Carolyn Kellogg

The excellent folks at Blogging.la are having a soiree tonight, a real world (wha?) get-together for bloggers. They've invited their own crew and the rest of the Los Angeles blogging universe to meet and hang at Tokio in Hollywood (RSVP info here). We hope to make it, and we hope you can make it too. We swear, we will not be carrying a laptop — although chances are we will be packing a digital...

Life on the Edge doesn't mind that the LA Harbor has stopped exploring the use of low-profile cranes. The high cranes, they say, are an essential part of the San Pedro landscape. The picture proves their point. Newcomer Los Angeles City Nerd is worried about the Valley's Woodbridge Park, which might be taken over by the city for a sewer project. There will be a rally (pro-park, anti-sewage) on Saturday. Franklin Avenue has news...

Cecil Castellucci has been an indie rocker and a filmmaker, but now she's primarily a novelist. This week saw the debut of her second book for young adults, The Queen of Cool. It's about that girl in high school — you know, the effortless one? — who finds herself enveloped by too-cool ennui (then something happens, but we're not giving it away). Boy Proof, Cecil's first novel, recieved a ton of accolades, including being named...

We've kept mum about the supposed H&M coming to Pasadena because, well, we were too frightened to believe. What if we got our hopes up only to have them dashed by the evil retail god? But now we have reached acceptance. H&M is coming to Pasadena. And H&M is coming to Hollywood, too. H&M is the fashion retailer for the broke-ish hipster, the shopping-savvy, the people who don't care about being hip but don't...

77 years ago today news hit the papers that Ned Doheny, the son of oil tycoon Edward Doheny, had been killed in his Beverly Hills home by Hugh Plunkett, his friend and assistant, in what was apparently a murder-suicide. Plunkett is in the hallway in the above photo; those are Doheny's feet in the foreground. The somewhat grisly complete photo is on our Flickr page. Ned's wife Lucy and their five children were in...

The LA Times held its first publisher's forum last night with an impressive panel gathered to discuss homelessness. LA Times columnist Steve Lopez, Sheriff Lee Baca, Bobby Shriver (Mayor pro tem of Santa Monica), LAPD Chief William Bratton, Lamp Community head Casey Horan and Dr. Marvin Southard, Director of the LA County Department of Mental Health sat in directors chairs as LA Times Editorial Page Editor Andrés Martinez moderated. That's Martinez in the picture....

Salon.com has posted photos from the Army's Criminal Investigation Command's complete Abu Ghraib media file. The Army has been trying to keep it under wraps, but it hit the news in Australia this week. Salon's post includes more chilling photos of prisoner abuse by Americans. The Geneva Convention states, in part "the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place...: violence to life and person, in particular murder...

Spotted in Silverlake. Is it just us, or is "Show Me The Monkey" a little dirty?...

We hit LA Observed daily for Kevin Roderick's take on the news and his insights into LA media. He's the co-author of a cool book about Wilshire Boulevard. All of which is to say that we respect the guy a lot and we're glad he's out there giving blogging a good name. So we were perplexed by his recent launch of a companion site, The Valley Observed. Last time we checked, the San Ferndando...

Laptop-carrying Eastside caffeine addicts had a scare this week with news that the Coffee Table, a restaurant known for its fresh food and multiple electrical outlets, had lost its lease on Rowena in Silverlake. But it turns out the Coffee Table may be ok after all — it's Rowena that's in trouble. A 3-story, 200-foot, 64-unit condo complex may go in on the street. If all goes as planned, the Coffee Table will rent...