AltWeeklies Wire
LES & ANNIE CLAYPOOL: Echo Park’s Last And Truest Bohemiansnew
Little more than 50 years ago, a guy named Les Claypool lived with his lovely wife Annie at the top of Echo Park Avenue in what may be the most Bohemian section of Los Angeles. They lived in a home built on the steep hillside out of giant redwood lumber and lots of glass and sunshine. It was a lovely place to wake up in after a great night of partying.
Random Lengths News |
Lionel Rolfe |
04-06-2012 |
Commentary
Charter School Cheatsnew
How to cut in line and pervert the concept of public education.
L.A. Weekly |
Gene Maddeus |
10-13-2011 |
Education
Nearly 30 Detroit Ex-Pat Artists Living in NYC Tell Us to Stay Putnew
For any cognizant creative whose finger is on the pulse of this ailing city, the news of one relocating to New York is a cliché. And other places too. Want to move to L.A.? Good luck.
Metro Times |
Travis R. Wright |
03-23-2010 |
Art
Pee-Wee's Big Comeback: 18 Years After a Fall, Paul Reubens Returnsnew
Pee-wee Herman is a fey and infantile parody of an awkward child circa 1961, even though the movie Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is set in the 1980s. When called names by the neighborhood bully, he chirps back, “I know you are, but what am I?”
L.A. Weekly |
Steven Leigh Morris |
01-22-2010 |
Performance
Nine Minutes With Exene Cervenka of L.A. Punk Band Xnew
On January 5, I had the odd pleasure of a telephone interview with Exene Cervenka, lead singer of the quintessential Los Angeles punk band X. Founded in 1977, X combined poetic lyrics with rockabilly arrangements and eerie harmonies to create a sound no one had ever heard before.
San Antonio Current |
Bryan Rindfuss |
01-20-2010 |
Profiles & Interviews
Los Angeles' Red-Light Ticket Ripoffnew
I was captured on camera doing a “California roll” while making a right turn at a red light. The damage was $446 plus a $64 traffic-school fee and a pricey separate fee that an eight-hour traffic school charged.
L.A. Weekly |
Michael Goldstein |
01-04-2010 |
Transportation
LAPD Audit: New Chief Releases a Report Showing Broad Mismanagementnew
The city may not be as safe as the 1950s like Bill Bratton often boasted, but apparently the bookkeeping by the Los Angeles Police Department is “stuck” in that decade, and a new and embarrassing audit is roiling City Hall—by explaining how bad things really are.
L.A. Weekly |
Patrick Range McDonald and Christine Pelisek |
12-18-2009 |
Economy
La Santa Cecilia, an 'It' Band and L.A.'s Next Big Genre-Bending Latinonew
Every couple of years, a Latino band emerges from this area who match their neighborhood and times, who transcend Latino L.A. to become a regional crossover hit. La Santa Cecilia is next.
L.A.'s Medical-Weed Warsnew
Today Los Angeles stands as the nation's pot capital, a mecca for buying and selling the drug under the guise of the medicinal use initiative California voters approved 13 years ago. The conditions are testament to a breakdown in basic governance unseen in any other major California city.
L.A. Weekly |
Patrick Range McDonald and Christine Pelisek |
11-30-2009 |
Drugs
Chaos in the Casitas: Lawless Speakeasies Get a Grip on L.A.new
The casitas operate in what appear to be shuttered, recession-emptied storefronts or hollowed-out homes. But inside, patrons can get almost anything they want, in a one-stop shop: drugs, gambling, heisted cigarettes, after-hours booze and "B-girls" -- slang for "bar" girls, or prostitutes, who charge about $60 for sex.
L.A. Weekly |
Christine Pelisek |
11-09-2009 |
Crime & Justice
All Sides In L.A.'s Pot Wars Agree: City Hall is Incompetentnew
The disparate groups in the pot debate agree on one thing: Los Angeles City Hall has been almost comically inept at complying with simple state deadlines for municipalities to create rules for medicinal marijuana.
L.A. Weekly |
Patrick Range McDonald and Jill Stewart |
10-23-2009 |
Drugs
The Assassination of Deputy Abel Escalantenew
A young father had nothing to do with LAPD's killing of Danny Leon last year. The 27-year-old officer most likely heard about it on the news, like everyone else. But, federal prosecutors believe, Escalante died for it.
L.A. Weekly |
Christine Pelisek |
10-16-2009 |
Crime & Justice
A Year Late, L.A. Tries to Uninvite its Unvetted Pot Shopsnew
The Los Angeles City Council now faces one of its potentially most expensive legal battles ever, a war over medical pot that could draw in shady drug dealers, serious medical-marijuana activists, gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown -- and even U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
L.A. Weekly |
Daniel Heimpel |
09-25-2009 |
Drugs
Foster Youths in L.A.: A Before-and-After Storynew
L.A. is home to the largest foster-care agency in the U.S., with many of its 7,000 employees fighting valiantly to try to fix the system and the lives of children caught in it. But with John, on a brisk night on a corner frequented by former foster youths now homeless, you notice only the system's failings.
L.A. Weekly |
Daniel Heimpel |
09-11-2009 |
Children & Families
Jonathan Gold's 99 Essential L.A. Restaurantsnew
Between a tweet and a truck: This year especially, an essential L.A. restaurant may not even be a restaurant at all -- it may be a tweet telling you which street corner to hang around at, or a cart parked in the same location from the hours of 11 to 2.
L.A. Weekly |
Jonathan Gold |
08-28-2009 |
Food+Drink