A Los Angeles county crew shovels mud from a road, in Sierra Madre, Calif. Friday, May 23, 2008. A mudslide closed two roads in the foothill community of Sierra Madre as wet and windy weather bounced through Southern California for a second day. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) After a fire ripped through the hills above Sierra Madre last month, rain caused a mudslide forcing the closure of two roads while officials urged voluntary evacuations that......

From a weekend heatwave to a rainy and snowy day in Southern California. A reader wrote in an e-mail to us "It's hailing! But it only lasted a second here in Northridge." The bigger news is that heavy rains in Orange County have caused officials to order evacuations in three canyons where mudslides occurred earlier today. After last year's wildfires, those hillsides were charred, making for easy sliding action. However, some residents have not left......

Today, the National Weather Service is predicting "steady rain and gusty winds" for tomorrow afternoon. "This system is expected to bring a 6-to-8-hour period of steady rain to Southwestern California Wednesday into early Wednesday night, with a slight chance of thunderstorms." Recently, the weather has been holding a high in the 60s, but after tomorrow's expected storm, temperatures are predicted to rise, giving Southern California a perfect 74 degree high by the weekend. Additionally, winds......

Actor struggles to look afraid in face of bad SFX | Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers Despite a critical reception that could charitably be called awful, 10,000 B.C. rolled to the top of the box office this weekend, taking in $35.7M. Fellow newcomer (and fellow terrible movie) College Road Trip finished a distant second with $14M, almost twice that of the resilient Vantage Point ($7.5M/$51.6M). Semi-Pro sunk in its second weekend ($5.9M/$24.8M) but still......

We seemed to have missed Santa Monica based Krandon as a Wednesday night resident at Molly Malone's. The lightly meditative and chill alternative indie band's name comes from an abandoned James Joyce play written in collaboration with physicist Neils Bohr according to the band's MySpace page. If that's a little too esoteric for you, our Wednesday night pick this month is a little more down home folk style, but with a loud presence -- Brian......

Photo by puck90 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr An update to this week's tragic Oxnard junior high school shooting: The 15-year-old victim was taken off life support after his organs were donated today. 49-year-old transient Steven Emory Butcher was found guilty of starting one of the largest wildfires in state history. The Day Fire began on Labor Day in 2006, burned over 162,000 acres and took a month to put out.......

Editors played a sold out show at The Wiltern along with Hot Hot Heat and Louis XIV on February 9, 2008....

Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford didn't exactly set the box-office on fire when it landed in theaters. Something tells me, though, that this superb, meditative neo-Western will enjoy a long life on DVD. Across the Universe is the world's longest music video and a treat for any Beatles fan (and only for Beatles' fans!). Elizabeth - The Golden Age was unexpectedly ripped by critics.......

Bright Umbrellas in Chinatown for a Less than Bright Day Crews are still working to restore power to some 3,600 Edison and DWP residents that lost power due to heavy rains and winds over the past two days. North Hollywood, Granada Hills, Porter Ranch, Pomona, Torrance, Stevenson Ranch and - gasp! - Beverly Hills residents were affected. Candles, people. More rain is on the way so gather ye umbrellas while ye may. Tons of......

Seeing such a dominant swath of white broadly blanketing the mountaintops behind our downtown skyline is rare, and LAist Featured Photos Pool contributor jslander teases in this photo's title: "L.A. or Denver?" Our wild winter weather brought more than the usual amount of snow, and at low levels, to our local mountains, making our cityscapes a little more dynamic. This view is from a hilltop in the Ladera Heights area. Photo by jslander via......

*UPDATE: Saturday, 2:45 p.m.* 3 people are now confirmed dead in the aftermath of Friday's avalanches -- LAT. *UPDATE: Friday, 8:50 p.m.*One person was killed and at least one other was missing after avalanches struck near the town of Wrightwood in the San Gabriel Mountains. The victim, 23-year-old Michael McKay, was an employee of the Mountain High Resort ski patrol. Around noon, an avalanche struck as McKay and two friends were skiing in the backcountry......

Street flooding on Rossmore Ave in the Hancock Park of Los Angeles when storm drains became clogged by debris. | Photo by Jonathon Alcom (Sundogg) via the LAist Featured Photos Flickr pool. Through 10 a.m. this morning, here are the rain and snow totals in inches from the National Weather Service. Rain Downtown LA -- 3.43 Long Beach -- 2.85 Santa Monica -- 2.69 Bel Air -- 3.39 Beverly Hills -- 4.20 Hollywood --......

We get to call it a "Winter Storm" because it's storming and it's January, and not to overstate the obvious, but it is Winter Storming like nobody's business out there. Although the rain may have tapered off somewhat in the overnight hours, the greater Los Angeles area is bracing for another onslaught of downpours, with more high winds, flood risks, and snow. Snow? What? Huh? Yes, Angelenos, we're talking the little white specs that......

Brace yourselves, Southlanders--there could be tornadoes brewing out there. The National Weather Service in Oxnard has issued a Tornado Warning for southwest Los Angeles County in southwest California, including the cities of Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Topanga until 9:45 p.m. PST. [KABC] Although it's a brief warning, the overall weather picture remains grim here in the greater Los Angeles area. We're under warnings and advisories galore; the flood advisory is still up for Ventura and......

The following photos of this unique week in Southern California weather were handpicked from your contributions to the LAist Flickr Photo Pool and elsewhere with permission or via Creative Commons license. Keep 'em comin'! Contribute to LAist by joining our Flickr Pool or send photos directly to zach@laist.com From the 20th floor of the Sunset Media Tower aka 'The House of Blues Building,' 6255 W. Sunset Blvd. by Michael J. Lambie. Daily rain records set......

TALK CalArts and USC have a joint program at REDCAT tonight titled, “Listen Again: Music You Should Change Your Mind About Right Now.” A great panel of writers, musicians and scholars discuss the current state of pop music and celebrate the release of the latest scholarly writings on music issued by the Experience Music Project. Panelists include Neal Pollack (alternadad.com), Ann Powers (Los Angeles Times), R.J. Smith (Los Angeles magazine), Oliver Wang (Soul-sides.com, CSU-Long Beach)......

Real Time with Bill Maher returned to HBO Friday night sans Maher's talented staff of writers (nominated once again by the WGA for outstanding achievement in a TV Comedy/Variety Series). Following a somewhat contentious panel discussion with Tony Snow, Mark Cuban, Matt Taibbi and Catherine Crier, Maher delivered an emotional critique of the strike, now heading into its 10th week.......

So most of these are, yes, from Christmas specials from when I was a kid, but that definitely counts. Besides it just means you get to watch as well as listen. Here's the list. #'s 2-10 are embedded after the jump: 1. 2000 Miles - The Pretenders 2. Father Christmas - The Kinks 3. Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer - The California Raisins, A Claymation Christmas 4. Island of Misfit Toys - Rudolf the Red-Nosed......

Rain is always a nice change of pace to life in the city, but sometimes it doesn't bring the good out of it. As the storm heads East, here's what it left behind: 280 car accidents between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. in LA County. An average may be around 75 in the same time frame on a normal day. 1.14 inches dropped in downtown Los Angeles. 10 hours of no electricity for 25,500 customers......

Overnight rainstorms brought at least a dozen motor accidents on slick roads and freeways, and the light rain that is gracing the Los Angeles area right now is "expected to intensify later in the day, prompting forecasters to issue a flash flood watch for fire-denuded areas of Los Angeles and Orange counties" according to KNBC.com. These areas are particularly vulnerable to disastrous mud slides as well. The watch goes into effect at noon today and......

I went to my 15th Tori Amos concert last night. I still remember the high school days of camping outside of Tower records at 7am on a Saturday morning to get tickets to the her shows, or that time I drove 3 hours in the snow to see her play in Boston on my 21st birthday. And then there was the time we got up at 6am to see her do a show in......

You know it's Christmas season in LA when the owners of Youngwood Court (an estate that pays homage to ivory off Third Street near Hancock Park) dress up their 12 David statues in Santa hats. This year, a huge 2008 sign also adorns the front lawn, which is covered in a layer of faux snow. A stylin' Santa and Mrs. Claus seem to be riding in a comfy sleigh, too. No matter how busy......

As Christmas approaches, we get inundated with holiday themed programming (just look at last week's Classical Pick, sheesh). Fear not, though, not everything is annoyingly chock full of jingly tunes. The San Francisco based and Grammy nominated "orchestra of voices," Chanticleer, is visiting Los Angeles on Tuesday with traditional Christmas songs from Gregorian Chant to Gospel, including selections from their newly-released holiday CD, “Let It Snow”. If you're not familiar with their sound, check......

A couple things on tonight but Saturday's a wasteland, go play in the sand or snow. Sunday is finale-city, check it out below. Have a great weekend. Tonight 7:00pm Attack of the Show G4 - Totally rad 1987 edition tonight!! (Repeats at 11pm) 9:00pm The Next Great American Band FOX - Because I know some of y'all watch this. 9:00pm Friday the 13th IFC - Uncut! 10:00pm The Soup E! - Listed mainly because it......

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.......

It’s a holiday tradition at this blogger's house (long before I had kids, which says a lot about me) — sitting down and watching the 1964 classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. What’s not to love about a quirky cast of characters teaching a lesson about acceptance? Well, I suppose the lesson of incessant marketing of the show is not a great lesson, but like many things around Christmas I choose to blatantly ignore what......

The Holiday season is in full swing in NYC, with holiday lights in Brooklyn, a giant snow globe in Bryan Park and Chanukah specials for ham. One citizen decided to go vigilante on annoying car alarms, a murder suspect used a fake Asian accent on the stand and a video of a man being beaten up by teenage girls on a subway shocked the city. And we interviewed soon-to-be-leaving-Gawker editor Choire Sicha, who said,......

Three people were injured and dozens evacuated after an apartment fire in Sherman Oaks gutted at least two units at 2 a.m. this morning. It was cold last night, but there are better ways to stay warm people. Australian police arrested a man in Melbourne who threatened to attack The Grove Friday. There is no evidence the man, who has never been to the United States, intended to carry out the attack. Still, days......

Snow. It's great when you're watching it from inside a heated room, like magic dust bunnies dropping from the celestial ceiling. It's much less magical when you're trying to strategically pee inside your car door to defrost the locks. Call it lifestyle differences, we Angelenos prefer our holidays merry and BRIGHT with a high of 72. The following local heroes offer proof positive that a white Christmas is not a requirement for high spirits.......

The rain came and delivered traffic, crashes, power outages and no snow in the mountains. Boo! A developer keeps on pushing to build a 1500-home project right next to Disney. Obviously, Mickey wants the area reserved for tourism. He's so greedy. It's probably not a good idea to hang a noose at your workplace, even if it is Halloween at the Port of LA. Just the same, it's not a good idea to take......