On Thursday with the enlightened press in tow, Frank McCourt broke ground at the LA Memorial Coliseum to prepare for the March 29 exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox. Although the game has been sold out, the Dodgers have added a standing room only section behind the right field fence for 25,000 more tickets. Those tickets will go on sale Saturday for $10 a piece. If that sells out that means 115,000 people......

On Thursday, a groundbreaking ceremony was held a few miles north of Mojave for the country's largest city-owned windfarm. The Pine Tree Wind Project is Los Angeles' hope for the future of power, supplying 120 megawatts of renewable energy to our city. In fact, Mayor Villaraigosa, who attended the event and who has been working on ways to make energy more green and efficient, says "20 percent of the city's energy will come from renewable......

On Thursday (10/11) at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, LAist checked out a screening/cineconcert of the documentary The Orchestra - A True Story from Piazza Vittorio, which is scheduled for release on Oct. 23 through Netflix’s Red Envelope Entertainment division for Academy Award consideration. Directed by Agostino Ferrente, the film chronicles the formation of an Italian orchestra to help save the old Apollo Cinema in Rome from its fate as a future bingo parlor.......

Vegan and vegetarian restaurants are starting to become one of the regulars among sushi and Thai joints across Los Angeles neighborhoods. And on Thursday, Silver Lake got theirs with Flore Vegan Cuisine (additionally, Intelligentsia Coffee opened yesterday one block north). Veggies are rejoicing to once again eat owner and Chef Miranda's cuisine after selling Tierra Cafe last year in Downtown (which is still open under new management). She has now brought forth a vegan restaurant......

This week the prosecution rested its case against Phil Spector, who is accused of murdering Lana Clarkson on February 3, 2003 with a tidy shot to the head. And I do mean tidy: the "spatter" on Spector's jacket, which has been the focus of much testimony this week, consists of tiny spots, most smaller than a dime, many far littler. The defense spent the week putting forensics experts on the stand to contradict the......

Santa Clarita may have no business tax like Los Angeles, but they really have it in for signs. A 1990 sign ordinance does not allow tall billboard like signs (like the ones you may see from the freeway) within city limits. Until last year, the city gave businesses an opportunity to take down their signs within a long grace period. Then they got hardcore: On Thursday, March 16, 2006, the City of Santa Clarita......

On Thursday night we checked out "True Hollywood Story" night at the Improv, where some great standups told funny, though bitter, stories about their life in this town. The nice thing about places like the Hollywood Improv is that you never know who will show up. Jim Gaffigan was added to the bill at the last second and brought the house down with bits on bacon, laziness, and religion. From time to time he......

The Indian Film Festival celebrates its fifth anniversary this year and is now six days long. The festival takes place at the incredible ArcLight Hollywood, get tickets HERE. There will be at least 40 showings of films, both short as well as feature length. Events include an Opening Night Gala on Tuesday, April 17th, with the Los Angeles premiere of Provoked followed by a reception at the Ivar with a DJ set from the Bombay......

Grindhouse The week begins with a pair of 70s actions flicks. The Lady in Red, which has one of my favorite taglines of all time "She's made of bullets, sin & bathtub gin!" is a gangster film starring Robert Conrad as John Dillinger and Pamela Sue Martin as his moll. (Bonus: it was written by John Sayles.) In Bare Knuckles a Los Angeles bounty hunter tracks a psychopath who murders women by using kung-fu. Then......

On Thursday LAist reported that Universal was running a trailer for the soon-to-be released film "Accepted", whose sole critical raves were from one source, Paul Fischer of Dark Horizons.com. At that time we could find no review on the website that stated that "Accepted" was a "total triumph" or "raucously funny". In fact the only place that we saw Fischer's praises for the film were on other blogs, where fellow critics were dissing Fischer.......

On Thursday evening, feeling parched and unnerved by the last hot breath of the Santa Ana winds, we decided to take a nice drive down to Venice Beach. It was either that or revel in the air conditioning at the Hollywood YMCA, perspiring under blasts of cool air while pedaling a stationary bike through the muraled walls depicting the Hollywood Boulevard scene just up the street. It was still too smoky for an actual......

On Thursday, we wrote:Our LA Flavorpill newsletter for May 31- June 6 landed in our mailbox on Tuesday. It's taken a while to digest their list of "hand picked" happenings, but we noticed that LA Flavorpill favors the Merce Cunningham Dance Company twice. First there's the wrap around ads for Dance at the Music Center's presentation of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Ahmanson Theatre June 2-6. While Flavorpill Productions states in its "About......

On Thursday May 5, LAist Sports Editor Phil Wallace interviewed Los Angeles Times Sports Columnist J.A. Adande. The two discussed everything from Adande's start in journalism to the future of the Los Angeles Lakers to the best column Adande ever wrote. Q: Age and occupation? A: 34. Los Angeles Times Sports Columnist Q: How long have you lived in Los Angeles, and which neighborhood do you live in? A: I’ve been back out here......

We don't mean to be all-Arianna all-the-time today but while the launch of her new blog seems to be the talk of the town today, she's doing something cooler later this week. On Thursday, she'll sit down for a conversation with the amazing Anna Deavere Smith at 826LA. There are lots of things to like about Ms. Smith -- like her consistent casting as key government figures in films like "Dave", "American President", and......

In art, there is highbrow, there is lowbrow, and then there is the art of the noodle. Highland Park's community center-slash-radical bookstore Flor Y Canto is currently showing noodle-based art — but it's not just for show. On Thursday LA's roving band of crafters present "Call it Macaroni Craft Night!," an open call to noodlers with crafty and artistic inclinations. For a mere $2 donation you can join in transforming ordinary dried noodles into......

There's no such thing as a pitching prospect. So says the good people over at Baseball Prospectus. And the Dodgers' Edwin Jackson is almost the posterboy for their theory. Less than two years ago, Jackson was 19 and one of the most highly touted prospects in the game. Today he is 21, still young, but struggling mightily. On Thursday, Jackson was battered for seven runs in five innings against the Cleveland Indians. He's now......

The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History has plenty of events coming up to feed body and soul. On January 25, 2005 at 5:30 PM Art and Ritual Lecture Series: The Spirit of Rice Fowler curator Roy Hamilton will show photographs and video footage from Northern Japan depicting the sacred rice ritual celebrated at the beginning of each year. Sponsored by the UCLA Department of Art and held in the Westwood Kinross Building, room......

Disney's discovered that "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" paid off so nice that they're distributing it twice. The film will screen at the Disney-owned El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood from January 13th through the 30th. On Thursday, January 13th at 7:00 PM there will be a filmmaker panel discussion that will focus on the production, screenplay, and behind-the-scenes aspects. Noted film historian/author Frank Thompson will lead the panel, which......

A review of this month's LA Police Department crime blotter reveals that the rain hasn't put a damper on mayhem in the city. A. On Sunday, January 9, 2005, at about 1:00 a.m. North Hollywood officers and Fire Department personnel responded to Vanowen Street west of Laurel Canyon Boulevard for a radio call of a "Man Down." The victim was discovered on the sidewalk suffering from a stab wound to his right thigh. He......