Adrienne Crew

We just knew Southern Californians couldn't resist the charms of public transport. Los Angeles Times reporter Christiana Sciaudone filed a piece called "Friendships Forged On the Rails" in the 10/11/04 edition about bonding amongst commuters aboard Southern California commuter trains. Folks stuck on the train are conversing with their neighbors, throwing potlucks and planning vacations together. Another point in favor of mass transit. When's the last time someone had a pot luck on the...

Southern Californians are an inventive lot. The area has been the birthplace of the Zamboni ice resurfacer machine and the fortune cookie. What other businesses and products originated in Southern California?...

Rodney Dangerfield died at UCLA today after falling into a coma subsequent to undergoing heart surgery. CNN reports, "Dangerfield suffered a small stroke after the operation and developed infectious and abdominal complications. But in the past week he had emerged from the coma, the [Dangerfield's] publicist said. "Best known for milking a public persona as the chronic underdog, Dangerfield was a late-bloomer who returned to comedy in his forties, after a 20 year break....

This building caught our eye during our commute to work. We wonder if it's an abandoned satantic tatoo parlor or if the owners are just superstitious and painted the facade to ward off evil spirits. Can you guess the building's location?...

LA Observed reports that The Los Angeles Times has lured away Slate's Christopher Hawthorne to become the paper's new architecture critic, filling a vacancy left open when Nicolai Ouroussoff joined the staff of The New York Times several months ago. Is it a coincidence that Hawthorne's recent piece in Slate focuses on new architecture in Los Angeles?...Hmmm, we smell a tryout. At any rate, Hawthorne thoughtfully reviews the new district headquarters for the California...

This LAist has always been baffled by Los Angeles media's weak literary coverage given how much time, energy and money the local entertainment industry spends on acquiring literary material. Which is why we're so intrigued by "Between the Lines," the weekly interview series featuring noted authors on KLCS, the local public TV station owned and operated by the Los Angeles Unified School District. The literary program's rotund host is Barry Kibrick, who is wildly...

According to marketers, calendar designers and the military-industrial-advertising complex, October is Halloween season. The folklore of many cultures teaches us that October 31st marks the time when the boundaries separating the known and unknown worlds are at their most permeable, permitting the interminging of the dead and the living, conscious and unconscious. LAist will be celebrating this season of all things magical, paranormal and strange by posting entries that reveal the creepier side of...

Hollywood Park racetrack is the Southern Californian version of the "Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb?" brainteaser. The misnamed landmark is located in Inglewood, not Hollywood, and it's a race course, not a park. There is some tangential Hollywood connection since it was founded in 1938 as The Hollywood Turf Club by many film stars, directors and producers. We're not sure what the excuse is for Bellflower's Hollywood Sports Park and many other establishments that...

We noticed this story in Sunday's Los Angeles Times article about house parties, coordinated as "nonpartisan issue-based events" to rally support for the nation's schools, making the rounds in major California cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. The hottest topic seemed to be President Bush's roundly criticized "No Child Left Behind" education law. We wonder how many of the well-heeled Angeleno party guests with school-aged children, like Arianna Huffington, actually enrolled their offspring...

The West Hollywood "Fall Into Reading" Book Fair is this Sunday on October 3rd. Avid readers can visit with their favorite local and national authors at West Hollywood Park, 647 N. San Vincente Boulevard from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The event has attracted a pretty heady mix of talent for a one-day schedule: Local author Nichelle Tramble, will be in conversation with Susan Straight on the "Blurred Reality" panel at 3:30 PM. Actresses...