John Richardson signs A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years 7pm @ LACMA more ›

Kim Sunee presents Trail of Crumbs 7pm @ Vroman's more ›

MUSIC: The Los Angeles Master Chorale performs Handel's Messiah tonight at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. But the audience has a part in this fun sing-along. So get your "hallelujah" ready. 7:30 pm // Walt Disney Concert Hall // 111 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles // $16-$69 (Cheaper tickets are getting scarce). OUTDOORS: Santa Monica pretends its Pershing Square with an ice rink of its own. It’s a stone’s throw away from the Third Street... more ›

Sue Grafton signs T is for Trespass 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble, 3rd Street Promenade more ›

Dave Isay will be at the 3rd Street Promenade Borders today at 2pm to discuss StoryCorps - the ambitious project that toured the country in search of stories. Your stories. Our stories. Your great-grandmother's buried stories that you knew nothing about and then, suddenly, you did and nothing was quite the same again. more ›

This is why we do all of our Christmas shopping online: first the FBI reported possible terrorist threats to Chicago and Los Angeles malls this holiday season, then took it back. Hey kids! You too can grow up to be a pervert with a social conscience! Dov Charney just signed on for a deal with American Apparel's partner company that could net him millions per year. A Small World it's not: Disneyland is remodeling... more ›

Monday Shalom Auslander presents Foreskin's Lament 7pm @ Vroman's Valerie Plame Wilson presents Fair Game 7pm @ Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Long Beach Barbara Firestone presents Autism Heroes 7pm @ Dutton's Slash presents Slash 7pm @ Borders, Torrance Lawrence Wright presents The Looming Tower 7:30pm @ UCLA Tuesday David Plante, with host Mark Danielewski, presents ABC 7pm @ Book Soup Michael Lent presents Christmas Letters from Hell 7pm @ Vroman's Tommy Lasorda & Bill Plaschke... more ›

Jason Goodwin discusses and signs The Snake Stone 7pm @ Vroman's more ›

Starbucks is currently in the midst of doing a free Song of the Day promotion (see the complete list of 37 songs here), and last night, Hear Music, located on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, hosted an in-store performance by the LA-based indie Bitter:Sweet (MySpace) since their song "Heaven (Nicola Conte Remix)" was yesterday's giveaway. more ›

They're old, they're gray, they steal carbon from the air, they block the sun, they buckle the sidewalks... and they're so ridiculously green it's almost like they're showing off. They are the 50+ ficus trees who have the nerve to stand in the way of progress near the 3rd Street Promenade. And they've got to go. In order to expand the popular shopping district (once known as the Santa Monica Mall), city officials have... more ›

Randall Robinson presents An Unbroken Agony 7pm @ EsoWon Books more ›

No Robby Benson more ›

Monday Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson present Sandworms of Dune 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday A.W. Hill presents The Last Days of Madame Rey 7pm @ Book Soup Brenda Scott Royce presents Monkey Star 7pm @ Vroman's Wednesday David Rosen presents I Just Want My Pants Back 7pm @ Pi on Sunset Thursday Gabe Rotter presents Duck Duck Wally 7pm @ Book Soup Simon Van Booy presents The Secret Lives of People in Love... more ›

On today's LAist poll, over 80% of you readers are willing to pony up for a subway to the sea. Is anybody at City Hall listening? Or does Zuma Dogg have to get all wacky on their asses? The LAT names two new managing editors. To whom do I write to protest the axing of West Magazine? About 200 employees were evacuated from UCLA today after a basement explosion; no injuries reported. 16-year-old Victor... more ›

Monday Mike Carey presents The Devil You Know 7pm @ Book Soup Tuesday Doug Stumpf presents Confessions of a Wall Street Shoeshine Boy 7pm @ Book Soup Joy Horowitz presents Parts per Million: The Poisoning of Beverly Hills High School 7pm @ Central Library Michael Tucker signs Living a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine and Love in Italy 7pm @ Dutton's Jerry Stahl presents Love Without 7pm @ Borders, Long Beach Thomas... more ›

Dana Bedford Hilmer and contributors present Blindsided by a Diaper 7pm @ Dutton's more ›

Sonic Youth continue to push the envelope. Two weeks ago they let it out that they're going to be working with Starbucks on a cd that will only be sold there, and today we learn that they are going to play a free gig at the Urban Outfitters on the Third Street Promenade. Is that where the Teenage Riots happen these days? Anyways, they're Sonic Youth and because their music has stayed pure throughout... more ›

Trevor Corson discusses and signs The Zen of Fish 7pm @ Vroman's more ›

Cashew-Cilantro Pesto over Ravioli, Roasted Asparagus, & Mushrooms Okay, okay, so we didn’t mean to piss off the vegans, but somewhere in between dead babies and an ontological inquiry into the humble mollusk, we lost sight of what’s really important: good, fresh, locally grown food. In an attempt to put our money where our (hungry) mouth is, we visited the Farmer's Market at Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade this weekend. We were delighted to... more ›

Following up on a news item we told you about on Friday, apparently the residents of Venice are in alignment with those in Mar Vista who are pissed that Santa Monica has passed a law that only allows dogs with SM tags to legally play in their new park on Bundy and Airport Drive which is right next door to Mar Vista. In the letters section of yesterday's Times were two correspondences that we... more ›

Pat Montandon discusses Oh, the Hell of It All 7pm @ Vroman's more ›

Anyone who has clicked their way through Malingering's hilarious Flickr galleries know that outside of The Grove and the 3rd Street Promenade, some of the worst fashion accidents occur in the stands of Dodger Stadium. more ›

Susan Diamond signs What Goes Around 7pm @ Dutton’s more ›

- If you're looking for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in LA public libraries, you will be sorely disappointed - LAT - Right now Eddie Van Halen is in rehab - TMZ - The USC football lockerroom is colorless, says black Trojan running backs and special teams coach Todd McNair, who dubbed the kickoff team The White Nation, and calls the other black coaches Brojans. Controversy brewed yesterday when one of the students created... more ›

David Mamet & Howard Norton sign their new books 7pm @ Dutton’s Brentwood more ›

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Monday Barbara Taylor Bradford discusses and signs The Ravenscar Dynasty, 7pm @ Vroman's Frank Warren of postsecret.com fame speaks, 7pm @ Borders Books in Torrance Tuesday Vendela Vida presents Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, 7pm @ Book Soup Anthony Swofford (award-winning author of Jarhead) presents Exit A: A Novel, 7pm @ Vroman's Patricia Marx signs Him Her Him Again the End of Him, 7pm @ Dutton’s Brentwood Portia Iversen signs Strange Son,... more ›

Now that the weather is more normal we can go back to enjoying the fact that we live in LA and do Southern Californian things like skating, surfing, and editing movies on our Macs. more ›

There are many great photographers in Los Angeles. LAist isn't afraid to pick favorites, and our two favorite photographers right now are The Cobra Snake and Malingering. We enjoy both of these artists because they celebrate LA fashion in a unique and sometimes hilarious way. The Cobra Snake uses fancy cameras and glamourous locations, whereas Malingering uses inexpensive equipment and photographs in very mundane places like Venice Beach and Third Street Promenade. While Cobra... more ›

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