Dara Weinberg

We are thrilled to hear that there's a second chance for Kepler's, the famous independent bookstore in Menlo Park. After an outpouring of support from bloggers, former employees, and friends around the country, and even NY Times coverage, things are taking a turn for the better. Councilmember Kelly Ferguson is organizing a rally this Tuesday, September 6th at 5 pm, outside the store, to be followed by a community organizing session at the Menlo...

Laist belatedly notes by way of Locus that Eldest, the sequel to Christopher Paolini's young adult fantasy Eragon, arrived in stores August 23rd and bumped Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince from its #1 spot on the Amazon US list. Eragon, though well-plotted, was just heavy-handed enough in its prose style for us to pass on buying this one in hardcover. We are #123 in line for the copy of Eldest to be paged...

We heard it through the grapevine - actually, through Neil Gaiman's weblog - and we're just about to lose our minds. Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, the famous South Bay independent bookstore, has closed its doors after 50 years. The Palo Alto Online News reports that City Hall officials were aware that the owner, Clark Kepler, was struggling with high rents in the wealthy area. Menlo Park is in between Atherton, one of the...

Now that March of the Penguins is the second-highest grossing documentary of all time, behind only Fahrenheit 9/11, Laist decided to join the crowd and, penguinlike, plunk down our $11.50 for the polarpalooza. We were not disappointed. Not only are the penguins the coolest thing in Los Angeles, they will make you stop feeling sorry for yourself. Whatever hardships you may have to endure in your morning commute, they don't compare to having to...

The hottest show in town, already selling out for months in advance, is Justin Tanner's new play OKLAHOMO! at the Third Stage in North Hollywood. OKLAHOMO! is the story of a small, stalwart theatre troupe and one very self-centered writer trying to put on, without any kind of approval, a performance of OKLAHOMA! rewritten as a gay-themed musical. Hilarity ensues, much of it at the expense of Los Angeles theatre and its stubborn, threadbare...

Laist saw studio guitarist and sometime Supertramp member Carl Verheyen at Anaheim gear shop Tone Merchants this weekend. He was playing to a small audience of 80 devoted fanatics in Tone Merchants' miniscule concert room. We were front and center, close enough to see the sweat on his T-shirt and to take in every move he made on his vintage Strat. We'd heard Verheyen's work on any number of famous national jingles, but it...

You should never put off eating chocolate, because it might melt - and you should never postpone reading anything, especially Harry Potter. We here at LAist are humbled by the shocking aftermath of our decision to put off reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for a week. It came as a surprise to no one, especially ourselves, that when you wait to do something, you might not have time to do it. Sure...

There are hundreds of sketch comedy shows in LA, but this one is definitely not to be missed. Laist was lucky enough to catch a preview of Charlie and the Chocolate Sunday Show at the ACME Comedy Theatre on La Brea this Sunday. ACME is famously known as the stage where comedians such as Adam Carolla, Wayne Brady, Alex Borstein, Sean Hayes and others perfected their comedic chops. It's refreshing to see that the...

The flurry of excitement over the recent remake of Roald Dahl's classic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , has spurred interest in the author himself. Margaret Talbot's excellent article in the July 11/18 New Yorker, "The Candy Man: Why children love Roald Dahl's stories-and many adults don't" deals with the troublesome enduring popularity for these very prickly, very bizarre books. Talbot is a staunch Dahlian herself, and it was a relief to Laist to...

We here at Laist are not too proud to enjoy the simpler pleasures in life - ice cream, sunshine, Elimidate, and the latest installment of Harry Potter. We're not even ashamed to say that we've had our copy reserved for six months, and have been pleasantly anticipating it every step of the way. We resisted picking it up at the midnight Potter party, deciding that discretion was the better part of wallowing in young...