Just in time for St Paddy's Day, we check out some of the Irish coffees around town. Screw green beer. That stuff will kill you. After drinking many Irish Coffees in the name of serious scientific research, I have discovered a good Irish coffee relies on two relatively simple elements: the freshness of the coffee and use of real heavy cream #1 Tom Bergin's Tom Bergin's is known as the home of Irish coffee, at......

I wake up every morning with the weather and traffic reports on ABC7 Eyewitness News. (My boyfriend and I love to share a fresh pot of coffee every morning and gently guffaw at Garth Kemp's goofball antics and shameless puppy-promotion.) This morning, no joke, the weather report was one word: "Perfect." Yup, sunny, clear, and 77 degrees. When I came off the freeway this morning, I could see down the Hollywood hills straight through to......

Welcome to the world of sex, strippers and women’s studies students. If you were to say, hey, that sounds a little like the beginning of the feminist version of “a rabbi, a priest and a minister walk into a bar,” you’d be right…but au contraire, mon amie. It is the fairly serious basis of Heather Woodbury’s one-woman show, "The Last Days of Desmond ‘Nani’ Reese: A Stripper's History of the World," which was the......

It's National Cold Cuts Day. That term has always brought to mind those not very fresh, tasteless sandwich fillers served at large functions that you eat because you don't want to eat only macaroni salad. With the beef recall, dashing to your local butcher for some cold cuts sounds less appetizing than ever. However, the term "cold cuts" can include cheese and that's where you can freely celebrate. When I lived in NY, I......

It's just another day at the beach for this polling place in Marina Del Rey, where volunteers hand out fresh-baked goodies to the voters and are hosting a BBQ for the poll workers. Unfortunately, not everything is picture-perfect around Los Angeles. As reported earlier on LAist, Decline-to-State voters (a/k/a DTS, a/k/a non-partisan, a/k/a "real" independent) must be extra careful to mark their ballots correctly if they choose to vote in either the Democratic or......

Unless you've been in a coma for the past few weeks, the Super Bowl is on Fox tomorrow afternoon around 3ish. But we heard an annoying tidbit the other day and just needed to ask, "Why?" As in "Why is Ryan Seacrest drawn to red carpets like my dog is to the patch of grass at the end of my street?" Yup, the KIIS-FM DJ and American Idol host will be doing the pre-game......

When I lived in Japan, I often ate a communal stew called nabe in the wintertime. One of the staple ingredients within the myriad of possibilities of a nabe is konnyaku. Konnyaku is a firm translucent gelatin with black spots that is completely flavorless. After a few months, I felt comfortable enough to ask a close friend why Japanese people eat the flavorless konnyaku. The answer surprised me. It's the texture of the konnyaku......

Jim Wirt is a St. Louis native living in LA, but most people know him as Gay Bigfoot. The 42-year-old North Hollywood resident moved out to Los Angeles in 1996 and is a local artist who recently found himself in the middle of some online censorship when he tried to get one of his pieces printed on a t-shirt. Here's his story... You're an artist, you had some art you wanted to put on a......

Meg Wallace as Catherine in Standing on my Knees Back when I was taking acting classes in the Valley, I had a classmate who wasn’t that talented, but was nevertheless very taken with his own ability. One day, I looked into his car and saw that it was a complete disaster area in the backseat. When I commented on the mess, he shot back, “It’s not messy – it’s artistic.” While the line between......

Nudar is GPS software for strip clubs that you can download into your existing gps unit. God is great, right? So if you are on a business trip and need boobies and blow toot sweet, you no longer have to have that awkward conversation with the concierge! I am so not even being a judgemental dick about this--When I read about Nudar earlier this week I actually thought "How in then name of vaj reconstruction......

I should hate Pinkberry for a million different reasons: what it does to neighborhoods, the mom & pops it shuts down in its wake, its fake-yogurty ingredients that are likely very, very bad for me and its off-putting, sour flavor that foodies abhor and I, strangely, adore. I know and I agree and I held out as long as I could....

I didn't want to just do a "best of" list. So this year, I've decided to take a years worth of personal New Year's Resolutions, ask around for those of friends and put a call out to readers (email me here) about things you've always wanted to know, always wanted to do and then take those requests and ask an expert, an insider to help out. The result? Here goes... Today's Resolution: "I am......

People are always there for you in the midst of crisis. But eventually they have to get back to their own lives, and on to the next crisis. Unfortunately, that is when you really need someone. I was running errands early this morning and realized I was only a block away from the studios, and right next to an open bagel shop. I thought about Heath measuring their support in dwindling Twizzlers. When I pulled......

Sure, the album cover of the Eagle's Hotel California exterior may be the Beverly Hills Hotel. But the hotel interior in the fold-out is not quite so glamorous. When I first walked into my friend's historic apartment building off of Ivar in Hollywood, it seemed so familiar. Then it hit me - we were in the Hotel California. After the jump, you can check out any shots you like, but you can never leave.......

I fucking HATE Costco. I hate it! I hate it! I hate it! Costco is a land of lawlessness. People cut you off with their big, giant carts. They block you from getting to the "shelf", and will tear out your jugular to get at the free samples. The parking lot is a madhouse. Perfectly nice people suddenly zoom in and steal spots from people who have clearly been sitting there for 5 minutes with......

When I waited tables in New York City, we had a very popular item we sold called a quattroformaggio pizelle--a thin crusted pizza made from a flour tortilla with mozzarella, asiago, parmesan and fontina cheeses. It was light, it was tasty, but Barbara Walters once asked me if it was low fat and I could only smile and bring her a salad. That’s my history with the four cheese idea. Last weekend (December 14-15, 2007),......

Actor and comedian-chameleon Sasha Baron Cohen admitted in an interview yesterday that the characters that made him famous, Ali G and Borat, will be retired from his repetoire. Borat, the improbably cuddly anti-Semitic Kazakhstani innocent abroad, whose antics and exploits were made famous in a highly successful 2006 film, transformed Baron Cohen from a popular British comedian to a world-wide phenomenon. But he broke the news in a Daily Telegraph interview that Borat, he......

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......

a writer's perspective It’s hard to believe that this is already Week Seven of the strike. No one’s talking about ruining Christmas anymore. They’re just talking about how they’re going to celebrate. (lots of eggnog and homemade gifts) After a much needed sabbatical, I was back on the picket line for the last day of marching before the Holiday break. To commemorate the occasion, I sign up for a marathon walk/picket organized by a......

It all started with Anthony Bourdain's Mexican border episode of his show No Reservations. At one point he picks up a riding crop in a leather shop. He slaps it confidently against the palm of his hand, and says, "Yeah, this is coming home with me." I've always been attracted to his superior punk New York attitude. But the "whack" of that riding crop took it somewhere new. I confessed to my boyfriend, "I'm sorry......

a writer's perspective I’m not sure why, but there is such a difference between 5am and 6am. When I show up to picket at 6, it feels like it’s early in the morning. Today, when I pull up at Warner Brothers just before 5, it feels like it’s the middle of the night. It’s dark. It’s freezing. I drink 5 cups of coffee, not to wake up, but to stay warm. It doesn’t work......

A couple of weekends ago, my friend and I went bar hopping in LA. On our last stop, we headed into, in my opinion, the shittiest dive bar off of Sunset Blvd. Needless to say, I wasn’t looking forward to it, yet my friend convinced me that I should turn the frown upside down and make the most out of the evening. Once inside, we realized it was cash only, and neither of us......

Fridays at 7:30 pm: THE PERVERSE PUPPETRY OF JAN SVANKMAJER Unsurpassed in his tactile, uncanny approach to experimental animation, surrealist Czech master Jan Svankmajer's films have inspired a generation of directors, including Tim Burton and The Brothers Quay, to expand their confidence in what is visually and conceptually possible in cinema. Whether concerned with sexual taboos or blatant political satire, Svankmajer's vision is always off-kilter, mordantly funny, and oddly sincere. - The Silent Movie Theater......

When I bought my first car, I first went to the Toyota in Valencia. I walked out soon after when they tried to sell me a car by comparing it to finding a woman and then highlighting how cool spoilers were. What a bunch of fucking morons. Apparently, the troglodyte breed at Toyota goes up the corporate ladder. Siel Ju, aka GreenLAGirl, at the LA Times sticks it to Toyota after visiting the LA......

Artist: Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings Album: 100 Days, 100 Nights Label: Daptone Records Release Date: 10/02/07 Promo Track "100 Days, 100 Nights": When I first listened to this CD I thought it was a reissue of some '60s soul supergroup but no, this gem came out just last month! This album made me nostalgic for my first car, a '79 Honda Civic 4-door hatchback with an AM radio and the only music station that......

I first saw this house in 1986. Whenever I'm in the area, I take a quick detour down a side alley to check it out. It has gradually evolved, with a new mosaic or glass feature appearing each time I drive by. I saw a guy working up on the roof about six months ago, and he seemed too young to have been working on the house for 20 years. Maybe it is a......

One year ago today the South Bay lost a punk rock legend and I lost one of my oldest friends. Michael James Webber Dec 1, 1962 - Nov 11, 2006. Michael James Webber, a life long resident of Torrance, passed away on Saturday, November 11, 2006 in Torrance. Born in Inglewood, CA, Michael was 43 when he died. Born on December 1st, 1962, he attended Saint Lawrence Martyr followed by South High School. He went......

In "I'm Not There", director Todd Haynes dramatizes the life of Bob Dylan. Haynes chose six actors to portray Dylan's magical, intangible quality. When I asked Loudon Wainwright III about Dylan, he described seeing him at the Newport Folk Festival in the early 60's as a "ground moving, earth shaking experience". To this day, musicians and fans share a deep connection to Dylan and his music. One can only imagine that creating the soundtrack......

Born and raised in Chicago, award winning fiddler Liz Carroll has Irish music in her bones. She has composed dozens of traditional tunes, many of which have become standards among her peers. At the young age of eighteen, she won the prestigious Senior All-Ireland Championship and is also the recipient of the prestigious National Heritage Award. This weekend she and guitarist John Doyle will fill the Throop Church in Pasadena with the powerful sounds......

I read the LA Times Homidicide Report by Jill Leovy every morning. When I read on Tuesday morning that there was a 30-woman tussle on the corner of West Slauson and South Western Monday afternoon, I was surprised. When I learned that a woman drove her car into the crowd of fighting women, killing a 22-year-old pregnant woman, I was stunned. But there was more: 200 onlookers stood by and watched while this happened. 200......