Carolyn Kellogg

Her name is Kalim and she's just had a baby. Blogging.la's insider reports that the event almost didn't happen (dad was very sick) and that Kalim is doing such a good job taking care of the baby, born Feb 22, that zookeepers haven't had a chance to peek to determine its gender. Since orangutans are endangered in the wild, the LA Zoo is proud of the new arrival; you can see Kalim and her...

A recent trip to see the desert bloom was spectacular. As was the cascade of newly-minted desert bugs, round, flying, heavy with snacking on the crop of flowers, and all with guts of green and yellow -- if you can judge by our windshield. In fact, the front of the car has so many spots it looks something like a goopy dalmation. Or as if a bucket-o-bugs had been thrown at it at very...

While we scratch our heads figuring out how to increase civic engagement here in the city of LA, the restless lefties at MoveOn.org are thinking nationally. Monday they launched a Flash animation contest To Stop the Republican Social Security Scam. There are 16 days left for you to submit your wickedly funny, wierd, politically persuasive Flash animation. Al Franken and Arianna Huffington (of course) are among the judges, plus Richard (Slacker) Linklater, Aaron McGruder (The...

Although we don't know who's winning the first round of the mayor's race -- which will likely end up with two finalists facing off on May 17 -- we do know that tonight two candidates will be celebrating. The three who don't make the finals may share their sadness with the people who worked hard to make their campaigns come to life. Who's sharing where the parties start? Richard Alarcon: Cha Cha Cha in Encino...

LAist went easy on the intellect last night to check out the debut of The Starlet on the WB. Featuring ten hopeful gamines competing to be, obviously, proclaimed a starlet, the reality show tells a classic Hollywood story: naive girl blows into town, hopes to make it big, gets her ego torn up but maybe, just maybe, ends up a star in the end (hopefuly the competitions won't be so true-to-life to include an audition...

The king of exotica, Martin Denny (center), has died at the age of 94. He studied music in Los Angeles, getting involved with the post-war jazz scene here before taking a gig in Hawaii, which he made his home until he died Wednesday. After rock hit big, Denny's luxurious, loungy, bird-call-peppered instrumental records could be found en masse in thrift store bins, but a '90s rediscovery of Denny, Les Baxter and their ilk has made...

The LA Weekly weighs in this week with Kate Sullivan's plea to save Indie 103. Realizing we're in the minority (even among LAisters), we have to say, no thanks. Because: 1. ClearChannel explicitly said its goal was to suck ad dollars away from KROQ -- to screw with the smaller conglomerate that owns KROQ. (Audio link). They don't want to create an alternative rock station: they just want to weaken and kill someone else's...

What does it take to strip the shine from new architectural landmark Disney Hall? Just a couple of unhappy neighbors (see arrow) who are upset that the building throws harsh reflected light upon their apartments. The LA Times, blogging.la and boing boing all report that Gehry and his folks have agreed to tone it down. The squinty residents neglect to mention that in April 2003, 6 months before Disney Hall's opening, a one-bed, two-bath...

We have no qualifications for judging art, and we were pretty stumped at the recent MOCA opening of Visual Music. Just as we were trying to determine why so many handsome male couples were leaving looking nonplussed, a gentleman turned to us and asked "This is pretty boring, isn't it?" -- reinforcing our conviction that anyone who's ever been to a rave has seen all this and more. Or maybe watched a rave on...

Nothing like a rainy 3-day weekend to get you cozy with the DVD rentals. So cozy, in fact, that you may have depleted your Netflix supply like we did. (We love Netflix. Free delivery, no late fees. Much love). The rain, hail and flooding is expected to continue up until Thursday. What to do? Maybe tap the video/DVD rental spot near you. This is Hollywood, after all, with some of the best movie rental joints...