Aural devastation TONIGHT! AUTHOR & PUNISHER in Los Angeles with BEHOLD! THE MONOLITH, FETUS EATERS, ACTUARY, AGOWILT, INTERNAL & TORN BY TEETH. Doors at 730pm $5 21+ The 5 Star Bar, 267 S. Main St. DTLA
The Los Angeles Times reports today that members of one LA’s most notorious gangs were indicted today in protection-racket scheme targeting taco truck vendors in Los Angeles:
A grand jury indictment was scheduled to be unsealed Monday for about two dozen reputed members of the notorious MS-13 gang in connection with a violent extortion racket that targeted food-truck operators.
The victims of the alleged organized shakedown were not four-wheeled foodie cuisine servers, such as the Kogi BBQ truck, but those who serve blue collar workers at construction sites, according to several law enforcement sources familiar with the case.
Those arrested were reputed Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gang members but the sources, who did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the case before details were revealed in court, said the arrests were the culmination of a year-long investigation centered in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood Division.
Just another example of how hard it is out there slangin street food– our local taqueros work long hours and are squeezed on all sides by fuel prices, local regulators, drunk customers, and criminal elements. Salute your local lonchera the best way you can- stop in for a taco tonight.
Thee only LA apppearance of DECEASED! With Gravehill / Skeletal Remains / Ghoulgotha / Deception! Brought to you by Church of the 8th Day and Thee Static Age. 8pm doors / 18+ / $10 via 8thDayTix.com and $13 cash at the door. 8771 W. Pico Blvd.
The alleged creator of one of the most prolific unauthorized items seen in the streets of Los Angeles over the past few years was busted in a sting operation late last year, Dana Bartholomew of the Daily News reported today. Who was this incredibly active vandal? It wasn’t a street artist, it wasn’t someone doing graffiti, and it wasn’t an illegal muralist. No, it was Rickey Reed, who has put up thousands of PHONE JACKS signs all over Los Angeles for the past half-dozen years. The signs have been so ubiquitous that artist Free Humanity did a parody early last year (see below). The Daily News reports…
We’d been trying to get him for a while,” said code enforcement Chief Frank Bush, who said he cited Reed after he’d begun to measure the store for a phone installation. “He caused visual blight throughout the community.
“I’ve seen his signs all over the place – everywhere you drive.”
Reed, 52, of Los Angeles, was charged with five counts of posting advertising signs on public property, for which he faces a pre-trial hearing on Wednesday.
If convicted of each count, he faces up to 2 1/2 years in jail and a $5,000 fine.
(Continued)
Dr. Jerry Buss took control of the Lakers at the very dawn of my consciousness, and my entire life he was the old man I aspired to someday be. An aging, auburn James Bond in blue jeans who plied the casinos of Gardena instead of Monte Carlo, he gave Hollywood a Forum for its courtside cool, taught a Magic man how to smile, and gift-wrapped championships end on end to toddlers, adolescents, teens and grown men alike whose civic pride, like mine, centered on finally beating those bastards from Boston. And now that that glorious legacy is horrifyingly in question, a city prays that at least on some level that genius was genetic. Rest in peace, Dr. Buss.
Tonight! Another fucking great show at The Down & Out! In Defense / Dogteeth / Out of Tune / Cholos on Acid / Cerote 9pm 21+ $5 Happy Hour all night! More info here.
Two very cool new images from the International Space Station when it passed over Los Angeles earlier this month. The picture above is a normal satellite shot, while the one below is LA in infrared. Bonus video: watch the ISS pass over LA.
Remember the Molly’s Burgers situation back in 2010/11? After 82 years, the popular H’wood shack was faced with eviction because the city and a developer wanted to build a new tower complex on the spot, and ultimately the business owner got a payoff of over $1m to leave the location in the name of progress. Molly’s may have only been a shack, but it was a shack that the locals loved. So far not much seems to have happened at the location, and the current incarnation of Molly’s is a spot for graffiti, stickers, and other vandalism. The photo above is from the very last night that Molly’s was open, and the photos below are from yesterday. All images from the esteemed Tom Andrews, lord of the Hollywood photo scene.
Photographer Tom Andrews spotted billboard queen Angelyne selling some memorabilia from the back of her iconic pink Corvette.
This dude was hanging out in his apartment watching a police chase when suddenly the perp busted a quick right on his block, and the entire chain of black & whites went screaming by his pad. Bonus: in this video at 13:03 (Screenshot below) you can see him go to the window from the helicopter shot. Just another day in LA.
