If you were a kid growing up in Southern California, learning about the Chumash Indians was no doubt a part of your third-grade curriculum (probably right around the same time you were building a mission out of sugar cubes). The Chumash were the original inhabitants of much of SoCal's coastal areas, and did cool stuff like leech the acid out of acorns so they could make food out of it without being poisoned. Of......

Hope that video camera fires bullets, Mr. Secret Service! | Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Mediocre political thriller Vantage Point topped the box office this weekend, grossing a solid $24M in its opening frame. It was the only new film to do significant business as hold-overs held the next five spots. Jumper dropped precipitously in its second weekend (-54%) but still managed to make $12.65M ($56.2M). Family picture The Spiderwick Chronicles showed considerably more......

As part of their Golden Globe Foreign Language Nominee series, American Cinematheque is screening The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tonight at the Aero Theater. Director and noted artist Julian Schnabel will be on-hand to introduce the film. It tells the wrenching story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the former editor of ELLE magazine who suffered a stroke at the age of 43 and spent the rest of his life able to move only one eyelid.......

Sure, you could always stay in and watch reruns of [insert name of your favorite show here], but why bother when you have these things happening tonight to get you through hump day. WORDS The West LA Chapter of the Sierra Club hosts a lecture by UCLA Professor David Haake who’ll focus on the question, “Do green choices make financial sense?” The evening will also offer steps on how you can reduce your carbon......

Power-pop is above all feel-good music, designed to hit all your pleasure centers at once, which makes it a natural fit for Christmas time. Click below for five super-charged riffs to restore your faith in humanity. THE SHITBIRDS - Christmas is a Comin' (May God Bless You) With a name like that you may be expecting sonic assault, but this local troupe, led by elfin chanteuse April March, aims for maximum joy and adorable-ness. &righticonhover=0x333232&text=0x333232&slider=0xF2F2F2&track=0xFFFFFF&border=0xFFFFFF&loader=0x838383&soundFile=http://aprodxn.com/laist/Shitbirds......

Monday Mike Carey presents The Devil You Know 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday Doug Stumpf presents Confessions of a Wall Street Shoeshine Boy 7pm @ Book Soup Joy Horowitz presents Parts per Million: The Poisoning of Beverly Hills High School 7pm @ Central Library Michael Tucker signs Living a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine and Love in Italy 7pm @ Dutton's Jerry Stahl presents Love Without 7pm @ Borders, Long Beach Thomas......

Juliette Lewis and her band of handsome young bearded men stormed into Spaceland for a secret show that started at 9pm to accommodate the crowd of industry insiders and professionals. She promptly reminded them what rock and roll was all about. Coming off an almost endless European tour, mostly in arenas or at festivals, the Licks' fury and power were overwhelming and wonderful in the small Silver Lake club. Juliette is a star and......

Although this art form has been developing in churches for many years, Praise Dancing is just starting to filter out into the secular community. Churches from a variety of denominations, but primarily African-American Baptist churches, have been starting dance ministries all across the country. Mixing a variety of dance forms with mime and occasionally with American Sign Language (ASL), Praise Dancing is sometimes called Worship Dance or Praise Mime. The use of mime make-up......

Monday Barney Hoskyns presents Hotel California 7pm @ Book Soup Christopher Nyerges discusses How To Survive Anywhere 7pm @ Vroman’s Robert Crais signs The Watchman 7pm @ Borders Torrance Dennis Cooper in discussion with the writers of Userlands 7:30pm @ Skylight Books Tuesday Chad Kultgen presents Average American Male 7pm @ Book Soup Jane Smiley discusses Ten Days in the Hills 7pm @ Vroman’s Allison L. Bailey, Frances A. Butler, Margaret Heritage, and Norma......

Dälek has again brought us to a cold, dark, somber, and sparse place with their fourth release, Abandoned Language, on the Ipecac Recordings label. Dälek is MC/producer Will “dälek” Brooks and teammate producer Alap “Oktopus” Momin who have been collaborating on new visions for hip hop since 1998. This time the theme is language, it's failure and abuse. The theme is carried down to the extrmeley cool CD booklet which requires you to hold......

Wanna' know what's hot and fresh on our playlists? Look no further. Here's the 411 on what your favorite LA-centric blog is listening to. Whether it's sick and twisted or straight up embarrassing to mention -- it's all here: Lisa, Music Editor: The new Shins - Wincing the Night Away, the new Of Montreal record, Talking Heads - 77, Lily Allen, Randy Newman good old boys, Velvet Underground Loaded, and a mix my friend......

Born in LA 33 years-and-a-day ago, June 21, 1973, it seems like Juliette has done it all. She's acted with De Niro, been directed by Woody, and is currently recording her second rock album with none other than Dave Grohl as her drummer. Yesterday's birthday girl emancipated herself from her parents at 14, dropped out of high school at 15, started banging Brad Pitt at 16 in a romance that would last almost four......

We're not quite sure what conspiracy Judi McLeod at Canada Free Press is trying to make by noting that Telemundo is owned by NBC which is owned by GE whose largest institutional investor is Barclay's Global Investors whose largest institutional investor Lazard Freres Asset Management and CSX-AXA who are, apparently, a bunch of Jews. Is the point that she thinks Spanish speaking people couldn't have organized such a well-orchestrated show of civil disobedience or......

WEDNESDAY • The Aero Theatre features a screening of the third Golden Globe-nominated Foreign Language film, Joyeux Noel at 7:30 PM. Discussion to follow with director. • Taxi Driver is on the big screen once again tonight at the Arclight at 8 PM. • The Actors' Gang's roving performance of The Exonerated comes to REDCAT for shows tonight through Sunday. Tickets are $28-32 (non-members).......

FRIDAY • Brazilian Girls and Something for Rockets are at Avalon tonight at 8:30 PM. Tickets are $20. • The Nervous Return are in the Knitting Factory Front Room with Tsk Tsk, The Cinema Eye, Shoot Out The Lights and This Blush. The show starts at 8 PM and cover is $7. • Bay Area beat maestro Lyrics Born is at the El Rey with Ostrich Head, Noah King, Speech Impediments, Swamp House and......

"Chinatown" screenwriter Robert Towne shares stories about screenwriting at the Writers Guild Foundation Spring Storytellers Series tonight at 7:30 PM. The Writers Guild Theater is located at 135 S. Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills. For reservations, call (323) 782-4692. Tickets are $25 for WGA members and academic faculty. Students get in for $15 with ID. A different kind of legend will speak downtown at the Central Library tonight: Kamau Daáood -- The Language of......

We're changing things up a bit here at LAist. Because we live in such a vibrant, socially active city, there are things going on all the time. We have long wanted to be able to list events in advance (for the benefit of our wonderful readers), so starting today we have implemented a new strategy: a week's events in advance. We will still post featured events each day, but we've added a permanent sidebar......

The first week of February is a momentous time in Los Angeles. Alas, other matters eclipse Groundhog Day here. For February 1st is the day eager beavers can obtain reservations for the The 2004 Foreign Language Film Award Nominees Symposium on Saturday, February 26, at 10:00 a.m., in the Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Wilshire Blvd. Moderated by Mark Johnson, producer of "Diner," "Rain Man," the symposium features representatives of the 2004 Best Foreign Language......

While we're happy that the Clippers are doing much better than expected this year and haven't already given up on the season (and if they can just string a few more wins together might even compete for the 8th playoff spot in the West), we're heading to the Staples Center tonight to get our last chance to see Shaquille O'Neal play in Los Angeles this season. Your Los Angeles Clippers host the Miami Heat......

It's going to be a bloody good time tonight at the ArcLight when AFI presents a preview screening of Saw, starring Carey Elwes and Danny Glover. Q&A with director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell will follow. The film starts at 9:00 PM. Stick around after Saw for a special midnight showing of The Grudge starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. Or, if gore isn't your thing, head to the Knitting Factory and catch The Velvet......