Every once in a while, The New York Times decides to turn its attention to the Best Coast, and this week the Grey Lady suggested checking out this bubbling asphalt pit full of prehistoric (or as we Angelenos refer to it B.F.: Before Freeways) fossils that's right smack-dab in the middle of the Miracle Mile. Isn't that insane?!! more ›

It's been done before: a travel writer comes to Los Angeles and discovers that—despite the fact our fair city is neither as dense as East Coast cities nor as bike-friendly as Portland—touring the city by bike isn't a bad way to go. more ›

The New York Times came out with a piece this week that is ostensibly about the region-wide art festival "Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. from 1945 to 1980." Awesome, right? For an article that is supposedly about Southern California's art scene, it spills a lot of ink explaining why New York's art scene is way more important. But we're wondering: doth the Gray Lady protest too much? more ›

The New York Times and the University of Southern California have partnered to offer an online, continuing education program that combines the brainpower and outreach of journalists and faculty, according to a news release. more ›

Tomorrow's West Hollywood election is fixin' to be a showdown. The LA Independent reports that the challengers to the West Hollywood City Council seats have accused West Hollywood's mayor, John Heilman, of misusing city funds. According to the paper: The candidates — Scott Schmidt, John D'Amico, Steve Martin, Mito Aviles and Lucas John — and community organizer Ed Buck, said in a statement that Heilman should return "tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars wasted on high- end meals and luxurious gifts for City Hall staff, developers and lobbyists.'' more ›

Towards the starting point of a traveling installation exhibit of a body of work from illustrator, author, and designer Maira Kalman there is a loving sketch of a woman the artist once spotted on the street. "I saw her," the drawing reads in Kalman's famed handwriting. more ›

The New York Times' Frank Bruni came to Los Angeles, and all he got was pork. Well, that's not entirely true, but he did get a menu's worth of pig-meat when he dined at Animal in West Hollywood, and deemed the restaurant so-so, unless you have a pork fetish:

[It] isn’t a great restaurant, or at least it wasn’t when I tried it. But it’s the epitome of a promiscuously meaty approach to cooking that might well be called the carniwhore school.

This one has been making its rounds among the blogs. New York Times book reviewer Charles McGrath had this to say while talking about actor Carrie Fisher's new memoir: "What her Hollywood upbringing doesn’t account for is Ms. Fisher’s manifest intelligence and adroit way with words. She is one of the rare inhabitants of La-La land who can actually write and has published four novels, the best of which, the semi-autobiographical “Postcards From the Edge,” became a prize-winning movie with a script by Ms. Fisher herself." Really? La-La land? They're still using that? more ›

Big media is coming out against Proposition 8, the November ballot initiative that seeks to eliminate same-sex marriage in California. Last week Google said no to the proposition followed by the New York Times on Sunday. more ›

"On any given day on a California freeway, it is not uncommon to see a young woman, phone cradled against one ear, carefully painting her nails a winsome shade of crimson, looking up now and then to inch her car forward in traffic.” That's what the New York Times wrote today in a lede about an article about the hands-free cell phone law. Playboy, who, yes, has a blog, jumped on top of it. "Anyone want to bet that the reporter actually saw it? And saw it more than once? We’re giving odds." more ›

The much-maligned, oft-hated James Frey, author of the fictional memoir A Million Little Pieces and the man most well-known for being dissed on national TV by Oprah Winfrey, is back. While many now agree that blame for the whole Frey-affair rests with both Frey and his publisher, Frey got the bad end of the deal and has been vilified ever since. This time, he's sticking with fiction instead of peddling fiction-as-truth. His new novel, Bright Shiny Morning, is about LA and he's signing books tomorrow night (with Josh Kilmer Purcell and Black Tide) at the Whisky a Go Go in a joint event with Book Soup and Vroman's. more ›

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who rode into office on the high horse of morality after years of spearing Wall Street robber barrons as the attorney general, has been linked to a prostitiution ring that has operated in Los Angeles. more ›

A 33-year-old white woman from Sherman Oaks, now living in Eugene, Oregon, has made national headlines today as news comes that her memoir was largely fabricated. Last week, Margaret Seltzer who goes by the pen name Margaret B. Jones was featured in the New York Times' Home & Garden section in a fascinating story about her book, "Love and Consequences." One LAist reader explains her fascination about it in an e-mail: more ›

Did John McCain have a sex scandal? Is Perez Hilton going to have a deal with Warner Brothers? Both stories come from the New York Times with uncorroborated sources, the latter today in which the facts of Hilton's story were "confirmed by several other people associated with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because no deal has been made." more ›

Thomas Pynchon once said, "If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." But if they find you in the romantic embrace of a lobbyist and you happen to be a Senator from Arizona, it doesn't matter what they're asking, just what they are reporting and late Wednesday, the New York Times broke it wide open. more ›

From doing Anne Frank in a parking garage to Greek mythology in a swimming pool, it's too bad that this site-specific Long Beach Opera production of Orpheus and Euridice by RIcky Ian Gordon is having such a short run (last night through tomorrow night) because this looks simply fantastic and Gordon's music has been praised by the New York Times and others (we concur, his music is hot). Tickets are still available for tonight's and tomorrow's performances taking place at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool. Hear and see a time lapse video of last night's performance below. more ›

Can we now add eating habits to the long list of modern relationship deal-breakers? The New York Times published a pre-Valentine's Day article this morning discussing the difficulties couples face when their diets are dramatically different:

Ben Abdalla, 42, a real estate agent in Boca Raton, Fla., said he preferred to date fellow vegetarians because meat eaters smell bad and have low energy. more ›

Will Leitch, Deadspin editor, New York Times contributor, and author is in Los Angeles today presenting and signing copies of his new book God Save the Fan: How Preening Sportscasters, Athletes Who Speak in the Third Person, and the Occasional Convicted Quarterback Have Taken the Fun Out of Sports (And How We Can Get It Back) at Book Soup. LAist caught up with Leitch on his drive into Los Angeles from Phoenix, where he had spent a week covering the Super Bowl for both Deadspin and The Times. more ›

As you prepare to watch some new Super Bowl ads (we hear there's a game, too -- but only if New England decides not to use the forward pass), can you remember the classics from 2000? more ›

Natalie Angier, New York Times reporter and author of Woman: An Intimate Geography, has written foreword to Full Body Project, the recently published book of photographs by Leonard Nimoy (yes Trekkies, Spock). The two will focus their Hammer Conversation on the concepts of beauty and sexuality. more ›

UPDATE: Looks like the forces of Truth, Justice and the Irishican Way prevailed everyone - It's not hard in here for a Once after all: more ›

Barack is on a roll. He doubled Hillary Clinton's vote count in South Carolina's primary election yesterday. And Caroline Kennedy's op-ed (titled "A President Like My Father") in this morning's New York Times is adding fuel to the fire as pundits across the ideological spectrum ponder the B.O. mo-mo like they haven't since Iowa, a long three-and-a-half weeks ago. more ›

Unlike the rather tired and off-handed assessment of the LA food scene that the SF Chronicle tossed off about six months back, the New York Times has been showing how it's done: their recent piece on "36 Hours in Hollywood" and last week's survey of Sunset Junction. Okay, yes, some of their picks are probably geared to the curious tourist rather than the traveler interested in a more gritty L.A. experience -- Teddy's nightclub is one of their spots to hit up (although you do get to see L.A. teenage wildlife in its natural habitat). more ›

Twenty-four months, three LA Times editors gone, one reason: budget cuts. Jim O' Shea, editor of the LA Times was fired by Times Publisher David Hiller for failing to carry out $4 million in budget cuts at the paper. Apparently, Hiller wanted the money cut during the presidential campaign, a time when newspapers' budgets usually spike. This is the third editor to be fired over two years over the same budgetary issue. Do we sense a pattern here? more ›

The Pasadena Star-News is looking for you. Or if there are problems to rant about in general throughout the SGV, then the San Gabriel Valley Tribune might be where you go. Or hey, same goes for Whittier and the Whittier Daily News. "It's a new year and we are on the lookout for letters to the editor. If you have a person that wants to write one, or is expressing an opinion on an article or photo, direct them to write a letter to editor..." That's Mickie of Mickie's Zoo talking. She's a professional belly dancer (swords are her specialty), a singer in a rock band and a full-time journalist. She also has been crowned the Queen of the 31st Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade that will take place on January 20th. more ›

In the days following the launch of the WGA strike, workers from various departments on Warner Bros.' Burbank lot were issued mandatory Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications (WARN) notices, informing them that they could be subject to layoff after sixty days as a result of the scribes' strike. more ›

Los Angeles philanthropist, Eli Broad (rhymes with road), has decided not to give his massively large and impressive private collection of art to museums, rather, keeping the collection in house under control of a private foundation according to the New York Times. One of the assumed recipients of the art was LACMA, where the new $56 million Broad Contemporary Art Museum is scheduled to open next month. However, even with Broad's name on the museum, there would be no gaurantee that any art he donates from his private collection will be on display 100% of the time.

“We don’t want it to end up in storage, in either our basement or somebody else’s basement,” Mr. Broad said. “So I, as the collector, am saying, ‘If you’re not willing to commit to show it, why don’t we just make it available to you when you want it, as opposed to giving it to you, and then our being unhappy that it’s only up 10 percent or 20 percent of the time or not being shown at all?’” [New York Times]