Clock ticks down for stalled Grand Avenue remake
An ambitious and long-delayed plan to remake downtown’s Grand Ave. with luxury condo towers, high-end shops and a tony hotel faces a critical deadline at midnight tonight. That’s when an…
Month: September 2013
Mixer: iPads and union contracts – can’t we have nice things?
Jack Dolan reports for the LA Times. Hillel Aron for LA Weekly. They both joined us for this week’s Friday Mixer. LAUSD is spending hundreds of millions of dollars for…
Wilshire Boulevard Temple gets a facelift
After several years of heavy duty restoration, the historic Wilshire Boulevard Temple in LA’s Koreatown neighborhood is once again open. Earlier this month it offered services during the High Holy…
California braces for possible government shutdown
According to Mapquest, it’s roughly 2,670 miles from L.A. to Washington, D.C. And 2,730 from Sacramento to D.C. You’d think that kind of distance would help buffer California from the…
Meet LA’s new film czar, Tom Sherak
Los Angeles has a new film czar. Today L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the appointment of Tom Sherak as head of the city’s Entertainment Industry and Production Office. He’s a…
Wild Records brings modern-day rockabilly to LA
There’s a tiny little record label in Los Angeles. You probably haven’t heard of it. That is, unless you’re really into 1950s-style rockabilly music. It’s called Wild Records. Omar Romero…
‘Station to Station’: Riding the art train from Barstow to Los Angeles
For the last twenty days, a group of writers, singers, artists and photographers have been making their way across the country in an old Amtrak train — staging rock concerts…
What happened to the grand vision for Grand Avenue?
For decades, local leaders have dreamed of transforming downtown L.A.’s Grand Avenue into a cultural mecca. Plans for the street have included a park, fancy condos, hotels and a shopping…
Selling whiskey with Charles Bukowski
The whiskey company Dewar’s has released a new TV ad featuring an actor reading a poem by the late writer Charles Bukowski. The poem, “So, You Want to Be a…
Are you still wondering what Obamacare means for you?
The Affordable Care Act –AKA Obamacare — takes effect on October 1st. For many, it is still unclear how they will be affected. On KCRW next week, we’ll be trying…
‘Breaking Bad’ won at the Emmys but Netflix still scored
One of the big stories going into last night’s Primetime Emmy Awards was that Netflix had crashed the party. It was the first year a a series produced and distributed by an…
Photos: LA’s ‘garbage land’
For more than 50 years, the communities of Los Angeles County have sent their household and commercial refuse to the Puente Hills Landfill in Whittier, one of the largest public dumps…
Where does your trash go?
View Where your trash gets dumped in a larger map Some fun facts on your trash: The average American generates seven pounds of trash per day. Depending on where you…
McCartney and Timberlake play gigs in Hollywood
A stretch of Hollywood Boulevard is going to be shut down for the next couple of days to make way for a pair of concerts planned for “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”…
What’s the most iconic building in Los Angeles
As part of our LA Grows Up series, we asked KCRW listeners to tell us what building they thought was the most iconic in LA. Here’s what they said.
Mixer: Sheriff’s parachute, rideshare apps, and the mayor of Portlandia
The end of the week means we have analysis of LA stories and politics. Welcome to the Mixer. Gene Maddaus reports for LA Weekly, Seema Mehta reports for the Los Angeles…
To re-envision Pershing Square, look to the past
If you’ve only spent a little time in downtown Los Angeles, you could be forgiven for missing Pershing Square entirely. Even though it’s right in the heart of LA, it’s…
Ninety years of The Hollywood Sign
Ninety years ago this year, the Hollywood Sign, those venerable boxy letters that designate an area of LA, were placed near the summit of Mt. Lee. And later this evening,…
Go behind the scenes at the L.A. Opera
This week, the Los Angeles Opera opens its 27th season with an epic, big budget production of “Carmen,” that bold and bawdy 19th Century tale of love and temptation…
Do e-cigarettes hook us or help us?
This week I inhaled Unicorn Blood for the first time. That’s not some Satanic drug ritual or a Harry Potter-themed beverage — it’s one flavor of nicotine liquid, or “e-juice”…