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• BEST HOLE IN THE HILLS

  S. Mark Taper Amphitheater

  If the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre is the nephew to the Hollywood Bowl, then TreePeople's S. Mark Taper Amphitheater is its toddler sister. It's a fancy endowment-sounding name for what is surely the cutest outdoor venue in town (sorry, Will S. Geer Amphitheater). Set among eucalyptus trees in Coldwater Canyon Park, the woodsy location feels a world away from anything… More >>

• BEST PLACE TO LEARN TO DO-IT-YOURSELF

  Machine Project

  To call Machine Project a gallery would be a massive oversimplification. While it has been home to extensive art installations of all kinds since it opened in 2003, the real heart of this exemplary alternative storefront, run by Vermont native and CalArts graduate Mark Allen, is the classes, workshops, lectures and performance series it beckons you to become a part… More >>

• Read Any Good Laughs Lately?

  Last Bookstore

  It may not be the last used bookstore in L.A., but the Last Bookstore is certainly the best. And business? “Never better,” according to owner Josh Spencer. On Thursdays, the store features a comedy show called Literally Funny, a variation of regular stand-up where the participants read material in front of an audience. Material has included an erotic story written from the perspective of a 10-year-old… More >>

• Best Place to Rock In Eagle Rock

  Eagle Rock Center for the Arts

  There’s no denying the magic of Eagle Rock Center for the Arts. The gorgeous, cavernous, Mission-style queen is all gleaming wood floors, arched beams and leaded windows — a whitewashed architectural wonder sitting proudly near the busy intersection of Eagle Rock and Colorado boulevards. Built in 1914, the space became the Center for the Arts in 1998 and in recent… More >>

• Best Small-Town Big Screen (1947)

  Gardena Cinema

  If you ever wondered what going to the movies was like before the world got gummed up with wasteful, endless cracker-box theaters, the Gardena Cinema is a window on a simpler time — even if it is a window made of increasingly cracked glass. The Gardena is the last independent cinema operating in the South Bay area of Los Angeles… More >>

• Best Art Space to Meet the Next Mike Kelley

  workspace

  workspace — coming atcha in lowercase, like bell hooks — defines itself by what it isn’t: It isn’t “the Man.” A venue for queer, alternative and feminist discourse, the gallery doesn’t literally say “no BIG ART, white male bureaucratic BS allowed,” but it really doesn’t have to. The space caters to its friends, fellow students in the USC, UCLA, CalArts,… More >>

• Best Gallery to Laugh at the Art

  Fake Gallery

  Today it’s the Fake Gallery, but “apparently in the ’50s and ’60s, it was called Mother Neptune’s,” explains current owner Paul Kozlowski. “It was a coffeehouse where Ray Manzarek says he met Jim Morrison. And then in the ’90s, it was a punk-rock club. When we walked in, the place was gutted. I started filling it with paintings to distract people from… More >>

• Best Throwback to the ’60s

  The Bob Cowsill Band

  It’s one thing if you don’t take cover bands seriously. After a few beers, the fact that they’ve wreaked havoc on your ’60s faves matters little. But if you want to hear precise re-creations of tunes as they were recorded, take in the Bob Cowsill Band at the Fox & Hounds. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Bob is… More >>

• Best Underground Improv Show

  Crashbar Improv

  Hidden in the midst of larger, more well-established venues like IOWest, the Groundlings and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre lies the weekly comedy show Crashbar Improv. The show originally began as a way to raise money for the waitstaff at Hollywood’s IOWest Theatre after a car crashed through their front entrance, destroying the bar. For more than two years, Crashbar… More >>

• She Scares Because She Cares

  Shriekfest

   If Denise Gossett has made you cringe, bite your lower lip, sweat profusely, hyperventilate or scream, than she’s done her job. No, she doesn’t work for the IRS. With help from her husband, she runs L.A.’s most successful and entertaining horror film festival, Shriekfest. For a solid decade, not only has Shriekfest enthralled multitudes, it’s been responsible for kickstarting a huge number of careers. Denise has been on… More >>

• BEST NEW ART WALK

  Second Saturday Gallery Night

  The relatively young Second Saturday Gallery Night, a Highland Park art walk put on by the North East Los Angeles Arts Organization, is one of the most vivacious and promising in L.A. It features more than 20 officially participating galleries, along with dozens of other less formally affiliated spaces, none of which are much more than 3 years old or… More >>