Eiffel Tower

Downtown's French Garden Closing Friday

"It's literally an oasis in one of the most hardcore parts of the city -- and no one knows about it." So wrote Huell Howser in 2007 about The French Garden, an eatery in the industrial side of downtown's Arts District. But plenty of people know about The French Garden; they've sustained this lunch-o ... More >>

Mapping L.A., Using the World's Most Sophisticated Volkswagen Jetta

Parked at the Grove's Farmers Market is a Volkswagen Jetta that costs more than a Lamborghini -- $250,000, to be exact. The Volkswagen is one of only two such cars in Los Angeles at the moment, and one of only 50 in the world. It looks fairly normal except for the pile of high-tech equipment mounted ... More >>

Why Are L.A. Places So Popular on Instagram?

See also: *5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week *Best L.A. Novel Ever: The Tournament *50 Reasons Los Angeles Is the Best City in America Just before the end of Instagram's wild year — bought by Facebook for $1 billion, publicly eviscerated by its community for new privacy policies — ... More >>

Instagram's Most-Popular Photo Locations? Los Angeles Dominates

Last month we told you about how Southern California locations dominated the year-end list of top Facebook location check-ins. Along comes Instragram with its own year-end list of "most popular locations" for photos uploaded to the social-networking service. Once again ...

Cake and Art: A West Hollywood Bakery Translates Art into Frosting A Video

Elton John's Eiffel Tower, Bob Hope's piano and Bernadette Peters' shoe have one thing in common: They've all become cakes from Cake and Art, a West Hollywood bakery that can seemingly recreate anything into a cake. From cars to sculptures, animals to accessories, from a bloody body to a family phot ... More >>

Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, Including Ceiling Fan Sculptures

This week, a painter takes on the weirdness of Bakersfield, an artist sends pictures made to last billions of years into orbit and an artist's biographer talks about why her subject is still being censored two decades after his death. 5. Whited-out activism The prints from Juan Capistran's new sho ... More >>

Q & A with Anthony Bourdain: The End of No Reservations, CNN Throwing a Drink in Alan Richman's Face

See also: Anthony Bourdain: 5 Unexpected Lessons He Taught Us Last Night. See also: Anthony Bourdain's Baja Episode of No Reservations Will Make You Want to Cross the Border Immediately. Anthony Bourdain has a lightness to his voice. It's jovial, almost, which is unnerving. "This is the longest I'v ... More >>

Top Five Best Post-Hardcore Records

See also: At the Drive-In Speaks At the Drive-In Interview Outtakes Refused and At The Drive-In reunited for Coachella. Now Quicksand is getting into the act, reuniting to play FYF Fest. People are nostalgic for the post-hardcore bands of yesteryear? Apparently. For those not in the know, post-ha ... More >>

A Fashion Show That Jazzes Up Conservative Clothing For Muslim Women

Marwa Atik needs five pieces of trim, the kind embellished with pearls and black jewels. At a store in downtown L.A.'s Fashion District, boxes of trimmings line the walls from floor to ceiling, but Atik scans quickly and zeroes in on what she wants. At her direction, a clerk climbs a tall, wooden la ... More >>

Pedalers Fork Under Construction in Calabasas

Bicyclists will have a new destination this fall when Pedalers Fork restaurant opens in the heart of Old Town Calabasas. Now under construction, the goal is to create a bike-friendly venue, offering food, coffee, drinks, and even bike pharaphernalia, tours and repairs. "We wanted to create a sort o ... More >>

Jeb Corliss Video Captures Gnarly Base Jumping Crash at South Africa's Table Mountain

Jeb Corliss, the insane Venice base jumper who calls himself "fearless," lived up to that adjective this week when he told ABC News that he will "jump again" following a caught-on-video (after the jump) accident in South Africa that left his leg bones in pieces. He's expected to get out of the hosp ... More >>

Lebanon: Fear Factor

The best movie of the year so far takes you inside an Israeli tank and the reality of war

Crepe Truck Wars: Crepe'n Around vs. La Galette Creperie

They say Paris is gorgeous in spring. But if you can't make it all the way to France, two new crepe trucks are doing their best to bring a bit of Paris to Los Angeles. The real question: is this town big enough for two crepe trucks? Crepe'n Around (Twitter: @crepenaround), launched by sisters Eile ... More >>

Yippee Ki Yay, Fils de Putain

Cowboy diplomacy from our man in Paris, John Travolta

MEAT, DON'T PHALLUS ME NOW

When Silence Is Golden

Hamlet Shut Up! and Violators Will Be Violated

2012: The End Is Near

Phil Lord and Chris Miller Talk about Their Next Big Foodie Flick: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

​Writers and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller have thought an awful lot about food. But not in any sort of usual way. While working on their animated film, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs based on the 1978 classic kid's book, Lord and Miller had to take the initial premise involving frea ... More >>

Rock Picks: Acid Mothers Temple, Kate Maki, Marissa Nadler, Mirah

Also, Jesca Hoop, Jerkagram, Puscifer and others

Fashion Week Diary: Upper Class French Girls in Samora

Designer Samora showed a Paris-themed collection for Spring 09. Dresses with slim bodices and flowing, ruffly, pleated skirts. High-waisted pencil skirts. Palazzo pants. Again, pink seems to be a color for spring, but when isn't it? Samora's clothes this season are sort of what I imagine every Ameri ... More >>

Movie Reviews: Bottle Shock, Man on Wire, The Order of Myths

Also, Elegy, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 and more

Confessions of an Aspiring Kept Man: Is That a Cucumber in Your Shopping Cart?

It's not easy trying to be cougar bait

Film Reviews: 3:10 to Yuma, Exiled, Hatchet

Also, In the Shadow of the Moon, The Hunting Party and more

Rush Hour 3: An American (And a Chinese) in Paris

The third time’s the guilty pleasure for Tucker and Chan’s buddy-cop franchise

Brett Ratner, The Popcorn King

Rush Hour 3's director has been called a fauxteur, a womanizer and, worse, over budget. Why you should take him seriously anyway

The Two Faces of Cannes: Gilles Jacob

Eye of the storm

Film Reviews: Hot Fuzz, Redline and More

Also In the Land of Women and the documentary, Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea

Avenue Montaigne's French Kiss

Danièle Thompson sends a warm valentine to the city of lights

Steak Me Out for the Ball Game

Best beggars’ banquet at Dodger Stadium

The Art of Spooning

New jewelry measures healing

Ask Mr. Gold: Croque Monsieurs

A Honeyed Thunder

Shadow Man

A retrospective celebrates the work of the mysterious, difficult but brilliant Stanley Cortez

Is It Life or Is It Memorex?

In an extraordinary new film from China, all The World’s a stage

Eye of the Sky

All That Glitters

Monkeys and Marionettes

Stewart vs. Crossfire and other comic battles

Monsieur Lévy’s Working Holiday

The anti-anti-American French philosopher survives the New York press

Untamed and Untouchable

The indomitable heroines of Le Divorce and Sandstorm

As the World Turns

Not your regular news

Phallus Aforethought: Gender Bender

From Down Under to Iberia

Members Only

The Terror Watch

A chronology of events leading up to 9/11

Fifth Lady Down

The death of the Desert Inn. Is this the end of Vegas cool?

Not a Movie

Watching the unwatchable

It’s the Oil

For all of punditry’s hot air, the root cause remains the same

Villagers

Watch global, live local

Mallywood

Can David Malmuth’s “urban destination entertainment center” save the Boulevard?

Mommie Dearest

Jean Cocteau's family from hell

Laserian

Hiro Yamagata's art of optics