Adrienne Crew

Jessica Garrison of the Los Angeles Times covers the fracas in Van Nuys regarding the status of Daniel Van Meter's "Tower of Wooden Pallets" as a historic monument in 1978. The Tower is actually 22-foot stack of crumbling, termite-infested Schlitz beer pallets that now stands in the way of development. Those wacky Cultural Heritage Commissioners obviously didn't take their jobs that seriously back in the 70s. Garrison opens her piece with this quote: It's...

The first week of February is a momentous time in Los Angeles. Alas, other matters eclipse Groundhog Day here. For February 1st is the day eager beavers can obtain reservations for the The 2004 Foreign Language Film Award Nominees Symposium on Saturday, February 26, at 10:00 a.m., in the Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Wilshire Blvd. Moderated by Mark Johnson, producer of "Diner," "Rain Man," the symposium features representatives of the 2004 Best Foreign Language...

Womens Wear Daily briefly notes on 1/24/05 that American Apparel, the Los Angeles-based manufacturer and retailer of T-shirts and other activewear, opened its first French boutique, in Paris, earlier this month. The 1,600-square-foot shop on Place du Marché-Saint-Honoré carries T-shirts in a multitude of colors and shapes, apparel and accessories for the entire family, including dogs....

Is it us or is Variety.com becoming more accessible? Well, it's Oscar Nom eve and those Hollywood-types still left in town are counting down the hours til actor Adrien Brody joins Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences president Frank Pierson in announcing the 77th Academy Award nominations on Jan. 25th at 5:38 AM out at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Wilshire in Beverly Hills. Scott Robson quizzed Industry vets about surviving the...

While the television press corps stormed town for the Winter TV Press Tour and the Golden Globes, another type of press convocation also transpired earlier this month. The Catholic News reports on the poverty tour of Los Angeles taken by religious writers on January 11th. As part of the annual observance of Poverty in America Awareness Month, Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the U.S. bishops' domestic anti-poverty program, sponsored the tour. The tour revealed...

The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History has plenty of events coming up to feed body and soul. On January 25, 2005 at 5:30 PM Art and Ritual Lecture Series: The Spirit of Rice Fowler curator Roy Hamilton will show photographs and video footage from Northern Japan depicting the sacred rice ritual celebrated at the beginning of each year. Sponsored by the UCLA Department of Art and held in the Westwood Kinross Building, room...

The Los Angeles Independent reports that suspects have been arrested in connection with a robbery at the St. Regis Liquor store on Third Street, east of the Beverly Center. Two men and two women are accused of the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a robbery, which could make them eligible for the death penalty for the killing of Jae Yang Dec. 18 at his liquor store just east of the...

Diana Ross is scheduled to appear at the MAC WeHo store on N. Robertson today to launch a new color collection. Women's Wear Daily reports, "One little-known footnote to the Motown legend was the fact that Ross put in time at beauty school before embarking on her music career." So that explains the diva's facility with wigs....

Two items in the news have us worried about the safety of LA streets again. Gawker.com informs us that an upcoming profile on Damon Dash in Details includes several anecdotes about Dash and his posse driving the streets of LA while toking copious amounts of potent weed (indeed, the writer sacrifices "journalistic objectivity" for the sake of winning his subject's trust by inhaling with the gang). The 1/17/05 issue of the Ocean Park Gazette...

Body Worlds, the display of anatomical specimens preserved by plastination, leaves the California Science Center on the 23rd. During a visit last night, we overheard a woman mumur to her sullen, teenage son as they both examined the tar-blackened lungs of a deceased smoker: "Look at that. Aren't you at all affected by this? It makes me want to vomit!" Worry not if you can't get to the exhibition before it closes. Body Worlds...