If Maila Nurmi had never created her alter ego, Vampira, I wouldn't know how to act, dress or put on make-up. As the Misfits sang: “Two inch nails, micro waist, with a pale white feline face, inclination eyebrows to there.” Nor would it have been as cool to be into all the weird, spooky, horror show stuff that I’ve loved since childhood. We all need role models, and without mine, I would have been a much, much less empowered ghoul. more ›

Today is the 27th anniversary of the death of John Lennon. Like the JFK assassination before it, his murder became a touchstone for a generation. Everyone remembers where they were when they found out Lennon had been shot. I was sitting on my bed doing homework, and I stayed glued to my little black-and-white TV all night as the events unfolded. My friends and I wore black to school for an entire week and refused to change out of them for gym. We sat on the benches singing Beatles songs and crying. Lennon preached a message of peace, and that is something we could all benefit from meditating upon today.
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One year ago today the South Bay lost a punk rock legend and I lost one of my oldest friends. more ›

What happens when you run one of the largest, "extremely lucrative" networks of invite-only, torrent-based music piracy? Interpol comes knocking at your door. Next thing you know all of your properties, including that covert warehouse in Amsterdam where your server is based, are seized in a raid-like manner. As though you were exporting/importing pounds of Class A drugs. Last night around 2 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, OiNK was officially taken off the web. By... more ›

"This is our last song ever," shouted Lady P, still catching her breath from the previous number. My friend and I exchanged strange looks as if it were the apocalypse and somehow we didn't get the memo. Perhaps the La Brea Tarpits were boiling over and about to suck us in or some crazy Toxic Avenger shit was about to go down. Turns out we did miss the memo, but lived to tell of... more ›

If you picked "11 days" in your How Long Will that Crazy House on the 101 Freeway Stay There office pool, then you win. Hell we all win, cuz the home that was supposed to move from Santa Monica to Santa Clarita but got stuck in Hollywood thanks to taking the long way home, is now back on the road, and heading out of LA. more ›