See this primordial ooze, the rest of the Tar Pits and the Page Museum for free today. / Photo by Gamma Infinity via LAist's flickr pool. TALK* McSweeney’s has published the debut novel Bowl of Cherries by Millard Kaufman. What’s different here is that Mr. Kaufman is a 90-year-old ex-Marine who created Mr. Magoo way back when. It’s described as “A bizarre and funny pseudo-take on Great Expectations, Kaufman's book has enough twists and......

"This is our last song ever," shouted Lady P, still catching her breath from the previous number. My friend and I exchanged strange looks as if it were the apocalypse and somehow we didn't get the memo. Perhaps the La Brea Tarpits were boiling over and about to suck us in or some crazy Toxic Avenger shit was about to go down. Turns out we did miss the memo, but lived to tell of......

NOHO Scene Saturday 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.: Promising a new, improved take on the NoHo Arts Festival. Free theater, dance and music , art exhibits, film screenings and workshops, plus food and goods from NoHo merchants. Proudly sponsored by your CRA/LA. Free. MAP Brewery Art Walk Sat-Sun 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.: This twice-a-year event is all the reason you need to explore The Brewery, conveniently (though conspicuously) located north of Chinatown. Lots......

Tarfest, the La Brea pits' very own arts fest, launches this year -- its fifth -- next Friday. Created both to celebrate the Miracle Mile and to provide the opportunity for artists and audiences to discover each other, Tarfest is free, unlike certain other Sunset Junctionlike festivals one could name. Find the full schedule here; highlights include: Friday, October 5: Gallery exhibition ( and reception featuring musical performances at the Korean Cultural Center, 5505......

Tobias Wacker has uploaded just one video on YouTube, but it's a dandy. Walking from One Wilshire to the Santa Monica Beach is 16 miles and Tobias took a picture every 10 steps. As you see he isn't afraid to cross Wishire now and then and he has a bit of fun by checking out cool things like tall buildings, the La Brea Tar Pits, and the dancing guy at Westside Rentals. Definitely something......

- LA Weekly wins seven awards from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies awards. - Tomorrow is “Community Day” at all California Whole Foods — 5% of the day’s net sales statewide are gonna go toward California coastal Cleanup Day, which happens on Sept. 15, 2007. - Cook like a fireman with the Los Angeles Firefighters Family Cookbook. - Changes are coming to this year's Sunset Junction festival with a new "route." - Big Blue......

A mysterious package left in the street at 5700 Wilshire Boulevard has closed down 3 blocks of traffic on Wilshire around the La Brea Tar Pits. At this time, 2:16pm, the bomb scare squad is on their way, office buildings are not being evacuated yet, but certainly exercise caution both in entering the area and also while trying to manuever around traffic. It is unknown how long this will last, but certainly the longer......

- FBI Top 10 Most Wanted caught in Canada. The former Long Beach gun club president accused of child molestation - AP - 150 people in the North Hollywood Washington Mutual were evacuated by firefighters because of fumes. 11 taken to the hospital - Daily News - NBC is spinning off "Heroes" after just one season - AP - Maypole erected in front of Brentwood girls school - LAT - Researchers discover that the......

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- 3.0 quake in The Valley this afternoon - Major League Soccer: New England 3, Los Angeles 2. - Environmentally friendly and affordable bras and panties guides by GreenLAGirl. - 2 die at Mother's Day Flower Stand when car plows through. - Why do the La Brea Tar Pits bubble? - California man on FBI's Top Ten List arrested in Canada - 60 to 80 acres burned in Pacoima off Osborne Street. - American......

- Is LAX really trying to more than double the rent on several low-cost airlines? - Daily News - Speaking of LAX, SkyWest celebrated their 30th anniversary with the airport - Yahoo - Speaking of anniversaries, Little Ethiopia is preparing to celebrate Big Ethiopia's millennium - Nazret - Brandy is being sued by the sons of the woman who died in last year's car crash - AP - The LA Daily News takes a......

Perhaps those of you who frequent Wilshire Boulevard along the La Brea Tar Pits noticed the new location of the trapped Woolly Mammoth near the streetside enclosure, as pictured above. Around December of last year, the fiberglass mammoth wrangled loose of its tether and drifted Southward, spurring this writer to wonder whether a new narrative was being constructed for the 40-ish year-old display. It would appear the middle-aged pachyderm merely broke free of her......

Tarfest begins today! Four days of films, music, and tar at the LaBrea Tar Pits - Tarfest.com Beck's new album is too cool for the UK charts. Because you can use stickers to design your own cover, it's got an "unfair" advantage on the other cds, the Brits say. Beck begs to differ. - Billboard How do you fight downtown gentrification? Involve a 75 year old nun - LA Times Boy-crazy Foley's behavior wasn't......

Franklin Avenue noticed that 2006 is LA's 225th year. They asked City Council President Eric Garcetti "where's the party?" — and he answered: We certainly will be doing our usual celebration on Labor Day, when we re-enact the Walk of the Pobladores from the Mission in San Gabriel to Olvera Street. We always have a party there afterwards. I'll check with Tom LaBonge to see if there is anything beyond that scheduled, but a......

LAist loves Thanksgiving. Food. Football. Giving thanks. More food. Midday naps. Leftovers. Also, Thanksiving is non-denominational. Everyone can enjoy it, from avowed Satanists, to Reformed Lutherans, to Godless Blue State Heathens like ourselves. There is nothing not good about Thanksgiving. Simply put, it rules. So in honor of Thanksgiving (and by way of tying this column into the city which gives us our raison d'etre), here is a list of the top ten bounties......

This weekend sees the opening of at least four new movies hitting theaters all across the Southland, and in surveying them LAist can't help but think how Angelenos could experience the same events in said movies around Los Angeles without ever having to pay a cent. After The Sunset, stars Pierce Brosnan as a thief who, along with his girlfriend Salma Hayek, tries their best to take part in illegal activities and avoid getting caught......