During the go-go, greed is good ‘80s, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and host Robin Leach became the symbol of American opulence. It was hard not to aspire for 'champagne wishes and caviar dreams.' Of course these days, there are countless shows featuring the upper crust flaunting their wealth. And like a car wreck, we wretch at the sight of such blatant materialism while secretly keeping our eyes glued to the TV set. So......

- Franklin Ave: Photo of Elaine from Seinfeld as she was out on the picket lines, her new show is one of a half dozen that had to stop production today - LA Observed: No LA blog has covered the SB News Press fiasco better than Mr. Roderick, which is tricky since the N-P's website is decidedly Web 1.0. Today we learn that another staffer had to be escorted from the premises. - Defamer:......

Every Friday, LAist is taking you on a trip down to Orange County to uncover the unique dining experiences that await adventurous eaters willing to explore beyond the county line. Saying the name ‘Park Avenue’ evokes images of wealth, of tony living, of elegance and class (or of crappy Buicks if you’re into cars). Kinda like Rodeo Drive. It’s the antithesis of the working class, the regular everyday lifestyle that most of us experience.......

One of the things I love most about LA is the depth of its cultural diversity. I don’t love the fact that it’s so segregated, but I appreciate the fact that in contrast to the outsider view that LA is simply a vapid, endless string of cookie-cutter communities, every neighborhood has its own character and identity (witness our Neighborhood Projects). Which means that no matter what you’re into, you can find a place that......

We all had a favorite dinosaur as a kid. Now, regrettably, we are not allowed to covet such a creature. We try, in vain, to fill the void with drugs and alcohol, but nothing satisfies the need to have a huge, warm-blooded lizard to do with as you please. Let Tremendosaur be that lizard. The new sketch comedy venture from Jacob Reed (USC '08), Justin Michael (USC '08), and Dave Crabtree (USC '06) wants......

With somber news like the string of race-related murders in Highland Park, the battles being waged between black and Latino politicians and the recent prison race riots in Chino frequenting local headlines, it sometimes feels like the Latino and African American populations of Los Angeles are on the verge of a war. Depending on whom you ask, the black-brown race problem is either being blown way out of proportion by the media or it......

Good grief, BET. First, the Black Entertainment Television network embarrasses black college students across the country with College Hill, a show that proves a house full of black college co-eds can be as useless as a house full of white ones. Now the MTV-show-dipped-in-chocolate experiment kicks into overdrive with last night's premiere of Baldwin Hills, a new single-camera docudrama that proves that when it comes to effortlessly reinforcing stereotypes, BET still reigns supreme. Promoted......

Aaaah, Beverly Hills - Los Angeles' beacon of wealth and privilege. I don't think I've been there in over ten years. But on Tuesday I had an entire day to just wander the streets. Normally, I don't trust popular opinion. Maybe it's because I grew up in the 80s, when popular opinion gave us big shoulder pads, bigger hair, the Star-Wars defense system, Hall and Oats and Chubacca-like eyebrows. But that mistrust caused me......

Last week I went to five concerts in five nights. It was a strange and unusual experience. I will review each of the shows in a second. But first I would like to dedicate the reviews to two people. The first would be the to the guy who put those dollar bills into the urinal at the Troubadour during the Menomena show. Dear guy, I appreciate you challenging my values in regards to wealth.......

There is no reason to fight traffic to get away this Memorial Day weekend. There is plenty of traffic right here in L.A. Between all of the barbeques and festivals, it’s going to be hard to decide where to go first. Here is a taste of some of the festivals happening around town: Fiesta Hermosa May 26, 27, 28 (The festival formerly known as Fiesta de las Artes). This Hermosa Beach festival is primarily an......

In like a fox and out with a yodel? Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo for $50 billion. Many have speculated that Microsoft would eventually spring for big Y, as a marriage with the online media giant increasingly appears to be the most viable option to compete with Google in the great war of search and online advertising. Always a fun rumor to kick around, but today it's being corroborated by the WSJ, and considering......

Girl's got mad skillz. And that's why we f'in heart Jenny Lewis. We couldn't say it better than our city council president, however. Pass the mic to E. (Garcetti):Jenny is a third-generation Angeleno and was well known locally before her career took off. She dedicated her award, as she put it, "to all of my neighbors who, for all these years put up with the musical racket coming from my tiny apartment in Silver Lake."......

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,......

Monday P.J. O’Rourke signs On the Wealth of Nations 7pm @ Book Soup Adam Gopnick reads Through the Children's Gate 7:30pm @ Skirball Cultural Center Tuesday David Mamet signs Bambi vs. Godzilla 7pm @ Book Soup Edward Humes signs Monkey Girl 7pm @ Vroman’s Norman Mailer discusses Castle in the Forest with David Ulin 7:30pm @ Writers Guild Theater Daveed Gartenstein-Ross presents My Year in Radical Islam 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble Santa Monica......

When Google bought YouTube yesterday, the sound you heard was every copyright lawyer in Hollywood cracking his fingers, because the beautiful success of YouTube was its wealth of copywritten material. Now that deep-pockets Google is the new owner, what would keep Lindsay, Avril, and Ashlee's lawyers from suing Google for having a pirated video like this one on the air? And the sad thing is, as talented as Le Tigre is, they now could......

The word is Six Flags Magic Mountain is for sale and although they're trying to sell the place as one huge lot, they're willing to break it up into smaller lots. With all the wealth and riches in this town, you'd think that thered be someone up in this piece who has all his rides pimped, all his cribs crunked, and all of his bitches sweet-sixteened and seriously wants to have an amusement park......

That sound you hear is a disturbance in the Force. It's the sound of developers revving up their bulldozers as the chatter whispers new ownership of Six Flags / Magic Mountain and that ownership might turn the historic theme park into condos, ranch homes, McMansions and more sprawl. With all the wealth in LA you'd think someone would know someone who has everything - except their own amusement park - and would want to......

You know when we write, we're not aiming to please. It's from the heart, and if it pisses people off, so be it. We also always hope to send our editors into conniptions at the same time; so in that spirit, here's the longest, most bitter, most hopeful thing that's ever been written on an *ist site. (It's a list of local LA bands we love, in case you wanna just click past the......

If we learned one thing this weekend, it's that it's darn hard to come up with a fun, original, low stress, easy to propose to a large group of people, last minute place to grab a drink and some eats after a shindig on a Saturday night. We tend to work fairly well under pressure, save the "okay so where do you wanna go right now?" kind. We had to take into consideration folks......

Bus stops all over town are adorned with advertisements for the Real Estate Wealth Expo, coming to the LA Convention Center April 30 - May 1. Donald Trump will be speaking on How to Get Rich (saving how to file for bankruptcy for the next expo, we suppose). And Tony (oops, Anthony) Robbins, the "foremost authority of peak performance for business and life strategies" will be self-helping those who want to fork over the......

01. Age and Occupation: 33, City Councilmember 02. What area of Los Angeles did you grow up in, and what neighborhood do you now call home? Straight outta Encino (from age 1-17), but I now live in Echo Park, home of the city's first Jewish cemetery, first oil discovery, and newest library. 03. You’ve lived in other major cities such as New York and London. What brought you back to Los Angeles, and what......

Yesterday's LA Times explores the intricate relationship between LACMA’s biggest benefactor, billionaire Eli Broad, and the plans to revamp the most visible art establishment in Los Angeles. Broad selected the architect (he chose Renzo Piano's plan after Rem Koolhaas’s tear-it-down-and-rebuild-it approach was scrapped) and organized a new board to manage acquisition monies and supervise construction. This decision-making power was granted in exchange for his pledge of $10 million to support LACMA’s collection and $50......