village, an entry completely written and photographed by a couple of regular LAist readers (and a few of their......

Architecture In Helsinki harness a preternatural exuberance that no other band carries. Perhaps it's due, in large part, to the fact that they're headquartered in the land down under. I'd like to think so. Whichever the case may be, their band bio sums their presence up best: "Like a giant Voltron robot uniting at the sunset." I arrived at the Troubadour on Wednesday just in time for Nike "Dunk"-laden AIH to take stage. They were......

So at first this was going to be a whole “Chronicle in the Life of a Hollywood Hipster” type of deal. But let's face it. I'm not a hipster, I am hip (in the non-sarcastic, semi-sincere sense), but definitely not a Hollywood Hipster. I hate Hollywood hipsters. Even more than that, I hate Silverlake/Los Feliz hipsters. You know them, they take themselves way too seriously with their severe haircuts and super tight pants. Bastards. Anywho,......

On a sticky dance floor at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Orange County this past Saturday, pretty girls screamed and jumped up and down in their too-high heels, hipster boys bobbed their heads as they sipped their Stellas, and baldish, grayish dad-types belted out memorized lyrics, flashing devil's horns of approval with both hands. They were all Iranians there to see Kiosk, a blues/rock outfit that started in the early '90s in Iran's underground......

It’s easy to forget that there’s a thriving literary scene here in LA. It’s also easy to lose sight of the fact that there are people who are committed to doing good, making change and making the city a better place for the next generation. 826LA manages to combine all of these things at once. The brainchild of hipster deity Dave Eggers, the family of non-profits now known as 826 National was originated in......

Quiz Question: So it is four in the morning, September 1st, the bars have long since stopped serving alcohol for the night, and you've had too many of those in-lieu-of-booze Red Bulls, and you are wide awake. What should you do next? Should you...? a) go home and watch television until you pass out on the sofa b) go to the after-party of your friend's friend c) stumble around the streets of West Hollywood for......

Fountains of Wayne played a tight, if not under appreciated, set week last week to a trickling-in crowd who at least knew the words to Radiation Vibe. Chris Collingwood and the boys humbly played the part of the opening act and Squeeze fan. “Enjoy the show!” they shouted, as if one had not just taken place. With a synthy and sexy Take Me I’m Yours, Squeeze emerged with some new players and some old......

Are you looking for an alternative to the indie hipster lovefest called the Sunset Junction Street Fair? Are you looking for an artsy fartsy night, after pigging out on tofu from the Tofu Festival? Are you looking to rock, but not necessarily roll? Check out the Michael Motorcycle, Dan Grzeca, and Guy Burwell show on Saturday night, Aug. 18th, at the Mr. Musichead Gallery (7511 W. Sunset Blvd.). The man who shares the same......

There is a serious water (-ing hole) shortage in Northeast LA. Despite their hipster enclave status, I’m always surprised that there aren’t more places to drink in thriving cultural hotspots like Eagle Rock and Highland Park. The recently opened York on York attempts to correct the problem. The “neighborhood gastropub” is located about halfway between Figueroa and Eagle Rock Blvd. in the increasingly popular small stretch of York that also includes Johnny’s, Marty’s, and......

I'm not quite sure what lured me into going to see Hanson. I saw an e-mail about it, contemplated replying with a not-so-elaborate joke at their expense, and quickly snagged the opportunity without thinking twice. However, when I called my friend to jokingly present the Hanson show as a concert option for the night she vehemently lurched at it. I began to think twice. Apparently, I was completely unaware of her Hanson phase. I'm......

There are three very distinct communities housed in the jumble of high-rise office towers, apartment buildings and houses that make up Koreatown. There is the Koreatown of middle-class and wealthy Korean families, who live, eat, shop, party and golf in a faithful facsimile of their native country. There's the Koreatown of toil and danger, experienced by the Latinos and blacks occupying much of the neighborhood, working in the thousands of local businesses and (occasionally)......

Last night, I went to see The New Year play at Spaceland. I’ve liked The New Year since they were Bedhead in the ’90s, so I was pretty excited about it. The New Year (somewhat inexplicably) have four guitars, but there are still a lot of quiet moments in their sets. Unfortunately, every time one of those moments came, all you could hear was people chatting and squawking about their various BS, so that......

Oh, that Peanut Butter Wolf. Leave it to one of LA's busiest DJs to stick it to the digital music crowd by dusting off a week's worth of vinyl and taking his 45 road show to more than half a dozen of the most popular clubs in town. Peanut Butter Wolf vs. LA kicks off this Sunday, June 10, when the vinyl maestro begins a seven day marathon of LA club gigs. The rules......

Dear LAist, Did you see Entourage last night? When Drama drove to Variety to beat the ass of the TV critic Paul Schneider, was that really Michael Schneider who also is a critic at Variety, appears on E!, and runs the Franklin Avenue blog? Also, where can I get that AD/HD shirt? Nancy, North Hollywood Dear Nancy, We thought the same damn thing! However, if we had tuned into the Franklin Ave. blog on......

Boxer, out May 22 on Beggars Banquet, is the kind of record that makes you want to do nothing with your life. More specifically, The National’s fourth, full-length album is an offering of unfussy rock that is neither sentimental nor whiny, rather, a perfectly romanticized malaise that could convince even the most upwardly mobile type-A to consider a path of murky, scotch-fueled depression. Matt Berninger’s confident and dreamy bass-baritone opens the record by quietly guiding......

Last night presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, spoke in front of a large crowd at Hollywood's Boulevard 3. Industry insiders and hipster politicos, many of whom where under the age of 35, were among the crowd who were warmed up by Cedric the Entertainer, who introduced the Senator. Standing behind the stage where Senator Obama was to speak, I looked up to see Cedric the Entertainer enter to climb on stage, do his thing,......

Over the past few years, an odd phenomenon has taken over Los Angeles. Outfits no longer make sense. People's feet are dressed for winter and their bellies are dressed for summer (yes, that's a mere 5 degree difference here in LA, but you know what I'm getting at). I honestly hoped this would wear off over time, and as the feet got warmer and the butts got colder (and the funny tan lines became......

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick......

OUT TODAY The Little List Amy Winehouse - Back to Black (Universal) -- Vintage sounds, modern frankness, and a smoky songstress who lays out her vices like a sexy Randy Newman (minus the funny). Prepare to have your brain rewired with dead-on 60’s soul and epidemically contagious tunes. The Fratellis - Costello Music [2007] (Cherry Tree) -- If you like bouncy, brit-pop and hanging out in your garage, this should be your record of......

It seems like there are a million places to get a bite to eat in this city, and we will nod our head emphatically in agreement if you were to say it's all a bit overwhelming. Most of the time we opt for something tried and true, where maybe we find comfort in the familiar listing of menu items, a favorite dish, or a staff who knows our name. But then there are the......

Last night I found myself deep into the hipster scene at the Echo. The usual Silver Lake crowd was there, along with a smattering of underage Bel Air brace-faces. After braving the rain, I caught the last two songs of the Mezzanine Owls, an Angeleno band with a solid following. After performing a Husker Du cover, the Mezzanine Owls' last song sounded like Early Flaming Lips a la Clouds Taste Metallic with that velvety......

"Danielson: A Family Movie" Laemmle Grande 4-Plex, 345 Figueroa Street, Downtown LA special engagement, showing thru Thursday You're doing ok when you've got Steve Albini inviting you to a rock festival that he's curating. You're doing ok when you're straightforwardly hurling your Christian agenda on a cynical young hipster crowd and they can only stand and watch and smile, in awe, and think of David Byrne and Frank Black, and how the Polyphonic Spree......

Snakes on a Plane - Was it really only five months ago when something as simple as a crate of ophidians roaming an airplane could soothe the angst of a wounded but mighty nation? It seems like another era, one where every American -- from slick, jaded marketing executive to slick, jaded hipster -- could come together for a single, selfless cause. C'mon… admit it. You fell for it. Just a little bit, right?......

Tod Brilliant is a self-made eco-celebrity and decided his top 10 list to share with LAist readers would be about the most critical websites that will help you learn to save our massively fucked planet. Now in his words: Surely you’ve heard of me, seen my billboards, listened to my interviews. I’m grateful to LAist for giving me yet another venue to promote my mission. My apologies if I’m approaching overexposed status. My team......