Results tagged “downtownla”

              

Last night Cirque Berzerk opened their big top flaps to an enthusiastic crowd. Lucky for us, they invited LAist to check out what is happening behind the scenes when they are getting ready to perform in their huge new tent. Cirque Berzerk is running through July 5th downtown at Los Angeles State Historic Park.

                

We took a visit to Gladys Park in Skid Row to watch the Central Station LAPD play another game against the Skid Row 3 on 3 League All-Stars. In last year's game Skid Row took it to the LAPD. However, this time around the LAPD got the best of Skid Row. It was a great game and the crowd (including some very interested policemen) were into it. More importantly though, it showed the positive programs that are trying to take root in the much maligned area. The League Commissioner Manuel "OG Man" Compito and his associates put a lot of work into the game and the event and it showed. He states that the game between LAPD and a team that includes some known gang members " is a testament to the great community spirit that Skid Row has." We agree... and look forward to more! For more information about the league and future events or how you can help, you can contact OG Man via email. Here is some of what we saw.

Suede Bar, downtown's newest lounge, opened last week with little fanfare. Can the red suede bar that promises "beautiful staff" and a "sexy ambience" save The Westin Bonaventure from its tacky self or is it just more of the same?

                   

Last night we hit downtown L.A. for the Edison's weekly event, Incandescence, where vaudeville circus/dance troupe Lucent Dossier was performing from the stage, from the rafters, from the floor amid the audience. We sampled the absinthe cocktails which were served to us in vintage-looking glass bottles that we were allowed to take home. And even some of the liquor shots were handed to us in corked glass bottles that resembled those miracle elixirs con men used to shill back in the day. "Promise this will make us tipsy? Hey! It works!"

Russian Tatiana Aryasova won the LA Marathon, and the $100,000 "Banco Popular Challenge" with an unofficial time of 2:09:32*, beating out the top "elite" male runner, Laban Moiben of Kenya, who clocked in with an unofficial time of 2:13:50. The petite Aryasova is in peak shape; she recently gave birth and resumed her training rapidly.

Last Thursday evening, photographer/director Octavio "Winkytiki" Arizala (MySpace) celebrated the release of his Vivid-Alt (MySpace) movie at the Redwood Bar & Grill in Downtown LA.

For the last ten years, state representatives from Los Angeles have dominated the role of Speaker of the Assembly, including Mayor Villaraigosa, LA City Council Herb Wesson and Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle. Today, Karen Bass, the assemblywoman who represents neighborhoods from West LA to Culver City to Baldwin Hills, had enough votes to become Speaker of the Assembly up in Sacramento.

• Five are dead and one person was hurt in an apparent murder-suicide in Yorba Linda, close to the Richard Nixon Library. A 14-year-old called in to report that his father had shot him. Police later found that the gunman shot his wife and 3 of his children before turning the gun on himself.
• As we have pointed out before, it's not a good time to be a Republican. The state GOP is meeting in San Francisco (of all places) to talk about ways to help the party in which a deep rift has developed between those on the right and those to the right of them.
• In a headline nearly as long as the entire article, the Daily News tells us: Yes, you're paying more for gas. Average is now $3.10. We need to invest in alternative fuels. We need to elect a Democrat who will explore alternative fuels. We need to elect a Repuiblican who will drill in Alaska. We need to drive more hybrids. Fuck it, I'm off to catch the bus.
• Is Councilman Herb Wesson gearing up for a mayoral run? Hmmmmm. At least one blog might support some opposition.
• LAX could receive greater scrutiny if a study is approved Monday that would look into diesel emissions and how noise from arriving and departing planes affects surrounding homes. It's something that Bob Hope Airport in Burbank continues to grapple with.
• The nod for best movie may go to "No Country For Old Men," but the award for best tasting tap water has gone to Los Angeles. A panel of 10 journalists and food critics sampled sparkling, tap and bottled water from 19 states and other countries, including New Zealand, Romania, Macedonia and the Philippines before calling it for Los Angeles.
• And speaking of Oscars, if you are reading this, it means you are not reading our Academy Awards Live- Blogging. Even if you are not a fan of the glitz and glamor, I know you like our wit, and it's being served in 10-minute increments.
  Continue reading "Extra, Extra: We Taste The Best"

Remember the good old days, when you would just end up at a random artspace downtown sometime after midnight? People would be walking around wearing bowler hats and bunny suits while loud noise/music/artistic expression screeched out from the next room. So you would wander into the next room and find someone bellydancing or putting on a burlesque show. And you would think to yourself, "Oh my God! Who are these people? How did I get here? and how am I getting home?" A few hours later, you would find yourself in some Little Tokyo hole-in-the-wall drunkenly slurping up noodles.

I discovered this street art on 8th, just west of Grand in downtown LA last week.

Kanye West tickets for the April 21st concert sold out extremely quickly this morning during pre-sale (uh oh!). But we're happy to announce that they just decided to have a second Kanye West concert at NOKIA Theatre L.A. LIVE taking place the next day on Tuesday, April 22.

UPDATE: Seven Grand is a 21+ bar. We apologize for any inconveniences.

As revitalization takes place throughout LA's downtown area, many are seeking to extend the developments and improvements to the Broadway area, which is home to many majestic and historic theaters, once the crown jewels of our city's movie palaces. "Among the most prized treasures of the area are Broadway's twelve historic movie palaces, which in their heyday evoked - and often surpassed - the magic of stage and screen," explains Historic Downtown LA.

Through 10 a.m. this morning, here are the rain and snow totals in inches from the National Weather Service.

What’s up with all the development in Downtown LA? What’s it going to look like in 5, 10 or 20 years? Moderated by Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times architecture critic, ALOUD at the Central Library features panelists Lauren Bon, Tom Gilmore, Martha Welborne and James Von Klemperer, AIA to discuss all things Downtown and development.

A reader submitted a question last week about pigeons in Downtown:

pigeons droppings are a major nuisance and a health hazard here in downtown LA, where people keep feeding the birds. Please let me know if there is an ordinance against that, and as a private citizen where does one go to enforce it. Thank you.

This winter, Seven Grand in downtown LA is offering three specialty winter drinks: The Dublin Flip, Hot Toddy and Irish Coffee.

Yesterday the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved additional steps for Project 50, a three year pilot program that will help get some of the most vulnerable people living on skid row into permanent housing.

The New Year's Eve celebration at Little Radio in Downtown LA featured locals The Pity Party (MySpace), Fatlip (formerly of The Pharcyde), and Restaurant (MySpace), as well as DJ Lady Michelle Sinclair (MySpace). Not to mention free alcohol (after a $20.00 admission fee).

Father Dollar Bill (a.k.a. Reverend Maurice Chase) was at it again yesterday, handing out money on Skid Row. While he often hands out money to downtown residents in need, Christmas is his no-holds-barred attempt to spread a little more love in the form of Christmas cash.

Craby Joe's has been at the corner of 7th and Main in Downtown LA since 1933, and earned its place in local lore as a watering hole near and dear to the well-known downtrodden of the literary scene, like John Fante and Charles Bukowski. In honor of the bar's closing night, there will be a gathering of local historians and preservationists, and anyone else wishing to hoist a memorial last drink at Craby Joe's from 10 p.m. until last call on Christmas Eve. The night is being called a wake, in order to properly, and ceremoniously, say goodbye to the bar, whose "now-dead neon sign blinked gaily in the opening credits for Barfly and its pickled eggs were the day's only protein for too many."

I went to my 15th Tori Amos concert last night. I still remember the high school days of camping outside of Tower records at 7am on a Saturday morning to get tickets to the her shows, or that time I drove 3 hours in the snow to see her play in Boston on my 21st birthday. And then there was the time we got up at 6am to see her do a show in Central Park for Good Morning America. I even endured a full Alanis Morrissette concert in Vegas to see Tori play second in a double bill. Or there was that time in 1996 I stood in the rain for 2 hours in my L.L. Bean jacket waiting for her to sign autographs and take photos after the show.

Welcome to Hollywood Today, an LA City commission voted recommending that Charles Bukowski's former home to be designated a historic cultural monument. Yay books and reading! According to state representative Fabian Nunez, who represents the Downtown LA area, the biggest crisis we're facing today is foreclosures. ""It's a more immediate crisis," he told the AP. Meanwhile, protests are beginning to hit the streets over this. Drink up! It's the holidays! Caroline on Crack has...

I love shooting macro photos, especially involving things that don't move. It really allows you to leave the shutter open for a while and get some crazy detail on very small objects. For me, it takes a lot of things that people would find mundane and turns them into objects of beauty. I took a failed trip to McLogan's this morning, not knowing that they would be closed on Friday. As the foremost supplier to...

If you’ve driven through downtown LA you’ve definitely seen the Bonaventure Hotel. Next time you’re stuck in traffic on the 110, look to the side for four cylinder glass towers. Designed by developer and architect John Portman in 1977, the Bonaventure on south Figueroa stands out in the LA skyline as one of the few buildings worth looking at twice. I’d been hoping to visit it since seeing it from the roof of The Standard, and I got my chance while diagramming the building with a class from Otis College of Art and Design (field trip!). It turns out what I had first simply evaluated as a good-looking building is a postmodern masterpiece.