Photo by Zeroth57, used with permission The use of fireworks and explosives are prohibited in the City of Los Angeles, but that doesn't stop people. The city estimates illegal fireworks caused a total of over $380,000 in property damages in 2007. Eeek! However, for most residents, it's all about enjoying the fireworks displays around town. Tonight, there will be about eight fireworks shows from Altadena to the Hollywood Bowl (Go Dodgers!) to Norwalk. On......

Now that the contract between the largest actors guild and the movie studios has expired, with talks to resume Wednesday, the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers is using a tactic on their website to show the economic pain the actors will supposedly cause if they authorize a strike. Two flash animation boxes on their homepage give out these statistics based on an Milken Institute study (for the writers strike) and Screen Actors Guild's......

Photo by Peggy Archer via Flickr Day 42 into the negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and no result. The contract expires Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. and the next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday. SAG has been saying along that they have no plans to strike but AMPTP has said in a statement that the "industry is now in a de facto strike, with film......

Photo by Maryam S. via Flickr ... on the sidewalk at the ever so iconic Westwood building, the Village Theatre Westwood (961 Broxton Ave). Have fun! Update, 3:56 p.m.: The Kooks are walking over to the UCLA campus to play. No word yet on where they are headed specifically. Update, 4:33 p.m.: About 150 showed up for the initial concert and now The Kooks are heading to a frat house to play, possibly indoors.......

Singer/songwriter Alana Gentry will be performing an acoustic set tonight at Genghis Cohen on Fairfax at 9:30pm. The multi-talented musician recently had a song, Scarletina, featured on the anti-ghost whisperer show "Medium". Born and raised in Los Angeles, Alana just returned to the southland after a brief stint in The Big Apple. She's glad to be back, and so are we. Her style ranges from melodic balads that seem to pour out from her......

Smash Fashion plays Monday nights at Crash Mansion | Photo via their MySpace page Month-long residencies are one of the best ways to catch up-and-coming bands in Los Angeles. You have at least four times to catch a band, and each time, if they are gaining popularity over each show, it will be harder to see them. Last Thursday at their final residency concert, The Airborne Toxic Event played a sold out show with......

Pity Party at Little Radio on New Years Eve | Photo by Koga/LAist Despite it being Superbowl Sunday, February residencies got off to a great start last night with Alex & Sam at Tangier. Tonight is the first night of February residencies at Spaceland, Silverlake Lounge, Crash Mansion and The Echo/Echoplex. By last Thursday, The Airborne Toxic Event had gained so much popularity from their January residency, they had to reject 300 people from......

"The ghost of Stephen Foster" - Squirrel Nut Zippers Flogging Molly, The Bouncing Souls, Dead to Me, Punk Rock Karaoke @ The Avalon Dead Sara @ Knitting Factory Fuel @ The Grove of Anaheim Squirrel Nut Zippers @ El Rey Theatre Blues Traveler @ Galaxy Concert Theater Eilen Jewell, Rich Wyman, Evan Stone & His Translucent Ham Sandwich Band @ The Mint Pete Yorn, Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs, Donavan Frankenreiter, Phantom Planet, Peter......

In no particular order... 1. Secret Shows at the Viper Room 2. La Taquiza on Figueroa 3. Saturdays with the USC Trojans 4. The Henry Fonda Theatre 5. A short hop over Laurel Canyon to see my family 6. Friday Nights at the Rainbow Room 7. Using Venice Blvd. to get from work to play 8. The newly built lane at the 405/101 interchange 9. Amoeba Music 10. Some of the most eclectic, intelligent,......

Quick! If you can make it over to Amoeba Records tonight between 6-9pm, grab a free wristband for a very special evening at the Vista Theater with Sigur Rós, presented by Myspace Secret Shows. Not only will you get to see them perform a three song set, but you'll get to see a "Black Curtain Screening" of their forthcoming documentary "Heima". In support of the documentary, Sigur Rós have planned a flurry of LA-based......

Last night marked the first time in nearly two years that Rilo Kiley has perfomed live. Between Jenny Lewis' and Blake Sennett's side projects and recording their hotly anticipated forthcoming album Under the Blacklight, it's clear they simply haven't had the time. Despite the occasional, somewhat expected blunders, Rilo Kiley rocked a set consisting of half old and half new material. Eagle Rock's own All Star Lanes hosted their first show ever as a......

If you haven't made your daily Rilo Kiley Myspace check, then you've missed some important news. As a part of the continuing Myspace Secret Shows series, Rilo Kiley will be playing tonight at the All Star Lanes bowling alley in Eagle Rock. Ahh, good ole All Star Lanes. I've spent many a night there drinking, bowling, and laughing at the karaoke regulars. It will always hold a fond place in my heart. My advice......

Don't you just love Secret Shows? If you can't make it to Coachella on Friday to see the Arctic Monkeys (who we now know will be sandwiched quite nicely between the Silversun Pickups and the Jesus and Mary Chain on the main stage), the much-hyped Brits will be playing a few days later on Sunday at the historic Troubadour. People swear there's still a few tickets left if you click here and use the......

LA Times Buyer Reveals Pre-Deal Negotiating Drama The Chicago billionaire about to take over the company that owns the Los Angeles Times said in remarks published Wednesday that L.A. billionaire Eli Broad sought him out as a partner last month, then tried "to stick a knife in my back." Trial of Suspected Los Angeles Serial Killer to Begin Tuesday A former pizza delivery man accused of being one of the city's most prolific serial killers......

Long Beach is ready to party -- their basketball team is the trendy bracket-buster pick to knock off Tennessee in the first round of the NCAA hoops Tournament. Long Beach students are pumped, ready for a big party at the Acapulco Inn. (Well, they'll party at the AI either way.) But we want to pass along a friendly note to Long Beach students: Regardless of what happens with the game, just remember that things could......

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra just launched their new website. Classical music has went and gotten a makeover of black and white dashed with red, behind-the-music blogs posts the obligatory MySpace music profile and "LACO Pulse, the orchestra's network for the young and culturally savvy" (get together, drink, play pool, talk music). Shows to look out for this season at LACO are Musaic at the Jazz Bakery in May, Baroque Conversations 1 (we love Telemann!)......

Monday Robert Fagan discusses The Notebooks of Robert Frost 7pm @ Vroman’s Rebecca Liebermann signs We Are Still Here 7pm @ Dutton’s Brentwood Josh Peter discusses Fried Twinkies, Buckle Bunnies & Bull Riders 7pm @ Studio City Branch Library Tuesday David Lynch presents Catching the Big Fish 7pm @ Borders in Westwood Martin Amis discusses House of Meetings 7pm @ Central Library Robert Stone & John Densmore in conversation about Remembering the Sixties 7:30pm......

everbody loves jack mccoy: Shows like "Law & Order" are helping Angelenos trust lawyers more, according to a recent study by a jury consultant in Manhattan Beach. The more TV people watched, the more they found lawyers trustworthy. But it's a marginal improvement: lawyers still only beat building contractors and CEOs. More trustworthy than lawyers? Professors, judges, journalists, movie producers, actors, pharmaceutical salespeople, television writers and jury consultants. fava beans and chianti: An Oklahoma......

“How will we ever recover?” showman Charles Phoenix asked the audience following the spellbinding presentation by master Bob Baker and his dazzling crew of puppets and marionette-iers. A few days later, we still haven’t. Memories of the overwhelming tribute to Baker linger. The fascinating documentary about Baker’s seventy-plus years making and operating marionettes, Phoenix’s captivating slide presentation, and the tour-de-force performance featuring seductive kittens, petunias and onions, glow-in-the-dark skeletons, sort of freaky clowns, and......

LAist went easy on the intellect last night to check out the debut of The Starlet on the WB. Featuring ten hopeful gamines competing to be, obviously, proclaimed a starlet, the reality show tells a classic Hollywood story: naive girl blows into town, hopes to make it big, gets her ego torn up but maybe, just maybe, ends up a star in the end (hopefuly the competitions won't be so true-to-life to include an audition......

"Histo-tainer" Charles Phoenix dazzles audiences with images and stories that would otherwise be lost to the landfill and the winds of time. An avid collector of slides, photographs, and other historic memorabilia, Charles generously showcases his archived treasures of Americana with the public. The side-splittingly hilarious narrated slide shows provide fascinating insights into our regional experience. They also serve as the best visual vehicle for learning the histories of those two hallowed Southern California......

The LA Times Home section takes a look at the static stars of Hollywood. No — not dead or wooden, talent-less actors, but examples from the city's vast stock of residential architecture that's seen by audiences all over the planet. After all, we do live in the world's largest back lot. Yet despite the frequency with which we recognize "real" LA locations, it remains exciting to see places like your fave house, the coffee......

After treating ourselves to such high-profile LA musicals like Chicago, The Lion King and The Producers, LAist sometimes likes to venture to the backwoods of Los Angeles to catch some of the quirkier performances that the city has to offer. This week is no exception. For fans of Bewitched and The Hollywood Squares, no thanks to the over-the-top humor of the late Paul Lynde, you may be overjoyed to know that his spirit has been......