Destination: Los Angeles
Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art Endangered
by Jim Benning | 11.24.08 | 1:06 PM ET
The museum has fallen on hard times, but L.A. philanthropist Eli Broad just offered up $30 million to help.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzRy Cooder’s El Mirage and Los Angeles
by Jim Benning | 11.24.08 | 11:46 AM ET
This is one of the coolest travel stories I’ve read in a while. The New York Times joined Ry Cooder in exploring El Mirage Dry Lake in California’s Mojave Desert, as well as parts of Los Angeles, both areas Cooder has evoked in concept albums. Writes Lawrence Downes:
When Ry Cooder and I got to El Mirage Dry Lake, it was 110 degrees and heading to 117, hot enough to cook your head inside your hat. The Mojave Desert in daylight will cut the gizzard right out of you, Tom Joad once said, which is why the Okies crossed it at night.
The accompanying slideshow, featuring one of Cooder’s songs, shows just how powerful a good audio slideshow can be.
‘The Asian Food Lovers’ Guide to L.A.’
by Michael Yessis | 10.27.08 | 7:10 AM ET
The cover story of the latest Los Angeles Magazine takes a thorough look at the Asian food scene my home city. Alas, only the noodles section is online.
Related on World Hum:
* The Greatest Thing About Los Angeles Is ...
Diane Keaton on the Lessons of the Ambassador Hotel
by Michael Yessis | 10.17.08 | 9:40 AM ET
A thoughtful op-ed this week from the actress, who is also a trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
R.I.P. Elmer Dills
by Jim Benning | 09.16.08 | 5:25 PM ET
The travel and restaurant critic was an institution in Los Angeles media. He was 82.
Movies: Searching for the ‘Essential DNA’ of Los Angeles
by Michael Yessis | 09.04.08 | 4:19 PM ET
The Los Angeles Times counts down the 25 best L.A. movies of the last 25 years. To make the list, a “movie had to communicate some inherent truth about the L.A. experience,” writes Geoff Boucher. The top pick: L.A. Confidential.
The Sounds of Los Angeles in Musical Form
by Jim Benning | 09.04.08 | 1:18 PM ET
NPR’s “Day to Day” recently asked musicians to send in their “takes on the California Dream,” and the show just highlighted its favorite: a song composed entirely of sounds of urban Los Angeles, from squeaking bus brakes and clicking skateboards to clacking shoes. It turns out that the 25-year-old artist who created it, Quinn Kiesow, has done the same (albeit in shorter bits) for other cities, including Madrid and New York. You can hear them all here. The Los Angeles recording took 80 hours to produce. It’s particularly intriguing because Kiesow offers great color commentary over it.
Inflatable Chutes Deployed at LAX Emergency Landing
by Jim Benning | 08.05.08 | 3:24 PM ET
The American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu made an emergency landing after smoke was detected in the cabin.
R.I.P. Acres of Books
by Eva Holland | 08.05.08 | 12:20 PM ET
The family-run bookstore has been operating in Long Beach for nearly 75 years. It’ll be making way for a mixture of housing and art galleries, as part of a redevelopment project put together by the city. As for the owners? They’re going traveling. (Via The Book Bench)
Photo by Molly Bewigged via Flickr (Creative Commons)
The Greatest Thing About Los Angeles Is ...
by Michael Yessis | 07.24.08 | 10:33 AM ET
Amoeba Music? So say the readers of Los Angeles magazine, who during the last few months took 64 stellar things about the City of Angels and whittled them down to one greatest thing in a March Madness-style bracket showdown. That a Bay Area export won provoked a lot of kvetching, according to the mag’s editors, and rightfully so.
The LAX Theme Building, Then and Now
by Jim Benning | 07.03.08 | 12:05 PM ET
Among the travel-related art hanging on my walls is a poster of this shot taken by Garry Winogrand in 1964. The subject, of course, is LAX’s Theme Building, which opened in 1961 and is among Los Angeles’ most intriguing landmarks. To me, few buildings say more about Los Angeles, a city ever focused on the future, often at the expense of the past, than this Tomorrowland-esque structure. The two women in the photo, I like to imagine, have donned their finest dresses and highest heels for a transatlantic flight, perhaps to Paris or London. The L.A. sun is beaming down on them. The future couldn’t be brighter.
R.I.P. Tu Ciudad Magazine
by Jim Benning | 06.16.08 | 4:47 PM ET
The glossy magazine serving upscale Latinos in Los Angeles had offered an interesting perspective on the city. Unfortunately, it is no more.
Cross-Cultural Theme Restaurants on the Rise in Los Angeles
by Jim Benning | 06.13.08 | 12:20 PM ET
The Los Angeles Times covers this very cool shrinking planet phenomenon. Just one example: “[I]n Culver City, you will find a New York art collector’s interpretation of a Japanese maid cafe (or “maid-kissa”)—Royal/T Cafe, which opened last month in the Royal/T art gallery. Works by the likes of Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama and Chris Ofili are featured.” I know where I’m going for dinner soon.
Photo by forklift via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Universal Studios Hollywood to Open Today, Despite Fire
by Jim Benning | 06.02.08 | 12:42 PM ET
The popular theme park will open on time, officials said, despite a fire yesterday that destroyed part of the King Kong attraction and various back-lot film sets.
In Los Angeles, ‘Carne Asada is Not a Crime’
by Jim Benning | 05.05.08 | 11:13 AM ET
Have more profound words ever been uttered? That’s one of the rallying cries of Save Our Taco Trucks, a movement opposing a new law that restricts taco trucks in Los Angeles County. The law requires the trucks to change locations every hour, with violators “facing fines, misdemeanor charges and, possibly, jail time,” the New York Times reports.