Junot Diaz at the Hammer Museum/Osmany Rodriguez for LAist The thing about author Junot Diaz is, one minute he’s on the phone with you, rapping about meringue, Malcolm X, comic books, and how shit never gets done on time in the Dominican Republic – and the next minute, he’s winning the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. He describes himself as just another ordinary, poor immigrant......

Photo of the 605 Freeway by billaday via Flickr It's about time. As of today, NYC Streets Renaissance's StreetsBlog has officially franchised out to our city, that is, you know, duhhhh, full of streets and the love and hate of them. NYC Blogger Aaron Naparstek welcomes the LA Editor and so do we! LA.Streetsblog is edited and run by Damien Newton, formerly the New Jersey Coordinator for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and a recent......

Lakers 111, Sonics 91 - Seattle had no chance against the surging Lake Show. Kobe was ejected in the third and it didn't matter (double technical after arguing a call -- not a huge deal). LA has won 11 of their last 13 and all but one was on the road. The Lakers got double digit contributions from seven players, led by Pau Gasol's 22. Ducks 6, Blackhawks 3 - This game was all about......

UCLA 67, Washington State 59 - The #5 Bruins returned a favor by knocking off the #17 Cougars on their home court. Darren Collison scored all 18 of his points in the second half and Kevin Love had 16 on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. UCLA improves to 21-2 overall, and at 9-1 in the Pac-10 hold on to first place by a game over Stanford. USC 73, Washington 59 - USC looked strong in......

Clippers 103, Knicks 94 - Los Angeles won on the road for the first time in nine games, beating up on one of the only NBA teams that may be worse than the Clips. Two key players, Correy Maggette (19 points) and Chris Kaman (15 points), returned for the first time in several games. Coach Mike Dunleavy, however, was sick and stayed in the team hotel. He did have enough energy to issue an apology......

Lakers 103, Washington Wizards 91 - The game wasn’t as close as the final score indicates. The Lakers led by 22 at halftime, and led by as much as 25 points in the third quarter. Kobe Bryant, who outscored the Wizards in the first quarter 19-15, ended up with 30 points on 10-15 shooting with eight free throws. Vladamir Radmanovic, Lamar Odom and Ronny Turiaf rounded out the starters with double-figure scoring, and Sasha Vujacic......

LAist reader Hope Egan has sent us this pic from inside the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona where Super Bowl XLII is going to get going in just about two hours. In case you're totally oblivious (like I was until I did some internet-scouring) this is the 42nd annual playing of the major NFL match up, and this year's game is between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants and......

Eisley on stage at Coachella in 2005 | Photo by Jason Upshaw via Flickr The Oscars are set to be announced tomorrow in Beverly Hills, but today, this Holiday day, the uber-California music festival experience will be announced. From Mexico City, no less. "It is something that's crossed my mind," Paul Tollett, creator of Coachella, told the LA Times when asked if he was going to start a Coachella type festival south of the......

The fountain at the LA Central Library is rather strange and fantastical "I'll have a footlong Subway club on white, hold the mayo, and GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY!" Police are looking for the man who held up a Subway sandwich store at gunpoint Monday on Beverly in the Wilshire area. The owner and manager of a Burbank apartment building was found liable for their role in the murder of one of his tenants, who......

Suns 106, Lakers 98 - Maybe Mitch Kupchak isn't a cupcake, but an evil genius. After mis-managing the Lakers in recent years, it turns out he was right about Andrew Bynum. He refused to trade the young center, and all of a sudden the kid got GOOD. Unfortunately, he's out with an injury and his backup was worthless against Phoenix (hence the evil part). Kwame Brown had seven turnovers and missed an open dunk. Bravo.......

Happy New Year from LAist and your brand new Food Editor! I've arrived home refreshed from a fantastic vacation in the Philly/New Jersey area, and now I'm revved up and ready for the New Food Year. It was difficult to leave Philadelphia and its fabulous dining options behind (cheesesteaks are only the tip of the iceberg), but nothing beats Los Angeles for its range of offerings. Here's my wish list for places to go,......

Today, our great state filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency over the Bush administration's opinion that states cannot set emission standards. The EPA denied California a waiver that it needs under the federal Clean Air Act to move forward with regulating greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and light trucks. At least 16 other states had been expected to follow California's lead and adopt the state's tougher emission limits. [CBS2/AP]And to that, fifteen......

Last night's Old Town Pasadena shooting that left an Arcadia man wounded is reportedly a result of a drug deal gone awry. Police today released the name of the accused shooter, who is 18-year-old Mark Cole of Claremont. It's awful hard to put a plain brown wrapper on the porn you check out online. A New Jersey-based company that runs several internet porn sites revealed they recentled suffered a security breach that made its users......

A body was found yesterday afternoon in the Angeles National Forest, off Highway 2 near Big Pines. The identity of the person has not been revealed. Now you can get all the penis-biting snake action you want on the web: the next "Jackass" sequel is set to premiere on the web through Blockbuster's new online movie service. In New Jersey, the state assembly has voted to outlaw the death penalty, "poising the state to......

Clippers 91, Nets 82 - Nothing like a trip to New Jersey to make you feel better about yourself. Los Angeles came into East Rutherford having lost 8-of-9. By the end of the night, it was the Nets who had lost 8-of-9. The struggling Clippers were able to pull off the W even without Elton Brand and Sam Cassell. Chris Kaman continued to impress with a team-high 18 points, 14 rebounds, and 2 blocks. USC......

Ducks 4, Blue Jackets 3, OT - The Ducks managed to kill 7-of-9 power plays and converted three of their own to take down Columbus in overtime. Samuel Pahlsson scored for the OC boys on a penalty shot. Anaheim has won three of their last four and moved into a three-way tie for fourth in the Western Conference, just two points behind second place Dallas, who leads the Pacific Division. Kings 4, Canucks 2 -......

Three losses in a row. A close loss in Milwaukee. A thrashing at the hands of the Boston. Then losing a 14-point lead and the game to New Jersey. That’s what last week brought the Lakers, pain and misery. And now a 7-6 record after a promising start. But like all things in Lakerdom, it all gets blown out of proportion. Some Lakers fans are running around like Chicken Little after these losses saying it's......

As I prepared to move here from New Jersey in 1988, I kept hearing the same thing: “It’s all plastic Hollywood showbiz hair-metal people trying to make it big. You will not succeed and you will hate it.” Yet I instinctively knew not to listen. SST Records was here, along with most of my favorite bands. The one person I knew who’d made the journey, my friend Ben Chatrer, told me that while it......

New Jersey singer/songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs (MySpace), whose song "Fuck Was I" was on Weeds, is arguably best known for her connection with the controversial and self-described "Queen of All Media" Perez Hilton, whose championing of her music led to visits on her MySpace page reportedly leaping from 2,000 plays a day to a whopping 60,000. Youngs debuted locally in December 2005, "...in front of a rather industry crowd of artists, label dorks, and......

When's the last time a book made you cry? And I don't mean a slight welling in the tear ducts, I don't mean a sniffle here or there, I mean a REAL god damn cry, the leaky, sobbing, snotty kind of cry, the likes of which you haven't experienced since your fourth grade teacher read Where the Red Fern Grows aloud to the class and even the boys were sniveling into their t-shirts when......

A recent 911 call about George Clooney's motorcycle crash in New Jersey has been made public. The operator seems quite confused - TMZ Uh Oh - do we have another celeb heading to rehab? Pamela Anderon's friends are concerned about her hard partying ways, drinking and doing damage to her liver when she already has Hep C (Thanks Tommy) - NY Post Bridget Moynihan poses for OK magazine with new baby boy, John, fathered by......

While most Angelenos will urge their visitors to try a meal at In N' Out (the best to capture that classic sunshiney L.A. drive-through burger experience), they often forget about the other local fast-food burger phenomenon: Fatburger. Both establishments boast excellent burgers and a fool-proof menu, but there are some major (and delicious) differences that make it almost impossible to decide which is better (kind of like the Pink's versus Skooby's debate -- but......

British pop new-wavers, Squeeze, have (mostly) reunited and they feel so good. Did you know that Molly Ringwald had a Squeeze poster in her Sixteen Candles room? Did you know that the dreamy blonde lifeguard who worked with me at summer camp had a copy of 45’s and Under in his car. Did you know I can play Yankee Doodle on a ukulele? Slightly subversive post-punk with an energetic and upbeat sound, Squeeze makes......

Waiting on hold just got a lot better. Forbes ranks L.A. as one of the "top 10 cities for foodies." A highway overpass under construction near Oroville, CA, collapsed this morning, burying a delivery truck and seriously injuring at least one man. The J. Paul Getty Museum has resumed talks with the Italian government over disputed antiquities after an eight-month deadlock. City officials want a new system to estimate traffic that would be based......

As part of the 25th annual Outfest, director Pilar Prassas’ moving documentary debut In Sickness and In Health will screen tomorrow and Sunday. Taking an intimate look into the lives of Diane and Marilyn, the feature examines the battle for gay marriage rights as the couple must deal with Marilyn’s debilitating struggle with Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Prassas shot 250 hours of footage over five years to bring viewers this touching portrait of seven New......

Nelly Furtado is engaged to sound engineer Demacio "Demo" Castellon - People Nicole Richie IS preggers with Joel Madden's baby, and reports are that its a boy - DListed Britney's got a new man, rehab counselor/real estate developer John Sundahl - Daily Mail Another pageant queen scandal- an unknown blackmailer has threatened to make certain scandalous photos public on Facebook of current Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo - NY Post Laguna Beach alum Jessica......

From the tallest skyscraper in the City of Brotherly Love to Canadian tourism copywriting brilliance, here's what you should know from our -ist cities: This week, Phillyist took a gleeful listen to the White Stripes' exciting new release, watched in awe as their new tallest skyscraper was finally completed, found a cheaper way to get to Gothamist, invented a tasty new dessert, and brought back their Craigslist Round-Up feature with a bang. Bostonist watches......

Padres 3, Dodgers 2 - Jeff Kent drove home a run in the first and the third, helping Los Angeles jump out to a 2-0 lead against San Diego's Greg Maddux. Then Maddux started to pitch more like, well, Maddux. He retired the final 14 batters he faced and went home with the W against his old team (you may remember he wore blue, albeit briefly). Angels 3, White Sox 0 - Gary Matthews Jr.'s......

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books will be held this week on Saturday & Sunday, April 28 - 29th. Monday Cathryn Jakobson Ramin signs Carved in Sand 7pm @ Dutton's Tuesday Jeff Hobbs presents The Tourists 7pm @ Book Soup Jeffrey Lewis signs Theme Song for an Old Show 7pm @ Dutton's Santa Montefiore discusses and signs The Gypsy Madonna 7pm @ Vroman's Wednesday Kristen Buckley presents Tramps Like Us: A New Jersey......

Trojans 87, Longhorns 68 - USC earned hard court revenge against the school that ruined their bid for a third consecutive national championship on the gridiron. The Trojans trounced Texas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to advance to the sweet sixteen for the first time since their elite eight run in 2001. The upset means USC will play North Carolina this week. Lakers 109, Timberwolves 102 - Kobe almost stole the headlines......