The difference between last year and this year was night and day. Last year, the police were in riot gear, got injured, shot rubber bullets into crowds full of innocent people including, children, the elderly and reporters live on air (see this video). This year, the LAPD retrained and chilled out... a lot more. By the end of the day, only five people had been arrested. Earlier May Day Photo Essays include: Portraits, Crowds and......

More scenes from yesterday's various May Day marches from LAist Featured Photos contributor Tom Andrews.......

LAist Featured Photos contributor Tom Andrews spent the day at yesterday's May Day marches. Here are some of the amazing images of the people he saw and met.......

I innocently went to Third Street Promenade on Saturday to go shopping to put together a new "I'm single and available" look as the current one isn't working, and happened upon some sort of pre-Earth Day, super green I heart the environment festival. Fortunately Earth Day brings out the best of Santa Monica, and my camera and I happened to be there. I can't appropriately put words to this, so just click the photos.......

Just in time for St Paddy's Day, we check out some of the Irish coffees around town. Screw green beer. That stuff will kill you. After drinking many Irish Coffees in the name of serious scientific research, I have discovered a good Irish coffee relies on two relatively simple elements: the freshness of the coffee and use of real heavy cream #1 Tom Bergin's Tom Bergin's is known as the home of Irish coffee, at......

Human Giant unleashed itself upon an unsuspecting public last year via MTV and the bell just rang for Round 2 - are you ready? There's sketch comedy, there's underground sketch comedy, there's in your face on-the-streets sketch comedy, and then there's Human Giant, a team that presents, in each episode, collections of bits that are more like experimental movies than the sketch comedy we've been seeing for the last 15 years. There's plenty of parody......

Waking up at 5:30 a.m. and being rushed out of your downtown Wilshire Grand hotel room is not the ideal experience for your Los Angeles stay. However, better safe than sorry when the 10th floor of at least 80 people was evacuated due to pepper spray being released. In an e-mail alert, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Ron Meyers said 20-30 people were evaluated with none needing treatment or transport to a local area hospital.......

The defending Stanley Cup champion (and recently reassembled) Anaheim Ducks are holding a contest tomorrow for a chance to sing the national anthem at one of their upcoming games. Get you tail down to ESPN Zone’s SportsCenter Studio Store in Downtown Disney to register. People are encouraged to sign up early as space is limited (you can do it today if you're in the area). Singers will compete on Thursday, March 6 at 6:00pm, where......

The Magnetic Fields play tonight and tomorrow | Image via their MySpace Some may know that there is the LA Homeless Blog, written by the CEO of People Assisting the Homeless (PATH). Tonight, the Hotel Cafe is hosting a benefit concert for the organization called Rock and Run for Charity. The name is not merely because the Marathon happened this morning. Sara Radle from Calamity Magnet and Chris Radle from Supersport both ran it......

Fallout from the massive Westland/Hallmark meat recall scandal continues to affect Southland restaurants, stretching from San Diego to Ventura County. The California Department of Public Health has released a document listing every food purveyor which has purchased the recalled beef -- and at 59+ pages, it's a doozy. Chances are very good you have purchased or ingested some of Westland/Hallmark's product at some point, since markets and restaurants across the city are represented. My......

Photo by atomicshakespeares via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Suffering from an Oscar hangover? Then check out the next generation of hot filmmakers at The Beverly Hills Shorts Festival, which begins tonight and runs through the weekend. The studio that brought you such blockbusters as the "Lord of the Rings" franchise will soon become only the merest shadow of its former self: Warner Brothers will be absorbing New Line Cinema, which employs......

People gripe about the rain and its effects, especially on traffic. It's easy to forget that we're living desert-adjacent; being a part-time Hi-Desert dweller, I'm grateful for every inch of rain we get, especially after the devastating fires of 2006. Along with nourishing our parched land and turning that empty concrete wash into an actual "LA River", the rain brings an abundance of wildflowers, transforming the desert floor into a multicolored carpet for miles. Peak......

Zero One Gallery | All photos by Elise Thompson for LAist Remember the good old days, when you would just end up at a random artspace downtown sometime after midnight? People would be walking around wearing bowler hats and bunny suits while loud noise/music/artistic expression screeched out from the next room. So you would wander into the next room and find someone bellydancing or putting on a burlesque show. And you would think to......

These murals outside Pincher's Liquor on Pico were some of your favorites this week on LAist | Photo by Osmany Rodriguez/LAist When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "recommend" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities......

UCLA was almost overtaken by the Oregon Ducks today, but managed to rally back in the second half to win. I am no sports writer, and I'm not going to pretend to be, so this is how it went in my world. UCLA turned the ball over what seemed to be about 9 billion times (actually 12) and were playing like molasses in the first half. They let the shot clock run down to......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on LAist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Kanye West at the Staples Center, the third show they've added in L.A.! Other People's Love Letters, the book where you can see 150 love letters you were never meant to see. Joe Jackson's Rain, available now on Amazon.com. Busted Tees, which introduces three new designs a......

If you're like me, (white, liberal, living in an urban setting) you're probably a huge fan of The Neverending Story. Remember near the end of the film, when The Nothing has completely destroyed all of Fantasia, except for the Childlike Empress? Then, in the blackness of space, she turns to the screen and surprises the living hell out of Bastian, (the framing device/protagonist of the film,) by telling him that He's The One!!!, that the......

"Welcome to NoHo," by ~db~ via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr Happy 5th Birthday Gothamist!! A "possible" security breach at the Department of Water and Power Monday may result in more than 8,300 employees wondering, why are there two me's? The lifted information included stats on active DWP employee's names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth and could result in a massive case of stolen identity. The gig is up for all......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on LAist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Kanye West at the Nokia Theater, tickets went on sale today! Other People's Love Letters, the book where you can see 150 love letters you were never meant to see. Joe Jackson's Rain, available now on Amazon.com. Nik Bärtsch's Ronin, the new album that's available now. Busted......

Encountered this lineup for Vanilla Bake Shop in Santa Monica. The line was 20 stylish ladies deep with a sprinkling of guys. I asked one of the would-be cupcake customers who she was buying cupcakes for and she just said, "A friend." Another customer behind us wondered aloud why there were so many women and not really any guys. I guess women are more apt to buy cute cakes for each other and maybe......

Artist: Beck Album: Odelay Deluxe Edition Label: UMe Release Date: January 29th, 2008 I wish I could put a promo track up with this post but UMe won't let me so it's their loss. Just hum "Devil's Haircut" while you read. It's been a dozen years since Beck Hanson put out his best album, Odelay, and listening to this expanded reissue just confirms that this release was his peak (to date). This is not to......

Lakers 117, Timberwolves 92 - The Lakers sent a major sign to the rest of the NBA on their long road trip, finishing with a 7-2 record, acquiring Pau Gasol, and seeing Kobe pour in 29 points last night even with a dislocated finger. Against Minnesota, the Lakers got another solid performance from Gasol, who shot 9-of-11 for 19 points and blocked three shots. The team is off through the All Star game (Sunday) and......

Twilight Sleeps is one of the bands that opens for Pity Party tonight at Spaceland | Photo by Joya Martuscello Sometimes Monday nights lead to tough choices. For Jax at Rock Insider, it's between The Pity Party (who we interviewed this morning) and The Henry Clay People. Luckily, both bands are playing all month. Still, there are many choices. If you like your music Folk, your drinks cheap and have never been to Joe's......

Scientology centers around the world were targeted by a mass protest yesterday organized by an anonymous group called, simply enough, "Anonymous". Members refer to themselves only as "Anon" or "Legion". Protests were reported in Boston, Toronto, Europe and Australia. Here is an LAist photo essay of the protest at the Celebrity Center. Blogger Bandergrove has provided additional photographs and a first-hand account of the events in Hollywood yesterday. People showed up in droves —......

Partying at The Standard Hotel's poolside | Photo by skampy via Flickr The City of West Hollywood's Planning Commission met the other night to discuss the Standard Hotel's request to extend their poolside hours to 1:30 a.m. from the current weekend midnight closing (closes at 10 p.m. on weekdays), keeping the hotel's poolside bar competitive with other Sunset Strip nightlife options. B-Side Blog attended the meeting to support the idea, but left the meeting......

"How are you going to MAKE me get off the treadmill?" I wanted to scream at her. "I can TAKE you, old lady!"...

Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford didn't exactly set the box-office on fire when it landed in theaters. Something tells me, though, that this superb, meditative neo-Western will enjoy a long life on DVD. Across the Universe is the world's longest music video and a treat for any Beatles fan (and only for Beatles' fans!). Elizabeth - The Golden Age was unexpectedly ripped by critics.......

Smash Fashion plays Monday nights at Crash Mansion | Photo via their MySpace page Month-long residencies are one of the best ways to catch up-and-coming bands in Los Angeles. You have at least four times to catch a band, and each time, if they are gaining popularity over each show, it will be harder to see them. Last Thursday at their final residency concert, The Airborne Toxic Event played a sold out show with......

Pity Party at Little Radio on New Years Eve | Photo by Koga/LAist Despite it being Superbowl Sunday, February residencies got off to a great start last night with Alex & Sam at Tangier. Tonight is the first night of February residencies at Spaceland, Silverlake Lounge, Crash Mansion and The Echo/Echoplex. By last Thursday, The Airborne Toxic Event had gained so much popularity from their January residency, they had to reject 300 people from......

The Super Bowl isn't just the center of the universe for the sports business, but also for anybody working at E! or People. Even TMZ had a giant mobile billboard just outside the stadium in Glendale -- probably reminding party-goers to send them any interesting photos. While the teams were sequestered away under heavy guard (a cop only seemed to half-joke about shooting me when I pulled into a wrong driveway near the Giant's hotel),......