$3.55 for unleaded. Check, albeit annoying. $3.79 for performance plus. Ugh, okay, check. $9.38 a gallon for high performance. Che-- wha???!?!?!!!? LAist Featured Photos photographer Movie Lover snapped this shot on the Westside. "While driving past a gas station in Brentwood, CA a while back, I noticed that the price had gone up. Way up." Yeah, no doubt. Let's see, April Fool's Day is next month. It's not a six upside down. This doesn't look......

FILM A Bloody Aria, a film from Korea about a professor, his pretty student and a possible murder, opens tonight for a one-week engagement in Little Tokyo. It’s been compared to Deliverance, but with a dark sense of humor. (We wonder if there’s any pig squealing in this one?) Times vary // ImaginAsian Center // 251 S. Main St., Los Angeles // $7-$10. MUSIC / SPOKEN WORD Tonight the CalArts Creative Music Festival features......

Breaking News: Britney goes to church! Meanwhile, children are starving in the Inland Empire and being held hostage at gunpoint.......

The IRS investigation at the All Saints Episcopal Church over a 2004 "anti-war sermon" has been dropped, the church announced today at a press conference. The church is now asking for an apology and some clarification. Remember all those pot-house busts in the Inland Empire? It appears that all these drug homes in high-end areas are funded and employed by gangs from China. Aren't hospitals always in trouble? "Nearly two dozen private hospitals in......

It's starting to feel a little like Fall: an "unseasonably strong and cold storm system" is headed our way. Bundle up! How green was Burning Man this year? Elsa Wenzel from CNet's News.com explains her perspective: "As a first-time Burner, I've finally shaken the playa dust from my shoes and mind to conclude that it was perhaps the most and the least eco-friendly mega-event I've attended." With a name like Inland Empire, you deserve......

One day after LAist reports problems on Metrolink's Lancaster line serving mostly north Los Angeles County, the LA Times writes on new service in Orange County:By 2009, the goal is to have commuter trains running every 30 minutes from 5 a.m. to midnight on weekdays, between Fullerton and Laguna Niguel -- the bookends of Orange County. Seven locomotives and 59 more passenger cars have been ordered, a new station in Buena Park opens Tuesday,......

I can understand your John Travolta or your Tim Allen going for the good paycheck and doing a Wild Hogs, but Bill Macy? The universe is a little less bright today and many fairies are dead. Inland Empire is three hours long, shot on video and makes Lost Highway seem overly coherent. If you're a Lynch fan, that's probably music to your ears. Ryan Gosling's hype took a big hit with his ordinary turn......

Monday Moonday poetry reading 7:30pm @ Village Books Tuesday David Lynch signs Inland Empire 7pm @ Borders, Westwood Elaine Dundy presents The Dud Avocado 7pm @ Book Soup Warren Mar presents Descanso 7pm @ Vroman's Kiara Brinkman signs High Up in the Trees 7pm @ Dutton's Wednesday Adrienne Barbeau presents There Are Worse Things I Could Do 7pm @ Book Soup Nobody Reads in LA presents Charles Bukowski's Post Office (it's his birthday!) 7pm......

LAists Elise and Heath arrived at the screening party for David Lynch's Inland Empire last night with an hour and a half to spare, thinking that would be plenty of time to get a good seat. We had forgotten that David Lynch's fans put the cult in cult movie. There was a line stretching around the entire courtyard, with some people having arrived early in the day to stake their claim. It was not......

Filter Magazine and the Armand Hammer Museum (10899 Wilshire Blvd.) sponsored a free screening last night of Inland Empire followed by a Q & A with the film's director, David Lynch. Here is a rundown of the event for the folks who could not be there: Me: It is really crowded here, where do I go to see Inland Empire? Mr. Anonymous Hammer Museum Usher (Mr. AHMU): We are filled to capacity. We have......

Filter magazine hosted a screening of David Lynch’s INLAND EMPIRE last night to help celebrate the DVD release. The film is a mesmerizing, mind bending work of art. Continuing down the twisted path explored in his more recent works, the film is a non-linear meditation on identity, reality and fate. Laura Dern is excellent as Nikki, an actress who is cast in the film role of a lifetime, only to find out that the......

You may think he’s a brilliant director, with Twin Peaks, The Elephant Man, and Mulholland Drive among his long list of film and TV projects, not to mention four Academy Award nominations. Or you may think he’s got a few screws loose with his strict adherence to transcendental meditation and the generally bizarre nature of his work. Whatever the case, you can’t deny that he’s interesting. Now you get the chance to decide for yourself......

The 15 Commuter Express lines that provide non-stop and express bus service between residential areas and work centers in the City of Los Angeles have not been updated in 20 years. So it's a good thing that Councilwoman Wendy Greuel introduced a motion on Wednesday, calling for a review of those lines. Let's hope it goes through. "Our commuting patterns have shifted dramatically in the last 20 years," said Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, Chair of......

700 extra hours -- yes, you read that correctly -- from David Lynch's Inland Empire have been culled into a documentary about David Lynch that is titled Lynch and is being pimped to international buyers at Cannes by Lynch himself. -Cinematical Comic book author/graphic novelist Frank Miller will write and direct the live-action feature film adaptation of the Will Eisner comic book series "The Spirit" about a man who fakes his own death so he......

The tiny radio station in San Bernardino who prides itself on being "an important part of the Inland Empire by offering local news on the hour, seven days a week, produced by local veteran newscasters who live and work in the Inland Empire" are sure getting a lot of attention because of a syndicated talk show host in New York City. AP is reporting that KCAA will be in court with CBS on Tuesday......

An independently owned-and-operated AM station in San Bernardino will be the only place in the country tomorrow morning that will be airing reruns of the disgraced dj Don Imus. “I’m not going to let networks dictate to me who I run on my station, Fred Lundgren, chairman of the Inland Empire's KCAA (1050 AM), told the AP on Thursday. Imus had been syndicated through KCAA every weekday morning since 2003. Lundgren admits that what......

The blogger from the Inland Empire who calls himself An Ordinary Me, noticed something quite fascinating this weekend, that KNBC has removed veteran reporter Kelly Mack's photo and bio from their website. Not only is that news to us, but it seems to be news to Wikipedia as well who still lists her as a Special Reports Correspondent in the Other Reporters section of KNBC. We know that this development is somewhat recent because......

If you love David Lynch like a dancing dwarf loves David Lynch, you might want to check out ThisNext, which is giving away a pretty sweet all-Lynch-all-the-time prize in its weekly giveaway: The first INLAND EMPIRE poster ever made available to the public. A signed Eraserhead deluxe DVD. A Dumbland deluxe DVD. Um. Cartoons. A David Lynch T-shirt. The Short Films of David Lynch The instructions on how to enter are here, and hurry.......

LACityNerd comments on LA Curbed's commentary on Daily Bruin's article about DOT's proactive enforcement of cars in driveway aprons at sidewalks. We've had our own parking problems in Westwood, but as to parking in aprons, you deserve a ticket -- it gets in the way of our bikes. As one commenter on Curbed said, "Living in the City 101: YOU CANNOT PARK ON THE SIDEWALK." NPR reports that in Los Angeles, 67.8 percent of......

Tickets go on sale tomorrow, Friday the 13th, for the 2006 installment of AFI Fest, Los Angeles' valiant (read: sometimes comical, sometimes desperate) attempt to mount a world-class film festival, something this city deserves but sorely lacks. This year AFI Fest will screen 147 feature films and 36 shorts including several special screenings and premieres. The festival will host the U.S. premiere of Bobby, the Emilio Estevez-directed drama about the assassination of Robert F.......

We were going in to work this morning, endangering ourselves and others by trying to find something good to listen on the radio rather than watching the road (hey, at least we weren't on the phone), when it hit us as it has hit us so many times before: LA radio sucks. Not all LA radio sucks, of course. We were very pleasantly surprised to hear, "You mean Bang The Drum Slowly? Bull Durham?"......

The average taxicab driver of Los Angeles must be out to prove something. Maybe they have a chip on their shoulder because they aren't the first thing that pops into someone's mind when they think of a typical "cabbie". That honor has to go to the New York taxicab driver. Those guys are usually pictured in one of two ways; either an overweight, older man, with a pull-down cap on his head, growling "Where......

On the heels of The Grove's Holiday Tree Lighting Extravaganza as reported in yesterday's edition of LAist -- Jews from all around the Southland have united together to present something just as awe-inspiring for those uninterested in candy canes, Chris Kringle and really-big foliage. The big news broke recently in an article on the well-regarded Press Telegram that at first glance appeared to be a simple, informative article on the significance of the menorah......

For the third time, the Stars will shine in Los Angeles. The four-year old version of the new ABA announced the third incarnation of the Los Angeles Stars will begin play this November at either UCLA, Loyola Marymount, or Cal State LA. Carl Harris, a music industry executive, is in charge of the franchise and hopes to create rap/hip-hop/R&B entertainment environment around the team's games. The Stars have already written an open letter to Jack......