Fie upon those who wish downfall upon the Westside! We shall smite thee with our flaming elven sword. (That's how we talk to LAist staffers who aren't behaving; nothing whips a writing team into shape like a little dangerous elf talk.) We will now stop being nerds and give you incentive to visit the Westside. Here are some more happy hour specials that'll make you wish you lived on the beachier side of life.......

It's been going on all day as it is: election coverage. Obviously you have your choice to get this news all night: CBS, ABC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, and probably the best news source, Comedy Central. For all other decent viewing options see below. And if elections aren't the equivalent of polling and monitoring then there's this recent bit about a challenge to the Nielsen ratings system. Looks like TNS Media Research is going to go......

Photo courtesy of travelin librarian via flickr One of my favorite films of 2007 arrives to DVD today, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. I know what some of you are thinking--why would I want to watch a documentary about grown men competing at Donkey Kong? To that question I can only say, "Trust me. You won't be sorry." Like all great films, King of Kong is about much more than its......

Photo courtesy of In Between Sessions via Flickr Starting tomorrow and continuing through next week, LAist will be reporting live from the Sundance Film Festival. We'll be covering the films, the parties, the people and the various surreal and pointless events that comprise the most important film festival in the country. With the WGA strike still in full bloom, most are expecting a buying frenzy up in Park City as distributors stock up on......

Photo by Elise Thompson/LAist The King's Head is arguably home to the best fish and chips in Los Angeles. Sadly, the fish and chips get so much attention that the clam chowder is not given its rightful due. Let me make up for that now. The King's Head Pub in Santa Monica serves the chowder of the gods. All other chowders should bow down before it. Other chowders dare not speak its name. I......

Rain rain has gone away...so Tuesday we'll go out to play. Here's what's going on around town tonight: MUSIC The LA Phil’s Concrete Frequency series continues tonight. “Songs of the City” is being billed as a program where “urban troubadours share lo-fi songs about city life.” We’ll believe it with a lineup that features: Marc Bianchi, Biirdie, Franklin Bruno, Zooey Deschanel, John Doe, Inara George, Stevie Jackson, Sondre Lerche, Kyp Malone, Bob Mould, Zach......

Lakers 111, Nuggets 107 - Allen Iverson lit up the scoreboard with 51 points but three Lakers responded with big nights of their own. Kobe Bryant scored 25, Vladimir Radmanovic added 21, and Derek Fisher had 20. Despite his big night, the Lakers only allowed Iverson one layup in the fourth quarter. Sonics 95, Clippers 88 - Seven is unlucky for the Clipper -- it's how many games they've lost in a row. Seattle led......

With reports of The King of Pop's financial troubles continuing to moonwalk all over the press, it's hard to feel sorry for the middle aged superstar, considering he hasn't really seemed to try to work out his issues - literally. You'd think a guy like Michael Jackson could do a few concerts and collect the $212,963 that's reportedly outstanding on his $23,212,963 mortgage on his sprawling ranch north of Santa Barbara. This summer Pollstar......

This weekend is one of those weekends where--if you love movies--you'll be hard-pressed to choose which one (or two) to see. Most will probably settle on American Gangster, and I don't see anything wrong with that. Couple two powerhouse actors (Denzel & Crowe) with a reliable director (Ridley), add a compelling story that has slipped through the cracks for years and you have what looks to be a great, studio picture. If, like the......

After weeks of trying to see it at screenings around town, I finally got the chance to see The King of Kong. My expectations were high as I walked into the theater, and I'm thrilled to say they were not only met, but exceeded. Seth Gordon has made one of the most ridiculously entertaining documentaries in years. Sure, it's about Donkey Kong and the genuinely weird subculture of Golden Age Arcade Game competition, but......

Exceeding even the most optimistic of expectations, Superbad hauled in a huge 33.1 million dollars to top the box office this weekend. Seth Rogen can do no wrong right now. The terrible, awful, unfunny Rush Hour 3 dipped precipitously in its second weekend, pulling in 21.8 million and bringing its total to 88.1M. The Bourne Ultimatum stayed strong in its third week, finishing third at 18.9 million and now standing at 163.8M. The Simpsons......

The way I see it, documentaries succeed in one of two ways. The first: deal with a terrifying, real subject matter ("One Day in September", "Jesus Camp"). Express it in a matter-of-fact way that both frightens and informs the viewer. The second: Find a genre/subject that is so outlandish ("American Movie", "Spellbound") that all you need to do is turn on the camera and capture the unintentional hilarity. The hitch is, you need to......

Update: tonight's screening at the Arclight is a special presentation with a Q&A with the director Seth Gordon afterwards. The film will then show tomorrow at the Nuart thru the 23rd. If you walk through the arcades these days you will see three different games. Driving games where you speed through various versions of Hell. Shooting games where you shoot and kill as many people places and things that you can. And walking down......

Alexi Lalas President and General Manager Los Angeles Galaxy Dear Alexi: I've gotta hand it to you. You are indeed the man. Landing David Beckham is a much bigger deal than any of your fellow MLS owners will ever acknowledge, because they're all steamed that they couldn't pull it off first. The man is the biggest brand in international sports, without a doubt, and his made-for-the-highlight-reel penalty and free kicks are just what the......

In honor of Game 4 of the NBA Finals (yes, they're still going on, L.A., even if you didn't notice once your Lakers wilted in the first round), a little love for The King. Please note: I said Top Ten because there are probably thousands of reasons, but I only have time and space for ten here. 10. Nicknames. Bron-Bron, King James, LBJ, The Chosen One, Video Game James. What does Kobe have? One word,......

A Word or 146: It was fun to watch Molly Shannon on SNL. In general it was a great broadcast and she was just as funny now as she was then but who could really care about Linkin Park? Less fun is reading about the continuing poor decision-making by the networks in their upcoming program development. NBC is trying to cover all it's bases milking Heroes, their only good horse in the running, by creating......

Silverlake Film Festival The 2007 Silverlake Film Festival heads into its second and final week. Highlights include… El Benny - A biopic based on the life of Benny Moré, considered by many to be the greatest Cuban singer of all time. The film concentrates on a period in the early 1950s when Moré left the orchestra of Duany and founded his own "Banda Gigante." The King of Kong - Washington resident Steve Wiebe decides that......

A Word or 89(approx): One thing I didn't mention over the weekend was Sunday's SNL In the '90s because I thought it woudl suck. I was right. First, why did it take them 7 years to come up with this 2 hours of dreck? Second, the equal emphasis of the (pathetic) music acts and the comedy was a mistake - the show is an hour and a half with 2 songs in it, the......

A Word or 36: 60 Minutes was interesting what with alleged ratfink George Tenet telling us all the things he should have been telling us years ago, when it would have mattered, when we could have done something about it. Tonight - Monday - April 30th, 2007 D'backs @ Dodgers (PRIME, 7:00 p.m.) How I Met Your Mother/The New Adventures of Old Christine/Two and a Half Men/The King of Queens (CBS, 8-10:00 p.m.) Two......

A Word or 45: Been thinking about the whole VTech thing from last week and whether or not the Cho footage should have been put on TV: of course it should have been put on TV. It wasn't done distastefully and it was newsworthy and timely, end of story. Tonight - Monday - April 23rd, 2007 The New Adventures of Old Christine/Two and a Half Men/The King of Queens (CBS, 8:30-10:00 p.m.) All new......

The King of All Media has scored himself a queen hot piece of ass. Doing something he swore he'd never do, last night shock radio pioneer Howard Stern proposed to his long-time model girlfriend Beth Ostrosky, he announced this morning on his radio show. Stern who was first married for 20 years, divorced in 2000. He met Ostrosky a year after the divorce and has been exclusive with her ever since. The two have......

Timberwolves 101, Clippers 87 - Disappointing. That's the only word to describe this home loss. After a last-second victory in their last game, the Clippers should have been excited to move beyond .500 and into a better position in the playoff race. Instead, the team had a mere 12 assists and turned the ball over 26 times, resulting in 32 points for a Minnesota team that evened with Los Angeles for the 8th playoff seed......

Kings 3, Blue Jackets 0 - Columbus lost their fifth road game in a row, and Mathieu Garon did everything he needed to make this one the third shut out during that stretch. He collected 26 saves for the Kings, while teammates Michael Cammalleri, Sean Avery, and Lubomir Visnovsky each notched goals. Next up, Detroit visits Los Angeles on Saturday. Clippers 110, Heat 95 - The Clippers were still without an injured Sam Cassell, but......

One Minute Review: So Courteney Cox Arquette's new venture, 'Dirt', was, as Borat would say, "Dirt from anus". Also, did anyone catch Letterman last night? The first half of the show was devoted to jokes about Saddam's execution, including the Top Ten. I don't think it went over that well, except for maybe at the White House. Tonight - Wednesday - January 3rd, 2007 Blue Jackets @ Kings (Fox Sports, 7:30 p.m.) "Friday Night......

Tonight - Wednesday "Funny Face" (TCM, 6:00 p.m.) Audrey Hepburn stars in this '57 musical comedy that features the dance sequence that the Gap has been using in their recent commercials "NHL Hockey" (PRIME, 7:00 p.m.) Predators @ Ducks "NBA Basketball" (Fox Sports, 7:30 p.m.) Hornets @ Lakers "America's Next Top Model" (the CW, 8:00 p.m.) Season finale "The King of Queens" (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) Season premiere - back to back episodes "The Biggest......

Is LA really that tough of a market that no one can stand out as the perfect fit in morning radio? Is it really that hard to entertain the infamous Los Angeles morning commute? With billboards in LA proclaiming him The King of Free Media, and with KLAC's station manager calling him not just the future of radio but proclaiming that "there is not a more talented performer on the air today," starting Monday,......

The Museum of Television & Radio’s annual William S. Paley Television Festival hosted the cast and creators of CBS’s sitcom How I Met Your Mother at the Directors Guild last night in Hollywood. LAist has grown to really enjoy this show, the likeable characters and the crisp writing. Besides, what other network sitcoms are we going to watch? Rodney? Nope. The King of Queens? Not a chance. Though it was compared to Friends at......

In other parts of the country, "summer" translates into "Let's visit my friend/relative/person-I-kind-of-used-to-know in LA." So cousin Joe and his girlfriend from Pennsylvania end up couch surfing at your place -- for a two-week vacation. After doing the requisite trips to Disneyland, Universal, the Santa Monica Pier, Hollywood and the beaches in Malibu, getting out of work again is out of the question. Cousin Joe and said girlfriend are also a little frustrated at......

People haven't crowded around TVs around the office like this since the start of the Iraq War. What that says about our culture we don't know but everyone was anxious with anticipation for the verdict and The King of Pop is not guilty on all ten counts for which he was accused. The fans outside are delighted. Before hand, they were randomly breaking out into tears. We're just glad we can now get back......

FRIDAY • Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy performs solo at the Henry Fonda Theater at 9 PM. Doors open at 8 PM. • The King of California, Dave Alvin, performs tonight at McCabe's Guitar Shop with Mike Stinson. The show starts at 8 PM and tickets are $20. • Spaceland features the reunited original 1985 lineup of the LA punk band The Leaving Trains, performing with Falling James and Dirty Little Secret. Doors open at......