Photo by kpe II via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr LAUGH USC’s improv troupe 2nd Nature hosts their 5th Annual Fracas Improv Festival at USC today. Groups from around the country perform, members of the Upright Citizens Brigade and other professional comedians host workshops all day, and several famous comedians make appearances like Ed Helms of The Office. 1 p.m. // USC // Figueroa and Expedition, Los Angeles // Free ART David......

Miwa Gemini at the Hotel Cafe | Photo by Lindsay William-Ross/LAist When the opportunity to check out New York-based singer-songwriter Miwa Gemini live at the Hotel Cafe came up recently I jumped at the chance based on one line in the PR materials: "Think Nina Simone meets Sparklehorse meets Cat Power, and you're getting close." Intrigued, I showed up Sunday evening to the Hotel Cafe, nabbed a seat in the room's soothing darkness, and......

Photo by kpe II via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr GRAFFITI German graffiti artists, known as Herakut, takes over the walls of Carmichael Gallery starting tonight. The artists will be there celebrating their first show stateside. Open bar. 8 p.m. // Carmichael Gallery // 1257 N. La Brea Ave, West Hollywood // (323) 969-0600 // Free DRIVE-IN Hedwig and the Angry Inch is shown tonight on a giant wall while you sit......

When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "recommend" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities for us. So here's this week's top posts, as endorsed by you via the recommend feature, or as indicated by the level......

An ancient cuisine is hoping to attract new fans in downtown Los Angeles: Shojin, an organic Japanese restaurant whose menu is inspired by Buddhist vegetarian principles, has opened in Little Tokyo. Traditional "shojin" cuisine is a plant-based, essentially vegan diet, which Buddhists adhere to as a form of spiritual discipline. So, of course, what better theme for a trendy new Downtown restaurant? I kid, I kid: but the menu is bound to appeal to......

A sexy new NYC restaurant import is hitting Beverly Hills: Bond St, the brainchild of New York entrepreneur Jonathan Morr. BondSt is offering up modern Euro-Japanese cuisine in a sexy brown-leather setting (EaterLA has a few pics up here). The swank new space, inside the Thompson Hotel on the corner of Wilshire and Crescent, features "30 seats, outdoor dining, a sushi bar and an exclusive second floor Bond Street lounge with private library alcove....the......

Every Friday, LAist is taking you on a trip down to Orange County to uncover the unique dining experiences that await adventurous eaters willing to explore beyond the county line. Several years ago, I used to work in Downtown. Because I would often work through lunch, I had a certain place (Skew’s at Cal Plaza) that I would grab for takeout at every day. It was the combination of quality food (for a fast-casual......

How good is Oreskaband, the all-girl teenage Japanese ska band? They're so good that after two weeks of non-stop rocking blogging and partying at SXSW in Austin (highlighted by our first exposure to Oreskaband at their show at the Elysium), and after a stressful flight home, instead of taking a break from rock shows we landed in LA, unpacked, and hit the Knitting Factory to see our favorite new discovery play again at Japan......

Ahh, the power of suggestion. We're pretty sure it was that NPR story about ramen--both the starving student 10-for-a-dollar variety and the heartier restaurant kind--that came in the wake of the death of the man who invented said instant ramen, Momfuku Ando, that got our tastebuds set on a steaming bowl of broth and noodles served Japanese-style. Combine that with weekly viewings of the insanity that is the Dotch Cooking Show and we were facing......