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Surfer Girl She is Not
5 NovHow a nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn rocked the Los Angeles gang scene.
Leon Bing is a lady. She is also the former girlfriend of a leading Hollywood coke dealer, a former model, and the author of “Do or Die”. The formative study on South L.A. gang culture; which Publisher’s Weekly sums up as the profiling of “archrival Los Angeles teenage gangs the Crips and the Bloods in a harrowing docuchronicle…that should be read by all concerned with the future of urban America.” This is a woman I’d like to meet. She is, by all accounts a striking woman, and has just published her memoir titled “Swans and Pistols”; subtitled “Modeling, Motherhood, and Making It in the Me Generation”. If not a throwback to Los Angeles culture in the ’70’s and ’80’s, then certainly a journey through a life lived in the midst of Hollywood, all it had to offer, and what she took from it.
What You Missed This Weekend
26 Oct
97,000 people attended the U2 concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on Sunday night. Amongst the vibrating lights and amped crowd, with Bono’s pitch perfect voice echoing the stadium walls, no prouder moment was to be had than when fifty-year olds drunk on Bud Light, wearing their favorite ripped 1995 tour tees (that managed to conceal only a portion of plump belly underneath), are shouting and loudly singing next to you in an inharmonious malodorous drone. For three hours. However, hoisting said Buds in the air, everyone rocked out to the new and the old U2 hits, taking part in Bono’s message to the world – love, peace and unity – voiced by Bono, cheered on by Los Angeles, making history with the international YouTube live broadcast of the concert.
Less inspired than the U2 concert, was the Italian Tourism Board at The Grove, which appeared at the property for the weekend. Promoting tourism across the world, The Grove has featured Hawaii, Canada, Japan and now Italy. A pop-up trailer ushered you into an air-conditioned room to be educated about the country. You could have scored a 2-inch bottle of true Italian virgin Olive Oil and some European chocolates while being told the virtues of relaxing in Sardinia.
Also, you could have spent some money. Head over to TenOverSix for some expensive shopping (Beverly boulevard is good for that). Get on your knees and beg them to order more of the sold-out mini-cigarette shrunken literature books from Leo Tolstoy: The Death of Ivan Ilych and Father Sergius, Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness and Robert Louis Stevenson: Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.
It’s Fall, Didn’t You Know
14 OctThe rain followed me to L.A. Boulder traded theirs for snow.
A flood of drizzle blankets the city in a never-ending pelt, cleansing the town of its dry dust; now swiftly moving into the sewers and out to sea.
Other than the traffic, which ebbs even slower when water abounds, there isn’t much that can’t be found in other metropolitans under a downpour – the people running, newspapers above heads, colorful umbrellas, crowds shivering under stoops and covered bus stop benches. However, there is one despotic change – the smell. Some sort of scented emanation has erupted; wherever I am – chugging up along Fairfax, gunning it on the 110 Highway – I am hit with a redolence of rosemary, jasmine and dense earthy dirt. As it happens, everything has turned darker – with the sun no longer shining, the bark of trees soaked to black – and the contrast sets the greenery on fire; the greens greener, the yellow leaves yellower.
This sort of approximate weather change occurs each year; the sudden transition from summertime heatstroke to chilly torrential downpour strikes the line between Summer and Fall, and suddenly we’re swathed in wool coats and cashmere sweaters when a week prior, weekends meant neon bikinis and surfing at the beach. Though the weather is expected to be temporal and therefore hardly marks the Fall season inasmuch as the yellowing and falling leaves in the Midwest. Likewise, it is the beginning of a season that goes mostly unrecognized in Los Angeles – that is, unless a mudslide or fire threatens to drown us in a different sort of downpour.
Despite the decorous scenery and enchanting aroma, which seem to occur on the precipice of any sort of jeopardy (i.e. recent red dust storms in Australia), each weather change invites a new hazard. For those recently travailed with fires, they now face another endemic adversity – that of mudslides. California is indeed a concrete jungle – if the taxes don’t kill you (or the people, or the traffic), Mother Nature might.
On The Scene
4 Sep
I am now an estimated eight hours away from three days of lazy bliss. I anticipate many hours spent sleeping, eating and furious exercise (all the better for that bikini). May your barbecues be sizzling and your pools refreshingly cool. Have a great weekend!! Expect to be wallowing in margaritas at 6pm.
July 4th
5 Jul
With the always possible threat of fire or riot, the helicopters patrol the night skies; tonight its concerning that a flare is released nearby. A bright red dot on July 4th is a near miss – who’s going to see it amidst all the fireworks?
The helicopter:
The Flare:
Fireworks were scaled back to only a handful of shows across L.A. because of California’s budget crisis. The Hollywood Bowl, a local concert and event venue, has their own celebration off of Highland Avenue which, although fantastic up close, only makes the hills look like they’re on fire. Above the city, only a handful of colorful bouquets can be seen above the Los Angeles skyline. There’s 15 million people here, so there’s never going to be a single destination. It’s a penury display but a satisfying day. Requisite grilling was done, skin got sun-scorched and we ended up amongst friends.
Water World
18 Jun
I’m not sure if it was the tap water I was drinking that reminded me of chlorinated water, but the only thing I wanted to do yesterday was visit my childhood water park, known as Water World, in Colorado.
I’ve got beaches, year-round sunny weather, real palm trees and what do I think of? A midwest water playground where I often got burnt, sideswiped by blue rubber tubes and dragged under water by the current in the wave pool. Then ate funnel cake.
Mop Men
26 MayDeath sells. Neal Smither knows this; but he doesn’t sell death, he cleans it up. Based in San Francisco, Crime Scene Cleaners has become a multimillion dollar company, specializing in suicides, homicides and other deaths. Journalist Alan Emmins follows Neal to see what it’s all about, this death business, the business of death. The result? An intrepid and surprisingly funny assessment of the grisly and obscene in California – what happens, when blood’s been spilt.
NO SAINTS IN L.A. 