Lots of old school films happening around town tonight. / Photo by get directly down via flickr. THEATRE You have a hand at commenting on the Theatre of NOTE’s play selection this week and next. NOTEwood is their comprehensive series of public readings featuring new, original works. The 2009 season will be chosen from the 30 scripts selected to be read aloud at the year’s NOTEwood reading – but there’s a talk back session......

Don't try this at home -- or at the Civic Center Metro Station. / Photo by puck90 via LAist's flickr pool. TRANSIT TALK Metro is studying alternatives for connecting the Gold, Blue and Expo lines through downtown Los Angeles. This study will examine linking the future Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension (near the Little Tokyo/Arts District Station) and the 7th Street/Metro Center Station. Tonight Metro will update the public on the project and allow......

Still Life with Seasonings, by Alex Kehr via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr An investigation by the Daily News found that, as the DWP has increased rates they continue to issue cars to more than 100 employees who are free to take them home. Proponents of the program say the cost of the vehicles is offset by the tax breaks the department receives from the hybrids they drive. Other people say, You're shitting......

And you thought the Burger King Chicken was crazy? Check out the Crazy Chickens this week at the Mayan / Photo by upslases via flickr. TALK Could you not get into Michael Pollan last night at the Central Library? No worries because American eating habits and food policy are a hot topic this week. Tonight, the Center for Healthy Communities presents “Hungry for Change: The Politics of Food with Marion Nestle.” The nutritionist, author......

Cellos take center stage at the Colburn School tonight | Photo by Lachlan via flickr. FILM Before Alan Alda brought the character Hawkeye Pierce to homes everywhere in the M*A*S*H television series, Donald Sutherland (Keifer’s dad) played the role on the big screen in the Robert Altman-directed film (MASH). In both, though, the plot remains the same: the men who lived in “The Swamp” didn’t care much for military decorum during the Korean war.......

In an effort to bring solar power to those who will benefit from it but simply can't afford it, a new partnership created between the nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners and BP donates one solar panel to a low-income residence for every solar panel purchased by a celebrity. As the Downtown News reports, Downtown's St. George Hotel, a housing facility operated by the Skid Row Housing Trust, is the first multi-unit project to receive panels through......

RUDY GIULIANI leaves after announcing that he has dropped his bid for the Republican Presidential nomination and is now supporting JOHN McCAIN at the RONALD REAGAN Presidential Library where the Republican Debate is being held. Don't forget to join the LAist staff next week at our Super Tuesday Party at Seven Grand in downtown Los Angeles! Come out to drink with us, watch the primary race unfold, and even tell off your least favorite......

Yesterday marked the first day for a new approach of policing in Santa Monica. A community patrol model has been adapted, as told by the LA Times. For those who live in Los Angeles, the Senior Lead Officer (SLO) program comes to mind. In Santa Monica, this is how it will work:Under the plan, the 8.5-square-mile city of about 88,000 has been divided into eight areas with nine or 10 officers assigned to each,......

Grizzly Bear, via Grizzly-Bear.net Of all the indie bands with some sort of animal in their title, Grizzly Bear might be the top dogs. After all, can Deerhoof, Deerhunter, Caribou, Panda Bear or even Animal Collective claim they are co-headlining a show with the Los Angeles Philharmonic? Nay. It is just the Brooklyn-based quartet who will share a stage at the Walt Disney Concert Hall for a one night only performance with the L.A.......

To Catch A Predator is one of the more intriguing shows to come around in past years, and certainly one that's sparked its fair share of debates. A group known as Perverted Justice goes into Internet chat rooms posing as young teens and engages in conversation with potential pedophiles. After a while, the offer is made for the targets to come over and a meeting time is set. Unbeknownst to the subjects, the person that......

So I spent my Sunday sick as a dog on the couch watching, of all things, football, literally because I was too wiped to find the clicker and move on. I'd forgotten how obnoxious the graphics were and how pompous and full of itself football has become. Still, gotta watch the Super Bowl for the commercials so I still have some time to devote to that. Am dismayed that the talentless hack Ryan Seacrest is......

Tonight’s the next installment of the LA Phil’s Concrete Frequency series, but here are other options we've dug up for your going-out pleasure: DANCE Hollywood Ballet is LA's own modern ballet ensemble. Tonight's show includes premieres of "RQ 21," set to sections of Mozart’s Requiem; "Ghost Frog," set to music by Parisian jazz guitar virtuoso Pascal Vaucel; lyrical/Middle Eastern fusion dance set to the ballet music from Verdi‘s Aid. Dancers from the troupe’s pre-professional group,......

Jazz performers improvise in front of an audience all of the time. At each sitting, different combinations of instruments and players create unique variations of existing sounds and tunes or develop something brand new to our ears. It’s thrilling to listen to the artists search for their individuality within the known arrangement of tones, scales, rhythms and meters. Or, it can fall flat. Still, when you bring the best together, even flat can be amazing......

So, looking forward to the Golden Globes tomorrow night? If you like lists being read aloud (and, really, who doesn't?) then NBC has a show for you. But, wait, there's more! Since the news conference announcing the winners will take one hour, NBC is filling the other two hours originally scheduled for the Globes with a "Dateline" special, including interviews to be conducted by Matt Lauer with some actors that are up for some......

As you know, the Golden Globes will not be so tony this year. Instead, it's a press conference. And as boring as a press conference is, what's even more, is superfluous picketing.The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced that instead of the usual televised three-hour gala on NBC, the HFPA will take complete control of its 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards Announcement and host a press conference open to all media to announce the winners......

Yesterday the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved additional steps for Project 50, a three year pilot program that will help get some of the most vulnerable people living on skid row into permanent housing. Volunteers completed hundreds of early-morning interviews to identify the 50 people who were in the most trouble -- people living on the streets with chronic illnesses, like liver disease and AIDS, many of whom are also mentally ill. Now a......

Would you like a nonfat latte with that Big Mac? That’s what you’ll probably be hearing in the near future, if you’re a fan of the Golden Arches. McDonald’s announced recently plans to add “coffee bars” to its 14,000 U.S. locations starting this year. They’ll also be hiring baristas to work the new stations serving up mochas, lattes and the Frappe – kind of a like a Starbucks Frappuccino or a Coffee Bean Ice......

Unemployment is no longer an issue for LA's population of feral cats. The stray and often unfriendly felines that are known for populating local neighborhoods and prowling the streets for food and shelter have been put to work as rat-catchers for the LAPD in some of their stations through the assistance of The Working Cats program of Voice for the Animals. The non-profit organization explains on their website that a feral cat is defined as......

Los Angeles is working on being the second city in the state to successfully reduce pigeon and squirrel populations by using birth control rather than killing the animals. The LA Times reports that squirrel birth control known as GonaCon, which succeeded in cutting squirrel's birth rate by 66% in 2004 in Berkeley, was piloted in Palisades Park but then thwarted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture which deemed the park too small to continue......

When I waited tables in New York City, we had a very popular item we sold called a quattroformaggio pizelle--a thin crusted pizza made from a flour tortilla with mozzarella, asiago, parmesan and fontina cheeses. It was light, it was tasty, but Barbara Walters once asked me if it was low fat and I could only smile and bring her a salad. That’s my history with the four cheese idea. Last weekend (December 14-15, 2007),......

You might hate me for this--I hate one of my roommates for beckoning me over to the television, rewinding the program she'd recorded, and insisting I see this video. It is a trailer clip by musical artist Nassiri, which is currently running as a commercial. We saw it during Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, and apparently it's showing up on other news channels. Some may experience this earnest, enthusiastic tribute to their Savior's......

In the decadent tradition of hand-massaged, beer-fed Kobe beef, a new taste sensation is coming to California: La Quercia artisanal pork. These happy little piggies are raised on an organic farm in Iowa and fed a diet of acorns, just like the famed pigs of Spain's jamon iberico. EaterLA had the scoop yesterday: These acorn-fed pigs are supposed to produce amazing meat, as they do in Italy and Spain. The company that's responsible for......

It's official: Karl Dorrell is out of a job, and after this weekend's 24-7 loss to USC, it's not a moment too soon. Dorrell met with UCLA's Athletic Director, Dan Guerrero, this morning, after a weekend during which most UCLA watchers had predicted that Dorrell would be getting the axe very very soon. With a disappointing 6-6 record this season, and a 35-27 record overall for his five-year tenure, most Bruin fans will not......

Don't know what to get for the gun toting rifleman who has everything? In San Francisco, turning that rifle in to authorities will net you a cool $100 gift card. Eh, you say? OK, how about $200 for AK-47s? I wonder how that conversation might go at home: Honey, where is my gun? Oh, I turned it in sweety, for $100 worth of movie rentals. You did what? Guns don't kill people, gift cards......

Oh my god you guys, SHINY!!! There's breaking news coming from the Whedon-verse, and it spells nothing but J-O-Y. Your very favorite sci-fi auteur Joss Whedon will be returning to the small screen in 2008 with a new sci-fi drama called "Dollhouse," starring former "Buffy" star Eliza Dushku. There's already a fan website up called Dollverse (Joss's fans are as obsessive as they are web-savvy), and they're posting daily updates as the program develops.......

Strangely, I’m OK with it. I mean, I’m NOT OK with it. I’m full of fury, anguish, and despair. But more than that, I feel resignation. I’m tired. And I’ve come to terms with all of it. UCLA football is dead to me. It’s not that I’m disowning the program. I’m still gonna support the team; my blood will always run Bruin blue. It’s just that I’m no longer going to pour myself into the......

Last night came and went, but we know a select bunch of aware Angelenos turned off their lights last night for Lights Out LA, a program in San Francisco and Los Angeles asking residents to turn off lights for one-hour in the name of conserving energy. Alisa Pugha in Koreatown participated and she spoke to LAist last night. "So just as Light Out LA starts, my power starts dimming. What the fuck?" The anonymous blogger,......

Travis Millard draws the cover of the new Steve Allen Theater program....

George Bush issued the fourth veto of his presidency today, nixing a bill that would have provided insurance to poor children. Bush said the program was too costly, apparently cool with the fact that the Iraq war now costs over $455-billion. That's B for billion. And B for Bitch. Curbed LA takes a gander at a new development planned for West LA. In as much as the structure looks like a monument to cubism,......

Top Chef hasn’t suffered from sophomore – okay, junior – slump at all. Bravo’s reality show is turning out to be one of the most consistently entertaining programs on television, thanks to one simple rule that’s all too often overlooked in the reality game: talented people make good television. Unfortunately, not everybody agrees: Regina Schrambling over at the LA Times recently decried the “tentacles” of advertising that have a firm grip on the show’s......