Food critic Jonathan Gold recently made waves when it was announced that he was leaving his longtime home at the LA Weekly to write for the LA Times' new "Saturday" section. But it turns out that's not all Mr. Gold had up his sleeve with his new career trajectory -- Kevin Roderick of LA Observed reports that Gold is also debuting a new column in Smithsonian Magazine. more ›

Why has the internet gone apeshit spreading the news that LA Weekly's food critic Jonathan Gold is headed to the LAT? We take a look at the certainty of errors in reporting a known uncertainty. more ›

A journalist with City News Service was among the nearly 300 people arrested in the wee hours of November 30, when the Los Angeles Police Department raided the Occupy LA encampment at City Hall. Now video showing the arrest as it happened seems to contradict the LAPD's version of what went down, and an internal affairs investigation has been launched. more ›

We didn't win an LA Weekly Web Award this year and we're thrilled about it... because our readers did! Among the most important assets to LAist are the photos and stories contributed by our eclectic and perceptive community of readers. Many of the photos we use with our stories every day are sourced from the LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr, a crowdsourced archive of photos relevant to Los Angeles which now includes nearly 70,000 photos shared by a community of more than 1,500 readers. more ›

What began as an April Fools' Day prank meant to rib his LA Weekly photographer, restaurant critic Jonathan Gold wound up punking himself by sitting down to a review lunch at the Arcadia outpost of the megachain the Olive Garden. In today's "Counter Intelligence," column, Gold breaks down how he came to dine upon a "Tuscan" feast of lasagna and those famous doughy breadsticks. more ›

Even bloggers can get caught up in shady corporate bullshit. Here's a little yarn for you: Alexia Tsotsis, former LA Weekly writer, recently started blogging at TechCrunch, a blog about technology start-ups that's owned by AOL. This past week, Tsotsis was at SXSW when someone from Moviefone - also owned by AOL - gave her the chance to interview Jake Gyllenhaal, who stars in Summit's new movie "The Source Code." more ›

"This year we hit a few growing pains. We can and will overcome these issues and continue to organize this festival that supports independent music in Los Angeles," FYF Fest promoter Sean Carlson wrote in an e-mail sent last Thursday to his e-mail list. more ›

Earlier this month, the seventh annual FYF Fest took place at the LA State Historic Park near Chinatown, and while the numbers -- 37 bands across three stages with 17 comedians and an estimated 20,000 attendees -- are impressive, the consensus among many was how disorganized the event was, as exemplified by tweets like "FYF = fuck you fans fest," "Almost 3 hours to get into @FYFFEST = FAIL," "@FYFFEST is like a hipster concentration camp," "Hey @fyffest maybe you wouldn't run out of water if you let us bring some inside. It's only 95 degrees. Jus sayin'," and "Fuck lines fest more like @FYFFEST." more ›

TRANSIT FIGHT!!!! In this corner, MTA's Subway-To-The-Sea, a proposed Westside expansion offering future options for future drives to opt out of their autos and into a 25 minute train trip from Union Station to UCLA. In the other corner, LA Weekly and their $9 billion rip off story... more ›

Captured Aural Phantasy Theater brings its old-time radio variety show stylings to Hollywood tonight at 8 pm. The troupe re-creates comic book stories from yesterday with the theme of "Hollywood" at the i/O West Mainstage. Tickets: $10 tickets at the i/O West box office aor website at or limited 1/2 price tickets at Goldstar. more ›

Tonight and tomorrow LA Weekly will present two days of events "connecting politics, art, music, comedy, theater, film, food and books. The event includes film screenings, speaker panels, book signings and other activities. LA Weekly LA Weekend 2010 will take place at the beautiful art deco Saban Theater on Wilshire near La Cienega. Here are a few highlights. more ›

It's not very often that local songstress supergroup The Living Sisters, comprised of Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark, Eleni Mandell, and The Bird and the Bee's Inara George, perform live, so it's little wonder that they drew a packed house on Tuesday night at the Bootleg Theater as part of Ferraby Lionheart's month-long residency. "Their sweet songs imbued with the cadences of doo-wop, classic country, and folk evoke a nostalgia for the pure and simple songs of last century," noted West Coast Sound last December, reporting that they "...have recorded an album with Vanguard Records that should be released in March." more ›

Forget "You are what you eat." What you want to be eating in L.A. is what the LA Weekly's Jonathan Gold is eating. And while you may clutch your fingerprint-smudged personally annotated copy of his 99 Restaurants annual list as you use your Google map make your way from taqueria to San Gabriel Valley strip mall to white linen tablecloth finery, one way to eat what the J. Gold eats is to get a ticket to The 2nd Annual Gold Standard Food & Wine Event, where you can sample food from an assemblage of chefs and restaurants curated by the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic himself. more ›

With the end of the year comes the inevitable wrap-ups, reflections, and predictions, and in the world of food this is no exception. Here in Los Angeles our Patron Saint of Dining Out, Pulitzer Prize-winning LA Weekly columnist Jonathan Gold, offers his take on the eating year that was in the LA Times' Opinion section today, noting how many high-profile restaurants our city has seen launch despite the tanked economy (Rivera, Drago Centro, Bouchon, and so forth) and the resurgence of the "tony cocktail bar." more ›

This week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa commented that he believes the City Council should work to create parameters that would "limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city," according to CBS2. He believes the current count of 8-900 is too high, and talk among the Council is to aim to cap "dispensaries at between 70 and 200." more ›

You've got to really, really want to see a band if you go to the Gibson Amphitheatre. You can't just drop by casually and check it out. One has to commit themselves mentally, physically, and financially for such a trip. By the time you've shelled out an exorbitant sum for parking, had your senses assaulted from all sides by the glowing hell scape that is Universal Citywalk and are finally sitting in the murky, oppressive gloom of the amphitheater, most of us are grumpy as hell and in desperate need of a stiff drink. Fortunately for everyone at that venue The Silversun Pickups are so good that they managed to erase all of those bad memories after the first couple notes. Even the depressing ambiance of the venue was lifted immediately as front man, Brian Aubert couldn't contain his joy at being home, "Forgive us if it’s a little cheeseball, but we’ve been waiting so long to say these three little words: Hello, Los Angeles!” The crowd roared in welcome, and Aubert asked that the house lights be turned on so he could see his adoring fans. After soaking up some of the hometown love, the triumphant Pickups set about the task of blowing everyone's mind (and eardrums). more ›

Earlier this month, local record label Manimal Vinyl (see our interview last year with its founder) held its 2nd Annual Manimal Festival at Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown Palace. "In its second year, the two-day event showcases bands on Paul Beahan's record label... alongside musically bohemian peers," described Daiana Feuer from Papermag. "Manimal's experimental pop catalog -- which began most notably by releasing Bat For Lashes' record two years ago -- lends a unified voice to freak folk and its close cousins, many which are collected on yearly tribute albums to Madonna, The Cure, and in 2010, David Bowie. Manimal's focus mainly follows two streams: The ethereal, spooky soloist tradition [and] the dance beat, taking pop to strange outer space." more ›

This week was a bleak one for those who love "see food"--as in the words and images of the 60-year-old magazine Gourmet, which will serve up its last meal in the November issue following a death notice from publisher Conde Nast. more ›

You've seen the list, you've double-counted and confirmed you're not crazy--it is 105, not just 99, and now you're ready to tackle the task: Eat at all of the restaurants selected by the LA Weekly's Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold as LA's essentials. The annual list--err, event for the foodie set--is still fairly hot off the presses, and for many means that no matter how many hot spots they've settled in for a fork, hand, spoon, chopstick, or mouthful, there's still plenty left to try. more ›

On Monday night, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan and Spirits in the Sky -- germinated from the recent Sky Saxon tribute at The Echoplex, whose lineup includes guitarist Dave Navarro and 19 year old drummer Mike Byrne -- performed the final show of their mini tour at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. more ›

Earlier this month, the Rock 'N Roll Summer Circus took place at The Echoplex, hosted by Eli Chartkoff from The Monolators with main stage performances by Marvelous Toy, The Flying Tourbillon Orchestra, Fol Chen, and The Henry Clay People as well as sideshows by the Natural Disasters, Downtown/Union, The Damselles, Les Blanks, and Roadside Graves. more ›

Pulitzer Prize winner and 18-year LA Times veteran Drex Heikes will join LA Weekly as their Editor later this summer. Most recently, Heikes was at the Las Vegas Sun where he was honored with the Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Public Service for an investigation he assigned and edited. While at the LA Times, he served as editor of the Sunday magazine and as foreign affairs editor in the paper's Washington bureau. He will take the Weekly's reigns on August 17th. Earlier this month, Editor Laurie Ochoa parted ways with the paper. more ›

The big media news today is that LA Weekly's Editor, Laurie Ochoa, is "parting ways" after eight years of leading the paper (she also worked there in various roles from 1978 to 1998). As that news hit, foodies were abuzz that is must be due to her husband, Pulitzer Prize winning food critic Jonathan Gold, being offered the Food Editor position at the New York Times. However, a source close to the matter at hand told LAist that Ochoa was fired and that Gold is staying. more ›

Here's LA Weekly Editor stoner Jill Stewart on last week's SoCal Connected sticking it to the Los Angeles City Council. She's has some good points, especially in light of the news coming out this week about California's post-election budget crisis, which has prompted proposals to strip legislators pay and to drop services and spending to 1999 levels. And, oh, we probably won't be getting any help from the feds. Unfortunately, all that happens at the state level in the budget trickles down to the city's budget, too. more ›

If you want good quotes, you go to LAPD Chief Bratton. He's always been one to be candid (remember his celebrity gossp/analysis?) Well yesterday, he joined Patt Morrision for her show on KPCC and when asked about LA Weekly's April 30th story refuting the LAPD's touted crime statistics, he dismissed it calling the report "voodoo journalism" said writer Patrick Range McDonald and cohorts must have "smoking a little weed when they wrote the article." That didn't sit well with Tina Dupuy at FishbowlLA: more ›

After Pultizer Prize winning food writer Jonathan Gold caused a flame war between the two cities this week, LA Weekly has now highlighted noteworthy comments made on LAist and SFist. Among those noted is Orange County native and SFist Editor Brock Keeling sneaking over to LAist and writing "pst, your burritos are secretly much, much better." more ›

The LA Weekend hosted by The LA Weekly and sponsored by Nike has a wide variety of free events happening at The Ricardo Montalban Theater tonight and tomorrow, including music, film, dance, readings, book signings, and even a visit from the Kogi Korean taco truck. more ›

This year's list of nominees for the prestigious James Beard Foundation Awards has been released, and Los Angeles is repped via a venerable food scribe in the writing category and a bold newcomer and a perennial favorite in the restaurant categories. The Awards spotlight the best of the previous year in media food coverage and dining. more ›