Craig Gaines

Best Escape From L.A.

Craig Gaines
As the Plutons’ fireballs begin to rain down on Los Angeles, I plop into my train seat filled with a mixture of sadness at the loss of my beloved city and relief over the fact that I’m heading south to the safer environs of San Diego. See, the Plutons are......

Best Griffith Park Alternative

Craig Gaines
Portions of Griffith Park are still accessible after the fire that burned more than 800 acres in May, but it’s not the same these days. You can’t just drive up, park and scramble all over the place. And you won’t be able to until at least deep into this winter......

Dogged Pursuit

Craig Gaines
I waltzed into the White Horse at the end of Los Feliz Pub Crawl 2007, a jolly event that saw its members’ cordiality rise and intelligibility fall in direct correlation to aggregate alcohol consumption. We had covered about a half dozen bars, and I had the same number of whiskeys......

All Fired Up

Craig Gaines
(Photos by Ted Soqui)I grew up surrounded by the flat, harmless landscape of central Michigan. Every so often, when the terrors of nature found in Southern California dominated our TV newscasts, my Michigander friends and I would stare at the images of fires and earthquakes and smack our foreheads. “I......

All Fired Up

Craig Gaines
(Photos by Ted Soqui)I grew up surrounded by the flat, harmless landscape of central Michigan. Every so often, when the terrors of nature found in Southern California dominated our TV newscasts, my Michigander friends and I would stare at the images of fires and earthquakes and smack our foreheads. “I......

He's a Woman's Man

Craig Gaines
Hollywood Boulevard is strangely empty and quiet on a recent Saturday afternoon when I stop at Famina!! — the Japanese “super convenience” store — and spot Jack Sparrow, or at least a guy impersonating the flamboyant Johnny Depp character from Pirates of the Caribbean. Sparrow sits at one of the......

Devil's Night

Craig Gaines
The third of a mile between my office and the Hollywood YMCA is a mundane walk. The most notable structure is the Church of Scientology’s Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which houses the museum exhibit “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death.” Other than that, you pass some shabby storefronts, a check-cashing......
(Illustration by Ronald Kurniawan)

Best Portal to the Midwest

Craig Gaines
Best Portal to the Midwest L.A.’s best intersection has become a crossroads for one of the city’s great and most transient tribes. These brave, often pale-skinned specimens walk through Hollywood Boulevard and North Las Palmas Avenue in familial packs of three to five. While they move slowly, their heads swivel......