NEWS
July 26, 2011 | By Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times Daily Travel & Deal blogger
Here's an idea for a leisurely autumn trip that's scenic and saves money: Amtrak is taking 25% off tickets on a stretch of the Coast Starlight route between Los Angeles and Davis, Calif. The sale applies to destinations such as Oakland, San Jose, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara and others. -- The deal: The Coast Starlight runs between Los Angeles and Seattle, but the Book Early and Save 25% offer covers only the southern leg of the line. The discount also applies to up to two children, ages 2 to 15, who travel for half fare with the purchase of an adult ticket. -- When: The offer is good for travel Oct. 13 through Nov. 17. But you must buy tickets by Sunday.
BUSINESS
February 15, 2011 | By Ben Fritz, Los Angeles Times
With their mania for film franchises, leading studios are behaving more like packaged goods marketers than the showmen of yore in pumping out movies, and appear more interested in taking direction from fanboys, brand managers and multimedia consultants. So the time appears ripe for consultants such as Jeff Gomez and Mark Pensavalle, co-founders of Starlight Runner Entertainment. Their job: To make sure that stories and characters remain consistent as a movie is reincarnated as, say, a TV series, a video game, a theme park attraction or an online virtual world.
TRAVEL
June 20, 2010 | By Karl Zimmermann, Special to the Los Angeles Times
Comfortably settled in ClubAcela, the first-class lounge at New York's Penn Station, I considered the folder of Amtrak sleeping car tickets much as I would money in the bank: a promise of good times ahead. I would travel on the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, the Empire Builder to Seattle and, finally, the Coast Starlight to Los Angeles. These trains, two of Amtrak's best and one of its most improved, would show me a huge slice of America for the next week. During my 3,582-mile journey in March, the scenically mundane mixed in with the magnificent, and that was fine with me. There were books to read, people to meet, naps to take.
MAGAZINE
September 16, 2007 | Aavid L. UIlin, David L. Ulin is book editor of The Times.
To take Amtrak's Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to the Bay Area is an all-day excursion, 12 hours if you're lucky, 14 or more if there are delays. You can do it only if you have time to give yourself over to the experience, which is why, on a Saturday morning in summer, my 12-year-old son, Noah, and I are in our seats, waiting to leave Union Station for the long passage north.
ENTERTAINMENT
February 22, 2006 | Cecilia Sanchez and Reed Johnson, Times Staff Writers
Racked by corruption, poverty, ethnic inequality and violent drug trafficking, Mexico certainly has no shortage of subject matter for documentary films. Nor does it lack a pool of talented young documentary filmmakers. What it needs is more financial support for documentary production, and possibly a jolt of Hollywood-grade star power. That's where Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, two of Mexico's most bankable young actors, think they can help.
FOOD
July 14, 2004 | S. Irene Virbila, Times Staff Writer
What's better than eating outside on a summer night? That's when L.A. really does seem like a paradise. You're under the stars. The humidity's negligible. You'd have to try hard to rustle up a mosquito or two. And if there's the tiniest nip in the air, well, there's always last year's pashmina to throw over your shoulders. Come evening, Cafe Stella in Silver Lake spreads out into the courtyard behind Sunset Junction.