"Maude" in tights? According to The Hollywood Reporter, our good friend Norman Lear, creator of the aforementioned "Maude" (which is a damn good show, please bring it back TVLand!), "All in the Family", "The Jeffersons" and "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," has teamed up with HBO for a series set in the world of 1970s pro wrestling. The show will be a drama (what a shame) entitled "Everybody Hurts" (funny!). Whatever the format, Lear is the consummate show creator and we're dying to see the results. more ›

A new documentary by the always innovative, if lowercase, dublab, entitled Secondhand Sureshots: an experiment in creative sound recycling, will be pre-screened at the USC Annenberg Auditorium on November 14th, at 6pm. Presented by The Norman Lear Center's Popular Music Project, the documentary centers around four L.A. djs (Daedelus, J.Rocc, Nobody and Ras G) who are given a mission: to use their expertise at finding obscure album treasures in four different Out of the Closet Thrift stores and make new songs out of their finds: more ›

Guest Day Editor Carolyn Kellogg joins LAist with a few posts throughout the day. Read the introductory interview and check out the her litblog. more ›

Los Angeles' own multicultural alternative rock collective Ozomatli recently held a video contest inviting fans to create their own video for "City of Angels." The band offered live video footage and an MP3 of the song on their Web site, then basically told their fan base to go wild. more ›

The New York Times seems to think so. We can confirm that among the 800 or so who paid $2,300 a head to rub elbows with Barack Obama for a minute or two at the Beverly Hilton were: Jennifer Aniston, Burt Bacharach, Mario van Peebles, Stephen Spielberg, Arianna Huffington, Ben Stiller, Morgan Freeman, Zach Braff, Eddie Murphy, Ron Howard, Taye Diggs, Norman Lear, JJ Abrams, Paul Reiser, Christine Lahti, Jackson Browne, and Natalie Maines.... more ›

Another step has been taken in transforming downtown with the Grand Avenue project. Now we're not sure we're going to get the technicalities of municipal development right, but as we read in the Daily News, an agreement to begin design on the park (see illustration) that will stretch from the Music Center to City Hall has been approved. A gallery of park proposals from the people has been put together by good-intentioned rabble-rousers at the Norman Lear Center at USC; we suggest the big developer look there for some inspired ideas. more ›

Dave, Mathias and Austin fight for the betterment of Los Angeles on a number of fronts. In addition to their work with the Fallen Fruit Project, the collaborators submitted a proposal for an Endless Orchard to the Grand Intervention Grand Avenue park design competition organized by the Norman Lear Project and the Los Angeles Times. more ›

Although networks of institutions help comprise cities, they cannot survive on conventional institutional arrangements alone. In a vast place like Los Angeles it takes all sorts of institutions within institutions and folks within them to generate new ideas, alternatives, and potential solutions for the innumerable challenges we face. more ›

Here's some upcoming events happening around town: more ›

We're changing things up a bit here at LAist. Because we live in such a vibrant, socially active city, there are things going on all the time. We have long wanted to be able to list events in advance (for the benefit of our wonderful readers), so starting today we have implemented a new strategy: a week's events in advance. We will still post featured events each day, but we've added a permanent sidebar (to the left) that will always link to a post containing this week's events. more ›

After much whining and pleading, LAist's inner child persuaded us to call USC and obtain a pass to the "Ready to Share: Ownership of Creativity in Fashion" conference on 1/30 sponsored by USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center's Creativity, Commerce & Culture project, Center for the Public Domain and The Fashion Institute of Desgin & Merchandise/FIDM. more ›

The by-invitation-only guests will include people working in fashion, film, music, academia and law. Speakers include designer Kevan Hall, “Sex and the City” creator Michael Patrick King, musician T-Bone Burnett and Booth Moore, fashion reporter for the Los Angeles Times, and vintage guru Cameron Silver. more ›