Carolyn Kellogg

February 27 is a good birthday for beauties. Leading the pack is Elizabeth Taylor, whose breathtaking looks, acting talent and dramatic offscreen life have defined grand Hollywood stardom. She turns 74 today. But Joanne Woodward (who turns 76) is no small potatoes: she's also an Oscar-winning actress, a classic beauty, and has had a offscreen life that's undeniably cool — 48 years of marriage to Paul Newman. Melrose Place hottie Grant Show turns 44 today;...

With all the hand-wringing over the closures of Aron's and Rhino Records, you might think any non-Amoeba record store in Los Angeles is doomed. But that would mean you've never visited Sea Level Records in Echo Park. Dedicated music fanatic Todd Clifford opened the store in December 2001, and it's survived ever since selling CDs, vinyl and the occasional art piece. Sea Level's speciality is indie rock and local music; it's got listening stations...

The easiest way to decsribe BarCamp is to say it like they do: BarCamp ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees. And it's overnight, like camp! It's coming up in LA, on March 4-5. The whole local version is being brought to us by Sean Bonner of Blogging.la, Little Radio and a couple...

Had enough Anthony Pellicano stories yet? The LA Times hasn't. Once again the bug-happy private investigator leads the California section. A quick search of the LAT site comes up with 22 hits for "Pellicano" and just 4 for NSA. Is eavesdropping on Sly Stallone that much more important than the feds domestic wiretapping scandal? Bad news for Clear Channel employees (other than the fact they they've been working for one of the more evil...

Late last night actor Don Knotts died at UCLA Medical Center; he was 81. Knotts was goofy-looking, with a scrawny neck, bulging eyes and huge ears, and his gift for physical comedy earned him 5 Emmys playing Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show." Sometimes his mugging for the camera made us squirm (can you say "Three's Company"?), but he created onscreen geeks that will survive in pop culture for a long, long time. He...

After Wired ran a story documenting the GoogleCenter of the United States a bunch of ists jumped on the opportunity to figure out their own middle. Gothamist, Chicagoist, Bostonist and Seattlest all zoomed in on their creamy GoogleCenters. A crack cartography team is hard at work determining the GoogleCenter of the Ist-a-verse as you read this... Austinist read a book about Olympian Bode Miller and liked it. They also took a few pictures of the...

The Olive Street blob is still a mystery, the LA Times reports. While the hot-water flushing of a nearby oil well seemed to be the source of the problem, stopping the flushing hasn't stopped the oozing goo. Maybe there's a leak. Maybe a long-stopped oil well in a parking lot on Olive Street has come alive. Only the blobmaster knows for sure. Patrons of the now-dead Al's Bar used to park near the streets...

Kobe Bryant did a photo shoot for Slam Magazine and the mag's staff were smart enough to shoot behind-the-scenes footage. As they set up, someone reaches into a box and hands Kobe a snake. Mr. 81 Points plays along nicely, but that doesn't mean he likes it; the volume is a little rough, but we're pretty sure he asks for a fresh pair of boxers....

Tucked into an industrial neighborhood north of downtown, spitting distance from two freeways, a megachurch, a DOT parking lot and a fantastic thrift store lies the California Nigth Club. Or perhaps we should say the Ca_ifornia Nigth Club. The sign has remained unchanged for years, but as yet we've never ventured inside. Instead we drive by thinking about what the TV show In the Heat of the Nigth might have been, or the song...

Los Feliz's Sowden House, designed by (son-of-Frank) Lloyd Wright, is now for sale. It's one of two Lloyd Wright properties up for grabs, Curbed LA says. We've always been fascinated by the Mayan-ish mansion that looms, grandly, at 5121 Franklin Avenue. The house was built in 1926 by architect Lloyd Wright. For a while, it was kind of party central ... and the parties were rumored to be wild, with lots of hot guys,...