At the Earlybirds Club, you can dance, sweat and be in bed by 11 p.m.
About a year ago, longtime friends Laura Baginski and Susie Lee reconnected at their 30-year high school reunion. As the two women caught up with each other about their careers, motherhood and everything in between. They vented about how they…
Pro skaters and their videographers on making skate videos and photography
On a Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles, a group of longtime friends recorded a conversation on the side of the road at Grand Avenue and 3rd Street after a long day of skating around the city with legendary photographer Atiba…
Two Bit Circus is back as a Santa Monica pop-up arcade
Before me stands a glistening silver box — sleek, elegant and with boldly defined protruding vertical lines, giving it an ever-so-slight vintage Art Deco look. A golden vent rests at its top, the figures on its grille appearing like alien…
8 free holiday phone and computer backgrounds made by L.A. muralists
Muralists living and working in Los Angeles often bring color and culture to the city’s concrete façades. Their work is a tribute to the life and times of the city. For our annual holiday wrapping paper feature, Times art directors…
Sunday Funday in Los Angeles with ‘Frasier’ star Kelsey Grammer
Kelsey Grammer has played Frasier Crane for nearly a quarter century — most recently on a “Frasier” follow-up series that just last month wrapped its second season streaming on Paramount+. So it might be natural for longtime fans to conflate…
John Galliano leaving Maison Margiela after a 10-year run
Maison Margiela’s creative director John Galliano, the iconoclastic couturier who previously headed artistry at Givenchy and Christian Dior, is leaving his post at the luxury French fashion house after a decade-long run. The British designer, 64, announced his goodbye Wednesday…
How to hike among redwoods at Big Basin Redwoods State Park
• Big Basin Redwoods State Park, near Santa Cruz, is recovering after fire scorched almost the entire park in 2020.• Of 115 miles of trails and fire roads in the park, 31.5 are open. More are to reopen soon. •…
Airport facials, anyone? The 7 best luxury lounges at LAX
Best for: Ultra-luxury travelers who want extra privacy What it’s like inside: Though it doesn’t come cheap, PS is the ultimate commercial-yet-feels-private airport experience. Travelers begin their journey at a facility completely separate from the rest of the airport, with…
What is Saturn Return? Chani Nicholas offers an explainer
In November of 2020, I went on my first mushroom trip. I chose the date arbitrarily, eventually landing on Black Friday because of the poetic ring to it, a wink to the “hero’s dose” I planned on taking — enough…
She transformed her tiny apartment in L.A. with thrift store finds
As an art director with a background in theater, Mary Kenny has a flair for interior design that rivals her skills as an event planner in the entertainment industry. For her, there is no such thing as “too busy” when…
Disneyland doubles down on diverse live shows for the holidays
One of the Disneyland Resort’s new holiday offerings is a show featuring the young guitar-slinging character of Miguel from “Coco.” But it’s ultimately rooted in a culture and history that long predates the 2017 film. Show director Tobi Longo pulled…
Everything coming to Disneyland in 2025 — including $67 per day tickets
Disneyland is turning 70 next year, and the theme park has never missed an excuse to throw a nostalgia-fueled party. The coming months will be no different, and arguably the star of the festivities will be Walt Disney himself, albeit…
She was my first true love. Would the magic we had last forever?
“Wait, you dated her? She’s basically royalty,” said an old schoolmate of my first love when we realized our mutual connection. It was nearly a year after the breakup, but even hearing her name made my heart beat in staccato….
Sunday Funday in Los Angeles with chef and cook book author Molly Baz
Molly Baz ended up in Los Angeles by chance. In March 2020, she was vacationing in L.A. with her family when government officials issued a stay-at-home order due to COVID. She didn’t feel comfortable going back to her crowded apartment…
Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane is 104. Credit its staunch volunteers
• Christmas Tree Lane in Altadena is a neighborhood holiday lights extravaganza that’s taken place nearly every year since 1920.• 135 deodar cedars stretching nearly a mile along Santa Rosa Avenue are strung with lights by volunteers each year for…
They planned a day hike in Yosemite. Then they got lost in the snow
On May 20, 2016, my wife and I visited Yosemite National Park. Before we set out on a trail, I talked to a park ranger. I told her that I was looking for a picture of water reflecting the trees….
Los Angeles has many scents. What does L.A. smell like to you?
There’s no single smell that defines Los Angeles. Certain scents are often linked to the bustling streets of downtown or the verdant banks of the L.A. River, while others are tied to the more secluded, quiet corners of places like…
The L.A. skincare brand Mother Science began with a medical mystery
The love story of musicians Ann Marie Simpson-Einziger and Mike Einziger was fortified in a lab. After meeting through a mutual colleague in 2010, the Santa Monica-based couple’s courtship began the following year, as they were collaborating with Oscar-winning composer…
The AI massage robot, Aescape, debuts in L.A. and I tried it out.
My first meeting with Aescape, the AI-powered massage robot, was benign enough — if a bit eerie. As if HAL had gotten a job in the Valley. I stepped into the austere spa room at Pause, a wellness center in…
Creepy vibes drives booming business at Tonopah’s Clown Motel.
TONOPAH, Nev. — Business is so good at the Clown Motel, you might expect more of its painted faces to be smiling. But as Vijay Mehar has learned in his years as owner of the creepiest motel in Tonopah, Nev., happy…
Born X Raised celebrates 10 years of its Sadie Hawkins Winter Formal
By 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, hundreds of people were crowded outside the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, waiting to get inside one of Los Angeles’ most anticipated events of the year: Born X Raised‘s annual Sadie Hawkins Winter Formal. Since 2014, the beloved…
Opinion: Why we’re so obsessed with clearing out our stuff
When I asked my mother what she might like for her birthday this year, she quickly texted back: Nothing. We are downsizing. My parents already live in a small house — a former fishing cabin on the edge of a…
You don’t have to celebrate Christmas to experience the spiritual benefits of Advent
Ellen O’Brian hadn’t bought a candy-filled advent calendar in years, but when she saw the festive cardboard box with little numbered panels in her local natural foods store, she couldn’t resist. “It’s put out by a chocolate maker called Divine,…
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Tiffany Haddish
Tiffany Haddish names her pets after things she wishes she could have more of. Namely, sleep. Her dog Sleeper and cats Sleepy and Catonic (whom she adopted from the set of the cat-themed movie “Keanu”) make her house in L.A.’s…
Our sexual chemistry was great. He panicked when I wanted conversation
I don’t do casual sex. My labels are demisexual and sapiosexual, or some combination of the two, which makes being attracted to someone when there is no intellectual or emotional spark improbable, if not impossible. Ironically, I also have a…
From closeted teens to viral on TikTok, TrinoxAdam share their story
• Trino Garcia and Adam Vasquez, known on social media as TrinoxAdam, went viral when their kiss on a bridge was shared by photographer Henry Jiménez Kerbox.• Today, with more than 2 million followers on TikTok, the Angeleno couple is…
Echo Park’s Género Neutral shop finds an afterlife
On Saturday, Image co-hosted a party in memory of Género Neutral, the beloved retail shop in Echo Park that closed earlier this year. To mark the end of an era, Ashley SP, one of the co-owners of the shop, wrote…
‘I got lonely’: Why a student built an escape room in a UCLA dorm room
“Code Green” has the trappings of a modern escape room. We enter what we are told is a hidden bunker-turned-research lab. It’s dark, but there are clearly challenges that surround us: patterns in the walls, a cork board filled with…
Moo Deng is a global phenomenon. How long can this love affair last?
CHONBURI PROVINCE, Thailand — Like most babies, Moo Deng spends a lot of her time sleeping. But for a few hours a day, the 4-month-old pygmy hippo springs to life, gumming on leaves, zooming around the compound and tossing her head…
9 L.A. locals share their favorite walks in the city
Los Angeles is teeming with beautiful places to walk, but for many of us, our favorite paths are those that are closest to home. These are the walks we do again and again, when we need to shake out our…
Need an alternative to Black Friday? Look to L.A.’s museum stores
Holiday gift shopping? It’s chaos. The Grove on Black Friday? Good luck finding parking — it’s a two-hour wait just to squeeze into a spot. And big box stores? Just no. If you’re looking for something less stressful and more…
I told my dream guy I liked him. He told me I had too many guy friends
I was hanging out with my friend Patrick, comparing notes on our dating lives. We were talking about red flags and whether we had any. “Well,” said Patrick, “I feel like I’m sort of an aerospace cliché. … I’m an…
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Manuel García-Rulfo
Manuel García-Rulfo moved to Los Angeles 15 years ago, and now the Guadalajara-born actor says he feels more like an Angeleno than a transplant. “I love this city. It’s cool. It has so much to offer,” he says with a…
An inside look at L.A. ceramist Linda Hsiao’s home studio in Altadena
Linda Hsiao was standing at a weathered work table inside her ceramics studio in Altadena. It was the day after Halloween, and her two children, Saben Taylor, 5, and Wawona Hsiao, 3, worked alongside her, hand-sculpting clay vessels as wild…
A DIY guide to the Original Los Angeles Flower Market
• The Los Angeles Flower District features more than 70 vendors in two neighboring markets downtown — the Original Los Angeles Flower Market and the Southern California Flower Market.• Combined, the two markets are a vast kaleidoscope of natural and…
Horoscope for Sagittarius 2024 – Los Angeles Times
(Beth Hoeckel / For The Times; Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, courtesy of Ssense.com) Among the ultra-blessed 22 cards in the tarot’s major arcana — that is, the cards that have the power to shift the narrative of destiny — we find…
Highlights, events and photos from L.A. Fashion Week 2024
Fashion weeks are like summer camps for style sickos. Especially this year’s L.A. Fashion Week, because every event happened at one single location: the W Hotel. You got to see your friends walk a show, or run into a stylist…
Your guide to upcycled and sustainable fashion brands
This story is part of Image’s November Lost & Found issue, exploring the many lives our clothes and objects have, the many stories that are still waiting to be unearthed. When Swedish brand Hodakova won the LVMH prize this year,…
A fashion editorial in Malibu on vintage and secondhand clothing
This story is part of Image’s November Lost & Found issue, exploring the many lives our clothes and objects have, the many stories that are still waiting to be unearthed. Our clothes hold us, shaping our experience and understanding of…
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Kaley cuoco
For Kaley Cuoco, Sundays mean one thing: football. Her fiancé Tom Pelphrey first made her a fan. “Because Tom is so obsessed with football, if I wasn’t going to join then I would be an outsider,” she says. “I needed…
We got the life-changing call. My athletic husband had prostate cancer
The sun has just set over the Palos Verdes hills, and the tennis court lights are buzzing to life. I’m enjoying time with my husband, Steve, standing between clean lines on the deep blue courts made bluer by the artificial…
Everything you need to know about Disneyland’s Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
Splash Mountain’s eviction is complete. With the opening Friday of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Disneyland has formally rid itself of an attraction that came to be seen as problematic. In its place is a ride that serves as a celebration, boasting…
An ode to the bird of paradise, L.A.’s official city flower
In our household, beauty wore different names. This was back in 1995, when we lived on 58th Place, in the upstairs unit of an ash-white triplex in Ladera Heights, many miles south of the glamour and stock beauty of Hollywood…
What to know about radical feminist 4B movement that preaches ‘no sex’
SEOUL — The election of Donald Trump has sparked a surge of interest in the United States in South Korea’s 4B movement, a radical feminist crusade that preaches the four B’s: bi-hon (no marriage), bi-yeonae (no dating), bi-sekseu (no sex)…
Downtown’s Music Center is turning into an outdoor arcade this weekend
The game started as an experiment. A way to look at emergent behavior — the coordinated and mesmerizing flight of a flock of birds, for instance. For artist and researcher Hillary Leone, the concern was that the world was becoming…
Does slow strength training work? L.A.’s 90-year-olds think so
DeLoyce Alcorn is 92 years old — and pressing nearly four times that in weight at the gym. On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Alcorn — dressed in a T-Shirt that read “Be Strong. Be Resilient. Be You.” — slid into…
The best stores for vintage clothing in L.A.
For every time you hear an Angeleno smugly say “I thrifted it,” there’s a story behind the last hands that held the garment. Maybe it belonged to a fabulous Hollywood costume designer. Maybe it was languishing at the back of…
Interview with Asia White on supper clubs in Los Angeles
Asia White defines herself as an “idea person” — someone with an expansive imagination and a tendency to get overexcited. “I want to do lots of things. I’m always thinking of concepts, but I move on too quickly,” says the…
How are you staying fit after 65? Tell us about your unique routine
Want to know the secret to longevity? Hint: It can’t be found at the bottom of a serum bottle or at some luxury doctor’s office. The key is to consistently engage in “multicomponent” physical activities that encompass aerobic activity, muscle…
Visit Stars Hollow on Warner Bros.’ ‘Gilmore Girls’ studio tour
It’s fall, and for many that means it’s “Gilmore Girls” season. Though its original run ended in 2007, the series about the mother-daughter escapades of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore has remained a viewing behemoth, often returning to the top 10…
My surprising date with an ex-con Hollywood producer
If you had asked me to go on a date with someone who was barely out of prison, my answer would be an immediate no. I am not someone with Bonnie and Clyde syndrome, and I have never initiated anything…
I’ve walked the same L.A. trail 400 times. Here’s how it saved me
“Hello, old friend.” That’s the phrase that popped into my head at the start of my favorite walk recently. It was a warm October evening and the swaths of black mustard weed on the trail had completely dried up, leaving…
10 walking clubs to help you see L.A. — and make friends
Walking is considered one of the healthiest ways to exercise, but let’s be honest: Unless you have a dog dragging you to the door or a friend pulling your arm, it’s easy to find reasons to stay on the couch….
Walk L.A.: A pedestrian’s guide to exploring the city by foot
When it comes to “walkability,” L.A. gets a bad rap. To the weekend visitor, our city can seem like a maze of twisting freeways and roads built for cars, walled off to pedestrians. But those who really know L.A. can…
The best freebies and discounts for L.A.’s 50-plus crowd
According to the census, nearly a third of Los Angeles residents are over 50. And we’re aging collectively — according to a Times report, L.A. County’s median age rose 2.6 years between 2012 and 2022. Thankfully, L.A. is an enticing…
Best massages and self-care gifts for your stressed L.A. friends
Sometimes the best gift is not another item to keep track of but an experience where you can lose yourself entirely and find serenity, healing or replenishment. Fortunately, L.A. is filled with unexpected places that provide an escape from the…
Microdosing Ozempic? Patients are using DIY doses of weight-loss drugs
Shauna Bookless never imagined she’d become her own pharmacist. But after gaining more than 20 pounds during undergraduate and graduate school and feeling unhappy with her weight, the Hollywood resident found herself mixing vials in her kitchen to create her…
The best gardening and plant gifts for all skill levels
Plant people are easy to buy for — and hard too — because the really die-hard gardeners usually want nothing more than their favorite battered clippers and an old table knife for weeding. The truth is, many of those cutesy…
6 things to know about L.A.’s whimsical new Balloon Museum
You won’t find any clowns at the L.A. leg of the traveling Balloon Museum, but there are plenty of other carnival-inspired sights and sounds to be experienced: massive inflated tents, queue lines marked by bright primary colors and concessions fit…
The ultimate holiday gift guide you need in Los Angeles
Credits Creative Director: Amy KingFeatures Editor: Brittany Levine BeckmanLead Gift Guide editor: Marques HarperProject editors: Jen Doll, Philip Gray (books), Betty Hallock (food), Michelle WooWriters: Lisa Boone, Stephanie Breijo, Kailyn Brown, Cindy Carcamo, Jaclyn Cosgrove, Danielle Dorsey, Betty Hallock, Jenn…
The best coffee-table books about California and Los Angeles
The City of Angels, La La Land, Tinseltown, the Big Orange — whatever you call this city and however you’ve made a life in it, you probably have an obsession or three about Los Angeles and our great state. We’ve…
Tanya “Nena” Melendez, AKA @ladysoulfly, makes original hairpieces
This story is part of Image’s October Luxury issue, exploring what luxury really means to artists, designers, aestheticians, architects and more. In this as-told-to interview, hair artist Tanya “Nena” Melendez shares the stories behind two wigs she made for the…
Things to do, exhibitions to see in L.A. in November
Louis Vuitton at the Americana Louis Vuitton has joined the lineup of designers and boutiques at shopping destination Americana at Brand in Glendale. Its new retail space illustrates the spirit of the heritage fashion house, offering men’s and women’s accessories,…
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Sophie Thatcher
Sophie Thatcher isn’t in L.A. at the moment — but “Yellowjackets” fans will appreciate the reason. She’s in Vancouver filming the new season of the hit Showtime series, in which Thatcher’s character Natalie was revealed last season as the ringleader…
She taught me to love L.A. Could we survive a long-distance romance?
Long Beach is not Los Angeles. The suburb, if that’s something you can call the seventh-largest city in California, is geographically close to the City of Angels but emotionally distant. The hometown of both Snoop Dogg and Billie Jean King…
Stressed about the election? Here are 5 tips to ease your mind
For many people, stress related to the approaching presidential election is palpable. Even, at times, unbearable. Judith Martinez, 32, a nonprofit founder in Los Angeles, says the election feels like an existential crisis and has contributed to bouts of insomnia….
Halloween invites us to live with the uncertainty of a scary season
One of the best parts of new parenthood is figuring out what your child is going to be for Halloween. Considering the costume possibilities for my 15-month-old, I have been surprised and often delighted by what one can find on…
Has Nintendo found a better way to wake up? A review of Alarmo
No one has ever applauded me for getting out of bed before. But for the last week and a half a tiny, cheery red machine has been rewarding me with a fanfare when I decide to rise. Its digital screen…
Allan McLeod’s “Walkin’ About” podcast will help you explore L.A.
• In April, comedian Allan McLeod launched “Walkin’ About,” a podcast in which he and a guest stroll somewhere in the L.A. region.• His walking companions have included actor Dan Stevens, Ed. Begley Jr. and comedian Jon Gabrus. • Through…
The secret to finding love might just be a PowerPoint presentation
As a woman prepares to pitch her friend to an audience of roughly 200 eager singles, a few of their pals skip around the room, hold up cardboard signs that say “Team Jason” and hype up the crowd. A live…
Agoura Hills wildlife crossing spans the 101, but much work remains
• The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing now spans the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills, but weather issues have pushed completion to sometime in 2026.• Builders plan to cover the crossing with “engineered” soil inoculated with local microbes early next year…
L.A. artist and DJ Sebastian Hernandez shares their beauty ritual
This story is part of Image’s October Luxury issue, exploring what luxury really means to artists, designers, aestheticians, architects and more. A skin, hair or makeup routine is never just a skin, hair or makeup routine. We dived deep into…
An ode to lipstick and gloss, and what lipstick to wear in L.A.
This story is part of Image’s October Luxury issue, exploring what luxury really means to artists, designers, aestheticians, architects and more. My first influencer event was in the summer of 2017 at the Museum of Ice Cream in L.A. I…
The secrets to Eric Blackwell’s creativity? Friendships and recycling
• Eric Blackwell is making a name for himself with his handcrafted artworks made largely from reclaimed guitar wood, featured in California boutiques like Trina Turk and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation store.• His passion for guitars led him to…
A definitive yet unserious guide to L.A. for Yankees fans
You’re a Yankees fan headed to Los Angeles for the first time. Of course you have questions. After all, you’ve come west from an old, dense, stinky, shrinking, corruption-plagued city while we wait here in a young, sprawling city that’s…
How a forgotten California border town became a hip hideaway
The first two surprises, as you roll up Old Highway 80 into this dry and silent Sonoran Desert town, might be the steam and the music. The steam rises from two pools at the recently reborn Jacumba Hot Springs Hotel….
What 22 Dodger fans wore for the World Series
The last time the Dodgers were in the World Series, it was in the thick of the pandemic. So all the games were played at a neutral site in Arlington, Texas, and the capacity was capped at 25% of capacity….
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to J.B. Smoove
Over the course of J.B. Smoove’s decades-long career as a comedian, actor and writer, he’s become known for many things. His fast-paced, New Yorker cadence and quick-witted comebacks. His wide-brim hats and dapper suits. And of course, his most beloved…
We started having sex. Did that ruin our new friendship?
I saw Trevor around the gym for months — scattered tattoos and black tank top with a cute smudge of climbing chalk on their ears. They always made sure to say hi, looking in my direction frequently. They first asked…
Workers turn to van life amid Eastern Sierra housing crunch
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. — Emily Markstein, a sinewy rock climber and skier who has spent seven years living and working in the Sierra resort town of Mammoth Lakes, opens a large sliding door and welcomes a stranger into her home….
The rise of Erewhon and how food became a luxury
The industrial food supply will be the last bastion of the luxury economy, and we might mirror the cannibals in doomsday movies before we cede our idiosyncratic eating habits to austerity. Capitalism is amazing because it inspires unrelenting competition between…
Where to smoke weed near LAX? The Artist Tree’s new Hawthorne location
Barely four hours after he had arrived in Los Angeles from Georgia to attend his nephew’s birthday bash, James Huling was seated at a bar rolling a joint and sipping a cannabis-infused agua fresca on a recent Thursday afternoon. “I’m…
Advocates say P-22 should have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
• Famed cougar P-22 is a rock star in the wildlife world, inspiring a novel, songs, murals, documentaries and festivals that have drawn thousands since his death in December 2022.• An advocate credits his life story with making the Wallis…
Photos of Art Deco and Japanese-inspired bathrooms around L.A.
This story is part of Image’s October Luxury issue, exploring what luxury really means to artists, designers, aestheticians, architects and more. My love of bathrooms stems from them being a personal space, and that it’s really a time alone in…
A guide to the Santa Ynez Valley, L.A.’s nearest wine country
When Alexander Payne’s wine-drenched dramedy “Sideways” first came out, Santa Ynez Valley didn’t have the luster of Napa or the breadth of the Russian River Valley. It still doesn’t match the touristic draw of either, but the spunky kid sister…
Scorpio horoscope by Goth Shakira
The Black Dumpling Sculpture by Jess Sellinger Ceramics via ssense.com. (Beth Hoeckel for The Times) It can be tempting to fall prey to the lore around Scorpio. There is no other sign (except for, perhaps, Gemini) that has come to…
Steff Yotka, Guillermo Andrade, Mina Alyeshmerni and Daniel Pacitti on luxury
This story is part of Image’s October Luxury issue, exploring what luxury really means to artists, designers, aestheticians, architects and more. In the 2005 Chanel miniseries “Signé Chanel,” French filmmaker Loïc Prigent offers an unprecedented inside look at the storied…
I set up camp on a Lost Coast beach. Then a mountain lion showed up
It was 1996, and while traveling through the Lost Coast in far northern California, my boyfriend and I were camping without a tent on the beach. We’d been to Yosemite and some other places, but we’d just gotten there. We…
They created a mini-farm outside their Culver City home
Water-hungry lawns are symbols of Los Angeles’ past. In this series, we spotlight yards with alternative, low-water landscaping built for the future. Like most families stuck at home during the pandemic, psychologist Angel Black and her husband, philosophy professor Tim…
L.A. aesthetician Andrea Ámez performs spiritual facials
A skin, hair or makeup routine is never just a skin, hair or makeup routine. We dived deep into the beauty rituals of artists and aestheticians across L.A., and in turn learned more about their relationships to themselves and the…
How to embrace your natural hair, skin and smile, with Elyse Thoms
A skin, hair or makeup routine is never just a skin, hair or makeup routine. We dived deep into the beauty rituals of artists and aestheticians across L.A., and in turn learned more about their relationships to themselves and the…
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Julie Bowen
For Julie Bowen, mom of three teenage boys, a perfect Sunday would include plenty of “me time.” “My whole family calls laundry and dishes my ‘hobbies,’” she said. “No, no, my hobbies are reading, going to museums, hiking and playing…
I had a chance at happiness with the new guy. But was I ready for it?
He handed me a brown paper bag — mind you, just a regular lunch-size kraft paper bag that was still flat and folded — and in all seriousness said, “Just in case you need it.” Turning to look at him…
Photographer and creative director Barrington Darius on his hair-cutting ritual
A skin, hair or makeup routine is never just a skin, hair or makeup routine. We dived deep into the beauty rituals of artists and aestheticians across L.A., and in turn learned more about their relationships to themselves and the…
How to see the lost art of rebel Disney imagineer Rolly Crump in L.A.
Rolly Crump had an outsized reputation. A rebel in the Disney fold. A beatnik. An unapologetic tell-it-like-it-is you-know-what. Crump, who died last year at the age of 93, also forever changed the look of Disneyland. His art can be found…
Hiking inn-to-inn from Santa Monica to San Diego
Approaching Laguna Beach on the hike from Newport Beach to San Clemente. (Tom Courtney) This charming stroll will transport you back to the 1930s, through popular Laguna Beach, with its throngs of tourists and stylish art galleries, to Dana Point,…
A new wave of photogenic products want to help Gen Z quit vaping
When model Josephine Lee, known online as Princess Gollum, arrived in Studio City for a skincare brand photo shoot in November 2021, she had all her signature accessories in tow. An eerie-chic partially shaved head, spooky colored contacts and a…
Navigating a world-record corn maze tests the human psyche
DIXON, Calif. — Deep inside one of the world’s largest corn mazes, where the tri-tip sandwiches and soft-serve ice cream purchased at the concession stand have become but a memory and all that can be seen in any direction are dirt…
A New York City guide for L.A. people (Dodgers’ version)
Any Dodgers fan visiting New York is bound to have questions. Why is the Statue of Liberty calling for a right-handed relief pitcher? Why does the wait for trains along the High Line seem like forever? Can I trust these…
Here are meaningful ways to ring in the fall season in sunny L.A.
During this year’s early September heat wave, I sat in a shaded courtyard at USC struggling to write after teaching my classes. The oppressive noon heat stifled my brain while sweat streamed from my temples. After a few minutes of…
This 71-year-old L.A. pole dancer defies expectations — and gravity
Dressed in 7-inch neon heels and translucent yellow bell-bottoms, Mary Serritella was defying gravity and expectations on a recent Wednesday night at Hollywood’s Bourbon Room. Spinning gracefully around a silver pole to disco medley, she contorted her body into a…
A wildfire destroyed their yard. They decided to plant native plants
• After years of living in a condo, the Hinch family was ecstatic about the giant backyard of their new Porter Ranch home. • Then they got their first water bill of $3,000 and tore out much of their lawn.•…
The brilliant fall foliage of the Eastern Sierra draws a global crowd
BISHOP, Calif. — Just after dawn on Thursday, I pointed my car up a long, steep hill outside Bishop and climbed through the high desert scrub toward the towering peaks of the Eastern Sierra. For about 15 miles, the land and…
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Abby Wambach
Imagine it: Soccer legend Abby Wambach, five years old and a gifted forward, scoring 27 goals in her first three youth soccer games. Now widely known, it’s a story that Wambach shares often to emphasize the importance of working with…
Trans people find sexiness and absurdity on the wrestling mat
“Dale!” drag king Mauro Cuchi shouts into the mic. “Eso!” the crowd roars back. A spotlight shines on two glistening bodies facing off on the wrestling mat, each scantily clad and grappling to subdue the other in a takedown. But…
Is having your clothes tailored worth it?
I can think of nothing more luxurious than choice — the simple ability to dictate rather than be dictated to. We take for granted that we can pick from seven different brands of coffee makers or thousands of hours of…
The ‘Little Women Ballet’ leaps into a historic L.A. site
As contemporary Angelenos, seeing the immersive “Little Women Ballet” might be as close as we’ll ever get to stepping into a time machine. The series of dance works about Louisa May Alcott’s beloved 19th century novel are staged inside the…
9 tips to strength train and avoid injuries as you get older
I started strength training about nine years ago for admittedly vain reasons. Fresh off a breakup at the time, weight training offered a welcome distraction and the prospect of a revenge body. I trained two or three times a week…
These are the most fascinating L.A. museums you’ve never heard of
Todd Lerew is curious. He likes lists. And he doesn’t like doing things halfway. This is why he collects pictorial maps, why he has visited 248 public libraries in Los Angeles County and 401 of the 483 municipalities in California….
Commentary: ChainFest is a fetishization of cheap food for rich people
Hollywood’s upper-class elites have found a new way to show that they’re out of touch. And I fell for it. Chain, a recent darling of social media and beneficiary of articles that speak of its nostalgia-fueled good times, promises the…
The freedoms of dressing in midlife
It is summer in the Midwest, hot as soup, and I don a frock the size of a twin bed sheet in cooling cotton. “Going full women’s studies professor today, are we?,” my wife comments appreciatively. I give her a…
Join the L.A. Times on a fall hike along the Gabrielino Trail
Howdy! I’m Jaclyn Cosgrove, an outdoors reporter at the L.A. Times. I write about the best trails, bodies of water, campgrounds and more that you should visit in and around Los Angeles County. I’m also the voice behind The Wild,…
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Charlie Puth
When pop singer-songwriter Charlie Puth first began visiting Los Angeles in the early 2010s, he remembers landing at a house near Mount Olympus with an incredible view. Though he‘d only recently become a legal adult, he’d already built a following…
13 Los Angeles places to celebrate halloween all year long
For Halloween lovers, there is only one major problem with spooky season: it ends. But in a city where the change in seasons is more of a shift in mindset anyway, it doesn’t have to. Where there is a will…
She’s intelligent, witty and kind. Is this what true love feels like?
Some people might wonder: Is true love at first sight just a romantic fantasy? Or does it ever actually happen? These weren’t thoughts that had yet occurred to me when I was 13 years old. I was old enough to…
Locals share their secret tips and hacks for living in Los Angeles
Living in Los Angeles is a lot like folding a fitted sheet: It seems almost impossible to do well — until someone shares a tip or two that smooths things out and makes the whole process infinitely easier to navigate….
New pop-up stores and art exhibitions in L.A. this fall
Van Cleef & Arpels pop-up at South Coast Plaza The ultimate in luxury, Van Cleef & Arpels has a pop-up at South Coast Plaza this fall. Interact with the Ludo collection, an array of Art Deco-influenced pieces inspired by Louis…
Can you immediately have feelings for a stranger? I found out at LAX
My brother dropped me off curbside at Los Angeles International Airport and yelled, “Run!” Our timing getting to LAX was thwarted by the kind of notorious L.A. traffic that airline change fees and crushed dreams are made of. Departure to…
In this new series, we are highlighting Los Angeles makers and artists
(Textile sculpture of crafting materials and tools made by Los Angeles artist Mashanda Lazarus; photo by Robert Hanashiro / For The Times) Los Angeles’ creative class extends far beyond Hollywood. In this series, we highlight local makers and artists, from…
Where to get free trees around Greater Los Angeles and beyond
Once upon a time — well, in 1928, actually — the city of Los Angeles took the progressive step of opening the Commonwealth Nursery in Griffith Park, which over the next 50 years grew millions of trees and plants —…
Ballet is back. Why adults are returning to L.A. dance studios
On a Tuesday in September, Mary Ruble walked up to the barre of the Westside School of Ballet in Santa Monica for a 7:45 a.m. ballet class, joining about 30 women of all different ages. They stretched and chatted until…
Raina Lee makes volcanic glazes for her Chinese-inspired ceramics
To get to ceramist Raina Lee’s tree house, you enter through an iron gate with a dog warning sign and climb a long wooden staircase that creaks beneath your feet. You’ll then cross a suspension bridge, and you’ll hear, “Be…
How to plan a dreamy winter Amtrak trip from L.A. to New Mexico
It was early morning in mid-December when I awoke to the sounds of steady rumbling while lying in the top bunk in my 9-by-5-foot family room in Amtrak’s Southwest Chief train. I climbed down a ladder to find my husband…
L.A. Times Image throws a magazine launch party at Soho Warehouse
The dress code caused mass chaos in the group chats: “Dripping in romance,” taking inspiration from the night’s theme, “L.A. Vie en Rose.” Any good prompt is both esoteric and hyper-specific enough to let your imagination run wild (and trigger…
How Lauren Bello created ‘The Morrison Game Factory’ board game
I knew “The Morrison Game Factory” had its hooks in me when I started talking back to it. There I was, alone and at home, and in conversation with a fictional machine. Puzzles were sprawled around me. Colorful dice, a…
Lonely and depressed at 50, I launched my own midlife reboot
“Are you leaving again? ” I asked my husband, Rob, as he packed for his second trip with the guys in three weeks. “Only for a few days.” I could sense the elation he felt in escaping. He was heading…
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Tony Hawk
Even though he officially retired from competition more than two decades ago, skateboarding legend and entrepreneur Tony Hawk seems to be everywhere these days. If you’re an avid video game player, you can watch him (or maybe even help him)…
Adult recess? L.A. groups for double Dutch, dodgeball and more
As a Black woman who grew up in New York City in the late ’90s and early aughts, double Dutch has always been near and dear to my heart. In the summertime, the balmy Bronx streets would be filled with…
I’m dealing with some things: my marriage and my feelings about L.A.
I’ve been crying a lot lately. I find myself sitting on the couch in my living room, folding laundry between Zoom meetings, the U.S. Open on in the background, my aging hands in the foreground, and I break into tears….
For Circus Vargas, Daniel Eguino is a Globe of Death motorcycle rider
• Fifth-generation circus performer Daniel Eguino is guided by his focus and his faith as he performs inside the locked metal cage known as the Globe of Steel at Circus Vargas. • A Sunday with the “most unique congregation on…
Spanish Sin Pena, LAUSD teachers use regional Mexican in curriculum
Wendy Ramirez, co-founder of online learning website Spanish Sin Pena, saw firsthand how música Mexicana affected her students — many of whom are of Latin American descent — during a recent language immersion trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, organized by her…
Tortured by regrets? A new study details how best to overcome them
We all have regrets. And they come in myriad shapes and sizes. Some people stew over a minor bad decision, like an unnecessary impulse purchase. Others ruminate over major fork-in-the-road moments, like turning down a potentially exciting career opportunity. For…
These 25 hiking trails were burned in the Southern California fires
As the Bridge fire spread from the East Fork of the San Gabriel River to the beloved mountain communities of Mount Baldy and Wrightwood last week, questions arose about what would be left in its wake. And those included which…
A look at the ‘party car’ on the swanky high-speed rail coming to SoCal
One day in the late 2020s, if the people at Brightline West deliver on their promised fast train between Southern California and Las Vegas, you’ll be able to order a drink while rolling toward the Strip. And apparently you’ll be…
Guillermo Cuevas of Dunrite Leatherworks and his studded belts
This story is part of Image’s September Image Makers issue, celebrating some of the most daring and innovative artists working in fashion today. This belt pays tribute to the studded belt, and is reminiscent of what Edward Bohlin would have…
Planeta, Wavey, and the fashion scenes of L.A. and Mexico City
This story is part of Image’s September Image Makers issue, celebrating some of the most daring and innovative artists working in fashion today. Eric Solis describes his photos as “cyberghetto,” “flow 2000s,” “raver chic.” Models wearing cargos layered with neon…
How can we save ourselves from drowning in garbage?
Edward Humes thinks a lot about garbage — and how we should deal with it. “Garbology,” the Pulitzer Prize winner’s book on “our dirty love affair with trash,” came out in 2012, and “Total Garbage: How We Can Fix Our…
Plastic is what’s forming our future, and it’s killing us
Some of you may be thinking that plastic is convenient to use, but is it convenient to kill the planet? As time passes, more and more plastic is being thrown into landfills, burned and thrown into the ocean. Plastic is…
Sunday Funday in Los Angeles with Tinx
From an early age, Christina Najjar, better known by her moniker Tinx, recalls the grip that “Sunday scaries” had on her household. “I remember my dad being kind of stressed out, and it was the day that everybody went to…
Claudia Rivera hosts pop-ups for Latino designers in Paris
Claudia Rivera, a Peruvian-Parisian creative director and photographer, is known for building worlds in Paris that are colorful and communal, events that feel like a home away from home for the Latino community there. Rivera pulls up to Holy Grounds…
He ghosted me on text and Instagram. When would enough be enough?
At 5:11 p.m. on a Friday, my phone buzzed with a message from Matt. I was deep in work for my graduate program, and his text left me momentarily stunned. The same Matt who had ghosted me despite promising to…
Highlights from New York Fashion Week 2024
I took an old point-and-shoot digital camera to New York Fashion Week because, haven’t you heard? It’s 2006 again, baby — when I was 11, I would lock myself in my room and give myself flash blindness by taking dozens…
Her tiny native plant garden is alive with monarch butterflies
Water-hungry lawns are symbols of Los Angeles’ past. In this series, we spotlight yards with alternative, low-water landscaping built for the future. When Aurora Anaya bought her little Art Deco house on a corner lot in Whittier, Calif., she was…
Can anything slow fast fashion down? Lawmakers are giving it a go
Worldwide criticism of fast fashion’s waste, labor abuses and carbon emissions has done little to slow down the industry. But new legislation could alter the flood of goods — like the floral print jumpers priced at, say, $2.99, the kids’…
A Prada dress and the rising trend of ribbons in fashion
As a young aspiring ballerina, I was transfixed by ribbons. Attached just so, winding up the ankle like a vine, tied expertly on the inside of the leg — to me, nothing completed a ballet slipper like a ribbon. I…
Vet care costs are rising in California. Residents share their worst bills
Two things are certain in pet parenting: 1) your furry loved one will one day have to visit the vet and 2) the cost of veterinary care is increasing, rising more than 60%, over the last decade, according to a…
Zana Bayne and Mariano Cortez of Bustedbrand open a store
Zana Bayne and Mariano Cortez are two of the most low-key yet cultishly-loved designers in L.A. dealing in leather and latex, respectively. They also happen to be a couple. Zana wears Zana Bayne corset, Black Suede Studio boots, Calzedonia tights,…
Indigenous Angelenos have found a home in this new community center
On a sweltering July afternoon in Echo Park, Miranda Due approached a table topped with a trio of flavored syrups and a spread of toppings: diced pickles, Kool-aid powder and gummy bears. Behind it, Dria Yellowhair pulled a pre-filled cup…
Children are glued to screens. Are ‘forest schools’ the antidote?
On a glorious summer day, a preschooler named Roger teetered on rocks dotting a creek in eastern Orange County, unsure if he could make it back to where his classmates and caregivers were waiting. A volunteer youth mentor with Earthroots…
‘Fridgescaping’ is another sign social media has made fools of us
Does it sometimes seem as if social media has turned American popular culture into a perfectionist parody of itself? Last week, I followed a social-media-spawned debate over whether a home decor trend called “fridgescaping” was worthy of media attention. I…
Zerina Akers on styling Beyoncé and what it takes to be a successful stylist in L.A.
How does one become a stylist to the stars? When you hear the story of Zerina Akers, stylist to Beyoncé, Megan Thee Stallion and Karol G, you learn that success not only takes devoted work but also genuine community building….
‘I’m not going to pitch myself to you. This isn’t ‘The Bachelor’
Jay and I matched on Hinge the night I was going to delete my account. His profile painted a picture of intellect and being well-traveled, active and fun. His messages were witty, and he knew how to keep the conversation…
Esther Perel on finding pleasure in the era of online dating
Esther Perel’s trajectory from private practice psychotherapist to internationally renowned relationship expert is deeply entwined with technology. It was her publisher’s printing presses that distributed her 2006 breakout bestselling book, “Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence” (HarperCollins), in more than…
L.A. millennials share their anxieties and hopes around turning 30
One night when I was out at a bar, reporting for a story, I struck up a conversation with a comedian who was in her early 30s. I’d recently turned 29 and I expressed that I was feeling anxious about…
Natasha Newman-Thomas and costume designing for film and TV
How do you know how to dress someone when that person technically doesn’t exist? This inane yet genuine question burned in my mind when I sat down to interview Natasha Newman-Thomas, an award-winning costume designer. Newman-Thomas is the sartorial mastermind…
Live out your Dungeons & Dragons dreams at downtown L.A. bar
Carlos Leon found himself in a depressed state — a personal relationship was stalling and his career seemed directionless. What he craved was an escape, one inspired by the fantasy worlds he devoured as a child and continued to consume…
Fashion events and art exhibitions in Los Angeles this September
Louis Vuitton Art Silk Squares A tradition since 1987, Louis Vuitton’s Art Silk Squares project invites select artists from around the world to design their own Louis Vuitton silk square. This year, L.A.-based pixel-art collective eBoy created a square that…
How this L.A. Chinese herb shop became a TikTok wellness phenom
Based on the number of local L.A. content creators that have visited Tian Xiang — a small, nondescript herbal medicine shop in Los Angeles’ Chinatown — you might think it’s the single best Chinese pharmacy in Los Angeles. Its TikTok…
When’s the last time you said “only in L.A.”? We want to hear about it
There’s no place in the world quite like L.A. If you’ve spent any time living in this diverse, vibrant city, chances are you have a few stories under your belt that only could have happened here. Here are two favorites…
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Tony Gonzalez
When NFL Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez was growing up in Torrance, he remembers spending Sundays watching the Los Angeles Raiders on television. After all, “they had Bo Jackson,” Gonzalez says of the famous running back. (The Rams,…
After a fall, I took a chance and flirted with a sexy guy in the ER
I am an 81-year-old widow with shaky balance. But friends have told me that I have a face and outlook as those of a younger woman. Not too long ago, after I finished breakfast, a strange feeling came over me….
This L.A. resident took a vow of silence. Here’s how he makes it work
On a recent Monday in August, Kevito Clark hosted a video conference call to discuss the next installment of a game night he runs at the LINE LA, a hotel in Koreatown. But over the course of the hour-long meeting,…
The best Hollywood movie studio tours, from Warner Bros. to Universal
Tourists view a variety of locations during the Sony Studios lot tour, with Tony Tasset’s 94-foot, 2012-constructed rainbow that references “The Wizard of Oz” in the distance. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times) Best for: Game show devotees and a vision…
Kings Canyon is a hiking and camping paradise — without the crowds
Just five hours north of Los Angeles sits a national park that should be on your outdoor bucket list. It features a valley carved millions of years ago by glaciers, hulking mountains made of granite and other rock, countless waterfalls,…
Listen to music from around the world at these L.A. parties
As the Latin trap anthem “Singamo” rings over the speakers at the Echo in Echo Park, more than 50 people sing along and twerk on stage. Dina Ben-Nissan and Courtney Hollinquest take turns spinning tracks by artists from around the…
How to tour Bellosguardo, a haunting estate on a Santa Barbara bluff
The house, a French palace on a Santa Barbara bluff, stands as undisturbed as a crime scene, a pair of unstrung harps in the music room, china laid out on the dinner table, waves crashing on East Beach below. This…
I immediately noticed red flags. But I wanted to go salsa dancing
His Bumble bio and photos were appealing. He also traveled frequently and loved to dance. Over the phone, he came across as dorky to me. But when he suggested that we go salsa dancing for our first date, I decided…
Sunday Funday in Los Angeles with Jessica Alba
When Jessica Alba reminisces about her Sundays as a child, the first things that come to mind are sleeping in and having Sunday dinner with her tight knit family. “We would do enchiladas, al pastor or a more elaborate dinner…
The best lakes in L.A. County for swimming, fishing and boating
Nothing screams “summer” more than a day spent by the water. And Angelenos have many ways to access it, including a long coastline hugged by the Pacific, plenty of pools and refreshing swimming holes galore. But consider the local lake,…
6 groups of SoCal residents share how they made age-gap friendships
On a bench near the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market in July, Peggy Cheng recalled the time a television writer pitched her a wacky sitcom centered around the unlikely scenario of a young woman who had befriended her elderly neighbors. Cheng,…
My best friend is 30 years older. Here’s what she’s taught me about life
She was 63. I was 33. We shared cocktails at a rooftop bar overlooking Sunset Boulevard during golden hour. And the connection was palpable. No, this isn’t the start to an “L.A. Affairs” romance column. But it is about a…
Are you a lifelong drinker who wants to get sober? Try these tips
“Want a glass of wine?” my friend yelled at me down the hall, yanking a cork out of a wine bottle. My writer’s group had rented a lake house in Vermont this past June on an island in the middle…
A sartorial horoscope for the perfectionist Virgo
(Beth Hoeckel / For The Times) Not everyone may want to encounter a Virgo, but everyone will need to do so at one point or another. No matter how much you might resist their tutelage, or how stubbornly you might…
Preppy clothes get a refresh with Chris Echevarria’s Academy
Hella Academy by Chris Echevarria Pennant Chino in khaki, Field Ready Rugby in hunter green, Schoolboy Blazer in navy, Weekender Bucket Hat in shell, Ellis Penny Loafer in chocolate, Vibram 1757 Lug Sole. When we talk about “traditional American menswear,”…
How to get a guy to flirt with you? I sent him a LinkedIn message
Last year, the nonprofit where I work went from requiring employees to come into the office twice a month to three times a week. I was grumpy about the change. It’s not that I don’t like the people I work…
‘Escape From Godot’ is an L.A. escape room that’s also theater
A few minutes after the play begins, the actors stop, empty their pockets and repeat their last few lines. And then they do it again. And again. And again. This live approximation of a vinyl record that catches on loop…
How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Awkwafina
In Awkwafina’s new movie “Jackpot!” (co-starring John Cena and Simu Liu and directed by Paul Feig; it’s now streaming on Prime Video), the rapper and comedian plays an aspiring actor turned winner of a multi-billion dollar lottery ticket. So when…
What’s your highest vet bill? We want to hear SoCal readers’ stories
Meet Zia, my dilute calico who enjoys chasing droplets of water in the tub and lying flat on her back, like a fluffy rug in a log cabin. In her two years of life she’s spent quite a bit of…
2024 fashion: What 9 teens wore on the first day of school in L.A.
As a kid, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I was going to wear on the first day of school. I loved going shopping for new supplies, clothes and shoes. Then, the night before the first day,…
How selfies and portraits in Beverly Hills became an immigrant tradition
Artist and founder of Tlaloc Studios Ozzie Juarez, and film director-model-multidisciplinary artist Pablo Simental. The photos are warm and grainy, some of them taken at an angle. They show four young men smiling — no, beaming. It’s 1991: The jackets…
The hootin’-hollerin’ allure of Knott’s Berry Farm’s Ghost Town Alive!
“Have you ever pickpocketed?” No, I have not. At Knott’s Berry Farm, it was suggested I give it a try. Thieving, the man gushed, is freeing, and, by it’s very nature, comes with a reward — or spoils. But I…
Radical Sewing Club teaches mending for just $5 to fight fast fashion
On a balmy summer evening, Sary Gil of Norwalk tediously repairs one of his T-shirts with red thread using decorative stitches that look like rosebuds. You wouldn’t know it, but just three weeks ago, he sewed for the first time….
L.A. lawns waste water, but artificial turf is even worse
Let’s start with some common sense: Covering the Earth with plastic carpet is a terrible idea. And yet we continue to cover an ever-growing swath of our public and private open spaces with artificial turf in a way that will…
5 great campsites near L.A. that are local favorites
Los Angeles is brimming with special slices of nature, tucked high in the mountains or along the coast. So when we put together a guide highlighting some of the best first-come, first-serve campsites in the city, we asked readers to…
Is L.A. too ugly to host the Olympics? You can be a part of saving it
If you overlook the polluted Seine, Paris looks so pretty on TV, so quintessentially Parisian, that it raises the question: How will Los Angeles compare when it hosts the 2028 Olympics? We can rhapsodize about our fabulous mountains and beaches,…
‘So is that your dad?’ Is dating an older man in L.A. a good idea?
The outside tables at Figaro Bistrot are far too close to one another. A group of women is seated beside us, drinking white wine and leaning together to murmur while giving me side-eye. My date gets up, excuses himself and…
L.A. contractors razed native plant garden for kids. What now?
For more than a decade, visitors say the Children’s Garden at Elysian Park was a shady showcase for indigenous plants, with dense stands of mature native trees and shrubs lining the paths of the grounds just west of Grace E….
Does my pet need sunscreen? How to care for animals during a heatwave
In the final months of summer, intensifying heat causes many of us to alter our daily routines. We wait until the cool air of the morning or evening to exercise, dust off our biggest water bottle and slather ourselves in…
Inside a new luxe L.A. wellness club from the Whole Foods founders
I sat in my car, in an El Segundo shopping mall parking lot, looking up at a new storefront touted as a one-stop shop for feeling physically fit, emotionally grounded and socially connected. My shoulder ached. It was my good…
A whimsical game is hiding among books at Los Angeles Public Library
Imagine that your local public library is inhabited by an undiscovered race of tiny people. They’ve hidden themselves in the racks, tucked behind books and magazines, amidst history and fiction, new media and old. If you’re lucky, you might spy…
What it’s like to travel to Maui one year after the catastrophic wildfires
Five hundred feet outside the Lahaina burn zone, the tourists receive their leis. As the torches of the Old Lahaina Luau flicker, bartenders mix mai tais and hula dancers get ready. After dinner, dancer and emcee Niki Rickard gathers the…
What do kook, barrel, carve and charge mean? A guide to surfer-speak
Some things are inevitable when surfing in Southern California: It can feel like an exclusive club, you may have to battle traffic to get to the good waves, and overhearing a very specific, and sometimes confusing, dialogue. When you paddle…
Seth Rogen shares his museum-worthy vintage ashtray collection
If your perception of Seth Rogen begins and ends with his scruffy stoner/schlubby Everyman persona, you might be surprised to find out that the actor, producer, comedian and cannabis-brand entrepreneur is also an ashtray aesthete of the highest caliber and…
Things to do in LA in August and September
Givenchy opens permanent store on Rodeo Drive (Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com / Courtesy of Givenchy) Givenchy’s first West Coast flagship lands in the iconic Beverly Hills shopping district. The 8,000-square-foot structure features furniture with archival tiger print fabric, and much…
How to accept being ‘a fat person’ and find self-acceptance
As an only child who moved around a lot, Emma Specter learned to comfort herself, as a lot of kids do, with familiar foods — whether it was the Dunkin Donuts she sought out in Rome or the candy bars…
I wasn’t lucky with love. Would a hot musician change my tune?
My beach romances have been disasters. On the Silver Strand in Coronado, a date tried to teach me to surf. I nearly drowned. I called it quits after a hard face-plant off the surfboard and into the wet sand. A…
A 66-mile drive to and from Los Angeles: Clouds, high heat and hail?
We’re used to time-bending drives in Southern California, watching our ETAs get longer instead of shorter as traffic jams grow. So I was resigned but not surprised when my 66-mile drive from Ventura to Elysian Park stretched from 86 minutes…
Southern California beaches that locals love, some off the beaten path
When readers shared their favorite Southern California beaches with us, the majority of their recommendations were for beaches that made our recent top 50 list. Picking the best beaches out of the roughly 200 in Southern California was an ambitious…
Looking for good vibes in L.A.? Readers share their ‘happy place’
“Just before visiting Los Angeles in summer 2008, I read a story in the Los Angeles Times about the opening of the first public park in downtown L.A. in more than 100 years. I was intrigued by the description of…
Gorgeous DIY habitat garden boasts native plants, water features
If a wildlife show wanted to film in the middle of Los Angeles, Casa Apocalyptica — a dizzying jungle of native plants, abundant wildlife, soothing water and salvaged debris — would be a great place to land. Here, slender salamanders…