Shark week started off with a bang yesterday! Sharks really know how to pull off a publicity stunt! If only sharks had fingers to dial the news outlets. Luckily, Ryan Seacrest was happy to blab about his recent shark attack in 4 feet of water 8 feet from the coast. Yes, you heard me right. Ryan Seacrest was attacked by a shark. You are not dreaming. Seacrest told the dramatic (cough) tale yesterday on his......

Photo by highervision via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr This evening a public viewing will be held for slain LA High football star Jamiel Shaw, with funeral services to follow tomorrow. Shaw's tragic murder has prompted many LA residents to refocus on the senselessness of gang-related violence. Go, stop, go, stop: Commuters northbound on the 57 and the 605 transitioning to the 210 westbound this morning were greeted by the new traffic......

When you read something you like on LAist, we love it when you hit the "recommend" button, and we love it even more if you put your two cents' worth in the comments. Getting a dialog going with our readers and making sure we're giving you content you can use are top priorities for us. So here's this week's top posts, as endorsed by you via the recommend feature, or as indicated by the......

Samantha Sidley and Alex Silverman at their Silver Lake rehearsal space | Photo via their MySpace page Alex & Sam may be a duo in title, but their fairly large band, sometimes up to twelve-members on stage, is quite a force of music that just puts a smile on your face. You can't really corner them into a jazz-blues rock or straight rock category. All we can say is that on stage, they've got......

Alex & Sam will play the first show of their residency at Tangier tonight | Photo via their MySpace You might recognize the girl above. Locally, that's Sam from the band Alex & Sam who is playing at Tangier all this month every Sunday night, but for those who are more pop-culture oriented (rather, American Idol obsessed), that's Samantha Sidley who got a pass from all three judges for a "Welcome to Hollywood" (she's......

Unless you've been in a coma for the past few weeks, the Super Bowl is on Fox tomorrow afternoon around 3ish. But we heard an annoying tidbit the other day and just needed to ask, "Why?" As in "Why is Ryan Seacrest drawn to red carpets like my dog is to the patch of grass at the end of my street?" Yup, the KIIS-FM DJ and American Idol host will be doing the pre-game......

So I spent my Sunday sick as a dog on the couch watching, of all things, football, literally because I was too wiped to find the clicker and move on. I'd forgotten how obnoxious the graphics were and how pompous and full of itself football has become. Still, gotta watch the Super Bowl for the commercials so I still have some time to devote to that. Am dismayed that the talentless hack Ryan Seacrest is......

ART TALK With just about a month left in the exhibit, artists Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, and Simone Legno will be gathering for a discussion about the work of Takashi Murakami at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. The event, called Pervasive Persuasion, is a panel-style talk moderated by Eric Nakamura, publisher and co-editor of Giant Robot, and will include thoughts on "how and why artists in Los Angeles are blurring the lines of media to......

Love it or hate it, tonight's New Year's Eve. And while half of the city has vacated for NYE's in Vegas, there's plenty to do right here in LA to welcome '08. Fireworks Catch the midnight fireworks in Marina Del Rey. At 11:55 pm and 30-seconds, one firework will be shot into the air for each second, counting down to midnight--and then a few more into 2008. The show be seen from anywhere in the......

Read our exclusive LAist interview with G4TV's Olivia Munn to find out how she feels about playing Gay Chicken with Kevin Pereira, living in Los Angeles, and making out with her spray-tan lady...

From totally random to completely set up, the Emmys go "reality" with this sketch comedy skit featuring Wayne Brady (Don't Forget The Lyrics), Rainn Wilson (of The Office) and Kayne West with a weird intro by Ryan Seacrest.......

Dodgers 6, Astros 2 - Too bad the Dodgers weren't playing double or nothing. The Blue Crew split the series against Houston 2-2. In the final game, they turned four double plays. Second baseman Jeff Kent hit three doubles, including one for a two runs. His counterpart, Craig Biggio, also had a couple hits. Angels 4, Blue Jays 3 - LAnaheim avoided a sweep thanks to a home run by Gary Matthews, Jr. and a......

I like AM radio. I like sports. So when you combine the two forces and create sports talk radio, I am in heaven. Last October Mancow mania finally faded into oblivion, so when KLAC AM 570 teamed up Fred Roggin, Tracy Simers, and L.A. Times Sports Columnist T.J. Simers for the much coveted 6-9am time slot before The Jim Rome Show , I gave it a chance. It couldn't get any worse, right? Roggin......

Most people who don't know me are surprised when they learn that I am a born again Christian. I don't know why they're surprised. I think I'm a nice person. For example, even though for the last decade or so I've been writing article and post and column about how the Conservatives are evil and untrustworthy and now I am telling people how excited I am to be voting for the most conservative presidential......

Lindsay Lohan will finally reach the legal drinking age in a month and is planning her big Vegas bday bash sponsered by Ceasers and Svedka Vodka - US Weekly Nicole Richie reportedly checked back into rehab, reports vary on if its inpatient or outpatient - TMZ Britney Spears's impromtu lip synch performance at a Miami mansion on Saturday night did not go over well - NY Post A new kitten for TomKat? - MSNBC Former......

LAist only made it eight minutes into last night's American Idol results show before hitting the remote control. We just couldn't watch anymore. Watching Ryan Seacrest interview tourists at The Grove for the umpteenth time to get their opinions on the prior night's show was just too painful. Plus, it was Bon Jovi night -- all the more reason to change the channel. So we'll cut to the chase: Phil Stacey (the bald guy)......

As a product of the ’80s and growing up outside Philly, this particular LAist poster never got into Bon Jovi. Maybe it was the big hair. We don’t know. But we preferred the skinny, pasty guys from England. Think John Taylor from Duran Duran or Martin Gore from Depeche Mode. So we were really, really not excited to cover tonight’s American Idol. By 8:03 PM, we were having flashbacks and could already smell the......

But it was for a good cause, right? LAist watched the entire two hours of American Idol's telethon tonight, which was broadcast at both the regular Idol studios and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. And while we admire Ryan Seacrest and company for trying to do something good for kids living in poverty in both America and Africa (checkout myspace.com/idolgivesback or the Idol Gives Back page for ways to donate), we felt cheated and......

In another example of a Chicagoan coming to LA to change something sacred comes the story of Carl Amari who is putting together a box set of cds that will contain the dramatic reading of The Bible by Hollywood actors. For some reason they can't figure out who to play Satan. The first part of the project, a 20-CD set of the New Testament for $49.95, will arrive in stores in October. Considering the......

We have to admit that an hour of the American Idol results show is excessive -- even for LAist. So we skimmed the show and cut straight to the results: Sanjaya Malakar is still safe, and weak Haley Scarnato finally gots the boot. No surprises there, really. Haley's style is so bland that she makes Hillary Duff look, umm...what's the word we're looking for? Talented. But what did kind of surprise us was that......

In Britney news... Britney got caught up in a real life gun drama today - Metro And she reportedly checked back into the Century City hospital this evening - X17 In other news... Joel Madden defends his break up skills - People Rose McGowan tries to color coordinate her cast at the Grindhouse premiere - Page Six How can anyone go from dating Matthew McConaughey (dreamy sigh) to Josh Hartnett, I mean seriously - Star......

The remaining 10 guys performed on American Idol last night, and thankfully, it wasn't two hours of excruciating torture like last week. First, it was only a 90-minute show to make room for Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. (Hence, the shameless Jeff Foxworthy shots in the AI audience. He hosts the show, so you know it's gonna be redneck good.) And while the guys greatly improved from their first outing, they still......

There's five hours of American Idol on TV this week. And last night's two-hour singing competition that was supposed to separate the men from the boys -- at least the American Idol contenders from the poseurs -- felt like all five wrapped up in one show. That's not a good sign. But we realized why we do these recaps (despite some naysayers): It's so you don't have to lose two hours of your life......

We were flipping between E!'s red carpet coverage of the Grammy arrivals and TV Guide Channel's coverage (Melissa and Joan beats Ryan Seacrest - big surprise) when we saw Debbie Matenopolous swooning all over Peter Frampton who let it be known that he had covered Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" and it was nominated for an award. We nearly kicked over the bong running to the computer to see if YouTube could confirm. And not......

San Antonio was the last stop on the American Idol audition tour last night, and LAist is glad that this phase of the show is over – and the cattiness of the Hollywood auditions begins next week. After awhile, all the weirdos start to blend together -- like Bryan who screamed “Rebel Yell” to start the show. Although our ears were blistering, we paid more attention to his ugly camouflage pants and Ryan Seacrest's......

#87 Woman fakes her own death but gets discovered AT HER OWN WAKE - St. Pete Times #88 Eighteen endangered young whooping cranes found no safe haven in Florida. They were led there by a man in an ultralight plane, and were killed in the recent storms - AP #89 Technical school student in Coconut Creek, angered that his school wasn't teaching anything about Black History this month, stabbed three school officials with a......

American Idol hit Birmingham, Ala., last night – home of former Idolers Taylor Hicks, Ruben Studdard and Bo Bice. It took Ryan Seacrest less than 15 seconds to get a Lynryd Skynyrd reference (“Sweet Home Alabama”) in there. (But then again, it is Ryan Seacrest, so he was probably thought the scriptwriters were referring to the Reese Witherspoon movie.) There were a few things apparent from the get-go:Paula either had a bad night or......

NYC did not disappoint us in last night’s American Idol. The cup runneth over with the number of contestants to fly their freak flags high, which made for an entertaining two hours. While the other audition cities had their share of weirdos, the Big Apple had plenty of FWAs – freaks with attitude – East Coast style. The show opened with Ryan Adams’ “New York, New York” being used under Ryan Seacrest’s opening travelogue......

Greetings from Drip City! -- The land where Jimi tread, Pearl Jam spread, and Kurt got dead. Watching last night’s Seattle auditions was like watching nine thousand Nells emerge from the forest only to be greeted by a cold and critical society. These hopefuls were awkward and fascinating and odd. You wanted to laugh, but it was more painful than funny. One could speculate that the bizarro-fest of talent was the toxic byproduct of......

Everyone’s favorite game of public humiliation is back! American Idol kicked off a new season from Minnesota last night, with thousands cheering, millions watching, and an odd use of Teenage Wasteland in the opening montage. As expected, Season 6 began with a self-congratulatory flashback/recap/where-are-they-now session for the previous winners and also-rans, as well as a self-masturbatory highlight reel of the A-List talent that has giddily participated in this bizarre hazing ritual of fame seekers.......