Adrienne Crew

The RawFunk Gazette posts first official photos of California memorial service for Rick James. The singer will be buried on Saturday, August 14, 2004 following a second memorial service in Buffalo, New York. Locate the Ape Answer: Our furry friend hangs off of a building on 2nd Street at Western in the St Andrews Square district....

Cooking maven Julia Child, a native of Southern California, died on Thursday at her home in Santa Barbara. From the NY Times: "Mrs. Child, whose 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' has been through numerous editions, was a pop icon virtually from her debut on WGBH in Boston in 1963. She got her start in television at 50, an age youth-crazed producers today would consider well past her sell-by date, and made the cover...

Novelist Bruce Sterling is in Los Angeles for ACM SIGGRAPH at the Convention Center. Mainly, his blog posts have been focused on LA billboards. We think he needs to adjust the zenith angle on his mirror shades....

This morning LAist read that the Travel Channel will air the "Marvel Super Heroes Guide to New York City" special on Sunday, August 15, at 8:00 PM. The show features comic book industry writer/creator/editor veterans—like Stan Lee (co-creator of Spider-Man) and Roy Thomas (former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics), among others—discussing the impact that NYC and its famous landmarks have had on superheroes and US culture. LAist takes issue with this city-centric view of the...

Given all our grammar gaffes this week, LAist is switching to non-verbal communication while we bone up on our copy of Elements of Style. What LA district or street does this threadbare ape (pictured to the left) protect? Click on picture for larger view....

LA Observed goes on a well-deserved vacation until August 30th. Readers weep while L.A. employers prosper from an unexpected surge in worker productivity....

Jim Ruland hosts "Vermin on the Mount: A Night of Irreverent Readings" at the Mountain Bar, 475 Gin Ling Way, on Sunday. Show starts around 7 PM. Call (213) 625-7500 for details. For a larger view of the event flyer, visit The Elegant Variation....

LA Observed shares the frustrations of blogger Lee Watters, as he struggles with the inoperable Calendar Live registration system. A VERY BRAVE LA Times.com web developer wades into the LA Observed comments section, faces readers' wrath and vents a few frustrations of his own. Who says Angelenos don't have real conversations? Speaking of frustration with Calendar Live, Dan Green gets in a dig at the Los Angeles Times in his The Reading Experience: A...

Over at Rabbitblog.com, Heather Havrilesky articulates the social inertia that affects so many of us. She categorizes the symptoms: Why isn't there a term to describe the socially lazy? While we're often mistaken for misanthropes, sociopaths, or antisocial freaks, we really don't have an excessive amount of contempt for humankind. We're not shy. We're not afraid. We're avoidant, yes, but only because we're hassle-averse. We don't want to be bothered. Like Bartleby, we'd prefer not...

The August 2004 issue of "The California Bar Journal" profiles Los Angeles sports marketing attorney Maidie Oliveau, who will serve as an arbitrator at the Athens Olympics. Oliveau is one of 12 attorneys-and one of only two Americans-selected to sit on the Ad Hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The division is the final arbiter of disputes that arise at the games, from doping to eligibility to game rules. This...