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Bill Boyarsky

  • Green Me Up, JJ

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    "Advice for Greenies in a Complicated World"


    Dear JJ:

    They say the recyclables you put in the blue bin should be clean, but honestly, just how clean does that pizza box or Aveda shampoo bottle really have to be?

    Amanda
    Silver Lake, Los Angeles


    Dear Amanda:

    Now that's a' [...]

    Posted: November 21, 2009, 8:52am EST
  • Today is The Great L.A. Walk

    Downtown LA on Sunday

    What makes L.A. great? Ideas like this one -- walking from downtown L.A. to the ocean, just for the hell of it. You can do all of it or some of it or just meet [...]

    Posted: November 21, 2009, 7:25am EST
  • What's wrong with USC Football?

    After USC's 55-21 loss to Stanford, it seems like everyone in the college football world is trying to figure out what's wrong with Trojan football. I'm going to take a look at a few explanations I've heard in the past few days:


    1) Matt Barkley is the problem

    First off, Matt Barkley [...]

    Posted: November 18, 2009, 2:24pm EST
  • A few thoughts on Ft. Hood, Major Malik Hasan, and business cards

    Should someone be thrown out of the army if their business card identifies the bearer as an "SOA" (soldier of Allah)?

    Probably not, but that, along with a number of other warning signs should have indicated that Major Malik Hasan's reported request to leave the army should have been granted before' [...]

    Posted: November 17, 2009, 10:18am EST
  • MOCA celebrates 30 years

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    After a tough year of financial woes that had more to do with mismanagement than the bad economy, MOCA put on a huge gala opening to celebrate its 30-year retrospective. Over a thousand of L.A.'s brightest lights in the entertainment and art worlds turned out for [...]

    Posted: November 17, 2009, 9:38pm EST
  • Where the streets have no name

    A pitched battle to prevent the world's largest garbage dump from being built next to Joshua Tree National Park has been won in the Ninth Circuit of Appeals, thanks largely to Donna and Larry Charpied, a pair of jojoba farmers who live in a trailer at the park's edge and [...]

    Posted: November 10, 2009, 8:00pm EST
  • Green Me Up, JJ

    logo150.jpg

    "Advice for Greenies in a Complicated World"


    Dear JJ:

    My wife and I are buying a car for our youngest son, who turns 17 next month. We're committed as a family to a low carbon footprint, so my wife drives the Lexus SUV hybrid, I drive a Tesla' [...]

    Posted: November 06, 2009, 8:31am EST
  • 'The Sire of Wilshire' is back on the air

    Steve Jones, the self-proclaimed Sire of Wilshire (a nod to the physical address of his former home at Indie 103.1 FM), is back on the air!

    The former host of Jonesy's Jukebox is now hosting a two-hour program every Sunday at BBC 6, according to both MusicWeek and the BBC 6' [...]

    Posted: November 03, 2009, 5:10pm EST
  • "Ass, Cash or Grass" - I Used to be a Swinger

    This year, for Halloween, my fourteen year-old daughter Franny wanted to dress up as a Swingers waitress - a hip, mini-skirted figure in fishnets and lug-soled boots. Halloween, for so many girls (and sadly, also grown women) is often an excuse to wear skimpy outfits, and I was proud [...]

    Posted: November 03, 2009, 11:39am EST
  • LA Football Stadium Approved

    Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today signed a bill that effectively approved construction on a new football stadium in the City of Industry. This is truly a landmark day for those who have been yearning for the NFL to return to LA, myself included, since the Rams and Raiders left [...]

    Posted: October 22, 2009, 8:59pm EDT
  • Season Over

    The Dodgers went out with a whimper in their season finale, losing Game 5 to the Phillies 10-4. This will no doubt give ammunition to the Dodger doubters who for months have said they were not built for the playoffs (a series sweep of the Cardinals, notwithstanding).

    I've always' [...]

    Posted: October 22, 2009, 10:22pm EDT
  • The multicultural art of Dora De Larios

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    Ceramic artist Dora De Larios knows the exact moment when she began the journey that led to her current retrospective, "SueƱos/Yume: Fifty Years of the Art of Dora De Larios," at the Craft and Folk Art Museum on Wilshire Blvd. She was eight years old [...]

    Posted: October 19, 2009, 9:45pm EDT
  • McCourts Separated

    The big news in Dodgerland tonight is that Frank and Jamie McCourt have reportedly separated. I've actually been hearing this rumor for a while, but I'm surprised it happened now. It's very disappointing that this news would come out the day before Game 1 of the National League Championship' [...]

    Posted: October 15, 2009, 12:28am EDT
  • LA-LCS

    We're down the League Championship Series, and the prospect of a Freeway World Series has never been closer. This season, Southern California is truly the king of baseball regions. The Dodgers led the Majors in attendance and finished with the best record in the National League. The Angels finished second' [...]

    Posted: October 14, 2009, 4:54pm EDT
  • Brendan Mullen: Good-Bye to Such a Nice Guy

    At 6:55 this morning, still dark here in Portland, there was a knock at my front door. My husband had just left for work and I was still in my nightgown.

    "Who is it?" I asked, not being able to see through the keyhole, which, for reasons I have no explanation [...]

    Posted: October 13, 2009, 1:18pm EDT
  • Bruce Lisker gets his license

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    Second in an occasional series following Bruce Lisker as he reacquaints with Los Angeles after 26 years in prison. Text and photos by Iris Schneider.

    Soon after passing his driving test on Monday morning, Bruce Lisker drove his car to the Sherman Oaks carwash. [...]

    Posted: October 09, 2009, 6:09pm EDT
  • Playoff Preview

    For the sixth consecutive year, either the Dodgers or Angels have made the playoffs, and this is the third time in that stretch in which both have reached postseason play. I would love to see a Freeway World Series, but in order to get there, both the Dodgers and Angels [...]

    Posted: October 06, 2009, 3:14pm EDT
  • Bienvenido, Gustavo!

    We were lucky enough to get tickets to the Gustavo Dudamel extravaganza at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday night. (And, thanks to a ride on the Red Line and a short stroll up Highland, were lucky enough to skip the traffic extravaganza that accompanied it.)

    Some reviews of [...]

    Posted: October 05, 2009, 9:00pm EDT
  • Analyzing the 2016 Olympic vote

    The IOC vote never ceases to surprise, and the 2016 vote was no exception. The eventual winner, Rio de Janeiro, was somewhat expected, but Chicago's early exit caught many people off guard. While there is a lot of goodwill and positive sentiment towards Rio right now, I seriously question the [...]

    Posted: October 02, 2009, 3:47pm EDT
  • Bruce Lisker's life on the outside

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    I have always wondered what it would be like to reenter society after years of wrongful incarceration. Is there anger, bitterness, joy, regret--or all of that? I decided to ask Bruce Lisker, recently released after 26 years in prison for the crime of killing his mother, [...]

    Posted: October 02, 2009, 10:27am EDT
  • Breaking Down the 2016 Olympic Vote

    On Friday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will vote on the host of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, choosing between Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo. Olympic voting is a subject that I know quite a bit about, as I once worked as an International Relations Analyst for New [...]

    Posted: September 29, 2009, 6:25pm EDT
  • Mario vs. Ken

    If you get TV One in your cable line-up, and if Ken Burns's National Parks is simultaneously making you dizzy with all that zooming in and out on old photos and just boring you to tears with the word-per-minute narrative, the soft fiddle music, and all that pious [...]

    Posted: September 29, 2009, 10:23am EDT
  • Irving Penn comes to Los Angeles

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    At the press preview for Irving Penn's "Small Trades" exhibit at the Getty Center, I was part of a group led through the galleries by curator Virginia Heckert. I should have been paying stricter attention, but I was distracted. All I could think was that [...]

    Posted: September 29, 2009, 9:45pm EDT
  • Barack Obama, Yom Kippur, Chief Plenty Coups, and wild horses

    When Barack Obama was running for President, he made a point of bringing Native Americans into his fold, understanding that they are America's first citizens. They responded accordingly and joined the hopeful parade. At the inaugural parties, one tribe presented Michelle Obama with a hand-woven shawl, bedecked with running horses' [...]

    Posted: September 27, 2009, 6:59pm EDT
  • Inside the New Carver Apartments

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    In designing a new apartment building for the Skid Row Housing Trust, architect Michael Maltzan decided not to let "freeway adjacent" become a bad thing. The building, alongside the 10 Freeway at Hope and 17th streets, will give homes to 95 homeless and low income residents. [...]

    Posted: September 25, 2009, 10:26pm EDT
  • Frogtown Art Walk '09

    It was dark and there was wine so excuse the quality of the photos, but peeking into the workshops of the furniture designers at the Frogtown Art Walk last night was fascinating.

    [...]
    Posted: September 20, 2009, 3:40pm EDT
  • Art Walk Talk with Richard Schave

    Don't you just love autumn? It's the time of new beginnings, even for established institutions such as the popular Downtown Art Walk series, which just celebrated its fifth anniversary, but seems to be going through some growing pains.

    The Los Angeles Downtown News reports that some gallery owners [...]

    Posted: September 09, 2009, 10:01pm EDT
  • Plaschke on Kemp

    I've never been a big fan of Bill Plaschke. I respect his writing style and the numerous awards that he was won. But I've long accepted that Plaschke and I see the sports through completely different lenses, and I haven't criticized his work as much as I've wanted to.

    One of [...]

    Posted: August 31, 2009, 4:01pm EDT
  • Angels trade for Kazmir

    Listening to sports talk radio yesterday, the broadcasters were positively giddy over the Angels' acquisition of Scott Kazmir. Bill Shaikin in the LA Times is similarly excited by the deal, saying Kazmir is just what the Halos needed. While Kazmir does improve the Angels rotation this season, trading' [...]

    Posted: August 29, 2009, 11:47am EDT
  • Barkley to start for USC

    For first time in school history, a true freshman will start at quarterback for USC on Opening Day. Matt Barkley will do the honors against San Jose State on September 5.

    The move is somewhat surprising, considering that experience and consistency at QB have been real hallmarks of the position [...]

    Posted: August 28, 2009, 12:49am EDT
  • Help save the California coast

    Little Dume

    What's a Marine Protected Area? It's like a national park for the sea. Areas of the coast are set aside as protected areas which, studies show, give the plants and fish and mammals a chance to retrench, regroup and [...]

    Posted: August 27, 2009, 8:36am EDT
  • Bruno's Back

    Tony Bruno has graced the airwaves in Los Angeles once again. Just a few weeks ago, I was highly critical of JT the Brick and Tomm Looney's show on AM 570, particularly their "analysis" of the Dodgers trade options.

    I suggested that Fox Sports Radio consider replacing JT [...]

    Posted: August 14, 2009, 4:36pm EDT
  • Honk If You're a Honker

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    Hi, my name is David, and I'm a honker.

    To be frank, I'm not sure this is a problem. I don't honk alone, and I can live without it. You'll never catch me laying on the horn when I drive by someone holding a "Honk if you" [...]

    Posted: August 11, 2009, 11:24am EDT
  • Rambis leaves for Minnesota

    The Lakers lost a valued member of their coaching staff this week, as Kurt Rambis has been named the head coach for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Rambis' departure will not only hurt the coaching staff, but it also mucks up the picture for Phil Jackson's successor.

    For a while it [...]

    Posted: August 10, 2009, 5:24pm EDT
  • Cowboy Nation, part II

    Last week, I posted my response to an LA Times editorial about wild horses. In it, I made mention of cowboying up. A theme of my piece was what that means. I received a fair amount of email about the piece, and some people wanted to talk about [...]

    Posted: August 09, 2009, 9:11pm EDT
  • Music in MacArthur Park


    When you see white people toting their lawn chairs to MacArthur Park at dusk and settling in with Hollywood Bowl-worthy picnics, you know things have changed.

    For years, MacArthur Park, in LA's Westlake area, was not the kind of park for picnicking or lawn chairs. Not even close. As LAPD [...]

    Posted: August 08, 2009, 10:55am EDT
  • The Novel Cafe expected to close


    -- Photo by TJ Sullivan --
    The Novel Cafe at 212 Pier Avenue in Santa Monica appears to be in its final days of operation.

    After nearly 20 dimly lit years of providing writers with a musty, unpretentious, AC-free place [...]

    Posted: August 07, 2009, 2:19pm EDT
  • The last (or latest) newspaper buyer

    This time last year, my friend ME Sprengelmeyer was busy reporting on the presidential campaign for Denver's Rocky Mountain News, not to mention preparing for the Democratic National Convention, which was held in Denver in late August 2008.

    But then the Rocky closed in February, and, like a lot of journalists' [...]

    Posted: August 04, 2009, 5:48pm EDT
  • LA Times cowboys up but loses rodeo in bizarre horse editorial

    Will this era see the end of our great partner and icon, the mustang (not to mention the great road trip car named in its honor)? Given the misleading media coverage, the real thing may soon be heading off a cliff, spurred one step closer in the July 27th Los [...]

    Posted: July 31, 2009, 9:29am EDT
  • Odom returns to the Lakers

    It's a really busy day in the LA sports world, and it only got busier today with Lamar Odom re-signing with the Lakers. I have no idea what took so long, but I'm glad that it all worked out in the end.

    [...]
    Posted: July 30, 2009, 3:55pm EDT
  • Dodgers reportedly trade for Sherrill

    According to MLB.com, the Dodgers have traded for Baltimore Orioles closer George Sherrill. The team reportedly gave up minor leaguers Josh Bell and Steve Johnson, and they will use Sherrill in a setup role.

    I have lukewarm feelings about this deal, and I like the analysis from Jon Weisman's' [...]

    Posted: July 30, 2009, 3:21pm EDT
  • Manny tested positive in 2003

    The New York Times reports today that Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz tested positive for performance enhancing substances in 2003. Their names were on the now famous list of positive tests from 2003; a list that was supposed to be destroyed.

    What does this mean for the Dodgers? Well, honestly, [...]

    Posted: July 30, 2009, 12:30pm EDT
  • Cirque Berzerk and the Simplicity of Spectacle

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    There is something gaspingly lovely about seeing a girl in a striped panty being swung through the air at the end of a piece of fluttering silk. That lust for loveliness is what animates Cirque Berzerk, currently doing an extended run at the Los Angeles Historical [...]

    Posted: July 29, 2009, 12:28pm EDT
  • LACMA abandons film

    The moving image is THE art form of the 20th century. If there is one person you would expect to appreciate that fact it is the head of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art - after all Los Angeles has been creating that art for over 100 years and [...]

    Posted: July 28, 2009, 7:08pm EDT
  • More on Halladay

    It seems as if everything I'm reading and hearing indicates that Roy Halladay won't be a Dodger. For now, it appears the Blue Jays asking price is so high that even the group of prospects I discussed in yesterday's post won't be enough to get a deal done.

    Trading Billingsley' [...]

    Posted: July 27, 2009, 5:47pm EDT
  • Dodger delusions

    I am convinced that the Dodgers are the most misunderstood team in Major League Baseball. As it stands now, the Dodgers have the best record in baseball and an 8-game division lead, yet no one in the media can seem to tell you why.

    This has become obvious as we [...]

    Posted: July 26, 2009, 5:29pm EDT
  • Unthinkable

    I received an email this morning alerting me to the murder of Lily Burk, 17. I thought, Lily, Greg's daughter? No, no...

    Yes. I am not going to detail it. I am going to say that I got in the shower and wept. I was not very close with Greg, [...]

    Posted: July 26, 2009, 3:39pm EDT
  • Outside the box thinking

    To: Los Angeles media outlets

    From: Eddy Hartenstein, publisher, Los Angeles Times

    Re: I call your attention to another innovative marketing campaign by The Times. This will be announced on Monday. Text of the announcement follows.

    Dear Readers and Staff Members,

    It is with great excitement and pride that The Los Angeles Times introduces [...]

    Posted: July 20, 2009, 9:33pm EDT
  • Farmers Market turns 75

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    In keeping with its tradition of "salesmanship and silliness," L.A.'s beloved Farmers Market celebrated its 75th birthday this week with a hokey card trick, homemade cupcakes, City Council proclamations and the horns of the USC Marching Band.

    About 200 regulars, invited guests, and merchants past and [...]

    Posted: July 17, 2009, 12:07am EDT
  • Lawyers, safaris, and Malibu

    Summer is in full swing, and that means two things in Malibu:

    1. Lawyers!! They're battling against the opening of a new accessway on Carbon Beach, a new one on Malibu Rd., and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy's newly-approved plan to create public campsites. (Just my top three [...]

    Posted: July 06, 2009, 9:35pm EDT

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Bill Boyarsky

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