California news, stories & travel reviews
Two weeks ago in "Blurt," Guerilla Transammo said "never again" to L.A. gigs. A pay-for-play setup between the band and the Cat Club (and a snafu with their chartered bus) made for a bad experience. …
Mount Lowe is only one of many named summits in the so-called Front Range of the San Gabriel Mountains overlooking Pasadena and the rest of the vast Los Angeles metropolitan region. Its strategic location, affording …
Chino Hills State Park spreads across some 13,000 acres of rolling, grassy hills of a sensuous, classically Californian nature. Down in the moist, hidden hollows between the swelling hills, live oak and California walnut trees …
Waiter, There’s A Finger In My Chili In my refrigerator, there's a carton of chili con carne from Paradise Foods, a very well heeled market near my home in Larkspur. I notice I haven't touched …
White-Collar Crime: Notes From The Underground I lie. I lie and cheat and steal. I don't do it publicly; I do it through the System. It's how those of us with a bit of money …
Total Eclipse of the Big Yellow Ball The planets are coming, the planets are coming! I mean, they're disappearing. Sort of. It's a solar eclipse, babies. Everyone under his or her desks. Or is this …
Deep In The Amazon This is what happened. I wrote a book, submitted it to several publishers, and got rejected. I wrote another book, found a New York agent and a New York publisher. Within …
Fate is cruel. I think we can all agree on this one thing before I move on. Mostly cruel. Especially when one considers withering illnesses, rapid aging, death and taxes — all of which are …
Before the Robot Ate Me played San Francisco's Make-Out Room March 23, the San Francisco Bay Guardian proclaimed, "Those who thought intelligent music could never come out of a superficial city like San Diego will …
Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America (George Gund Foundation Imprint in African American Studies). University of California Press; January 2005; 472 pp.; $29.95 FROM THE DUST JACKET: Paul Bontemps decided to …
Residents of the upscale Porter Ranch district of Los Angeles enjoy open spaces and neighborhood trails overlooking the vast San Fernando Valley. These are publicly accessible trails, so you don't have to be a resident …
“It’s not like he’s a control freak or anything, it’s just that he likes growing grapes.”
Forged by local uplift of the seafloor roughly two million years ago, today's Palos Verdes peninsula lay surrounded by the ocean for hundreds of thousands of years. Later, the alluvium that covers today's Los Angeles …
Looking down the row of colorful fan-filled T-shirts, holding my sign high for all to see, I experience a moment of concern at being among so many cultural castaways. And when I stand to take …
L.A.'s quintessential urban trail -- the trail to Mount Hollywood -- takes you to the point of highest elevation in Griffith Park, the sprawling patch of open space on the easternmost end of the Hollywood …