Courtesy of Angel City Press

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Author and film critic Steven Rea is hip. Well he's not trying to be hip, which makes him even hipper, but we'll get to that in a second. He's got two obsessions -- bikes and Hollywood history -- that he's managed to turn into a pretty hip book.

At first glance, it might look like that kind of loud tourist-appealing kitsch -- Ta-da! Tinseltown on two wheels! -- but it's better than that. Much much better. Beautifully wrought by local publisher Angel City Press with designs from L.A.-based artist Amy Inouye, Hollywood Rides a Bike: Cycling With the Stars is exactly the type of book you need to have in print...and one you need for prominent display on your coffee table...you do have a coffee table, right?

The book is the type of conversation piece that eschews digitization -- classic photos of Hollywood stars, has-beens and almost-weres, all on their two- and three-wheeled modes of self-propulsion. Well, OK, it would be nice if it was digitized, for sales' sake, but it's one of those books that holds up better as a book. We interrupted Rea (not to be confused with the actor Stephen Rea) in the middle of his West Coast tour to talk about just that, and a lot of other things, over a coffee table.

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Samantha Stratton

Go Grease Cycling!

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The song "96,000" from the musical In The Heights blasts over a loud speaker. Twenty or so eager performers face the instructor, Graham LaBass, who encourages us from his head mic, "It's musical theater guys: just because the tempo slows down, doesn't mean we do!"

We pick up the pace, all gazing intently at our reflections in the mirror, trying our best to keep up with the chorus line. This might be a scene from Fame until LaBass exclaims, "Alright guys, back in the saddle!" Suddenly my lofty Broadway fantasy is brought back to the warmly lit cycling room at Up Dog Yoga and Cycling in West Hollywood.

Show Tune Cycle is the unique collaboration between Up Dog cycling teacher Graham LaBass and his fiancée, entertainer and host Ryan O'Connor. O'Connor, who expertly crafts a distinct playlist for every class in addition to hosting "Musical Mondays," a weekly musical nightclub act, assures me that Show Tune Cycle is just the tip of the iceberg, "We are kind of building a little musical theater army here in Los Angeles."

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L.J. Williamson

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CicLAvia, like most L.A. events, is a fab chance for people-watching, and though the expected bike jerseys, shorts, and plain T-shirts were in abundance, a few people are beginning to write the style guide for what will hopefully become not only a regular event, but a smashing spectacle. Here are eight different trends spotted on the streets at CicLAvia Sunday.

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Flickr

​Just as the threat of seventh-circle levels of gridlock kept most Angelenos at home during Carmageddon weekend, chained to backyard barbecues in quiet desperation, the threat of arrest kept many of the 399 riders who RSVP'd to the 4PACOLYPSE ride's page on Facebook from doing a midnight ride that may, or may not, have had a planned freeway component.

Event organizer Alex Wong sent a message to the page that said, "After the earlier note was sent, contacted by someone with LAPD early this morning with the request to cancel and remove this page.... Many of you wish to fight for bicycling rights and advocacy in LA. There are also some of you that wish to ride on the 405, so let me make this clear: Riding on the closed 405 isn't the way to fight for bicyclists rights in LA."

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Lea Lion

Ashkahn Shahparnia with his work Anything at the Architecture and Design Museum

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Even in the art world, where breaking the rules is the golden rule, some things still follow an equation. Take, for example, the gallery opening. It's one part boxed wine, one part background jazz, add some painting/sculpture/etc. and -- presto! -- it's an insta-art show.

That is, unless the show is "Come In! 2: Surf.Skate.Bike," a group exhibit of work by emerging Los Angeles-based artists, on view at the Architecture and Design Museum through July 24. Last week's opening not only broke the rules with live punk rock and Derby Dolls on roller-skates but also fell smack-dab in the middle of the show's run.

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Swank One

Down by the (L.A.) River. That's fixed-gear legend Keo Curry (left) and George Gregor (right).

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Sean Martin can tell you about the moment he thought he would die.

Sure, the fixed-gear cyclist who moved to L.A. in 2008 and cycles to work daily had had close calls before but one sunny day, a couple of years ago, at the corner of Melrose Avenue and Rossmore Avenue, he thought he was toast.

The light was green, his side of the busy intersection was unusually empty, he was barreling through it and suddenly a car did 'a left hook,' crossing into his lane from his left side as it turned right into a driveway.

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Zachary Pincus-Roth

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I was driving home last night in West Los Angeles and saw what appeared to be fifty members of the Hessians Motorcycle Club attending Lee Chang-dong's perfectly-paced character study of a 66-year-old maid raising her only grandchild in Korea.

Had the Hessians been eagerly anticipating the film's arrival after it was awarded Best Screenplay at Cannes last year? Or do do they have a special place in their hearts for the Gwangju-born screen legend Yun Jung-hee? What did they think of her restrained, tour de force comeback performance after more than a decade off screen? I had to find out more.

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Becca Kinskey

A crowd of cyclists look on as projections envision the future of Los Angeles.

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By 7:15 yesterday evening, the normally empty parking lot at the corner of Olive and 5th Streets had started buzzing. A small group of BMX'ers showed off their tricks to one another while a modest crowd of commuter cyclists chowed down at the Kogi truck in the center of the lot. Two film crews set up cameras next to a DJ who traded off spinning and taking photos with his family, while across the lot an enormous projector was being fired up and tested, splashing color across seven stories of a nearby building.

This hybrid event turns out to be one part community gathering and one part PSA shoot. Following on the heels and ebullience of Sunday's second installment of CicLAvia, which opened 7.5 miles of city streets to bike-only traffic, the Boulder-based cycling advocacy group People for Bikes has teamed with LA-based production collective Black Swan to create and film a temporary installation event focused on the transformative power of the two-wheeled.

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