Peggy Archer

Another Earth Day is upon us, and to me the 'celebration' of such seems to be about encouraging folks to hop in the Prius, rush out to the nearest participating retail establishment, whip out the charge card and purchase some (imported, of course) environmentally conscious thingamajig or three. In between the free concerts serving organic micro-brew, of course....

At one point several weeks ago, it seemed like a great idea to get LAist into the press room at the Independent Spirit Awards. After all, we are more than just a group blog now. We're a really fucking huge group blog that gets a shitload of hits, right? Right? Apparently, whoever makes the decisions to let press into the 'inner sanctum' agrees because last week I managed to pick up two press passes....

Empty Trader Joe's Parking lot at 3rd and LaBrea....

My relatives on the east coast just don't understand California weather. For a time, it seemed they saw Southern California as the land of rainbows, unicorns and constant, seasonless, unrelenting heat. The gifts they sent me reflected these beliefs - bikinis that would embarrass a stripper, all manner of atrocious patterned terrycloth 'loungewear', big, cheap plastic sunglasses that they thought all the movie stars might wear whenever they ventured out of their fabulous mansions to...

Photo taken at The Grove by Peggy Archer...

Although water conservation certainly isn't at the top of everyone's 'scintillating conversation' list, an article about Long Beach's declared water emergency in today's LA Times might move the topic up just a bit. Los Angeles doesn't lie in a naturally wet region - annually, we can only expect about 16 inches of rain (which makes it sort of understandable that no one who lives out here seems to be able to drive on wet...

First launched in May of 1945, the Lane Victory saw service in three wars (WW2, Korea, and Vietnam), and is now maintained as a museum ship and docked at LA Harbor Berth 94 in San Pedro. Although the Lane Victory wasn't a combat ship (she was operated as a Merchant Marine vessel and carried cargo), she saw plenty of action and still has all her guns, some of which are still occasionally fired. Nothing...

Just in case you haven't heard, a few corporations have recently decided that a really awesome way to get lots of free publicity would be to rent a beach house in Malibu, throw a ton of parties for celebs (some with quotation marks, some without) and invite the paparazzi along to ensure that photos of said celebs interacting with said corporation's product get splashed all over the web and certain print publications. It seems...