Tired of beach-going so early in the season and looking for a more cerebral way to enjoy the weekend in, say, air-conditioning? You're in luck. The Hammer Museum is the place to be on Sunday afternoon. The much-lauded Kara Walker exhibition, My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love, ends on Sunday and by all accounts, it's a show you don't want to miss. Doors open at 11am giving you plenty of time for......

Where's your meat come from? An event tonight looks at the food we eat. / Photo by ~db~ via LAist's flickr pool. TRIVIAL MATTERS “Booze Clues” is a bimonthly pub quiz that tests trivial knowledge of current events and pop culture. Bring your own team of six players or come as a free agent and form join another team at the bar. Prizes are awarded for the highest score, most entertaining wrong answers and......

As we lamented in February, Beyond Baroque was in danger of losing its lease and Venice was in danger of losing one of the most unique places for poets to gather and perform their work. Mere hours before their lease was to expire, L.A. City Council voted to extend the lease for 25 more years - at only $1 a year! What could be more exciting than Beyond Baroque getting a stay of execution? The......

We can't think of a better way to celebrate a new book than to invite musicians, poets, visual artists, performance arists and writers to respond to the new book. This is exactly what Maggie Nelson has done for her new book Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions and tonight is the night. Nelson's book is considered one of the first extended works that examines the roles that women played in and around......

Monday Michael Pollan and Barry Glassner discuss In Defense of Food 7pm @ Central Library Cindy Pierce and Edie Thys Morgan presents Finding the Doorbell 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday Traci Slatton presents Immortal 6:30pm @ Metropolis Books Joe McGinniss and special guest Bret Easton Ellis present The Delivery Man 7pm @ Book Soup Terri Cheney discusses and signs Manic: A Memoir 7pm @ Vroman's Gary Goldberg presents Sit, Ubu, Sit 7pm @ Dutton's......

The week in Los Angeles bookish events from Monday, January 7th - Sunday, January 13th. Readings, signings and bookish events this week include Andy Summers, Jami Attenberg, Judith Freeman, Alice Fulton, J.A. Jance and Robert Gottlieb....

CLASSICAL: There's other classical music about town tonight besides Chanticleer. The Calder Quartet is the Colburn Conservatory’s first quartet-in-residence, and these new faculty members will show their chops with a program that includes Philip Glass, Quartet No. 2 “Company” by Philip Glass; Quartet in A minor “Rosamunde” by Franz Schubert and Terry Riley's “Cadenza on the Night Plain.” 7:30 pm // The Colburn School: Zipper Hall // 200 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles //......

It was the day of the Mitchell Report And all through the house, Not a ballplayer was boozing, Not even Nancy, the louse The lawyers were called from Sidekicks with care In fear that St. George would soon be there. The players were all fearful on their mistresses beds, Visions of subpoenas dancing in their heads; Bud in his kerchief, and Boras in his cap Had just settled down for a post-Winter Meetings nap.......

TALK: Pulizer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold moderates a Zócalo discussion that focuses on “The Mexican Restaurant in Los Angeles.” Joining in on the roundtable are Gilberto Cetina of the Yucatecan restaurant Chichen Itza, Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu of La Casita Mexicana, and Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger of Border Grill. 7 pm // Central Library – Mark Taper Auditorium // 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles // Free. (Reservations are recommended.)......

If you aren't familiar with Projekt Newspeak, they are a burgeoning local production company aimed at encouraging independent projects and breaking Asian American stereotypes in the media. Founded by Eddie Kim, the project has hosted many events, including the popular Newspeak SLAM!, a spoken word poetry competition which has featured HBO's Def Poetry veterans like SKIM and Dante Basco. This Saturday the 1st, Projekt Newspeak presents the annual "Sketch Comedy Show" at El Portal......

Artist: Herbie Hancock Album: River: The Joni Letters Label: Verve Records Release Date: 9/25/07 I haven't had a chance to review a release from a "living legend" until this album arrived in my PO box. Herbie Hancock seems like someone who has done it all: a jazz icon unafraid of technology, a winner of multiple Grammy awards and an Oscar, and a virtuoso live performer - but he's never been a lyricist, and had never......

There's an eclectic mix of comedy, drama and spoken word in this week's theatre picks. Shut Up and Eat Your Groundlings The Groundlings’ latest sketch show hits the stage this weekend. Groundlings Theater. 7307 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. (323) 934-4747 ext. 37. Tickets are $21.50. Opens Friday at 8 pm. Runs Fridays at 8 pm and Saturdays at 8 and 10 pm until Nov. 24. L.A. Voz L.A. Voz (Los Angeles Voice) is a series......

While searching for a one-act play to direct at an upcoming director's festival, playwright, dramaturge, adaptor, and director Cindy Marie Jenkins stumbled across a collection of interviews from individuals affected by the Chernobyl disaster. Deeply moved by the stories of these survivors, Jenkins immediately began adapting the interviews for the stage. Voices from Chornobyl premiered at Open Fist and was later showcased at L.A's annual theatre festival, EdgeFest. Now in its third incarnation, Voices......

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......

Who knew that for nearly a decade, newly appointed Poet Laureate Charles Simic’s work has been on display in the unlikeliest of places in Downtown Los Angeles? At 7+FIG to be more precise. Yep. You read that right. On the plaza above the bustling food court and the retail stores stands “Portals to Poetry” (1989), a collaborative effort between Simic and artist George Herms. The piece is one of eight works commissioned for a......

The more I hear about the upcoming Neil Gaiman-penned Beowulf (slated for release in late November), the more reasons I have to believe that this film is going to be awesome. First of all, it's a classic story with bloody conflicts, a rugged hero, a despicable yet sympathetic villain, and lots of mead-drinking and speechifying. Even if you don't normally get jazzed about poetry, Seamus Heaney's Whitbread-Award winning translation is a satisfying read: Heaney......

Today is what would have been the anniversary of Charles Bukowski's 87th year on this planet, had he not passed away in 1994. I really wish I had it in me to writing something amazing in honor of the man, but I'm not sure it can be done. What can you write about a man who revolutionized literature with a style that has yet to be rivaled? All I can think to do on......

I know you're up there somewhere at your Big Sur in the Sky (hopefully), probably ignorant of all the buzz about the fiftieth anniversary of the publishing of On the Road, but I wanted you to know this: when I was fifteen years old I taped the following lines to the wall above my desk, and I meditated upon them sometimes when I was alone in my room much like you did, I suppose,......

Monday Moonday poetry reading 7:30pm @ Village Books Tuesday David Lynch signs Inland Empire 7pm @ Borders, Westwood Elaine Dundy presents The Dud Avocado 7pm @ Book Soup Warren Mar presents Descanso 7pm @ Vroman's Kiara Brinkman signs High Up in the Trees 7pm @ Dutton's Wednesday Adrienne Barbeau presents There Are Worse Things I Could Do 7pm @ Book Soup Nobody Reads in LA presents Charles Bukowski's Post Office (it's his birthday!) 7pm......

Monday Gordy Slack presents The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything 7pm @ Vroman's Tuesday Kimberlee Auerbach presents The Devil, The Lovers and Me: My Life in Tarot 7pm @ Book Soup Gregg Hurwitz presents The Crime Writer 7pm @ Borders, Century City Kirk Douglas presents Let's Face It 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble, Encino Wednesday Laurie Viera Rigler presents Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict 7pm @ Vroman's Helen Gilbert presents Okay Girls,......

Arguably the finest writer Los Angeles has ever known, Charles Bukowski typed away volumes of poetry, short stories, and novels in Hollywood. One of his best works, Post Office, about the ups-and-downs of a heavy drinking mail carrier was written by Bukowski at 5124 De Longpre Ave in 1969 and published two years later. The publisher was John Martin of Santa Barbara who allegedly cut a deal with Bukowski that he would pay the......

Whether you are partial to the Annette Bening days, or a fan of the emo-beatle hair phase, everyone's favorite Presidential advisor and American Idol runner up is playing a show at the Greek this Saturday. LAist has one pair of tickets for one lucky person (or their lucky mom). Sincerely though, people are nuts about this Aiken fellow and far be it from me to begrudge them their fetishes. In fact, I encourage them.......

This photo taken in Echo Park by Victoria Bernal speaks for itself. Go Dodgers! Found on the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr......

Good grief, BET. First, the Black Entertainment Television network embarrasses black college students across the country with College Hill, a show that proves a house full of black college co-eds can be as useless as a house full of white ones. Now the MTV-show-dipped-in-chocolate experiment kicks into overdrive with last night's premiere of Baldwin Hills, a new single-camera docudrama that proves that when it comes to effortlessly reinforcing stereotypes, BET still reigns supreme. Promoted......

Monday Bridget Kinsella Visiting Life: Women Doing Time on The Outside 7pm @ Book Soup Trevor Corson discusses and signs The Zen of Fish 7pm @ Vroman's Tuesday Viken Berberian presents Das Kapital: A Novel of Love and Money Markets 7pm @ Book Soup Bridget Kinsella presents Visiting Life: Women Doing Time on the Outside 12pm @ Vroman's Joseph Marshall presents The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn 7pm @ Vroman's Eric Lichtenfeld......

Honeycut @ MOCA's Night Vision, June 16thHosting the San Francisco based Band, Honeycut, on the 2nd saturday of MOCA's Night Vision music/poetry summer series things got funky and arty while LAist sucked down some beers, walked through some art galleries, and boogied down like our bones were made of jelly.Pounding yet soothing sleaze funk to make your ears rejoice with satisfaction, thats the fix Honeycut is dealing out. The band's sound is centered around the......

Yesterday marked David Beckham’s last day as a respectable European footballer before he makes his move to the Los Angeles Galaxy. Given the high caliber of the European soccer teams as compared to the naïve American Major League Soccer (MLS), this last game is surely the beginning of the end for the legendary Beckham. He is now doomed to a life of over-done, over-rated, Hollywood middle-brow trashiness. The poor man has already begun to......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

We've covered the LA Times Book Prize nominees for the past few weeks and quietly rooted for our picks. The winners, announced at the annual hob-nob affair on Friday night, surprised us. We highlighted our picks weeks ago. What more did the committee have to do other than - you know - pick them? To wit: Biography We said Daniel Mendelsohn for The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million (Daniel freaking Mendelsohn, the......