The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is always kicked off by a ceremony that awards one book in each key category with a Book Prize. The nominees in each category were just announced and we're both thrilled and a tad flummoxed by some of their picks, listed below. We're mostly pleased to see that the usual suspects, who have made up every other book awards list this year, are noticeably absent. This list doesn't......

Photo by _e.t. via Flickr Whether you are a carnivore or herbivore, the question these days is about your locavore status. Does the word sound familiar to you? It won the 2007 New Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Year Award. Via VegNews Magazine: If you really want to lighten your carbon footprint, don' just go vegan, go locavore. That means buying food locally to avoid the burning of fossil fuels entailed by long-distance......

LAPD: "You have three minutes to disperse." See the story from earlier today: 9 USC Students Partied Too Hard Last Night From the blog, SketchyTown:It all started—as most things at the University of Southern California tend to generate from—on Facebook. Advertised by its creator, Mr. Al Ligator—a self-proclaimed party planner—as “the most epic party you have ever seen” with a projected “very large turnout,” the event drew RSVPs from over 1,800 USC students. Soon......

Here's the good news of the day: It's almost Friday! Go out and celebrate tonight with these happenings about town: FILM The 2000 film Peppermint Candy opens with the suicide of its protagonist: a middle-aged, South Korean businessman. The film then flashes back 20 years — from student uprisings of the early '80s to the Asian financial crisis of the late '90s. "Lee's breakthrough debut unfolds a stirring story of regret, first love and letdowns."......

LAst Night's Action - It's been a two day drought in Los Angeles when it comes to pro sports. Enjoy this video of bicycle polo in Dallas. Today's Action - Angels @ Boston (3:30pm) ... Ducks @ Detroit (4:00pm)......

LAst Night's Action - There was no local sports action on Monday, so LNA is basically taking the day off. Instead, here's a "PSA" which shows you why racing down a mountain on a bike at over 100mph is stupid. At least wear a full helmet, OK? [Video NOT for the squeamish.] Today's Action - Uh-oh! Two days in a row without any major local sports! What ever will we do? Actually, we're really......

It's a national holiday, so we got this one posted a little late. For those of you wondering why we're not inundating you with USC coverage, that's because I'm posting All Things Trojan over at latimes.com. If you'd like to help us do some Trojan coverage here, drop me a line at adam@laist.com. Also, "LAst Night's Action" is only posting about three times a week but will return to a regular M-F schedule starting September......

In all of my many many years of obsessing over food, there are only three food-stuffs that I would seriously consider as a Last Night on Earth meal option: Mashed potatoes and gravy. Sushi (o-toro, preferably). And falafel. Pretty uninspired stuff, I know, but for some reason, falafel falls into the category of Things I Could Eat Every Day and Never Grow Tired Of. I actually carried around a big bottle of Sriracha hot......

It didn't register when I heard that Bill Walsh died. My phone had just beeped at me. Somebody was suggesting that I do an obit here on LAist. "Sure," I thought. "Too bad I don't have time. Maybe I'll bury it in LAst Night's Action." I was wrong. Maybe I was in denial. While trying to recap the happenings in local sports, I couldn't discard Bill Walsh into a pile of other stories from "elsewhere."......

I'm not impressed by Beckhamania. Sure, I'm excited about David Beckham's arrival. He's a world class icon coming to compete in our backyard. I planned my Saturday around his first match in a Galaxy uniform, despite the fact that it's just a friendly in an obscure tournament during the MLS All Star break. I embedded a semi-regular "Beckham Watch" in our "LAst Night's Action" segments and I've posted highlight videos of his greatest plays. Beckham......

Throw-The-Kitchen-Sink-In-It Pizza: with Vodka Sauce, Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Garlic, Mozzarella, Pepperoni, Basil, Parmesan, Caramelized Onions, and Olives We've gotta admit, Mozza was great, but Lord knows we can't eat like red-headed Italian kings every day. In fact, even ordering pizza every night tends to add up: $20 per pizza per day for two people over one week? That's over $140, even if you eat the leftovers for breakfast! It's enough to make us want to...I......

Dallas 108, Lakers 72 - The last time the Lakers lost at home this bad, "home" was Minneapolis. Things got so ugly that LAist writers were wondering if Smush Parker's ejection (after a second technical) might help the team. But with three players sidelined with injuries, the it turns out a streamlined roster wasn't much of a solution. Dallas rolled to its 17th win in a row and held Los Angeles to within two points......

Wednesday, January 17 - Thursday, January 18 In the bizarre, muddled Ciao! Manhattan art imitates life as glamorous socialite-turned-model-turned-Warhol-icon Edie Sedgwick, who died at age 28 from an overdose, plays Susan Superstar, a former model-turned-underground-screen-siren-turned-alcoholic who has retreated to her mother's house. The New Beverly is screening the film alongside Kiss of the Spider Woman. WHEN: 7:30 pm; January 17 - 18 WHERE: The New Beverly, 7165 West Beverly Blvd., LA, CA 90036 ADMISSION:......

Last Night Summary: So 50 Cent cancelled his appearance on Conan a couple hours before the show because he felt he was coming down with a cold? Stern and Gaffigan were good as usual on Conan. Also: "The Office" was fantastic; I was amazed at how long Colbert allowed his druggie guest to ramble; kid scientists on Letterman were typically cute and funny and I'm hoping for a new set of stupid human tricks......

Last Night NBC premiered it's new Underwear-Pervert-based hour-long action-drama, Heroes and all we have to say is that we loved it. Heroes is actually our favorite scripted pilot we've seen so far this year, including much ballyhooed Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Trying not to give a play-by-play of the entire pilot, we will say it set up a few of the regulars in the cast, including our current favorite Hiro Nakamura. A......

With the release of the film "Factotum" right around the corner (going head-to-head against Snakes on a Plane), we thought that every night at midnight this week leading up to Friday we should celebrate the work of Charles Bukowski, LA's finest poet. Tonight we present "The Man with the Beautiful Eyes", a poem Buk wrote for "The Last Night Of The Earth Poems" (1992) proving that the old drunk still had it in the......