Carolyn Kellogg

The Daily News looks at the legacy of African-Americans in the valley (it's a little grim). Our favorite part is the story of Ida Kinney, now 101 years old; her grandparents were slaves in Arkansas. She was the first African-American woman to get a job at Lockheed's Burbank plant during World War II, and got a white friend to front for her in order to buy her home on an all-white block. Where she...

Looking for real estate by neighboorhood can be tricky; it's easiest to search by zip code, but 90039 is tony Silverlake, the still-sketchy Frogtown flats and spotty Glassel Park all at once. Trulia is trying to make it easier, combining Google Maps and local real estate listings. Want to live downtown? Look for a little green icon and click: yipes, $893,000. Forgot to hit the "less than $500,000" filter. The idea is great, but...

There's a cynical news saying: If it bleeds, it leads. Well, there was lots of blood in the news yesterday and the stories aren't going anywhere. In case you need to catch up: Up in Goleta yesterday, 44-year old Jennifer Sanmarco walked into a postal processing plant where she'd once worked. She shot and killed 5, seriously injured one and then committed suicide. This morning there are reports that an ex-neigbor of Sanmarco's has...

If you're a hockey fan in LA, you may feel your sport gets short shrift. It's hard: the Kings take the better part of a season to score 81 points, and Kobe can do that in a single night. Yet there are determined hockey fans here, and one of them has the weekly SoCal Hockey Cast, podcasting about local favorites and hockey beyond LA. We're hockey novices, but we like this podcast: it's conversational...

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning, and the gay cowboy lovestory leads the pack: Brokeback Mountain got 8 nominations. The 5 movies up for Best Picture are Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Munich, Good Night and Good Luck, and Crash, which just took the big prize at the SAG Awards Sunday night. One of our favorite categories this year is makeup, which pits the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and the Chronicles of Narnia...

We just stumbled on proof positive that LA has a subway system. The Metro has an online store! It sells notebooks and coffee mugs and umbrellas (umbrellas!) with maps of the subway and other metro transit lines. The valley-based Orange line gets a store section all its own. Of course, there are t-shirts and baby onesies and enamel pins and teddy bears; all this stuff indicates that we do have a working transit system....

Today is the last day of Apartment Therapy's See My Artwork Contest, and so far they've put 10 submissions on display. We're torn between the tiny bathroom art (#7, pictured) and the portraits (#4). We'd like to see them do it again. We're voyuers like that. LA Foodblogging is giving away a pair of tickets to the Napa Nightlife wine event at the Hollywood Roosevelt next Monday. How can you win? Write a wine-y...

Jen Sincero is a sexpert, musician, and the author of the bestselling book, The Straight Girl’s Guide To Sleeping With Chicks and the semi-autobiographical novel, Don’t Sleep With Your Drummer. She currently hosts the weekly sex talk radio show Dr. Happypants on killradio.org. Every week in Living in Sin, Jen provides advice for LA's sexually curious. Got a question for Jen? Ask her. We promise to be discreet — all questions will be posted...

Coachella, the 100-plus-degree Woodstock of the West has announced its 2006 lineup. As rumors had predicted, Depeche Mode will perform in the unofficial "I love the 80s" slot. We're surprised that rumors of Smashing Pumpkins and My Bloody Valentine reuniting haven't proved true. Maybe concert organizers are holding back a few "surprise guests" to goose ticket sales down the line. Combining the lists from Billboard and the LA Times, the confirmed bands include: Depeche...

Years ago there was graffiti downtown LA -- on a building that was razed for the Japanese American Museum -- that read WHEN WILL SHE STOP ACTING? We're assuming, when it comes to the Screen Actors' Guild Awards, which are televised to millions, that nobody stops acting. We expect everyone to be glamorous, exhilarated, appropriately humble, and fabulously ON. Since we're in LA, we know some winners already, even tho the local broadcast is...