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......

For Westsiders, two bands of note at The Good Hurt tonight: Atomatique (powerpop) and Kinetic Stereokids (DJ/Rock/Ecclectic). Downtown, check out The Smell for experimental trip-hop etherealsim with All Neon Like. Popular Seattle singer/songwriter/rocker Jeremy Enigk will be at the Troubadour and there's a great mix of psychobilly, Spanish ska and surf at The House of Blues. Get fresh with some down South banjo fiddlin', mandolin fingerin' and jew harpin' at The Hotel Cafe as Ray......

Within 48 hours, building fires in Los Angeles did not take a holiday vacation. Early this morning in the Westlake neighborhood, a fire broke out in a three story converted-to-apartments Victorian home. Eleven residents, including two children were displaced while one man died. The cause is unknown. Early last night on Budlong Ave. near 117th St, a fire, most likely caused by a space heater, killed a 48-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman in......

So is anyone NOT buying Knocked Up this week? There's something like 5 different versions in Amazon's top 25 bestsellers right now. Wow. The TV Set is a great movie that about 400 people saw when it was in theaters. I had a near-private screening one afternoon at the Santa Monica Laemmle. Next is really only interesting if you're a Nicholas Cage hairpiece connoisseur (like myself). Evening has an incredibly raunchy nude scene with......

USC plans on selling comic Jack Oakie's historic estate in the San Fernando Valley to a developer. A UCLA police officer guilty of repeatedly shocking a student with an electric Taser was accused of violating department rules in a recent report. Things aren't looking too good for the King-Harbor Hospital. ESPN X Games 13 begins today at The Home Depot Center and Staples Center. What would our City Council members look like if they......

What better way to make flex fuel vehicles and E85 (corn-based ethanol) more hip than by taking several YouTube clips, stirring in some Facebook, MySpace, a Napoleon Dynamite-esque aesthetic and, finally, for good measure a good dollop of Ben Affleck dressed in a corn suit (seriously, just watch it)? Narrated by Phin (who looks suspiciously like a certain silent protagonist), this series of videos, dubbed "Clean My Ride, Flex My Fuel," aims to raise......

This is the week where everyone mourns the end of The Sopranos, but it was harder for me to let go of Deadwood a few months ago. Sure, there’s supposed to be a couple of Deadwood movies coming to tie everything up, but it’s just not the same. You can have your Tony Soprano, I’ll take the awesome and terrifying Al Swearengen instead. The big release this week is, of course, Ghost Rider. If......

The House of Blues on the Sunset Strip is having an interesting Spring, first they had Britney lipsyncing for 15 minutes, and now they will have Courtney Love actually singing. The rumors that Love will sing with headliner Linda Perry were affirmed yesterday by the Hole leader on her website. Courtney returns to the stage tomorrow night at the House of Blues in Los Angeles! Miss Love is set to perform with Linda Perry......

The Dimebag Darrell Art Tribute & Auction, featuring The Little Kids Rock Band, Aaron Lewis, Brent & Jasin, Nick Bowcott, Black Tooth Jam @ The House of Blues Mickey Avalon, Dirt Nasty @ Key Club Ben Gibbard, David Bazan @ Royce Hall The Blasters, Lady Dottie & the Diamonds, Creepy Creeps @ Viper Room Ozma, William Tell, Kaddisfly, New Year's Day @ The Troubadour King Kong @ Spaceland Whitestarr, Poets & Pornstars @ Roxy......

The House of Blues is Having the Most Surreal Week Ever It case you are nine years old or a closet fan, Britney Spears (billed as The M & M's) will be taking to the HOB stage tonight. Reportedly her set in San Diego featured lip synching and a whopping sixteen minute set. For all you pop culture junkies, this may be your night. When I was nine Elvis Costello's first album, "My Aim......

A Word or 4 dozen : Somehow I totally missed posting that the Shield was on last night and again it was good. I think one would be hard-pressed to find more raw and compelling performances on any other show available on the networks or basic cable. Being a former SF resident, I haven't been able to get enough of Conan's broadcast from the Orpheum theater on Market Street- too bad that's still bum-junkie......

Brrrrrrrrr... did you enjoy cuddling under your blankets last night during that blast of cold weather? Don't forget that it snowed in Los Angeles less than a year ago (and will SCV be so lucky?). Maybe this is Los Angeles' way of saying hello to Beckham with a little frosty cold treat. We're enjoying it. After all, some of us are transplants. Besides the top stories that you probably already know by now, A.M.......

Rise Against @ Wiltern Mudhoney @ Safari Sam's Say Anything @ El Rey Dave Alvin @ Getty Center The John Popper Project @ The Roxy The Dickies @ Vault 350 The Reyes Brothers @ Key Club Lindsey Buckingham @ Grove of Anaheim The House Harkonnen, Matt Cash @ The Mint Teche, Mehrey, Reverse Osmosis @ Viper Room Love Is All, Still Flyin’, Soft Boiled Eggies @ The Echo Gutttermouth, The Darlings, The Ladykillers @......

One might argue that it is hard to look bad in a Tony Duran photograph. The man most famous for taking pics of an early J. Lo (his house even has a plaque out front that says "The House That J. Lo Built") and owning the rights to syndication, thus making him a rich, rich man has a new exhibit for us to see. Visually stunning and beautiful, Duran's opening last night at Interior......

Yesterday, 500,000 people flooded downtown LA for the rally for immigrants' rights. That figure, a half million, comes from police, who typically provide conservative crowd estimates; others suggest there were even more. Speakers included DJ Eddie "Piolín" Sotelo, who helped spread the word over the airwaves, Archibishop Mahoney and Mayor Villaraigosa, who said: "We are workers, not criminals. We work hard. We play by the rules. We pay our taxes. And we want America......

George Bush held a press conference this morning to explain why he's cool with the NSA reading e-mails and tapping phones of Americans. Without warrants. If you guessed terrorism, you're right. If you guessed he'd say "Saddam" when he meant "Osama bin Laden," you'd also be right. Avowedly left-contrarian Martini Republic has pulled some choice quotes. The "Patriot" Act, which among other things made it really easy for the government to spy on you......

Already bored by the new TV season? There's still lots to do around town. Check out these live events tonight: Bryan Price, Jim Ruland, Scott O'Connor, Daryl "Duke" Haney will read new and upcoming works at 8 PM at the Tribal Cafe, 1651 W. Temple Street. The Quarterly Report performance group launches its "Best Of" show at 8 PM at The EvidEnce Room 2220 Beverly Blvd, LA CA 90057 (between Rampart and Alvarado). Susan......

We made plans to see House of D with a reminder to our Duchovny-devoted movie-going companion that we were a really good friend for doing so. After all, two scathing reviews of this David Duchovny cinematic "triple threat" had left a bitter taste in our mouth, but also a strange and unfamilliar urge to actually go see the movie, if only to find out how bad it actually was. It couldn't be that bad,......

Defamer.com, et al, have discovered the latest blog sensation; faux-blogs written in the name of a celebrity. Today's specimen is the Michael Bay Blog. Now we don't know what's real or fake in blogland. To wit, we've happened upon David Duchovny's blog, promoting his directorial debut, "The House of D." How can we tell it's really written by David and not some intern sitting in the offices of Lion's Gate Entertainment's marketing office or,......

LAist has a story to tell, from our electrical well, it's a little message and we're leaving out the whistles and bells. But what we aren't leaving out is exciting news for some, and to others -- well, you probably won't care. But if you're fans of the eclectic band They Might Be Giants, then you'll be glad to know that they're "storming the castle" so to speak over the next two months, with......