Anyone who routinely drives along the battered Santa Monica Blvd. blocks known as ‘Theatre Row’ has undoubtedly noticed there’s a new kid in town: SModCastle. Located in a downstairs corner theater of the always-bustling Complex (a series of small black box theaters squished together just west of Vine), the ‘castle is the new de facto home for all things podcast and Kevin Smith. After the successful 2007 launch of his weekly SModcast, Smith began taking live tapings of the podcast on the road for all to see. Eventually, the travel really started to catch up to Silent Bob, because he decided to bring the shows home to roost in their very own nest - SModCastle. more ›

These neighborhood projects are a heck of a lot of work. All of the writing, research, fact-checking, map-making, walking around, metro-riding, photographing, uploading, downloading, sun-block wearing, and image re-sizing is not easy. Trying to maximize my lazing potential, I volunteered to document the Jewelry District figuring that the neighborhood's mere six square blocks shouldn't be too much work. I got off the Metro thinking "I've been here a million times, I know where the points of interest are, this shouldn't take long, I'lI take like 15 pictures, and I'll be out of the sun and sprawled out supine under a ceiling fan in no time." But many, many pictures and five hours later, I can safely say, damn, was I wrong. The Jewelry District is vibrant, visually engaging, and architecturally absorbing -- a neighborhood-sized vintage curiosity of antiquarian intricacies. more ›