Matthew Fleischer

(Photo by Timothy Norris)

Go Straight to Gallery

Matthew Fleischer
{mosimage}On a hot and smoggy day in downtown Los Angeles, a little girl, no older than 4, strolls down bail-bond row a few steps ahead of her mother. Fresh from visiting day at the Twin Towers prison complex across the street, she passes dozens of shady, fluorescently lit bond houses......
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Tweaking Bill O'Reilly

Matthew Fleischer
{mosimage}Yellow Thunder Woman hates God. The outspoken lead singer of the L.A.-based filmmaking/musical duo the Bastard Fairies,she has no problems airing her grievances with a diverse panorama of divine entities. “Jesus, Buddha, Allah... ‘stone power’ or whatever it is those hippies up in Ojai are into,” she says between sips......
Cardinal Roger Mahony (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)

the Semantics of Suicide Aid in Dying

Matthew Fleischer
Ben Dolin sighs deeply as he recalls the promise he made his wife, Eva, on her deathbed. “I told her I wouldn’t let her suffer,” he says, pausing to collect himself. A thoughtful man of 77, with pale-blue eyes and a powerful, resonant voice that belies his age, Ben has......
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Creative Capital

Matthew Fleischer
Los Angeles has a new group of working-class heroes — and they don’t man the docks. A study commissioned by Otis College of Art and Design reveals that while tourism and international trade receive all the hype, the creative industries are the dominant economic force in L.A. and Orange counties......
(Illustration by Mr. Fish)

The Crescent Moon Is Down

Matthew Fleischer
Given Henry Kissinger’s much publicized effort to get President Bush to read Alistair Horne’s account of the French occupation of Algeria, A Savage War of Peace, here’s hoping a venturesome handler can sneak John Steinbeck’s The Moon Is Down onto the presidential reading list. Set during World War II, the......

Nasdijj Shops Tell-All

Matthew Fleischer
Last Friday, three days after L.A. Weekly broke its investigation into the true identity of the writer who calls himself Nasdijj, Ballantine announced it would no longer ship copies of Nasdijj’s The Boy and the Dog Are Sleeping or Geronomo’s Bones and retailers would be allowed to return copies left......
Illustrations by Ronald Kurniawan

Navahoax

Matthew Fleischer
“So achingly honest it takes your breath away.” —Miami Heraldon The Boy and the Dog Are Sleeping In June of 1999 a writer calling himself Nasdijj emerged from obscurity to publish an ode to his adopted son in Esquire. “My son is dead,” he began. “I didn’t say my adopted......