A Teacher's Secret Life Hillel Aron's look at the life and death of Harry Major, a Hollywood High teacher with a penchant for taking in ex-cons, had readers riveted last week ("The Pen Pal Murder," Oct. 17). Anon can't wait for the movie version, saying, "Great story and writing. Write...
After 40 — yes, 40 — years of cooing and obsessing over Sanrio’s adorable mascot, Hello Kitty is getting her own fan convention. The first Hello Kitty Con takes place Halloween weekend at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary. The festivities launch Thursday morning with a packed schedule of panels and demo sessions. Check out talks such as “Inspired by Her — Artist and Hello Kitty” and “Guys Love Hello Kitty Too!” There also will be classes on flower arranging, cookie decorating and scrapbooking. Given that this is a convention at an art museum, you can expect lots of art-filled activities. On Thursday, Vancouver-based artist Camilla d’Errico will teach and lecture throughout the day. Esther Kim, Dabs Myla and Martin Hsu will appear later in the convention, while five tattoo artists will be available for appointments throughout the weekend. If you’re looking for something less permanent, get a Hello Kitty manicure from nail artist Masako Kojima. Hello Kitty merchandise, including exclusives and limited items, will be on sale as well. Somehow not enough for you? K-town’s hipper-than-thou Line Hotel is offering Hello Kitty packages during the convention. The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 N. Central Ave., dwntwn.; Thu., Oct. 30-Sun., Nov. 2, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; $20-$30 (most days sold out). sanrio.com/hellokittycon-eventinfo.More
Looking for the perfect place to show off your Black Widow costume? Stan Lee’s fourth annual Comikaze Expo launches on Halloween at the Los Angeles Convention Center. At this pop culture extravaganza, learn how to pose for cosplay photos or get a crash course in steampunk. Check out a screening of Return to Nuke ’Em High Volume 1 with Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman. Bring the kids: On Friday, the convention’s exhibit hall hosts a massive trick-or-treat adventure. Stick around throughout the weekend for a huge Tetris 30th-anniversary gathering or catch Spike and Mike’s new Halloween special on Saturday. Sunday is “Family Day,” with fun for all ages, including a panel with the stars of Power Rangers Megaforce and a Land of the Lost reunion. The whole weekend is filled with celebrity guests — from Adam West and Julie Newmar to Game of Thrones stars Gwendoline Christie and Alfie Allen. Look out for the convention’s founder, Stan Lee, as well as Cassandra Peterson (aka Elvira), who is a partner in the event. Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St., dwntwn.; Fri., Oct. 31, 1-7 p.m.; Sat., Nov. 1, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sun., Nov. 2, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; $30 day pass, $70 weekend pass, children under 12 free with paying adult. comikazeexpo.com. More
Though it’s the fleshiest gathering outside the Playboy Mansion, the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval is not clothing-optional. In fact, the 500,000 attention-getters expected tonight have been working on their amazing outfits almost since the day they shed last year’s Miley Cyrus’ wrecking-ball gear. The biggest people-watching event in town — and, as a parade, second only to the Tournament of Roses — includes 50-plus performers, live bands and DJs across six stages, a costume contest and the crowning of the honorary “Queen of the Carnaval” (last year, Queen Latifah held that title). So what will be the most popular costume idea this year? Maleficent? The three-breasted woman? Ebola? Put on a hospital mask or hazmat suit and find out. Santa Monica Boulevard between Doheny Drive & La Cienega Boulevard, W. Hlywd.; Fri., Oct. 31, 6-11 p.m.; free. (800) 368-6020, visitwesthollywood.com.More
Día de los Muertos, which technically runs from Oct. 31 through Nov. 2, is one of Mexico’s most celebrated holidays. The result of Spanish influence on a centuries-old Aztec festival honoring Mictecacihuatl, goddess of the afterlife, Día de los Muertos now is celebrated around the world — and especially in Los Angeles, where festivals from the traditional to the contemporary celebrate los muertos all over the city. Traditionally tonight is reserved for honoring children who have passed, but since it falls on a Saturday, it’s when the city’s best Día de los Muertos celebrations are happening. Hollywood Forever, which claims to be the only cemetery in the United States where Día de los Muertos is celebrated, hosts its 15th annual event with the fitting theme of Quinceañera. Expect a traditional procession among the tombstones, more than 100 altars, musical performances on three stages, and an art exhibit in the Cathedral Mausoleum curated by Luis Villanueva. Downtown, head to Grand Park for a huge, free celebration featuring 50 traditional and contemporary altars (on view through Nov. 2), dance performances by Danza Azteca Xocoyote, Oaxacan group Nueva Antequera and Grandeza Mexicana Folk Ballet Company, and live music from Very Be Careful and Palenke Soultribe. Plus: giant sugar skulls. If you’re near Long Beach, head to MoLAA, the only U.S. museum devoted to modern and contemporary Latin American art. Saturday night, catch La Muerte Vive! — Where Rock Opera Meets Cabaret, featuring musician Santos de Los Angeles, burlesque dancer Ruby Champagne and giant puppets (judas). Bring the family back the next morning for Target Free Sundays Festival de los Muertos — admission is free all day, so after you’ve decorated sugar skulls and checked out the community altar honoring author Gabriel García Márquez, head inside the galleries to check out some of the best of Latin American art (MoLAA altars on display through Nov. 9). Hollywood Forever Día de los Muertos, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Sat. Nov. 1, noon-mid.; $20; ladayofthedead.com.More
When it comes to the life of Bruce Haack, separating truth from fiction is not easy. The groundbreaking electronic music composer and inventor is said to have taught himself to play piano by age 3. By 8, he apparently was escaping his abusive mother's wrath by sneaking off to Indian...
Visual allure often isn't a virtue we value when chasing obscure flavors in L.A.'s international neighborhoods. In fact, adventurous diners tend to appreciate the opposite: The grungier the location, the more accomplished we feel for having sought it out. Looks be damned — let the fireworks happen on the flavor...
The Los Angeles art world has been saying a collective "hallelujah" since the arrival in January of Philippe Vergne as MOCA's new director. Although some East Coast commentators condemned the appointment — citing in particular a budget crisis scandal in which Vergne resorted to selling off a number of works...
It's just math. With ever more overflowing arts districts and only so many Saturday nights a month, a bumper crop of shows opens tonight in Culver City — and several galleries are ringing in the new season by showing off their marquee rosters. Exact hours and show durations vary, so you'll want to check gallery sites for complete details. Promising and must-see highlights include Brooklyn-based artist KAWS at Honor Fraser, offering new work extrapolating from the Peanuts comics. The artist styles these images to the point of abstraction with his trademark bold color schemes, along with more gestural, black-and-white works (through Oct. 31). Also Kehinde Wiley's World Stage series at Roberts & Tilton (through Oct. 25) continues with an iteration based on Haiti's pageant culture, using the artist's iconic portraits of everyday folks rendered in his lavishly regal style. Zackary Drucker & Rhys Ernst's Post / Relationship / X at Luis de Jesus (through Nov. 1) surveys their years-long transgender love affair and artistic collaboration with recent photos that debuted at Paris Photo L.A., as well as a brand-new video piece. Sandow Birk at Koplin Del Rio (through Oct. 17) presents the third in his aesthetically and emotionally intense series transcribing the entire Koran and illuminating it with images of contemporary secular life in America. Rebecca Farr offers haunting mixed media paintings on canvas and the release of her new book at Klowden Mann through Oct. 18). The Miaz Brothers take on "The Masters" in a new series of ghostly, witty paintings at Fabien Castanier (through Oct. 11), in the Italian sibling-collaborators' first U.S. show. Tim Gratkowski at Walter Maciel (through Nov. 1) shows new two- and three-dimensional, retro-slick and expressively abstract mixed-media collages. Patricia Chidlaw at George Billis Gallery (through Nov. 1) installs a diverse suite of urban landscape paintings, which go beyond photorealism to show us our common world in an uncommon light. Honor Fraser Gallery, 2622 S. La Cienega Blvd., Culver City; thru Nov. 1; free. (310) 837-0191, honorfraser.com.More
“Adam Mars: Once Upon a Time, We Weren’t Stalkers” opens this week at Gusford Gallery, but at least one of its key text-based images (“I Loved You, Then I Googled You”) is already up on a billboard — which is kind of perfect, since the work is about how much we relentlessly chronicle every moment of our lives in public. The emotional highs and lows, triumphs, epic fails and misapprehensions that once were private affairs have become 140-character public confessions, one-way broadcasts in which we hurl our bullshit into the public sphere without filter. OK, so maybe social media–fueled narcissism isn’t a sign of the apocalypse, but the confluence of word, image, technology and bottomless need for attention is certainly a phenomenon worth addressing — and Mars’ visual art, which both celebrates and impugns the practice, is the perfect way to do it. By painting his texts on a tactile, expressive, brick-backed abstract patterning, he both evokes the “real world” in a literal brick-and-mortar sense, and addresses the outside voice represented by truncated, decontextualized online pronouncements. Also, they are hilarious. Please try to remain aware of the irony when you repost them on Instagram, OK? Gusford Gallery. 7016 Melrose Ave., W. Hlywd. Thu., Nov. 6, 6-9 p.m.; continues Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m., through Dec. 20; free. (323) 452-9563, gusfordgallery.com.More
Tuesdays-Saturdays, 6-9 p.m. and Tuesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Continues through Dec. 20
Alexandre Aja's Horns is the rare YA-ish romance that doesn't make like a guidance counselor and force the characters to shake hands and forgive. It's a biblically tinged, eye-for-an-eye vengeance thriller about an emo boyfriend named Ig (Daniel Radcliffe) whose childhood sweetheart Merrin (Juno Temple) has been murdered underneath the...
Jake Gyllenhaal, not a particularly bulky guy to begin with, dropped 20 pounds or so to play a Los Angeles misfit who finds his calling as a freelance crime videographer in Dan Gilroy's nervy thriller Nightcrawler. Even when Robert De Niro does it, weight change isn't acting — it's the...
The best that can be said of The Pact 2 is that its existence might draw the attention of more viewers to The Pact, a superior indie creep-out from 2012 whose creator, the writer-director Nicholas McCarthy, fashioned it according to three inviolable principles.
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Before the job had a name, the king of a television show was usually unknown beyond his kingdom -- the gangs of tool-belt-wearing union workers, divisions of actor prettifiers, regiments of writers and editors.
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The autumn passage of the New Wavers continues apace with this, the final film by the late great postmodernist, whose movies were always fraught with our often self-destructive need for narrative.
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As surreal as a David Lynch film, 79-year-old Jimmy Angel says he was a former teen idol, a friend and high school classmate of Elvis Presley and the adopted son of infamous mob boss Joe Columbo.
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Oh, Los Angeles, we know you love to hate fracking. But like a lot of controversial science, it has its upsides.
The L.A. City Council has already said not in my backyard to fracking, largely because environmentalists fear that the process of pushing pressurized liquid into rock formations to squeeze out oil contaminates ground water and possibly even triggers earthquakes.
But you can partially blame our 4-year-low gas prices, with some stations today charging an unheard-of $2.99 a gallon, on that very process Angeleno liberals so loathe.
Consumer Watchdog, the non-profit group behind Proposition 45, is firing back at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi over her opposition to the measure.
The proposition would give the state's insurance commissioner the power to reject excessive rate hikes for health insurance. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial board this week, Pelosi warned that the measure would disrupt Covered California, the state's insurance exchange established under the Affordable Care Act.
"If I wanted to kill the Affordable Care Act, I would do this," Pelosi told the Chronicle.
Consumer Watchdog responded in a letter to Pelosi blasting her remarks.
During this alleged recovery from the 2007-to-2009 Great Recession, economic gains in America have completely bypassed the middle class and below.
In other words, the rich got richer, and the rest of us are still living recession-style. Nowhere is the growing gap between rich and poor greater than in the Golden State. While a recent analysis found that California has the most wealth in America, the new U.S. Census "Supplemental Poverty Measure" also found we have the highest percentage of people living in poverty, with about 1 in 4 of us being, technically, poor.
You should be angry that, during the second-worst economic period in U.S. history, the wealthy were enriching themselves and asking for tax breaks instead of hiring workers and spreading the love. Trickle-down economics be damned.
But there's one small way you can take from the rich and give to yourself: get their candy! It's small consolation. Here are five trick-or-treat neighborhoods where you can be a Robin Hood-Rat. Have at it. We highly encourage it.
If you've been to West Africa and had contact with a confirmed Ebola patient, you're probably in for 21 days of confinement under a new California Department of Public Health mandate.
Yeah, the Golden State is the latest in the union to jump on the bandwagon of implementing Ebola-containment policies following criticism of the federal government's perceived missteps in Texas, where America's first Ebola patient died earlier this month.
State Health Officer Ron Chapman says the policy will be "flexible" and that local health officials will be able to take a "case-by-case approach" to Ebola scares.
Arguably the most powerful unelected official in Los Angeles – Maria Elena Durazo – is stepping down as head of the L.A. County Federation of Labor and taking a job as vice president for immigration, civil rights and diversity at UNITE HERE, a union for hotel, restaurant and casino workers.
To union members, Durazo has been a godsend, a tiny (five-foot-two) dynamo, fearlessly advocating for workers. Others see her as the ultimate insider, a shadowy establishment figure and the leader of an organization with enormous influence at both the state and local level, able to intimidate almost any elected Los Angeles or Sacramento Democrat.
Note: A SeaWorld rep argues that the event is not being skipped since its attendance has been irregular. See more details at the bottom.
SeaWorld's stock prices and attendance numbers have deflated, apparently, as a result of criticism from the PETA-promoted Shamu documentary Blackfish.
The park in summer announced the expansion of its orca whale captivity pools, a move widely believed to be a response to the criticism. Now PETA is gloating again because SeaWorld is absent from the just-announced Rose Parade float lineup, which has featured the San Diego park's entries for years.
Yesterday — barely 24 hours after we published a first-person essay critical of Uber — L.A. Weekly's editorial assistant was contacted by a stranger offering a first-person essay about how great Uber is.
It was kind of strange. It was purportedly written by a former taxi driver named Cabdi Xuseen ("Confessions of a Former L.A. Taxi Driver," the title read), but it came from the email of a different person, someone with the improbable name of Tawny Valentine. "This piece is exclusive to the L.A. Weekly and we hope that you would consider placing it," Valentine wrote.
It's no wonder that people from across the land and around the world still come to California seeking virtual gold.
It's still the state with some of America's greatest potential salaries, at least when it comes to small-business employment. So says personal finance site NerdWallet, which this week revealed the states that have highest-paying small-business industries.
California's arts, entertainment and recreation sector churned out the highest figure, by far, with an "average employee salary" of $277,597.48. Phew.
At the same time, a new report from the Tax Foundation ranked California nearly last in "tax climate."
Vladimir Nesterenko, still fighting to get his $52,800 back, says of Wells Fargo: "This scheme inside their walls — they don't want to bring it outside."
Vladimir Nesterenko left the Ukraine 28 years ago following the Chernobyl disaster, one of the worst nuclear power plant failures in history. The 1986 explosion and fire flung radioactive particles into the sky and across the western USSR and Europe, causing cancers and deformities that are still emerging today.
Nesterenko escaped this Level-7 meltdown and landed in America, where he lived in a Mid-Wilshire apartment and worked as a technician at a Long Beach refinery. He began paying off a vacation home in Las Vegas, where he'd planned to retire with his wife. But four years ago in 2010, a $52,800 counterfeit check written to a nondescript furniture store on Vermont Avenue would forever change his life.
"I want these people who were involved in this fraud to be accountable for what they did," Nesterenko says. "It highly impacted my life, my family, my health, my lifestyle."
Nesterenko was among more than 75 victims who had their financial information stolen by Armenian Power member Andranik Aloyan, says former Asst. U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada.
There's a big difference, however, between Nesterenko and the other victims: Wells Fargo still hasn't reimbursed the 68-year-old for most of the $52,800 spirited out of his checking account.
But this isn't a case of déjà vu. It seems more like a case of U.S. News & World Report catching up with the rest of the world, or at least with the London-based publication Times Higher Education.
U.S. News & World Report's annual "Best Colleges" ranking of American schools is probably the most influential list of its kind, but lately Times Higher Education's "World Reputation Rankings" and "World University Rankings" have been stealing some of U.S. News' thunder in this arena.
And the Times' global lists have consistently ranked UCLA among the top 10 or 15 schools—worldwide. Not so for U.S. News' American-only college rankings. But now U.S. News is getting on the bandwagon.
Some marijuana proponents are excited by evolving views on cannabis in Washington. Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder implemented more lax sentencing guidelines for small-time drug crimes, President Obama's nominee to be the nation's top civil rights cop, Vanita Gupta, is a legalization proponent, and Obama himself has said he doesn't...
A 43-year-old woman was fatally stabbed in front of her grown children following a parking-related dispute, and two suspects now face murder charges, Whitter police said. The victim's teary-eyed son, Daniel Crable, told reporters his mother's throat was slashed and that he tried to give her CPR, not realizing she was...
As we enter the drinking season—Halloween and then the holidays—police are hitting the streets in search of drunk drivers. While we're sure your haunted mansion party will be off the chain, remember that there's nothing more scary than red and blue lights in your rear view mirror. The Los Angeles...
Yesterday — barely 24 hours after we published a first-person essay critical of Uber — L.A. Weekly's editorial assistant was contacted by a stranger offering a first-person essay about how great Uber is. It was kind of strange. It was purportedly written by a former taxi driver named Cabdi Xuseen ("Confessions...
It appears to us that nearly half the online dating profiles out there express affinity for long walks on the beach. The other half seem to say, "420 friendly," at least in L.A. Los Angeles marijuana entrepreneur Miguel Lozano noticed that too, and this year he launched cannabis dating site my420mate.com...
Arguably the most powerful unelected official in Los Angeles – Maria Elena Durazo – is stepping down as head of the L.A. County Federation of Labor and taking a job as vice president for immigration, civil rights and diversity at UNITE HERE, a union for hotel, restaurant and casino workers. ...
The bad news is that eight firefighters were injured in a 14-hour blaze that roared through a Venice storage facility over the weekend. The good news: The injured first responders sustained non-life-threatening injuries, according to the L.A. Fire Department's Erik Scott. And only about a third of the storage units...
The slightly rotund disposition of KTLA Morning News entertainment journalist Sam Rubin became the focus of global headlines this week after traffic reporter Ginger Chan called him out live on-air. She apparently didn't realize her mic was hot when she blurted that Rubin has "always been" overweight. Her facial reaction...
If you've been to West Africa and had contact with a confirmed Ebola patient, you're probably in for 21 days of confinement under a new California Department of Public Health mandate. Yeah, the Golden State is the latest in the union to jump on the bandwagon of implementing Ebola-containment policies...
During this alleged recovery from the 2007-to-2009 Great Recession, economic gains in America have completely bypassed the middle class and below. In other words, the rich got richer, and the rest of us are still living recession-style. Nowhere is the growing gap between rich and poor greater than in the...
It's no wonder that people from across the land and around the world still come to California seeking virtual gold. It's still the state with some of America's greatest potential salaries, at least when it comes to small-business employment. So says personal finance site NerdWallet, which this week revealed the...
SeaWorld's stock prices and attendance numbers have deflated, apparently, as a result of criticism from the PETA-promoted Shamu documentary Blackfish. The park in summer announced the expansion of its orca whale captivity pools, a move widely believed to be a response to the criticism. Now PETA is gloating again because...
The author is a current Uber driver who shared his experiences on the condition that we not use his real name. I never thought I would be an Uber driver. But last Christmas I came to the startling realization that, in fact, money does not grow on trees. Not even...
We've said it until we were blue in the face. Los Angeles is not Hollywood. A vast majority of the working, brown masses in this county of 10 million souls have nothing to do with the entertainment industry. But the outside world's perception of L.A. is that of a star-obsessed...
Consumer Watchdog, the non-profit group behind Proposition 45, is firing back at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi over her opposition to the measure. The proposition would give the state's insurance commissioner the power to reject excessive rate hikes for health insurance. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial...