If you've ever given or sought consolation for receiving an A- instead of an A, you'll feel right at home in Whiz Kids. The documentary, which opens this weekend at Laemmle's Music Hall, charts three teen scientists as they prepare for the Intel Science Talent Search, high school's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. There's a lot of hard work and a little heart break along the way, but this trio is hell-bent on forging their destinies and a new world. Harmain, raised on food stamps by a Pakistani single mother, plots human evolution by carbon-dating crocodile fossils (human fossils from the same sites are too fragile to be examined). Ana, the first in her family looking to attend college, analyzes plant root systems to increase crop yields. more ›

The 6th Annual New Original Works Festival opens this week and runs for three weekends at REDCAT, the theater at the basement of Disney Hall downtown. Programming an assortment of dance, theater, and music events to share a single performance, the festival’s history has been adventurous and the LA Weekly calls it "one of the city's more eclectic and vital performance festivals." The mission of the festival isn’t to get traditional and conventional work onto the LA stage, but to offer an opportunity for local artists to experiment and take some risks, using all the finery of this state of the art facility. more ›

This hilarious video is full of ideas and initiatives that newspapers could employ to shake the print downturn and become more like LAist. the more economical and timely Internet publications of today. Fill the news racks with double-D racks? Open up an LA Times Smoke Shop on Spring Street? Got any better ideas? more ›

The Paley Center hosts the cast and creative team of Monk tonight at 8:30 pm. There’s usually a screening, followed by discussion and Q&A. In person guests include Tony Shalhoub, Traylor Howard, Ted Levine, Jason Gray-Stanford, among others. more ›

Now that the U.S. is catching up with the rest of the world's mobile phone addiction, we can use our nimble thumbs to engage in some quality worldchanging. We've learned a lot about what's possible with mobile from Google, Apple, and Nokia in the past year alone. Now is the time take the baton and move forward. more ›

It was a normal day on Twitter. New Media and Interactive Consultant Kyra Reed was going about her day (it was Reed who turned The Roxy into a Web 2.0 success story). On Twitter, she chatted with friends as she was at home. more ›

If there's one scene Hollywood actors aren't eager to rehearse, it's the one where they march back and forth in front of studios in shifts, carrying signs and accepting honks and donuts from sympathetic supporters. It's something the Screen Actors Guild is hoping to avoid, particularly in the wake of the lengthy and costly WGA strike that held the local staple industry and its workers hostage for 100 days starting last fall. more ›

Calling all entrepreneurs, tech startups, and developers -- are you ready to pitch? Venture capitalists, industry execs and investors -- want to swim along with the sharks? Tonight, Dealmaker Media hosts its premiere Dealmaker LA event and it's not going to be just another cocktail party, according to Dealmaker CEO Debbie Landa. more ›

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The twice-yearly, geek-tastic unconference for technologists, gamers, industry-folk, and Internet lovers of all stripes is again upon us. BarCampLA is in its fifth iteration and thanks to a collaborative effort fronted by Jason Cosper and Crystal Williams (and dozens of sponsors), it's shaping up to be the best BarCamp evar. more ›

A few months ago LAist interviewed writer/creator/director Marshall Herskovitz about his web series Quarterlife, and lo and behold, the series debuts on NBC tonight! MySpace, which showcased Quarterlife has a new show of the hidden-camera comedy variety debuting this week as well, "Special Delivery", which will have episodes twice weekly. From these new media developments we turn to television's ancient past on today, Jackie Gleason's birthday, JackieGleason.com has been launched with rare stills and clips of "The Great One" - a true TV pioneer. more ›

He goes by the name 'frazgo' and he had an encounter with a Monrovia Public Information Officer that left a sour taste in his mouth. In a post on blogging.la, he ventures into that new media gray area that still is fuzzy... is a blogger considered media?

I attended the city press conference regarding the gang warfare here. The city Principal Information Officer was giving transcripts of the mayors speech. Several of us asked for a copy and he replied "it is for media only". I said, that's fine "I am the media, I am frazgo at blogging.la and I happen to live here". He said" I am familiar with your work, you are not media you do not get one" He turned around and walked away from me I said, "oh, can I quote you on that?". He stopped for a second and then walked on. [blogging.la]

a writer's perspective more ›

In a preemptive move, the Director's Guild of America (DGA) announced yesterday that they'd made a satisfactory deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), giving them a new contract and therefore eliminating the need to strike once the current contract ended. So what does this mean for striking writers and the likelihood of an impending end to their current three-month-old strike? more ›

The deed is done. The first large production company, United Artists (UA), has made a deal with the WGA and is going to get back to work, according to the AP (via LA Times). UA's parent company, MGM, is not included on the deal.

"United Artists has lived up to its name. UA and the Writers Guild came together and negotiated seriously. The end result is that we have a deal that will put people back to work," said Patric M. Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America, West. more ›

We once knew Captain Automatic lead man, Josh Kamensky, as the public relations guru for the popular councilman Eric Garcetti and one of the very few at City Hall that was hip to new media. Back in October, Kamensky left the job to pursue other goals, part of that being music. more ›

Producers and writers have been talking and numbers are starting to be released. Nothing's final yet, but this strike could be soon over. What does $9.3 million buy the LAPD? It will finish the job on a backlog of 6,700 of DNA testing for sexual assault cases. Les Deux Cafe, a club where celebiatches Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears hang out, was scene to a fight early this morning that led to... more ›

As the writers strike enters it's second week, a lot of attention continues to be paid to the issue of "new media". AKA The Internet. For negotiating purposes, the AMPTP insists that it doesn't know if they make money on the internet. They've also been trying to push the idea that internet content is purely promotional, and before talks broke off, were trying to get writers to agree to a clause that said they... more ›

Hollywood remains in a state of flux as it waits to see whether or not writers will trade in their pens in favor of picket signs. The contract between the WGA and the AMPTP expired at midnight last night with little fanfare other than continued antagonistic rhetoric between the two negotiating parties. Discussions yesterday were again fruitless, and mired in the contentious atmosphere that has been a constant since bargaining commenced. The day began... more ›

The Writers Guild of America announced last night that its members voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike authorization. According to the WGA, 90.3% of votes registered supported a strike. The vote also attracted the WGA’s highest turnout ever. The 5,507 votes eclipsed the previous record of 4,128 ballots cast during the 2001 contract negations. The strong show of solidarity should empower the WGA in their ongoing negotiations with the AMPTP. The Guild’s main concerns... more ›

There is arguably no other neighborhood that encapsulates LA’s history, its tectonic demographic changes, its reinvention, its promise and potential as does Boyle Heights. more ›

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The inaugural EconSM conference, produced by Rafat Ali's ContentNext Media Network (parent of the excellent PaidContent site) is rockin' the Beverly Hilton with entertainment and new media heavies. EconSM addresses the present and potential economy of the social media marketplace in regards to online news, Hollywood, music, mobile media, and more. The amusing "Social Media Meets Hollywood" panel, in which Carson Daly sat alongside The L Word executive producer Ilene Chaiken, preceded lunch. Daly... more ›

Today we interviewed a top online news editor and wanted to share the goods. This interview was conducted by LAist during the Knight New Media Centers Politics and Cyberspace conference. Does anyone really still call it "cyberspace?" Dave Herman is the daily editor of the MSN.com homepage. We discussed the hits and misses on the evil empire's Redmond, WA-based portal, including the Janet nip-slip and the Virginia Tech massacre, before we were rudely cut off...... more ›

Yesterday we interviewed John Amato of Crooks and Liars and today we take it to Right Blogistan to pick the brain of Outside the Beltway's James Joyner. (Amato and Joyner are pictured on the left and right, respectively.) While Amato was pulled away after a few minutes yesterday, we had an entire 15-minute break with Joyner at the Westin Bonaventure (we're covering the Knight New Media Center's Covering Politics in Cyberspace conference) to rap... more ›

John Amato, once known as the sax-man for the likes of Duran Duran, Goo Goo Dolls, and Ringo Starr, is recognized today as the man behind one of the most popular blogs on Earth, Crooks and Liars. We stole the LA resident and LAist reader for a couple minutes before he sat on a panel at the Knight New Media Center's Covering Politics in Cyberspace seminar. Click here to subscribe to the LAist podcast and... more ›

Here I was just looking for new music to listen to and googling old high school boyfriends. A good friend of mine recently started working at a new media company whose main gig is gaming and podcasting. Basically she's surrounded all day by lovable computer nerds, guys listening to metal and most of them, well, talking about chicks. We think this song should go on their homepage. Catchy little jingle. more ›

It's always fascinating when old media attacks new media, and today's example takes on yours truly, LAist. In a piece about Best Of lists on websites, the New York Times leads with this oddity: "As any media consumer knows, this is the season of the list." First of all, in this, the era of YouTube and TiVo and 54 million blogs, is there really such a thing as a "media consumer"? Isn't everyone a... more ›

Congrats Liana who won the "I Voted" cd six-pack contest with her entry above. - Bush Admits He Lied To Reporters - Think Progress - Bush channels Madonna's faux British accent: "I say, why all the glum faces" - White House - Righties see a blossom out of the turd: "And it is a wonderful day for new media, especially talk radio. For two years we have had to defend the Congressional gang that... more ›

Let's face it, Angelenos, we're all a bunch of gossips. How else to explain that peculiar L.A. habit of looking up at each new customer who crosses a restaurant's threshold, assessing their attractiveness and/or celebrity. In certain dining establishments around West Hollywood, the atmosphere is akin to a high school cafeteria. One keeps expecting restaurant patrons to break out in song like in that scene in the film, “Gigi,” where guests seated at Maxim’s restaurant chant out the latest gossip on each new diner entering the establishment. more ›