Adrienne Crew

Russ Meyer, notorious sexploitation filmmaker and breastman, is dead. Noted for soft-core classics like Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Vixen, Meyer, 82, died in his Hollywood Hills home from complications due to pneumonia. Today's Los Angeles Times obit notes that Meyer was "something of a one-man studio, Meyer produced, directed, financed, wrote, edited and shot 23 tantalizing but teasing films that pioneered a genre of skinflicks with much violence and large-busted women but little...

Billing itself as a chronicle of bad conversions and storefronts past, the website Notfoolinganybody.com records pictures of fast food franchises converted to something else. LA entries include Thai Town Express at Hollywood and Western, and Jon's Markets rate a mention. We're surprised that there are so few LA spots listed on this site. We can do better than this! LA practically invented the concept of adapted buildings and habitats. We recall seeing a number...

Blogger Ambigutrex reports on Cornel West's book-signing at the Barnsdell Art Park this weekend. As always, West was inspiring but Ambigutrex notices that some of West's fans seemed more interested in fronting their "street cred" than truly exchanging ideas. Ambigutrex writes, " The crowd was wonderfully diverse, a salt and pepper mix of those conscious and willing enough to climb the stairs and sit on the lawn and be seduced. Cornel West is the...

You learn the darndest things on line: the LAPD posts officer reports at lapdonline.org. Officers patroling the Hollywood Hills area report, "We are still experiencing mail thefts in the Barham/Lake Hollywood area. Please have outside mailboxes that lock, and don’t leave outgoing mail for the postman to pick up." Who the hell is stealing mail from these people? Some desperate drunk intent on bartering SAG checks for drinks at Residuals?...

Last week, Garden Grove Police arrested Danta Arnaud for sexual assault. Apparently, Arnaud, dressed in a white lab coat, entered the rooms of female patients at Garden Grove Hospital under the guise of drawing blood as a lab technician. During the visit, he engaged the patient in conversation and allegedly conducted physical examinations. Seven victims have identified him so far. Arnuad was arrested at his residence without incident, was transported to the Garden Grove...

Beverly Hills Weekly's Tuesday cover story by Susan Monahan profiles Vendome Liquors on Olympic in Beverly Hills. The literary tone of the article, which Monahan wrote in the second person, reminds us of Bright Lights, Big City. You won't find "Bolivian marching powder" at Vendome Liquors (at least we don't think so but some BH households are still stuck in the '80s), but it does offer all the other beloved vices: an extensive selection...

Supporters of John Michael Dunton, the Anaheim father whose infant daughter died of heatstroke in his hot car while he went to work, question why police arrested Dunton while authorities released Mark Warschauer, the professor whose son died in a similar manner last year. Dunton's lawyer is asking the DA for his client's release, claiming that Dunton was arrested for suspicion of willful harm to a child while Warschauer was never charged and his...

Has politics become the new religion? Certainly seems like something's possessed folks. Hitherto unmotivated Americans are getting off their couches, turning off their TVs, staggering into the streets and testifin' their beliefs during this election year. And every one's buying political-themed books that support their point of view. Book signings are becoming more like revival-meetings as the faithful come out to meet their favorite prophet. For example, Cornel West is coming to town on...

Nobody's immune from eviction these days. Even local legends like Old Bob, the infamous giant alligator snapping turtle of Laguna Lake in Fullerton, lose their homes sometimes. A legend since the 1970s, Bob went out fighting as workers who were dredging the lake as part of a restoration project hoisted the 4-foot-long, 100-pound beast from his muddy lair. Old Bob fought back, snapping off the end of a bamboo pole workers used to maneuver...

There's a heartfelt message on the Craig's List Los Angeles "Missed Connections" bulletin board that combines all three of LA's preoccupations: sex, cars and outrageous acts of insensitivity. Accompanied by the picture to the right, the message was addressed "To the MAN who DID his hoochie on my hood!! \@@/ (PIC) - w4m" and goes on from there. Read it and weep with laughter....