The pride of Long Beach, Snoop D-O-Double-Gizzle has a new way to connect with fans– via a Tom Tom GPS unit. Even if you hot box your car, Snoop will stay in control and know exactly where to go…

Our friends at Where Eagles Dare have an incredible interview with photographer (and, yes, father of Estevan) Eriberto Oriol that digs into his past, present, and future. Here’s an excerpt and the link:

Eriberto, thank-you so very much for taking the time to do this interview with us. Let’s hear some background and history behind yourself.

I was born in Indio, California but grew up in a community called Varrio Logan which is located in the city of San Diego. It was the most complex community in the state of California because of its heavy industrial waterfront. It was a community that was also split in half by a freeway and fractured by the San Diego Coronado Bay Bridge and surrounded by a military and conservative mentality with great overtones of racism. This was my real playground and which has had a great influence on my artwork to this day. I’ve lived half of my life in Los Angeles and came here to fully develop myself as an artist. I’m not a self-taught artist which I used to run as, although it sounds good, it as also a self centered ego and fake thing at the same time. We live in a world of people that are not in an isolated capsule. Our lives are influenced by many people and by our surroundings.

I have been a photo maker on and off for 30 years or so. I had an absent period for 15 years because I lost interest and wanted to just draw, paint and mess with sculpture. My son Estevan pulled me back into it because he wanted to do a father and son exhibit which took place at Shepard Fairey’s studio/gallery about 5 years ago. I resisted it at first because I didn’t want to look back at what I had shot in the past. Estevan recognized that’s where some of my strongest photos were and he was right. I was just beginning to shoot graffiti and that was becoming my main interest at that time.

Read the rest of the interview and peep the flicks here…

A man police are calling the “Rico Suave Bandit” has LA’s billionaires and high society crowd on edge. His smooth ways and charm give him access to enclaves like the Four Seasons Hotel, where last weekend he stole anywhere from “millions” to $45,000 in jewels from Florida sugar baron Pepe Fanjul by pretending to be an employee of the hotel.

This fits in somewhat with his modus operandi, which appears to be to target foreigners who carry jewelery in hotels or other “safe” places. To wit, “Rico Suave” is also suspected of robbing the Staples Center locker room when an Israeli basketball team was in town for an exhibition game, as well as a downtown hotel room used by Chivas Mexico.

Teen King of the 80’s, member of “The Coreys”, fast-liver and Hollywood reclamation project Corey Haim has died at the age of 38 in what is being described as a possible accidental overdose. The AP has more:

Haim had flulike symptoms before he died and was getting over-the-counter and prescription medications, Police Sgt. William Mann said. The cause of death is unknown, Mann said.

“He could have succumbed to whatever (illness) he had or it could have been drugs. Who knows?” Mann said. “He has had a drug problem in the past.”

Haim was taken by ambulance to the hospital from an apartment in Los Angeles near Burbank. The enormous complex is known as Oakwood and is popular with young actors, Kammert said.

Haim acknowledged his struggle with drug abuse to The Sun in 2004.

“I was working on Lost Boys when I smoked my first joint,” he told the British tabloid.

“I did cocaine for about a year and a half, then it led to crack,” he said.

Haim said he went into rehabilitation and was put on prescription drugs. He took both stimulants and sedatives such as Valium.

“I started on the downers which were a hell of a lot better than the uppers because I was a nervous wreck,” he said. “But one led to two, two led to four, four led to eight, until at the end it was about 85 a day.”

“The Coreys” in 1989

The Los Angeles Times breaks the sad news of former Dodger great Willie Davis’s untimely demise at the age of 69. An exceprt:

Former Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Willie Davis was found dead Tuesday morning in his Burbank home, police said. He was 69. Authorities said that a neighbor who usually brought breakfast to the former baseball star’s Victory Boulevard home found Davis’ body.

The case is being handled by the Los Angeles County coroner, but authorities said there was nothing to indicate foul play and that it appears that Davis died of natural causes.

Davis, an All-City athlete in several sports at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights in the late 1950s, became one of the Dodgers’ early stars after the team moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958. Known for his offense, Davis played center field for the Dodgers for 13 seasons starting in 1961. He hit in a team record 31 consecutive games in 1969 and batted .305 or above three years straight in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Photo by Jennifer Lynn

Organizer Rosalio Muñoz at Salazar Park Senior Center, 2864 Whittier Blvd. in Los Angeles CA on February 28, 2010. Community activists held a panel discussion to recognize the 40th anniversary of a march through the rain in Los Angeles to protest the Vietnam War Contact says the “March in the Rain” was a turning point of the Chicano Movement. Photo by AURELIO JOSE BARRERA

A-1 Eastern-Homade Pickle Inc. ~ (323) 223-1141 ~ 1832 Johnston St.  Los Angeles ~ CA

Our mascot, Taco Man, has become a celebrity on the web due to his good looks, charm, knobby knees, and giant helping of crema falling out the back of his shell. Now, thanks to artist MacKay Wilford, he’s been transformed into a Pixel Art version, suitable for Icons and Avatars of all kinds. Enjoy!