Nicholas Clark Ashbaugh

Autumn officially starts this week... what better way to chase away the 5-degree temperature fluctuation than some hot music? Unless otherwise noted, all performances are free. SATURDAY, 9/17 Listen to Molly Howson & the Grits, Bucksworth, Skeeter Truck, Kingsizemaybe, Soda & His Million Piece Band, King Straggler, and 50 Cent Haircut at the Third Street Farmers Market at 3pm. For details, call (323) 933-9211. DJs Michael Stock and Benjamin White of Part Time Punks...

In a town where carrot juice, wheat grass and soy mocha lattes are commonplace, it takes a lot to surprise us. However, KCAL's 9 On The Town did just that tonight. The program spotlighted a group of veggie-minded ladies who call themselves Vegan Vixens. Spearheaded by mother hen Sky Valencia, the group looks more like a collection of campy Baywatch castaways than serious foodies. Until recently, the crunchy Vegan lifestyle has been fairly commercial-free...

Today, Google launched a new service dubbed Google Blog Search. The search engine can also be accessed through the Google-owned Blogger portal at search.blogger.com. Unlike Technorati, which tracks hot topics, the Google search engine ranks blog articles by relevance. The FAQ says that if your blogging software pings weblogs.com, Google will see it. (Here are sample searches for LAist and Katrina). This is one of the only search engines that focuses solely on indexing...

TODAY... Catch Go Betty Go at the Glendale Tower Records at 6pm. The first 200 people that purchase their new CD will receive a free ticket to the Troubadour show on Thursday. Call (818) 409-1380. On iTunes you can pre-order Depeche Mode's Playing the Angel. (If you pre-order the album, you'll be eligible for an exclusive iTunes pre-sale for the forthcoming 2005-2006 Depeche Mode tour.) You can also pre-order Sheryl Crow's forthcoming release, Wildflower...

Director Atom Egoyan will have a hard time selling his new film Where The Truth Lies. The MPAA slapped a rare NC-17 rating on the flick for explicit sexual scenes between the three costars: Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth and Rachel Blanchard. The movie also stars Alison Lohman. The film's distributor must now decide whether or not to release it as NC-17 or tag it as "unrated." Why all the fuss? Well, the NC-17 rating...

Here are five songs that are topping our iTunes playlist this week... Kick back and relax with Death Cab for Cutie's I Will Follow You Into The Dark. Death Cab play the Wiltern on October 21. Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am teams with DMC and Sarah McLachlan on the Just Like Me. The unusual "Cats in the Cradle" cover is plucked from McLachlan's new Bloom remix CD. The collaboration is odd, but it works. Of...

Four years. For some, this feels like it was a lifetime ago. For too many Americans, however, the fateful morning of September 11, 2001 feels like it was just yesterday. Whether you were at Ground Zero, a coffee shop in Los Angeles or walking along the streets of London, the world as we knew it changed that day. While it was unquestionably one of the darkest hours in America's history, it also served as...

After eleven years in business, Real Food Daily is now a staple for Southland health nuts. It's one of the few places in LA that specializes exclusively in creating Vegan food. The West Hollywood location is not only Vegan but Kosher-certified. Most people cringe at either word--thinking somehow healthy food can't be fun. RFD is here to prove them wrong. When you first glance at the menu, you'll be surprised to see items like...

Get your hummus, falafel and ouzo fix this weekend at the LA Greek Festival. General admission is $3.00 per person. Kids under 12 are admitted for free. The event runs today and Sunday, from 1 to 11pm. Proceeds from the festival go toward the ministries and charities of St. Sophia Cathedral and the neighborhood revitalization programs of the Byzantine-Latino Quarter. LA Greek Festival 2005 St. Sophia Cathedral 1324 South Normandie Ave. Los Angeles, CA...

The concept for Reunion is refreshing, but not as ground-breaking as the show's website suggests. It chronicles the lives of six friends over the course of 20 years. Each 60-minute episode encapsulates one year (think 24, but with more of a tesseract). The big twist? One of the friends will be murdered. So, the series is a 20-part whodunit. Each episode will, presumably, lead to a generous payoff next spring. After a brief opening...