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......

This week the whole world outside of London heads to the polling booths to settle crucial issues once and for all. In France they will set the future direction of Europe. Scotland may move to end the UK - rather rudely just after its 300th birthday, too. Across England, people will stay at home and tut crossly about rubbish collections. In Wales, well, nothing much will happen there. Like Londonist, others are feeling left......

A man has been arrested over the Ipswich murders. Wembley Stadium will host the 2007 Race of Champions. Train company GNER are to lose ownership of the Scotland - London train route. Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria will be opening the Harrods sale on December 28. And finally, this has been making us laugh all day, Lembit Opik has dumped Sian Lloyd for a Cheeky Girl. Photo taken from Lujs Perez photostream and the......

When secret agent James Bond is not busy neutralizing evil geniuses who live in really cool houses, he becomes sometimes concerned about the welfare of troubled children. Or at least his tux does. Or at least one of the prop tuxes that Daniel Craig wore when he portrayed James Bond in Casino Royale does. At a recent auction to raise money for the children's charity ChildLine, the tuxedo, worn during the shooting of the......

This week - A look at the actions of the Queen and Tony Blair in the wake of Diana's death (The Queen), a lecture by Al Gore on climate change (An Inconvienient Truth) and a thriller about a famous LA murder (The Black Dahlia). First up, The Queen. This is definately the film of the week, and by the sounds of it, the British film of the year. Her portrayal of the Queen won......

Just a mini Troll this week, fans, as we're addicted to the Big Brother (every damn day, 9pm C4) crackpipe and neglecting such things as eating, sleeping and, indeed, moving. Shahbaz hiding all the food was one of the funniest things we've ever seen, all the while muttering about how "it's all their fault" and "send me to Coventry, will you" and "nobody loves me boo hoo hoo". We are hoping against hope that......

This week marks the start of the new Big Brother (Thur 9pm C4). We're fairly sure this will split our readership (hello, Mrs Trellis of North Wales) right down the middle; BB is a love-it-or-hate-it proposition. TV Troll hated it until undergoing a Damascene conversion last year, so we understand both sides of the relationship with Endemol's postmodern, controversial show. Those on the "it's a sign of the End Times" bandwagon will be utterly......

... As the Vengaboys once 'sang'. "Back to the island" for the viewer, at any rate - the characters in Lost (Tue 9pm/10pm C4) never left. And oh, what delights await us down the hatch? For the dedicated fan who has managed to avoid the billions of spoilers floating around in the web ether, the wait to find out what Locke's dynamite antics have uncovered is almost over - and about bloody time, too.......

The new series of Doctor Who (Sat 7.15pm BBC1) is well underway now – and what do you think? So far it has elicited a muted response from the only critic who counts; not a good start, although he does say that this Saturday's offering is "flipping great" and it's onwards and upwards for the rest of the series. Fair enough – but what did the incredibly dedicated, oh-so-devoted fans over on the Digital......

Art, it seems, still needs its access and appeal widening. It still needs to reach young people - and the ICA, that hotbed of hype and hipness, has come up with a new way of getting it to them: via their Playstation Portables. Because if the youngsters won't come to the art, then make the art downloadable and PSP compatible. From today, gamers more used to getting the latest shoot 'em up for their......

Estate agents, Tess Daly, and racists - sounds grim, doesn't it? Yes, perhaps to reflect the unrelenting yuckiness of the weather (look, it's almost April - please can we have a little, just a little sunshine?) the TV schedules are about s appetising as day-old tramp sick. Apart from the old stalwarts (Footballers Wive$ Thur 9pm ITV1 - Tanya is back! With Joan Collins!, and Desperate Housewives Wed 10pm C4 - getting better again......

The time has come. The waiting is over. Desperate Housewives (Wed 10pm C4) is back, and are we ever excited. We'll trot out the tired old cliché about how its acid-bright façade hides a surprisingly black heart because, hell, it's true; something is rotten in the state of Stepford ... even if we all know that the show doesn't quite have the courage of its convictions and there's occasionally a touch of the hugging-and-learning......

January is, as every primary school kid knows, named after Janus, the double-headed Roman god of gates, doors, beginnings and endings. It's appropriate, then, that this month will see so many of both; we mourn the passing of Lost (Wed 10pm C4) and Rome, and rejoice at the phoenix-like rise of ER (Mon 10pm C4) and Desperate Housewives (currently being trailered on C4). Neither individually will be really sufficient to fill the gap left......

Catching up with the battle of the Davids is always fun. We don't follow it daily because it's just not that interesting, but about once a week we like to dip into the battleground of the Tory leadership like hungry crows looking for a juicy eyeball. Reading about young upstart David Cameron having the potential yoof vote stolen from under his nose by Davis' blatherings about a "nip and tuck” political future we can't......

Londonist is as addicted to buying DVDs as everyone else, so it made sense that we should start a regular column to highlight the little laser-etched treats coming your way over the next week or so. Let us know what you think in the comments. Well folks, it's getting to the time of year when the likes of Chegwin, Biggins and Daniels descend begrudgingly upon [enter the name of your hometown here] to switch......

We at Londonist are practically wetting ourselves with excitement at the arrival of Lost (Wed 8.30pm/10pm C4, 10.50pm E4). Especially after reading the god-like Mark Lawson's hyperventilating piece about it in Friday's Grauniad. We're even prepared to believe, having talked to our American friends, that this is programme that will, indeed, "eclipse Desperate Housewives", as the C4 microsite has it. And the television in the Londonist dungeon was tuned to 4 every Wednesday for......

OK - it's official, I'm finally, finally into Desperate Housewives. I watched the first two episodes and fell asleep before they had ended, but with this week's third episode, I wide awake and almost turned over to E4 to watch next week's episode (if that makes sense - E4 are a week ahead of Channel 4). When it started I really couldn't see what all the fuss about. 4.6 million people tuned in to......

One Foot in the Grave didn't work and The Office didn't really cut it, but the Americans aren't ones to give up, especially when it means they can make loads of money out a of a television series without really having to think about it. The latest news is that Fox Broadcasting has ordered half-a-dozen scripts for a US version of EastEnders, which will follow the lives of a blue-collar family in Chicago. The guru......