Photo by manmadepants via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr The relationship between real estate and the Hollywood Sign is as old as, well, the sign itself. Built in 1923 as a promotional billboard to attract buyers to make their homes in the hills of the burgeoning Hollywood community, the sign that once read "HOLLYWOODLAND" has become one of the most iconic landmarks in LA. Now real estate and the sign have a......

THEATRE Orson's Shadow is an expansion of Austin Pendleton's drama that first ran a few years back at the Black Dahlia Theater and is now at the Pasadena Playhouse. It's a behind the scenes look at life in the theatre and the intermingling lives of some legendary folk, like Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright, Vivien Leigh, and drama critic Kenneth Tynan. We're told the set--a theater-within-the-theater--is stunning. 7:00 p.m. // Pasadena Playhouse // 39......

What will Hike The Geek do?!?! In order to face up to budget-balancing woes and a state-wide financial crunch, Governor Schwartzenegger has proposed to close 48 different national park sites, as well as cut funding to many school, health care, and criminal justice programs. Parks in the L.A. area like the Will Rogers State Historic Park, Topanga State Park, and Pio Pico State Historic Park in Whittier will all be shut down, affecting many......

Ann Coulter is not a tasteless, trouble-making, uninformed, clueless bimbo, though she often plays one on TV. At least that's what we were led to believe during a nearly ten minute, extended Wikipedia-style introduction of the lawyer-turned-talking head at USC's Annenberg Auditorium. "I’ve never seen such a friendly crowd at a college campus," Coulter beamed as the standing-room audience of about 250 settled down after the majority greeted her with a standing ovation. Coulter......

"... the kids who join the Greek organizations are very spirited. They are very much involved with all aspects of college life. They run for office and they are big philanthropists," a California State University Northridge (CSUN) student told the Daily News in an article about the city of Los Angeles ordering members of two off-campus CSUN fraternity houses, Zeta Beta Tau and Pi Kappa Alpha, to shut down. Hrmmm, if these students are......

5pm-Infinity Roy Rogers Film Fest TCM - All you could ever want of the singing cowboy. 9:00pm Big Brother 8 CBS - Veto! Veto! Veto!! [What's it all about Tony?] 9:00pm Wide Angle PBS/KCET - Crop failures, sinking global cotton prices, and spiraling debts drive Indian cotton farmers to suicide in this typical example of uplifting fare from public television. 9:00pm i-Caught ABC - Parkour (as featured in LAist within the last week) athletes jump......

While the action on the sand was unscripted, the action around it was incredibly choreographed. AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) knows how to market their events. Yesterday the men's finals of the Manhattan Beach Open was held in the South Bay on the sands next to the Manhattan Beach Pier. AVP built a stadium in the sand, complete with corporate luxury boxes and flashy attention-grabbers everywhere you turned. The PA announcer joked with the players,......

Writer Ray Bradbury may be 87, but his mind and sense of humor are as agile as ever. LAist joined his diehard fans and other audience members for an evening with Bradbury live at the Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena on Friday night. The author of American classics – Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles etc. – took the stage and talked for nearly an hour and a half on his love life. Using......

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......

In what could be the finest form of stealing from the rich, the Artist Formerly Known as being far more comfortable touring outside of the US, could be setting up shop a block away from Hollywood & Highland for a royal residency. The LA Times Buzz Bands blog says the details are being ironed out between the purple one and the increasingly relevant-again Roosevelt Hotel. The string of shows is scheduled to start in......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

Diana Ross -- looking like a big-haired, red-feathered, mythical creature (or possibly Sigourney Weaver in Ghostbusters) -- vogued, shrieked and crooned a vegas-style rendition of “More Today Than Yesterday,” while Randy tapped along, Paula danced like a drunken sailor and Simon watched smugly all the while thinking, “If she was in this competition, her entrails would be hanging off the lighting rig.” Or maybe he was just looking through her dress. It's hard to......

There are three months left of American Idol. And judging from last night's show, that's three very long months to whittle down from 12 to the two finalists. The singing overall on the Diana Ross-themed show was pretty lousy, except for a few of the usual suspects: Jordin Sparks (who we think sang a Diana Ross tune from The Land Before Time, Melinda Doolitte belting a song from The Wiz, and show-stopper LaKisha Jones singing......

Last night American Idol whittled down its ranks to 24 finalists. While it took nearly an hour to cut people on TV, which was bad enough, we can’t understand why it took the entire day for the judges to deliver a “yay” or “nay” to each contestant. Did Simon need a smoke break every five minutes? Was there a four-hour lunch break? Anyway, some of the judges choices probably stemmed from a likeability or......

- The two dead bodies found in the crawl space in the Westwood home that caught fire were part of the painting crew - NBC-4 - Might want to stay away from Will Rogers Beach, Venice Beach, and Dockweiler Beach for a few days - eMax Health - Phil Spector awarded $900,000 in embezzlement case - Forbes - What do the CEO of MySpace, Barbra Streisand, and model/anchor Willow Bay have in common? -......

We may not have a football team, but we have American Idol. Last night, Los Angeles welcomed home its own. AI in LA ! Starring: Paula’s cleavage! Olivia Newton Sandy Xanadu John! Mr. Jackson’s snazzy pink and white striped shirt! And charmer extraordinaire, Simon “I’m not being rude, but…” Cowell! This epidode opened on an epileptic panther-man with megalomaniacal ambitions and wild assertions, who got all Cold Hearted Snake on the stairs while making......

Hopefully you heard about the beach closures at parts of Santa Monica and Will Rogers over the weekend, and avoided being coated in a layer of untreated…um, sludge. But, the good people at the CA Department of Health have lifted their restrictions, and we can now bring you this more savory link regarding the aesthetic virtues of the L.A Storm Drain System. FOVICKS -- or Friends of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures, has a......

You ruined my day, Reggie Bush. I had plans. I was going to have a great workout. I was going on a trail run from Will Rogers Park to Temescal Canyon. I was going to the Santa Monica Steps to punish my cardiovascular system while I gawk at celebrities and hardbodies. I was going to get work done. There was nothing better to do. Chicago was spanking New Orleans in the NFC Championship game. Why......

Rogers Cadenhead has been in the news this week because he is the owner of the online store called Wargames.com, a site he's owned for eight years. He's in the news because MGM owns the movie rights to the '80s Matthew Broderick nuclear flick WarGames -- which they are releasing a sequel to next year for some reason -- and they want to snake the URL away from Mr. Cadenhead. The bad news for......

Welcome to Monday, people. And welcome to the first post of the Daily Disgruntle -- your weekday touchstone of work related games, diversions, commiserations, news, recipes, and on-the-clock subterfuge for the LA office culture. Today we’re going to talk about space. Now, if you are lucky enough to work for Buck Rogers, your office probably looks like this. But, if you are one of the millions of worker bees who is not gainfully employed......

This time, we're not talking about USC fan woes or UCLA fans who got shot with rubber bullets. We're talking shootings with real bullets: Eagle Rock On Friday, December 1, 2006, at approximately 8:40 p.m., officers responded to the 4800 block of Wiota Street in Eagle Rock. Officers found Randy Duane Rogers’ lifeless body lying on the driveway. Paramedics made several attempts to resuscitate him but he had already died from his injuries. According......

- An anonymous bullpen coach says that he's certain Kenny Rogers cheated in the World Series: It was pine tar. It couldn't be anything else. Pitchers use pine tar, shaving cream and suntan lotion. Pitchers use them to help them grip the ball and make the ball move more. Bullpen guys sometimes keep suntan lotion in the ball bags. It's not for a tan. Pine tar works the best. It's been around the longest.......

- How did Kenny Rogers get away with his pine tar, when George Brett (above) was busted? - LA Times - Metro rail through the hood to LAX - LA Times - Nic Cage to sell $7 mil Bel Air home for $35 mil - AP - Even pregnant, Brooke Burke looks amazing - Egotastic - Grow weed in your working-PC - boingboing - BitTorrent becoming more and more legit - CNET - Smashing......

Righty bloggers have their panties in a bunch that (another) one of their own is being exposed as being a closeted homosexual with a history of helping to pass anti-gay laws. It's hard to tell if they're upset that their party is quickly becoming the Gay Old Party (not like there's anything wrong with that), or the Hypocritical Old Party, or the Page-Chasing Old Party. The latest Republican Senator accused of being a homosexual......

farm flashback These may be the last days of the community farm in south central LA; supporters are $10 million short in their efforts to buy the property from the developer who's ready to take his 14 acres and make a profit. But Hollywood is lending a publicity-generating, eviction-fighting hand: Daryl Hannah is camping out on the property, Laura Dern and husband Ben Harper stopped by and Joan Baez is treesitting. Treesitting, you ask?......

It’s easy to forget how many Angelenos influence what we read, consume and think. For every telegenic actor accepting an award or CEO discussing his latest stock offering with a journalist, there is a phalanx of publicity professionals and marketing specialists choreographing the entire event. Eric Schwartzman is one of these behind- the-scenes maestros who are so adept at making the general public aware of the latest person, place or thing. After honing his skills......

There's a whole wide world out there, and here's the proof: DCist revels in The University of Maryland's basketball triumphs, marvels at Metro's security strategy, and applauds DC local Katie Couric's new gig. Phillyist is all about the Philadelphia Film Festival. OK, not all about -- they still have time for loitering, underage sex, and random wacky news. We would have to send a camera around the world to get shots as bizarre as Katie's......

If any of you saw "American Idol" last night, then you saw something shocking. And we don't mean Simon Cowell's outfit, or Ryan Seacrest's lame "facial fuzz". No, we mean something far more disturbing. That something was the apparently overly surgically enhanced and polished face of Kenny Rogers. Apparently, the guy really is a Gambler, but we think he went over the limit with this one. Examine the before and after photos above. On......

Another step has been taken in transforming downtown with the Grand Avenue project. Now we're not sure we're going to get the technicalities of municipal development right, but as we read in the Daily News, an agreement to begin design on the park (see illustration) that will stretch from the Music Center to City Hall has been approved. A gallery of park proposals from the people has been put together by good-intentioned rabble-rousers at......

A few weeks ago we were pretty jazzed about Porto's Bakery opening up at the corner of Magnolia and Hollywood Way in Burbank. Turns out that wasn't the only local or national eatery with new digs in the little city known as the Media Center. Recently we found ourselves on that strip of commercial real estate on San Fernando on the other side of the mall, and noticed that things had been developing in......