Los Angeles-based indie soul group Fitz and The Tantrums occupied Wall Street on Thursday, performing unplugged renderings of their hits "MoneyGrabber" and "Dear Mr. President" at Zuccotti Park. Appropriately suited for the times, "MoneyGrabber" sings about being run dry and paybacks while "Dear Mr. President" asks the Prez to please put his foot down. more ›

After years of grilling some of the world’s biggest stars, Christopher Bollen has suddenly found himself in the interview hot seat: the author spoke with LAist about writing his first novel, the troubling state of the publishing industry, Occupy Wall St, and the kind of LA novel he would most like to read. more ›

America's favorite ginger Conan O'Brien will personally perform a same-sex wedding during tonight's show on TBS. Airing from NYC, the event marks the first same-sex wedding on late night television. Please note: The wedding is not a comedy bit. It's a "real, legally binding, same-sex marriage between our show's costume designer, Scott Cronick, and his partner, David Gorshein," explains Conan during last night's mention of the upcoming nuptials. more ›

On the morning of July 24, a group of nearly one dozen brave, ambitious, relentless LAFD active-duty members and Southern California firefighters began their "Ride for 9-11" across fifteen states over the course of 47 days. more ›

Last weekend, John Belitsky and Dan Wuebben hailed a cab at LaGuardia Airport and asked the driver to take them to Los Angeles. It started out as somewhat of a dare when Belitsky's father, a former NYC cab driver, was certain nobody would be up to the task. more ›

Ladies, that lovely glow isn't the only potential benefit of your baby bump. Imagine if your expectancy netted you parking perks, like free parking at city meters? Don't throw out your NuvaRing just yet, Angelenas. The new law is actually on the table in New York City, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen here, right? more ›

Thanks to this post from Midtown Lunch, we were notified of a restaurant in Manhattan called Fresh N Fast, a New York burger joint that touts itself as "a FRESH NEW FACE in the fast food industry. Fresh, all natural beef patties. Fresh hand cut fries, made daily. The only thing frozen is the real ice cream in our shakes!" more ›

For its sixth season, The Next Food Network Star was shot in Los Angeles, and among the 12 finalists vying for their very own Food Network show are 3 locals, including food blogger and LAist alum Aarti Sequeira. Each week, Aarti will give us her take on the episode, from her unique insider's perspective. Will she be named The Next Food Network Star? We won't know until the finale. Last week things heated up with an "emotion" powered meal for Todd English and Eva Longoria at their restaurant Beso; here's how Episode 9 looked from inside the kitchen... more ›

New York City wants to teach Los Angeles a thing or two about traffic. Specifically, NYC's transportation commissioner and California native Janette Sadik-Khan wants to inspire Los Angeles to make the same bike-friendly changes her city has in order to make traffic safer and less congested for everyone. more ›

Hot off the virtual press and soon to be hot out of the oven, Babycakes NYC, a bakery specializing in "Vegan, Gluten-Free, Soy-Free, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Agave-Sweetened, Kosher" goods is opening their Los Angeles shop tomorrow. Here's the Twittered proclamation: "OK, LA! We are opening tomorrow! We will see you from 10a-8p at 130 East 6th Street." [map] On their menu posted online: Cupcakes and Cakes (Vanilla, Chocolate, Carrot, Red Velvet); Loaves (such as Gingerbread, Pumpkin, Lemon Poppy); Cookies; Muffins; Macaroons; Brownies; Biscuits; Scones and more. more ›

"It's like a Spaceland lineup from 2007," quipped The Airborne Toxic Event frontman Mikel Jollett in October the week before CMJ at Northern Lights in Clifton Park, about 20 minutes north of Albany. "Short of being at Spaceland in LA a few years ago, I'm pleasantly shocked that I'm getting to see a lineup like that," observed the East Coast-based indie music blog Between Love and Like. The Airborne Toxic Event was in the midst of their second cross-country tour -- their first since signing with major label Island Def Jam -- with openers The Henry Clay People and Red Cortez, but for that night, they were joined by The Parson Red Heads, who were coincidentally in New York for their first-ever East Coast tour. more ›

It's only a minor loss in the ever-growing billboard problem in Los Angeles. A judge placed an injunction on the city prohibiting them from taking action against SkyTag's 18 unpermitted supergraphics saying they had proof they were up before the December moratorium. While Los Angeles has its problems, New Yorkers are taking illegal billboards into their own hands. Check out the photo to the right, it's just one of many from the recent "Public Ad Campaign." more ›

While hovering helicopters are commonplace for Angelenos, folks in downtown Manhattan (understandably) are wary when they see low-flying planes. And that's what happened this morning: They spotted a low-flying plane being tailed by fighter jets. Some buildings were evacuated while others told employees they were staying put—and then the FAA explained "the Defense Department is conducting a photo op that involves deploying two F-16s and escorting a Boeing 747 in the vicinity of Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty... the maneuver was not an emergency and was coordinated in advance with the FAA and state and local officials." (The Boening 747 was one of the planes that the President uses, but President Obama was not on board.) Of course, the warning from NYC government came right at the same time as the maneuver, not in advance, because the feds apparently didn't want the flight to be disclosed. So, this is clearly a Department of Defense FAIL, right? Update: NYC Mayor Bloomberg is "furious" (apparently he didn't know about the flyover!) and now t he White House has apologized. more ›

JetBlue announced this morning that they will begin offering two daily nonstop flights each way between LAX and JFK in New York City and Logan International in Boston. Tickets will go on sale February 4th with flights beginning on June 17. more ›

It sure seems like Aziz Ansari is doing all of the right things at the right times these days, and he’s definitely getting noticed for it. For a few years now, he’s been steadily climbing the comedy ladder, doing stand up and stage work both here in Los Angeles and New York City. After Aziz paired with Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer to form the wildly popular Human Giant on MTV, he really began to take off and can now be seen in a few episodes of Scrubs, an Office-like show coming this spring, and touring with his Glow In The Dark stand up tour, coming tomorrow night to the Largo. more ›

How come people in movies don’t just call the police? Seriously. The police exist in this world specifically for occasions when bad people are trying to do bad stuff to you. CALL THEM. What if a character in a movie needed a pizza? NEEDED it. Like, if they didn’t get this fucking pizza, they were going to die. Would it be reasonable to assume that instead of calling Domino’s or Pizza Hut or any one of 1,000 local slice joints, the hero or heroine would instead embark on a city-wide frantic manhunt for the correct sauce, cheeses, dough, and toppings, all while evading those pizza-haters intent on their demise? No. It probably wouldn’t be reasonable to assume that such a scenario would occur, without groans and grumbles from the audience. So why do we put ourselves through the hassle, why do we let ourselves get sucked into convoluted twists and sub-plot after sub-plot when the solution to all the problems is just a phone call away? Probably, because getting there is more than half the fun. more ›

Last night, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people gathered for a protest outside the Church of Latter Day Saints' Manhattan Mormon Temple and march down Broadway to Columbus Circle. more ›

This is one of those times it's good to be behind in the polls. Chicagoist reports: "We're third in population, but first in murders. For the first time in 10 years, Chicago has surpassed New York City in murders (and L.A. to boot). As of Tuesday, Chicago has had 426 murders so far in 2008 compared to 417 for New York City and 302 for L.A." more ›

Via Gawker, we find Homethinking who has launched a nifty tool comparing neighborhoods in one city to another city. It's fun, but beware: their methodology is not income based ('cause rent is just a tad higher on Manhattan), but rather demographics such as "age, marital status, whether the household has kids or not and the frequency of arts and culture activities," as they explain. It's a start... more ›

Los Angeles, as a culture, lives by it’s own standards and plays by as many (or as few) rules as money can buy. But with that is the tacit understanding that, on many occasions, it will also die by it’s own shortcomings. As a result, Southern California is and will be the birthplace of many things, but those things will often leave their home to experience greater and more profound success elsewhere. more ›

Remember that crazy list from Travel + Leisure where we were ranked as the rudest and dumbest city earlier this month (and not to mention last year, too)? Well, the magazine has a little online bracketed game where you can vote for the best cities. more ›

Reviews of Jay Babcock's review of Los Angeles didn't go so well in the comments section yesterday. Babcock, the man behind Arthur Magazine, left Los Angeles for Brooklyn earlier this month. Soundboard on LA Times caught up with him and quizzed him about his move and Babcock went off on Los Angeles. more ›

The man behind Arthur Magazine, Jay Babcock, recently took the indie rag's operation to Brooklyn where he decided to resettle. Soundboard, the LA Times music blog, got a hold of him for a short interview. His answer to the first question, "what prompted the move to Brooklyn?", is quite a read: more ›

The music venue that is the Knitting Factory has been a mainstay in the resurgence of Hollywood since 2000. As an anchor tenant and early adopter of the area, the New York City based club saw Hollywood change from having the 18th Street Gang territory sit one block away to having tourists flock the area making it a likely candidate for one of the most pedestrian dense areas in the city. Now that the area is built up and the Factory is surrounded by national brand name stores and businesses, trouble has come knocking on the door. more ›

Shaq is on the attack again. more ›

As part of Sundance Channel's green programming, tonight's episode of Big Ideas For A Small Planet features cities tackling transit with green solutions. No, Los Angeles is not featured (save for a couple stock shots of an orange Metro bus), but the ideas presented in the episode are all something the region could or is already looking into. more ›

As reported yesterday in the midst of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's scandal where he was busted for his involvement in a prostitution ring, the same high-scale service he used has ties in Los Angeles as well as Washington, DC, Miami, London and Paris. more ›

As the country waits to see what the future holds for crusader turned illicit copulater Eliot Spitzer, it is worth examining what impact his prostitute predilection might have on the Democratic Party. more ›

more ›

• Gothamist found that an explosive set off outside the Times Square army recruiting center may be similar to five past bombings in New York City.
• Seattlest worried when severed right feet and bottles of rat poison started washing up on local beaches.
• Shanghaiist was surprised by Bjork's rooting for Tibetan independence at her concert (see video), and the political fallout has only just begun.
• SFist debated the merits of new bronze plaques that will be placed in locations where San Francisco's homeless have died.
• DCist was obliged to respond to the worst Washington Post Outlook column ever published, in which conservative writer Charlotte Allen tried to make the case that women are dumb.
• LAist found Satan's ice cream truck trolling the streets, and they recorded the music.
• Some crafty Torontoist readers didn't like the dearth of ski hills in downtown Toronto, so they just built one of their own on their deck and (of course) recorded a video of them all taking turns on it.
• Bostonist knows the city's subway and bus system, the MBTA, has problems. So does this 17-year-old who submitted a report and told the MBTA brass how to fix it.
• Phillyist explored the possibility of an Ivy League prostitute, while their commenters debated the most ethical approach to proving or debunking the story.
• Londonist spent a little too much time looking at airbrushed operatic private parts, and enjoyed an enlightening comment from someone who was there. more ›