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Monsieur Naturel

It’s a dirty job, and no one has to do it. It’s one o’clock on a rainy afternoon, and I’m standing on a bridge staring at the wet ramparts of a medieval village in the south of France, wondering what I’m doing here. Back in L.A., where this scheme was......
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Monstrous Disgrace

There was a tingle in the news. UCLA’s Royce Hall, shut for over four years of earthquake repairs and retrofitting, was to reopen its doors with a most newsworthy event: a major collaboration between those blithe, innovative spirits, director/designer/poet Robert Wilson and maximally renowned minimalist composer Philip Glass, together again......

Mouse Trapped

We had forgotten how easy — and fun — it can be to jerk the chain of a mouse-eared multinational entertainment conglomerate named Disney. It seems that OffBeat’s missive last week on Disney’s faltering big-ticket venture into "new media" touched a nerve with the head lady at Disney Interactive, Jan......

Alatorre’s Tangled Web

A startling plaudit appeared in last week’s letters section from none other than school-board member David Tokofsky. Tokofsky alleged, "I suspect that the constituents of the 14th [City Council District] are in for a dramatic loss of services and representation if Councilman Alatorre is not there in 1999." Actually, the......

Rumble on Rodeo

On the afternoon of Wednesday, April 8, police moved in to cordon off the doors of the Summit Rodeo, a pricy small hotel nestled among still pricier retail establishments on Beverly Hills’ priciest street. They had been summoned by hotel management to preserve the sanctity of the lobby from the......

Boho Rhapsody

I turned 40 years old on the road between Providence and Boston. My band, Creeps in Exile, was on its final tour, one month before dissolving, and this night had seen us before a crowd of 15 indifferents, which creates a feeling not unlike a root canal if you’re the......
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White Glove Hamburgers

Julienne may be the last restaurant of its type in Los Angeles County, a patio café in the heart of San Marino’s small downtown that rolls the experiences of La Coupole, Mayberry R.F.D. and the Bullocks Wilshire tearoom all into one. Julienne is a white-glove lunchroom at the nexus of......
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A Clockwork L'Orange

GREAT MEN OF SCIENCE Nos. 21 & 22By GLEN BERGER At CIRCLE X THEATER CO. The Lost Studio Theater 130 S. La Brea Ave. Through April 26 You may or may not have seen, in any number of textbooks, an antique engraving that depicts Galileo showing off a telescope to......
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Persian Love

In Tehran, the graffiti appeared on a wall near the university: "Andy." Authorities scrubbed it away; it reappeared a day later. This went on for some time, and the phantom scribbler was never apprehended. So the wall was torn down. Young women in Tehran, on their way to forbidden private......

Footloose in Westwood

Westwood still can’t dance — not legally anyhow. And prospects for ending the dancing ban dimmed last week when Councilman Mike Feuer came out against an application by Duet Nightclub and Restaurant for the neighborhood’s first dance permit in years. For longtime residents Duet’s nightclub operation evoked fears that the......