Don't be angsty like this lady...go out tonight! / Photo by Plankton 4:20 via LAist's flickr pool. FILM “Animation Nite: From Halifax with Love” is a program at the Echo Park Film Center that features short animated and semi-animated films by women who’ve all lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, eh. The screening includes work by host Siloën Daley and six others. Music by local band Foot Foot follows. 7:30 // Echo Park Film......

See the video of this above picture below | Photo courtesy of the company En route to performances in New York, the highly acclaimed Irish company CoisCeim Dance Theatre, will make a stop at the Irvine BarclayTheater this Tuesday, February 26 -- its premiere West Coast engagement. Pronounced "kush came," the company will present their award winning evening length work, Knots, based on psychologist R.D. Laing 's book by the same title. Both the......

The first rule of Monday Night Fight Klub: Leave the dancing to the stars and the singing to wannabe idols. The MTV2 show is auditioning rap stars to be on the show’s second season. So if you think you can represent the West Coast and do LA proud, then Fight Klub's creators want to hear (or see) your best 60-second a cappella rhymes in their “60 Second Assassin” contest. The best emcees will get......

Photo by Salaam Allah West Coast Transitphotography KING! via the LAist Featured Photos pool It sounds really boring: California Health and Safety Code Sections 43845. However, within that state code is a something pretty neat: if your place of work has 50 persons or more employed for them and subsidizes leased parking for your and your fellow employees, then they must participate in the Parking Cash-Out program offering you a cash allowance in lieu......

Artist: Tuxedomoon Album: Vapour Trails Label: Crammed Discs Release Date: 02/05/2008 Listen to "Kubrick": It's hard to believe it's been thirty years since Tuxedomoon made their debut. They were part of San Francisco's weird music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. At a time when West Coast punk was in it's nascent stages, and there were plenty of hippie-era hangers-on, Tuxedomoon's mix of electronica, jazz, and rock found its place in both snobby......

Nothing says Hebrew like some good old (testament) Hip-Hop. Say what? The Israelity Tour, which is sponsored by Birthright Israel, is heading out on a West Coast tour, and will be hitting LA on February 16th for a night of music and comedy. Featured performers included Subliminal, Israel's #1 selling rap artist, and members of the T.A.C.T. Family (kind of like Subliminal's Wu-Tang Clan), as well as hip-hop/funk band Coolooloosh and singer-songwriter Michelle Citrin,......

Before MC Hammer's "Too Legit To Quit," there was a rap called "Legit" by Caldwell's Most Wanted - a little known group from a small town in Texas. Rather than emulating Hammer's mainstream, soft rap approach, CMW took inspiration from West Coast artists like N.W.A and Ice-T. Comprised of six high school students, the group longed to emulate the hard, thug lifestyle of South Central glamourized on Yo! MTV Raps despite their rural backgrounds.......

A quick Dodger note for everyone. On Saturday at 10:00am, tickets to the Dodgers exhibition game on Saturday, March 29 against the Boston Red Sox at the LA Memorial Coliseum will go on sale. This will be a special occasion helping the Dodgers kick off their season-long celebration of their 50th year in Los Angeles. As many of you might know, the Dodgers played at the Coliseum when they moved here in 1958 until......

Two weeks ago, local band Rocket (MySpace), recently profiled by The LA Times' Kevin Bronson, performed at The Viper Room in West Hollywood. Later this month, they will embark on a West Coast tour, and open for The Horrorpops (MySpace) and The Pink Spiders (MySpace) in February. Locally, Rocket will be at the House Of Blues in San Diego on February 15th, the H.O.B. in Anaheim on February 16th, and Club Underground (MySpace) at......

The American Kennel Club has just announced the ten most popular dog breeds in the country, and for the first time in nearly 75 years the bulldog makes the list. The AKC also published lists for the top 50 most populous cities and their respective doggie populations. So what kinds of pooches do we love in LA? Here's the list: 1. Labrador Retriever 2. Bulldog 3. German Shepherd 4. Yorkshire Terrier 5. Golden Retriever 6.......

On Monday night, local artist and Downtown resident Elizabeth McGrath (formerly of Tongue) and her gothic country band Miss Derringer (MySpace) performed as the headliners of Indie 103.1 (MySpace)'s Check One Two Mondays at The Viper Room in West Hollywood. Opening for Miss Derringer were James Wilsey (MySpace) and Linda Strawberry (MySpace), with The Idyllists (MySpace) performing afterwards. Later this month, Miss Derringer will embark on a West Coast tour, and open for Bad......

Sometimes going to a Dodger game gets to be more than a spectator sport, especially when team rivalries are enacted in the stands. In July of 2005, while a game between West Coast rivals the Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants, a fight broke out between fans in their seats, leading to now 31-year-old Maria Parra Helenius being punched by now 27-year-old Denise Ordaz, allegedly causing her to be legally blind. So who's to blame......

Rainy days and Mondays may get you down, so check out these events tonight to make the first night of the workweek no so ho-hum. FILM As part of the LA Phil's Concrete Frequency series, the Arclight Hollywood gets into the game with screenings of films that are "designed to examine and celebrate the elements that define a city, and how they are affected by, and reflected in, music." On tap tonight is Fritz......

Joseph Cosina was shot in the heart after bar-close early Friday morning at Crash Mansion nightclub on Grand Ave. (it was an 18-and-over event). The 19-year-old Downey High School graduate was pronounced dead at the hospital and two others were wounded. The gunman remains at large.About closing time, a fight broke out inside the club, police said. Cosina and his friends had no connection to the fight, said his father, Hector. Security guards asked them......

So we heard that at 12:00 a.m. EST, 9:00 p.m. PST (or LA time for those of us who could give a crap about the rest of the West Coast) tonight, those sexy boys at Current TV, Max Lugavere and Jason Silva, will be hosting the exclusive (yes, exclusive) US broadcast of Radiohead playing In Rainbows. In its entirety. Sexy, exclusive, entirety. After the broadcast, M and J will be hosting a very special Best......

If good things come in threes, it seems bad things come in twos, at least today in LA: Edward Gage, a 31-year old Lancaster man, has been arrested for an alleged Christmas Day rape of a 16-year-old girl. When Gage's victim ignored his attempts to get directions as she walked to a friend's house, he pulled her shirt and tried to remove her clothing. She punched him in the face and got away! Francisco Santiago......

If you like songs that are fast, heavy and noisy, then LA trio Icebird may just be up your ear-splitting alley. Comprised of Barry Monahan (guitar and lead vocals), Kate Wise (drums and vocals) and Mike Monahan (bass and vocals), Icebird brings an energy and exuberance to rock that shines with each pounding performance. The band recently released a follow up EP titled "Championship Bloodline." Looking back at the tour earlier this fall, lead man......

A mysterious email appeared in our inbox this morning, notifying us of a Dunkin' Donuts Shopping Cart Derby being held at the Santa Monica Pier tomorrow morning (check-in begins at 9am, you can register here through the Thrillist website). The event is being hosted by Maria Menounos, and the lucky winning team will receive a two-year supply of Dunkin' Donuts coffee, revered by many as the morning brew of choice. But wait just a......

The 4th annual international food bloggers holiday fundraiser, Menu For Hope, kicks off its twelve day run Monday. The virtual event is hosted by Pim Techamuanvivit, who runs the food blog Chez Pim and whose desire to help out those devastated by the tsunami five years ago in Southeast Asia led her to devise Menu For Hope. Last year US$62,925.12 was raised through the event, and was donated to the UN World Food Programme. Here's......

While the rains yesterday helped alleviate some of the dryness under which southern California has been hampered, it did little to lessen the worries of those in fire-stricken areas. Streaming rivers of rain created mudslides and prompted officials to call for mass evacuations. Flash flood warnings remain in effect. But, hey, it's LA, and today was clear and beautiful. A woman who poisoned her Marine husband to buy a boob job with the insurance......

This week five fresh&easy grocery stores er, "neighborhood markets," opened in metro Los Angeles. We visited the Glassell Park store located in a gutted Albertson's on Eagle Rock Blvd (map) for our first impression of UK-based Tesco's (the world's third-largest grocer) attempt to hook finicky West Coast consumers. The array of fresh&easy branded products is impressive. The packaging is minimalist, reminiscent of a Safeway or Walgreen's branded generic. But as you'll see in the slideshow......

Artist: Foreign Born Album: On The Wing Now Label: Dim Mak Release Date: 8/21/07 Listen to the track "Letter of Inclusion" While all of Foreign Born's members may not be native sons of LA, they are emissaries of a Silver Lake music scene with their own, almost classic, West Coast flavor. "Almost classic" because the era of the Beach Boys, and the Mamas and the Poppas (and to a lesser extent the Eagles) is now......

Two really good bands (that taste great together) have announced today that they are heading East. The Art Brut / Hold Steady concert that was originally planned to happen at the Wiltern will now go down at the Music Box at the Henry Fonda on November 7. Art Brut is the crazy British band whose tune "Moving to LA" can be heard on KROQ and Indie pretty much every day, and the Hold Steady......

On the last night of a short west coast tour to promote his ridiculously great new record Bluefinger, (review here) Charles Thompson the Third aka Frank Black aka Black Francis hit Safari Sam’s last night with a blistering hour-plus set comprised of the entire Bluefinger “rock opera”, and just a very few extra songs thrown in for good measure. The set was loose and blissfully raw. Like any good maestro, Black was talkative, and......

Ten years ago Long Beach native Morgan J. Freeman was minding his own business in film school back east. Doing what everyone else in his class did, he submitted his thesis film "Hurricane Streets" to Sundance for competition. Not only was it accepted - alongside the "real" movies - but it won three awards at the festivall: Morgan won best director, the cinematographer won for best cinematography, and the film got the audience award......

In TV land, Tom Colicchio of Top Chef plays a kinda sorta pompous judge on the popular Bravo show. In real life, he's chef-owner of NYC's Craft (other restaurants include the Gramercy Tavern, Craft, Craftbar, and 'wichcraft in New York, Craftsteak at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and NYC). Gordon Ramsay plays another sorta pompous chef on FOX's Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares. In real life, his latest restaurant venture is Gordon Ramsay......

Autumn is upon us and here in LA we are harvesting art, music, and mayhem. For whatever reason, it seems that this is the busiest festival weekend of the year, with something for all ages, in all corners of LA, and all times of day and night. If ever there was a weekend to clone yourself and be everywhere at once, this would be it. Jump right in. Swerve Festival: This looks to be......

Promoted as a "rock-and-roll fable," Clay kicked off its month long run at the Kirk Douglas Theatre last Thursday. Chronicling the rise of a fictional hip-hop superstar, from suburban hell to undisputed fame, the "one man hip hop musical" features Clay's writer, composer and lyricist Matt Sax in the title role. A recent graduate of Northwestern University, Sax, along with director Eric Rosen, bring Clay to Los Angeles for its West Coast debut after......

Only one man in the electronica realm could entice me to endure the 378 miles from Los Angeles to San Francisco just for a measly DJ set. Simon Green, a.k.a. Bonobo, hails from Brighton (UK) and has released three full length albums of downtempo that have changed my musical world. With that said, when my friend asked me if I wanted an extra Bonobo ticket for a show in the city by the bay......

Quiz Question: So it is four in the morning, September 1st, the bars have long since stopped serving alcohol for the night, and you've had too many of those in-lieu-of-booze Red Bulls, and you are wide awake. What should you do next? Should you...? a) go home and watch television until you pass out on the sofa b) go to the after-party of your friend's friend c) stumble around the streets of West Hollywood for......