FOOD
February 9, 2013 | By Betty Hallock, Los Angeles Times
Jonathan Grahm, the owner of Compartés Chocolatier in Brentwood, is just back from a whirlwind pre-Valentine's Day tour of Japan, where 100 Compartés pop-up shops opened for the holiday in Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Hiroshima, Nagoya and Kobe. Grahm's face has been plastered on billboards, little old ladies in kimonos vied for his autograph, designers wanted his chocolates to coordinate with their products (underwear, for example) and fans showered him with gifts (such as a Mickey Mouse action figure)
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
December 13, 2012 | Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times
The new $45-million concourse at Long Beach Airport has opened its doors, giving passengers their first look at a project 10 years in the making. Scores of travelers - arriving and departing - made their way Wednesday morning through the 35,000-square-foot eco-friendly structure, with its rows of palm trees and native plants in an open courtyard. The new terminal is also equipped with a fire pit and lounge chairs. The food area inside the northern concourse offers samples from Long Beach restaurants.
NEWS
May 31, 2012 | By Melissa Rohlin
Vin Scully has been a Dodgers broadcaster since 1950, when the team was in Brooklyn. The current players have grown up listening to his unique voice and many even recall the first time they heard the broadcasting legend say their name. In the video above, the players talk to The Times about what Scully means to the team - and America. Said Andre Ethier: "Just to hear him talk in person gives you chills every once in a while. " Said Adam Kennedy: "Vin Scully to me is not just California baseball, but baseball in general.
NEWS
February 7, 2012 | By Lisa Rosen, Special to the Los Angeles Times
Perhaps the biggest surprise as the Oscar nominations were announced was the inclusion of a name familiar to few American audiences. As those early morning viewers waited to hear the expected announcement of Leonardo DiCaprio, they heard instead the name Demian Bichir. But the inclusion was baffling only to those who haven't seen his performance in"A Better Life. " As Carlos Galindo, an undocumented Mexican gardener desperate to achieve some tiny slice of the American dream for his son, Bichir gives poignant life to an invisible man. He's famous in his home country of Mexico, with dozens of film and stage credits to his name.
ENTERTAINMENT
January 1, 2012 | By James M. Cain
Return to David L. Ulin's review of this essay. PARADISE I shall attempt, in this piece, an appraisal of the civilization of Southern California, but it occurs to me that before I begin I had better give you some idea what the place looks like. If you are like myself before I came here, you have formed, from Sunkist ads, newsreels, movie magazines, railroad folders, and so on, a somewhat false picture of it, and you will have to get rid of this before you can understand what I am trying to say. Wash out, then, the "land of sunshine, fruit, and flowers": all these are here, but not with the lush, verdant fragrance that you have probably imagined.
SPORTS
June 1, 2011 | Chris Erskine
Welcome to the City of Fallen Angels, Mike Brown. On behalf of the Welcome Wagon of Los Angeles, we'd like to offer up this basket of oranges while urging you never to eat anything you buy from folks standing at a traffic light. Buy it, just don't eat it. Better yet, send it to the Spurs. You have landed in a very special place, a town that really embraces outsiders. John Wooden was from Indiana. Tommy Lasorda, Pennsylvania. Heck, even our teams are from somewhere else. Minnesota.