LAist continues to cover the Hollywood Writers Strike with visiting guest "strikers" such as KT Tunstall and Presidential candidate John Edwards. To celebrate Veteran's Day, they visited a Civil War reenactment and to celebrate Geography Week, they asked all the Los Angeles City Councilmembers about the districts they represent finding that LA's 180+ official neighborhoods are not easy to define. And to help better understand neighborhoods, the latest Neighborhood Project focused on Franklin Village, where the hipster culture and Scientology meet. In Beverly Hills, one writer takes us on a photo tour of a house that looks like it's straight from Alice in Wonderland. And what's Los Angeles without a University of California sociology of sexuality class being taught by pornstars? more ›

- Video of a US soldier being held hostage in Iraq - Jawa Report more ›

A Word or 108: Superbowl Redux: I found myself wandering over to the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet a couple times yesterday, and that isn't a bad thing -- the kitten halftime show was excellent. Almost all the Superbowl commercials had been leaked onto the web a week ago so there was nothing new there. I still can't understand why, with all those professionals there, that it would take almost Prince's entire (fantastic) set... more ›

If you're in the mood for a little award-winning homebrewed beer, you might trek out to the Mayfaire celebration of the Maltose Falcons, America's oldest homebrew club this weekend. Based out of the Home Wine, Beer, and Cheesemaking Shop in Woodland Hills, the club has been in pursuit of perfect homebrew since 1974. On Saturday, they meet for an annual picnic in Santa Paula, where winners of this year's competition will be announced; results are part of the statewide Sierra Nevada homebrew competition. More importantly, best in show gets custody of a replica of the Maltese Falcon named Hashell Dammet. You, as a paying visitor, get dinner and some mighty fine beer.

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