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Latter-Day Sodas: Mormon Church Approves Pepsi Coke

Well, it's official -- after an announcement by the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Wednesday, one mystery surrounding the Mormon faith has been dispelled for good: Caffeinated sodas are now fair game for thirsty church members. A statement on the LDS website states that ... More >>

IKEA Serves Up Midsummer Smorgasbord Friday

In Sweden, Norway and Finland, "Midsommar" -- celebrated the weekend closest to June 24 -- is an especially important holiday that's steeped in tradition and rivals Christmas in popularity. It marks the start of the summer season and celebrates joy and romance with maypole dancing, girls wearing bri ... More >>

California Pole Dance Championships at Highlands: Sport Says Sayonara to Strip Clubs and Sets Sights on the Olympics

George GrigorianAnjel Dust, a dancer for more than a decade, also is an organizer of the California Pole Dance Championships.​With her Lucite heels, cheeky schoolgirl pigtails and silky, hot pink disco shorts exposing admirable curves, the petite dancer is a textbook picture of urban erotici ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Le Comptoir

Chef Gary Menes' latest appears, for a bit, at downtown's Tiara

Aim High, the First Facebook 'Social Series,' and Why Web Shows Still Fly Below the Radar

Jackson Rathbone takes charge as Nick Green: a high school student/CIA assassin in Aim High​Have you heard of the new WB/Facebook web series Aim High? You know, the show about a high school student/CIA operative that actually allows you to incorporate your own pictures and data into the story? ... More >>

PHOTOS: Kitten Rescued From L.A. River

Small Animal Rescue Team Los Angeles via Facebook"The kitten was safely rescued and is dry and warm at the East Valley Animal Shelter."​Cigarette butts and fake fingernails weren't the only human run-off that last Friday's rain tried to sweep out to sea. The Small Animal Rescue Team Los Angel ... More >>

VILLAGE VOICE MEDIA ASKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF SENATE BILL 596

An Xiao, Man Bartlett and Petra Cortright Make Avatars the New Self-Portraits

Update: Odd Future Video Is Not Open to the Public

Andrea DomanickNow you can burn shit, too​[See also: Exclusive: Pusha T and Tyler the Creator's "Trouble On My Mind" Video Shoot] Update: Odd Future's management has said that the video shoot is not open to the public. Don't go!Tyler, the Creator's music god Pharrell said, "You can't be me, I'm a ... More >>

LinA In LA Club/Party Picks: Cosmic Prom, Shhh, Mattachine, James Pants, Arabian Prince

Lina LecaroBirthday Girl Miss Barbie-Q (here hosting last week's Artwerq); see Shhh Sunday. ​LA will be in-FEST-ed this weekend. The Sunset Strip Music Fest in West Hollywood and the Mad Decent Block Party downtown are the banner events, but those looking for something more intimate -- yet st ... More >>

Facebook for Prisoners? California Officials Crack Down After Inmates Use Social Networking For Crime

CDCRHello, friend.​California is cracking down on prisoners who use Facebook from behind bars, especially if they turn to social networking to threaten people or to run criminal enterprises. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced the effort this week, stating that it "has ... More >>

Top Five Worst Ironic Indie Rock Band Names

LinA In LA Club/Party Picks: Splashers and Goths and Mods, Oh My!!

Lina LecaroSaturday night dress code: vampy and violet (see Resurrection and Prince party).​Summer will be gone before you know it, so get ready to mark off a few must-dos from the bootie-bumper bucket list. Been to a DJ-driven afternoon pool party yet? A three-day Mod scooter ride and stomp-a ... More >>

Top Five Worst Ironic Indie Rock Band Names, Besides Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

Stuart Conner​This week Brian Jonestown Massacre, a seminal and well-named act, announced the release of a new double CD, The Singles Collection (1992-2011), out at the end of August. It got us thinking about indie rock band names, and how they've gone from fun-ironic to kill-yourself-ironic. ... More >>

The Dark Knight Rises: The Trailer

​ The Dark Knight Rises won't hit theaters until July 2012, but this teaser surfaced on Facebook yesterday, sending the Internet into a tizzy. We have to admit, we're a little confused about why.

Low End Theory Bouncers Bounced Following Bribery Accusations

Regal Dee​On Wednesday night The Airliner club replaced its security guards at the popular Low End Theory party, following widespread reports of bribery. The uber-popular beat scene gathering regularly hosts big-name performers in its tiny space, drawing massive Wednesday-night crowds hoping ... More >>

LinA In LA Club/Party Picks: DJ Colette, Red Devil Disco, Magic Wednesdays

Lina LecaroDemonic debauchery of the Kitty kind.​As the prolific rapper Nelly once said, "it's getting hot in here (so take off all your clothes)"... By "here" we mean Los Angeles, of course! Summer clubbing calls for way less attire; more, shall we say, refreshments; and a general reduction o ... More >>

Ejen Chuang Brings Cosplay in America to Anime Expo

Shannon CottrellEjen Chuang at the book release party for Cosplay in America, May, 2010​Check out Ejen Chuang's photography in "Cosplay in America: Ejen Chuang's Portraits from Anime and Comic Book Conventions." In 2010, Ejen Chuang self-published Cosplay in America, a photography book filled ... More >>

Your Facebook Info Could be Protected Under California Proposal

eigi​If you don't want Facebook to share your private information, a bill that would grant that wish hits the California Senate this week for a vote. But it will be an uphill battle. Sen. Ellen Corbett's SB 242 needs five votes for passage. It was already rejected and was granted reconsiderat ... More >>

Facebook Friend Kidnaps, Rapes 14-Year-Old North Hollywood Girl, LAPD Says

west.m​Police were searching for a young man they say met a girl on Facebook and MySpace, kidnapped her, and raper her over the weekend. KTLA News reports that the man drove to he 14-year-old victim's North Hollywood home Sunday and kidnapped her before raping her. The girl was rescued by a ... More >>

[UPDATED, Again]: Pink Taco's Pink Donkey Angers Animal Rights Activists

[Update (May 11th, 1:30 p.m.): Through May 15th, the Pink Taco in Century City will be featuring a special margarita, the "PETA-rita," with 100% of the proceeds from going to PETA. And Friday, May 13th is "bring your pet to the patio day" from 3 to 7 p.m.] [Update (May 5th, 1 p.m.): Our sister bl ... More >>

Bikini Coffee House Crackdown Proposed For Garden Grove: Cops Want Less Skin, More Skim

Cafe Miss Cutie / FacebookGo Lakers (next season).​Update: Bummer gentlemen. The Garden Grove City Council passed the stricter rules for bikini coffee shops last night in a 4-0 vote. The Orange County Register. This is a travesty, and we want all red-blooded men to protest. We speak, of cour ... More >>

Dodgers Fans Who Beat Up S.F. Giants Fan Bryan Stow -- Still in Coma -- Get Sketched, Tagged With $10,000 Reward

LAPD​Outrage is mounting, both in San Francisco and Los Angeles, over Friday's very unsportsmanlike (to say the least) Opening Day beatdown in the Dodger Stadium parking lot. Assault victim Bryan Stow, a 40-year-old Santa Cruz paramedic with two small children who had travelled south to cheer ... More >>

Sweet Technology: iPhone Cupcake Apps

Crumbs​Cupcakes aren't only big business in the real world, they're also making inroads in the virtual one. A couple weeks ago, Crumbs Bakeshop released an iPhone app, but they're hardly the first to combine cupcakes and technology. Too lazy to bake cupcakes in the real world? Any number of ap ... More >>

[Updated, Again]: Dervaes Family Trademarks "Urban Homestead" Term: Legal Battle Follows

The cover of The Urban Homestead, written by Erik Knudsen and Kelly Coyne, which might be renamed in the next printing.​Updated, 2/22, 12:30 p.m.: The Dervaes family recently filed a Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DCMA) take down notice to Google regarding content in The Urban Homestead by K ... More >>

L.A. Facebook Lawsuit Pits Moms Against Zuckerberg: Quit Making Cash off Our Kids

Chill, Ma!​It was bad enough when the mothers and fathers of the world all started joining Facebook -- posting family portraits, friending our crushes and spelling out statuses in correct caps 'n' grammars like the Tweetarded calligraphers they'll forever be. But a lawsuit? Come on, Mom. Da ... More >>

Top 10 Reasons MySpace Should Be Put Out of Its Misery

10 Reasons Myspace Should Be Put Out of Its Misery

The Feast's Top 20 Most "Liked" Chefs on Facebook: Y'all May Be Not Agree With #1

The FeastMichael Symon, the #5 most "Liked" chef on Facebook​Do you think Michael Symon is sneering at Mario Batali across Kitchen Stadium right now, mocking him for having an inferior number of "Likes" on Facebook? We can almost hear Symon's Nelson-esque "hah-hah" from here. "Only 23,000-some ... More >>

Beverly Hills-Based MySpace Kicks Half Of Workforce To The Curb

What will become of Tila Tequila?​Ah, it seems like only yesterday that the kids on North Maple Drive in Beverly Hills were the envy of the tech world. Riding high in their leased Audis and rockin' those first iPhones, they were the closest thing L.A. had to Silicon Valley royalty. And now ma ... More >>

Facebook Users Upload A Record 750 Million Photos Over New Year's Weekend

PHOTO BY JOSH "CURIOUSJOSH" REISSFor the Weekly's version of a Facebook album, see slideshow "CuriousJosh: New Year's Eve"​Either we had such an awesome time on New Year's Eve that we want to relive the moments over and over again, or we had such an awesome time on New Year's Eve that we want ... More >>

LA Weekly Commenting System Gets An Upgrade

Flickr/mrjoromailbox in Santa Clara County, CA ​ One of the fun things about blog posts is that you can comment on them pretty much instantly, posting your anonymous (or not) 2 cents worth for everyone to read as soon as you finish typing. Unlike the old days, when you just threw your food at ... More >>

The Social Network, Or Why I Quit Facebook

​ Facebook mastermind Mark Zuckerberg has been named by TIME Magazine as the 2010 Man of the Year. Countless awards bodies, polls (including the Village Voice/LA Weekly Film Poll) and film critics groups (including the LA Film Critics Association, of which I am a member) have named The Social ... More >>

Facebook Visualizes L.A.'s Friends, But It Looks Like The East Coast And Europe Have Way More Buddies

FacebookWe are. Your friends.​So an enterprising young data infrastructure engineering intern at Facebook has mapped out the site's friendships across the world. The cool thing about his map is that continents, islands and landmasses aren't superimposed -- they're defined by the humanity Paul ... More >>

Mexican Coke: A Myth?

Bob With​ Apparently, Mexican Coke isn't it. A collective shudder swept through diehard foodies everywhere last week, when Time Magazine and The Atlantic, among others, reported a new study in the journal Obesity that may have inadvertantly proven Mexican Coke to be no more than a myth.

Delta Lets Passengers Book Their Flight On Facebook

​You can now book your flights on Facebook. Delta Air Lines announced on Thursday that it was launching a new feature on Facebook that would allow passengers to book fights from LAX and other airports directly via the social media website. The "Delta Ticket Window" can be accessed on the comp ... More >>

The Tower of Torta: ampm's Secret Menu

Willy BlackmoreAdvertising ampm's Secret Menu​ We're used to finding our Mexican food in less-than-normal places: sold out of grocery carts, cooked in fly-by-night outdoor kitchens, served out of bicycle-mounted freezers. But the lexicon of this cuisine--tamales, huaraches, sopes, paletas, ra ... More >>

Ye Coach & Horses Evicted, But Not Riding Off Yet

Ye Coach & Horses ​Ye Coach & Horses' red-hues, dark crevices, cheap (for the area) drinks and Old World charm have made it a long-standing hideout for barflies, struggling musicians (Guitar Center is nearby) and celebrities for decades. Regulars over the years have included Alfred Hitchock, ... More >>

SoCal Mother Finds Abducted Children Through Facebook Years Later

​A San Bernardino mother found her teenage children, abducted by their father when they were 2- and 3-years-old, through a Facebook search, it was recently revealed. The woman said that her husband, Faustino Utera, disappeared with the children in 1995. He had allegedly told her that he had ta ... More >>

Adam Cooper: The Mayor's Twitterer

That's What She Liked: 20 Reasons Why You Should Audit Your Facebook Privacy Settings

View the photo gallery here. Ah, the new Facebook and what your "likes" say about you. As you've (hopefully) read by now, Facebook's new API turns the social networking site into a bargain-bin of users' tastes for publishers and marketers to sift through, store and sell. Facebook (and companies li ... More >>

Ann Magnuson Kicked Off Facebook For Inoffensive Roxy Music Hommage

[Thanks to Lina Lecaro for the tip.] Facebook, which started off as a "Hot or Not" type application for horny preppies to evaluate Harvard coeds, has unceremoniously booted off the amazing singer and performer Ann Magnuson for posting this photo: Austin Young​ The picture is, of course, an ... More >>

Ann Magnuson's Panties Apparently More Offensive Than Racism and Kim Kardashian's Ass, According to Facebook's Censors

A quick followup to the "Anne Magnuson Banned From Facebook" post: Here are a few examples (gleaned from a very cursory, 5-minute troll through Facebook) of the kind of things the social media network has not banned, while CENSORING ANN MAGNUSON FOR HER PANTIES. [All photos taken LIVE from Faceboo ... More >>

Your Next Facebook Friend Could Be An Undercover Agent

​The Electronic Frontier Foundation revealed this week that the FBI and other federal agencies work undercover on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites to shadow suspects and gather evidence in crime investigations. According to the Associated Press, Freedom of Information Act r ... More >>

Is Google Buzz Worth All the Buzz, or is it Shallow Wave?

​ Yesterday morning, after slurping up their morning coffee buzz, a number of Gmail users got their Google Buzz on, or they at least took a shot. Google's new social platform, which some say is the search engine giant's solution to Twitter and Facebook, is currently at the fore in tech talk. ... More >>

When Ordered, Twitter Monitors Tweet-Bangers For Authorities -- Report

​Representatives of Twitter and Facebook said they cooperate with authorities investigating gangs that use the social-networking tools to communicate about crime, according to a report. "Representatives from Twitter and Facebook say they regularly cooperate with police and supply information ... More >>

Las Hijas Goticas de Zapatero: Spanish Prime Minister's Goth Daughters on Facebook, or Your Easiest Halloween Costume

The Spanish prime minister's daughters dressed goth for their White House photo op last month. The photo went viral from the White House's Flickr photostream, and the world laughed. Spain has not yet declared war on the United States, but the Facebook page created in the girls' honor, "Las Hijas Got ... More >>

MAKE US LAUGH, FUNNYBOY!

Facebook Buys Friendfeed, Because Techcrunch Says So

​Valley behemoth Facebook just bought 12-person startup and vanguard of the real-time web Friendfeed. Once again,Techcrunch's Jason Kincaid had the scoop at least 20 min before tech badass Kara Swisher at All Things D got the press release (we too had to find out the Techcrunch way). What doe ... More >>

Restaurant City: So When Did the Headache of Opening a Restaurant Become Fun?

Presumably, only video game junkies who have never felt the pressure to fire twelve orders--RIGHT NOW!--could dream up the social networking game Restaurant City. Playfish, the company behind Restaurant City and numerous additional social networking games (a sort of Monopoly goes Facebook genre), la ... More >>

Top 10 Things You Don't Want Facebook to Own (About You, FOREVER)

On February 15 the user awareness blog Consumerist discovered that Facebook had discretely changed its Terms Of Service - slashing a couple of lines about the expiration of Facebook's ownership of your content after you delete your profile, as well as tacking on the following addendum: "The follow ... More >>