Ed LaDou, the father of modern California-style pizza, has died of cancer at age 52 in Santa Monica. LaDou is best known for his work at Wolfgang Puck's legendary Spago; LaDou was the first to experiment with unusual and innovative pizza toppings like duck and smoked salmon, and he also helped develop the menu for the casual dining chain California Pizza Kitchen. From The LA Times: "Ed really set the tone for the pizza,"......

The Dodgers continued their off season wheeling and dealing, singing Japanese All-Star pitcher Hiroki Kuroda to a three-year deal believed to be worth $36 to $40 million. "This is a huge pickup for the Dodgers," said The Daily News' Tony Jackson, who may have been first to break the news. It's a lot of money, but winning the World Series does not come cheap. Just ask the Rockies. Two teens (age 18 and 19)......

Slim pickings to choose from this Thanksgiving week and that makes it hard to choose just one. Friday through Sunday, the LA Phil will be playing Brahms' "Double Concerto" and Dvorák's killer Symphony No. 9 "From the New World," while the LA Opera opens two shows that will play on alternating dates: Don Giovanni and La Boheme. Tonight at Sundays Live, the free concert at LACMA, is Franz Schubert's "Quintet in C Major, D. 956"......

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A New World War: 14 Scenes from a Possible Future is another study in dystopia, with playwright Rita Valencia taking cues from Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Ray Bradbury. While we've seen all this doom and gloom before, it's Valencia's take on the futuristic parable that saves us from cliché hell. The play focuses the Antar (Niamh McCormally), a woman who's signed a long, long-term contract with a company that provides cyborg companionship. But......

The nominees for the 2004-2005 Ovation Awards have been announced. You can read the full list here. The Ovations are an annual peer-judged awards ceremony for Los Angeles theatre, and are voted on by represesntatives from the member theatre companies of LA Stage Alliance. One of LAIST's favorites, the Antaeus Company, the North Hollywood-based classical theatre ensemble, has two nominations in a very strong field, Ensemble Performance. They are nominated for Mother Courage (read......