Photo courtesy of jpchan via flickr For me, the Sundance Film Festival officially ended at the airport in Salt Lake City when I was waiting in line behind Bijou Phillips at the Quizno's in Terminal 1. She was politely arguing with the counter guy about why she couldn't get fresh mustard from behind the counter instead of having to use the the mustard packets by the napkin stand. In a heavy accent, he kept......

We just received an unbelievable e-mail from friend-of-LAist and local indie troubadour Matthew Moon and wanted to share. Some amazing and surprising things really do happen at Sundance. Read on: Two days ago I was performing at a Sundance Film Festival event in Salt Lake City, UT. After my performance at Rose Wagner Theater, I began driving the 25 minutes it takes to get back up to Park City. I checked my voice mail......

Photo courtesy of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival As one of my favorite bloggers Jeffrey Wells recently wrote, "The Sundance Film Festival is a 10-day event, but it's always over as of Wednesday morning...the voltage turns down, there are fewer people on Main Street, all the presumably hot titles (i.e., name casts, advance-hyped) have been screened." Park City actually becomes a manageable town again and tickets that were impossible to get a few days......

Ben Lyons and Jane Lynch at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival LAist caught up with Ben Lyons from E! to tell us what Park City is really like during the Sundance Film Festival. From Charlize Theron to Diddy, Ben's time at the festival is jam packed with screenings, interviews, and parties. We asked him to fill us in on his favorite films, his obsession with "Beverly Hills 90210", and going bobsledding with Ivan Radcliff.......

In 1992, Quentin Tarantino made a huge splash at the Sundance Film Festival with his directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs. He didn't return to Park City until this year to serve as a member of the Festival's Jury. Last night, he was honored with the Ray-Ban Visionary Award and LAist was there. Following a short introduction by Dennis Hopper, Quentin took the stage and riffed about his first Sundance experience for about twenty minutes. Following......

Photo courtesy of In Between Sessions via Flickr Starting tomorrow and continuing through next week, LAist will be reporting live from the Sundance Film Festival. We'll be covering the films, the parties, the people and the various surreal and pointless events that comprise the most important film festival in the country. With the WGA strike still in full bloom, most are expecting a buying frenzy up in Park City as distributors stock up on......

Experience has taught us there is no such thing as a cheap weekend in Park City. But Laker forward Vladimir Radmanovic learned his weekend is going to cost and extra $500,000. You see, he had never been snowboarding before and thought it sounded like a fun way to spend All Star weekend with his friends. Several little problems crept up, however. First, Radmanovic had never snowboarded before and, as anyone who’s done it can tell......

Park City, UTAH - Don't worry, Dakota Fanning is safe and sound. She hasn't actually been raped. It's the character in her latest film that gets attacked. And thank goodness, because Fanning is the best thing about the otherwise dreadful Hounddog. Although the film's rape scene, which was filmed when Fanning was all of 12, has been getting so much grief (this morning's Sundance screening in Salt Lake City was greeted with protests), it's......

We have arrived. After a grueling eleven and a half hour roadtrip through conditions ranging from foggy, to rainy, to blizzardy, we drove into Park City around 6:00pm Thursday night. A fine meal of Swiss/German food helped to fortify our freezing LA-based skins. It was about 18 degrees outside. And snowing. What did we get ourselves into? Park City really is a beautiful place at night, with a blanket of snow covering everything and......

We are thrilled to hear that there's a second chance for Kepler's, the famous independent bookstore in Menlo Park. After an outpouring of support from bloggers, former employees, and friends around the country, and even NY Times coverage, things are taking a turn for the better. Councilmember Kelly Ferguson is organizing a rally this Tuesday, September 6th at 5 pm, outside the store, to be followed by a community organizing session at the Menlo......

Open your Feb 05 issue of Los Angeles Magazine to find their 8 favorite LA blogs. Perhaps by nature of our pithy name, we top the list. And our seven compatriots are: Blogging.la (stuff) Art.blogging.la (art) LA Voice (stuff, events) Defamer (hollywood gossip -- this week, Park City) The Elegant Variation (books, literary events) Sports by Brooks (sports, boobies) LA Observed (newsy news) Many of these can be found permanently in our links, below......

Earlier this week, LA.Com's nightlife newsletter, Plus One, gave their list of favorite local hot spots and while we might quibble with their favorite nights at most of the venues we can't much complain. Spider Club continues to be our favorite location to drink with friends, star watch, and dance. We just like it on Mondays when Morty is spinning 80s all night. The crowds have waned a bit and we're not sure how......

Well, we've survived the first leg of awards season so far. The Golden Globes are over, Industry-types are off to Park City for Sundance and the Oscar nomination/winner odds-making begins in earnest. Now is the time for out-of-town journalists to do their legwork about town in order to find new ways to describe the luxuriousness of Wolfgang Puck's Oscar Ball menu or give readers a verbal blueprint of this year's location for the Vanity......

It's a truism that Los Angeles is a city of contrasts. There are so many shops and services that cater to the rich that one grows used to the idea that you exist in a two or three-tiered city, where only the privileged few have access to some goods and services. It's no big deal. But we grow weary of having the news foisted on us by the media. Already, there's been news bits......