So, yeah, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Superbad are the big releases this weekend. Honestly, I liked both movies well enough, but neither deserves the #1 slot in the weekly rundown like Battlestar Galactica: Razor does. Since new episodes of the best show on television won't air until March 2008, we'll have to make do with this 2-hour movie that follows the adventures of the Pegasus after the treacherous Cylon attack against the......

Eskimo Joe, Australia’s most exciting musical export over the past few years, released their third album this summer Black Fingernails Red Wine and its extraordinary. I had never heard Eskimo Joe before listening to this record and the eerie cover art made me assume Eskimo Joe was some sort of dark, brooding, gothic type entity. As soon as the first notes of the opening song “Comfort You” came on I knew never again to judge......

July was a bittersweet month for LAist. We had a record-breaking month with nearly a million visitors coming to our humble site. Little did we know that some of the guests were big wigs from the venerable Los Angeles Times who left with two of our editors. Indeed, several weeks ago our Film Editor Elina Shatkin was snapped up from our midsts to become Content Producer for CalendarLive at LATimes.com, and yesterday our Sports......

I had never seen a Snoop Dog show, or Dolomite either. So when i was assigned to see them and write them up, i had to admit i was star struck by the whole thing. How many rappers can say they even have their own special edition of Girls Gone Wild?! Snoop Dogg is a living legend, and so is Dolomite who is a comedian and the opening act. Dolomite literally had his electric......

The greatest surprise performance at the 24-hour Live Earth was not Kanye West and John Mayer joining the Police on "Message in a Bottle." Hell, no. It was Spinal Tap (reunited) with some help from Metallica (they actually laugh) bringing down London's Wembley Stadium with hits like "Stonehenge" and "Big Bottom." Madonna's gypsy-hobo-punk performance -- fully choreographed -- of "La Isla Bonita" with Eugene and Serge from Gogol Bordello was also surprisingly excellent (watch......

The biggest international benefit concert since Live8 Live Aid of all time is ON. The 24-hour affair began around 10 p.m. PDT Friday and concludes late Saturday in Jersey. And we must rock because... why? Whelp... Al Gore said so. Yes, the former Veep who let some derelicts pickpocket his presidency before performing an Academy Award-winning PowerPoint presentation in An Inconvenient Truth is taking green global. Why not turn "can rock 'n' roll save......

Dear LAist, Last night I was driving through downtown to get some- nevermind why I was driving downtown at night. I saw City Hall was green. I took a picture. But it didn't turn out. But it was green. Why? Perry, Studio City Dear Perry, It's ok to drive downtown at night. It's ok to drive anywhere in LA... at any hour. What the hell do we care? The point is that you're driving,......

The festival kicks off this morning with a director's coffee talk at the Landmark. Scheduled panelists include moderator James Mangold, Paul Haggis and the next Bond director Marc Forster. Tickets are $11. The big event today (and it's free!) starts at noon and runs until 6:00 p.m. at the Landmark Regent Theater. It's Live Earth Day: A Celebration of Earth and includes 50 short films commissioned by SOS-Live Earth. Some of the filmmakers who've......

The LA Film Festival returns to Westwood tonight with the world premiere of Kasi Lemmons’ Talk to Me (not Talk To Me) at the Mann Village Theater. The film stars Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor and tells the story of Ralph Green, an ex-drug addict and convicted felon who became one of Washington D.C.’s most prominent disc jockeys and community activisits in the 60s and 70s. A sure to be congested after-party follows the......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......