I am a city kid. I spent most of my childhood riding the subway, slipping into movie theaters unnoticed, and scoping out the best pizza parlors. That was my idea of a great Saturday. It came to my surprise when I was taken to Runyon Canyon Park one Saturday by my parents (both out-of-town transplants, as well) for "hiking." Where I'm from, if you want nature, you go to the park in the middle......

Clearly these kids do not understand disco. Nevertheless, silver, swoopy-haired Barry Gibb (sounding oddly like Darryl Hammond’s Sean Connery impression) mentored and coached the hatchlings into eight counts of nostalgia butchering. Much like colorized movies, this was a bad idea. Melinda started us off with the very dirty, “Love You Inside And Out” oblivious to the connotation. For her second number she chose the timeless, the epic, the boooooooooooooring “How Can You Mend A......

Before the current tyrannical rule of Tony Pierce, Carolyn Kellogg was the editor of LAist, in a time many yearn for. But she decamped for the University of Pittsburgh, where she's getting an MFA in creative writing. In between bouts of homesickness, she blogs about books and podcasts interviews with writers who rock at pinkyspaperhaus.com. Top 10 LA Things You Don't Realize You'll Miss, Until It's Too Late 10. Beaches. I hardly went to......

It went from Amélie to The Village The mystery of LonelyGirl15 (aka LG15) is solved. And it's a complete bore: three dudes randomly meet, they come up with a good idea that is LG15, it works (it works really really really well), the mystery around it stirs conversation whether it be real or a marketing scheme and then we find out it was just three dudes who are now represented by Creative Artists Agency.......

There are so many good cds coming out this week, it's sorta like Christmas in August. We will be reviewing some of these cds over the next few weeks, but in the meantime we put our faves in bold. Against Me - Americans Abroad!!! Against Me!!! Live in London!!! (Fat Wreck Chords) Alexisonfire - Crisis (Vagrant) "Clerks II" soundtrack (Bulletproof) Cursive - Happy Hollow (Saddle Creek) Danity Kane - Danity Kane (Bad Boy) Darker......

Yesterday, LAist interviewed Michelle Markel, author of "Dream Town." Rick Reese illustrated the book. Her story begins with a young boy saying "When my nana told me where she came from, I didn't believe it. I was slipping on my snow boots to go outside. "Did you play in the snow when you were a kid? I asked her. "We didn't have snow," she said "No snow?" I said. What about fall. Did the......

Beirut Gulag Orkestar (Bada Bing) – Beirut is a 19 year-old kid from Albuquerque who has the full attention of the blogosphere and other tastemakers. He worked with Jeremy Barnes from Neutral Milk Hotel so the comparisons to that band are prevalent but ultimately unfair. There aren’t any guitars on the record but there are glockenspiels, ukuleles and clarinets. Download “from Italy” Danielson Ships (Secretly Canadian) – Daniel Smith shortened the name from Danielson......