Jason Toney

Are there really only two weeks until Coachella? One week until the LA Times Festival of Books and does it really feel like summer outside? Wow, Spring allergies have been kicking our ass and we feel like we're coming out of a haze much later into the month of April then we think we should be. Oh well. Lindsay William-Ross took on the task of covering food for LAist starting this week and then promptly...

Don't cry! Yes, it is April 15th and yes, your taxes are due but it isn't too late (and if it is too late, you can easily file for an extension). First, take a breath. Now, go get your tax forms if you don't already have them. More than likely you can get some federal tax filing software for free and you don't even have to be lower income to file this way. You...

There have been two murders and four deaths in the past two weeks, three in the past two days, on our freeways and little to suggest that they are related. We can't decide if that's scarier than if we thought it was all being done by one person or for some specific reason. Fear and anxiousness has already been heightened as this morning's debris death on the 5 was thought to be a shooting...

Can we talk about the insane gas prices for a minute? What's the point of having a fuel efficient car if it's still going to cost you $30 to fill your 10 or 12 gallon tank? The California Auto Club's weekly gas price report says that the average price for gas is currently $2.64 for regular unleaded with no relief in site. $2.64? We can't take it anymore. The cheapest gasoline we've found is...

Todd Solondz, known for his quirky and disturbing films Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness and Storytelling, sat down with our sister site, Gothamist, on the occasion of his latest cinematic foray, Palindromes, which stars Ellen Barkin, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Stephen Adly-Guirgis, and is in theaters today. Your new film Palindromes -- it's impossible to ignore the abortion-related plotline. Are you trying to make a political statement? It is true that the movie is...

Who says we aren't literary on the left coast? Yesterday we talked about the launch of the litblog co-op and today Daily Variety and the New York Times report that the Harper-Collins imprint, Regan Books, is planning to move to Los Angeles by the end of the year. Judith Regan is no stranger to LA stories. She's made much of her success on the publishing of books by screen writers and actresses, documentarians and...

He might be the sage from South Central but he's no sage of tv syndication. Larry Elder's eponymous daytime talk show will not be next season. The KABC talk radio host and conservative columnist now has two defunct syndies under his belt. Elder continues to be a dominant radio personality and will celebrate his 11th year on the air this year. The TV talk show will continue to air locally on KCBS at 9...

Want to see something cool on Thursday? The USS Stethem (not pictured. That's the USS Vandergrift) will be docking at the Port of Los Angeles at 4 PM. The destroyer will be in port for 5 days as local Navy men participate in Navy Days LA, an annual event organized by the United States Navy League. Accompanying the USS Stethem and its several hundred person crew into port will be the Fireboat Warner Lawrence....

Martini Republic points out that the LA Times "scooped the blogosphere" in announcing the launch of The Litblog Co-Op. The Litblog is the brainchild of Mark Sarvas who runs the LA Based blog, Elegant Variation. More interesting to us than the Times beating most of us to the punch on this story is that the web version of Scott Martelle's article actually includes a hotlink to the LBC. That's the first time we've seen...

Proof that science fair kids know how to have fun: some enterprising Cal Tech students headed to MIT for pre-frosh week last week for some good natured pranking. Most inventive pranks? Outfitting new freshman with t-shirts mocking MIT and placing palm trees on the rooftop of the Big Dome. The Pasadena pranksters did it all in good fun and are hoping that MIT responds in kind by sending their own contingent to Cal Tech's...