Callie Miller

Sad, sad news in bookish LA: Dutton's Brentwood is closing its doors. After a long battle with developers and uncertainty, which we covered last year, Doug Dutton has made the difficult decision to close. He points out, though, that Charles T. Munger, the developer that has purchased the property, has "has committed to a significant amount of financial support for the difficult process of closing the store, and we appreciate his generosity." We are saddened...

Chris Burden's Urban Light | Photo by pink_fish13 from the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Monday Steve Tolz presents A Fraction of the Whole 7pm @ Book Soup Lisa McKay presents My Hands Came Away Red 7pm @ Vroman's Dario Castagno presents A Day in Tuscany 7pm @ Dutton's Terry Cheney signs Manic 7pm @ Borders, Westwood Ray Bradbury, Forrest J. Ackerman and Ray Harryhausen discuss their work 7:30pm @ Mystery & Imagination...

Enjoying a latte at Toast means getting there early. Early. Here's what you know about Toast whether you've been there or not: it can get insane. Insane. The late breakfast/long lunch crowd swells in proportions that are greater than the restaruant's ability to contain them. If you've never eaten at Toast but have driven by at, well, most hours of the day, you know what we mean. Nuts.The photo at the top of Toast's...

In a bizarro case that looks like a business deal gone bad, but plays more like a conspiracy theory gone right, a software programmer and his marketing guru partner sailed for San Clemente Island on Saturday to seal a "lucrative" deal with a secret government agency and he never returned. Robert Vendrick, a retired programmer, met up with Gary Shawkey, a self-described marketing guru, and entered into a business deal to develop a highly secretive...

Photo of crowd at Los Angeles debate in January by shredded77 via Flickr Last Friday, Sarah Miller's Open Letter to Barack Obama in the LA Times Opinion section caught my eye. Got me thinking. Had me nodding my head. I'm not the only one, as the comments on her letter are getting heated. As an Obama supporter, she raised some concerns about his seeming inability to be concrete and clear about how he is...

Anyone living downtown in an old converted warehouse is familiar with the specific brand of glee the comes with learning that the big empty retail space on the groundfloor of your building or across the street from your front door has finally been filled. In a downtown that is still growing and adding services for the ever-expanding resident population, any new service is met with excitement. As in: Will it be a Trader Joe's? Imagine,...

There are many ways to handle a tough break-up with a girlfriend, but torturing and injuring a little puppy isn't one of them. The Daily News reports that a 22-year old Encino man, Steven William Butcher, was arrested yesterday in the 6400 block of Bertrand Avenue for animal cruelty. After a break-up with his girlfriend, Butcher was reportedly distraught and had threatened aloud to harm his small puppy. Worried about the man's mental state, a...

We can't think of a better way to celebrate a new book than to invite musicians, poets, visual artists, performance arists and writers to respond to the new book. This is exactly what Maggie Nelson has done for her new book Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions and tonight is the night. Nelson's book is considered one of the first extended works that examines the roles that women played in and around...

Get Your Lit On: The Week in Bookish LA includes some outstanding readings this week from some fine, fine writers including Maggie Nelson, Anne Enright, Colm Toibin, Toby Barlow, Amy Hempel, Peter Carey, John Rechy, Martha Grimes and Russell Banks.

As we reported in January, Robert Culp wants the LA Zoo's current elephant enclosure shut down and all construction on the new enclosure halted, due to alleged pachyderm cruelty. Yesterday, the judge's ruling in the case was made public and he issued a big "no." Despite claims from former zoo employees and animal activists that LA zoo elephant handlers have a history of abusing the elepehants, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Reginald A. Dunn said...