In remembrance of the many lives lost in the 2004 South Asian tsunami, the public is invited to gather at a candlelight vigil with representatives of Sri Lankan organizations on Dec. 26, 6:30 p.m. at the Santa Monica Pier. Prayers will be offered by several religious denominations (Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim), followed by a moment of silence. Participants will release flowers into the ocean as the memorial service comes to an end. The......

Attempting to pull sticky, er, bubble gum out of your hair was as vain as trying to banish Hanson's "MmmBop" from your brain ten years ago. A decade ago, that was your little sister's Hanson. Fast forward to 2007 and you've got three grown men who have purposely done nothing to shed their image of the past but have somehow emerged as a band for today. Unlike comparable, so-called boy bands, the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based......

Breakdancers from the great continent of North America filled the Henry Fonda Theater on Saturday to battle each other at the Red Bull BC One Qualifier in Hollywood. As a white girl from suburban Philadelphia I think it's best if I let the photos and video handle most of the narrative as I would not like to embarrass myself by mixing up my coin drops with my turtle moves. That said, Spee-D of the......

- 2 local acts to check out today: Sexy, electro-pop superstars (who recently got played on Pete Tong's BBC 1 Radio show) Taxi Doll at LA pride, and red headed, 22 year old, piano songstress A Fine Frenzy (who will be touring this summer with Rufus Wainwright) at the Viper Room. - Holy hightops, Batman! Breakdancers in Hollywood? This is the best news of the day. This afternoon there will be a mighty battle......

Paris Hilton Ordered To Court For Allegedly Violating Probation A judge on Tuesday ordered hotel heiress Paris Hilton to appear in a Los Angeles courtroom on May 4, when she could face jail time for allegedly violating her probation in a reckless driving case. After a lengthy private conference with attorneys from both sides, Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer said Hilton would be "required to attend" the next court date. Los Angeles 2016 Reacts......

City Year is coming to Los Angeles this fall and is hosting their first annual "Alumni and Friends Fundraiser" Tuesday night in the Foundation Room at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip. So what exactly is City Year? Founded in 1988, City Year's signature program, the City Year youth corps, unites young adults ages 17 to 24 in a year of full-time rigorous service during which they work in diverse teams to......

The LA Times has nominated five books in each of nine different categories for the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. In the weeks leading up to the Festival of Books where the winners will be announced, LAist will take a quick look at each category and will wax poetic on a few favorites (or least favorites) along the way. Whiteman by Tony D'Souza - D’Souza delivers a memorable journey of ideals, disillusionment and partial......

The LA Times has nominated five books in each of nine different categories for the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. In the weeks leading up to the Festival of Books where the winners will be announced, LAist will take a quick look at each category and will wax poetic on a few favorites (or least favorites) along the way. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell – A smaller tome than Mitchell’s fans are used......

A Word Or 46: The Oscars blew its big TV wad all over the place so let's get on with our lives. The Daily Show and Colbert Report are back from hiatus -- did they think they were doing the Oscars again? What's their excuse? Lots of new TV tonight. Tonight - Monday - February 26th, 2007 Lakers @ Jazz (KCAL, 6:00 p.m.) Bobcats @ Clippers (PRIME, 7:30 p.m.) How I Met Your Mother/The......

Los Angeles is abuzz about David Beckham, but could that pretty boy handle real soccer? We ain't talking no Real Madrid, neither.......

Stomp the Yard - I'm a sucker for movies that end in dance-offs. DJ, a troubled street-dancer from Los Angeles, avoids jail by enrolling in a black college in Atlanta where two rival fraternities both want a piece of his talent, so they can win a national step show competition. Meagan Good (Brick, D.E.B.S.) plays his love interest. Alpha Dog - Directed by Nick Cassavetes, this fictionalized account of a small-time Southern California pot......

- Too costly, Cingular sucks, Battery life concerns - Infinite Loop - Top 10 things to Hate about the Apple iPhone - APC - The Five Biggest Issues with iPhone - Infectious Greed - Cisco Sues Apple over the name iPhone, Cisco's had it for Six Years, Yo - Cisco - Carriers lukewarm on iPhone - The Australian - History of false rumored photos of the iPhone - Gizmodo - How Apple Kept the......

The former president of the United States will be signing books tonight at Vroman's in Pasadena, but according to the famous bookstore's spokesperson (well, the nice lady who answered the phone), "please do not come unless you already have a ticket" or you will not be allowed into the bookstore. Mr. Carter is currently traveling around the country in support of his controversial new book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid". Although some who have read......

On this day in 1979, a two- to three-kiloton nuclear bomb explosion (or something) was detected in the Indian Ocean about halfway between South Africa and Antarctica. No country to date has claimed responsibility. On this day in 1958, Joan Marie Larkin was born in Philadelphia. Upon relocation to Hollywood, Ms. Larkin became better known as Joan Jett and was responsible for blowing up the rock establishment with her all-girl band The Runaways. Now......

See, this is why we only email trusted friends, and trust no one. The other day AP reported that Britney and KFed want to bring their new offspring into the world at the pregnant-celeb-friendly Namibia (know your customer), and the next day they tell us it could have been a hoax. Is this what hoaxes have stooped to? LAist remembers when hoaxes were far more interesting than that. Bigfoot was a good hoax. Britibia,......

NextAid, a Los Angeles based non-profit with the goal of "creating sustainable solutions for children in Africa orphaned by AIDS", is having a benefit tonight at the Mor Bar in Santa Monica. The benefit is in support of the Children's Residential Support Center they will begin building in South Africa later this month (PDF). NextAid represents the international Dance music community's response to the pandemic and their parties reflect that. DJ Dan and Valida......

Okay, so this has nothing to do with LA but we find it highly amusing. Time Magazine has the exclusive interview with funny man Dave Chappelle who wants to set the record straight: The first thing Chappelle wants is to dispel rumors—that he's got a drug problem, that he's checked into a mental institution in Durban—that have been flying around the U.S. for the past week. He says he is staying with a friend,......

Tonight at 7 PM Laemmle Theater in Santa Monica will hold a free screening of "AIDS Treatment: Reaching the People?," a film documenting the lives of patients and medical teams of HIV/AIDS treatment programs administered by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Malawi, Thailand, and Guatemala. Six million people urgently need treatment to survive - what will it take for HIV/AIDS medicines to reach them in time? Discussion follows with MSF field volunteers......

Beverly Hills Weekly's Tuesday cover story by Susan Monahan profiles Vendome Liquors on Olympic in Beverly Hills. The literary tone of the article, which Monahan wrote in the second person, reminds us of Bright Lights, Big City. You won't find "Bolivian marching powder" at Vendome Liquors (at least we don't think so but some BH households are still stuck in the '80s), but it does offer all the other beloved vices: an extensive selection......