Part of an ongoing series. On Saturday evening, local green-minded band (and Go Magazine covergirls) The Ditty Bops (MySpace), with Jesca Hoop (MySpace), John Reynolds, and Kaveh Rastegar (MySpace), performed at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. The shows also celebrated the release of The Ditty Bops' third full-length album, Summer Rains, with Hoop singing backup on three tracks: "Skinny Bones," "What Happened To The Radio," and "Feel From The Outside In." The Ditty......

Photo by karynsig via Flickr This month at LAist, we've been covering breakfast in our Wake Up LA series helping you explore new morning nosh options. On Saturday, there's a one-time breakfast event that we highly encourage you to attend -- one that continues the spirit of giving that exemplifies a man who gave his life for the people of this city. In honor of fallen LAPD SWAT member Randall Simmons, from 7:00 to......

Campaign Buttons, by JSF539 via Flickr The election trail continues to heat up for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, as four looming primaries in the next couple of weeks could go a long way toward deciding the nominee. On Tuesday, voters in Wisconsin and Hawaii will go to the polls and on March 4, Texans and Ohio-ans will do the same. How are things shaping up? On Saturday, the Houston Chronicle endorsed Barack Obama. In......

A quick Dodger note for everyone. On Saturday at 10:00am, tickets to the Dodgers exhibition game on Saturday, March 29 against the Boston Red Sox at the LA Memorial Coliseum will go on sale. This will be a special occasion helping the Dodgers kick off their season-long celebration of their 50th year in Los Angeles. As many of you might know, the Dodgers played at the Coliseum when they moved here in 1958 until......

Eric Krasno (Guitar), Neal Evans (Hammond Organ) and Alan Evans (drums, not pictured) Collectively Known as Soulive Moved the Knitting Factory Crowd Saturday Night Every January, organ trio, Soulive heads out to Southern California for The NAMM Show. While the trio of Eric Krasno, Neal Evans and Alan Evans take part in the gathering of music industry professionals, they also book themselves a few concerts in Anaheim and Los Angeles to give the SoCal......

In 2004, artist Peter Schulberg learned that literally tons of advertising billboards were being dumped into landfills every month. His solution to dealing with all this waste was rather novel: recycle those billboards into art. On Saturday night, the newest exhibition of these pieces is unveiled at Eco-LogicalART. Fifteen local artists have created pieces that will eventually be mounted as billboards across the city. Based on existing traffic patterns, it's estimated that 750,000 people......

Fire up your Nimbus 2000 and fly to the Biltmore! So. Cal. Pagan or just Pagan Curious? Either way, put down that turkey leg and skip those crowded malls, the 9th Annual Pagan Days Fest is this weekend at The Millenium Biltmore Hotel, 506 So. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, 90071. This witchy convention, organized by those crafty folks at Panpipes Magickal Market Place, begins Friday night with a (ticketed) meet and greet dinner and......

On Saturday evening, the City of Beverly Hills held its Annual Holiday Lighting Ceremony, "Deck the Hills," on Rodeo Dr., with performances by m-pact (MySpace), Concert 9Net (MySpace), and The Ditty Bops (MySpace). This was followed with the lighting by Mayor Jimmy Delshad and "surprise guest" Sharon Stone (who later attended a Gucci benefit) of a 12,000-crystal UNICEF snowflake floating over the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and twenty one-of-a-kind Baccarat chandeliers along Rodeo Drive, as......

Even for L.A. this is a bad parking job. On Saturday morning my roommates and I woke suddenly to the overpowering sound of a police officer speaking loudly on a megaphone. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but whenever there is an authority figure on a megaphone, it's usually not a good thing. I dragged myself to the front door and peered out the screen door to see what was going on.......

The Long Beach Blues Festival On Saturday and Sunday, Sept 1st and 2nd, the Long Beach Blues Festival at Cal State Long Beach will celebrate its 28th year. The Juke Joint stage provides music between sets on the main stage. Although event producer, station KKJZ 88.1 FM, is now operated by Global Jazz, Inc. they are continuing the tradition. Music starts at 10:15am and ends at 6pm. On Saturday, the lineup includes Buddy Guy, Dr.......

Wilson Betemit was just traded for Yankee reliever Scott Proctor...

Expect delays between 6 a.m. and noon on Saturday: On Saturday morning, April 28, transit patrons utilizing Union Station between 6 a.m. and noon are advised that they may experience service delays of 15 minutes or longer on inbound and outbound rail and bus services due to a scheduled joint security training exercise.Union Station transit operators, including the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), Metrolink and Amtrak, will join the Los Angeles County......

The Greek will be hosting some very impressive shows this year. First Sonic Youth announced that they will perform Daydream Nation at the venue up in Griffith Park, and then The Arcade Fire announced that they'll play on May 29th and 30th. On Saturday at 10am tickets for both Arcade Fire gigs will go on sale. So set your alarm clocks. The Arcade Fire are one of the most-welcome return attendees of Coachella in......

We live in a beautiful part of the world, don't you think? Despite the fact that sometimes it feels like all we ever see are the taillights and inane vanity plates of the car we're stuck behind, if we take some time to check out all the flora and fauna that our soil produces, we might get that nice swift kick in the rear from Mother Nature we didn't even know we needed. On......

The gender-bending, genre-melding performance art of the Butchlalis de Panochtitlan is hard to define, but it's fun and very funny to watch. This foursome of queer butch Latinas uses video and sketch-driven performances to explore sex, sexuality, race, romance, community, identity and growing up brown and butch in greater L.A. If that description makes you cringe because (like me) you've sat through a few too many evenings of performance art that's so pretentious and......

On Saturday night while cruising The Grove before a 9:55 p.m. screening of Reno 911!: Miami who did I happen to spot but Reno 911 cast members Cedric Yarbrough and Carlos Alazraqui hanging out in the theater lobby. I know you can't tell from this photo, but they're actually snorting caviar out of supermodels' asses. Like the elusive Loch Ness monster the event could only be documented with blurry, impossible-to-prove images, but I did......

Monday, February 5 Creative Screenwriting Magazine is sponsoring a free screening of Children of Men followed by a Q&A with writer/director Alfonso Cuaron and co-writer Tim Sexton. WHEN: Mon., Feb. 5 at 7:30 PM. WHERE: DGA Theater, 7920 Sunset Blvd. (betw. Crescent Heights & Fairfax) RSVP: Go to the Creative Screenwriting website and sign up to receive information about future events. You should then receive an email with further instructions about how to sign up......

Clippers 100, Hornets 90 - Sam Cassell came back from injury in a big way, scoring 10 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter to bury New Orleans (currently playing in Oklahoma City). The healthy Clippers took advantage of a not-so-healthy Hornets, who were missing three starters and were swept on their four game home stand. Oilers 2, Kings 1, OT - Los Angeles had an unexpected hero but Edmonton responded with one of......

Ducks 4, Flames 1 - Calgary was even or in the lead for the first 46 minutes, but flamed out in the third when Anaheim poured on three goals to secure victory number 26. The Ducks still sit atop the NHL with 58 points in 36 games. On Saturday the Ducks lost to division rival San Jose, who is in second place in the west with 48 points in 34 games. Elsewhere - Dodger......

-- Weep softly that you didn't get into tonight's sold-out, special screening of Dreamgirls at LACMA. Now dry your tears and pick up the pieces. If you're desperate to pay $25 to see a movie, you can catch Dreamgirls at the Arclight in its "Pre-Release Exclusive Engagement," which runs Dec. 15-24. Your "event-priced ticket" includes a "souvenir program" and a commemorative Dreamgirls' lithograph available only during this 10-day engagement (and forever after on eBay).......

This time, we're not talking about USC fan woes or UCLA fans who got shot with rubber bullets. We're talking shootings with real bullets: Eagle Rock On Friday, December 1, 2006, at approximately 8:40 p.m., officers responded to the 4800 block of Wiota Street in Eagle Rock. Officers found Randy Duane Rogers’ lifeless body lying on the driveway. Paramedics made several attempts to resuscitate him but he had already died from his injuries. According......

The former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, Enrique Peñalosa, visited Los Angeles planners and MTA employees last week to spread some words of wisdom on transforming Los Angeles into a transit paradise.  Downtown News reported that his introduction to the group was pithy: "We [LA] were talking about [the solutions] and then Peñalosa just went and did it."  He did it with 1,200 urban parks, restricted car use in downtown Bogotá, and pedestrian-only streets (one......

Looking for a way to give back a little this weekend? Join volunteers from Heal the Bay and all around California on Coastal Cleanup Day. From the Heal the Bay website: On Saturday, September 16th, from 9:00 a.m. till noon, over 10,000 volunteers are expected to come together in L.A. County, taking action to rid our beaches and inland waterways of unsightly and harmful debris. Ninety-one countries around the world will take part in......

Very much like the vanilla-and-chocolate frozen yogurt swirl, when a dj combines two different records together to make a new tune, that's a mashup. Sometimes the results are horrible, like peanut butter and fish, sometimes the results are beautiful, like The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" with the Beastie Boys "Body Movin'" (sped up really fast). Because Indie 103 rules, they've given DJ Paul V. the "Mashup Of The Day" feature and his own......

If you like music and books, you may have noticed the 33 1/3 series. They're pocket-sized paperbacks that celebrate "much-loved" albums of the last 40 years. Each book is about one record, and they look at the people who make the music as much as musing on the music itself. On Saturday, local popculturenista Kim Cooper (Scram, the 1947 Project) will be joined by NYer Ben Sisario to read from their new 33 1/3......

Salon.com has posted photos from the Army's Criminal Investigation Command's complete Abu Ghraib media file. The Army has been trying to keep it under wraps, but it hit the news in Australia this week. Salon's post includes more chilling photos of prisoner abuse by Americans. The Geneva Convention states, in part "the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place...: violence to life and person, in particular murder......

The next few days are all about classes aimed at getting folks in the kitchen and their hands dirty in preparation for holiday feats and foodie gift-making. Check out some of these holiday how-tos: SATURDAY DECEMBER 3 & SUNDAY DECEMBER 4 Sur La Table on Third is offering two baking courses this weekend. On Saturday at 10:00 AM you can join in to learn how to make blue ribbon apple pie, best-ever individual pumpkin......

If you're in the mood for a little award-winning homebrewed beer, you might trek out to the Mayfaire celebration of the Maltose Falcons, America's oldest homebrew club this weekend. Based out of the Home Wine, Beer, and Cheesemaking Shop in Woodland Hills, the club has been in pursuit of perfect homebrew since 1974. On Saturday, they meet for an annual picnic in Santa Paula, where winners of this year's competition will be announced; results......

While we're happy that the Clippers are doing much better than expected this year and haven't already given up on the season (and if they can just string a few more wins together might even compete for the 8th playoff spot in the West), we're heading to the Staples Center tonight to get our last chance to see Shaquille O'Neal play in Los Angeles this season. Your Los Angeles Clippers host the Miami Heat......

On Saturday, December 11th, Santa Monica Museum of Art will exhibit "Black Belt," a group show of artwork, curated by the Studio Museum of Harlem, exploring the intersection between African American and Asian American cultures from the 1970s and 1980s. The forty five works in different mediums by nineteen contemporary American artists interpret political and philosophical connections among people of color, pop culture, and urban life. When the show opened in New York last......