Jason Toney

With the debate going on on this site this week about whether or not Angelenos are good drivers, maybe it's time to put away the car keys and practice switching gears. Bike Summer is about to enter its final days in Los Angeles. The month long event is all about bicycle love. Today and tomorrow, Bike Summer also coincides with the Bicycle Film Festival. Starting this evening, the Vine Theatre will be wall to...

The Giant Japanese Film Festival begins tomorrow evening with Godzilla vs. Mecha-Godzilla and Terror of Mecha-Godzilla (along with an episode of Spectreman). You can catch the double feature at the Egyptian and then try to see all the rest of the 20 films that will run during the one week of classic (and new) movies featuring sub-titles and actors in rubber costumes. Amongst the 20 flicks are the latest Ultraman and Godzilla movies and,...

The Apiary has an interview with Matt Besser of the Upright Citizen's Brigade. Of interest is the announcement that the Upright Citizen's Brigade LA Theatre and training center will open for classes on July 2nd and have their grand public opening on September 9th. Most of the initial improv classes are already sold out but you can still get in on the 101 classes starting on July 9th and July 11th....

The wrongful death case brought against the City of Los Angeles by the family of Christopher Wallace (Biggie Smalls) began yesterday with jury selection and opening statements but it is looking less and less likely that any sense of what really happened will come out of the case. Many of the witnesses key to the family's case are now claiming amnesia, hearsay and other problems that undermine their testimony. The family's lawyers say that...

Decked out in all black, The Futureheads took to the stage at the Henry Ford for the final show of their American tour last night. They've been in the Los Angeles area a lot during the past year, doing an Amoeba In-Store, a Troubador show, Coachella and a previous engagement at this same venue. What we love about the post-punk rockers from Sunderland, England is how much fun they have while performing together. They...

Last night, we were in the Silverlake Lounge trapped in a conversation with a guy named Mikey who, seemingly has more stories and more freestyle rhymes than we have words. Innaway is setting up the stage while this guy Mikey keeps going on stage and standing behind the turned off mic trying to get all eyes on him. It occurred to us that the stranger probably shouldn't have had that last shot, that we...

Speaking of driving, last night's episode of The Closer -- TNT's new police drama starring Kyra Sedgwick and based in LA and the LAPD -- opens with Sedgwick's Captain Brenda Johnson on a sunny hillside street, Thomas Guide in hand, trying to figure out the difference between Mulholland Drive and Mulholland Circle and how one street can have two different names depending on how far in a given direction you take it. We know...

There are some interesting things about this year's college graduating class. CalTech's graduating chemical engineering class is all women, a first for the school. The uniqueness of that was not mentioned in Sandra Tsing Loh's commencement speech but that the physics grad herself was the keynote speaker in the year of this accomplishment probably says enough on its own. The Daily Bruin, meanwhile, reminds us that this class of 2005 is also the freshman...

IndieWire has some great coverage of the Los Angeles Film Festival. We're especially enamored with Grace Lee's posts as a filmmaker getting screened here, her hometown. The Grace Lee Project is part of the documentary competition and is all about women named Grace Lee, an incredibly standard name for Asian women. If you didn't catch it last night, you can view it tomorrow night at the Sunset 5. Looking for other good Film Festival...

Arthur Magazine and Spaceland are bringing a whole bunch of Indie goodness to the Barnsdall Art Park on September 4th and 5th (Memorial Day Weekend). As headliners (along with Sonic Youth and Sleater-Kinney), The Black Keys point out at that there will be other "Arthurfest" events going on at the Spaceland owned venues on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd as well but that the festival lineup as it stands already is pretty damn awesome....