A few days ago, I posted about sitting in L.A. traffic on Halloween, and opened the floor for people to make shortcut suggestions. Turns out that the mere mention of the words "shortcut" and "share" in the same sentence can make at least one person go temporarily insane, and others suddenly think that they're in sole possession of highly classified government information. Who knew? more ›

Yesterday, another LAister, Jessica Pauline asked about Hollywood shortcuts. A few people gave suggestions, such as the now "not-so-much-a-secret" Fountain but other commentors plain old said, "I'm not giving up my secrets to you greenie." I was reading over the comment and got to thinking... more ›

At 21 years old, less than two months new to town, living in my cousin’s back room in the deep valley, making love to a Thomas Guide every night, with zero frame of reference for my situation, I embark on a film career. My first break, an independent film, hires me to be their production secretary. What’s that? I don’t know either. Here’s what I do know. The production office is at 6th and Alameda... more ›

I've had some frustrating jobs in the past--mostly in retail--but there is nothing quite like the pain and humiliation of stumping for a cause and a minimum wage paycheck. When I was a mere young'un, at 18, I spent six months working as a door-to-door canvasser for Greenpeace. Yes, I was one of those annoying neo-hippie crusader types (mind you, I bathed and shaved and did not spread any funk, unlike some of my... more ›

I'm a total sucker for aerial photography, especially images of my immediate surroundings. Call it aerial narcissism, if you will. The Thomas Guide is my Bible while I'm on the road, but what to do when I'm chained to my computer? Fortunately, online mapping technology has advanced miles beyond what it used to be even a couple of years ago. The standard road maps are usually accompanied by satellite imagery that allow the user... more ›

Speaking of driving, last night's episode of The Closer -- TNT's new police drama starring Kyra Sedgwick and based in LA and the LAPD -- opens with Sedgwick's Captain Brenda Johnson on a sunny hillside street, Thomas Guide in hand, trying to figure out the difference between Mulholland Drive and Mulholland Circle and how one street can have two different names depending on how far in a given direction you take it. more ›

The origin of NFT: LA comes from the company's simple philosophy: "People need to use the cities they live in, commute into, or travel to effectively." So they created guides with highly graphical maps that break the city into neighborhood grids in a congruous manner that puts the smackdown on the old Thomas Guide's map-scavenger hunt, which had us flipping from page to page, following a coding system that rivals Dewey and his Decimals. The sleek guidebook also features color-coded indexes of important categories, like airports, libraries, malls, parks, museums, and sports. Much like LAist's family tree, the NFT series began in Gotham and branched out from there, and now covers SF, Chicago, Boston, and DC, too. more ›