Silicon Valley

L.A. Is Nation's 2nd Hottest Real Estate Market

See also: Another SoCal Housing Bubble Already? All-cash offers. Bidding wars. Overpriced property. Southern California property sales have been insane lately. A new report by online real estate agency Redfin says Los Angeles has the nation's second-hottest home-buying market, with nearly 8 out of ... More >>

Two Bit Circus, a Startup That's Bringing the Carnival Midway Game Into the 21st Century

Santa Monica's Silicon Beach Fest Shows Off L.A.'s Thriving Tech Scene

At Silicon Beach Fest, the woman seated in front of me was wearing 5-inch stiletto heels -- not something generally seen at a festival to celebrate the startup tech scene in Los Angeles. Fashion startups are just part of the ecosystem that makes the L.A. scene tick, and last week, hundreds of develo ... More >>

Inside Amazon's Super-Weird, American Idol-Style TV Series Development Process

See also: *More L.A. Weekly Film Coverage *Our Special Issue: How to Succeed on YouTube *12 Comedy Acts to Watch in 2013 Amazon's new production arm, Amazon Studios, is right now breaking new ground by premiering fourteen scripted pilots and having the public help decide who will get series orders. ... More >>

America's Priciest Real Estate List Almost Shuts Out Los Angeles

The East Coast media has robbed us again. Forbes magazine seems to think the nation's priciest real estate is in New York, when we all know that, despite the crazy gulf between rich and poor here, some L.A.-area land is as good as gold and California has more billionaires than just about anyplace o ... More >>

Mitt Romney Says U.S. Failing Like California ... While Asking For Cash Here

Mitt Romney has been a great giver of gaffe in the last few weeks. Shortly after video showed him dismissing nearly half the nation as a bunch of non-taxpaying moochers he sported a fresh tan during an interview aimed at Latino voters last week. The latest: Over the weekend, the Republican presiden ... More >>

10 Stupidest California Bills That Legislators Are Trying to Slam Through at Final Hour

The last possible moment for California's bumbling state senators and assemblymen to nudge their pet bills onto Governor Jerry Brown's desk is this Friday, August 31 at midnight. Needless to say, the state Capitol is in a state of fluttering papers/utter mayhem right now. It's hard enough to know ... More >>

The Wednesday Edition: A Roundup of Newspaper Food Stories

You can't replace the feeling of lounging on the couch with a scrunched-up newspaper. But with the web, at least you don't need to worry about getting ink on your hands and bagel. Here's a roundup of some food-related stories from our country's newspapers this week. Lucky for us, it's mostly free. F ... More >>

The Glitch Mob Inspires a Man's Rehabilitation

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Two years ago, Grant Korgan woke up in an intensive care unit in the Sierra Nevada with a broken back and no feeling below his stomach. A snowmobile jump ... More >>

SOPA Supported, Apple Trusted, Internet Data Collection Feared by Californians

Strange days in the world of technology: You're afraid your information is being ripped off by big internet companies. But you support the much-maligned SOPA legislation. And you trust Apple, in recent times the most valuable corporation on the planet. Huh? Those are some of the contradictory resu ... More >>

What Are You Listening to on Spotify? Guess What, Nobody Cares!

In the late aughts and the early teens, or whatever we're calling these decades, streaming music and social media began to merge; this, the geniuses of Silicon Valley, Alley, and Beach declared, would be utopia. Not only would it rain cash, but everyone's musical taste would improve. And thus soon, ... More >>

'L.A. Is the Future' of the Tech Revolution, Says NYC Media Guru

Kerry TribeWelcome to the future, New York.​The Neiman Journalism Lab at Harvard is running a nice 2011-ending series on what the next year will look like for journalism, by an esteemed fleet of think-piecers who've braved this rocky field for the last few. You've got plenty of your usual far ... More >>

Thomas Dolby

How YouTube Turned My Home Video Into a Flight of the Conchords Ad

My YouTube video​Two years ago I assembled a crappy little birthday video montage for my friend, using a combination of Flip clips and ultra-lo-res digi-pics. My masterpiece was set to the tune of the Flight of the Conchords' "Foux Du Fafa" -- with iMovie's Ken Burns effect applied, of course. ... More >>

Kate and Wills Do Los Angeles: The Royal Itinerary

As if the July 4 forecast wasn't hot enough!​Might as well just get this out of the way now. You either want to follow the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, formerly known as Prince William and Kate Middleton, around L.A. like creepy red-coat sympathizers (the weekend after Independence Day, no l ... 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 >>

Barry Zito, SF Giants Pitcher, Crashes in West Hollywood Night Before Opening Day

Barry Zito: Golden Gate bumpkin in the big city​Looks like someone was getting a little overexcited before the big game. In what we're hoping is an omen for the San Francisco Giants' luck on the Dodger Stadium diamond today, pitcher Barry Zito got himself into a bit of a crunch in West Hollyw ... 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 >>

California's 2010 Embrace of Green Tech

In killing Proposition 23, residents choose to pay more for energy, use less

Craigslist Pulls Plug On 'Adult Services' Ads

Craigslist​Quietly and somewhat defiantly over the Labor Day weekend California-based Craigslist pulled its controversial Adult Services advertising section, an alleged haven for prostitution and subject of authorities' ire. The move, which saw the website place the word "censored" over the l ... More >>

The 70% Solution: Tasting Notes on Tcho "Fruity" Dark Chocolate

Ben CalderwoodTcho tasting bar with proprietary flavor wheel visible on the package​ The 70% Solution intentionally fudges the numbers by a few percentage points (the pun, Mom's honor, is accidental) to introduce Squid Ink tasters to Tcho, the world's first internet chocolate. Producer: Tcho ... More >>

Journalist's Home Searched For Information On iPhone Seller; Coveted Apple Prototype Sold For $10,000

An affidavit and search warrant unsealed at the behest of the Los Angeles Times and other news organizations revealed that authorities in Silicon Valley searched a reporter's home in order to obtain more evidence on a suspect who sold an Apple iPhone prototype to the writer. The Times reports that ... More >>

L.A. Times Joins Battle Over Reporter Searched After Revealing New iPhone

gizmodo.comThe next iPhone.​The Los Angeles Times has joined a group of news organizations that asked a judge to help reveal why a journalist had his home raided last month after he helped to reveal the next-generation iPhone via Gizmodo.com. The request was denied Thursday by San Mateo Count ... More >>

Shift Happens: Hollywood and Silicon Valley Bring It OnHollywood

With no relief from the recession coming anytime soon, plus Monday's news that L.A.'s own Tsavo Media founder Mike Jones will now take over as COO of MySpace, it's high time Los Angeles and Silicon Valley broke out the peace pipe. The opportunity presented itself at this week's AlwaysOn OnHollywood ... More >>

Morning Sixpack: A News Roundup

This Property Is Condemned As had been predicted following massive fourth-quarter losses, Mereulo Maddux Properties, the largest owner of downtown L.A. properties, is seeking bankruptcy protection. L.A. TimesHate Is Enough Progressive radio station KPFK 90.7 FM has temporarily suspended its "La Caus ... More >>

SxLA: Los Angeles Interactive in a Post-Network, Post-Geographical World

S. TaylorHalo soldier reads up on Los Angeles at SXSWi ScreenBurn ArcadeAlthough we arrived back at LAX last night exhausted and missing Austin, we felt no symptoms of the dreaded SXSW SARS. Los Angeles was the new girl in town at SXSWi, and this was LAWeekly.com's first time covering Interactive. J ... More >>

Top 10 Most WTF People on Twitter

Sure, Ashton and Demi are doing it, as well as Silicon Valley's A-list and a whole bunch of marketing dudes and spammers, but laweekly.com gets to the heart of the matter and retweets social media's most unexpected users in our "Top 10 Most WTF People on Twitter." digg_url = 'http://blogs.laweekly ... More >>

Last Night: Out with the Oldthink, in with the New - Social Media Club Los Angeles Focuses on Film

Depending on whom you talk to, the role of the Internet as a venue for content distribution is either the Wild Wild West or more of the same. The peer review system breakdown associated with the rise of social media means no more "gatekeepers," a situation that is problematic for those consumers and ... More >>

Dot-Com Again? Behind the Scenes of L.A.'s "Twiistup" Networking Phenomenon

Geek meets tech socialite and parties like it's 1997

School of the Holy Beast

Corporate Kerry

The senator comes to California for the rich person’s vote and dollars

No New Taxes

Except on students

Dhaba Dhaba Do

A Shot at Davis

Darrell Issa has $200 million, a colorful past and wants to topple one of the state’s most unpopular governors

The World According to AARP

The Old Order Trembles

And who knows what -- in our economy and our politics -- is about to give way?

Target Practice

Gray and Sharon Davis take on Bill Simon

Cinnamon, Cloves and Cardamom

The biryanis of Hyderabad

Power to (and From) the People!

Why outright public ownership (and not just shares in Edison) will solve the power crisis

Points and Lines

Architecture and Orange Peels

Loving and Leaving the Phonograph

Why Napster, extraterrestrials, Southern hillbillies and Dick Clark mean more to the future of music than copyright and the Recording Industry Association of America

Amnesty!

Labor leads the battle to grant legal status to millions of America’s — and L.A.’s — undocumented immigrants

E-Bombs Away

Protest, panic, and the politics of packet monkeys

Free Speech.org

LAPD tries to muzzle street cops on the Web

The Names of Things

Odd Ins

Tapping the Alternative Scholarship Bank

Cruising for Zombies

A review of local arcade diversions

Campaign2000.com

What the administration's antitrust crusade against Microsoft means for Al Gore on the stump

Downloading the Future

The MP3 Revolution — the End of the Industry as We Know It

Smash the Technorealist State