AltWeeklies Wire
SantaCon 2008's Rein(deer) of Terrornew
The gathering of the Santas at the boathouse was on a comedy level somewhere closer to the Firesign Theatre, as nearly 300 crowded the park. There were hippie, hipster and biker Santas; Santas in Lucha Libre and green gorilla masks; and some tall St. Nick with a star on his eye like Paul Stanley from KISS. All moved in cheery circles around red-suited and tinsel-daubed ladies, some of them too slinky and sexed-up for lap-sitting shifts at any department store.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
12-12-2008 |
Culture
Pulp Mag Reprints Find an Audience ... Againnew
A publisher quaintly called Nostalgia Ventures offers us a peek into the national fantasies of the last time America was broke, whipped, and paranoid all at once.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
09-26-2008 |
Books
Joseph Stiglitz on the Economic Crisis, War and the Electionnew
"I think that you could argue it may in fact be the war that broke the camel's back," Stiglitz says.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
09-26-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Burning Man: Torching the American Dreamnew
Welcome to Hell. Population, You: Among the many and varied effects of Burning Man upon national culture is that it vindicates a long-cherished, if little-expressed, American desire to drive to another planet.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
09-05-2008 |
Culture
The God Who Capped Himself: Thomas M. Disch, 1940-2008new
In a literary culture that supposedly cherishes irony, the passing of such a master ironist has been remarkably little noted. That Disch likely took his life on July 4th (his body was discovered July 5) probably wasn't meant as tribute to our subtle wits either.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
08-01-2008 |
Books
'Fuck Hope': George Carlin, 1937-2008new
There'll be little enough cause to ask what this late, stupendously gifted funnyman would think of a President Obama and his rhetoric of "Hope" in the midst of our general, scrambling disintegration. We already know.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
06-27-2008 |
Performance
L.A. Underground vs. the Copsnew
The LAPD has been leaning on the downtown party scene hard this year, with several recent events raided on unknown or specious pretexts. The latest casualty was Phoenix Projekt's pyrokinetic party.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
05-16-2008 |
Music
No One Could Bait the Well-Behaved LAPD This May Daynew
In Los Angeles, May Day laurels go to the LAPD for the heroic continence of not going batshit crazy and attacking random citizens at this year's march.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
05-12-2008 |
Crime & Justice
The Great Hollywood Peace Paradenew
Antiwar Angelenos mark the fifth year of war by throwing a party.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
03-21-2008 |
War
Gone Undergroundnew
A survey of L.A. rock clubs suggests the pros are turning weirder.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
02-29-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
This Super Tuesday, America is Dixienew
A proud Dixie expatriate and lifelong political junkie, I'm seldom less pleased to be away from home than the weeks before Super Tuesday.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
02-01-2008 |
Commentary
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Wing Nutnew
California's Duncan Hunter blames the media -- the right-wing media.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
01-25-2008 |
Politics
The Lakota Sioux Start Their Own Countrynew
The Lakotah Freedom Delegation declared the new nation of Lakotah out of treaty land in five U.S. states last month.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
01-04-2008 |
Race & Class
Tags: race relations
Fear & Exhilaration at the SoCal Anarchist Conferencenew
This was not your father's left-wing protest gathering, not that ghosts from movements past didn't rattle a bone or two.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
12-21-2007 |
Politics
The Better World of Jimmy Carternew
An old man miraculously free of guile, cant, and anger was once Our President and moves among us still, serenely advancing in years while reminding us, in his patient Emersonian way, of our ennobling duty to make the world better -- these are tempting trade-goods in an era sick with bling materialism.
Los Angeles CityBeat |
Ron Garmon |
11-09-2007 |
Politics
