Peter Fletcher

The Little Lord of Dogtown

Peter Fletcher
"My hair is waving and sometimes it gets in my face," Kiko says. "Then you have to do some airs, then some grinds and some rock & rolls. And then you come out of the bowl and everyone's clapping. It's a really good feeling." Kiko Francisco is one of the......
Credit: PHOTO BY KEVIN SCANLON

Pamela Des Barres: She Had Your Fun

Peter Fletcher
The R&R gallery in downtown L.A. is teeming with young rockers and well-dressed boomers one recent evening. The photographs on display show beautiful young ladies in various degrees of undress, hanging out with heavyweight rock luminaries of the 1960s and '70s. One woman in particular garners the most attention as......
(Illustration by Ronald Kurniawan)

Best Monsters in the Tar Pits

Peter Fletcher
Best Monsters in the Tar Pits Someone told me that there is now a pool at the La Brea Tar Pits, but I wouldn’t go swimming there. Look what happened to that big elephant and that funky tiger with the long teeth near the entrance. I stare up at those......

Beatles for Sale

Peter Fletcher
After 23 years, the popularSunday radio showBreakfast With the Beatles is set to go off the air September 3. Host Chris Carter announced the bad news midway through last Sunday’s broadcast: “We can hear the Beatles on a lot of stations,” he said, voice cracking, “but there’s only one Breakfast......
Photo by Peter Fletcher

Close to the Ground

Peter Fletcher
Whether you’re a Hollywood local or a tourist from Winnebago, Minnesota, you’re bound to spot John Peterson on your way to Grauman’s Chinese Theater. He’s the fellow hunched over on his knees, intently rubbing the crap of a billion feet off the stars on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. His tools......

Life of the Party

Peter Fletcher
DIZ McNALLY IS A LIFE-OF-THE-PARTY PROFESSIONAL and takes her work very seriously, folks. Anyone who has gone to Silver Lake’s annual Sunset Junction Street Fair has no doubt seen her announcing various acts on various stages and generally keeping the attending hordes informed via her rather verbose delivery. You can’t......

Underground Flier

Peter Fletcher
“If you want people to know about good things,” says Hollywood’s longtime self-promoter Tequila Mockingbird, “you have to show them, you know? Point it out.” Today she is handing out fliers for her current endeavor — Club Fluffer at Zen Sushi — but this isn’t how she reaches her biggest......
Photo by Kevin Scanlon

Warm Jello

Peter Fletcher
“I didn’t come here to be a rock star,” Bill Manspeaker, lead singer of seminal kook rockers Green Jello, says inside his legendary loft in Thai Town. “I came here ’cause it’s warm.” Manspeaker, who founded Green Jello in 1981, brought the troupe to Los Angeles in 1987 from Buffalo,......

The Voices in His Head

Peter Fletcher
Photo illustration by Ryan WardAs a child, Billy West heard voices in his head — not the kind that tell you to burn the neighbor’s cat — and he had an imaginary friend. “It was weird because I really thought I saw this guy,” claims West, while sipping soda water......

Have You Noticed That . . .

Peter Fletcher
. . . the Christmas lights on Hollywood Boulevard don’t go all the way to Vine Street this year? . . . guitar solos are making a comeback? . . . cops are the worst drivers in L.A.? . . . A.A. members outnumber practicing alcoholics? . . . “More......