As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts — okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles — now that’s a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude’s landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice…

DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Foreign: Stalker Revered in his prime as perhaps one of the best filmmakers Russia ever produced, Andrei Tarkovsky built his reputation on just seven feature films. As is so often the case, some of the most poignant art comes from those artists who must fight to bring their vision to an audience. Tarkovsky’s films, often restless…

Ahh. Fifty-eight degrees, Washington. Fifty-eight! That’s what the temperature is right now according to my trusty OS X weather widget, and I couldn’t be more pleased: with a broken office A/C office unit and a floor of the building prone to soaking up heat, things have been a little warm around here. A last-minute spring extension sounds great, and that’s just what we’re in for: temps will barely top 70 until the weekend (although…

Controversy In Captivity From the disturbed minds at the Onion News Network: Fictional National Zoo giant panda Yun Mei is pro-choice. >> As part of a promotion for his new movie, Kickin’ It Old School, Jamie Kennedy taped himself breakdancing at various locations all over Washington, D.C. We know, we couldn’t believe Jamie Kennedy still had a career, either. [AOL Video Blog] >> Jimmy Kimmel gave Gawker editor Emily Gould a right serious spanking during…

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing– what’s going on in the World of the -ist’s? Bostonist dug deep to uncover Barack Obama’s unpaid parking tickets, their Governor’s latest ethical lapse, and a plagarizing sports writer. Chicagoist had everything in twos: two views on having the Olympics, losing two members of their Super Bowl team, and two music festivals. DCist put their noses in legal books as they…

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we’re all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn’t officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we’re up to… Over at Sampaist, spring has more than sprung: it’s sweltering! But, as everyone knows, museums are an ideal…

In May, the D.C. theater community has devils, Dorian and the deformed — and in Round House Bethesda’s case, an affection for alliteration that we apparently share. We love the work that Actors Theatre of Washington does, and their latest effort is “Mondays In May”, where for three days this month, they showcase new talent. We Wildephiles are particularly interested in what they’re going to do with The Picture Of Dorian Gray on May 8….

Although the advent of the real-time Gawker Stalker map has freaked out certain celebrities who would prefer that their Us Weekly-devouring public not know that they’re dining at New York’s Tao or taking their fruit-monikered babies out for walks on Fifth Avenue, DCist has no qualms about letting its readers know where local celebs hang out. And there’s no area celeb more freshly minted than George Mason University basketball coach Jim Larranaga, who just yesterday…

Ask, and ye shall receive. DCist reader and photographer Greg Heegn took pity on our plea for any and all information on West Wing sightings around town last weekend. The NBC drama was in town filming for its final episodes. Greg reports that he saw both Bradley Whitford (Josh Lyman) and Allison Janney (C.J. Cregg) filming small spots along 1600 Penn. Ave. around 1 p.m. on Saturday. So that we wouldn’t feel too left out,…

Buck’s Has a Cow Over at DCFoodies.com, our restaurant-reviewing pal Jason Storch has run into some legal trouble. It seems that he received a cease-and-desist letter from an attorney purporting to represent Buck’s Fishing and Camping. What did Storch do to deserve this? Did he too loudly insist that chef Carole Greenwood stop stalking him through his television set? Did he open a restaurant next door called Jason’s Hunting and Whitewater-Rafting? No, it simply seems…