Just in case you need a good laugh today... (thanks Rory!)......

In 10 days, 30 homes have been lost among the 1,500 fires that have blazed through around 400,000 acres of land. "All my life I knew it might burn -- and it finally did," said a Big Sur resident who lost her home. "But when you live in a place like that, you have to take the consequences." If there ever was a warning not to do your own fireworks this week, this would be......

Southern California may be getting the extreme heat, but NorCal has it worse with fires -- over one hundred by the Associated Press' count.......

What do you do when you're a gearhead with lightning-quick MacGyver fixes, $500 to spare and the need for speed? Most likely you're racing a junker you rebuilt with zip-ties and duct-tape at the 24 Hours of LeMons in Altamont Motorsports Park located between Livermore and Tracy in Northern California. That's where I spent this past weekend, tagging along with one of the LeMons veteran teams, Eyesore Pimpin (formerly known as Eyesore Racing) from......

Edward Weston. One of the most brilliant photographers of the 20th Century. Viewing the LACMA exhibit many years ago, I was enamored instantly. The buildings, the nudes, the everyday objects, and his link to Los Angeles stirred up emotions in me that I’ve never forgot. I’ve been trying for months to get to the Getty Center to see this latest exhibit, and finally this weekend I treated myself…and it was delectable! Once again, I......

Earlier this month, the LA-based and green-minded The Ditty Bops (MySpace) completed their six week Summer Farm Tour (which began at the Henry Fonda Theater) with a performance at Farm Aid at Randall's Island in New York, complete with an introduction by actress and fellow environmentalist Daryl Hannah. I had the unique opportunity to follow the band in Northern California, Chicago, and New York as they toured across the country in their biodiesel-powered van,......

The Swerve Festival is taking place at Barnsdall Park on Friday, Sept. 28th and goes till Sunday the 30th. There will be movies, music and art for all three days. ...

He opened the first Peet's Coffee & Tea in 1966 on a rundown street in Berkeley. He mentored the founders of Starbucks letting them work in his store. And even though he sold the coffee business in 1979, Peet's Coffee & Tea still serves their high quality roasts for many addicted coffee lovers. Peet died yesterday in his home in Ashland, Oregon of cancer. He was considered a connoisseur of gourmet coffee: "Peet was known......

Once while driving down the freeway from Santa Clarita into the LA over the Newhall Pass, I came upon a boat. No, not some truck pulling a boat. But a speed boat sitting in lane one (that's the furthest left lane). It obviously became detached from a vehicle. But where were they? There was no one pulled over looking distraught. DID THEY NOT NOTICE?!!? So I called 911 because that is what you are......

At least one Southern California city has the courage to step it up and say "no" to Washington D.C. politicians according to the LA Times. "West Hollywood was the 80th city or township in the nation to pass such a declaration, following similar actions in Michigan, Ohio and Vermont as well as six cities in Northern California, including Arcada and Eureka." Peter Thottam, executive director of the Los Angeles National Impeachment Center, brought the idea......

Thomas Suriya of Taos, New Mexico had never painted a mural before, or even a portrait. and yet in 1983 he busted with an iconic Hollywood mural on his first try. Now 24 years later he has returned to LA to give "You are the Star" a touch up. Thanks to a grant by the Hollywood Arts Council, 59-year-old Suriya is back in town to put some life back into a mural that has been......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

In the classical music world, Los Angeles has something to brag about. It's the LA Phil series - Green Umbrella. The colorfully named series (there is no reason why the umbrella is green) is dedicated to new music, rather, contemporary classical, or if you will, music by composers who are not dead yet (or may have passed post 1950). At last night's performance, the LA Phil celebrated Green Umbrella's 20th Birthday (25th for LA......

They're called the Redwood City Twirlers. They're about a half dozen little girls with batons. They were kicked out of the 2006 Fourth of July Parade in Redwood City because they were allegedly too slow, causing delays of three minutes or so making attendees of the Northern California town think the famous parade was over. But the girls found a host in nearby Corte Madera who allowed the Redwood City Twirlers in their parade......

music for a Valley high American Idol top 3 finalist Katharine McPhee visited Notre Dame High School, her alma mater, and got an official welcome from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Councilwoman Wendy Greuel. She also drove some high school boys to the brink when she sang "God Bless the Child" (check out the guy on the right). young love The LA Times finds a modern Romeo & Juliet at the racially divided Jefferson High......

Over the weekend fine diners were invited to a special downtown event: immune globulin shots. That's because at least one employee at Café Pinot, the fancy restaurant nestled in front of the central library downtown, has contracted Hepatitis A. The disease, whose symptoms include fever, nausea and dark urine (good morning!), has a weeks-long incubation period. So only those who dined at Café Pinot post-Thanksgiving, from Nov. 25-Dec. 4 should worry. Luckily for us,......

There are plenty of ways to scare yourself silly this weekend in LA. If you're too old or wary for trick-or-treating, then why not head to the local cineplex? Here are five movies playing around town that range from frightening to fun. Doom - The Rock returns in this sci-fi/horror flick set in a futuristic Mars research facility. Predictably, the facility loses communication and is quarantined. The Marines discover the source of the trouble:......

In a landscape of copycats and safe bets, Birdmonster pride themselves on taking as many musical twists and turns as possible. Continue reading to discover the band's biggest pet peeve about LA clubs, to see which bandmate is reading Faulkner and to find out how they came up with their band name. ...

Lisa Teasley is a successful fiction writer living in Los Angeles. Her first book, "Glow in the Dark," won the 2002 Gold Pen Award for Best Short Story Collection and the 2002 Pacificus Literary Foundation Best Short Story Writer award for fiction. Bloomsbury USA published her first novel "Dive" in 2004. The novel is a romantic thriller set in Los Angeles and Alaska. Bloomsbury will publish her latest novel "Heat Signature" in 2006. Age......

One of the most interesting parts of NPR's (well Northern California's KQED really as all these pieces come from their California Report show) expose on the conning of old people is that the "over-80" crowd is the largest growing population in America. We really can live forever. What the elderly are finding, however, is that extending our lifespan has major pitfalls. Part two, which aired today, looks at FAST, a Los Angeles initiative that......

Tonight, every media outlet in Los Angeles will lead with the news that Robert Blake was acquitted of charges that he murdered or conspired to murder his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakely, because he feared that she would be a terrible mother to their daughter. Coincidently, Scott Peterson was sentenced to death for killing his wife and their unborn son in Northern California. Both cases played out in a blaze of publicity and circumstantial evidence. We......

We're enchanted by Christy Hobart's new piece on the area's Storybook style homes in the 1/13/05 issue of the Los Angeles Time's Home Section. One of the treats of living in Los Angeles is sighting wee, crooked little houses with peaks shaped like witch hats. Hobart crawls inside and gets the stories of three Storybook homeowners: the Conrads who own the 'Hobbit House/Hansel & Gretel' house in Beachwood Canyon, the Lawrence Joseph's complex in......

LAist did a double-take while scanning the seafood counter at Whole Foods on Fairfax last night. Crab was in season and the store signs offered the treat at $5.99 a pound, which is pretty good considering how overpriced items are in that store. That means it's CRAB SEASON! This 11/20/2004 Daily News article "Hectic crab season is depressing early prices" confirms the obvious: The season-opening fishing frenzy for the much-desired delicacy causes a glut......

Mediabistro.com, the online professional skills outlet for writers, recently introduced a new service for its visitors: a Freelance Marketplace where new or seasoned journalists display their talents for sale. Interestingly, in the current database of 29 writers residing in California, more writers live in Los Angeles than San Francisco. Eighteen live in Southern California while ten live in Northern California. One writer lives in Dobbins, CA and LAist is too tired to track down......