Reviews of Jay Babcock's review of Los Angeles didn't go so well in the comments section yesterday. Babcock, the man behind Arthur Magazine, left Los Angeles for Brooklyn earlier this month. Soundboard on LA Times caught up with him and quizzed him about his move and Babcock went off on Los Angeles. Today, Babcock explains his side of the story on the blog at Arthur Magazine's website: "I recently talked to an LATimes dude......

The man behind Arthur Magazine, Jay Babcock, recently took the indie rag's operation to Brooklyn where he decided to resettle. Soundboard, the LA Times music blog, got a hold of him for a short interview. His answer to the first question, "what prompted the move to Brooklyn?", is quite a read: New York is just a more hospitable environment than L.A. ever has been or will be. L.A. is devolving quickly, and I think......

The music venue that is the Knitting Factory has been a mainstay in the resurgence of Hollywood since 2000. As an anchor tenant and early adopter of the area, the New York City based club saw Hollywood change from having the 18th Street Gang territory sit one block away to having tourists flock the area making it a likely candidate for one of the most pedestrian dense areas in the city. Now that the area......

Shaq is on the attack again. From the folks at TMZ.com comes video of Shaq taking the mic last night at a New York City club. Among Shaq's freestylin' was a little piece on him blaming Kobe for his divorce and mocking of Kobe and the Lakers losing to the Celtics in the NBA Finals. The best part of the song is the audience participation where he urges the crowd to sing the chorus,......

Mia Birk of Alta Planning, the company that is working on the LA Bicycle Master Plan | Screen Capture from Sundance As part of Sundance Channel's green programming, tonight's episode of Big Ideas For A Small Planet features cities tackling transit with green solutions. No, Los Angeles is not featured (save for a couple stock shots of an orange Metro bus), but the ideas presented in the episode are all something the region could......

As reported yesterday in the midst of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's scandal where he was busted for his involvement in a prostitution ring, the same high-scale service he used has ties in Los Angeles as well as Washington, DC, Miami, London and Paris. Documents released yesterday showed that the Emperors Club VIP operated in two unnamed Los Angeles area hotels in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica according to CBS. The service is "an alleged......

As the country waits to see what the future holds for crusader turned illicit copulater Eliot Spitzer, it is worth examining what impact his prostitute predilection might have on the Democratic Party. Spitzer, the once immensely popular governor of New York that swept into office with 70 percent of the vote, was an early and avid supporter of Hillary Clinton. He is a Clinton superdelegate and helped solidify the support she enjoys in the state......

We always hear about Improv Everywhere pulling crazy stunts off in New York City, like five-minutes of frozen time at Grand Central or no-pants on the subway. Well, after a small improvised pillow fight at the Glendale mall (video below), the new LA Chapter of the collaborative pulled off their first major mission: a spontaneous musical at Baldwin Hills Mall, starting off with the Hot Dog On A Stick girl. Eventually a cast of......

Photograph of investigation at Times Square recruiting center by kerfuffle & zeitgeist on Flickr Gothamist found that an explosive set off outside the Times Square army recruiting center may be similar to five past bombings in New York City.Seattlest worried when severed right feet and bottles of rat poison started washing up on local beaches.Shanghaiist was surprised by Bjork's rooting for Tibetan independence at her concert (see video), and the political fallout has only......

Photographs of the damaged recruiting center (above) and Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly (below) by Mary Altaffer/AP After reports that 10 members of congress, including California Senator Dianne Feinstein, received letters and photos in the mail that possibly claimed responsibility for yesterday's bombing in Times Square, the FBI did the obvious thing: go to the man's house who was listed on the return address. Nothing turned up when they questioned the man. "We're......

Photograph of police investigating the explosion scene in Times Square by Mary Altaffer/AP Update 8:25am, 3/7: "Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman in Los Angeles, said an individual was questioned there about the letters to Congress and "there is no evidence linking the letters, which contained no threat, to the bombing," according to ABC7.This morning's explosion in New York City's Times Square has a possible Los Angeles connection in the form of a return address......

Director/choreographer/performer Liz Hoefner seems to bring her life to the stage. While this isn't a new or different way of making theater, Ms. Hoefner's life is filled with humorous moments that surround the challenges of being alive in our 21st century. Performed this past weekend at the Diavolo Dance Space downtown, her new work, Fear of Drowning/Fear of Flying, included a large cast of dancers, actors and musicians. These people loaded the stage with big......

Photo by VirtualEm via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr An Urban & Environmental Planner friend of mine in New York City believes that when you build bigger and beefier streets, all you do is build increased traffic congestion. "Build it and they will come," he would say. Today, Steve Hymon in his weekly Road Sage column explores the subject by extension of the Pico/Olympic plan, where city officials are planning to begin......

Life doesn't stop in LA because it's raining. / Photo by kristi.nicole via LAist's flickr pool FILM The American Cinematheque’s Outfest Wednesdays continue at the Egyptian. On the big screen tonight is With You! -- director Yaniv Dabach’s documentary on the formation of New York City’s first gay rugby club, the Gotham Knights. A discussion with Dabach follows the screening – plus there’s a reception hosted by Absolut. 7:30 pm // American Cinematheque at......

I discovered this street art on 8th, just west of Grand in downtown LA last week. But where is the chair? It looks like Brooklyn chalk artist Ellis Gallagher has decided to grace Los Angeles with his presence and art. His cryptic signature, "© Ellis G. 2007" seems to be barely decipherable on the other side of the parking meter, along with "NYC". Well-known artist Michael Neff has identified it for me as an authentic......

In the wake of the big Fidel Castro seemingly-non-news of him stepping down as president (meanwhile the US recently bombed Pakistan without notice or permission), it's interesting to look back at the impact of the man on Los Angeles. The divide between those who wanted to work with Castro's Cuban government and those who vehemently opposed it led to violence -- eleven such terrorism incidents occurred in the Los Angeles area alone according to Cuban......

Back in 2004, two Harvard graduates decided to make a dating website with the vision that dating should be free. Since then, OkCupid.com has gained 525,000 active users (meaning active within the last 8 weeks), climbing their way up to the top of the online dating empire, possibly freaking out Match.com, which has an estimated 1.3 million users. In Los Angeles alone, OkCupid has 54,000 registers users (including Tom from MySpace... maybe that's him, maybe......

Now here's the quote of the day via the Daily News: ""I think if there were laws that required mayors to take transit, you'd see transit systems improve remarkably." That's Ted Balaker, a policy analyst for the Reason Foundation who spoke to transit beat writer Sue Doyle, who wrote a piece on Mayors across the country and their public transit use. Locally, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa vowed to take public transit once a week last month......

Alternative 9 combines a Wilshire and Santa Monica alignment for two subways Update*: Metro called to strongly emphasize that the projected 10-year-period (three for environmental studies, seven for construction) is the reality under the most ideal circumstances (that circumstance is if we had the funding today). Metro confirms this is the timeline and the 5-year hypothetical may have been misheard or said. At the meeting, the freakily fast timeline was mentioned in the context......

If you're like me and you hate pro football, or if you're looking for something to do after Football Team A defeats Football Team B in the field of Superbowly Combat, go to The Scene in Glendale tonight, and see NYC based Indie Pop Band Murder Mystery, along with LA's The Tartans and Oxnard's Maria. So why should you brave the rain and the perils of Glendale? Well if you're like me, you're in need......

SFist worried over drugstore chain Walgreens celebration of Black History Month.Gothamist was surprised that apparently New York City is the fourth most miserable city in the country, after Detroit, Stockton, CA, and Flint, MI.Shanghaiist finds out what the Chinese think of Hilary and Obama.It was with a healthy amount of schadenfreude that Phillyist reported that former Eagle, and now Cowboy (ew), Terrell Owens owes the Eagles a significant wad of cash.Torontoist is two weeks......

The Cuban Cowboys, who were profiled on NPR last October, play tonight at the Temple Bar | Photo from their MySpace page Last Friday when A-Trak and Kid Sister played at New York City's Natural History Museum, Kanye West made a surprise visit. Neither Flavorpill or the Natural History Museum list Kanye for tonight's version of the NYC event, First Friday, but rumors are afloat, as they're bound to happen. Nevertheless, the evening looks......

Saturday morning was the first community meeting to discuss the Hollywood Freeway Central Park. Meeting in an elementary school auditorium, like they do in the Simpsons, those that attended saw Assemblyman Mike Feuer, LA City Council President Eric Garcetti and others speak about this park and the story behind it. In part I, I wrote about the failures of design in Los Angeles and a need to use architecture to embrace our 36 freeways.......

After last week's SoCal teen and his planned hijacking, this morning a hoax threat was called in about an LAX bound fight from New York City. The United Airlines flight landed safely here in Los Angeles, but taxied to a remote location, according to the Daily News. AP: "FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said the move Monday afternoon was strictly precautionary and that the person who made the call to a law enforcement agency is under......

Photograph of memorial outside Heath Ledger's NYC apartment Gothamist learned that actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his SoHo apartment, cause of death unknown so far (but apparently the masseuse who found him called Mary-Kate Olsen before 911).Bostonist considered sending a link about the Super Bowl, but damn! The New Kids are reuniting!Although Sylvester Stallone is a native of New York City, his Rocky character lets many Philadelphians consider him a native son......

Eisley on stage at Coachella in 2005 | Photo by Jason Upshaw via Flickr The Oscars are set to be announced tomorrow in Beverly Hills, but today, this Holiday day, the uber-California music festival experience will be announced. From Mexico City, no less. "It is something that's crossed my mind," Paul Tollett, creator of Coachella, told the LA Times when asked if he was going to start a Coachella type festival south of the......

Johnny Grant was found dead tonight, around 7 p.m., on a bed at the Roosevelt Hotel where he lived on the 14th floor in a suite.Grant, 84, has been one of Hollywood's most enthusiastic supporters for more than 50 years. Grant got his start in entertainment by hosting a daily radio show in New York City for servicemen and women during World War II, and later co-hosted the first national telethon ever produced to help......

A London vacation for $900 -- airfare and hotel? Cancun for $500? I got an email alert this morning about big after-holiday airfare sales -- and as a frequent traveler who is often frustrated by the price of airline tickets, I jumped at the chance to research some sweet mid-winter vacations. Via Expedia, if you book now and travel by mid-March, you can snag very cheap round-trip tickets out of LAX for places like......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on LAist. Cloverfield, the new JJ Abrams movie where a skyscraper-sized monster descends upon New York City. In theaters on 1/18. Hoovers, where you can find company information for free. Busted Tees, they're having a nostalgia sale - 12 shirts for $12 each. If you're interested in advertising on LAist or any other site in our network, check out our online mediakit.......

Chief William Bratton has cut crime in New York City and now here. Other cities are trying to do what he does, but it doesn't always work. So how do we model the success? Manhattan Beach solidarity. A two-year veteran of the MBPD is undergoing cancer treatment. Fifty officers, firefighters and city employees shaved their head to support the officer who is going through chemotherapy and one hundred people donated O-negative blood specifically for......