'V' ran amok through the streets of Hollywood today as hundreds of picketers descended on the Church of Scientology complex at Sunset and L. Ron Hubbard Way. | All photos by Tony Pierce The global day of action was initially announced last month after a video attributed to "Anonymous" coincided with an online effort that managed to temporarily knock out Internet servers belonging to the Church of Scientology. Another speech by "Anonymous" appeared this......

As was reported today on LAist, the writer's strike, which cost the city about $1 billion, is nearly over. We all know how involved Mayor V has been nudging the two sides back together. Oh, wait. But at least he weighed in today: "This agreement is a blockbuster for the Los Angeles economy. It will put thousands of writers, set designers, caterers, and behind-the-scenes workers back on the job this week." Blockbuster! HA! Election......

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......

Did any of you catch Bobby Flay's Throwdown the other night? It's the show where he goes to different cities across the world and challenges some legendary food purveyor that his version of whatever traditional city food they're making will win a blind taste test. Usually, he loses, cause I mean COME ON: can anybody really make a cheese steak better than a Philly native? What about fish n' chips from some grotty bar......

You've heard that the South Park Scientology episode was pulled. Trey Parker and Matt Stone wrote, in a statement to Variety, "So, Scientology, you may have won this battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will not stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!"......

At the risk of enraging "clear" Scientologists across the city, today's LA Times has a long story about Scientology's Number One Celebrity, Tom Criuse, and his wooing by the church's head, David Miscavige. The paper tried to make sense of Scientology's theology in a long 1990 story they've put online to accompany this one. Shrouded in mystery, it involves ancient intergalactic souls called thetans, evil tyrant Xenu, engrams and implants. The more you read,......

To begin the strange story of one of Pasadena's most beloved sons we must go back a bit, and begin in England on October 12, 1875. That was the birthday of Aleister Crowley, magician and occult thinker who is at the beginning of this tale. Crowley began his life's work upon his introduction into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn; following the dissolution of the Golden Dawn, Crowley studied magick, Kabbalah, alchemy, tarot,......