40 years ago today, American soldiers in Charlie Company, of 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division, murdered upwards of 500 civilians, almost exclusively women, children, and old men, in the hamlets of My Lai and My Khe in Vietnam. It's true that several soldiers chose not to participate in the event and that there were some heroes, like Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr., a helicopter pilot who put down his aircraft......

Now that the writers' strike is over and it's full-steam ahead with the Oscars, you can bet that just about every TV channel is going to dogpile on the gala event. Yeah, the Grammys went ahead without interference but the Grammys are nothing compared to the Oscars. E! and CNN already have several shows lined up (look for Oscar host, Jon Stewart, on Larry King this Wednesday night) ready to tackle the exciting topics of:......

Photo provided by the company Anticipation was high as people entered Royce Hall on Friday to watch Vietnamese-born/French-raised choreographer Ea Sola bring her company of eight dancers and five musicians to the stage in their Los Angeles debut. They presented “Drought and Rain Vol. 2” and I don’t think this turned out to be what people expected. It wasn’t a European, Asian or American company filled with athletic virtuosi, dramatic visuals and a densely......

Will it be pouring buckets tonight? If you aren't already planning on holing up with some popcorn and Netflix picks, you may want to get out and get your art & culture on. Let us help! ART ART LA 2008 is billed as "the only art fair in Los Angeles exclusively dedicated to contemporary art" and runs through tomorrow at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. This year's event "features 64 prominent international and Los Angeles-based......

This looks good -- an artist not yet heard in our neighborhood and a timeless theme. Plus references to things we may know something about. In its welcome mission of bringing outstanding international artists to our local performance scene, UCLA Live is hosting the Los Angeles debut of award-winning Company Ea Sola at Royce Hall for two shows this weekend. Raised in Vietnam during the war and trained in Paris, the female choreographer-performer Ea......

Are you lazy? A terrible cook? Don't care about Christmas? Where are you going to find someplace to eat that's open during the holidays? Chinese food is a great option, of course -- and Gayot lists some other fine dining places that are serving up deals on Christmas Eve. Looking for a last-minute book buy for the chef in your life? The LA Times lists the year's top cookpook picks. JGold celebrates the opening......

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......

In 1966, Huey Newton & Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party. A militia organization, made up of black men & women to fight for their rights, and defend themselves against “capitalist pigs” (the US government). In the politically charged-era of the civil rights movement, the party reached out to their wide membership, with distribution of a newspaper entitled The Black Panther. The publication featured regular artwork from its Minister of Culture, graphic artist Emory......

In 2003, the New York City Council voted to oppose the war in Iraq. Two years later, they drew a resolution for the "orderly and rapid withdrawal" of Iraq. Now, three days short of exactly two years after New York, the Los Angeles City Council, in a 12-2 vote, voted yesterday to support pulling out of Iraq.The council said it approved the resolution because it wants the federal government to end the war, which......

First launched in May of 1945, the Lane Victory saw service in three wars (WW2, Korea, and Vietnam), and is now maintained as a museum ship and docked at LA Harbor Berth 94 in San Pedro. Although the Lane Victory wasn't a combat ship (she was operated as a Merchant Marine vessel and carried cargo), she saw plenty of action and still has all her guns, some of which are still occasionally fired. Nothing......

I have just spent the last two weeks researching and cataloging every single Thai restaurant in Thai Town. I have driven up and down Hollywood Boulevard more times than a horny john. I have eaten every kind of Thai food. I have eaten boar, crunchy frog, durian, horrible purple salted crab and some things I cannot even pronounce. So this morning I finished my last graveyard shift for the weekend, and with some relief, I......

The most popular story on reddit yesterday and this morning was this blast from Texas Congressman Ron Paul who denounced the continued, failed practice of the United States to involve ourselves in unconstitutional, undeclared wars. After waving off Mitt Romney who tried to interrupt his roll by asking "what about 9/11?", Paul said that he was in Vietnam for five years and saw how pulling out of there did not end in disaster, neither......

The inning was like getting a proctology exam when you have a gigantic hemorrhoid. At least that’s what I said during the Padre’s six-run fourth inning that lasted about 45 minutes. Little did I know about Malingering’s incident with Luis Gonzalez’s foul ball which now makes me very thankful that my seats of choice are in the top deck. I guess you can say Viejito still has some pop in him. The Padre’s 7-6......

- LAPD called out to protest in Leimart park today. CBS2 says it's a rally called "Choose Black America - Not Amnesty - Not Illegal Immigration." LAIndyMedia calls it a MinuteKlan march. Confusing! Better explanation at Daily News. - Come on, he was just trying to find a parking space. A genius in the LBC was charged yesterday with a DUI after hitting two people and 24 cars in Long Beach back in February.......

Photo by Malingering Wait... the Summer of Love is officially over? And we're just finding out about it now?! Tuesday's LA Times featured a piece titled "There's not a lot of love in the Haight" focusing on the street kids and drug addicts that populate San Francisco's famed Haight-Ashbury district. The scoop? Although Jerry Garcia used to drop acid in the Haight, "the legions of idealistic wanderers who migrated here during the Vietnam War"......

This weekend marks the official start of barbeque season! If you've already mastered grilling, and are ready to move up to the next level, welcome to the world of smoking. Just remember, grilling is like a one-night stand and smoking is like a marriage. You should prep the ribs the night before and start smoking them six hours before serving. It requires a certain level of commitment. But the commitment is only one of......

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam died yesterday in a car crash in Menlo Park, CA. He was 73. Halberstam’s work as a journalist ranges wide and delves deep. He covered the Korean War, the Vietnam War and civil rights but he was also fascinated with the humanity and spectacle of sports. He did not simply document the history he lived through – he explained complex societal constructs and cultural shifts in a way that anyone......

Greater Los Angeles can proudly lay claim to another homegrown ethnic food mini-chain. With only two shops -- one in Rosemead and one in Monterey Park -- Mr. Baguette is hardly poised to crush Subway and Quiznos, but this humble yet expanding local sandwich chain offers a wealth of delicious and shockingly inexpensive bánh mì, AKA the Vietnamese hoagie. Combining traditional French baguettes and charcuterie with Vietnamese toppings like pickled carrots, daikon radish, onions,......

Grindhouse The week kicks off with a pair of rarely screened gems of black 1970s cinema, Brotherhood of Death about a group of black Vietnam vets who fight back against the Ku Klux Klan, and Johnny Tough, a coming-of-age movie about a troublesome teenager. That's followed by a dose of Italian horror, Autopsy and Eyeball. Then it's a trio of bizarre wonders: Coonskin, a Ralph Bakshi-directed animated blaxploitation spoof about a trio of animals (Philip......

Grindhouse There probably isn’t a single night I wouldn't enjoy going to the Quentin Tarantino-curated Grindhouse Festival at the New Beverly. On Monday & Tuesday it’s a double bill of Rolling Thunder, a revenge flick about a Vietnam vet who goes on the warpath after his wife and son are killed by thugs, and The Town That Dreaded Sundown, a 1977 film that's set in 1946 about a hooded killer stalking the terrified residents of......

#140 Vietnam vet and retired paratrooper dies in Palm Coast. Family pays over $4,000 to have him dressed in a jumpsuit and placed in a crate enclosed in cardboard box and sent to his family in Kentucky. His nude body arrived in a wet cardboard box tied with two pieces of nylon. [Kentucky.com] #141 A pack of pit bulls is still on the loose in Deerfield Beach. They have attacked a man at a......

The New Beverly has announced the schedule for 2007 the Los Angeles Grindhouse Festival Grindhouse festival, which is this year programmed by Quentin Tarantino and runs from March 4 - May 1. Many of the prints come from Tarantino's vast and awesome private collection, reputed to be among the best in the world for such films. As we reported last week, Los Angeles' best revival house will screen themed, handpicked double features on weekdays......

In my quest to bring a charity component to all social gatherings, first described here, I was faced with finding just the right fit for a recent house party. It was a celebration of new jobs, a birthday and we were expecting about 75 people. I wanted to make it fun and easy for people and did a little research and decided to do a shoe drive. In the evite with all the other......

One of the most talented, controversial and often brilliant directors of all time (and one of my favorites), Robert Altman, has died. He was 81. In his career, Altman directed some of the best and most popular movies, across many different genres, including M*A*S*H which took place in Korea but was a thinly disguised attack on U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, one of the best "revisionist" Westerns of all......

A shirtless man walked toward them along a mud pathway. His muscles were young and hard, but his face was devastated with wrinkles. His eyes were so red that they appeared to be burned by fire. A naked boy ran happily toward him from a little plot of dirt. The man grabbed his young son in his arms, turned him upside down, and put the boy’s penis in his mouth. When we saw that......

Terry is a bouncer at The Room in Hollywood on Cahuenga. It's that bar that's sort of next to the Beauty Bar, but you enter around the corner through the alley. Anyway, at 1:50 a.m. on Saturday morning, someone stole Terry's stick. He's not too happy despite his deadpan tone in the video. He got that stick in Vietnam after a guy tried to kill him with it. 31 years Terry had that stick.......

When the Ambassador Hotel was knocked down, parts of its pantry went into storage. The pantry, of course, is where Robert F. Kennedy was mortally wounded after speaking to supporters in the hotel's ballroom; he'd just won the 1968 California Democratic primary. Now the LA Times catches up with 29 items, socked away in storage. There's a cabinet door. There are some fixtures. There's a table. But there's not actually a pantry anymore, even......

One-time congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham has been sentenced to more than 8 years in jail for taking $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors. His crime included not paying $1 million in taxes. Cunningham told the court that he'd fought in Vietnam "because it was the right thing to do." If that was the case (and we think it's an arguable point), his moral compass has since slid out of whack. Maria Elena Durazo......

More SAG Awards liveblogging. Watch out, Dakota is coming. 8:40 Outstanding actor in a comedic series: Sean Hayes takes it to Will and Grace, leaving William Shatner, James Spader and Larry David behind. 8:44 Ensemble comedy series: Arrested Development, Boston Legal, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Desperate Housewives, Everybody Loves Raymond, My Name is Earl. Which show has the most pretty ladies? Yep, they win. Four lavender dresses &mdashl but nobody told Nicolette. She's in green.(side note:she......

This is California's execution chamber. Our taxes pay for it, so in some sense it's our responsibility. But right now there's not a darn thing we can do to prevent Stan Tookie Williams from walking in there at 12:01am next Tuesday to die. It's not like people aren't trying to stop the execution. The NAACP is flying around the state urging clemency, attracting the attention of the press. (There are also those calling for......