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Food News Roundup: Cookie Advent Calendar, Christmas Hot Dogs A Gluten-Free Holiday Menu

Saveur: The 2012 cookie advent calendar. Ruth Reichl: Gift Guide, Day 18. Or, the Corkcicle. Eater LA: La Brea Bakery moving up the street in January. Serious Eats: Christmas-themed hot dogs. LA Observed: One Adam 12: Code 7 at Henry's Tacos. Food52: A Gluten-Free Holiday Menu. Bon Appetit: ... More >>

LA Weekly Web Awards 2012: The Winners!

So the center of the tech universe is still in Northern California. Big deal. Facebook's in freefall; the iPhone 5 is a snooze. Yes, innovation continues to matter, but these days, it's less about the platform and more about the content. On that front, L.A. is king. The top YouTube stars live here. ... More >>

Edible Art: Made in L.A. Exhibits Local Food Crafters

Things just got a bit sweeter for L.A. art fans: Hammer Museum's Made In L.A. biennial art exhibit, which runs until Sept. 2 and features works from celebrated local talent, will be teaming up with ForYourArt (the same folks behind the 24-hour doughnut-a-thon) on July 28 for New.Artisanal.Now a free ... More >>

Food News Roundup: Giant Rabbits, Making Cider in Burgundy, Holiday Roasts The Glutton in Winter

Anne FishbeinSotto chefs Steve Samson and Zach Pollack​Forbes: 30 mover-and-shakers under 30 in the food and wine industry. (Congrats Jordan Kahn and Zach Pollack.) The Salt, NPR's Food Blog: Why Are We More Hungry In The Winter? Los Angeles Magazine: This year's top 10 restaurants in L.A. ... More >>

Best Flickr Pool: LAist Featured Photos

SlutWalk Los Angeles Happens Saturday in West Hollywood

Anton BielousovWalking the walk.​There are perp walks. And power walks. Now there's a SlutWalk coming to West Hollywood tomorrow. But before you line the parade route, Charlie Sheen, note that the participants aren't embracing your kind. Rather they're protesting the notion, uttered this spri ... More >>

USC Nude Sex Photo Scandal Gets Taiwanese Animation Treatment (Video)

YouTube​It was only a matter of time. Yes, the USC nude sex photo scandal now has its own Taiwanese animation treatment, a la Tiger Woods' Escalade crash. Unfortunately, we don't get to see too many details -- certainly not enough to measure anything or check for any Brazilian beauty secrets ... More >>

La-La Land, Term to Describe Los Angeles (and Charlie Sheen's State of Mind), Officially Makes the Oxford Dictionary

La-La Land's skyline.​You are officially in la-la land, at least according to the latest update in the Oxford English Dictionary, the bible of our language We were never partial to the term. City of Angels, yes. L.A. Of course. But la-la land always seemed to sound like something outsiders wo ... More >>

Morning News Roundup: Taco Madness, German Bars, Freakiest NYC Sublet Story EVER

Gustavo Arellano/OC Weekly​More news you definitely cannot use but need to read: --Tapatio-flavored Fritos debuting in 2 weeks! [Stick A Fork In It] --Bill Buford's Heat, about his year as Mario Batali's kitchen slave, got a film deal. [DHD] --Tap rooms, bars, lives bands -- the grocery store ... More >>

Banksy's 'Elephant' Tank Artwork in L.A. Was Home to a Man Named Tachowa Covington

Ted SoquiBanksy's 'Elephant.'​You can live in art (architect R.M. Schindler's work is often an object of desire in L.A.) if you have the means. But for an otherwise homeless guy named Tachowa Covington, artful shelter came to him for free. And then it was taken away. Turns out that Banksy-t ... More >>

The Girl Scout Cookie Locator: Or, How to Find Your Nearest Box of Thin Mints

where we are now​ Thanks to LAist for the headsup on this one: The Girl Scout Cookie Locator, courtesy of the Scouts themselves. Now you have only to enter your zip code to find the nearest booth to where you are sitting right now, chugging bad coffee, loathing Mondays, wishing your hangover w ... More >>

Tucson Massacre: Dodgers Set Up Memorial Fund To Honor Christina Green, Daughter Of Dodgers' Scout

Christina Green, a member of the Dodgers family.​One of the most heart-wrenching stories out of Arizona over the weekend was that of 9-year-old Christina Green, who had been elected to her local student council and had gone to a Tucson Safeway to meet Rep. Gabrielle Giffords that fateful Satur ... More >>

Top 10 Food Fights of 2010: Jonathan Gold, Rick Bayless, Whales More

Finger Food/L.A. Weekly Flickr Pool​Whether it involved whales vs. sushi chefs, critics vs. chefs or Jonathan Gold vs. "fill in the blank", 2010 was huge for food fights in Los Angeles. Here are the 10 most memorable tiffs of the year, the ones that set the Twitterverse afire. 1) The Cove Tea ... More >>

Eat My Blog Charity Bakesale: Bake (and Eat) For a Cause

​'Tis the season to donate to the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank. How many ways can you find to do it? Let's see, you can hit up the "Trucking Through the Holidays" festival tonight, and you can check out the third annual Eat My Blog Charity Bake Sale, coming up Saturday, December 4th at Tend ... More >>

Los Angeles Is America's Capital Of Stress (And We're Not Talking About Cheap Marijuana)

This kind of stuff stresses us out.​The economy. Traffic. Conan vs. Leno. The Clippers! Yeah, we're stressed. The American Psychological Association's just-released "Stress In America" report says L.A. is the most stressful city in America. Tell us something we don't know. Despite the yoga, p ... More >>

If California Legalizes Pot, The Feds Might Sue: Boy, The Obama Administration Really Doesn't Want Us To Vote For Prop. 19

Up In SmokeThe U.S. drug czar is sounding a little like Sgt. Stedenko to us.​Just because California might legalize pot doesn't mean that enforcement against the drug will go up in smoke. Nope. In fact President Obama's drug czar told Associated Press (via LAist) that if we liberate cannabis, ... More >>

LAPD Police Cruiser Gets A Boot

​Via LAist, someone put a boot on a police car outside the criminal courts building downtown. The boot, of course, is used to punish serial parking violators. It would be better if it were a parking enforcement vehicle, but this is still a good prank.

Reviewer Of $578 Million Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools Complex: Unimpressed

​Via LAist, the reviews of the $578 million Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools campus are starting to come in, and the first from The Architects Newspaper is a bit ugly. The Associated Press has called the school the most expensive in history; in fairness, it's not really a "school." The ca ... More >>

FBI Releases Security Photo Of "Balding Bandit"; Misnomer?

​The FBI released a photo, which you can see at right, of a guy they say has robbed three banks in La Mirada since May. They're calling him the "Balding Bandit," which seems like a misnomer. Authorities say he held up a Banco Popular Tuesday, after robbing Chase branches on May 14 and July 2 ... More >>

Goodbye, John Chase: West Hollywood Urban Designer Dies

Photo via Gelato Baby​West Hollywood's urban designer John Chase died of an apparent heart attack the morning of this past Friday the 13th. Editors Alissa Walker of Gelato Baby, and Marissa Gluck and Josh Williams of Curbed remember Chase's flamboyant, passionate, maximalist life and times. He ... More >>

Are Restaurant Owners Blocking Parking Spaces To Ward Off Food Trucks?

​An ongoing battle between food trucks and restaurants on the 5700 block of Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile has now reached a new level. According to LAist, passenger vehicles could be taking up all the parking spaces on the boulevard -- on purpose? -- parking there all-day and getting ... More >>

Neighborhood Council Defies L.A. City Hall's Arizona Boycott

Photo by S.C. Asher via Flickr​When the Los Angeles City Council approved a boycott of Arizona travel and business last month, the vote was almost unanimous, with only Valley Councilman Greig Smith going against the group. Who could blame the body? With nearly one in two people in L.A. being L ... More >>

Caught On Tape: LAPD Officer Calls Photographer 'Fruitcake,' Detains Him

YouTubeOfficer Espinoza.​Not a good spring for the Los Angeles Police Department: First an officer was caught on video throwing a kick at a bike rider, and now a video has emerged that depicts an enraged cop calling a photographer a "fruitcake" and detaining him for taking pictures. The incid ... More >>

Silver Lake Music Scene Gets Its Own "Melrose Place"-meets-"Flashdance"

​We do our best to be supportive of L.A. artists. We really do. As we've said more than once, we like to like things. But then LAist does a completely po-faced writeup of the trailer for a new "indie" movie called Sunset Junction: A Personal Musical and we just can't help our snarky selves. ... More >>

LA Weekly Flickr Pool Reader Photo of the Day: Hollywood Artichokes

This LA Weekly Flickr pool photo comes to you courtesy of photographer Renee Rendler-Kaplan, who took the shot at the Hollywood Farmers Market. Photo-sharing is fun, as we can feature your work in blogs and photo galleries. Or, to quote @StephenFalk's tweet this morning: "LAist used a photo of mine ... More >>

White Children Now A Minority In California, States Report (UPDATED)

​(UPDATED with Valley stats after the jump). Don't tell the produces of The Hills or any of the other youth-oriented television shows that seem to portray people of color as background noise in California, but for the Golden State's under-18 population whites are now a minority. This accordin ... More >>

City Could End Its Operation Of Zoo, Convention Center, Animal Shelters

lazoo.org​In its quest to stand up to a looming, $400 million budget deficit, the city will have to look seriously at the possibility of giving up its operation of the Zoo, the Convention Center and its animal shelters. The Los Angeles Daily News on Monday reports that giving up day-to-day c ... More >>

Car Wash's Alleged Underpayment To Workers Brings Suit By Jerry Brown

Google Maps​An Echo Park car wash that's been in the news repeatedly for alleged violations of workplace-safety rules and employee compensation standards is being sued by state Attorney General Jerry Brown for $2.6 million, his office announced Tuesday. The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior ... More >>

Meals On Wheels: A Brief L.A. Food Truck Update

Buttermilk Truck launches the evening of November 11th at The Brig in Venice (via LAist). The Grilled Cheese Truck, which launched last week, just posted this week's schedule on their website. Today, Brentwood. Tomorrow, on KTLA. Flying Pig Truck, which hit the streets in mid-October, is on Cahuen ... More >>

Don't Get Burned by Fake Fire Charities

Zach Behrens at LAist picks up on the warnings already coming out of Jerry Brown's office. Cyclical disasters breed cyclical scams. Behren's notes the state attorney general has set up a pair of Web sites to deal with fraudsters -- one for Giving Wisely and another for Complaints about bogus chariti ... More >>

Trailer for East of Sunset, A Silver Lake Indie Rock Doc, Released

LAist has posted the trailer to the forthcoming LA music doc East of Sunset. The film, created by Ryan Maples & Jason Tovar of Thrilhouse Productions, doesn't have a release date yet, but the trailer looks intriguing. East of Sunset from Thrillhouse Productions on Vimeo.

Google's Surface-Street Traffic Maps Debut

LAist's Zach Behrens draws everyone's attention to a new Google Maps traffic feature. Like many mapping and news outfits, Google Maps has a color-coded feature to monitor local freeway speeds. Now, however, GM has launched a program that allows Internet users to get information on the real-time spee ... More >>

Villaraigosa Video Spoof Takes Top Billing in Mayor's 'Community Clips'

In city halls and state houses across the country, politicians often have a thing called "clipping" services. It's something that culls all of the headlines from print and digital media -- newspapers and blogs -- in a neat package so, say, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa can quickly get a beat of what's ... More >>

Pot Pharmacies Raided, Dog Shot

The L.A. Times reports that federal and local law enforcement agencies raided a pair of Westside medical marijuana pharmacies today, along with the homes of their owners. In one of the raids a pit bull was shot although, according to the Times report, it is expected to fully recover. It's unclear wh ... More >>

L.A.ndmarks: Mapping Local Scenes from '500 Days of Summer'

It was inevitable: A movie that is purportedly as much a love song to L.A. as was Woody Allen's Manhattan to the city of the same name had to produce its own map. And now here it is, courtesy of LAist, which lists and locates 500 Days of Summer's key L.A.-centric landmarks for our viewing and drivin ... More >>

Pot Farms Found in Santa Monica Mountains

An LAist report on a pair of pot plantations discovered in the Santa Monica Mountains underscores concerns we raised this morning about the shutting down of state parks because of budget cuts. While not every park is set in the middle of a wilderness, it's unknown as to which parks will be closed du ... More >>

Students Prepare for Budget Protest

View more news videos at: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/video.As LAist and TV/radio reports are noting, students are already gathering today ahead of tomorrow's protest at California State University, Long  Beach. On Tuesday the Cal State system's board of trustees will convene on the Long Beach ... More >>

Giant Steps: L.A.'s 'Big Parade' Weekend

Just in time for a weekend heatwave, LAist reminds us to prepare for the Big Parade. This isEcho Park Historical SocietyLaveta Steps Silver Lake writer and urban hiker Dan Koeppel's pedestrian tribute to both a city infamous for being a place where no one walks, and to the stairways that people have ... More >>

City to Ban Sidewalk Bicycling?

LAist reports that the L.A. City Council's Transportation Committee is looking at banning cyclists from riding on sidewalks. On the one hand, this is good news for the city's beaten-down pedestrians -- on the other, though, it would force a lot of young and inexperienced cyclists into L.A.'s hellish ... More >>

Sizzling Benefit For Taco Zone Fire At Spaceland Friday

Tacos might be the after-dark snack du jour on the Eastside, but apparently not everybody's down for truckin'. Last week, Echo Park's best known mobile Mexi muncher, the Taco Zone, caught fire after two unidentified persons threw some type of molotov cocktail (twice) at the beloved truck, parked in ... More >>

Downtown's Traffic Pedi Cure

Special thanks to LAist's Zach Behrens for flagging Eric Richardson's blogdowntown post delving into the maw of bureaucracy to retrieve a city's good intentions. Of course, L.A.'s streets have been paved with plenty of those over the years. This time the story is about how the city shut down a pair ... More >>

The Thin Blue Line Strikes Again

LAist reports that an MTA Blue Line train collided with a car or truck earlier this afternoon at Washington Boulevard and Main Street, sending one person to the hospital. A later blog post by the L.A. Times claims a total of three people were injured, with one woman trapped in the vehicle. Only last ... More >>

Take a Hike: Walking Enthusiasts Get the Brush-off Over Mulholland Trail

Zach Behrens at LAist has a story au juice about 17 years of city inaction regarding a 22-mile hiking trail that was planned, in 1992, to wind alongside Mulholland Drive, the 1924 car parkway linking Topanga Canyon with the Hollywood Bowl area. The so-called Core Trail should be a no-brainer, as L.A ... More >>

Getting to the Getty: Parking Goes Up to $15

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Last-Minute Eddie Izzard Shows Announced

LAist sounds the alert that Largo will be home to a trio of shows in its Coronet Theater venue by Eddie Izzard. The droll Brit wit (the thinking man's Frank Skinner? the cross-dressing man's Ricky Gervais?) is a tireless spinner of standup gold (or make that gold lame), whether tarting up his pop-cu ... More >>

Bruin Ruin? UCLA's Newspaper Faces "Grim" Future

L.A. Observed and others have noted that today UCLA's Daily Bruin newspaper ran a front-page wrap-around ad for Haagen-Dazs ice cream. An editor's note by Anthony Pesce, linked to by LAist, admitted that the ad was contrived to make it appear as editorial copy. Forget ad reps -- at this point in pri ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Send in the Tow Trucks Public hearings will soon be held to gather comments on plans to speed traffic during rush hours on Pico and Olympic boulevards. LA TimesSign of the Times The recession began with Chevy and Washington Mutual signage being draped with canvas and now the AIG corporate logo has b ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

Murder Takes a Holiday L.A. County homicides are down 15 percent from last year, according to the Coroner's office. The Sheriff's Department cites greater funding for increased patrols as one reason for the decline. San Gabriel Valley TribuneSparta Beats Troy USC lost its bid to upset the Michigan S ... More >>

Department of Public Works Answers Critics

A recent LAist post by editor Zach Behrens has apparently caused some soul-searching at the Department of Public Works. Behrens complained about a Kafka-like encounter with the department's bureaucracy, when he attempted to locate an online form so he could report a dumped couch. This, he pointed ou ... More >>

4 Nabbed -- Break in EP-S'lake Crime Spree?

Both LAist and the Eastsider L.A. are reporting that cops have arrested two adults and two juveniles in possible connection with 10 robberies committed recently in the Echo Park-Silver Lake area. The crimes, sometimes accompanied by savage assaults, have plagued residents since December 30. The crim ... More >>