Last Saturday Ford and "Band from TV" partnered together in Downtown LA to launch the Ford Flex with a charity scavenger hunt through that roamed throughout Los Angeles, raising money for various charities. Basically the event challenged each team to use the interactive technologies of the new vehicle - Ford brands the Flex as a vehicle for "urban adventures" so it seems the scavenger hunt was created to showcase exactly that. Too bad one of......

Anyone under the age of 35 these days has a tendency to switch phones, well, as soon as the newest, coolest gadget comes out - which these days can be every couple of months or so. It appears that the slider Helio Mysto is one gadget you might want to keep around for a while. Consider the fact that this thing has GPS with turn by turn voiced navigation to help guide you while......

After the Flood - Building on Higher Ground, a part of the International symposium series Sustainable Dialogues, is the first in a series of exhibitions held at theA+D Museum that showcases eco-friendly and innovative international architectural proposals for replacement housing and the redevelopment of New Orleans, Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which drew from an international competition organized by Architectural Record and Tulane University's School of Architecture. The exhibition is made up of......

Junot Diaz at the Hammer Museum/Osmany Rodriguez for LAist The thing about author Junot Diaz is, one minute he’s on the phone with you, rapping about meringue, Malcolm X, comic books, and how shit never gets done on time in the Dominican Republic – and the next minute, he’s winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. He describes himself as just another ordinary, poor immigrant......

One commenter on Digg asked "Was that jesus?" | Filmed by Zach Behrens/LAist At last Saturday's Anonymous protest in Hollywood, LAist took this above video. Before we could even got a chance to post it on LAist late Saturday afternoon, it had already been found on YouTube and dugg on Digg.com, garnering over 12,000 diggs under an appropriately written headline, "This is how police SHOULD react to protesters." It has not even been 48......

Human Giant unleashed itself upon an unsuspecting public last year via MTV and the bell just rang for Round 2 - are you ready? There's sketch comedy, there's underground sketch comedy, there's in your face on-the-streets sketch comedy, and then there's Human Giant, a team that presents, in each episode, collections of bits that are more like experimental movies than the sketch comedy we've been seeing for the last 15 years. There's plenty of parody......

Photo by highervision via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr This evening a public viewing will be held for slain LA High football star Jamiel Shaw, with funeral services to follow tomorrow. Shaw's tragic murder has prompted many LA residents to refocus on the senselessness of gang-related violence. Go, stop, go, stop: Commuters northbound on the 57 and the 605 transitioning to the 210 westbound this morning were greeted by the new traffic......

Photo by Jonathan Alcom via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr This is last Friday as reported by LAist Featured Photos contributor Jonathan Alcom: "A gallon of regular gasoline priced at 3.99 at a Unocal gas station on Pico Bl and Barrington in West Los Angeles on Friday March 7, 2008 as surging oil prices jumped to a new record above $106 Friday. This gas station was about 40 cents higher than other......

'Capitalism' by Kwasi B. via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr American Flag. Check. California Flag. Check. City McDonald's Flag. Ha! Location possibly near Wilshire and Western......

Shadow & Light in Little Tokyo | Photo by pink_fish13 via LAist's Featured Photos pool on Flickr. Monday Jeremy D. Popkin presents Facing Racial Revolution 7pm @ Dutton's Tuesday Alan Corey presents A Million Bucks by 30 7pm @ Book Soup Christopher Rice presents Blind Fall 7pm @ Borders, West Hollywood Wednesday Milo Martin presents Poems for a Utopian Nihilist 7pm @ Book Soup Leslie Lehr presents Wife Goes On 7pm @ Dutton's Josh......

Yeah, this is how I feel. / Photo "Supervisor Zirves" by db via LAist's flickr pool. This morning was a rough start for everyone and we still got a little sleepies in us, but we'll definitely be awake for these events tonight. After another latte. CLASSICAL* The LA premiere of "The Axe Manual" happens tonight at Zipper Concert Hall as part of the Monday Evening Concert series. The program includes important recent works by......

Matt Belknap is changing the way people experience comedy. As founder of Aspecialthing.com , Matt's created a place where comedy nerds, whether they be fans or the artists themselves, can discuss the art form they love so much. But Belknap isn't only a comedy fan. He runs See You Next Tuesday at the UCB Theater, is producer of and panelist on Never Not Funny, one of the I-Tunes picks for best Podcasts of '06 and......

It's hard not to notice when Jeffree Star enters a room because he is wearing high heels, has bright pink shoulder length hair, is heavily tattooed from head to toe, and carries a large Louie Vuitton purse. And it was apparently just as difficult not to notice him when he bust onto the internet scene (and into our hearts) in 2003. Recently, and without any marketing or ads, he has been blowing doors on the......

I wake up every morning with the weather and traffic reports on ABC7 Eyewitness News. (My boyfriend and I love to share a fresh pot of coffee every morning and gently guffaw at Garth Kemp's goofball antics and shameless puppy-promotion.) This morning, no joke, the weather report was one word: "Perfect." Yup, sunny, clear, and 77 degrees. When I came off the freeway this morning, I could see down the Hollywood hills straight through to......

After a 5-month investigation, the Associated Press found that Los Angeles drinking water has traces of Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications. "To be sure," the AP noted "the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose." Across the nation, the report found tainted water supplies in 24 major metropolitan areas, five of those in California: Los Angeles: 2 (meprobamate and phenytoin)......

Nick's, home of delicious breakfast burritos, by Rebecca~James via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Remember when we told you that Los Angeles tap water was the best tasting in the world? Turns out that our delicious H20 might have been sprinkled with delicious drugs. The AP found that a multitude of pharmaceuticals, like antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones, have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million......

Photograph of investigation at Times Square recruiting center by kerfuffle & zeitgeist on Flickr Gothamist found that an explosive set off outside the Times Square army recruiting center may be similar to five past bombings in New York City.Seattlest worried when severed right feet and bottles of rat poison started washing up on local beaches.Shanghaiist was surprised by Bjork's rooting for Tibetan independence at her concert (see video), and the political fallout has only......

Big Business, Red Fang, The Cops @ Spaceland (Tho Cops reviewed on LAist, 3/20/06) New York Dolls @ House of Blues (Anaheim) Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra, George Sarah & String Trio @ Safari Sam's (George Sarah video below) The Riders of the Purple Sage @ Live at the Lounge (Hermosa Beach) Peter Himmelman @ McCabe's (Music for the kids) Sunday Residency (See all March Residencies) Alex & Sam, Liz Pappademas @ Tangier ($8), Los Feliz (Read......

Photo by tom.julio via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr TALK Throw on a hoodie and some comfy pants and head out now to make the 2 p.m. start of the Radical Women's International Women’s Day Celebration talk called "Art, Media & Revolution – Three Feminist Visionaries Speak Out." Panelists include artist Susana De Leon, poet Ashley Love, and journalist Amanda Rossi. If getting in touch with your inner grrrrrl makes you hungry,......

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......

"Fire in the Sky" by manmadepants via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Sacramento to California's teachers: I love you, but I just can't pay you. Thousands of teachers across the state this week could receive pink slips in the wake of the $14.5 billion budget gap. Teachers to Sacramento: I'd like to see you try and force us out. The Air Quality Management District loves clean air so much they decided to impose......

The City of Santa Clarita (that's Valencia/Magic Mountain area and environs) opened its one and only dog park -- Central Bark -- late last year. The 1.3 acre, off-leash doggie park is located in Central Park (27150 Bouquet Canyon Road) and has designated gated areas for small dogs (25 lbs. and under) and larger dogs. It's open from dawn to dusk and is a great place for friendly dogs and their owners to hang......

There is some kind of hellish cold going around that's sent people from all over running to their doctors for a z-pack (to the uninitiated out that that would be pack of Zithromax, the antibiotic du jour these days.) But what if you're trying to stick it out and fight it off with a wing, a prayer and some echinacea? There's always chicken soup (especially if you've got someone to bring you some to you!).......

Getting a parking ticket just downright blows, agreed? It can be the ultimate day-ruining moment, especially if you're having the proverbial "one of those days" to begin with. However, LAist Featured Photos Pool contributor faerymkh submitted a shot of the ticket they found on their windshield recently, that had an added message from a thoughtful and anonymous individual. To explain:A stranger left the message "Bummer that you got a ticket but they suck and......

...or you could hit up Swingers for a late-night bite (LAist did!) | Photo by Stephanie Asher via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr DOCUMENTARY & DISCUSSION Non-profit mentoring group WriteGirl is putting on a screening of Girls Rock! which is a documentary about a rock n' roll girls' camp, and hosting a panel discussion after the film. Scheduled panelists include WriteGirl's founder and executive director, singer-songwriter Keren Taylor; Grammy-award winning songwriter and......

Naoko Mori plays science technician/alien-buster Toshiko Sato on the BBC's "Torchwood", the coolest science fiction show to come out of the UK in quite a while. In fact, when put up against a lot of the other science fiction originating on cable, "Torchwood" more than holds its own against "Stargate Atlantis", "Flash Gordon", etc. The production values are great and the stories I think are a bit more unique than some of these other......

Matt Belknap is changing the way people experience comedy. As founder of Aspecialthing.com , Matt's created a place where comedy nerds, whether they be fans or the artists themselves, can discuss the art form they love so much. But Belknap isn't only a comedy fan. He runs See You Next Tuesday at the UCB Theater, is producer of and panelist on Never Not Funny, one of the I-Tunes picks for best Podcasts of '06......

Photo by ~db~ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr It's official: Police have identified the Green Skeleton Bandit who was fatally shot earlier this week when he was caught in the act of robbing the AutoZone in NoHo by a US Marshal. He was 24-year-old Lawrence Dean Smith Jr. of Palmdale who used a knife and wore a skeleton-themed sweatsuit in his robberies. Fight for the right to ficus! Local activists in......

$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......

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