Last Thursday evening, photographer/director Octavio "Winkytiki" Arizala (MySpace) celebrated the release of his Vivid-Alt (MySpace) movie The Bad Luck Betties at the Redwood Bar & Grill in Downtown LA. Also in attendance, besides Bad Luck Betties' "Smoking" Mary Jane (MySpace) and Mika Tan (MySpace) and newcomers Sochee and Mika, were Vivid-Alt head Eon McKai (MySpace), photographer/director Dave Naz (MySpace) and his girlfriend Ashley Blue, and director Vena Virago (MySpace). The party was presented in......

Good news regarding last week's LAPD shootout in Glassell Park. The fourth and last suspect, a Northridge resident who was the driver of the suspected car, was arrested Monday in Granada Hills. It wasn't that hard either: "he was in the same vehicle police believe was used in the driveby," according to a report by the Daily News. Last Thursday, a drive-by shooting occurred in the late morning, resulting in the death of a man......

Smash Fashion plays Monday nights at Crash Mansion | Photo via their MySpace page Month-long residencies are one of the best ways to catch up-and-coming bands in Los Angeles. You have at least four times to catch a band, and each time, if they are gaining popularity over each show, it will be harder to see them. Last Thursday at their final residency concert, The Airborne Toxic Event played a sold out show with......

Last Thursday, Book Soup in West Hollywood hosted an autograph signing for photographer Dave Naz's latest book, L.A. Bondage, featuring covergirls Ashley Blue (Naz's girlfriend) and Nadia Styles, along with Dana DeArmond (MySpace), Flower Tucci, and Gia Jordan (MySpace), and even a live bondage performance by rope artisan Damon Pierce and model Claire Adams. Also in attendance was Coop, photographers Steve Diet Goedde, Eric Kroll, and Carlos Batts (with wife April Flores), Vivid-Alt (MySpace)......

Remember that car chase scene in "The Da Vinci Code?" Yeah, that car chase is coming to an LA near you. Last Thursday, the weekly LA Green Drinks was hosted at The Smart Car House in Venice. We get an introduction to the Smart Car and learn that the first Smart Car dealerships in Los Angeles will be in North Hollywood, Beverly Hills, West Covina, Riverside and Laguna Niguel. The smart house at 1319......

Our trust and honor system on the subway, at the light rails and over at the Orange Line has been stripped away. Last Thursday, Metro voted to install the first phase of gates at stations, 275 to be exact (what's going to happen to those TAP Here machines that are everywhere?). The original intent behind the current honor system is "to buck East Coast practices and reduce operating costs," according to the New York......

Last Thursday, pornstar and director (and Fleshbot Crush Object, link NSFW) Dana DeArmond (MySpace) and her boyfriend Daniel (MySpace), along with pornstars Justin Long (NSFW) and Jon Jon (NSFW), were featured guest speakers in Professor Kassia Wosick-Correa's Sociology of Sexuality course at UC Irvine. According to TIME, the study of pornography on a collegiate level originated in the early 1990s, as the article mentioned Professor Linda Williams' Film and Rhetoric course at UC Berkeley,......

Concert review of Beirut at The Avalon....

At the beginning of the season I picked the Dodgers to handily win the division. The Dodgers had a starting rotation that most teams would kill for, and offensively they could overwhelm every other team in the division. Sure injuries took their toll especially on the pitching staff, but it’s pathetic that in the final week of the season I’m not caring at all what the Dodgers are doing. Last Thursday AM570’s reporter David......

Photo by Don Giovanni via Flickr Last Thursday, I called my dad to hear just exactly how much danger his cousins in Jamaica were facing. The news had just hit that Hurricane Dean appeared to be turning into a Category 5, and was heading straight for the south coast, less touristy due to the rougher and slightly less turquoise-colored waters, where my relatives live. Technically my dad's second cousins (what does that make them......

Even when you are an dishonest person, a tiny bit of honesty can go a long way. LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo could have avoided a week of scrutiny if he only told the truth a week and a half ago when asked by reporters if his wife was using his city-assigned vehicle when it was damaged and paid for by the taxpayers. Instead, he avoided questions for a simple answer until the LA Times......

Last Thursday morning started out great. I jumped in my car listening to mix of morning shows, but left off listening to Kenny Chesney’s “You Save Me” on KZLA. When I returned to my car around noon to venture off downtown, KZLA had a grand surprise – it vanished, leaving the LA and OC counties country-less. LA has now joined the side of New York City and other metropolitan areas in life without a......

Ever wondered why all those police cars were on your street last week? Do you miss detailed crime blotters from your local small town paper? Last Thursday, LAPD announced the redesign of their already slick site with even more slick features such as dynamic Crime Maps and E-Policing. That's right, just type in your address and view incidents in your neighborhood. Sign up for E-Policing and get e-mail updates from your SLO (that's police......

If you're running south to avoid the La Canada-Flintridge fire, we reccomend that you don't run too far south, since Compton looks like it's about to become the Murder Capital of America. Last night on The West Wing, SoCal residents found themselves running for their lives, but not knowing which way to run. While LA isn't about to have radioactive steam vented into the atmosphere (it's bad enough already, thank you very much), the......

Thanksgiving is fast approaching with Christmas not far behind. It's a time when people come closer together and join with friends and family to celebrate. One problem I have with this time of year is it seems that retail venues in particular are even more determined this year to make sure we know it's the holidays. This was particularly evident as i visited my local Starbucks in Studio City recently. Yes, they have the......