Arts & Culture

For the last two years, Los Angeles’ Echo Park Lake has been off-limits to the public, surrounded by chain-link fences and “Do Not Enter” signs. In a $45 million restoration project, the lake was closed, drained, scrubbed clean and refilled. That was a response to growing levels of pollution in the lake that violated State of California health standards. The pollution also lead to …

Peace Walk. Some Santa Monica residents took to the streets last night to call for peace and healing in the wake of a series of shootings in the Westside city. The demonstrators retraced the path taken by John Zawahri, the young gunman who killed five people before being shot to death by police at Santa Monica College.
The Peace Walk was organized by the Pico …

Wallace Neff was a “starchitect.” He designed houses for the wealthiest tycoons and biggest Hollywood stars of the 30′s 40′s and 50′s, including Charlie Chaplin, Judy Garland and Groucho Marx.
But Wallace Neff didn’t live in a mansion himself. He lived in a 1,000 square-foot bubble made of concrete. And he believed that this simple dome was one of his greatest architectural achievements. He called …

There is nothing cookie-cutter or corporate about Caravan Book Store on Grand Avenue downtown. ”Avant Garde, First Edition, Poetry,” the window declares in big gold letters.
As a kid, bookseller Leonard Bernstein swept the floors of his parents’ shop when it was located a block away on what was then called “bookseller’s row”. He’s been continuing the tradition ever since. Caravan is marking the start of …

San Onofre. The big story is Southern California Edison’s decision to shut down the San Onofre Nuclear Power plant, but there’s a lot of other important news happening around California today:
Obama in California. President Obama has made a personal plea to Californians, Latinos and young people to sign up for coverage under the new health care law. The president spoke this morning in San …

If you attended Coachella in April and you mindlessly pogoed so ecstatically to New Order playing the Mojave stage that you lost your 2-pound set of car keys on a ratty Zelda carabiner, well, then you were bound to lose something that night, weren’t you? Luckily for the hundreds of carefree careless concertgoers, the party doesn’t stop after the last band packs up.
Every year, …

Capitol raid. State Senator Ron Calderon is letting his lawyer do the talking following a search of his Capitol office by FBI agents.
The agents removed several boxes of documents from the Montebello Democrat’s office last night as well as what appeared to be a computer hard drive. The raid also targeted the office of the Latino Legislative Caucus in Sacramento.
An FBI spokeswoman says the …

The California Film Commission says it’s received a record number of applications for state tax credits this year. 380 applications were filed by movie and TV productions, an 18 percent increase over last year.
The state awards $100 million in tax credits for the fiscal year running from July 1, 2013, through June 30, 2014.
Thirty-one projects have been approved for 2013. Among those are 14 …

Today marks the 24th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, when the Chinese leadership cracked down on student protesters, killing hundreds and possibly more. To mark the date, a group of activists will gather in front of the Chinese consulate in downtown L.A. and hold a candle light vigil this evening. This week the new Chinese President Xi Jinping  meets with President Obama …

In entertainment journalism, there is perhaps no voice as widely-feared, and read, as Nikki Finke. She’s broken countless stories, made legions of enemies and few friends, and boasts of having ended the careers of many a Hollywood executive.
But as of today, a source is saying that she’s been fired as editor of Deadline Hollywood. Its owner Jay Penske isn’t clarifying her employment status, and …

Powerhouse Fire. Cooler weather and higher humidity are helping firefighters get a better handle on the Powerhouse Fire. Containment went from 20 percent to 40 percent overnight – but the blaze has now chewed through more than 46 square miles and nearly 3,000 residents are under mandatory evacuation orders.
Officials say at least six houses burned to the ground and 15 others were damaged this …

Summer’s in the air, so let’s take a trip… to Sacramento!
Yes, people go to Sacramento in the Summer. Although, technically, we took the trip by phone. Which is what most people prefer when it comes to Sacramento.
We got together with Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee and Patrick McGreevy from the Los Angeles Times.
Today was the deadline to pass bills out of their houses of origin …

Our weekly film critic Joe Morgenstern is out today. Joining us instead is Mike Pesca. You hear him regularly as a National Desk correspondent for NPR. He’s also a panelist on Slate magazine’s weekly sports podcast “Hang Up and Listen.” And he reviews movies for Backstage.com.
Mike went out and saw a movie this afternoon for us – so the review is fresh! The movie …

Surfers and ocean lovers in general are gathering in Santa Monica on Saturday, June 1st to honor the life of a surfer who died young, but inspired a generation of surfers from diverse backgrounds. While a student at Santa Monica College, Nick Gabaldón perished in a surfing accident at the Malibu Pier in 1951, at the tragically young age of 24.
Gabaldón is Los Angeles’ …

I remember once seeing a British television documentary on the Cold War in which the cameras were admitted to a bunker built for the use of a U.S. Congressmen in the event of a nuclear attack. Among its enviable amenities was a dentist’s surgery—presumably shown as a chilling hint of the likely duration of a stay underground. It was more effective in reminding me …

Every day, the best-selling writer Max Brooks drives from his home in Venice to work in the attic of his father Mel’s place in Santa Monica.  It’s a way to check in on his famous dad–and the garden lovingly planted by his late mother, the actress Anne Bancroft.
It seems Ms. Bancroft, in addition to being a beautiful movie star, loved getting her hands in …

Smoking gun? Senator Barbara Boxer wants the Justice Department to investigate the operator of the San Onofre nuclear power plant for intentionally misleading federal regulators to avoid a “long and costly review” of the plant.
San Onofre hasn’t produced any electricity since January of 2012. That’s when a small radiation leak led to the discovery of heavy wear on tubes carrying radioactive water in the …

Football forward. The L.A. Galaxy’s newest player made sports history during last night’s win over the Seattle Sounders at the Home Depot Center in Carson. And all Robbie Rogers had to do was step on the field.
When Rogers entered the match in the 77th minute, he became the first openly gay male athlete to play in a major American team sport. Rogers, who’s 26, …

With a major retrospective opening on Sunday at LACMA, and a gallery show just up the street from the museum unveiling special works he created for its new, grand space, the Los Angeles born light artist James Turrell is busy. Still, our Hunter Drohojowska-Philp scored an interview with him, and today, we met for an immersive Art Talk.
You can hear Hunter’s interview with James …

Garcetti’s challenge. L.A. Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti will meet today with the man he’ll be taking over from on July 1st. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa calls Garcetti “a true leader”and says he trusts him to guide the city into a bright future.”
Garcetti is going to have some sensitive issues to deal with when he moves into the mayor’s office. At the top of the list, salaries …