Toyota Prius

Westside Mansions' Power-Use Gluttony Confirmed By Awesome UCLA Electricity Map

An awesome new electricity use map created by UCLA's California Center for Sustainable Communities shows what you probably already suspect. Those righteous Prius drivers and aficionados of all things "sustainable," a.k.a. rich Westsiders, have some of the highest power usage figures in town:

Top 10 Food-Centric YouTube Clips

The way to a music video audience's heart, it seems, is through its stomach -- or at least that's the route these videos take, with varying degrees of deliciousness. From rank amateurs trying to grab a little YouTube stardom to established rock stars, food is a good way to establish a connection w ... More >>

Dublab's Internet Radio. Be Very Afraid

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Internet radio station Dublab is less KCRW and more MOCA. Thirty rotating "Labrats" operate as a permanent exhibit, seamlessly switching between the mode ... More >>

Hard Day of The Dead - Justice, Diplo - 11/3/12

Hard Day of The Dead Los Angeles State Historic Park 11/3/12 5:30 PM: I'm driving through downtown Los Angeles scavenging for a parking spot. The doors at Day of the Dead don't open until 6 so I'm under the impression that arriving early will save me from shelling out 20 bucks to stash my car and/o ... More >>

Brian Gerber, Film Producer Behind 'Digital Hollywood' Summit, Commits Suicide off Angeles Crest Highway

Update, 1 p.m.: Gerber's suicide was just confirmed in a post on his Facebook profile. Headline and story have been changed to reflect this fact. Another well-loved member of the L.A. film industry -- documentary producer and digital-tech pioneer Brian Gerber -- took his life this week by driving h ... More >>

Did L.A. Officials Cover Up Manny Figueras' Fatal Mowing Down of Gary Woodford?

Could This License Plate Save California's Arts Funding Crisis?

You've likely noticed this sun setting behind an iconic row of palms as it darted in front of you on the 405. But unless you've got one of these specialty plates screwed on your own Prius, it's unlikely you knew that it supports the state's art funding. "I had lived in California my whole life, and ... More >>

On The Heels of Water Rate Increase For L.A., Report Says Average Water And Power Worker Makes Nearly $100,000 a Year

Craig Bennett​You think times are hard? Try being an average-salaried Department of Water and Power worker, who takes home $96,805 a year of public money, according to a recent analysis by Bloomberg. Can you even, like sustain a Whole Foods-stocked pantry on that kind of money? Really, that's ... More >>

Honda Civic Hybrid Only Gets 30 Miles Per Gallon? L.A.'s Heather Peters Sues ... The Right Way

So you bought an ugly, slab-sided Honda Civic hybrid thinking it would, despite its Danny DeVito looks, become the next "it" car for the eco hipsters. Wrong again, ethanol breath. Turns out earlier models of the Civic hybrid came with way less gas mileage than advertised -- 30 versus 50 -- as a re ... More >>

Mark Matuszak, L.A. Designer of Obamas' Holiday Card, Sees Thumbs-Down Critique From Sarah Palin

The card (cropped).​Turns out the Obamas' holiday card this year was designed by L.A. artist Mark Matuszak. It's cozy and apropos, featuring First Dog Bo chillin' like a villain in front of a White House fireplace. Good work, Mark. Except that even if President Obama were to bring back Jesus ... More >>

Jeffrey Tidus' Rolling Hills Estates Murder Mystery Sees $100,000 Reward

Tidus.​The mysterious case of Jeffrey Tidus, a well-respected attorney gunned down in his Prius outside his Rolling Hills Estates home on Dec. 7, 2009, is surely headed for the fame of a film or even an episode of 48 Hours Mystery. Maybe. You see, more than two years later, authorities stil ... More >>

Why This Song Sucks: Dev's "In The Dark"

[Editor's note: Why This Song Sucks determines why particular tracks blow using science. It appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.] Song: Dev's "In The Dark" History: "In The Dark" is the is the second single from The Night The Sun Came Up. That's the debut album from electro-pop enthusias ... More >>

Michele Bachmann, Tea Party Presidential Hopeful, Coming to Hostile Territory This Summer: Los Angeles

Bachmann is heading to L.A.​Nutcase Congresswoman and right-wing Quixote presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann will come to the land of sunshine, sin and sexual liberation (that's here) Sept. 16 for the California Republican Party Fall Convention downtown (which is actually happening in summer ... More >>

Ivan Spencer, Husband of 'Starz' Strip Club Owner, Shot Dead in Prius on L.A. Freeway Interchange

The victim's wife reportedly owns "Starz," a Gardena strip club.​In what appears to have been a freak car-to-car shooting at 2:35 a.m. this morning, 55-year-old Rolling Hills resident Ivan Spencer was fatally hit by a bullet while changing freeways from the 101 South to the 91 East. City News ... More >>

L.A. Mayor's Choice to Head Embattled Transportation Department, Jaime de la Vega, Drove a Taxpayer-Funded Hummer

Your taxpayer dollars at work.​The L.A. Department of Transportation has been in hot water lately. Not only have a couple of parking enforcement officers been caught doing porn on-the-job, but city Controller Wendy Greuel recently revealed a special, get-out-of-parking-tickets-free program for ... More >>

Estella Warren Allegedly Kicks Cop, Escapes Police Station After Suspected Hit-And-Run DUI Near West Hollywood

IMDBEstella Warren.​It was an eyebrow-raising escape, tweeted by Weho Daily at 1:38 a.m. today: LAPD's Wilshire station just had an escaped prisoner... blonde girl, about 28yo, 5'9″ tall. But they found her just before big search. It appears that the blonde girl was non other than actres ... More >>

Jeweler at Store Favored by Jessica Simpson, Sandra Bullock, Robbed of $1.5 Million in Jewels During Lunch Stop in Santa Monica

susanfosterjewelry.com​Update: Cops say the victim didn't work for Susan Foster Exquisite Fine Jewelry but might have made a sales call there before the robbery (more details after the jump). Suspect descriptions also after the jump. A man who works at a might have paid a sales visit to a Bre ... More >>

New York Times' Arthur Brisbane Questions Paper's Past Criticism of Los Angeles Times in Wake of L.A. Paper's Pulitzer Wins

robertjlopez / YouTubeRuben Vives celebrates his L.A. Times Pulitzer co-win.​Updated after the jump: Slate media critic Jack Shafer weighs in, saying it's possible for the L.A. Times to both win Pulitzers and be "in steep decline." Earlier this year we noted how the Los Angeles Times was "bec ... More >>

Top 5 Old School Indie L.A. Health Food Stores

J. Ritz​ Close your eyes and breathe. Deeply. Smell those bulk whole grains commingling with the aromas of spirulina, alternative pastas, sprouts of all types, and freshly juiced wheatgrass? Now take a look around. See the earnest hand-painted signs promoting health tips? Notice the knotty pin ... More >>

Cameron Diaz Says Snoop Dogg Sold Her Pot in 'LBC' High School

Lopez Tonight / TBSCameron Diaz says Snoop Dogg was an uplifting influence in high school.​Not really a shocker here: Cameron Diaz told George Lopez this week that she's "pretty sure" she bought marijuana from Snoop Dogg in high school. America's foremost promoter of goodweed sold pot in hig ... More >>

Go Ask Alice (To Sign Your Book): Alice Waters In Town for A Book Signing

AmazonAlice Waters' latest book​If you're weary of hauling your Prius (or maybe your bicycle) all the way up the 5 to Berkeley to pay homage to Alice Waters, next Saturday you'll have a much shorter commute. Waters will be in town to sign copies of her new book In the Green Kitchen: Techniques ... More >>

Toyota Poised To Blame Driver In San Diego Sudden-Acceleration Case

​No surprise here: Toyota's stance on the out-of-control acceleration famously experienced by a Prius driver earlier this month will mirror that of U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, the auto-industry-backed congressman who's been meddling in the case (on behalf of whom?) and practically attacking the ch ... More >>

Was Rolling Hills lawyer Jeffrey Tidus, who repped failed New Century Financial, murdered?

Rumors gripped the Los Angeles legal community today after the shocking fatal shooting Monday, in posh Rolling Hills Estates, of attorney Jeffrey A. Tidus. He was killed just hours after top executives at a firm Tidus represented, New Century Financial, were accused of fraud by federal regulators.Th ... More >>

It's The '70s Again: Pot Is Everywhere, Our Pocketbooks Are Stagflated, And Jerry Brown Is On His Way To Gubernatorial Sequel

Get out your bell-bottom pants. Attorney General Jerry Brown is aiming for a gubernatorial sequel, and he's tapping his old pals in Hollywood for the dough. Moguls obliged to the tune of more than $1 million at a local event over the weekend, and Brown hasn't even officially thrown his hat in the ri ... More >>

LA People 2009: Spokesmen — Bicycle Oven's Josef and Adam Bray-Ali

Their single-gear Flying Pigeon bikes are all over the city, and on weekends the boys take to the streets of Alhambra for monthly dim sum rides, leading a parade of hungry rollers

LA People 2009: Baby Cakes — Elizabeth Belkind and Lisa J. Olin, Cake Monkey's Tiny Cake Queens

The Korean Taco Justice League: Kogi Rolls Into L.A.

From Rosemead side streets to Venice dive bars, hungry Angelenos have a new way to roll

Drive, Baby, Drive: Obama Voter's Car Gets a "Drill, Baby, Drill" Paint Job

Practical joke forces liberal to explain to female Prius driver, "It's not my fault!"

Akasha, More Than Sustainable

Green eggs and hemp

They Blinded Us With Scions: L.A. Riots Among Bands Entering Corporate Marriages

A car company recruits rising stars of the L.A. music scene to help sell autos. Who's buying?

Who's Your Mermaid?

What to do in L.A. this week

La Mill After Dark

Infatuation turns to ... dinner

Ship's Secrets, Powers Back On

System of a Down: Serj Protector

Band's front man speaks to the people from his sofa in the Calabasas hills

Danny Boyle’s Sunshine

Lost in space

You Wear it Well

Lyric Culture puts a song on your sleeve

Pink Kink

So I finally tried Pinkberry, and folks, I've just got one question- what's the big wup? Okay, it's pretty tasty and the place is cute (despite the name, the Vermont Ave. space has no pink to speak of; the palate is lime green and it's all plastica'd out with distinct Japanese toy touches) but serio ... More >>

Marc Maron, Janeane Garofalo and Henry Rollins

At the Silent Movie Theater

Lock, Stock & Module

Los Angeles architects are leading the modern prefab pack — again

A Mexican and an Irishman Walk Into a Bar...

Designer Air

A clean city looks a lot like L.A.’s growth around transit stations

Bio Goes Bling

Citizen Forester

Andy Lipkis speaks for the trees. Now he wants to solve our water problems too.

The Capital of Car Design

L.A. is, once again, where the action is

Get Real Juiced

How your electric car can power your life

Musclin’ and Guzzlin’

In praise of V-8s

From the Red Car to the Hummer

An automotive timeline

Hollywood OVERHEARD

What Would Satan Drive?