Actor Kirk Douglas gives children at the Lillian Elementary School a high five in Los Angeles Wednesday, May 28, 2008 (AP Photo/Nick Ut) Since 1997, actor Kirk Douglas and his wife Anne have donated about one playground renovation per week to Los Angeles area schools. Yesterday at Lillian Elementary School in South LA marked their 401st and last. The playground project began in 1997 "while Anne Douglas was reading in the Los Angeles Times......

Am recovering from my NYC trip to see the SNL taping. Monday looks a little slow but I'm sure there's a crapload of Masters' Tournament highlights to watch. I'm sorry if the selection looks a little CBS-heavy but that's what's on. What're you watching on Monday nights? Lemme know. 8-10:00pm The Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother/Two and a Half Men/Rules of Engagement CBS - All new. CBS has a comedy stranglehold on Monday......

FILM* Charlie Chaplin's legendary Modern Times is on the big screen this afternoon at the Silent Movie Theatre. The film "marks the final screen appearance of his beloved and iconic Tramp. It’s also one of Chaplin’s most thematically and stylistically audacious films." 4:00 p.m. // The Silent Movie Theatre // 611 N Fairfax Ave // $12 WIN AN OSCAR! Oh, okay, fine, you probably aren't nominated for one this year (don't worry, your time will......

Monday Eliot Tiegel presents The Latinization of America 6:30pm @ Book Soup Judith Freeman discusses and signs The Long Embrace 7pm @ Vroman's Roz Chast discusses Theories of Everything 7pm @ Central Library Robert Kuttner in conversation with Arianna Huffington about The Squandering of America 8pm @ James Bridge Theater, UCLA Tuesday Cesar Millan presents Be the Pack Leader 7pm @ Borders, Pasadena Frank McCourt presents Angela and the Baby Jesus 7pm @ Borders,......

Science and art rarely mix. And yet, despite the near polar opposite natures of these two fields, there's something that makes a collaboration between science and art undeniably captivating. Perhaps it's because behind the often sterile and calculated shell of the world of science, there lies the same human stories we find in every other area of life. And while we regularly see tales of greed, corruption, triumph, racism, fame, and passion acted out......

In honor of FITLA (International Latino Theatre Festival of Los Angeles), we're doing a mostly Latin theme to our theatre picks this week... En Un Sol Amarillo/In A Yellow Sun (Memories of an Earthquake) A 1998 earthquake in Bolivia ripped apart the country – and the political aftershocks made a terrible situation even worse. This drama features actual testimonies and imagery to shed light on the devestation and corruption that followed. Performed in Spanish with......

I’m not a fan of hip- hop. Now, I’m not saying that I don’t appreciate the impact it has made on our society or certain songs that take me back to my middle school Sadie Hawkins dance days, but I’m more of an alterna-rock kind of gal. This is ironic because my current boyfriend is a Wu-Tang loving, Jay Z worshipping, Biggie quoting fool – but somehow we work. And since I’ve been very busy......

This morning, the LA Stage Alliance announced the nominees for the 2007 Ovations Awards, which are the only peer-judged theatre awards in Los Angeles and considered by the LA Times to be the "...highest-profile contest for local theatre..." 30 categories in all, one of our favorite "LAist Recommends" from this year, "The Long Christmas Ride Home" at the Tribe Theatre in the NoHo Arts District, has been nominated for several awards including best ensemble, direction......

One part Greek tragedy, one part Shakespeare's Henry IV, one part hip-hop concert Clay, a one man show written and performed by Matt Sax and directed by Eric Rosen, rocks the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Chronicling the life of a young man who "comes of age through the theatricality of hip hop", Clay has an unexpectedly moving quality about it. Raised in what can only be described as suburban hell, Clay's lead character, Clifford, is......

Promoted as a "rock-and-roll fable," Clay kicked off its month long run at the Kirk Douglas Theatre last Thursday. Chronicling the rise of a fictional hip-hop superstar, from suburban hell to undisputed fame, the "one man hip hop musical" features Clay's writer, composer and lyricist Matt Sax in the title role. A recent graduate of Northwestern University, Sax, along with director Eric Rosen, bring Clay to Los Angeles for its West Coast debut after......

Though my allegiance has switched over to the Landmark, many film lovers in Los Angeles regard the Arclight as the best multiplex in town. It programs studio pictures right alongside esoteric indies, it offers great concessions, its screenings are commercial-free and it schedules cool events with celebrated films and filmmakers. This Wednesday, tickets go on sale for one of those very events. In fact, this one may be the coolest in awhile. To celebrate......

Damages is the prime time choice for me but check out late night TV: Bill Clinton, David Duchovny, Kirk Douglas, Gogol Bordello! 9:00pm Big Brother 8 CBS - The veto battles continue [look for Tony Pierce's commentary as this is a fave of his] 9:00pm i-Caught ABC - Consumers fight back with video, plus a profile of comic Tom Green's online talk show. 10:00pm Damages FX - Yeah baby! Damages is back after a......

Monday Gordy Slack presents The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything 7pm @ Vroman's Tuesday Kimberlee Auerbach presents The Devil, The Lovers and Me: My Life in Tarot 7pm @ Book Soup Gregg Hurwitz presents The Crime Writer 7pm @ Borders, Century City Kirk Douglas presents Let's Face It 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble, Encino Wednesday Laurie Viera Rigler presents Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict 7pm @ Vroman's Helen Gilbert presents Okay Girls,......

Monday Cristina Garcia discusses A Handbook to Luck 7pm @ Vroman's Criss Angel presents Mindfreak: Secret Revelations 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday Criss Angel presents Mindfreak: Secret Revelations 6pm @ Borders, Westwood Steven Bach presents Leni: The Life and Leni Riefenstahl 7pm @ Book Soup Wednesday Steven Bach presents Leni: The Life and Leni Riefenstahl 7pm @ Central Library Rue McClanahan presents My First Five Husbands and the Ones Who Got Away 7pm @......

Monday T.C. Boyle reads and chats with David Ulin 7pm @ Mark Taper Forum Jennifer Kaufman & Karen Mack present Literacy and Longing in L.A. 7pm @ Studio Branch Library Denise Hamilton & contributors signs Los Angeles Noir 7pm @ Borders Torrance Pat Montandon discusses Oh, the Hell of It All 7pm @ Vroman's Tuesday Barry Glassner discusses The Gospel of Food 7pm @ Central Library Kirk Douglas signs Let's Face It 7pm @......

Gopher: Why you pissing on it [Chevy Impala]? Chuck: So chicks know its mine. Dudes too. This is my Impala. Not yrs. Gopher: It gets you pussy? Chuck: No, man. Gopher: No? Chuck: It gets me dick. A constant hard one. Gopher: Shit Chuck: Shit is right. From December 3rd's play, "Impala". "I want to see a show in every theatre space in LA," I once told a friend a few years back. Thanks to......

Excerpt from Day 2 (Nov. 16): Father Comes Home From The Wars (Part 1) Father: Hi honey, Im home. Mother: Yr home. Father: Yes. Mother: I wasnt expecting you. Ever. Father: Should I go back out and come back in again? Mother: Please. We're going to say this right now and get it over with: get off your arses and participate in this yearlong national theatre festival. which is being held simultaneously around the......

Coming to a Close: Sexuality “Dan has met the girl he wants to marry… There's just one small item he needs to tell her. When he lived in San Francisco he had a couple of gay experiences. Well, more like three years living as a gay man in a gay man's world.” RegretroSexual is coming to a close in two weeks on March 29th at the Lounge Theater. The show is only on Wednesdays,......

Someone walked off with Gregory Peck's star on Hollywood Boulevard sometime between Nov. 17 and Nov. 22, says Hollywood's honorary Mayor Johnny Grant. Authorities believe the perp (yeah, we know we watch too much Law & Order) used a cement saw to hack off one of the Boulevard's original stars. Begs the question, didn't anyone notice a saw being used? And why didn't anyone notice sooner? According to an Associated Press news report: Peck's......