Photo courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox In yet another blow to Western civilization, Meet the Spartans ($18.7M) edged Rambo ($18.1M) to win the weekend box office crown. 27 Dresses proved surprisingly robust in its second frame, adding $13.6M ($45.3M) to its coffers. Last week's winner, Cloverfield, went in the opposite direction, plummeting over 68% and bringing in only $12.7M ($64.2M). The weekend's third wide opener, Untraceable finished fifth with $11.2M, in-line with expectations and......

In my scouring for good things to read online, I've stumbled across (not actually Upon) a new favorite. Carrie Brownstein, former guitarist of one of my favorite bands, Sleater-Kinney, now writes for NPR's much commented-on new music blog, in a section called "Monitor Mix". She gets about 50 comments per post, no doubt partly due to her fame, but her writing is also really good in its own right. I've already discovered a couple new......

MUSIC Tonight at the Jazz Bakery is the The Alternative String Group, an ensemble of students from Robert Anderson and Jacob Szekely's music school in West Hollywood, The String Project | Los Angeles. Both studio musicians who have worked with the likes of the Dakah Hip-Hop Orchestra and SuperNova, the two have put together a conservatory that is pretty high tech with their interactive music lessons, recording and filming them for student's personal analysis.........

Post Xmas doldrums have hit the tube big time, here's what's worth watching tonight: 7:00pm BBC World News BBCA - BBC will exclusively cover Benazir Bhutto's assassination and turmoil in Pakistan, aka "shit hits fan" 9:45pm A Guy Named Joe TCM - (1943) Featuring Spencer Tracy as the ghost pilot who shadows Van Johnson who is courting his old girlfriend played by Irene Dunne. This original is a million times better than Spielberg's piece of......

In 1987, U2 did a little guerrilla music video shoot on top of the Republic Liquor Store at 7th and Main in Downtown Los Angeles. Only announced hours before the shoot on the radio, thousands and thousands of fans poured into what many considered a bad part of town prompting the LAPD to have a little freak out and try shut down the show before anything happened. Luckily, in the name of rock n'......

It seems unlikely that I actually saw it, but I’d swear to you that I was up on the night that Wendy O. Williams of the Plasmatics destroyed a car on the Tomorrow Show. I would have been nearing the end of eighth grade and I can’t imagine that my parents let me stay up, but it sure feels like I did. That’s the problem and the beauty of current technology. We can’t really remember......

Dancing & Music at Zambuba on Venice Blvd. BB Chung King & the Buddaheads @ Cozy's Bar & Grill Samba music and dancing @ Zabumba Three Bad Jacks, Taildragger, Graceland Mafia, Dead & Broken @ Key Club Eisley@ Silent Movie Theatre Gladys Knight @ Hollywood Bowl Scott Barnhart with The John Heard Trio Charlie O's O.H.M. @ The Baked Potato Hollywood U2, Fallout: the Police Experience @ House of Blues Zach Galifianakis @ Largo......

It's been a FleetBank tradition since 1998, as mentioned by our sister site Bostonist, but Bank of America has brought its annual "Museums on Us" promotion to Cali for the first time. Throughout the month of May, you'll be able to get into many Southland museums for free by showing your B of A ATM, check, or credit card, or MBNA credit card. So for once, the card that typically drains your bank account......

Los Angeles-based defense attorney Stefani Schaeffer wins 'Apprentice: Los Angeles'. Isn't that nice, Ivanka has a new intern. - Chicago Sun-Times Modern Middle Eastern Artists from Traditional to Graffiti @ LACMA, Sunday, April 29th. Interesting. - Persian Mirror LA Times, Chicago Tribune will cut a combined 250 employees. - IHT Drew University sues Los Angeles County for $125 Mil for the mishandling of operations at King-Drew Medical Center - CBS2 Basinger 'hires bodyguard for......

Blackmore's Night - Winter Carols (Locomotive) Brand New - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me (Interscope) Daughtry - Daughtry (19 Recordings/ RCA) Handful of Hate - Gruesome Splendour (Cruz del Music) Il Divo - Siempre (Columbia) Jay-Z - Kingdom Come (Roc-A-Fella) Killswitch Engage - As Daylight Dies (Roadrunner) Patti Labelle - The Gospel According to Patti Labelle (Bungalo) Rock Star Supernova - Rock Star Supernova (Epic) Snoop Dogg - Tha Blue Carpet......

Monday Night Football brought some love to New Orleans the day after yesterday as the city re-opened the Super Dome. It was an emotional evening that was kicked off by some pretty amazing musical performances including a medley by U2 and Green Day which really got interesting after the 4-minute mark, so bear with Green Day.........

David Geffen won the bidding war in the mid '80s to nab the country-tinged LA band Lone Justice and their self-titled debut came out to much hype. Everyone was fixated on the blonde singer, Maria McKee, whose voice was often compared to both Dolly Parton and Janis Joplin as the songs went from bluesy to hillbilly with a solid foundation in rock. Record sales didn't meet expectations despite being overwhelmingly loved by critics, fans,......

They've dressed up in blue shirts and khakis and started helping people at Best Buy, they pretended to be U2 playing on a roof, and now they've decided to go to a Home Depot and either stand still for 5 minutes or move in super-slow-motion. People thought they were hallucinating. Keep up the good work NY, but the Yankees still suck.......

Dear MTV, You know we love you. You know you're our favorite channel. And you called your shot and it came true: we can't live without our MTV. Like any relationship we've had our rough times. At first you wouldn't play black artists, then you played too much Michael Jackson. Fine, thanks for meeting us half way. For being pretty much the only music video channel in town you liked to play the same......

Jana Pants is visiting our city from out of town. We have invited her to go to as many club-sized concerts as she could tolerate. She dipped her pinkie toe into the scene last weekend, and is returning tonight after a brief respite at Big Bear. This was her dispatch that should have been posted on Monday. Whoops. A weekend of music and drinking is aces in my book. What better way to ring......

Today effusive guitar-playing wiggler Charo is either 55 or 65, depending on which story you believe. Songwriters Neil Sedaka ("Love Will Keep Us Together") and Mike Stoller ("Hound Dog") are 67 and 73 today. And U2's bassist Adam Clayton is 46. Who knew that Danny Masterson and William H. Macy had anything in common? The "That '70s Show" man-about-town turns 30 today, and Fargo star, who'll next be seen in Thank you for Smoking, is......

Sly Stone gets on stage for the first time in 19 years. That made the Grammy Awards worth watching. Was there anything else that did? U2 and Mary J. Blige singing "One" together — that woman can put it all on the line. Matt Dillon saying that they were a tough act to follow. Kanye winning. Dave Chapelle. Jay-Z's John Lennon t-shirt. Bruce Springsteen. Sam Cooke. What could we have skipped? The cheesy black-and-white-ification of......

Honey, LAist loves you. We're sorry we got stoned last night and started asking angsty questions about who you'd want with you on a desert island, us or your ex. We were fools. And yeah, we can admit that when we got off the phone, we curled up with a pillow and spent a half hour listening to U2. But it's Monday now, and we each have a rush hour to fight. So while......