• Update on why Ventura Blvd. in Studio City was shut down this afternoon by the LAPD: according to the North Hollywood Police Division, the shooting took place at De Soto Ave and Gresham St. in Chatsworth. Later, the suspect's car was found at the Studio City 7-11, prompting the LAPD shut down the area to search (hence all the helicopters). The suspect was later found in the city of Fontana and was arrested without incident. That is what we call a BUSY DAY.
• And this is what happens when you build a bunch of new condos and raise all the rents: North Hollywood is making an effort to preserve its Arts District by making sure all the artists don't move out.
• Man, Dov Charney's all up in my ass crack! Er, I should say, these American Apparel brand thong underpants are really giving me a wedgie-ache -- maybe Charney should put his ass-cheeks in another man's underpants before he gets his skinny butt sued from here to Downtown.
• Speaking of underpants, there's a Panty Thief on the loose in Palm Springs!! "'He cleaned me out of my Hustler line, all my crotchless panties, g-strings, corsets and bustiers and costumes,' said Bonnie Reiss, owner of Sensuality, A Store for Her."
• What issues are important to the African-American LGBT community this election season? NPR goes to Los Angeles to talk with local bloggers and find out.
• John Edwards hit up Los Angeles today on his campaign tour, where he spoke to a local union, while Hillary Clinton went to church in Compton.
• Apple users are full of themselves: file this in Tell Me Something I Don't Know. They also tend to throw around words like "intuitive" and "aesthetics" when referring to their computers; I throw around words like "douchebag" and "I hate you, you stupid elitist posers!"*
• The AP has written Britney's obituary already.
• Spiderman and Mary Jane broke up! Is Wonder Woman single?

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. more ›

Today the festival begins with another Director Lunch Talk at 12:30 p.m. at the Target Red Room. Los Angeles Times writer John Horn talks with Scott Prendergast, director of Kabluey (screening at this year's LAFF). At 7:00 p.m., Who Let the Blogs Out?, a panel discussion of L.A. film bloggers, kicks off at the W Los Angeles in Westwood. Variety's Anne Thompson moderates and one of my favorites, the curmudgeonly Jeffrey Wells, is on the panel. If you're in the audience, ask him about his infamous Last Action Hero story. more ›

Whoever is booking the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax deserves a raise. Recently they got Henry Rollins and Janeane Garofalo to do a show there, and now we find our favorite bald Irishwoman Sinead O'Conner is going to play a gig there next month. In what seems to be one of her two "intimate" acoustic shows in the States (the other will be in NYC), as O' Conner prepares to go on a world... more ›

Tom Waits turned 57 today. LA's own gravel-voiced minstrel got his start at the Troubador in 1970 and gained commercial success primarily through other artists covering his tunes, for example, the Eagles (the Eagles!!!) covering "Ol' 55" on their On the Border album. Later his songs were covered by the likes of Bruce Springsteen ("Jersey Girl"), Rod Stewart ("Downtown Train"), and even the Ramones ("I Don't Wanna Grow Up"). This is an artist who... more ›

“Ta Dah,” the sophomore studio album by our favorite disco sympathizers, Scissor Sisters, is a transcendent, gold lamé dancefest with thumpy and dazzling momentum that’ll give even the stodgiest fuddy-duddies a kick in the pants. Dead-on-balls-accurate bass playing, melodies catchy like the herpes, and enough “homage” to fuel a thousand hustles, this polished and plucky record reads like a hazy, anthemic lullaby for the lubed. The flaxen five (Jake Shears, Babydaddy, Ana Matronic, Del... more ›

Reality TV has been such a popular discussion topic of late on LAist comment boards, and in the culture at-large, that it behooved us, as typical jaded Angelenos, to get the straight dope on the "reality" of un-scripted television. more ›