Speaking of Cheech and Chong, the other greatest LA stoner comedy of all time has to be The Big Lebowski. Now you can add to your man-child toy collection with Lebowski action figures, exclusively from Los Angeles-based Entertainment Earth. They’re 8 inches tall and come complete with accessories. There are other models as well, check out the link in the previous sentence.

Artists got together at Venice Beach’s graffiti walls to paint some their own freaky creatures. Some kids also got to paint on canvases provided by Abandon Entertainment.

http://www.myfreakycreatures.com

Jim Marquez. Photo by Rick Mendoza.

WAITING

by Jim Marquez

The silence of it all is the thing that first gets you. So fucking quiet at 2:37am on a Thursday or Friday or Saturday morning in Downtown Los Angeles.

The men wait at a corner, huddled in twos and threes and fours, the truly adventurous man waits alone. Dressed in white T-shirts with oil-stains, jeans, and trucking caps. Some are drunk, red eyes glisten under dull street lights; they waver in place, trying to remain upright, while others are wide awake, jittery, hands shoved in pockets, rocking back and forth on their heels, taking quick glances at their buddies, wordlessly asking each other in Spanish if they should leave or make their move.

It’s cold out this night, unusual for this time of year, but that does not deter them; they gather here on this corner and wait for the taxi dancers to come streaming out of their place of business on this and every other night and I know this because I’m the only drunk that bothers to look at them rather than push past as the amateurs do when they stumble out of a bar in their own groups of 17-30 deep, sloppy and loud and obnoxious, catching the ears of all the pigs that increasingly patrol the downtown streets now.

I’ve been to whorehouses and strip clubs and swingers clubs all over the world, but, I have never seen the inside of a taxi hall. Talk about old school. Buy tickets, pick a girl, actually slow dance, be close, pretend you’ve taken her out on a real, old fashioned date, then, if the friction is right, or not, retire to a back sofa, in the dark, and hope for a hand job or, for the truly adventurous woman, a blow job.

So I’ve been told.

But after is when the real money is made. When the real action takes place. And it’s all for the asking, apparently.

The women gather under the awning of their building. Wrapped in bad coats, holding big purses, teetering in cheap platform sandals, whispering in Spanish to each other about this guy or that guy that is standing across from them on the sidewalk. They don’t smile. They don’t wave or encourage. But they do await the first moves.

Christ, it’s like being at a junior high school dance.

(Continued)

A local newspaper reports on AB2609, which, in part, requires people convicted of graffiti-related crimes keep clean the area they’re convicted clean and free of additional tagging or graffiti. The law was introduced by LA rep. Mike Davis. Here is the text of the bill:

AB 2609, Davis. Vandalism: penalties: community service.
Existing law, amended by Proposition 21, an initiative measure
enacted by voters at the March 7, 2000, statewide primary election,
and requiring a 2/3 vote of the Legislature to amend, makes a person
who maliciously commits specified destructive acts with respect to
another’s property guilty of vandalism. Existing law grants the court
the authority to order a defendant who is convicted of violating
this provision, or to order the defendant and his or her parents, if
the defendant is a minor, to clean up, repair, or replace the damaged
property or keep the damaged property or another specified property
in the community free of graffiti for up to one year.
This bill would, in addition, require a court, when appropriate
and feasible, to impose the above cleanup penalties for any defendant
who was convicted of violating those vandalism provisions, as
specified. By increasing the penalties for a crime, the bill would
impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
(Continued)

Cheech Marin of Malibu, and Tommy Chong of Pacific Palisades will be reuniting and touring the nation with a standup act later this year. The two have put aside their differences, which seemed to primarily revolve around Marin’s reluctance to revisit his Cheech character. I’d guess he realized that the big $$$ is out there for the revival of the classic weed humor that propelled them to stardom in the 1970’s. “I think it’s time for a revival of dope jokes. It’s a much bigger audience now, it’s much more widespread and institutionalized,” Marin said in an interview earlier this month. If the tour works out, and we think it will, look for a Cheech and Chong film in 2010.

We wish Cheech and Chong the best. Their film Up in Smoke, directed by music legend and Laker floor-seat owner Lou Adler, is one of the all-time classic films set in Los Angeles, and shows the city off in all its 1970’s glory. It’s tough being funny in the back of a limo, but it’s good to see an LA act back on the road. Original Up in Smoke trailer below:

www.01Gallery.com