A fire that began with a spark of lightning in Big Sur is now responsible for burning over 42 acres and is reportedly only 3 per cent contained. A 12-mile segment of the Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) has been closed down as firefighters work to control the blaze. Over 1,000 fires have been burning in Northern California for the past week, many of which were ignited by lightning strikes. President Bush has declared a......

The end of the trail at Parker Overlook | All Photos by Zach Behrens/LAist For most of the 5.5-mile Pacific Palisades hike at the popular Paseo Miramar trail towards Parker Overlook, you can see the ocean. Located two blocks east of Pacific Coast Highway on Sunset (map found below), the hike is a popular one, often leaving the dense hillside neighborhood at the top of the street strapped for parking, which means hikers must......

More Pictures From the Surf City Marathon/Half Marathon...

Sitting besides Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Allegria is a cozy and warm fine Italian restaurant. As part of DineLA Week, we visited to try the prix-fixe menu. LAist has been offering you some great coverage of Restaurant Week: to join in the party, you can find a listing of participating restaurants at DineLA.com. Participating restaurants typically offer a three-course lunch for $22 and dinner for $34.......

Tonight’s the next installment of the LA Phil’s Concrete Frequency series, but here are other options we've dug up for your going-out pleasure: DANCE Hollywood Ballet is LA's own modern ballet ensemble. Tonight's show includes premieres of "RQ 21," set to sections of Mozart’s Requiem; "Ghost Frog," set to music by Parisian jazz guitar virtuoso Pascal Vaucel; lyrical/Middle Eastern fusion dance set to the ballet music from Verdi‘s Aid. Dancers from the troupe’s pre-professional group,......

Happy 50th to our weekly photo contributor Mike Watt! This is a self-portrait taken this morning, kayaking around Angel's Gate in the rain at dawn. He'll also be marking the occasion tonight by rocking DiPiazza's in Long Beach. Watt will be joining Nels Cline and Steve Perkins in Banyan, Perkins' experimental, mostly instrumental project. Opening bands are Alfajerk and Horrors of Toledo. Banyan goes on at 11pm, so you can still catch them if......

Good thing the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) put out a Red Flat Alert (move your car if you live in the hills or you could be towed) last night for today -- a major brush fire began this morning around 5:50 a.m. near Tampa Ave and Sesnon Bl (yo, Valley, people, this is Porter Ranch) in Los Angeles County territory according to alerts from the LAFD. In the name of mutual aid, the......

Selected quotes from another Wilshire gridlocked story in the LA Times ("Signal fixes get the green light" by Ron Gong-Lin II):Last month, [Councilman Jack] Weiss asked the city Department of Transportation for its master plan and list of top needs, and found out there were none. "It's municipal malpractice," Weiss said. "We have a strategic plan for other important aspects for our city, but the one most vexing issue, traffic. . . there's no......

Trying to keep it light today people... HBOs 'Entourage' makes Los Angeles a character While "Entourage" is a show about four close buddies, the HBO series gets much of its charm from what is arguably the group's fifth member: the city of Los Angeles. El Lay's status at the center of the U.S. entertainment industry means lots of shows nominally take place here. But few — if any — shows approach the city with......

Londonist prepares a Happy Birthday bath for Buddah this week and then things get all cliched. A madman goes on a rampage while axe-wiedling and London's mayor warns an American diplomat to avoid the kitchen if the heat bothers him so much. LAist has finally come around to purchasing tickets for Clipper Train. Hyper local dating sites are spamming L.A. neighborhoods and the fascinating Dame Darcy talks with LAist about art, the city and earthquakes.......

Pepperdine's Weisman Museum has been hosting a show since November featuring the stunning works of world-renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly. Art glass has been evolving in scope and popularity in recent years, with many emergent artists in the medium who cite Chihuly as both mentor and influence. This exhibition spans two floors of the museum, and features an installation of works that "include an overview of the many shapes and structures he developed over......

Bob Pool reports in the 2/5/05 edition of the Los Angeles Times about how the current Topanga Canyon roadblock affects residents in the canyons and beyond. An 80-foot washout has forced the off-again, on-again closure of the heavily used route since Jan. 10. And now state highway officials say a 17-hour-per-day shutdown will likely continue through the end of March. Some residents are happy about the slower pace but commuters are growing frustrated, many......

During the weekend's revelry, LAist saw familiar sights as he floated down the Pacific Coast Highway - lots and lots of motorists getting whacked with tickets. (We saw six or seven folks get written up on a 1 hour run to and from LAX alone.) We'll be the first to admit it: it's important to police PCH tightly. The road has been plagued with drunk drivers for years, and the problem gets worse during......