LA Observed is a website devoted to independent reporting, informed commentary and selective linkage on Los Angeles news, media, politics, business, books and other topics. The site went live in May ...

Jim A. Beardsley is an independent archivist and historical research specialist in Los Angeles who began researching Newport '69 while pursuing his master's degree in history at Cal State Northridge.

With Ayn Rand in the media conversation around Paul Ryan and the Republican convention, here's a look at the home that Rand used to occupy in Northridge. And what a house it was — if it still existed, ...

Lynne Westmore Bloom, an artist who died Friday night at home in Encinitas, is best known for the work of guerrilla public art she created in 1966. Then known as Lynne Seemayer, she left her ...

Helen Ly / viewfromaloft Downtown chronicler Ed Fuentes blogs at View from a Loft that the sign for Gorky's Russian cafe still hangs over the corner of 8th and San Julian streets. It's kind of like ...

What is it about non-Angelenos becoming so obsessed with old filming locations that they spend years tracking down obscure shots and facts — then write books about their discoveries that become ...

Los Angeles car culture never saw anyone like Big Willie Robinson — or needed anyone quite so much. In the mid 1960s, when baby boomers were racing hot rods and fighting each other and the cops all ...

L. Ron Hubbard in 1950; crowd at Dianetics seminar in L.A. the same year. Sappell and Welkos hunted down the facts regarding Hubbard's trumped-up military record: his false claims of having received a ...

Several LA Observed regulars knew right away that the mystery Jurgensen's Grocery sign posted last week can be found on Glendon Avenue in Westwood Village. There's nothing quite like the Jurgensen's ...

An LA Times newsroom pod. With dozens of veteran Los Angeles Times journalists cleaning out their desks this week, the magnitude of the experience leaving the building is coming home to people, inside ...

Filthy McNasty owned two well-remembered music clubs in the Los Angeles area. His Filthy McNasty's on Sunset Strip occupied the spot where the Viper Room is now. After leaving the Strip, McNasty ran ...

Sunday's New York Times revives a classic Los Angeles sports media incident — the time that KLAC radio reporter Paul Olden asked Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda what he thought of Cubs' left fielder Dave ...