Photo by coffeextv via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr. MUSIC Check out the Viper Room’s Sunday night music special, Free Form Orchestra, free with RSVP. Original music created by some of L.A.’s finest young emerging talent, these guys and girls will really blow you away with their jazz-funk beats. 8:30 p.m. // Viper Room // 8852 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles // (310) 358-1881 // Free ART The Pasadena Museum of California Art......

In a previous episode of Weird Los Angeles we spoke of strange things such as fish falling from the sky. Even stranger still, there have been accounts of even more bizarre, and grisly 'objects' descending from the zenith. Flesh! Such sinister showers were recorded by the Los Angeles News during the 1800s, and almost lost to the world if it weren't for the logging skills of author Charles Fort who listed such anomalies in his......

Photo by kpe II via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr TALK Six of L.A.’s independent literary presses Les Figues Press, Semiotext(e), Siglio Press, Insert Press, Cloverfield Press and eohippus labs invite you to Skylight Books for a reading with the authors and a Q&A with the editors. Come out and show support for the smaller presses that usually have a more diverse and creative voice. 5 p.m. // Skylight Books // 1818......

LAist catches up with Michael J. Nelson, a former host of Mystery Science Theater 3000, as he talks about his latest project, RiffTrax. In the interview, he also gives us the scoop about political ads, bloopers and a possible live event in Los Angeles....

Chris Burden's Urban Light | Photo by pink_fish13 from the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Monday Steve Tolz presents A Fraction of the Whole 7pm @ Book Soup Lisa McKay presents My Hands Came Away Red 7pm @ Vroman's Dario Castagno presents A Day in Tuscany 7pm @ Dutton's Terry Cheney signs Manic 7pm @ Borders, Westwood Ray Bradbury, Forrest J. Ackerman and Ray Harryhausen discuss their work 7:30pm @ Mystery & Imagination......

Love is in the air tonight. / Photo by lush.i.ous via flickr. Ahhh luuuurve is in the air. Need some last-minute ideas for the Hallmark-inspired holiday? Yes, tonight’s Valentine’s Day and here are a few different ideas that will beat flowers and candy any day. ART To coincide with the opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) at LACMA this weekend, “Women in the City” selected to exhibit four prominent contemporary artists (Cindy......

If you're like me and you hate pro football, or if you're looking for something to do after Football Team A defeats Football Team B in the field of Superbowly Combat, go to The Scene in Glendale tonight, and see NYC based Indie Pop Band Murder Mystery, along with LA's The Tartans and Oxnard's Maria. So why should you brave the rain and the perils of Glendale? Well if you're like me, you're in need......

Welcome to the bizarre world of 'Weird Los Angeles', where shaggy-haired man-beasts roam the back roads, eerie phantoms drift through the night and peculiar objects move silently across the zenith. We'll be taking you on a weekly tour of the cities anomalies, beginning with sightings of Bigfoot, where it seems reports date back to the 1970s. Two witnesses out hunting in the San Gabriel mountains observed an eight-feet tall hairy humanoid through their rifle......

A mysterious email appeared in our inbox this morning, notifying us of a Dunkin' Donuts Shopping Cart Derby being held at the Santa Monica Pier tomorrow morning (check-in begins at 9am, you can register here through the Thrillist website). The event is being hosted by Maria Menounos, and the lucky winning team will receive a two-year supply of Dunkin' Donuts coffee, revered by many as the morning brew of choice. But wait just a......

Monday Shalom Auslander presents Foreskin's Lament 7pm @ Vroman's Valerie Plame Wilson presents Fair Game 7pm @ Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Long Beach Barbara Firestone presents Autism Heroes 7pm @ Dutton's Slash presents Slash 7pm @ Borders, Torrance Lawrence Wright presents The Looming Tower 7:30pm @ UCLA Tuesday David Plante, with host Mark Danielewski, presents ABC 7pm @ Book Soup Michael Lent presents Christmas Letters from Hell 7pm @ Vroman's Tommy Lasorda & Bill Plaschke......

Bad Brains @ House of Blues Ornette Coleman @ Royce Hall !!! @ Avalon Joe Frank @ Largo Klaxons, Mystery Jets @ Henry Fonda Hello Stranger, Sierra Swan, Port O'Brien @ Roxy Sonsoles, West 8 Five, Flight to London @ The Gig Man Band, Fangs on Fur @ Silverlake Lounge Tack, Going Direct, Sam Boyd, Rogue Stallion, Foiled @ Whisky......

Artist: Small Sins Album: Mood Swings Label: Astralwerks Release Date: 09/25/2007 The Small Sins is a group led by former Carnations member, Thomas D'Arcy. Small Sins is his baby and you can tell as every song is almost, but not quite, overwhelmed by his presence. This album starts very solidly, with several outstanding tracks: the anthematic "I Need A Friend", the wonderfully banjo-infused "Morning Face", and potentially my favorite, the Magical Mystery Tour-esque "What Your......

There's this show that airs tonight on VH1 called the 'Pick Up Artist', which is a reality game show that aims to teach socially inept guys how to pick up chicks. It all seems fun, entertaining, and watchable... BUT what's with this joker who wears furry old-lady hats, cowboy hats, goggles-for-no-reason, black fingernail polish, has a funny Canadian accent, oh and yeah... calls himself MYSTERY?!?!? Listen dudes, LAist may not be the expert on picking......

Cheap Trick - "Magical Mystery Tour", Tokyo '92 Cheap Trick, The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra @ Hollywood Bowl (some Beatles thing) Great Northern, The Comas, Twilight Sleep @ Spaceland KC & the Sunshine Band @ The Canyon The Adolescents, Channel 3 @ Safari Sam's Tim McGraw, Faith Hill @ The Honda Center CunninLynguists, Tonedeff, PackFM @ The Roxy Guitars & Saxes, Warren Hill, Diane Schuur @ Rainbow Lagoon - Long Beach Jazz Fest Raine Maida,......

Begging the question of "how much does gasoline cost in Riverside", a man was discovered carrying 125 gallons of gasoline in his van when witnesses saw vapors rising from his parked love machine. The fumes were occurring because the gentleman had placed the fuel in bottles like what once contained laundry detergent and other containers not designed to carry gasoline in vans. "It was just unbelievable," Battalion Chief Jeff Dredla told the Riverside Press......

Suicide is a place we have all imagined, but it’s not a room any of us have really been in, other than a foot, a glance, a daydream. It’s no stranger to Los Angeles, a city with perhaps more than its fair share of broken dreams. But when not one, but two people die, when they have all that the city appears to offer – fame, success, beauty and each other, that’s when people......

Cable networks continue to fire on all cylinders this last week. A new episode of Mad Men on AMC has revealed that everyone is flawed and that they're all potentially unredeemable. Last night's angel-stalked Holly Hunter (Saving Grace, TNT) has her thinking about cleaning up her act but despite being a tough girl, she's weak and human and falls back into old habits. Tonight we get to see just a glimpse of the Machiavellian......

A Word or 56+/-: Even the movie selections suck tonight unless you want to watch an Ida Lupinow filmfest on TCM, which I really don't want to do. I'm superexcited to see Parker Posey on Late Late and hopefully I'll catch Feist on Conan after switching over. Tonight - Tuesday - June 12th, 2007 Mets @ Dodgers (PRIME, 7:00 p.m.) Angels @ Reds (Fox Sports, 7:30 p.m.) On the Lot (Fox, 8:00 p.m.) The......

Björk - Volta (Atlantic) Bone Thugs -N- Harmony - Strength & Loyalty (Interscope) Barbara Streisand - Streisand: Live In Concert [2 CD] [LIVE] (Sony) Keren Ann - Keren Ann (Blue Note) Brakes - Beatific Visions (Rough Trade) Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls (Too Pure / Beggars) Elliott Smith - New Moon [2 CD] (Kill Rock Stars) The Clientele - God Save the Clientele (Merge) Page France - Page France and the Family Telephone......

We've covered the LA Times Book Prize nominees for the past few weeks and quietly rooted for our picks. The winners, announced at the annual hob-nob affair on Friday night, surprised us. We highlighted our picks weeks ago. What more did the committee have to do other than - you know - pick them? To wit: Biography We said Daniel Mendelsohn for The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million (Daniel freaking Mendelsohn, the......

Monday Jonathan Lethem discusses You Don’t Love Me Yet 7pm @ Central Library (one!) Susan Diamond signs What Goes Around 7pm @ Dutton’s Tuesday Joe Boyd presents White Bicycles: Making Music in the 60s 7pm @ Book Soup Jonathan Lethem presents You Don’t Love Me Yet 7pm @ Vroman’s (two!) Dani Shapiro signs Black & White 7pm @ Dutton’s Etgar Keret reads The Nimrod Flipout 7:30pm @ Skirball Cultural Center Wednesday Natsuo Kirino presents......

Monday Barney Hoskyns presents Hotel California 7pm @ Book Soup Christopher Nyerges discusses How To Survive Anywhere 7pm @ Vroman’s Robert Crais signs The Watchman 7pm @ Borders Torrance Dennis Cooper in discussion with the writers of Userlands 7:30pm @ Skylight Books Tuesday Chad Kultgen presents Average American Male 7pm @ Book Soup Jane Smiley discusses Ten Days in the Hills 7pm @ Vroman’s Allison L. Bailey, Frances A. Butler, Margaret Heritage, and Norma......

As you continue to nurse your week-long Academy Award champagne hangover and try desperately to block all memory of the "sound effects choir" & Celine Dion's massacre of Ennio Morricone's work (just as Elina predicted!), it should come as a relief to you that while there are yet more awards on the horizon, these are of the bookish kind. The LA Times has announced their Book Awards Finalists. While it may take more work......

Monday Calvin Trillin discusses About Alice 7pm @ Vroman’s Norah Vincent presents Self Made Man 7pm @ Borders Century City Tuesday David Ulin, LA Times book editor, talks with Calvin Trillin 7pm @ Central Library Rachel Ballon signs The Writer’s Portable Therapist 7pm @ Dutton’s Brentwood Deborah Eisenberg presents Twilight of the Superheroes 7pm @ Hammer Museum Wednesday Chris Abani presents The Virgin of Flames 7pm @ EsoWon Books Felicity Huffman & Patricia Wolf......

Monday Robert Fagan discusses The Notebooks of Robert Frost 7pm @ Vroman’s Rebecca Liebermann signs We Are Still Here 7pm @ Dutton’s Brentwood Josh Peter discusses Fried Twinkies, Buckle Bunnies & Bull Riders 7pm @ Studio City Branch Library Tuesday David Lynch presents Catching the Big Fish 7pm @ Borders in Westwood Martin Amis discusses House of Meetings 7pm @ Central Library Robert Stone & John Densmore in conversation about Remembering the Sixties 7:30pm......

Tonight - Monday "Breakheart Pass" (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) Charles Bronson starts off Crime/Mystery night on TCM. This is followed by "Murder On the Orient Express", "Sherlock Holmes in Terror By Night", and "The Narrow Margin" "Monday Night Football" (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.) da Bears @ Rams "NBA Basketball" (PRIME, 7:30 p.m.) Spurs @ Clippers "How I Met Your Mother" (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) Xmas episode followed by new episodes of everything else on CBS Monday night.......

Weekend Edition Friday - Today "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) An evening of stop-action animation starts with this one followed by "Jason and the Argonauts" and "Mysterious Island" "NHL Hockey" (5:30 p.m.) Kings @ Stars "NBA Basketball" (KCAL, 6:00 p.m.) Lakers @ Jazz "College Football" (ESPN2, 6:00 p.m.) Fresno State @ Louisiana Tech "College Basketball" (PRIME, 7:30 p.m.) Long Beach State @ USC "Ghost Whisperer/Close To Home/NUMB3RS" (CBS, 8-11:00 p.m.) All......

At LAist, we believe in literacy and we believe in the power of the printed word. And, we love books. If you feel the same way and want to meet others who share your feelings, head on over to the West Hollywood Book Fair tomorrow. From the official site: Join more than 300 authors, 100 exhibitors, and 25,000 guests at the 5th Annual West Hollywood Book Fair. This year’s Book Fair will include an......