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Wendy Williams on Ravers: 'They Take Drugs -- I Mean The Loopty-Doopty'

Usually people in the lamestream media get raves all wrong. It's not as if most journalists have even been to one. And then there were L.A. politicians, with pro-rave lobbyists whispering in their ears, who just a few years back described the events as "music festivals" with no more drug use than y ... More >>

The Economics of Music Festivals: Who's Getting Rich, Who's Going Broke?

By Chris Parker It's as though the sad, lamentable death of recorded music was accompanied by a kick-ass wake. Sure, label executives have had to sell their fancy homes and put their kids in public schools, but the rest of us have been feasting on a musical smorgasbord. Nothing better exemplifies ... More >>

Brainiac Mayoral Candidate Eric Garcetti Pleads Ignorance On Clear Channel Vote as Rival Emanuel Pleitez Files Ethics Complaint

Read L.A Weekly feature article about inner-city success story Emanuel Pleitez. Los Angeles mayoral candidate Emanuel Pleitez is now getting into the thick of a brewing scandal involving rival Eric Garcetti, who L.A. Weekly reported owned stock in Clear Channel Communications while at the same time ... More >>

Raves Dead At Some L.A. Venues, But San Bernardino County Says Yes To EDM

While raves have essentially been shut out of two public venues in Exposition Park, including the Coliseum and Sports Arena, San Bernardino County officials are welcoming electronic dance music events to Glen Helen Regional Park. The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors yesterday voted 3-2 to ... More >>

Jeremy Fox Ends Old Soul at Square One Dining; New Chefs Announced for the Not-Pop-Up

Last month, Jeremy Fox and his Old Soul project moved into Square One Dining for a short series of dinners. A great time was had by all (morcilla latkes!) -- so great, in fact, that Fox initially planned to return to Square One this month for more of the same. Alas, those plans have been scrapped. A ... More >>

Katt Williams Tour Canceled Amid Bizarre Behavior, Arrests

After some of the most bizarre behavior to befall a comedian, the 100-city Katt Williams tour has been canceled, LA Weekly has learned. The L.A.-based comedian had about 90 more stops left but the concert promoter Live Nation pulled the plug this weekend, we were told: It was possible, however, tha ... More >>

USC Football Billboard in UCLA Territory Torn Down by Regency Outdoor Advertising

Looks like Regency Outdoor Advertising, one of the biggest billboard companies in this land of 10,000 billboards, is choosing sides in the epic beef between USC and UCLA. At first, it appeared that Regency (which is reportedly co-owned by Brian Kennedy, a prominent USC donor) had sided with the Tro ... More >>

USC Grad Student Sues Over a Deep L.A. Secret: Who Got Rich Off Illegal Billboards?

EDC 2012: Coachella or Electric Daisy Carnival: Which One is Better?

Dance music is coming to an arena near you: Kaskade will be the first DJ ever to play Staples Center (July 27). And mainstream concert promoters such as Live Nation are diving into the electronic dance explosion. Electric Daisy Carnival, which is being held this weekend at the Las Vegas Motor Speed ... More >>

Laser-Cut Designer Sushi Rolls

How's this for sushi art? Japanese ad agency I&S BBDO came up with these stellar designs for their client Umino Seaweed, who was looking for a way to boost sales after the 2011 tsunami. Their solution -- create a fusion of traditional Japanese and modern design using the latest cutting technology.

Christmas Monster

A Field of Billboards for Farmers Field

What Does Hipster Taste Like?

Mega-Billboards Get Slapped by the City of L.A. in Legal Action That Could be Worth Millions

This billboard is legal. We just like it.​Updated after the jump with the billboard company saying it has cooperated with the city and is "outraged" by this suit. City prosecutors slapped a advertising company and 19 landlords with a lawsuit today for allegedly putting up illegal supergraphic ... More >>

Wilshire Grand Hotel: Los Angeles Digital Skyscraper Goes to a City Council that Has Little Idea What It's Approving

By Tibby Rothman and Jill Stewart Wilshire Grand Hotel rendering done at such an extreme angle it's nearly impossible to see light effects.​Update: The City Council has approved the top-to-bottom lighted Wilshire Grand Hotel project.  The vote will read as "unanimous" officially, yet one co ... More >>

Digitally Ad-Wrapped Skyscrapers Coming to L.A.?

Jan Perry opens a new front in the Los Angeles billboard wars

My Mondo Valentine

Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne in Matching TRON Outfits (WTF Pic of the Week)

​There used to be a big football game called the Super Bowl. Then that got overshadowed by the TV ads played during the Superbowl. Then that got overshadowed by trailers and ad campaigns for the TV ads that played during the Super Bowl. Now apparently all of that is being overshadowed by "Maki ... More >>

Rushed and Confused L.A. City Council

Library, weed, DWP measures aimed for ballot all get short shrift

L.A. Advertisers And Anti-Billboard Activists Pissed Over City Council's Bright Idea To Slap Billboards With A 12 Percent Tax

PHOTO BY TED SOQUI​The Weekly has long had an eye on sketchy billboard deals throughout Los Angeles. In 2008, we reported that 4,000 of the city's 11,000 billboards were illegal, built without permits or earthquake regulations. Then came the Westside "Mad Men," fat-cat entrepreneurs who were ... More >>

Move Over, Junk Food: Schools Fill Vending Machines With Baby Carrots

Crispin Porter BoguskyCarrots Are Cool​ What comes to mind upon hearing the term school vending machine? If you're like us, you immediately conjure up images of junk food: Funions. Creme-filled Oreos. M&Ms and a plethora of other high-fat, sodium-laden snacks that are not only bad for you, ... More >>

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Rules LA's Billboard Ban Constitutional

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled today that the city's ban on billboards is constitutional. ​ The panel of three judges found that the Los Angeles City Council did not violate the free speech rights of World Wide Rush and Sky Tag when it granted exceptions to its ... More >>

Roger Waters Paid Street Artists to Deface Elliott Smith Memorial Mural

This is major-label viral marketing gone wild. Former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters has launched a "viral," "street" campaign for his upcoming The Wall Live tour, which consists of hiring street artists in LA and NYC to strategically place a pacifist quote by Dwight "WTF" Eisenhower on several " ... More >>

The Mad Men of Los Angeles

Living the good life, thanks to the big profits from illegal outdoor advertising

City Attorney Moves Against 'Supergraphic' Signs

​The City Attorney's office on Tuesday announced it filed civil injunctions against 27 sign companies, sign installers and property owners for illegally putting up super-sized advertisements known as "supergraphic" signs in Los Angeles. It declared that the displays are public nuisances and se ... More >>

Supergraphics Be Banned: City Attorney Scores Another One Against Billboard Blight

If you're frustrated by the city's inability to control those Times Square/Vegas Strip-like digital billboards and towering, slab-sided "supergraphic" ads, there's a crusader on your side, and he actually works for us -- unlike those other city politicians who seem to work for developers, media comp ... More >>

City Council Votes for Permanent Ban on Digital Billboards

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously today to ban all digital billboards in the city, an action brought before them by City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, who feared that an existing "Interim Control Ordinance" that temporarily bans digital billboards and super-graphics may soon be found inval ... More >>

L.A.'s Newest McSupergraphic?

Anti-clutter activists are irked again by the billboard industry's latest affront to good taste. Over the weekend, an office building on Overland Avenue in West Los Angeles put up a five-story supergraphic of a giant frosty coffee beverage as part of McDonald's advertising campaign to break into th ... More >>

Surprise! Billboard Industry Poll Reports that Angelenos Dig Digital Billboards

A newly released survey conducted in Los Angeles County found that  just 22 percent of residents polled were familiar with the politics and legal mess surrounding digital billboards. Of that fraction, just six percent reported that the issue was important to them. Those are only a few of the su ... More >>

Is Mayoral Candidate Walter Moore a Billboard Enabler? Or Just In Love With Neon?

As the March primary election nears, L.A. mayoral candidate Walter Moore is taking some heat from bloggers who are questioning his day job. Moore, who is running for the big spot for the second time, is an attorney with Richard Hamlin Attorneys. The problem? The Los Angeles-based law firm, which spe ... More >>

Mike Feuer Proposes Statewide Digital Billboard Ban

In a strong rebuke of the Los Angeles City Council, which did not conduct a single discussion of safety issues before approving hundreds of digital billboards that have now begun to sweep across Los Angeles, California State Assemblyman Mike Feuer  (D-Los Angeles) proposed a law Friday to ban L ... More >>

Digital Billboards Become a Bohemian Blasphemy

Silver Lake, Hollywood, the Valley and Westside take on City Hall's anti-green transformation of LA

The Trickle Down Economics of the Nation's Financial Crisis

This week, the Los Angeles Business Journal explains how the trickle down economics of the country's financial crisis may hurt LA...as well as some of its wealthiest citizens. Billionaire Eli Broad, who's a major shareholder of American International Group, the insurance company that the federal gov ... More >>

LA Business Journal Reports on Billboard Blight

The Los Angeles Business Journal published an article yesterday about the city’s billboard ban, which exempts itself and a few large billboard companies. The article focuses on two lawsuits filed by two smaller billboard companies that are suing the city of Los Angeles for – among other things ... More >>

Queer Town: Gay Marriage Supporters Behind in Fund Raising

Yesterday, the "No on 8" campaign sent out an urgent email to their supporters asking for $200,000 in the next 48 hours, and with good reason. According to the most recent campaign contribution reports from the California Secretary of State, supporters of the anti-gay marriage November ballot meas ... More >>

New Foe Against Digital Billboards?

“Billboards Gone Wild” Again and Again; L.A. Media Just Can’t Get Enough of our Headline

In April, LA Weekly published a cover story about the city’s 4,000 illegal billboards and the newspaper’s legal struggle to get a simple list of billboards owned by Clear Channel Outdoor and CBS Outdoor. It seems that our “Billboards Gone Wild” headline made quite the impression on other med ... More >>

San Francisco Outdoor Advertising Company Lawsuit Mirrors Billboard Attacks Against Los Angeles

Two Los Angeles court rulings in favor of outdoor advertising companies are playing strong roles in a recent court filing in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Metro Fuel, which is owned by New York based Fuel Outdoor Holdings, which specializes in mini billb ... More >>

Outdoor Advertising Company Attacks San Francisco’s Billboard Ban

Last Friday, Metro Fuel filed a motion in United States District Court for the Northern District of California to prevent the city of San Francisco from enforcing its laws against illegal billboards. The outdoor advertising company, which is owned by New York based Fuel Outdoor Holdings, which sp ... More >>

Billboard Banter Gone Wild

Los Angeles’ illegal billboard issue is clearly heating up in the press and cyberspace -- again. The Daily News recently published an editorial about the city’s botched 2002 billboard ban and the need for a list of billboard locations and owners. Today, Los Angeles Times reporter Veronique de ... More >>

L.A.'s 4,000 Illegal Billboards Have a New Foe

Last April, LA Weekly went to Los Angeles Superior Court to force the city to hand over public information about the locations of thousands of potentially illegal billboards erected without permits or formal safety inspections. Over the objections of Clear Channel Outdoor and CBS Outdoor, a judge ru ... More >>

Letters: PSA on STDs

Our readers write us

Evan's in Need of a Miracle

Is the big-budget sequel going to hell?

Kiss Their Grits

Square One and the most important meal of the day

JC Superstar

Goldberg Flies Air America

Music-biz biggie pilots a new radio hit

Ad Libs

The virulent strain of commercials infecting the Web

CitySweep

Patently Mine

Microsoft and Amazon test new open-door policy at U.S. Patent Office

As You List It

Behind the AFI's 100 Films