Andy Sternberg

These are the last days of summer. At least that's what they say on the news and in the marketplace. But here in Southern California, it only gets hotter as the days grow shorter. (At least the pools won't close just yet). But -- Holy Dallas Raines -- early this morning, with temps stuck in the mid-70s, we've got thunder and lightning! Unfortunately, the electricity in the air has no bearing on California's energy supply,...

Tonight is the first-ever Creative Commons Salon in Los Angeles. Entertainment peeps, techies, and creatives of all walks are encouraged to check it out. Drinks, networking, and short multimedia presos. LAND 366 E. 2nd Street (MAP) Los Angeles 7-9 p.m. FREE Animated short describing the Creative Commons Licensing Project after the jump. photo by Dawn Endico via flickr using CC license....

LA Weekly's inaugural Detour music festival rocked downtown last October, with frenzied dancing, drinking, and dope smoking on the downtown streets, City Hall lawn, and even St. Vibiana's Cathedral with the likes of Beck, Blonde Redhead, !!!, Queens of the Stone Age, Basement Jaxx, and Nortec Collective. The second Detour is a day-long music extravaganza that's set up to be quite the, um, party, with headliners: Bloc Party, Satellite Party, Justice, Celebrity Skin, and...

Poor Paul Sunich. First he lost his monkey. Now he's lost his middle name. Costa Mesa-based Paul Frank Sunich, creator of the ubiquitous Julius the Monkey icon, can no longer put his name on T-shirts, according to a 16-page ruling yesterday by an Orange County U.S. District Court judge. Paul Frank Industries (PFI) prevailed in a trademark infringement lawsuit against the designer, who last year after a falling-out with the company he co-founded ten years...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pissed about the "hundreds of billions" of dollars swallowed by piracy and counterfeiting and it has taken the outrage to our fair City of Angels ("...and Demons," as the press release says). The Chamber has released results of a Gallup survey, coinciding with this week's Counterfeiting and Piracy Awareness shenanigans claiming that one-quarter of all Angelenos are admitted pirates. But we're certain that percentage is far greater. In fact,...

To some, Elvira Arellano is a leader among pro-immigration rights activists who think the federal government' immigration and trade policies are unfair. To others, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Arellano is just another attention-grabbing, "criminal alien and immigration fugitive," unfairly using her American-born son as an Elián González-like prop for pro immigration activism . Arellano spent an entire year inside Adalberto United Methodist Church on Chicago's West Side, defying a federal order to report...

Stop the presses. The horror story unraveling in central Utah just lost the plot. Tragically. The doomed efforts to assess the fate of six miners missing after a cave-in was the daily go-to lead for news outlets of all media for nearly two weeks. The "race to save trapped Utah miners" [LA Times, August 9] never quite seemed real -- a human interest spectacle rivaling that of serial programs such as "Lost" -- with...

Maxwell Lemuel Roach was born on Jan 10, 1924 in New Land, NC. He would go on to become one of the all-time great masters of rhythm. Max Roach's command of instrument, and his musicality as a drummer -- anchored and accelerated the evolution of jazz and moreover everything that is good music. A primary catalyst of the progression of bebop to hard bop -- Max Roach made the drums the hottest instrument on...

Hurry up and relax -- the weekend is within reach. Echoplex is set to prep you for a hot weekend at Sunset Junction with a solid lineup tonight including local dahlinks Midnight Movies and Irving as well as Detroit's Gore Gore Girls and Architects from Kansas City. You'll sweat, you'll scream, you'll cry... but you won't spend a cent to get in the door. Carry on for music video offerings....

By week's end, LA is littered with dozens of free rags. LAist reads the weeklies so you don't have to. If there's anything we missed, let us know, or better yet drop it in the comments section below. LA Weekly reviewed the gaffe-filled Q & A between Democratic presidential hopefuls and Hollywood gays. While not one candidate came out clearly in support of gay marriage, Bill Richardson slipped so hard as to insinuate that...