Photo of Meiko, who plays at the Knitting Factory tonight, by Koga/LAist for 'Meiko & Priscilla Ahn @ Hotel Cafe, 1/23 & 1/24/08' What Made Milwaukee Famous finish up their Los Angeles tour playing along with Tulsa and the British Sea Power/Colourmusic bill moves over to Spaceland. On the Westside, there's only one choice to make and that is hip-hop violinist Paul Dateh at the Temple Bar (check out our interview with him including......

The WGA Board voted unanimously last night to not picket the 50th Grammy Awards, February 10th at Staples Center. If there was an exasperating gasp of relief following the WGA vote, excuse us for missing it. For most of our lifetime the Grammys has done little more than exemplify just how out of touch the so-called mainstream is with Gen x+y's musical taste (with apologies to The Dixie Chicks). The only way this Grammy Awards......

The symbol of the new year is a baby, and what better baby to ask for predictions than LAist's own sports editor? Baby Adam is much more clear-headed and clairvoyant than the adult version. We're turning to the guru of Gerber, the sultan of spittle, to see what's in store for 2008 and beyond. Q: Thanks for chatting with us, but what makes you qualified? A: I may only be 9 months old, but I've......

Stage and screen choreographer Michael Kidd died this past Sunday in Los Angeles at the age of 92, according to the New York Times. From his beginnings in Brooklyn, Kidd moved over to Manhattan to dance and create dances for dance companies including Lincoln Kirstein's Ballet Caravan (1937), Eugene Loring's Dance Players (1941) and Ballet Theater, the predecessor to the American Ballet Theater (1942-47). Soon after dance critic Edwin Denby opined that Kidd’s talents “leaned......

The announcement that Tom Petty will play the halftime show at this year’s biggest football game got me thinking about those of the recent past. It seems like only yesterday that men across America froze their Tivo to catch a glimpse of Janet Jackson’s nipple ring during the Super Bowl XXXVIII performance. This notorious halftime show also featured Kid Rock wearing the American flag as a shirt and P. Diddy and Nelly flanked by scantily......

Crash Mansion, a live-music venue and nightclub owned by the Bowery Restaurant Group and located at 199 Bowery in New York City , is opening their Los Angeles outpost tonight. They have transformed Myron's Ballroom downtown into a club. We read that is has a capacity for 1200 guests, 5 bars and two stages. Bands that have performed in the New York venue include: Beyonce, Janet Jackson, Norah Jones, Joss Stone, Usher, Gavin DeGraw,......

The night before tens of thousands at Chavez Ravine celebrated the anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier, a few miles west, in Hollywood, an African-American star on one of the most popular tv shows in the nation was being denied entrance into a new club. Last night Gary Dourdan was told that he wasn't (choose one: famous enough, cool enough, on a hot enough show) to come into the Hollywood Blvd. club......

Every morning at 6am we have been posting a video of someone singing or playing the "Star Spangled Banner". Depending on how many people stuck around to halftime to hear Prince, this was probably the most-heard song in the entire world yesterday. We've got to say, Billy Joel was a safe choice, but a good one. We would have preferred someone from Indiana or Chicago, like, say, John Cougar Mellencamp or Billy Corgan or......

Every morning at 6am we will be posting a video of someone singing or playing the "Star Spangled Banner". Most people don't know that Beyoncé is a trivia answer. "Who sang the 'Star Spangled Banner' before the Janet Jackson Super Bowl?" The answer is bootylicious, and here is that performance.......

Only because of Justin Timberlake do we have "Dick in a Box", "Box in a Box", and now "Tits in a Box". We are sure that the former boybander felt that he couldn't do anything as infamous as exposing Janet Jackson's world-changing nipple, but now watch as he's influencing young Americans to make presents of their private parts. Justin will play Staples Center next week and we've got a pair of some of the......

Everyone was eagerly awaiting the Killers' new record, but Evanescence came out of nowhere to nab the top spot on the Billboard Top 200 album chart this week. Their fourth album "The Open Door" is their first time debuting at #1 and they beat out some pretty strong competition. #2 was the Killers' "Sam's Town", their sophmore follow-up to the much-loved "Hot Fuss", #3 was country star George Strait, Tony Bennet's duets came in......

Babydaddy, Jake Shears, Ana Matronic and the rest of the Abba-esque Brit dance group Scissor Sisters are finding just as much success here in the states as they did early last month in the UK where they debuted at #1. The follow-up to 2004's eponymous freshman offerring did extremely well here in LA last week due to several factors: they headlined a sold-out show at the Shrine last Thursday, they appeared on Indie on......

Tony Bennett - Duets: An American Classic (Columbia) Richard Cheese - Silent Nightclub (Surfdog) Natalie Cole - Leavin' (Verve) Al Di Meola - Consequence of Chaos (Telarc) Enigma - A Posteriori (Virgin) Dizzy Gillespie's All-Star Big Band - Dizzy's Business (MCG Jazz) Amy Grant - Time Again ... Live (Word) Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton - Knives Don't Have Your Back (Last Gang) Hedley - Hedley (enhanced; Capitol) Alan Jackson - Like Red......

+ Tori Spelling clearly not being asked to be involved in the tribute to her groundbreaking father's career + Kate Jackson's never-ending speech while Farrah Fawcett fidgeted around like she had never worn a dress before + Kate Jackson's awful plastic surgery. If that's really the best that money can buy then + Dick Clark being brave + Steve Colbert's never-ending embrace of Jon Stewart, who now has a full chess set of Emmy......

Say what you want about the so-called "idiot box", but the advent of the television is one of the most powerful creations mankind has ever invented. Common, in everyday use, not just for entertainment but for news, weather, and education. Doctors and dentists use monitors for health care, police for surveillance, pilots for direction. And live broadcast television has united society through such varied events as the moon landing, the Rodney King beating, Janet......

Dear LAist, I understand you allow for anonymous reporting? I was at the ESPY's last night at H&H Kodak... Thought you might be interested that while Janet Jackson's beau Jermaine Dupri did pose for photos with her on the red carpet at the ESPYS, he shied away from the camera when Janet met up with Pat O'Brien for a TV interview after she presented the first award. After the interview, she went back to......

The cool thing about that Atomica Magazine Enter the Dragon party wasn't just that they did actually play Enter the Dragon on the screen or the odd dancer on the 2nd floor dressed in a prom dress and seemingly only aware of her own shadow or the really cute couple that came out of nowhere and danced hip to hip to Janet Jackson's very sexy "That's the Way Love Goes" with huge smiles on......

This Sunday promises to be the most wonderful time of the year, and that can only mean one thing: Nipplegate II. Yes, Super Bowl Sunday is here in full force, and LAist just can’t wait to see what Paul McCartney does to top Janet Jackson’s ode to the FCC halftime set from a year ago. LAist is ready for some football, and happy to report that we will be watching every single second of......

NBC4 reports today that ABC has issued an apology for their steamy pre-game intro to its "Monday Night Football" broadcast that featured some of the actresses from "Desperate Housewives." The intro, featured actress Nicollette Sheridan, wearing only a towel and pleading with Philadelphia Eagles player Terrell Owens to skip the game against the Dallas Cowboys to, instead, spend some quality time with her, and her towel. Both the NFL and viewers were quick to......