In 2005 the Living Things exploded out of St. Louis with their major record label debut Ahead of Lions. Their ferocious, unapologetic rock instantly won them praise by critics and fans. Unwilling to take what was happening under the Bush administration, the Living Things wrote songs that grabbed politics by the throat. The band is made up of three brothers, Lillian Berlin, Eve Berlin, Bosh Berlin, and their friend Cory Becker. Shortly after their success The Living Things picked up and moved to Los Angeles.
Interview: The Provacative and Profane Lillian Berlin, Lead Singer of the Living Things
Extra, Extra: I'm On Drugs!
- Remember when we told you that Los Angeles tap water was the best tasting in the world? Turns out that our delicious H20 might have been sprinkled with delicious drugs. The AP found that a multitude of pharmaceuticals, like antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones, have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans including water in Southern California. Little Johnny has taken such a liking to water these days, I wonder what's gotten into him.
- On Friday, Newport Beach police were baffled when they found a fully clothed woman dead and packed in dry ice in an upscale hotel room near John Wayne Airport. The room was rented from known Cocaine dealer and the woman, whose body was well preserved, was apparently wanted on drug charges in Colorado.
- Before she was ousted for saying Hillary Clinton was a "monster" for some of the "underhanded" tactics used to defeat Barack Obama in the Ohio Primary, foreign policy adviser Samantha Powers took a few questions at LA City Beat. Nowhere in the interview does she disparage Clinton, but she does offer some pretty enlightening opinions, such as this opus on how to have a dignified foreign policy: "...if we could just sort of remember that there are individuals at stake, that the “human” in human rights is not an abstraction." On second thought, I'm glad she resigned. We can't have those sorts of hippie, drugged out commie type of relations with the world. It would be un-American!
- In other political news, a Democrat won a special election to fill a congressional seat left vacant in Illinois by outgoing Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert. Bill Foster claimed the seat partly on the strength of Obama, who campaigned for him. Obama supporters claimed this was a signal of things to come in what many observers said was a national referendum as John McCain campaigned for the Republican.
- An off-duty cop in Temecula allegedly shot 2 and killed 1 person over some sort of melee at a Mexican restaurant in Riverside. Guns don't kill people, crazy ass people with anger management problems do.
- A 21-year-old member of the San Fernando Valley Illegal Soapbox Federation died this morning when his adorable little vehicle collided with a light pole in Tarzana. Thing is, it may not have been so adorable. The motto of the local soapbox federation is, "Action, Mayhem, Destruction, Bodily Harm...All For Free". I'm sorry, it seems pretty tough to macho yourself out when riding in a little cart made for 6-year-olds.
- Andy LaRoche got some bad news this weekend. The Dodger third baseman who was expected to share time with Nomar Garciaparra at the hot corner this season is out 8-10 weeks with a ligament tear in his thumb after getting hit trying to catch an attempted pickoff at third during a pre-season game Friday against the St. Louis Cardinals. Learn this name kids: Blake Dewitt. He's been tearing up Spring Training pitching and flashing some great leather. He could get some time at third in LaRoche's absence.
LAst Night's Action: Clippers Blazed, Spiezio Blitzed
Blazers 82, Clippers 80 - Portland blew a 14 point lead in Staples Center one night after blowing a 15 point lead on the very same court. This time they were playing the Clippers, so things worked out OK. Los Angeles managed a pathetic 29 points in the first half, but did make a noble effort in the second. Corey Maggette was hot with 32 points, but missed a big shot with eight ticks left.
LAst Night's Action: Lakers #1!
Lakers 130, Suns 124 - So I'm like "OMG!" and then she's like "fer reelllllz!" And then I'm like "NO.WAY." and the she's like "totally."
LAst Night's Action: Just Another Night on the Ice
Ducks 2, Avalanche 1 - Teemu Selanne isn't back in hockey shape, but he did hit the back of the net for the first time this season. Anaheim is 5-0 since he returned from a lengthy personal debate over whether or not he should retire. The five wins balanced out a nine game road trip that started with three losses and a tie.
Can the Giants Actually Beat the Patriots?
In a post I wrote earlier this week, I talked about the New England Patriots back in 2002. The Patriots squeaked their way into Super Bowl XXXVI with the infamous “tuck rule” game against the Oakland Traitors in the snow of Foxborough and barely surviving the Steelers in the AFC Championship game. First-year starting quarterback Tom Brady was hurt in the game against the Steelers forcing veteran Drew Bledsoe off the bench to lead the Pats to victory.
LAist Interview: Jim Wirt, aka, Gay Bigfoot
Jim Wirt is a St. Louis native living in LA, but most people know him as Gay Bigfoot. The 42-year-old North Hollywood resident moved out to Los Angeles in 1996 and is a local artist who recently found himself in the middle of some online censorship when he tried to get one of his pieces printed on a t-shirt. Here's his story...
Georgia Frontiere, Owner of One-time LA Rams, Dies at 80
Fans of the LA Rams weren't known to be fans of team owner Georgia Frontiere, who moved the NFL football franchise to her hometown of St Louis in 1995. The woman who took over ownership of the team in 1979 from her sixth husband, Carroll Rosenbloom, when he died by drowning, died yesterday at the age of 80 after a long-fought battle against breast cancer. Frontiere had been hospitalized for months prior to her death.
TV Junkie: Tuesday
Just read that one of Sid Caesar's writers, Mel Tolkin, just passed away at age 94, godlove'im. Instead of running vintage Leno re-runs they should be running some of this classic comedy that actually had great writing from way back in the day. The kids might learn something. 8:00pm A Charlie Brown Christmas ABC - If only this didn't have commercials, hmm, but if it didn't have commercials the show would be about 11 minutes...
Breaking Dodger News: Joe Torre the New Dodger Manager?
According to Peter Abraham of The Journal News, Grady Little will be fired as the Dodger manager in favor of former Yankee manager Joe Torre. Don Mattingly is expected to follow Torre here to Los Angeles as bench coach. All of this can happen as soon as tomorrow. Let me just make it clear that this is still unconfirmed. Torre, 67, rejected a one-year $5 million contract from the Yankees last Monday. As most...
LAst Night's Action: Lakers Smoked, Cancel Next Game
Jazz 102, Lakers 81 - This game looked bad on the scoreboard but it was even worse on the court. Los Angeles was 3-of-19 in the first quarter, and Kobe missed his first eight shots overall. They were down 21 at halftime. By the final buzzer, three different Utah players reached double-digits in rebounds. Fortunately, it's just the preseason ... A bad omen of things to come, Lamar Odom is out for a little longer...
LAst Night's Action: Slow Day
Today's Action - Ducks @ St. Louis (5:30pm) ... Nashville @ Kings (7:30pm) ... Utah @ Lakers (7:00pm).
Kings Do Dallas
Your Los Angeles Kings head into Dallas tonight to face a team that beat them in eight out of eight meetings last year. The Dallas Stars are off to a slow start, but they have a strong core to build on, and should be fine. The Kings on the other hand… Since winning the first game (against the Ducks in London), the Kings looked more like their true selves in a flat rematch against...
Worst (Long) Weekend In LA Sports History?
If you're a local sports fan, hopefully you had Columbus Day (International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People, whatever) off to nurse a wicked hangover. In fact, maybe you should take tonight off from Sports Center, too. It's Leif Erikson day. Honest. Even George W. Bush knows that (and don't worry, he's probably not working today, either). Maybe it wasn't the worst, but it was up there. T.J. Simers hit the nail on the...
Staples Opener: Not So Fast, Kings Fans
If one of the NHL’s new rule changes included shortening the game from three periods to two, you would be reading a far different post right now. It would be a celebration of the Kings young guns, who scored all three goals against the St. Louis Blues. I would be praising the coming of a new savior, rookie netminder Jonathon Bernier, who played brilliantly. But alas, the game still has three periods, and last...
NFL Week 1 Predictions
That opening game of the NFL was a kick in the nuts, wasn’t it? The Indianapolis Colts proved their defense wasn’t a mere fluke in last season’s playoff by only allowing the New Orleans Saints offense to only score a field goal in their 41-10 blowout. At least I was right about the Saints having a pretty porous defense. With the exception of the Reggie Wayne fumble that was taken for a touchdown, no...
Long and Winding Road
Now it’s so pathetic it’s just plain funny. Last week Grady Little was quoted as saying that the team had hit rock bottom. Obviously he didn’t see what lie ahead. Now that the Dodgers have a firm grip of fourth place in the NL West, it looks like the offense has completely collapsed. I knew that there would be games where the Dodgers wouldn’t be able to score since they have no power, but...
LAst Night's Action: Beckham Watch Wait
Cardinals 12, Dodgers 2 - At least the Dodgers took the first game from St. Louis. They were hammered in the rubber game, as Mark Hendrickson allowed eight runs on 11 hits in just 2 and 2/3 innings. Andre Ethier was the only Dodger holding up the offense, with a double, triple, and RBI. Angels 6, Twins 2 - The Angels shut down Minnesota in three straight games this weekend. Jared Weaver lasted 7.1 innings...
LAst Night's Action: Dodgers Stop Losing
Dodgers 5, Reds 4, 11 - After being shutout for 28 innings, the Dodgers scored early and late to snap their six game skid. Rafael Furcal yo-yo'd throughout the game. After scoring on a sac fly in the first, he stranded runners in scoring position three different times. He redeemed himself in the 11th, smacking the game-winning home run. Takashi Saito got the save. DC United 1, Galaxy 0 - In the humid rain of...
WAKE UP!
That was just plain pathetic. Here you have a bad Giant’s team with aging position players and suspect pitching. The Dodgers could only manage one run off of five hits while giving up three runs off of 10 hits and an error in Tuesday night’s loss. The sad thing is nothing the Dodgers have been doing since the Mets series at home would indicate they would muster any sort of production anywhere. They lost...
Is This Really a Surprise?
Anyone who follows sports knows about the losing history of Philadelphia teams. Since the Philadelphia 76ers won the NBA finals in 1983 no Philadelphia team has won a championship.
LAst Night's Action: Angels Inter-League-Tastic
Angels 9, Cardinals 3 - Ervin Santana needed 115 pitches to get through just 6 innings, and his 3 earned runs over six innings was actually a major improvement over his season ERA. The Halo's offense ensured that none of that mattered, piling up the runs early and often with 18 total hits. They had seven hits and four RBI from just the 1-2 hitters (Chone Figgins and Orlando Cabrera). Blue Jays 1, Dodgers 0...
LAst Night's Action: Saenz Wins for Seanez
Dodgers 4, Blue Jays 3, 10 - It was a strange interleague game against Toronto. Brad Penny allowed one run in 7 and 2/3 innings, but got no decision. Takashi Saito blew the save, but didn't lose the game. Rudy Saenez only faced one batter, but it was enough for the win. Olmedo Saenz finally won it with a two-run blast in the bottom of the tenth. Angels 10, Cardinals 6 - The Halos hung...
LAst Night's Action: Dodger's Turn To Beat Kip
Dodgers 5, Cardinals 4 - Much as LAist would like to praise the Dodgers and Wilson Betemit's pinch hit three run homer, we're a little skeptical of any win that comes against Kip Wells. Who? Since the 1995 season this journeyman pitcher has earned one win for each of three different teams. That's not overwhelming. What is? His league leading eight losses and 39 earned runs this season. He lasted five innings against Los Angeles,...
LAst Night's Action: The Beard Gets Trimmed
B-Dizzle Up-Dizzle - LA's last hope is out of the NBA playoffs. The Utah Jazz beat the Golden State Warriors 100-87 and took the series in five games. It was a battle until the end, and we mean battle. There were 50 personal fouls, 31 against the Warriors. Several were flagrants and technicals. Ducks 5, Red Wings 0 - After stealing home ice advantage with a split in Hockeytown, USA, the Ducks were cooked when they...
Miami Tops US Cities for Road Rage
Say what you will about traffic in LA, people driving while texting, and tailgaters boiling over with road rage, but according to AutoVantage, a Connecticut-based auto club, similar to AAA, Miami is home to more road-ragers than LA, so take that Florida. For the second year in a row Miami has claimed the dubious crown of having the meanest, worst, angriest, and dumbest commuters who run red lights, talk on their phones, and slam...
Real Drinking Games
Cinco De Mayo kicked off the summer drinking season and now we've got Memorial Day and the Fourth of July just around the corner. What better way to relieve the summer heat than with a nice cold brew? Suds are once again pouring in the Dodger Stadium bleachers. Weekend warriors are preparing their roadtrips to Bay to Breakers, where sobriety is as optional as the clothing. Yes sports fans, it's time to get your drink...

