Illustration courtesy of the artist. We saw in this week's Los Angeles Downtown News that Doug Davis, the paper's former art director and current contributor of the "Urban Scrawl" political comic strip, has his first gallery show. It opens tonight in Downtown LA and runs until April 30. In "Urban Scrawl," Davis captures the essence of the city with his pen and ink -- skewering government officials, projects and Downtown life in general. At......

If you didn't see this video from earlier this week, it's a good laugh. From Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's YouTube page: "Just before the Michigan Primary this week, Matt Romney decided to take a some pressure off his dad with a little comic relief. Those that know him recognize that he loves a good practical joke."......

Projected Nevada Democratic caucus winner Hillary Clinton campaigned here in California this week, visiting supporters gathered at CSUN As the results of today's caucuses--including one being held at Caesar's Palace--in Nevada continue to stream in, most are projecting Senator Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney the winners of the Democratic and Republican races, respectively. The LA Times is reporting that "with 78% of the precincts reporting, Clinton had about 51% of the vote and Obama 45%.......

Tonight’s the next installment of the LA Phil’s Concrete Frequency series, but here are other options we've dug up for your going-out pleasure: DANCE Hollywood Ballet is LA's own modern ballet ensemble. Tonight's show includes premieres of "RQ 21," set to sections of Mozart’s Requiem; "Ghost Frog," set to music by Parisian jazz guitar virtuoso Pascal Vaucel; lyrical/Middle Eastern fusion dance set to the ballet music from Verdi‘s Aid. Dancers from the troupe’s pre-professional group,......

Photo of John Edwards in Burbank by John Edwards 2008 via Flickr With exactly three weeks to go until the Tuesday of Destiny, John Edwards will stop by Los Angeles tomorrow. Though he has to stand on 37 crates to equal Sen. Hillary Clinton's footing in California, according to the latest L.A. Times/CNN/Politico California poll, John Edwards will visit the city to stump for votes and reinforce his standing as a man of the......

If you want to do something else tonight besides the mind-numbing seventh season opener of American Idol, here are a few options: WORDS Nobel Prizewinner Mohammad Yunus has a conversation with Rick Wartzman, director of the Drucker Institute, Claremont Graduate University (and former editor of the Los Angeles Times' West) on "Creating a World without Poverty." The evening will focus on questions like: "What if you could harness the power of the free market......

Mitt Romney is the consummate, cookie-cutter, robot-like Republican. Forget about eliciting animation or human emotion from this wanna-be prez. Even his campaign henchmen lack the ability to opine on, well, just about anything, as evidenced below. Romney is lucky to have 30 delegates on his side after Iowa and New Hampshire. Problem is, it takes 1,191 to win the Republican nomination. The 60-year-old former Massachusetts governor does have one or two things going for him,......

Who is brave or foolish enough to go out tonight? No, seriously. Why do you want to leave the house? There are some things to do if you are so inclined (queue writer's raised eyebrow). JAZZ The renowned Alan Broadbent Trio plays two sets tonight at the Jazz Bakery. 8 & 9:30 p.m. // The Jazz Bakery // 3233 Helms Ave. // (310) 271-9039 // $25 FILM Quentin Tarantino hosts a LACMA screening of South......

Not sure if you remember, about two years ago, about the young fellow who had this internet phenomenon in early 2006 by the name of Myspace: The Movie. Well, his name is Dave Lehre and since then, I've been seeing him everywhere – Esquire, Myspace (obviously), YouTube, 20/20, New York Times. His YouTube channel has over 4500 subscribers and he just directed a video for Pittsburg Slim. There have been many who have chased......

The nightmares of all nightmares have happened. Ohio State will now be in the BCS Championship game by virtue of being ranked third in the BCS and both #1 Missouri losing to Oklahoma and #2 West Virginia losing to Pittsburgh in the Backyard Brawl. How the fuck is this happening? I thought once the Buckeyes lost to Illinois at home on November 10 they would effectively be gone from any discussion about a National......

I apologize for the lack of football recaps, but I found it very hard to write about college football this season. With all the upsets it just seemed like not even the college players were all that passionate about playing the game. Look at the following lists and you’ll see what I mean. This season seven #1 and #2 ranked teams have been defeated by unranked opponents. Compare that to last season when the......

California's prisons are pretty bad. There's overcrowding, prison gang violence, and a few too many guys like White Power Bill. Fortunately, most people will never have to experience these horrid places... But as anyone starlet can tell you, not even fame can keep you away from the slammer. So if you have to go, and you're not a violent felon, you may be able to go to the cushy pay to stay jails, where......

Saturday, October 20th The Ghastly Ones at the Talking Board Art Show COPRO NASON GALLERY 2525 Michigan Ave. T5, Santa Monica, Ca 90404 310.829.2156 Artist Chet Zar has assembled over 30 artists to create their own version of the Ouija Board. The opening reception at the CoproNason gallery will also be a Halloween party, so come in costume! There will also be a live, spooky, surfy musical performance by The Ghastly Ones! Free. 8pm-......

According to an MSNBC online poll participated by over 16,000 people, Texas Congressman Ron Paul won the GOP Michigan debate in a landslide. Sister-station, CNBC, who hosted the debate also had an online poll but they, like Pajamas Media, took it down when they saw that the most conservative congressman in office was winning by such a wide margin. When asked who they thought was standing out from the pack, Paul, who favors the......

The former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson got into his first GOP presidential debate this afternoon in Michigan. He waited until this late date to save money and create a gameplan before entering the race. Unfortunately after his weak appearance in the debate today, and the fact that he looked like death warmed-over, Republicans have to be disappointed that their new Reagan was far from camera-ready.......

Hello hockey fan(s?).The Anaheim Ducks are fresh off an exciting two game series against the LA Kings in the great city of London, England. Today, they find themselves in Detroit Michigan, another city replete with history and gore, er, I mean lore. Watching Game 1 of the 07-08 NHL Season, made me proud to be a fan of this great sport. I mean, what other professional league can claim they have no idea how to......

Dan "Shoe" Hsu knows video games. As the Editor-in-Chief of Electronic Gaming Monthly, one of the most popular magazines in the world of gaming, it's part of his job. Shoe, 35, first dove into video game coverage in 1996. After graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in Statistics, he sent query letters to 30 different organizations in the rapidly-growing industry. "I was looking for a job, any job in the game......

Every week in college football proves to everyone they don’t know shit about the game. Case in point, #11 UCLA Bruins at Utah Utes. The Bruins had won all eight previous meetings against the Utes including a 31-10 victory on opening day at the Rose Bowl last season. So instead of a UCLA blowout the opposite happened. The Utes blew the Bruins and their #11 ranking out of the stadium 44-6 preventing the Bruins......

I heard a joke on the radio today that made me giggle. Q: How many batteries does it take to shock a Michigan Wolverine? A: 1 AA. Hardee har har. With that joke, I’m laughing all the way up to this week’s matchup of defeated powerhouses Michigan and Notre Dame. But more on that game later. This Saturday will tell us a lot more about the college football landscape. It will weed out the......

The fallout from Appalachian State’s upset over Michigan extended beyond Michigan falling out of the Associated Press Top 25 poll. The AP announced on Thursday that lower division schools are now eligible to be included in the poll. It’s great that the Championship Subdivision (aka Division I-AA) has a chance of being ranked alongside the big boys. While I highly doubt that a team even as accomplished as Appalachian State will crack the Top......

This Saturday is a good night to catch a couple of cool art openings around town! ACME is launching the group show Tugboat, featuring a variety of works by L.A. based artists Justin Beal, & Doug Crocco, along with Tomory Dodge, Tony Feher, Davis Rhodes, Lisa Sanditz, and Neal Tait. Opening reception is Saturday night from 6-8pm. - runs thru Oct. 6 - ACME - 6150 Wilshire Boulevard, Spaces 1 & 2 - www.acmelosangeles.com......

This has nothing to do with Los Angeles -- except people won't stop talking about it. Check out the "unofficial" promo video for Appalachian State University (the school that shocked the sports world by beating Michigan in college football). Has anybody else noticed that announcers are pronouncing it "ap-ah-LACH-in" (rhymes with hatch-in) instead of "ap-ah-lation" (rhymes with nation)? Are we the only ones going nuts about that?......

In one of the last college football games last season, the Boise State Broncos upset the Oklahoma Sooners 43-42 in overtime in the Fiesta Bowl. It was perhaps the biggest upset ever seen in college football at that point. This first week of the college football season gave us the biggest upset almost no one saw. Saturday afternoon two-time defending Division I-AA champions Appalachian State upset #5 Michigan 34-32 in front of 109,000 Wolverine......

The Dodgers squandered a good chance to gain some ground in the division and wild card races last night in a 6-4 loss against the Padres. Here the Dodgers faced starting pitcher Jack Cassell making his first major league start, and they did nothing to make him work in the first several innings. The first batter to get a three-ball count was Russell Martin in the fourth when he hit an RBI single that......

For something that is so reviled, The Wave has had no problem staying around. For every one person who says they hate The Wave, there seems to be dozens who are more than willing to do it, if not start it. Earlier our Sports Editor Adam Rose presented a beautiful photo essay about the AVP finals held yesterday at Manhattan Beach. In his post (for those of you who actually read what he wrote......

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a......

At least one Southern California city has the courage to step it up and say "no" to Washington D.C. politicians according to the LA Times. "West Hollywood was the 80th city or township in the nation to pass such a declaration, following similar actions in Michigan, Ohio and Vermont as well as six cities in Northern California, including Arcada and Eureka." Peter Thottam, executive director of the Los Angeles National Impeachment Center, brought the idea......

Sometimes the emails that we get from our readers tell the stories way better than we ever could. We had just read the sad news over at LA Observed that filmmaker, writer, and blogger Theresa Duncan had committed suicide, when we got this email: Tony, I'm a long time fan of your blog and LAist. I'm also a huge fan of Theresa Duncan's blog, Wit of the Staircase. LAist did an interview with her awhile......

I’ve loved sports since I was 11 years old. No one else in my family was interested in sports, but I independently developed an obsessive love for the Chicago Bulls, who promptly won six championships in the next eight seasons, enough to cement a life-long affair. I grew to love all Chicago teams and then, when I started college at Michigan, found a school just as much in love with its football, hockey and......

It's been widely reported this weekend that Tom Cruise is the "Jesus Christ of Scientology." Indeed, church leader David Miscavige told a UK paper: "Tom has been told he's Scientology's Christ-like figure.... Like Christ, he's been criticised for his views. But future generations will realise he was right." Without getting ideological, not only do we doubt that Jesus ever got down in his tighty-whities to Bob Seger, we're pretty sure that Tom Cruise left the......