Staci Goodner

This playlist of 45 songs was hand-picked to help you focus on your Wednesday Happenings while rockin' out to songs about fire and burning. This goes out to the thousands of firefighters who spent the past 72 hours on high alert, saving people, pets and property across Southern California. The tally according to the LA Times: 420,424 acres burned, 1,155 homes destroyed, 881,500 people evacuated. If you are where you'd normally be on a...

Black Francis -- "Motorway to Roswell" -- Safari Sam's, 10/16/07...

Charles Thompson hasn't recorded an album with the Pixies since 1991's Trompe le Monde, despite years of rumors. But Thompson, who led the trailblazing indie quartet under the pseudonym Black Francis (originally suggested by his father), recorded roughly one album per year since the Pixies' 1993 break up as Frank Black. This summer he put a cap on Frank Black with the 32-track 93-03 compilation. And now, Black Francis is back. Touring behind the edgy,...

It's scary song season at LAist. Thanks to Finetune for getting things started with a playlist of spooky songs for All Hallow's month. This broad selection just cracks the surface of the zombie-sphere... we'll have to dig up even tastier Halloween gems later in the month....

Honestly, I really don't need to write anything here. Guys and Dolls is a sufficiently fascinating documentary that can speak for itself. And that is probably a good thing, because I sure as hell don't know what to say about men who have intimate relationships with pseudo-women. A part of my brain thinks that the whole paradigm is really creepy in a Chucky from Child's Play kinda way, but at the same time, I...

A.C. Newman and Blaine Thurier of Vancouver's finest supergroup, The New Pornographers, have issued a challenge: Translation: Make a better video than the band can, put it on YouTube, and win an iPhone... or something. (We're wondering if that "something" might include signed Neko Case undergarments, as recent history reminds us that even her used corset is worth as much as an iPhone. The New Pornographers admit that they're not OK Go when it comes...

I used to work in an extremely uptight government office. My one saving grace was my friend, Karen, who was the only normal person there. We ate lunch together every single day and went out together after work. One day we were talking about how everything men say leads to some sexual innuendo. So I told her about one of my favorite Lynda Barry cartoons where the men only speak in phallic symbols. She...

As I try to do anything but labor on this Labor Day, I reflect on my nearly 10 years working in office jobs to support my freelance habit. So while I spend my 9 to 5s at work-work, I've held myself to certain standards. I believe I act with integrity. I've tried to treat people - regardless of my personal feelings for them - with dignity. And I've worked hard because (besides being a...

Suicide is a place we have all imagined, but it's not a room any of us have really been in, other than a foot, a glance, a daydream. It's no stranger to Los Angeles, a city with perhaps more than its fair share of broken dreams. But when not one, but two people die, when they have all that the city appears to offer - fame, success, beauty and each other, that's when people...

Dear Laist, I'm loving this warm weather (it reminds me of Phoenix, where I'm from) but OMG I HAVE BEES! What do you recommend? Help, Sun Devil Dear SD, We recommend that you don't email blogs about something like this. We recommend that you call a professional extermination company, like one who wears lab coats and will arrive in a truck filled with chemicals to throw at the problem. And we don't recommend that...