The Home Depot Inc.

Blame USC For All The Immigrants In L.A.

You complain about all these immigrants in L.A., pointing to some of our more colorful, downtown-adjacent environs as hotbeds or foreignness? Okay. But do you ever point the finger at ... USC? Yes, our Trojan friends are responsible for much importation of overseas talent, it would seem:

Horror Movies to See in October That You Probably Haven't Heard Of

When Pigeons Stand in Traffic Lights: An Ode to 'Her Birdjesty'

In a city where green means go, yellow means go faster and red means go left, few take the time to examine the traffic signals. Most drivers glue their eyes to their phones before even coming to a full stop. But sometimes the light will change and, if you're paying attention, you'll notice an avia ... More >>

Mexicans Are Asian (And Other Shockers About the First Americans)

This particular author loves to see the look on the faces of some pan-Pacific immigrants when he tells them Asians and Mexicans are brothers and sisters from way back; we're practically related. (It's a look of repulsion, shock and denial, followed by vomiting). Of course, all humans are brothers a ... More >>

It's Dress Like a Pirate Day For LAPD at Dodger Stadium

Yesterday we told you that the LAPD was gearing up for this afternoon's opening game against the Pirates at Dodger Stadium. Cops will be swarming the venue, the parking lots and even surrounding parks in an effort to prevent the kind of opening-day violence the befell Giants fan Bryan Stow last yea ... More >>

Crazy things made normal

3234 Hutchison Ave. in Culver City: Unfinished, Olive Garden Knockoff

Could it be they ordered the wrong number of stone tiles and then had to make up a pattern for the front of this Culver City gem? Some smart contractor came up with this ingenious plan: Make it look intentional to leave the upper half of the crap-brown stucco exposed.

Lowe's Boycott Has SoCal Roots After State Sen. Ted Lieu Blasts Home Improvement Chain For Pulling Out of 'All-American Muslim'

FoxCletus.​This is a tale of two Americas, one based in the conservative South, the other on the liberal West Coast. After the Lowe's home-improvement giant pulled its ads from TLC's All-American Muslim reality show, a local state senator this weekend helped sparked what appears to be an all- ... More >>

Bulgarini Gelato in Culver City Now Open Free Gelato

Leo Bulgarini's new gelato outpost in Culver City -- Bulgarini took over the lease at Teaforest Tea & Coffee Bar on Washington Blvd. last month -- officially opened last week. This despite the fact that the gelato maker's gelateria in Altadena lost power in the violent windstorm that battered much o ... More >>

'Occupy' Encampment at East L.A. City College Allowed to Stay Until at Least January

Alhambra Source​As the bedraggled Occupy L.A. encampment slowly drains (on its own accord, but under well-planned pressure from the LAPD and City Hall), and attempts to Occupy UCLA have been uprooted by the increasingly despised UC Police Department (did you see that militant line of riot poli ... More >>

Windrose Farm's New Smoked Chipotles: Warning, Your Pantry Will Never Be The Same Bill Spencer's Smoking Secrets

jgarbeeBill Spencer Checking On His Tomatoes and Jalapeños​We could simply say that Bill Spencer is not the type to take the air-drying easy route to preserving the organic tomatoes and jalapeños that he and his wife, Barbara, grow on their Paso Robles farm all summer. And that they're fanta ... More >>

Yoshua Okón Restages Guatemalan Civil War in a Home Depot Parking Lot

Courtesy of kaufmann repetto, Milan​ This week in our print edition, Catherine Wagley writes about a bizarre video art project from Mexico City-based artist Yoshua Okón, in which he restaged the Guatemalan civil war using former soldiers from the war who are now day laborers in L.A. He filmed ... More >>

Jobs For Los Angeles Amid Lukewarm Unemployment Report, Shite Economy: Craigslist Has The Answers

Temari 09Reach for the sky, L.A.​So the unemployment rate in America is not quite as bad as we thought, and Wall Street is slightly happy but still schizophrenic. Because nearly 1 in 10 people out of work this summer is sort of okay, comparatively, and maybe better than last year, but not rea ... More >>

Mexican Immigrants Hunkering Down, Staying Put During Bad Economy, Say Santa Monica Researchers

Kate GardinerMexicans.​Bad news, John & Ken: While the New York Times recently reported that would-be Mexican immigrants are staying away from our crap economy in droves in favor of improving prospects at home, the ones who already crossed the border are staying put more often than not. That ... More >>

Lompoc Wine Ghetto: Get Your Wine On Alternative

Jeff KirshbaumWinemaker Sashi Moorman of Piedrasassi New Vineland at work in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto.​ Substance outshines style at Santa Barbara County's low-key Lompoc Wine Ghetto. A semi-industrial office park that's in the heart of land-that-time-forgot Lompoc, California, Lompoc Wine Ghett ... More >>

Michael Toplin, L.A. County Inmate, Re-Arrested for Riding Little Girl's Stolen Pink Bicycle Along Sidewalk in Prison Jumpsuit

Glendale Police DepartmentMichael Toplin: Ridin' dirty​If anyone has video of 31-year-old parolee Michael Toplin riding down Central Avenue on a pink bicycle fit for a 10-year-old last Wednesday night -- still outfitted in his grisly black prison jumpsuit -- please, PLEASE send it our way. As ... More >>

Scott Svonkin, Candidate for Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees, Gets Gift: Frontiers Forgets to Fact Check

Kyle T. WebsterScott Svonkin going off. Nothing new.​Scott Svonkin, San Gabriel Unified School District Board member, is running for the powerful L. A. Community College District Board. Thanks to major Democratic backing and union campaign contributions, Svonkin is the strong favorite. In r ... More >>

OECD Report: Mexicans Work Harder Than You

Who's lazy now, betch?​Take that, Slowpoke Rodriguez. The stereotype of Mexicans as drunk, lazy fuck-ups is easily debunked in California by a trip to the town square or Home Depot parking lot, but finally some researchers step in to quiet the racist anti-immigration crazies with cold hard fa ... More >>

Scott Svonkin's Personality Problem

How did a food-spewing bully get major Democratic backing to run for Community College trustee?

The Steampunk Hand: Victorian Sensibility, Home Depot Parts

photo via Hotshot333​ Check out this Steampunk hand made by Hotshot333. Apart from it being a recipe for carpal tunnel syndrome, this thing is fantastic. It is a functional hand. It took him "probably about 30 hours of work," and some $50 in parts. The parts are from Home Depot. He says, "I h ... More >>

U.S. Dept. Of Justice Tsk-Tsks LAPD Officers For Saying They 'Couldn't Do [Their] Job Without Racially Profiling'

Salon.comCurrent City Councilman Bernard Parks was L.A. police chief during the last major federal reveal of LAPD corruption: 2001's Rampart scandal​Racial profiling is a given for officers who patrol the border states. How else would they rack up impounds in the name of the deficit or locate ... More >>

Wall of Lights at The Music Box: Tacky or Cool?

Is this wall of lights at the Music Box in Hollywood tacky or awesome? I can't decide. But I'm leaning towards awesome. It had been a while since I'd seen a show there, and in the meantime, this wall of electric sconces went up. It reminds me a little of the lighting section at Home Depot. But it's ... More >>

Vertical California Driver's Licenses For Drivers Under 21? What About Oversize Ones For The Senior Set?

​As if being a young person isn't hard enough, the California DMV is now making motorists under the age of 21 carry around vertical drivers licenses that immediately identify you as underage -- and unable to purchase alcohol. Can you imagine being pulled over while on a date, with the cop ask ... More >>

8 Reasons Why Your Drug Dealer Hates You

Open for business. Unless you suck. ​It's been said that miserable circumstances are incited when you piss off your bartender, hairdresser or leader of your preferred religious denomination, in addition to a slew of people in other professions (your pizza delivery guy, your fitness instructor) ... More >>

That New Model For Journalism? It's Here (And It Ain't Pretty)

We've seen the future of journalism, and it's a little scary. The old way has organizations employing reporters and editors who, according to their training and experience, decide what's worth covering -- stories that hold politicians accountable, uphold shining examples of leadership, unearth wrong ... More >>

Can an Activist Crack L.A. City Hall's Machine?

In the riled-up S.F. Valley, a struggle pits regular folk against big money

Looking for Jesus at Home Depot: Or, How a Day Laborer Named Tino Ended Up in a Miller Duvall Music Video

The gold teeth didn't hurt

Home Depot Throws in the Trowel in Sunland-Tujunga Fight

Inglewood had its war with WalMart,  Glassell Park fought to keep Home Depot out of an old Kmart site. And now one of the other great neighborhood v. big-box store battles is apparently over -- again won by a community determined to keep a retail behemoth from landing its extra-large footprint ... More >>

¡ask a Mexican! Pressing Issues

Culture Clash in Americca

¡Ask a Mexican! Asking for It

Frequently asked questions for the Mexican

Coming Back From Iraq

And all they want are normal jobs

The Return of N*gger Wetb*ck Ch*nk

What'd you call me?

¡Ask a Mexican! Pretension Headache

It's About Term Limits, Stupid

A fight over a Home Depot exposes the true intent of Proposition R

Prospecting for Beauty

Treasure map to the best park bench in Southern California

Rings of Fire

How to heat up your summer nights

Natural History à Gogo

Breaking the museum sound barrier

Of Lofts and Dark Towers

Living downtown, indoors

Adventures in Storage

To Speak or Not To Speak

A mixed week for free-speech rulings

Testing in L.A.

Astrology 120V

(With apologies to Rockie Gardiner)

Actionauseam

Barbie's Revenge

Cooked Bakery

Van de Kamp’s to become a hardware giant

History in the Baking

Demolition threatens another L.A. landmark

Remember Him?

Standing on the Corner

Day laborers get organized