"Why is this night different from all other nights?" you might ask. Well, it's the first night of Passover, and even folks who will be sitting down to a seder somewhere in the Southland tonight will also be asking the same thing, because it's one of four questions that are posed in the traditional pre-dinner ceremony. Passover is a hands-on Jewish holiday, where families and friends gather around the table to honor the Israelites' exodus......

Photo of César Chávez via the César E. Chávez Foundation Today is a sanctioned government holiday in California (and six other states), but that depends on who you're talking to. Los Angeles city and state offices are closed, but county and federal remain open. LAUSD kids are in class right now while some Cal State schools get the day off. University of California campuses are also not recognizing the holiday, which signed into law......

O'Doul's was not their choice beer today | All Photos by Zach Behrens/LAist It was a beautiful day downtown this afternoon for the St. Patrick's Day Parade and Pershing Square celebration. Because most of the city has a job and today was a Monday, here is what happened, virtual style.........

National Strawberry Day. Go for it. And a fun event for you strawberry lovers is coming up on May 17 & 18th -- the 25th Annual California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard. Strawberry Beer! You can't beat that now, can you? This beer is specially made for the festival only. Photo by Paraflyer via Flickr.......

Today's holiday is a Federal one, so that means government offices, from city to county to state and beyond, are closed. Same goes for banks and public schools. No mail being delivered either. However, trash and public transportation in Los Angeles will be running as usual says the Daily News in their Presidents Day schedule. If you're one of the blessed and have the day off, there are many fun things to do. Here are......

Still Life with Seasonings, by Alex Kehr via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr An investigation by the Daily News found that, as the DWP has increased rates they continue to issue cars to more than 100 employees who are free to take them home. Proponents of the program say the cost of the vehicles is offset by the tax breaks the department receives from the hybrids they drive. Other people say, You're shitting......

Restaurants have no love for dogs, but dogs sure do love their owners | Photo by Tom Andrews via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Steve Poizner has no love for Allianz: The state Insurance Commissioner announced a $10 million settlement with Allianz Life Insurance Company, the biggest seller of annuities in California, today in Burbank. Allianz swindled hundreds of 84 and 85 into bad deals that cost them thousands of dollars. David......

Idol-heads and Runway-heads have a lot to celebrate tonight and I'll be damned, look at how busy the schedule is in the 10:00-11:00pm time frame. Since I don't think any of the options are fantastic is it better to have a little or a lot of mediocrity to choose from? In other news, yeah the writer's strike is over, and SNL is finally heading back into production with it's first show scheduled for Feb.......

Arts and Crafts class at the Craft and Folk Art Museum tonight. / Photo by CarbonNYC via flickr. GET CRAFTY Make your Valentine’s Day gift tonight instead of picking through the lame leftover cards in the Ralph’s card aisle tomorrow. The Craft and Folk Art Museum hosts “A Creative Valentine” and provides materials for you to let your inner artist loose. Couples are encouraged to attend to get a jump start on the Valentine’s......

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY! Come celebrate at LA's annual Lunar New Year Festival! Today the Golden Dragon Parade featuring lion and dragon dancers will thrill over 100,000 spectators along North Broadway. The festival continues until 8pm tonight, and runs from 10am to 3pm tomorrow at Broadway and Cesar Chavez. Parade 2pm-5pm Festival 10am-8pm // Chinatown // N. Broadway & College Street // Free THEATRE The Kinsey Sicks, a "Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet" perform their critically......

Tonight's the first show of undergrounDNUOS, which is a nonprofit night of collaboration and experimentation put on by Amoeba Music and its employees as a labor of love. " It is a monthly series set at various underground spaces, art galleries, warehouses, and strange bars embracing the concepts of improvisation in any genre and any sound... it is designed to be a space for people to step outside of what they normally do and......

Eisley on stage at Coachella in 2005 | Photo by Jason Upshaw via Flickr The Oscars are set to be announced tomorrow in Beverly Hills, but today, this Holiday day, the uber-California music festival experience will be announced. From Mexico City, no less. "It is something that's crossed my mind," Paul Tollett, creator of Coachella, told the LA Times when asked if he was going to start a Coachella type festival south of the......

And who said culture doesn’t exist in Los Angeles? Check out these events for a little learning, a little entertainment – or both. THEATRE Joe Keyes, author of Bob's Holiday Office Party and Pete's Garage, brings us a new treat: Big Baby. The dramedy focuses on "a crazy Catholic mother living with her disturbed middle aged son who falls for the dominatrix next door and all hell breaks loose." It opens tonight. 8 pm //......

As the year enters week two, organizations are programming newer music, that which was composed in the last century. This weekend, the Los Angeles Philharmonic began their Concrete Frequency series to an excellent start wth Aaron Copland's "The City" played to film and Edgard Varèse's "Amériques." After the concert, hip-hop violinist duo Paul Dateh and inka one (we interviewed Paul him this summer) played in the lobby by the cafe while Breakestra funked up......

The 21-year-old man who caused the insane and deadly crash that killed two early Saturday morning in Hollywood at Highland and Sunset has been charged with gross vehicular manslaughter and drunken driving. Speaking of crashes and cars, a Los Angeles Airport Police officer crashed his squad car into a car that was stopped at the scene of another accident. The vehicle's lights were off. No one was hurt and the officers canine partner, a......

I'm still waiting for all your hot happy hour tips, Los Angeles! We'll be posting happy hour listings at least a few times weekly in 2008; send your secret spots and recommendations my way at carrie@laist.com. And besides, what better way to get 2008 started than with some cheap booze at some happening city spots? Here's a few more we managed to dig up this week: Miss T's Barcade, Koreatown, Happy Hour 5-9 pm:......

Within 48 hours, building fires in Los Angeles did not take a holiday vacation. Early this morning in the Westlake neighborhood, a fire broke out in a three story converted-to-apartments Victorian home. Eleven residents, including two children were displaced while one man died. The cause is unknown. Early last night on Budlong Ave. near 117th St, a fire, most likely caused by a space heater, killed a 48-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman in......

My relatives on the east coast just don't understand California weather. For a time, it seemed they saw Southern California as the land of rainbows, unicorns and constant, seasonless, unrelenting heat. The gifts they sent me reflected these beliefs - bikinis that would embarrass a stripper, all manner of atrocious patterned terrycloth 'loungewear', big, cheap plastic sunglasses that they thought all the movie stars might wear whenever they ventured out of their fabulous mansions to......

Kids, Santa's surfing and he needs to rest up for another day of waves tomorrow morning. We know, it's Christmas and all, but Santa can't control the weather. It's beautiful out! Professional Photographer and founder of EppicSurf.com (think Facebook and Flickr for Surfers), Branimir Kvartuc, caught Santa surfing this morning at 26th Street in Manhattan Beach. More photos of Santa can be found at Kvartuc's profile. Photos by Branimir Kvartuc, used with permission......

Freaking out? Don't know what to give tomorrow? Here are a few ideas with a conscious in mind: GOOD Magazine: This locally based do-gooding magazine has been impressing many across the country over the past year. In fact, a subscription to this bi-monthly publication is one of our favorite ideas. If GOOD is not your giftee's style, there are about a million other magazines to gift them.Greendimes: Give the gift no more junk mail. Starting......

Let's party on the streets! The homicide rate is set to match its lowest number since 1970. The overall homicide rate is down 17 percent from last year. (More about it on LAist here.) With all this peace and, well, non-murder, Snoop might have to find something else to sing about. More good news: Gas prices dropped about 3 cents over the last two weeks. The average price of regular gasoline on Friday was......

Power-pop is above all feel-good music, designed to hit all your pleasure centers at once, which makes it a natural fit for Christmas time. Click below for five super-charged riffs to restore your faith in humanity. THE SHITBIRDS - Christmas is a Comin' (May God Bless You) With a name like that you may be expecting sonic assault, but this local troupe, led by elfin chanteuse April March, aims for maximum joy and adorable-ness. &righticonhover=0x333232&text=0x333232&slider=0xF2F2F2&track=0xFFFFFF&border=0xFFFFFF&loader=0x838383&soundFile=http://aprodxn.com/laist/Shitbirds......

It's like Classical Music got up and left for the week (maybe to Chicago?). That's okay, though, today's picks are both exciting. We post today's picks earlier than the usual 2 p.m. slot in order to make sure you're forewarned, since they are today. The Wagner Ensemble presents an afternoon concert entitled "Illuminations from the Old World" featuring music from the Christmas tradition of Europe, British Isles and Slavic countries ranging from the early Renaissance......

Making these cookies is one of my fondest Christmas traditions. This would lead you to believe that I am a total sugar-holic (which I am), but I mostly enjoy flexing my artistic muscle to decorate these bad boys. We have about 50 different cookie cutters, 6 colors of icing, and decorations galore. It’s always fun to make the standard snowman, but after 2 hours of baking you start to get creative. Dinosaurs, shoes, cars…......

Need some butt-rock to motivate your ass out the door to finish shopping? Luckily it's not just Satan, Satan, Satan all the time with these guys. TWISTED SISTER - Heavy Metal Christmas (Twelve Days of Christmas) That's quite a swag bag Dee Snider's accumulated by day twelve... twenty-two pairs of spandex pants, thirty studded belts, thirty-six quarts of Jack... but one wonders where he can possibly fit twelve Ozzy tattoos on his body. &righticonhover=0x333232&text=0x333232&slider=0xF2F2F2&track=0xFFFFFF&border=0xFFFFFF&loader=0x838383&soundFile=http://aprodxn.com/laist/10 Heavy......

You can't escape the holidays this weekend. No matter how hard you try. So wanna play? Go with the flow? Check these events out: SING-ALONG: The Music Center’s annual Holiday Sing-Along happens tonight. Don't know the words? Songsheets will be provided. The singing takes place outside, so bundle up – or spike your personal egg nog stash. 6:30 pm // Music Center Plaza // 135 N. Grand Ave. // Free. FILM: To get Westsiders......

This is the summer cookie that works well in winter - especially in LA, where women are still wearing flip-flops on Christmas Eve! At every holiday party, the dessert table is full of heavy chocolate confections, heady alcoholic affairs (figgy pudding!) and dense fruit-cake-y type items. If I'm just not up for making sugar cookies (and the insane hours it takes to decorate them all!), I make these instead. They're lighter, fresher. Oh so yummy......

Winter really gets me down. It's cold, it's rainy, everybody's on vacation except for me. Worst of all, when I get off work every evening, it's already dark outside. Can we say SADS? So how best to beat the winter blues? Why, BOOZE, of course, the cheaper the better, and there are a ton of happy hours and special events taking place across the city that will lighten your holiday-heavy heart without lightening your wallet.......

Sometimes too much holiday cheer is a very, very bad thing. Especially the liquid kind. Hence, the lateness of today's column. But here's the down and dirty on what's happening around town tonight: SPECTACULAR: The Super Sexy Christmas Spectacular takes place at El Cid tonight with Terry Beeman's Hollywood Pin-up Girls' burlesque dance showcase. Tapas. Drinks. Flamenco. Sounds like a very dangerous combo. We're in. 10 pm // El Cid, 4212 Sunset Blvd., Los......

Since the coming weekend will be filled with parties and their attendant hammerings, here are some suggestions for your trip to the liquor store in case you find yourself allergic to nog. (Warning, the bottom three selections are probably not safe to crank up at work, unless you work for LAist. In that case, consider these five songs an assignment.) CLYDE LASLEY - Santa Got Drunk On Christmas Clyde's just full of ideas, use him......