Snow Tempest

The American Girl dolls and books now made by El Segundo-based Mattel are set in various, often polarized periods of American history, so that the plucky heroines experience, and have to make their own decisions about, situations in the American Revolution, the Victorian Industrial Revolution, the abolition of slavery, and other American turning points of the past. Now some groups are warning families off the American Girl dolls and products because American Girl has...

Common Cause California and local universities are hosting a series of "Proposition Expositions" and other events with speakers detailing the pros and cons of the very confusing propositions on the ballot for the November special election. Unfortunately, they're all mid-day on weekdays, but if you get a chance to check them out they should be informative. Common Cause is nonpartisan but has, as an organization, endorsed redistricting as described in Prop. 77....

On Thursday evening, feeling parched and unnerved by the last hot breath of the Santa Ana winds, we decided to take a nice drive down to Venice Beach. It was either that or revel in the air conditioning at the Hollywood YMCA, perspiring under blasts of cool air while pedaling a stationary bike through the muraled walls depicting the Hollywood Boulevard scene just up the street. It was still too smoky for an actual...

There have been signs of autumn in Los Angeles all week. There have been cool breezes during the day, the sun sets earlier, and there are a lot of new television programs, as well as movies about Serious Issues. And just now, there was a rumble, not of helicopter blades, but of actual thunder, followed by the splashing of a few large raindrops. After last year's flooding here, and the recent devastation from Hurricane...

As many LAist readers probably know, this Monday is the season premiere of Arrested Development. The show is also up for many Emmy Awards this Sunday. If you haven't watched the show much, but have heard people rave about it, you should know that part of the enjoyment comes from running motifs that blossom in bizarre ways through different episodes. Also, the more you get to know the strange and selfish characters, the more...

Michael Kinsley has gotten the boot from the job of editorial page editor for the Los Angeles Times. You can find out more from the New York Times and the LA Times's own rather ambiguous coverage (it has also published the text of Kinsley's kiss-off letter. The whole situation seems a classic example of an institution that feels itself to be proud but perhaps a bit stodgy hiring someone to "shake things up" and...

On Friday, September 9, at 9:30 pm, KCET will air the documentary "The Hobart Shakespeareans," about a group of fifth-grade students in Koreatown who study and perform Shakespeare plays. It's always interesting to see local neighborhoods on television, and teacher Rafe Esquith's idea seems a good one. (It's not the only local Shakespeare program for young people - The Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival has a Will Power to Youth program). In our own experience...

Los Angeles Citysearch is having voting for its "best of list" right now. You can vote, and possibly help direct business to your favorite local establishments, in such categories as best burrito, best "conversation bar," and best spa....

OK, so the Arclight is supposed to be the ultimate in cinema viewing comfort, right? It is nice that you can see the full screen from anywhere in the theater, there's a great selection of movies, and the seats are spacious and soft, but does it bug anyone else that there are no aisles? (At least, not in all the theaters in the complex). The cosiest chair is only so comfortable when people behind...

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina to the Gulf Coast is almost unfathomable even to people who are there. I've noticed that many of my friends here in Los Angeles, while sympathetic to the destruction they see, don't know what it is like to live through a hurricane. I (I'm dispensing with the editorial "we" for this post) grew up on the Gulf Coast, in Houston, Texas, so I do know about hurricanes, though those...