Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Hollywood's latest exercise in Rashômon-style storytelling is Vantage Point. As most of you no doubt realize because you've seen the trailer a quarter of a million times, Vantage Point deals with the attempted assassination of the President from a multitude of perspectives. As the movie's tagline says, "8 Strangers. 8 Points of View. 1 Truth." Critics have been flaming it with Variety's Justin Chang providing some choice barbs. I......

The Airborne Toxic Event at soundcheck (see more photos here) | Photo by Koga/LAist It's the fifth Thursday of the month and this is your last chance to see The Airborne Toxic Event in their January Spaceland residency. KROQ and Indie 103.1 both added their song "Sometime Around Midnight" to their rotations last week and Airborne hears this is the first time in about 15 years KROQ has done this with an unsigned band......

I am so sick of this shit. All week long the pervasive analysis on Sunday’s Super Bowl is Tom Brady’s boot and flowers to the owner of the vagina he sticks his dick in from time to time. Ok. I just threw up a little bit in my mouth. Does no one realize that this is the same quarterback that has been on the injured list every day since the dawn of time? Of......

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......

Photo courtesy of Focus Features Even on the best days, the Sundance Film Festival is an extremely hectic place to be. Screenings and events often overlap and are spread all over town, and even though the public transportation is good (and free!), it can still be a nightmare to get someplace quickly. Cabs can be hard to come by and parking (when available) is expensive. Furthermore, there are always going to be lines waiting......

As a passionate traveler, I'm often struck by signs. Signs that you pass on the road, signs to motels, barber shops, gas stations, liquor stores and churches. This one was taken in a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA and I think it says it all. Some might say life (and love Pat Benatar we know) is a battlefield, but what if it didn't have to be. If people were just a little bit nicer and......

NFL playoffs are here! Which means that Superbowl XLII is right around the corner. This year's Superbowl is going to be played in Arizona on February 3, 2007 and it was recently announced that Tom Petty will be playing the halftime show. As a native of Pittsburgh, PA, I often say that I bleed black and gold. Truth is, professional football for me is what college football (or fill-in-the-blank any sport you want) for......

With the regular season of the NFL coming to an end, what have we truly learned? 1. Perfection is Possible! The New England Patriots join the ranks of the 1972 Miami Dolphins and the 1942 and 1934 Chicago Bears teams. However they are the first to do this with a 16 game schedule (the other teams did it on a 14, 11 and 13 game schedules respectively). It may be tempting to call this......

Barry Bonds was in federal court today to face the music ... sort of. Southern California's least favorite son pleaded not guilty to four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. After showing off his latest threads (the wire reports had little else to say so they raved about his "impeccably tailored" look), Bonds walked back out a free man. He was essentially released on his own recognizances, but would owe Uncle......

The nightmares of all nightmares have happened. Ohio State will now be in the BCS Championship game by virtue of being ranked third in the BCS and both #1 Missouri losing to Oklahoma and #2 West Virginia losing to Pittsburgh in the Backyard Brawl. How the fuck is this happening? I thought once the Buckeyes lost to Illinois at home on November 10 they would effectively be gone from any discussion about a National......

If you're a local sports fan, hopefully you had Columbus Day (International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People, whatever) off to nurse a wicked hangover. In fact, maybe you should take tonight off from Sports Center, too. It's Leif Erikson day. Honest. Even George W. Bush knows that (and don't worry, he's probably not working today, either). Maybe it wasn't the worst, but it was up there. T.J. Simers hit the nail on the......

... secondary sellers like Stubhub.com and TicketsNow are now facing the heat. The state of Missouri is suing the professional scalpers and the states of Arkansas and Pennsylvania are both looking into consumer complaints about music fans not being able to purchase tickets to shows on Ticketmaster, even at the minute and second they go on sale. Within minutes, the sought-after tickets can be found on other sites with jacked up prices, sometimes ten times......

That opening game of the NFL was a kick in the nuts, wasn’t it? The Indianapolis Colts proved their defense wasn’t a mere fluke in last season’s playoff by only allowing the New Orleans Saints offense to only score a field goal in their 41-10 blowout. At least I was right about the Saints having a pretty porous defense. With the exception of the Reggie Wayne fumble that was taken for a touchdown, no......

LAist Editor Tony Pierce has blogged here non-stop for more than a year deserving a well-earned vacation (and did he ever earn it). While out of town, we decided to have a little fun and bring some guest day editors in from around the blogLAsphere. Monday we had Green LA Girl and Tuesday saw Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA.Zuma Dogg took Wednesday and LA City Nerd yesterday. Today, former LAist Editor Carolyn Kellogg makes a comeback!......

Los Angeles is a hoops hotbed. Three professional basketball teams play at Staples and three local colleges made it to last year's Big Dance. But just because some of the players come from around the country and overseas, don't think LA needs to poach outside talent. The city boasts an amazing legacy of high school basketball. Local courts are responsible for current pro stars like Baron Davis, Gilbert Arenas, Paul Pierce and Jordan Farmar. Many......

Last night I attended a screening of the 2006 Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award winning documentary God Grew Tired of Us, directed by Christopher Quinn. Fine, maybe I went because Brad Pitt was listed as one of the producers and I thought he and Angie might show, which they didn’t, but it was still worth the trafficky drive up the 405 freeway to where the screening and a panel discussion were scheduled......

I love manager ejections. I love it when the manager gets up in the ump’s grill and lets him have it. With that said, it seems to me that Grady Little has the tamest ejections in the history of baseball (click on the appropriate linky for a video of the ejection). More on baseball meltdowns later. A serious cause of concern came in the bottom on the ninth in Sunday’s 5-4 win against the......

Dodgers 5, Pirates 4 - Brad Penny was taxed for four runs in six innings, but Los Angeles cashed in with three runs in the seventh and two in the eighth to keep his record at 7-1. Andre Ethier hit the two-run shot that put the Dodgers ahead for good. Grady Little watched most of the game from the clubhouse after arguing with the ump in the fourth. He's the fifth major league manager to......

Say what you will about traffic in LA, people driving while texting, and tailgaters boiling over with road rage, but according to AutoVantage, a Connecticut-based auto club, similar to AAA, Miami is home to more road-ragers than LA, so take that Florida. For the second year in a row Miami has claimed the dubious crown of having the meanest, worst, angriest, and dumbest commuters who run red lights, talk on their phones, and slam......

- Reggie the Alligator is back to say whaddup bitches - LA Observed - Mayor Tony dreams of being on Ugly Betty. Don't we all, bro? - Daily News - Any teen who attends Saturday's all-teen performance of the rock musical Quixote will get an autographed copy of Don Quixote signed by one of the performers. Yay? - Valley News - Rapist who killed 10 women including a woman 6 months pregnant found guilty......

My Boyfriend was at it again. He hit is first career grand slam Saturday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Not only was it merely a grand slam, he hit it in the bottom of the tenth tied 3-3. This only adds fuel to my argument that he is the MVP of this team. As for this team, I’m plenty happy with them right now. After watching a preseason game against the Angels of Anaheim......

Pretty amazing game at Chavez Ravine last night. 48,995 (announced) fans watched the Dodgers come from behind and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-3 on a dramatic 10th-inning grand slam by Russell Martin. Better Known Friends of the Column, Joe Beimel (pitched a scoreless 8th against the heart of the Pirate order) and Wilson "El Gato" Valdez (scored the tying run in the bottom of the 9th on some aggressive baserunning, pictured), also contributed heartily to......

Angels 8, Mariners 4 - Virginia Tech means a lot to Joe Saunders. His uncle went there. His dad went there. His mom went there. He went there. Drafted by Anaheim in 2002, he is the only Hokie alum in pro baseball. Under the circumstances, Commissioner Bud Selig allowed him to wear his college cap for Friday's game. In his first start since the tragedy at his alma mater he pitched six scoreless innings. His......

Three Dodger pitchers combined on a 2-hit shutout, and Nomar Garciaparra hit a 2-run single to lead Los Angeles to a 3-0 victory last night over the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium. Left-handed set-up relief pitcher Joe Beimel was not one of the pitchers involved in the shutout. Nevertheless, Mr. Beimel does have the good fortune of being the subject in Part 2 of our 436-Part series, "Better Know a Dodger". Joseph Ronald Beimel......

Some might call it acting in lock-step, some might call it a grand and fitting tribute to an American hero. Today the Pittsburgh Pirates announced that every one of their players will don Jackie Robinson's number 42 on their jerseys on Sunday, the 60th anniversary of the day Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball. In an unprecedented move, the number was retired from all MLB teams ten years ago, only being......

Lakers 121, Grizzlies 119 - It's March Madness, but the most impressive hoops action keeps coming from a guy who never played a minute of college ball. Kobe had 60 points against Memphis, but it wasn't just his one game point total that generated buzz. This is the third game in a row he has scored at least 50, a feat only matched by Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Elgin Baylor. Chamberlain actually did it seven......

Will someone please start putting some cameras in the LA Times building? It wouldn't be much different than The Real World meets Survivor, with people having to live with each other even though they don't want to, and either quitting or getting fired in very bizarre power plays. Today episode involves the Times Ed Page editor Andrés Martinez, who resigned today out of protest when the paper announced that it would not run the special......

Carolyn Kellogg, previous editor of LAist, heads up Metroblogging Pittsburgh while she works on her MFA 19,215 dogs and cats were euthanized last year by the Department of Animal Services. It was a drop from the previous year, but General Manager Ed Boks is dreaming of a no-kill city Purple Line, Purple Line, Purple Line! Until the Purple Line takes us from 3rd St. Promenade to LACMA in 14 whole minutes, maybe this site will......

Before the current tyrannical rule of Tony Pierce, Carolyn Kellogg was the editor of LAist, in a time many yearn for. But she decamped for the University of Pittsburgh, where she's getting an MFA in creative writing. In between bouts of homesickness, she blogs about books and podcasts interviews with writers who rock at pinkyspaperhaus.com. Top 10 LA Things You Don't Realize You'll Miss, Until It's Too Late 10. Beaches. I hardly went to......

Parents can no longer blame Mary Jane for their children sneaking into a closet to get a bump of cocaine or a toke off the crack pipe, according to a 12-year study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh that clears marijuana as being a gateway drug to harder vices. In fact, if their kids grow up being hard-core drug users, parents may have no one to blame but themselves. “The emphasis on the drugs......