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At Echo Park center, only the length of screenings is predictable

Kurt Comstock stood in the small movie theater, about to debut his latest film to an audience of friends and strangers. The 53-year-old inventor, who likes to experiment with eco-friendly film...

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At Hollyhock House, thousands celebrate an architectural treasure

Something happened on a Hollywood hilltop as Friday the 13th turned into Valentine's Day. In the middle of the night, as many as a thousand people at a time stood patiently in a line that snaked up...

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On Ash Wednesday, two deacons deliver on the streets of Beverly Hills

Two deacons, one Episcopal, one Catholic, were standing on a street in Beverly Hills, in front of Tiffany's, across from Louis Vuitton. It could have been the set-up for a joke — and some passersby...

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Relocated marker in Echo Park salutes Mack Sennett's first film studio

Searching out key locations in Los Angeles' history often requires a vivid imagination. You have to squint to try to mute the modern-day reality, to conjure buildings that once stood but now are gone....

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At the Repair Cafe, the fixes are in

Just what was being fixed at the Repair Cafe? Jessica Ferree brought in a toaster with a lever that no longer held slices down. Sade Musa had a torn skirt with a sagging elastic band. Jean Prinz hoped...

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Clog guru, in L.A. for biannual fittings, keeps devotees at her feet

L.A.'s clog devotees know the strict code by heart, even if they can't always live up to it. Sneakers are not shoes. Flip-flops ruin your feet. The last real footwear American women embraced was the...

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Burbank Airport emergency drill puts rescuers, makeup artists to the test

Staging a major airport disaster drill takes months of planning. You need volunteers. You need emergency teams primed to converge on the scene. So if the timing of a simulated crash at Burbank Bob...

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Oh, goodies! At this products convention, they're left holding the swag

What is it about a corporate freebie that makes it irresistible? Why do we, given the chance, grab up the T-shirts and the pens and the ball caps? A big industry revolves around putting such swag in...

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Seniors get in the act with skits to educate about scammers

So she's 96 and her eyesight's half gone. Peggy Mollin doesn't want to sit home alone. Alone, she says, often leads to trouble, especially for people her age. Calls. Knocks on the door. Emails....

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A heady new leaf for these budding pot entrepreneurs

The shimmery organza gift bags contained samples of face cream, salves and scrubs, a green marijuana-leaf label on each dainty jar. Pot was the theme of the recent West Hollywood ladies'...

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Manny Pacquiao fights are a Philippine holiday

Order $60 worth of Filipino favorites to go at Max's of Manila in Glendale on Saturday and you get to take home a special "knockout treat:" a free, family-size, deep-fried pork leg called a crispy...

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Focusing on photography becomes a labor of love

Some people travel through life on straight, clearly marked paths. Rafael Cardenas has zigged and zagged. Born in Mexico and raised in East L.A., he has tried his hand at many kinds of labor in the...

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STEM Academy students envision green space built atop 101 Freeway

The STEM Academy of Hollywood is perched above eight lanes of traffic on the 101 Freeway. Its classroom windows offer the high school engineers a bird's-eye view of some of Los Angeles' most enduring...

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Tom LaBonge's Mickey Rooney fete helps turn the big city small-town

What could be more fitting, on the first day of his last month in office, than for City Councilman Tom LaBonge to be doing what he loves, standing in the cacophony of Los Angeles' present, taking a...

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Author sends mailbox enthusiasts and Art Deco lovers back to the past

Who even thinks about mailboxes anymore, when so few people send the kind of messages that require envelopes and postage stamps? That a small crowd turned out recently to learn about mailbox history...

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For volunteer cheerleaders at Special Olympics, their job is a serious labor...

Joseph Fernandez and Cole Kaden sat in packed bleachers at the Los Angeles Convention Center, watching two teams in uniform — Denmark in red, India in blue — move a ball up and down a court using only...

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Historian travels through time to detail the first adventures by car

It took Peter Blodgett just under an hour and a half one recent afternoon to drive from San Marino to Corona del Mar. It's a fact worth noting, given that he'd come to talk about car travel in the...

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Exhibit's treasure trove illustrates history of Los Angeles

What can we learn about Los Angeles history from an object that looks like a metal plunger, or maybe a large cooking pot, with a pipe rising out of its lid? "It's a great conversation starter," says...

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To connect with the Beatles, all they needed was imagination - and a helicopter

If only, even for one day, you could blink yourself back in time — to when you felt freest, when you felt boldest, when the sheer power of youth made you certain you'd succeed. More than half a...

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Eccentric left a home full of rats, 69 vintage cars and a disputed estate...

Where does it all go after we're gone? Gerald Willits' life was full of things, but he was very much alone. When he died a year ago at 76, it took days for anyone to notice. By then, said Orange...

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