Carolyn Kellogg

Yesterday the Parks Department revealed a draft master plan for Griffith Park, and we say it looks like one fun makeover. Included in the 25-year, wish-list-y proposal are a landscaped pier along the LA River and many improved natural wildlife corridors. The wow element is not one but two arial trams, one of which is designed to sweep over the LA Zoo (although the LA Times indicates that the zoo folks aren't keen on...

Some women hit that thirty-something time of life and go a little crazy. Take, for example, the two who were caught on tape pocketing a plastinated 13-week old fetus at the BodyWorlds2 exhibit at the California Science Center. They absconded with their little bundle of joy around 3am Saturday, when the exhibit was open overnight as part of its closing weekend. Maybe they just couldn't bear to leave emptyhanded — LAist was compelled to...

Whether it's ordering OMFUG chocolate or sending a letter to the landlord, our inbox has been full of pleas to help save CBGB's. The iconic NY rock club is famed for providing an appropriately grimy teat to nurse punk rock to healthy immaturity: The Ramones, Patti Smith, Blondie, Sonic Youth, Talking Heads, Television and many more have strutted and fretted upon its stage. It has stayed true to its roots, packing 7 unknown bands...

Art curator Walter Hopps, who helped shape the art scene in Los Angeles, died this weekend, and is memorialized in today's LA Times in a long piece by art critic Christopher Knight. Hopps, who lived in Houston, was back in town for a retrospective of sculptor George Herms' work which he had put together for the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Knight describes a 1963 Duchamp retrospective organized by Hopps as being seminal in...

The Belmont Yard, aka the Belmont Tunnel, aka the Belmont Art Park has been threatened with destruction by a developer with 276 units of apartments up its corporate nose. Located off the west edge of downtown, the park has served as rare greenspace for a soccer-like game called Tarasca and as a canvas for some breathtakingly talented graffiti artists. While the rains held the bulldozers back for a short interval, the yard and its surrounding...

Silverlake rock club Spaceland continues celebrating its month-long 10-year anniversary with two shows this weekend. Tonight, get your alt-country on with chanteuse Eleni Mandell (pictured), who is equal parts Patsy Cline, Tom Waits, and PJ Harvey. Opening is San Francisco's The Court and Spark and Whiskey Biscuit headlines. On Sunday, it's alt-that-and-more with WACO's 13-instrument cacophonous melancholy, Extra Fancy's queercore, and Touchcandy reuniting with a sound explosion that'll knock you back to 1995. If...

This weekend, say hello, dolly! The Japanese American Museum wants families to check out the dolls in their collection and join them for a tea party from 10:30-11:00AM Saturday. Children are encouraged to bring a doll -- or action figure -- of their own for storytelling. Don't miss the "Hey Doll" show, a collaboration of 13 women artists that's been more than a year in the making. Each artist constructed a doll-like art object...

Did you see Mansquito on the SciFi Network Sunday night? In classic B-movie form, a lab accident while researching a moquito-born virus gives birth to: Mansquito! Part man, part mosquito, it's got a bad attitude and more than a passing resemblance to The Fly. What, you missed it? Well never fear, 6 LA bloggers have watched it and provide a nifty summary on Telecrap, Celebrating the Worst in TV. This is their first hefty...

Last month, LAist reported on a protest going on to save 70 electric cars from certain death at the hands of their parent company, GM. Yesterday, the 27-day protest in Burbank heated up when several big, black, car-carrying trucks pulled up to ship off about 15 of the cars to be destroyed. (If they ever make another X Files movie, they should use these trucks. Very scary!) Pro-electric car actvists blocked the trucks' way...

After years of enjoying art and parties at The Brewery complex, LAist finally learned the history of The Brewery. From 1897 to 1948 it was the Los Angeles Brewery, making beer and other beverages (including an ill-fated pineapple juice). Brands included Eastside Bock and Brown Derby Beer, but the all-time best-seller was Eastside beer (pictured). During prohibition, the Los Angeles Brewery continued production, making a legal 2% beer and selling off the concentrated alcohol...