AltWeeklies Wire
Heath Ledger Cements His Legend Playing Nemesis to Christian Bale's Gotham City Heronew

What a brooding pleasure it is to return to Nolan's Gotham City -- if pleasure is the right word for a movie that gazes so deeply and sometimes despairingly into the souls of restless men.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
07-18-2008 |
Reviews
L.A.'s Fight for Public Green Spacenew

The most park-impoverished major city in America, Los Angeles devotes only 4 percent of its land to public greenery. By contrast, parkland comprises 17 percent of New York City and 9 percent of Boston (where 97 percent of the city’s children have immediate access to a park--as opposed to one-third of kids in Los Angeles).
L.A. Weekly |
Matthew Fleischer |
07-18-2008 |
Housing & Development
Tags: housing & development
'Generation Kill' Author Evan Wright Talks Ass Time, Crack Highs and Why Roadblocks Killnew

Wright, who wrote parts of the script and was involved in other aspects of the production, has invited me over before the series debut for a private screening. But though we started the show more than a half-hour ago, we haven't gotten very far -- five minutes in at best. Despite apologetically promising to let me watch, Wright keeps pausing the DVD to offer behind-the-scenes tidbits that suddenly evolve into fascinating non sequiturs and counterintuitive spiels about the war. I'm not complaining.
L.A. Weekly |
Matthew Fleischer |
07-11-2008 |
TV
Heath Ledger's Final Days Among the Massesnew

Birthed in a big loft in midtown Manhattan by one Los Angeleno, Amato, and one New Yorker, Jon Ramos, in 2002, the collective was transformed in the fall of 2006, when the members set up shop in Hollywood, and Amato's longtime friend, Heath Ledger, started channeling some of his creative energy, and eventually, money, into the company. It was at the Masses that Ledger and his peers converged around a notion; taught each other how to shoot, light and edit; plotted out music and record labels; and sought to develop a little engine of creativity.
L.A. Weekly |
Randall Roberts |
07-11-2008 |
Movies
John Waters: The Trash Auteur Speaks Out -- Way Outnew

On gay marriage, the presidential race, the corrupting influence of irony and the release of his new 'Til Death Do Us Part DVD.
L.A. Weekly |
Steven Mikulan |
07-07-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
'Hancock', America's Low-rent Superhero, Just in Time for the Recessionnew
Even bearing in mind the conventional wisdom that superman movies keep coming back to cheer us through hard times, I'm not clear whether Hancock is meant to be a representative of the homeless, a midcareer-burnout case or a troubled brother from another planet.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
07-07-2008 |
Reviews
Zen and the Art of Cougar Huntingnew

They practice picking up young men at the grocery store, these older women who have never been married, or whose husbands have left them for younger stock, or whose soul mates have died of heart attacks or in car accidents. On a balmy Thursday at a hotel in Pasadena, life coach Zen Kern, simply Zen to his clients, instructs the ladies in his Cougar Class to pretend they've just spotted a cute guy contemplating the cereal at Ralphs.
L.A. Weekly |
Gendy Alimurung |
07-07-2008 |
Culture
Tags: Los Angeles, dating, Sex, cougars, relationships, older women, cougar class, life coaches, Zen Kern
It's Not Easy Trying to be Cougar Baitnew
If I'm to achieve a life of leisurely Parisian mornings and afternoon massages, without working for it, of course, I'll have to become someone's pretty piece of meat. Someone rich, middle-aged and a little desperate. In other words, I need a cougar. But where to find such a woman?
L.A. Weekly |
Matthew Fleischer |
07-07-2008 |
Culture
Why its OK for Obama to Tread Middle Groundnew
If someone thinks that a progressive majority can actually govern by scorning and ignoring rather than including the tens of millions who consider themselves patriotic, flag-waving, born-again Christians, please let me know. Or better, send your memo directly to Dennis Kucinich.
L.A. Weekly |
Marc Cooper |
07-07-2008 |
Commentary
Cobbler to the Stars: Pasquale Fabrizionew

Bozo the Clown's shoes, big as canoe paddles, sit on a shelf in Fabrizio's shop on San Vicente Boulevard. He's making copies of the floppy soles for a movie. Afterward, the originals will go to a museum for safekeeping.
L.A. Weekly |
Gendy Alimurung |
06-27-2008 |
Fashion
Seattle's Fleet Foxes Make Languid, Woodsy Rocknew

The group like their timpani, and their echo, love the sound of waves bouncing off walls, dig the high, lonesome wail of falsetto in harmony. Can a flutist be far behind?
L.A. Weekly |
Randall Roberts |
06-27-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Director Timur Bekmambetov's Stock Rises with Action Fansnew

Bekmambetov happily agrees that the movie may be the year's fastest, bloodiest and chattiest Hollywood picture, but he denies that it's a celebration of ruthlessness.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
06-27-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
The Death of Raven, a Hollywood Beautynew
LA's noir streets made her the star of her own tragedy, then took it all away.
L.A. Weekly |
Christine Pelisek |
06-20-2008 |
Culture
A Sinner's View of Tim Russert's Passingnew
The howling dis shown to the rest of us by the stage-managed, manufactured and excruciatingly prolonged televised requiem for Russert has been rather too much.
L.A. Weekly |
Marc Cooper |
06-20-2008 |
Media
Protecting Obama from Gay Marriage Politicsnew

In the aftermath of the California Supreme Court victory, as many gay couples across the country have become emboldened to start fighting, a holding pattern is emerging in gay advocacy circles. GLAAD, Lambda Legal and several other prominent gay-rights organizations have been circulating a pamphlet called "Make Change, Not Lawsuits."
L.A. Weekly |
Matthew Fleischer |
06-20-2008 |
LGBT