Welcome to Hollywood! The second largest metropolitan in North America full of sun, fun, and the thickest traffic in the West. If you’re looking to for off the beaten path experiences, this city has it all. And Urbandig is here to guide you along the way.

From the grungy back streets of Hollywood and Venice Beach to the ocean breeze of Santa Monica, we present to you the best venues, handpicked by our domain experts.

Subscribe to Urbandig’s LAX UltimoList and discover what LA has to offer.

Don’t forget to keep an eye on @UrbandigApp for regular updates!

It’s time for SXSW again. Drones of poorly shaven “domain experts” looking to fascinate the SXSW international community will be bombarding the downtown streets of Austin from March 8 - 18. Oh the excitement, the memories, the swag! 

Urbandig’s core philosophy revolves around being off the beaten path. So instead of hitting up SXSW this year, we’ll be doing the exact opposite: working. It’s a novel idea, and we’re still doing A/B testing, but we think it’ll pay off in the long run.

Keep Austin Weird

If you are one of the many lucky slackers, who will be descending upon Austin for the festival, Urbandig has a cool collection of guides that will help you dive head first into the SXSW frenzy, or escape the madness of it all.

Although we encourage diversity in your travel experience, we’re betting Beth Stockwell’s “The Hangover” guide will be the number one guide during the annual festival. It’s chock full of places to enjoy greasy grub and caffeinated cures to get the stomach coated properly. It’s the perfect Rinse and Repeat guide.

While You’re There

Looking to experience the stylish side of Austin? Joanna Wilkinson’s blog highlights free SXSW events for those who are are savvy in the ways of fashion.

On the digital side of things, Samantha Pitchel of austin.culturemap.com has put together a 2012 SXSW survival guide, which includes an awesome Twitter list for the 2012 event. This list will help you stay on top of what’s happening on the streets and snag tons of free swag and tickets at SXSW.

If you want a local experience for your SXSW adventure, download Urbandig and check out our Austin guides to help you discover some great spots that are off the beaten path.

Each venue on Urbandig has its own flavour, style and atmosphere. These venues are hand picked by Urbandig unique domain experts that know all the hidden gems in each domain they rule. 

To help our fans out, and keep everyone updated on what’s happening at each Urbandig venue, we’ll be rolling out Twitter lists for each city. Starting with the Urbandig’s HQ: Vancouver. This will help you keep track of each place featured on Urbandig and get the skinny on some awesome daily deals. 

Subscribe to Urbandig’s YVR UltimoList and harness the power Mr. Digz on your hand computer!

Happy tweeting and keep checking @UrbandigApp for more updates on this project!

Another Valentine’s Day is here. For the true lovers out there, it’s time to take a tour with your favorite person and shower them with love. For the rest of us, we’ll be spending Valentine’s day like any other Tuesday night: chasing down an Extreme Home Makeover marathon with a bottle of lonely wine.

If this isn’t your idea of a hell-of-a good time, let Urbandig help you forget your loneliness, kickstart your heart or find the next Mr./Mrs. Right or Wrong. Follow along for our cross-city V-Day Guide for the Hopeless. Remember to download the Urbandig app to find these guides and experience your city like a true local.

LA

LA’s Walk of Shame guide takes your 1-in-a-million chances of scoring, and brings your odds up to 102%. Curator, Lucas Dick checks in to the Belmont Cafe, Birds, and more. Download the app to experience this hook-up guide in full.

SF

In December, we featured San Fran’s Heartbreaker guide to help lost souls deal with their breakups. It’s only appropriate that we give Amanda’s guide another shout out during the most romantic time of the year. 

Take yourself from the Redwood Room, to the Apple Store, and Zeitgeist. Let your friends spend their hard earned cash on flowers and chocolates, while you deck out your iPhone with a cover made of solid gold.

NYC

You’re down and wishing you had someone to share the night with. Everyone has been there, but you know what the next best thing is? Getting made fun of. The Chuckle Huts Urbandig guide by NYC curator, Mark Malkoff is a great way to get out there, have a good laugh, and forget everything else.

Portland

You’ve just finished watching the latest episode of Portlandia and want to put a bird on it. Instead of turning your apartment into an aviary that real birds are scared of, enter Porkland: your guide to finding romance in the pork you love. Don’t worry about getting greasy over this V-Day excursion, it’s all about you.

Tromp from Chop to Bunk Sandwiches in one of Portland’s most intense Urbandig guides.

Vancouver

Nothing says lonely like brown baggin it. This Valentines day, take a step out of the daily grind, head to the nearest liquor store, snag an OE, and tell them you’ll take paper, not plastic.
 Vancouver’s Brown Bag Special guide will take you down the best of the worst alleys in Vancity. User discretion is advised.

Washington

Spending Valentines Day alone was probably not on your New Years Resolutions list, but if you’re eating alone you might as well save some cash. Happiest Hour is one of Washighton curator, Kimberly Van’s masterpieces. She has the in to some of the most amazing local spots that’ll stretch your dollar further than you ever thought possible.  

Austin

It’s true that laughter is the best medicine. Urbandig’s Austin curator, Ryan Criswell, has a cabinet full of the stuff. Take her Laugh Track guide to get your laugh on this Valentine’s day.

The guide will surely get you out of that funk. Be sure to cruise through the Urbandig app before you head out. It’s full of great tips on when/where to reserve seats and which places offer comedy classes. 

Not Only for One

Looking for a new spot to impress your partner this St. Valentines? Grab Urbandig from the app store, and get away from the crowded Italian restaurants and let us guide you and your Valentine on a day you won’t forget.

Follow @UrbandigApp on Twitter and Facebook for the latest Urbandig updates, news, and shenanigans in your city.

Vancouver curator, Mikala Taylor has got to be one of the coolest people this city has to offer. If you are looking to find the best live music venues, rock tales and after show info in Vancouver Mikala is definitely the one to follow. And lucky for us, she crafted up two amazing local guides to show us where we too, can hang with the band.

This week, we caught up with Mikala to find out more about her site, Backstagerider and what inspired her to curate her Where the Bands Booze Guide on Urbandig:

When did you start backstagerider and why?

I launched BSR in December, 2010 as a reaction to being an underpaid freelancer for so many years. My theory was that if I was being poorly paid to write in a prescribed voice, format or tone for someone else, I might as well be poorly paid to do things exactly the way I wanted, in my own voice and style. My favourite music tends to be alternative, indie rock, techno/electro and skewed pop – so the content on BSR reflects my passion and deep curiousity for this.

BackstageRider is about integrity: I don’t compromise on crappy advertising, or profile bands that I’m not at least curious about. It’s about my own personal stories and experiences, and unique features as well as live reviews, because I’m a total gig obsessive. 

There are plenty of local blogs/media covering local bands, which is great. There’s nothing I love more than a community of music lovers. But my fascination lies with the PEOPLE who make the music. I like to think that I get along well with a lot of band types, because I know and understand their realities. Rather than do straight reviews, I like to put a spin on things like: what was the audience like? The vibe on stage? The chemistry of the band? The conversations before or afterwards? The larger context of a buzz band? I also like to inject a bit of humour.

BackstageRider is also, more or less…me. I work with photogs sometimes but generally I do all the writing, the photography, the organization, the production and the promotion. I live on Twitter and Facebook and I love connecting with passionate music fans there. This is not about starting a big magazine, it’s about being creative and giving an outlet to my passions and connecting with other passionate people.

Where did your passion for music and live bands come from? 

I wrote my first album review when I was 12 years old and cannot remember a time when I wasn’t singularly focused on becoming a music writer. At my alternative high school in Toronto, my classes were even interrupted by the secretary asking me to come to the phone because a record label wanted to confirm a band interview I was doing. My work for a student newspaper went towards my credits. By the time I applied for university, I had an enormous portfolio. I interviewed my first US bands when I was 17. I subscribe to the motto: if you don’t ask, you don’t get. And what’s the worst that can happen? People can say no to your requests. But what if they say yes…?

Any cool band stories?

Oh gods, where to start?

Cornering Steve Earle for an unarranged interview when I was 17 and he was a biker druggie, sitting down to chat not once but twice with John Taylor (my idol) from Duran Duran, seeing and hanging out with so many incredible UK bands on their first Canadian tours in the 90s (Blur, Oasis, Verve etc), partying with the Manic Street Preachers (before the disappearance of their revered guitarist and figurehead) in Denmark and on and on…

Recently? Hanging out backstage with the Jake Shears from the Scissor Sisters and having an EPIC time with Flaming Lips, being on tour in Germany and the West Coast with Sebadoh and sharing a tour bus trip with Henry Rollins and Dinosaur Jr. One of the most remarkable experiences just happened in January: I spent four days on a massive Cruise ship with 15 bands (5 of which I knew personally) on the Weezer Cruise. It was an experience unlike any other and I’m currently writing up my visual diaries of it for BackstageRider but I’ve also covered it for the NME in London, England and Consequence of Sound in New York/Chicago. Also awesome? Meeting and befriending so many amazing local bands here in Vancouver.

What are your top 3 cities for live music/hanging out with bands?

1. Vancouver: Naturally I feel at home in Vancouver because I know the venues, the promoters, and see the same fans at shows, but we often get robbed on the hang outs with bands, because they tend to hightail it back to Seattle after a show and overnight in Bellingham. But I suppose that doesn’t count.
2. Seattle’s great as it’s a quick jump over the border, and I’ve now got some cool music fanatic friends down there.
3. In London or New York there’s always something going on every night (oh I miss NYC but I get back to London fairly regularly). But I try to go to gigs in every city I visit, even if I’m out for a work conference!

You mentioned you collaborated with some bands on your Where Bands Booze guide. Do tell…

Yes! I approached many of the folks that I consider the top musicians in Vancouver, and who represent a variety of types of music in the city. The chanteuse Jill Barber, the most amazing folkie (and mega rising star) Dan Mangan, the scruffy mountain man Steve McBean  from BlackMountain/Pink Mountaintops, my garage rock heroine Maya from The Pack AD, my fave performer Devon Lougheed (who plays in THREE local bands including Beekeeper) and Isabelle from one of my fave quirky alt-electro-pop bands Sex With Strangers (she’s also in Guilty About Girls and Combine the Victorious) all said yes. The result is a truly bonkers tour of a variety of Vancouver drinking establishments, from legions to dive bars to trendy spots. I also asked Bryan Adams, Tegan & Sara and the Japandroids… but they were busy. And I am informed that Bryan isn’t drinking much anymore.

Download Urbandig and let Mikala guide you to the best live venues in Vancouver. For more great stories, read her amazing blog, check out her Facebook Page and follow her on Twitter.

The Grey Lady (aka The New York Times) has immortalized Urbandig in their write-up this past weekend, “Tour Guides Nobody Tips,” highlighting three NYC travel iPhone apps.  Our crew of curators have been deemed “hipsters,” and we’ll take it! NYT points out that we have an affinity for Brooklyn (True statement!) and we are “offering guides [that] are meant to be quirky, as evidenced by one called Frisky Business, a collection of recommendations of public bathrooms, written for people who find such spaces romantic.” Also pointing out,  ”if you like experimental macaroni and cheese and Bukowski-themed bars in Williamsburg, this is your app.” I mean, who doesn’t? Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday! Cheers, New York Times!

An expert photographer with a passion for fashion, Lisa Waringer of Urban Weeds was the perfect fashionista to curate Urbandig’s Portland Stylings guide. Her impeccable eye for fashion and love of Portland has led her time and time again to the best boutiques Portland has to offer, and now Portland Stylings reveals her fashion boutique insights for all.

When’s she’s not out browsing boutiques, Lisa Warninger turns to her true passion: photography. Lisa has a true eye for capturing style and personality through a camera’s lens and uses her fashion instinct to photograph everyday people in their normal settings: a form of photography known as “street style.” 

“Street style is a lot of fun,” Lisa explains. “It’s been around for ages, but now with the internet it’s been really fun to go online and see what people are wearing around the world daily- it’s really fascinating.” After approaching a Portland trendsetter with the friendly greeting of, “I love what you’re wearing! Would you be okay with me shooting your photo?” Lisa focuses her camera for a headshot and notes “everything going on around [the person]: the lighting, the buildings.” One aim of her blog, Urban Weeds, is to use street style photography to show that people can be inspired by anything, especially other people.

And, of course, Lisa can often be found at some of her favorite boutiques highlighted in Urbandig’s Portland Stylings tour. “Portland’s fashion scene is really unique,” she says, noting its difference from other fashion capitals like New York, London, and Paris. “You find that people here are very non-judgmental…. That frees people up to experiment with their work. I think it’s really, really interesting- you could wear anything and people would be accepting of it…. People have fun with it; they don’t take it too seriously.” Lisa also recognizes that the lack of high-end wealth in the city has created a burgeoning market for thrifted items, which have creatively appeared in many stylish, everyday outfits. In the Portland scene, “you always feel good about whatever you’re wearing,” Lisa explains.

Of course, any fashionista has one article of clothing she claims as most essential to and revealing of a person’s style. For Lisa, it’s shoes. “Shoes- they’re kind of the deal breaker when you’re scouting for style. If you opt for the comfortable shoe, it’s not going to work.” Boots, flats, heels- all have varying levels of practicality for Oregon weather, yet also are the ribbon tying the entire outfit together. The message for us fashion novices? Make sure to don those one-of-a-kind shoes before you leave for the day, and maybe you’ll appear in Lisa’s photos on Urban Weeds.

(Pictured above: Belle By Sigerson Morrison Cut Out Heels, Moule Stores)

Noting this importance of shoes to an outfit, we asked Lisa that timeless mind-bender: Can a person ever really have too many pairs of shoes? To our surprise, the answer was “YES.” “I’m very conscientious about being too big of a consumer,” Lisa explained. She highlights the importance of giving back to the community and donating what no longer fits in with your wardrobe.

So how can you connect with this fashionable photographer? Check out Lisa’s Portland Stylings guide on Urbandig, where she’ll help you harness your own unique style. She’ll lead you through the best Portland boutiques and offer insight on who to meet and what to buy, ensuring that you’ll be prepared for your own next “street style” photo shoot!

Photo Credit: Haunt, Portland

Download Urbandig now to get the Portland Stylings guide - it’s free!

All photos (unless otherwise noted) provided by urbanweedsblog.com

Hey Portland! Looking for liquor after 6pm or on Sundays?

Check out the new Open Container guide on Urbandig! Featuring five of our favorite liquor stores in the Portland area, these places won’t turn you away, even late night.

Download the free app to get this guide!

Photo Credit: Steve Snodgrass, Flickr

They say that breaking up is hard to do. Thanks to Urbandig Curator Amanda C. of datingismiserable.com, it’s not so hard anymore.

Enter the Heartbreaker Guide - your list of the best places to dump someone in the Bay Area. Whether you’re afraid your breakup might result in a thrown beer, or you just need an inspirational place to put things into perspective, we’ve got you covered.

Download the free Urbandig app now to access the guide!

Photo Credit: Paul Stuart Iddon, Flickr

Over 10,000 entrepreneurs, designers, developers and innovators have descended on Washington this week for DCWEEK.  The festival is jam packed with great speakers, workshops and yes, parties! 

In honor of this week long festival and our impending launch in DC, Urbandig has published a couple of guides for attendees to check out while they are in the nation’s capital. 

Tech Cocktail @DCWEEK

Co-Producer of the conference, Tech Cocktail will be hosting one of it’s classic mixers to showcase the latest tech and startup innovations. Check out Tech Cocktail’s Guide to learn more about the 18 amazing startups, who will be featured at the event and be sure to say hello to Frank and Jen for us!

Night Owl

Nicole Crowder from Chestnut Orange curated a very tasty Night Owl guide. If you are like me, and hit your stride long after the sun goes down - then this guide is for you. It’s perfect for the late night foodie, who is looking for something to nibble on after DCWEEK’s TechCocktail wraps up at 10pm.

This is just a sneak peak of a what’s to come for our friend’s in DC. We will be rolling out more unique guides in one of our favorite east coast cities very soon.  Stay tuned…