As some of you may well know, I am embarking on Malingering's Marvelous March Madness Sports Bar tour, so I thought I'd hit up one of the usual spots: Barney's Beanery in Santa Monica. Barney's has a few things going for it: 1) The mini chocolate bundt cakes with ice cream and chocolate syrup which are oh-so-delicious 2) Booths which allow you to hide out, have 3 TVs all to yourself, and complete control......

In all the many, many years I have been trolling Santa Monica's Promenade, in search of shopping and people-watching and places to eat, it had never occured to me to stop in at Locanda del Lago, an Italian restaurant right in the thick of Santa Monica's shopping mecca. I was invited out to try some of their house specialties; it's Italian cuisine in the Lombardy style, which emphasizes ingredients like fish from Lake Como,......

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......

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. 10,000 interviews that StoryCorps gathered over the past four years (from the two booths in New York to the traveling booths......

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......

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. I've admittedly been a fan of Bitter:Sweet since their performance a year and a half ago at a......

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......

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......

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......

Monday Allen Rucker presents The Best Seat in the House 7pm @ Vroman’s David Mamet & Howard Norton sign their new books 7pm @ Dutton’s Brentwood Tuesday Sam Sheridan presents A Fighter’s Heart 7pm @ Book Soup Bich Minh Nguyen presents Stealing Buddha's Dinner 7pm @ Vroman’s Rafe Esquith discusses Teaching Shakespeare 7pm @ Central Library Wednesday John M. Wieskopf presents The Ascendancy 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble Third Street Promenade Kate Jacobs signs......

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. "A Brokedown Melody" is a beautiful new surf film starring the likes of Kelly Slater, Tom Curren, Gerry Lopez, the Malloys, Rob Machado, CJ Hobgood, Jack Johnson and others. It features two tunes by Johnson, a previous unrelease solo number......

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......

Okay, so Los Angeles magazine doesn't update its web site -- or , it seems, even employ a halfway-decent webmaster. But the January issue does a big to-do about the new-and-improved Westwood Village. The article is at times too complementary, but in the end covers the neighborhood's issues right...focusing on what needs to be done to get the place back to its former glory days. (It even covers with a handy 9-step plan. City......

Music is the best elixir to kick the proverbial autumnal malaise. Don't let the shorter days or dipping mercury get you down. Check out these free local gigs instead. SATURDAY, 10/1 DJs Michael Stock and Benjamin White of Part Time Punks continue their residency at MOCA. The show starts at 6pm. It's free with general museum admission. Call (213) 621-1734. The Groovy Rednecks play at S.W. Hill Country at 6pm. Call (323) 256-2500. Sean......

Belmont. Fafi. Kid Robot....

Get a chuckle in at Borders on the Third Street Promenade when George Carlin makes an appearance to sign his new book, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, at 7:30 PM. Tonight at the Wiltern, KCRW presents PJ Harvey with special guest Moris Tepper at 8:00 PM. At the Egyptian Theatre, see a screening of Peter Bogdanovich's Saint Jack. The director will introduce the film and stay for a discussion and signing of......