He's gone to Middle Earth and now he's back again: Peter Jackson has finally agreed to executive-produce not one, but TWO films of "The Hobbit." New Line Pictures, which produced the massively successful and critically acclaimed "Lord of the Rings" films, had originally dumped Jackson from the "Hobbit" sequels because of ongoing disputes over profits Jackson claimed he was owed for "The Fellowship of The Ring." But this morning's press release declares that all litigation......

Some photographers are just lucky. They were in the right place at the right time. They were there to ride the crest of a burgeoning scene. Not so for Ann Summa. She may have been snapping away while LA's punk rock scene took its very first breath, but the timelessness of her photography is not sheer luck. Ann Summa's photographs could stand up to the best of them even if they were pictures of......

One of the many tattoos done by Kat Von D This past Friday night, The Learning Channel's LA Ink tattoo artist vixen, Kat von D, attempted to break the world record for most tattoos done in a 24 hour period. With lines forming almost 48 hours in advance, people flocked from as far away as Ohio to be apart of tattoo history. At about 3:30 in the morning on Friday, we decided to head......

Gingersnaps and cocoa and rum balls and Italian knots and Kolacky and biscotti and chocolate chips, oh my! LAist has been in the kitchen, cooking up a Cookie Exchange. I Can Has JGoldBurger? Omg the PULITZER PRIZE WINNING JOURNALIST uses LOLspeak, I don't know what to say, my world has been all shook up like a snowglobe. It's entirely possible I was Afghani in a previous life (as well as Korean, Persian, Icelandic, and......

Online book retailer Amazon.com announced today that they have purchased an original, hand-written and hand-bound copy of J.K. Rowling's "The Tales of Beedle the Bard," a book of children's stories that plays a major role in the plot of "The Deathly Hallows." The book, one of only seven made, was auctioned off in London at Sotheby's for 1.95 million pounds. Proceeds from the auction are going to The Children's Voice Campaign, a charity that benefits......

LAist has been sending undercover reporters to UCLA's undie run for the past few quarters and trust us, there's no better place to be embedded than in a throng of thongs. Try as they might to duplicate our coverage (we're looking at you, KTLA ... and the creepy dude with a camera lens that was a lil' too long, if you know what we mean), nobody can uncover a story like we can. Thanks......

The Harry Potter series of films may be due for a bit of a letdown now that the books are all done and the secrets are out. Nevertheless, something tells me I'll be curling up with the family to watch Order of the Phoenix over Christmas. If Paul Greengrass isn't the best director working right now he's definitely on a very short list and Bourne Ultimatum is the proof. What was Vanessa Hudgens thinking?......

For those of you who enjoyed The Golden Compass this weekend, it looks unlikely that you'll have the chance to see the second installment of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Compass only managed to take in 26.1 million dollars at the box-office, below what were already reduced expectations. Considering its budget was rumored to be above $200M, it's looking like Compass may rival Evan Almighty as the flop of the year. Shame. Since Compass......

After missing the horror writers picket last week, I made sure to head over to the Paramount lot this afternoon to snap some shots of this week's awesome (ly nerdy) strike gimmick -- STAR TREK DAY! Sadly, I saw nary a Klingon, but I did manage to spot a few pairs of Spock ears, a phaser or two, and of course, one Mr. George Takei (oh my). Beam me up, solidarity! Lots of pictures......

Snow. It's great when you're watching it from inside a heated room, like magic dust bunnies dropping from the celestial ceiling. It's much less magical when you're trying to strategically pee inside your car door to defrost the locks. Call it lifestyle differences, we Angelenos prefer our holidays merry and BRIGHT with a high of 72. The following local heroes offer proof positive that a white Christmas is not a requirement for high spirits.......

Last weekend we were lucky enough to snag at seat at the demo-style Holiday Cooking Class hosted by Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, aka The Two Hot Tamales, at their Border Grill restaurant in Santa Monica. The room was packed with enchanted attendees focused on the endearing antics of the celeb chefs and the amazing food they were making, which we were served in tandem with the recipe demos. The menu was set to......

I know, I know, KevCheng is a food blogger, what's with the DJ spinning up there? Now, I've never been a huge "Let's go hear a DJ spin" kind of guy, so when I was invited by a friend to go to a "lounge" and listen to "House Music," I just wasn't very motivated; especially when I learned it's on Sunset where it's usually $15 just to park. $15!? That's one night at Korean......

One of the advantages of real flea markets over EBay is the ability to dig through piles of freaky stuff and come up with buried treasure. One of my favorite finds are collections of old recipe cards. There was once a time when food photography was somehow limited, perhaps by the printing technique, or the tinting process, or maybe it was just the aesthetic of the time. The food portrayed more often than not showed......

There's no such thing as a quiet Monday in this town. Here's a quick look at what's happening: FILM: If you're a historic film buff, then head over the Academy Linwood-Dunn Theatre for A Century Ago: The Films of 1907. The event celebrates the year 1907 and its developmental contributions to motion pictures with a program of selected films. The evening will present a partial survey of turn-of-the-20th-century international filmmaking with trick films, actualities, primitive......

Who would have thought Disney could come up with such a great contest? In spite of the danger of TWO Disney and Holiday-related posts today, I just have to throw this one out there for everyone. These pictures are just too good to keep to myself. Not only do they involve scary Santas and tormented children, but parents are the ones exposing their child's darkest moments in the hopes of a monetary prize. I hope......

Sometimes Watt sends out pictures of found objects that he comes across while pedaling around Pedro. My favorite thing about this photo is Watt's DIY self-painted helmet on the ground. True, he probably took it off to look through the viewfinder of the camera. But it also makes me wonder just a little bit whether he was going to try on the hat.......

Farm Boy Palms (probably also known as Farm Boy Culver City) is finally open. With a pretty substantial workload, I haven't had time to go there a lot, but I did manage to take some pictures. They have loads of fruits and vegetables, all described on their handwritten cards as "sweet and fresh." The sushi looks about on par with Ralphs, and they have fruit flavored yogurts with all the Pinkberry trimmings.......

Diana & Alice Bag circa '78 I almost didn’t go to see Ann Summa’s Los Angeles punk photo exhibition at Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica. No offense to the once, raw obscure photographers who happened to be at the right place at the right time 30 years ago, snapping amazing images of once, raw obscure bands. Your recognition is well past due. It’s just that there’s been a plethora of punk picture/art/flyer/book exhibitions......

People with too much time on their hands: Amy Ephron and other striking writers have whipped up a food blog. Our current food blog obsession: Luxeat, a Parisian model who eats at the finest restaurants in France and takes luscious pictures. Of the food. Over at the LA Times, food editor Leslie Brenner is really sticking it to the new Michelin Guide. Among her criticisms? "The book that purports to be the bible of......

Every so often when we feel so inspired to do so, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the LAist Flickr Pool. It's another way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve. TITLE: "The fact is, there is a single source of all your problems, stress, unhappiness and self-doubt. It’s called the reactive mind - the hidden part of your mind that stores all painful......

It has been a year of simchas and tragedies for my family. From the birth of my first born son to the death of my father-in-law. I am thankful for the good things. I deal with the sad ones the best I can. I am thankful to have a healthy family. I am thankful for my son Elijah. I am thankful for an understanding and wonderful Wife. I am thankful to have had the......

You know you're gonna do it. Don't lie. You're gonna be there in the dark, in the cold, along with all your friends and neighbors standing in line like a dope at 4:50am outside some Big Box store or a mall waiting for some kid to unlock the door so you can buy a $300 plasma tv or a $5 dvd player. It's America and no matter how cool we think we are, we're......

A good friend recently introduced LAist to this clever user-driven food review site. What makes these reviews unique from LA Citysearch are the pictures that accompany all of the food. People casually browsing can "lick" up entries to show their approval, everyone gets to comment on each review -- and best of all, it's LA-Centric. Each review goes dish-by-dish, often with the exact price attached to the picture of the food items. This little......

Last night I was out with my family going to dinner in downtown when we noticed the Christmas Tree was already up at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. They had a cherry picker going applying decorations. We walked over to check out out, and what did we see? Paint. 40 Gallons of Green Paint. I guess they could not find a tree just that right shade of green for Los Angeles. More pictures after the......

One of the best known personalities in tv advertising, Dick Wilson, better known as Mr. Whipple died today in the Valley, he was 91. The iconic character actor made over 500 commercials where he'd try to protect the precious tp from being felt up and smelled, while at the same time falling for its charms. Says the AP: The man famous as TV's "Mr. Whipple" died of natural causes at the Motion Picture &......

While it easily won the weekend box-office crown, Beowulf disappointed somewhat with a 28.1 million dollar opening. If it's anything like Zemekis' last film Polar Express, though, the amazing 3-D will continue to pull in audiences for weeks to come. Having seen it at the IMAX theater at the Bridge, I can say that it is totally worth the price of a ticket. Bee Movie stayed strong in its third week, adding $14.3M and......

a writer's perspective As the strike heads into week three, writers are excited about Friday's late announcement that negotiations are going to resume on November 26. (Thank you Variety for the completely unslanted breaking news headline "Writers Agree To Talk".) Yesterday, LAist covered John Edwards appearance at a writers rally on Friday. The post spoke about all of the photos turning up on the web. I thought I would close the lid on Week......

We told you they were coming to speak on global warming, now here's what happened at yesterday's Presidential Forum in West LA. For the second time this month, fire officials are preparing for more wildfires as dry winds approach. Mission Viejo in Orange County is dubbed safest city in America. Sorry Detroit, you're back at the bottom of this list. However, these numbers came from a private research group and people, including the FBI,......

I first saw this house in 1986. Whenever I'm in the area, I take a quick detour down a side alley to check it out. It has gradually evolved, with a new mosaic or glass feature appearing each time I drive by. I saw a guy working up on the roof about six months ago, and he seemed too young to have been working on the house for 20 years. Maybe it is a......

Photographers are known to fixate. They are pretty faithful to their subject. For the most part, I take pictures of food, bands, and cemetaries. Then sometimes I just become obsessed with random subjects. On this day it was the vendors at the Tamale Festival.......