Photographs of the damaged recruiting center (above) and Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly (below) by Mary Altaffer/AP After reports that 10 members of congress, including California Senator Dianne Feinstein, received letters and photos in the mail that possibly claimed responsibility for yesterday's bombing in Times Square, the FBI did the obvious thing: go to the man's house who was listed on the return address. Nothing turned up when they questioned the man. "We're......

Photograph of police investigating the explosion scene in Times Square by Mary Altaffer/AP Update 8:25am, 3/7: "Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman in Los Angeles, said an individual was questioned there about the letters to Congress and "there is no evidence linking the letters, which contained no threat, to the bombing," according to ABC7.This morning's explosion in New York City's Times Square has a possible Los Angeles connection in the form of a return address......

Barbarella plays at the Arclight tonight. / Photo by atomicshakespeares via LAist's flickr pool. SPOKEN WORD The NYC-based nonprofit organization The Moth brings its StorySLAM to LA every first Tuesday of the month. If you’re good a spinning yarns, then StorySLAM is for you. They provide the theme and the mic – you put your name in the hat and if you’re picked, you have 5-minutes to tell your story – no papers allowed.......

Photo of the 605 Freeway by billaday via Flickr It's about time. As of today, NYC Streets Renaissance's StreetsBlog has officially franchised out to our city, that is, you know, duhhhh, full of streets and the love and hate of them. NYC Blogger Aaron Naparstek welcomes the LA Editor and so do we! LA.Streetsblog is edited and run by Damien Newton, formerly the New Jersey Coordinator for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and a recent......

Julia Fordham | Photo by freefall 2007 via flickr If you cannot make it to hear the amazing jazz vocalist, Julia Fordham, at The Roxy tonight, opening up at Hotel Cafe tonight is Tiffany Randol, who we caught at one of strong>Alex & Sam's Tangier shows. The front woman of NYC based glam rock band, Valeze, has now gone solo singer/songwriter style, making Los Angeles her second home, and is bringing out a new......

The first rule of Monday Night Fight Klub: Leave the dancing to the stars and the singing to wannabe idols. The MTV2 show is auditioning rap stars to be on the show’s second season. So if you think you can represent the West Coast and do LA proud, then Fight Klub's creators want to hear (or see) your best 60-second a cappella rhymes in their “60 Second Assassin” contest. The best emcees will get......

OK so the Oscars are this weekend. Even though the writers' strike is over, the prediction is that this will be a ho-hum (excuse me?) Oscars. First of all, the majority of the films presented for consideration are real downers, secondly, because of the strike, many potential presenters thought that the awards ceremony would be canceled or drastically cut back so they made other plans and are now not available to present at the show.......

I discovered this street art on 8th, just west of Grand in downtown LA last week. But where is the chair? It looks like Brooklyn chalk artist Ellis Gallagher has decided to grace Los Angeles with his presence and art. His cryptic signature, "© Ellis G. 2007" seems to be barely decipherable on the other side of the parking meter, along with "NYC". Well-known artist Michael Neff has identified it for me as an authentic......

Photo by Phillyist's Matt Johnson, SkyscraperSunset.com, December 19, 2007. Phillyist explored an impending implosion and lived to tell the tale.Gothamist marveled at the city's new NYC-branded condom campaign - especially the use of a Toronto landmark in the advertising. (Also, fun fact: Gothamist turned five years old yesterday.)Tired of the worldwide Scientology protests? Torontoist totally isn't: they covered the big downtown protest the day it happened, and followed up with an examination of all......

OK so the Oscars a week from Sunday are what we're building up to but as an enthusiastic follower of Dexter on Showtime, I'm intrigued to see how it will translate to its network debut on CBS at 10:00pm this Sunday. At first I was concerned that the end result would be a heavily edited, several minutes shorter, vapid and empty shell of its former glory. Not so according to my Showtime contact. Evidently when......

If you're like me and you hate pro football, or if you're looking for something to do after Football Team A defeats Football Team B in the field of Superbowly Combat, go to The Scene in Glendale tonight, and see NYC based Indie Pop Band Murder Mystery, along with LA's The Tartans and Oxnard's Maria. So why should you brave the rain and the perils of Glendale? Well if you're like me, you're in need......

The Cuban Cowboys, who were profiled on NPR last October, play tonight at the Temple Bar | Photo from their MySpace page Last Friday when A-Trak and Kid Sister played at New York City's Natural History Museum, Kanye West made a surprise visit. Neither Flavorpill or the Natural History Museum list Kanye for tonight's version of the NYC event, First Friday, but rumors are afloat, as they're bound to happen. Nevertheless, the evening looks......

Photograph of memorial outside Heath Ledger's NYC apartment Gothamist learned that actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his SoHo apartment, cause of death unknown so far (but apparently the masseuse who found him called Mary-Kate Olsen before 911).Bostonist considered sending a link about the Super Bowl, but damn! The New Kids are reuniting!Although Sylvester Stallone is a native of New York City, his Rocky character lets many Philadelphians consider him a native son......

Mayor Villaraigosa serves the city in "dineLA Restaurant Week's Big Kickoff" / Photo by Elise Thompson We always encourage you to press that little recommend button at the bottom right hand corner of every post if you enjoyed it. For one, it tells us what you want more of here at LAist. So here's this week's three most recommended and commented posts, as recommended and talked up by you: Most Recommended What is That......

Grizzly Bear, via Grizzly-Bear.net Of all the indie bands with some sort of animal in their title, Grizzly Bear might be the top dogs. After all, can Deerhoof, Deerhunter, Caribou, Panda Bear or even Animal Collective claim they are co-headlining a show with the Los Angeles Philharmonic? Nay. It is just the Brooklyn-based quartet who will share a stage at the Walt Disney Concert Hall for a one night only performance with the L.A.......

Outside the scene of Heath Ledger's death in NYC | Photo by Tien Mao, Gothamist.com Gothamist, parent site to LAist, is reporting the death of Heath Ledger. "Actor Heath Ledger was found dead in downtown Manhattan apartment by the police. Some reports say he died from an overdose." Ledger lived on Broome street. Ledger was a rising star and actor from Australia, known for his work in Brokeback Mountain, which earned him a best......

Which one of these beautiful young ladies will be named America's Next Top Model in the show's 10th go-round? I am not ashamed to admit that Wednesday nights at my house are sometimes known as "Top Model" night. (Code word: "You wanna be on top?" natch.) I didn't watch the show for its first few cycles, actually, curbing my "reality"-based curiosity about the gaggle of leggy empty-heads with the pretty faces and the ridiculous......

Conan O'Brien will soon leave NYC | Photo by Shiny Things via Flickr Conan O'Brien really isn't that funny as a talk show host. Nor is Jay Leno. We all know David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel are the kings of late-night (and to be fair, Craig Kilborn Ferguson has many great moments too). Nevertheless, in preparation of kicking Leno out in 2009, Conan has purchased a $10.5 million home in Brentwood:The newly built, gated......

"Ducttape Superhero" by The Eye of Brad via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr With exactly one year to go until a new president is inaugurated (and one more year of Jon Stewart's hilarious Bush headlines), the field of Republican hopefuls just got smaller. After poor showings in, well, every primary, caucus and poll, San Diego Congressman Duncan Hunter is ditching the presidential race. No word on what he will do now, but......

A sexy new NYC restaurant import is hitting Beverly Hills: Bond St, the brainchild of New York entrepreneur Jonathan Morr. BondSt is offering up modern Euro-Japanese cuisine in a sexy brown-leather setting (EaterLA has a few pics up here). The swank new space, inside the Thompson Hotel on the corner of Wilshire and Crescent, features "30 seats, outdoor dining, a sushi bar and an exclusive second floor Bond Street lounge with private library alcove....the......

Rain rain has gone away...so Tuesday we'll go out to play. Here's what's going on around town tonight: MUSIC The LA Phil’s Concrete Frequency series continues tonight. “Songs of the City” is being billed as a program where “urban troubadours share lo-fi songs about city life.” We’ll believe it with a lineup that features: Marc Bianchi, Biirdie, Franklin Bruno, Zooey Deschanel, John Doe, Inara George, Stevie Jackson, Sondre Lerche, Kyp Malone, Bob Mould, Zach......

photo by Matt Craig50. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 NightsSharon Jones has been singing since the 70s and was even a prison guard for a short time. Her live performance is unbelievably tight, inspiring feel-good shimmying all throughout the night. There's been a ton of revivalism of outmoded genres this year and Jones is bringin' back the funk! This record sounds like it came from the mid 60s during the height......

SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others. Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish list. Gothamist looked at the wooden bikes being offered for NYC's first bike share program on Governors Island. LAist received a Christmas present in the form of a drunk Santa Claus in a g-string. Bostonist launched......

After reviewing a few dozen releases this year this is my top ten of reviewed albums plus a few select tracks of items that I went out and hunted down myself. These weren't easy to select out of the great stuff I received so it was a challenge. I'd like to thank the labels and their PR agencies for hunting me down and sending CDs to me. I reviewed everything that I received this year......

At the end of each month LAist attempts to review some of the music and musicians that were covered over that four week period. Below is a mix of just some of the month's musical moments: Listen to the December 2007 LAist Music Medley here: Billy May - "Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo" (Malibu Remix) - cuz it's the season Jim Noir - "My Patch" CD Review by tomdog Pinker Tones - "Sonido Total"......

This Saturday Dec. 22nd @ the Key Club there's going to be a Joe Strummer Tribute thing-thang honoring the late rock legend, by not only performing many of the songs he wrote but also putting all the money raised towards Strummerville (the charity set up in his name) The press release states the following:Joining Zander Schloss & The Wilderness Years, Three Bad Jacks, David J (Bauhaus), Hellride (featuring Mike Watt, Steven Perkins & Peter......

The Holiday season is in full swing in NYC, with holiday lights in Brooklyn, a giant snow globe in Bryan Park and Chanukah specials for ham. One citizen decided to go vigilante on annoying car alarms, a murder suspect used a fake Asian accent on the stand and a video of a man being beaten up by teenage girls on a subway shocked the city. And we interviewed soon-to-be-leaving-Gawker editor Choire Sicha, who said,......

Here's the mix: Download or listen to the mix above which contains the songs and their related articles below: - Spoon "Infinite Pet" for show review by Staci Goodner - No Age "Everybody's Down" for a story/show review by Joshua Pressman - Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings "Tell Me" for a CD review by tomdog - MIA "Galang" for a show review by Joey Maloney - Cake "War Pigs" cuz they play on 11/30 at......

1. That I have two healthy, happy, sometimes crazy kids. 2. That, against all odds, I've found in Los Angeles a city I'm as comfortable in as my hometown (that would be Brooklyn, NYC). 3. That I have a better adult life than I could ever have imagined back during my stickball-playing childhood in Flatbush. 4. That being a square actually became the cool thing to be. 5. That I have a family and......

No one likes the stigma of saying they live in Van Nuys, so they chip away making their own new neighborhoods. To that, Councilman Tony Cardenas, who we admittedly give a hard time to on this site, said something that is right on target about this so called community pride: "If I had that many people show up to a community cleanup or an anti-prostitution night out it would do much more than changing......