Hello friends! Your Ask Chris columnist here. I've been poking around LA County and spotted this neat place. Where was I? Be the first to guess correctly and win a one-year subscription to Los Angeles magazine for yourself or a friend. Post your answer in the comments section (and please include your email on the  form so that I can reach you) then come back to see where I've been.

Hello friends! Your Ask Chris columnist here. I've been poking around LA County and spotted this neat place. Where was I? Be the first to guess correctly and win a one-year subscription to Los Angeles magazine for yourself or a friend. Post your answer in the comments section (and please include your email on the  form so that I can reach you) then come back to see where I've been.

Los Angeles magazine writer Dave Gardetta profiled estate sale maven Cynthia Abernethy in our pages in 2010. I'm a big fan of her sales and attend regularly. She's got the best houses, she's always cordial and extremely fair to her regular customers. However, if you break her rules, the hammer comes down. This weeks' choice quote from Cynthia’s email dispatch: “At the sale last Friday someone thought it would be OK to go in the yard of the next-door-neighbor and help themselves to a bunch of oranges from their tree. (since they were not home) Then they decided to try one on the spot, then throw the peels in the driveway. This is NOT cool, the person was lucky I did not catch them, stealing fruit is one of my pet peeves. A couple of years ago someone took all of my lemons that they could reach over the wall. This left ...

Dozens of Bringing Back Broadway supporters, politicians and tube sock shoppers huddled along Downtown’s legendary thoroughfare this morning to witness another milestone in the rebirth of the historic district. The metal façade that has entombed Clifton’s Cafeteria for 50 of it’s 77 years was cut away over the weekend and the Beaux-Arts / Brookdale fantasy Clifford Clinton created was revealed anew. Russ Rymer wrote a wonderful piece on the history of Clifton's for Los Angeles in 2003. Read it here.  Owner Andrew Meieran and Councilman Jose Huizar gave the signal and three construction workers on the roof pulled back a giant tarp to dramatically reveal the original construction battered by the decades. Large sections of the original windows were filled in with cinder block during a 1980s earthquake retrofit. The project, which includes several bars, will be completed in phases over the next eighteen months. Clinton’s son Don and grandson ...

Hello friends! Your Ask Chris columnist here. I've been poking around LA County and spotted this neat place. Where was I? Be the first to guess correctly and win a one-year subscription to Los Angeles magazine for yourself or a friend. Post your answer in the comments section (and please include your email on the  form so that I can reach you) then come back to see where I've been.

Maybe you’ve made the long trip to Burning Man or stumbled along with the drunken Santas barhopping at Christmastime, but did you know they both have origins in the late, lamented Cacophony Society? Reverend Al and his merry band of misfits are back for the Cacopalooza this Saturday in downtown Santa Ana. Jon Alloway’s documentary film Into the Zone, about the art prank absurdist surrealist gang of kooks is premiering at the Yost theater at 3pm, but the most timid lookiloos can still enjoy the sexy side of safety with the Art of Bleeding, a parade of art cars under the direction of this guy, strip dreidel, giant doggie diner heads and Dr. Sunshine, who will use “uplifting humor to teach about hideous disfigurement and tragedy.” The Cacophony Society: You may already be a member. See you there. 

Click here for tickets

The Art Deco Society knows how to throw a great party. They bring thousands to dance at their annual Avalon Ball on Catalina Island, host swanky cocktails in historic places events and on February 18^th are hosting a casino night at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. They are also involved in preservation issues like the Venice Post Office and the Fairfax Theater, but I was so excited to see that they have now created the Art Decopedia of Los Angeles, a compendium of our greatest monuments to jazz age opulence. Just type in a street name or building type and you can visit the Crossroads of the World, the Firestone building on La Brea and little seen gems all over the city. Take a virtual tour and add your own entries. Maybe you know of a hidden corner of Inglewood or Altadena that’s not in there. Feed the knowledge tree ...

I went to see Big Miracle thinking it would be a nice respite from the dreary and depressing movies I’ve been enjoying these last few months (spoiler alert: the wife dies/ bleeds to death/ is wrapped in plastic and left for dead) in The Descendants, Twilight and Contraband) so, yecch. I figured Drew Barrymore hugging some whales might cheer me up and I was not disappointed. Sure, it has a silly love triangle and there’s a subplot about Eskimo hunters that didn’t do much for me, but I genuinely felt for those animatronic whales and I laughed at the funny parts, so mission accomplished! First off, the action (based on a true story) takes place in 1988 and I’m a sucker for period films. The plot revolves around a bunch of eclectic characters thrown together in Barrow, Alaska to rescue three trapped whales. The cast is filled with terrific character ...

The Emmy-winning comedian (and foodie) will be at the Pantages on February 3 and 4. Where does she go for grilled cheese sandwiches?

1) Doughboys
“They have a special with tomato soup. It always reminds me I need a boyfriend to split it.”

2) Grilled Cheese Truck
“I’ve stood in the beating sun for 45 minutes for their cheesy mac: sharp cheddar and barbecue pork. Absolutely magical.”

3) The Foundry
 “It’s on raisin bread with apricot-caper puree, taleggio cheese, and short rib. I don’t care what it costs.” 

Hello friends! Your Ask Chris columnist here. I've been poking around LA County and spotted this neat place. Where was I? Be the first to guess correctly and win a one-year subscription to Los Angeles magazine for yourself or a friend. Post your answer in the comments section (and please include your email on the  form so that I can reach you) then come back to see where I've been.