Photo by Andy Sternberg/LAist Who knew an early Monday morning post about graffiti on a mural posthumously made famous by singer/songwriter Elliott Smith would lead to such wonderful results. Nearly six months ago, then-editor of LAist, Tony Pierce, posted a photo of the graffitied wall stating that "this is why we can't have nice things." Then, on Monday, reader Robert T. wrote an e-mail attaching a photo of a new tag on the wall.......

Photo by [Kwasi B.] via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Just when you thought they had faded into obscurity, Segways are reappearing on the scene. This time they'll be the mode of transport for patrols in LA-area Target stores' parking lots. The company says they like to use them because they add 8 inches of height for the rider, and run on batteries. Some passengers at LAX were evacuated for about two......

'V' ran amok through the streets of Hollywood today as hundreds of picketers descended on the Church of Scientology complex at Sunset and L. Ron Hubbard Way. | All photos by Tony Pierce The global day of action was initially announced last month after a video attributed to "Anonymous" coincided with an online effort that managed to temporarily knock out Internet servers belonging to the Church of Scientology. Another speech by "Anonymous" appeared this......

Last week I met up with Tony Pierce and some of his friends at the best Downtown bar to catch up and have some drinks. After talk about pimps blogging in Compton and strippers getting fondled in Canada, Tony turned to me and asked, “So you been writing about any guys lately?” “Nah man, I’m not dating anyone so there’s nothing to tell,” I answered. Tony replied, “I don’t believe it. You’re hot.” Well,......

When Tony Pierce began as editor of LAist in June of 2006, he brought in a new genius noon column called Tonight in Rock. It was needed, this town is most definitely a music town and you can't avoid it. If you have a favorite band, it's just a matter of when they'll be visiting next. Yet flipping through pages of LA music listings, so many bands feel so anonymous. Great band name, but who......

LAist has polled a number of our favorite LA locals to find out their New Year's Resolutions! In the spirit of fairness, here is mine: I'm cutting up the credit cards! Let's see what everyone else has to say: Pamela Des Barres: To live right smack dab in the NOW! Neil Hamburger: I want to try and put all the years behind me. Keith Morris: 2 try & not B a DICK!!!! Not 2......

This week Zach Behrens became the sixth editor of LAist. Behrens is no stranger to LAist staff or readers -- he was Co-Editor for nearly a year before taking the reins from Tony Pierce and contributed more than 1100 posts since 2005. We asked Zach a variety of questions to put in perspective how and why he came to be editor of the best city blog this side of the Hudson. Andy: When and why......

Dear Tony Pierce, can you please tell your new employers at the LA Times to fix their streaming American Express advertising pop-up so that it does not crash my brand-new computer every five minutes? Thank you, signed, LAist.com. When we are not struggling to cope with adverse side-effects of inexorable technological progress, we are keeping track of the striking writers' negotiations with venture capitalists to begin producing Internet programming. Baby needs a new pair......

A sad week for LAist as they lose their trusted and amazing editor Tony Pierce to the LA Times, but what a blast his last week was. He shared his 25 Favorite CDs of 2007 and wrote a great review of just a good movie, No Country For Old Men. At UCLA, thousands of students celebrated the end of their quarter by running around campus in their undies (lots of photos in a two-part......

Want a Wii this holiday season? Well toooooo fuckin bad. The best you can hope for is a rain check certificate that will entitle you to a console at some point in January. Even the Wii people themselves are now admitting what a mess they've made of manufacturing this thing. Two members of a terrorist cell have pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to wage war: the splinter group was "was poised to attack......

Last year we did a lot of Best Of lists, and this year we are on a roll to eclipse the quantity and quality of last year. One thing I have noticed is there seems to be two ways to do a Best Of list. You can do a politically correct one for the hipsters and cynics - which is boring and a lie. Or you can keep it real and talk about how......

It was a craaaaazy night on the town. You took dozens of photos with your pocket-sized digital camera. But you don't have Photoshop, and all you want to do is upload your pics directly to Flickr (something you could even do wirelessly if Hanukkah Harry hooks you up with with an Eye-Fi). Good news. Flick just went live with a new feature that allows you to crop, resize, touch-up, de-red-eye, brighten, and flip your......

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

Some people hate the truth. They look at the scoreboard and they hate what they see. They look at themselves and they hate what they see. They look at others having success and they hate that too. Last night blogging.la did the right thing and they linked to our post about my resignation from LAist due to my new gig at the LA Times. Because the blogosphere is what it is, a small group......

It’s been a whirlwind of a day here at LAist. Early this morning our Editor told the staff via email that he would soon be accepting a new job at the LA Times running all of their blogs (of which there are about 25, currently) and that he would be starting in just a few weeks. We all knew this day would come, but so soon? Since the moment Tony Pierce began at LAist back......

This is my first post on LAist, so I just want to start out by saying I'm thankful for Tony Pierce inviting me to contribute to the site based off of the WGA strike photos I've been sending him. Speaking of photos, I'm very thankful that the scary drugged out clown (pictured above) didn't attack me when I got "all up in his clowny grill" and snapped that picture at Tuesday's rally on Hollywood......

Who says there's anything we wouldn't do for our readers? Here we are in all of our glory and humiliation for your viewing pleasure. We start off with our fearless leader, Mr. Tony Pierce, as Jack White. He has a very cute Meg, so he must be doing something right. Other LAist's memorable costumes: Ryan Jesena: When I was 11 years old, i was Chuck Norris for Halloween, and no I'm not sending pictures An......

If you're a local sports fan, hopefully you had Columbus Day (International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People, whatever) off to nurse a wicked hangover. In fact, maybe you should take tonight off from Sports Center, too. It's Leif Erikson day. Honest. Even George W. Bush knows that (and don't worry, he's probably not working today, either). Maybe it wasn't the worst, but it was up there. T.J. Simers hit the nail on the......

The Detour Festival was ok. I didn't stay for very long because my girlfriend and I felt like cattle, and were tired of doing the unavoidable million laps around City Hall. Basically we echo all the sentiments previously put forth by our faithful editor, Tony Pierce. After the jump enjoy over 60 pics of such bands and big shots as: Kinky, Janeane Garofalo, Autolux, The Ravonettes, and Perry Ferrell's Satellite Party. All Photos by......

Last week when we were at the MTV VMAs we got to spend a quick minute with Common backstage at the Palms. We not only got to ask him about what he thinks is the reasoning behind his single "The People" making it to the top of the charts, despite it being nothing like 50 Cent, but we also got to ask him about Britney Spears' opening performance. What's interesting is we also got......

The season 3 premiere of FX's It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is the pick of the night. This is arguably Danny DeVito's best work since L.A. Confidential and his best comedy work in almost 20 years. While it's true that since it's cable the cast can say "shit" and "asshole" but that's not a gimmick the show relies on too much. What the show does follow is what made Seinfeld a success - it's a......

9:00pm Big Brother 8 CBS - Another houseguest gets the boot [who are you betting on Tony Pierce?] 9:00pm i-Caught ABC - Soldiers use of the internet; also, so-called blogebrities who have access to the hottest events - hmmmm, that kinda sounds like our lauded editor Tony Pierce ;-) 10:00pm P.O.V. "The Camden 28" PBS/KLCS - Back in the day, people used to do more than just bitch about the war on blogs -......

Damages is the prime time choice for me but check out late night TV: Bill Clinton, David Duchovny, Kirk Douglas, Gogol Bordello! 9:00pm Big Brother 8 CBS - The veto battles continue [look for Tony Pierce's commentary as this is a fave of his] 9:00pm i-Caught ABC - Consumers fight back with video, plus a profile of comic Tom Green's online talk show. 10:00pm Damages FX - Yeah baby! Damages is back after a......

LAist has an Internet radio show. Today is our soft launch. On the show will be Matt Welch of the LA Times talking to LAist Editor Tony Pierce about Welch's new book about John McCain. Call in at 310 984-7600 and listen by joining us after the jump.........

8:00pm Going Back to New Orleans UPN/KCOP - Music icon Deacon John Moore documents the unique culture of the Big Easy. 9:00pm Against the Tide: The Battle for New Orleans CNBC - The business side of the New Orleans recovery effort. 10:00pm Still Waiting: Life After Katrina PBS/KOCE An African American/Creole family returns to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, hoping to hold on to their bayou culture. 10:00pm DIY to the Rescue: Katrina Rebuild......

It's been two years since an American city was destroyed. The above clip is a teaser of a video podcast series produced and promoted by entertainment icon Quincy Jones and pop guy Usher who have teamed up with Habitat for Humanity in order to urge Americans not to forget the victims of the hurricane. Think about what happened two years ago and think of a way to help. Editor Tony Pierce drove to New......

Beastie Boys @ Greek Theatre [two photo essays of last night's show here and here] Ted Nugent @ House of Blues Manic, Dead Ponies, Minutes til Midnight, Policy @ The Echo Low vs Diamond, Oliver Future, The Lonely H, The Scare @ Spaceland Metal Skool, Tattooed Millionaires, The Unwanted Guests, Ramonas LA @ Key Club Resident Hero, Rama Duke, Hello Vegas, Putnam Hall @ The Troubadour The Crash Kings, Birds & Batteries, Walker Young......

Morris Day & the Time, Sea Wolf, The Broken West, Ben Harper, Blonde Redhead, The Emotions, Medusa, Breakestra, Autolux, Culver City Dub Collective, The Parson Red Heads, The Pity Party, Division Day, others @ Sunset Junction (10a-10p) Yolanda Adams, Angie Stone, Clarence Carter, The Laws Family, Eloise Laws, Barbara Morrison, Linda Hopkins, Billy Valentine @ Compton Summer Soul Jam, Par 3 Golf Course Stevie Nicks, ZZ Top, The Pretenders, Stray Cats, Sugar Ray @......

Here is a mix of tunes by bands that were mentioned in LAist in July of 2007: Powered by Podbean.com the Dwarves - Detention Girl (Anti interviewed Blag Dahlia of the Dwarves) Snoop Dogg - Beautiful (Anti reviewed Snoop's show) Gnarls Barkley - Crazy (Paul Dateh plays violin on 'Crazy' interviewed by Tony Pierce) Spoon - Infinite Pet (concert previewed by Michele Reverte and reviewed by Joey Maloney) Interpol - Slow Hands (CD review......

LAist Editor Tony Pierce has blogged here non-stop for more than a year deserving a well-earned vacation (and did he ever earn it). While out of town, we decided to have a little fun and bring some guest day editors in from around the blogLAsphere. Monday we had Green LA Girl and Tuesday saw Fred Camino of MetroRiderLA.Zuma Dogg took Wednesday and LA City Nerd yesterday. Today, former LAist Editor Carolyn Kellogg makes a comeback!......