Westside Story

Yesterday we did a full tour of the Westside, starting with a visit to my first L.A. apartment (on the notorious South Bundy Drive) followed by stops in Santa Monica, Venice — Muscle Beach is still hopping and we ate lunch at the most fantastic Italian joint to prepare us for a tour of the canals(!) — before driving up to Malibu in time for the sunset.

I then planned to dazzle Damian with the drive along Sunset Boulevard back from Pacific Coast Highway to WeHo only to be jolted by the sight of the lingering devastation through the Palisades, where burned-out houses and empty lots abound.

Eventually we reached (the) Beverly Hills (Hotels) where things remain one percent status quo, just in time to valet the car at the Sunset Marquis and race down to Largo in time to meet my good friend and former roommate James for the Susanna Hoffs concert -- more HERE -- where one of her special guests was Conan O'Brien, who used the crowd to try out some material for his upcoming gig hosting the Academy Awards. (Sue apparently has a monthly residency at the Coronet and yesterday she was experimenting with covers of the Beatles' "Help!" album.)

Afterward we grabbed a bite at Canter's Deli — no kugel but terrific as always — and cruised Melrose a bit before collapsing into bed.

I surprisingly woke up at a reasonable hour so took a stroll over to Book Soup and Sunset Plaza to get coffee at the Butcher, the Baker and the Cappuccino Maker, where I am writing this now. (And wait'll you see my new Ron Dorff shirt!)

Tonight we eat with friends at my beloved (and newly reopened) Marix (where I celebrated my 25th birthday) and then see "The Mismatch Game" and then we head back to NYC tomorrow.

Kudos to the City of Angels for reminding me what I was missing — and that I really blew it by not being born bicoastal!

California

Griffith Observatory hike at sunset? Take me as I am, California. I'm your biggest fan.

Sunset People

When I booked our stay at the Sunset Marquis hotel, it felt almost like a consolation prize to make up for the demise of my beloved Standard.

But now that we've arrived on these 3.5 acres of lush gardens — and eaten at the divine Cavatina — I am not sure what I was thinking!

Throw in the fact unbeknownst to me two of my friends' longtime performances — Danny Casillas's "Chico's Angels" and Dennis Hensley's "Mismatch Game" — are happening while we're here as well as a Susanna Hoffs show at Largo (walking distance from the hotel) and this is shaping up to be quite a return to the City of Angels!

Song of the Day: 'Los Angeles' by X

Absolutely heartbroken over the news from Los Angeles, where I gloriously misspent my youth. Sending everyone my best. If there's anything I possibly can do to help, please let me know. xo 

First Look at the 'Studio One Forever' Documentary

Here's a taste of the feature documentary in the works about West Hollywood through the lens of Studio One Disco (1974-1993) and its sister music venue, The Backlot. I loved GOING THERE in the late '80s (as a tourist) and early '90s (as a resident) -- it felt like L.A.'s answer to Studio 54 -- and cannot wait to see the club's complete story, beginning at the rise of disco and the gay civil-rights movement to the tragic days of the AIDS crisis that decimated our community. 

It's easy to understand why these guys didn't want to see the building torn down. 

Learn more / make a donation HERE.

Visit director Marc Saltarelli site HERE.

Bi-coastal Liza 

Save the Factory writes: The demolition has begun. The complete destruction of an LGBT National Register of Historic Places site (there are less than 15 in existence). What can be said? We fought. We fought hard. The vast majority of people wanted the building to be preserved. But another light snuffed, more darkness. Development, Politicians and Money -- the trifecta of these dark times. 

And the money still does not exist for the promised Robertson Lane complex -- that includes no money for the fake, recreation of a portion of the original Factory Building (no, there will no "preservation" as the article repeats the same developer talking points without facts).

Cruising Melrose

No Laughing Matter

Sandra Bernhard retweeted this issue of L.A. Weekly, which featured female comedians. (“Why Are These Women Laughing?” asked the cover of the very first issue of the L.A. Weekly, December 8, 1978. Los Angeles’ new free “publication of news, people, entertainment, art and imagination” declared, “This is the season of the standup young comic.” Mugging for the camera and looking like off-duty stewardesses in their platform shoes and big hairdos were, from left, Cathy Kahn, Mchen, Lotus Weinstock, Sandra Bernhard (misspelled “Bernhardt”), Ann Kellogg and Donna Jean Young.) I was a regular reader during my time in the City of Angels back in the early '90s, even taking out my first "personal" ad that was so modern that it included a mailbox for your phone messages. I was so naive that I once had this muscular, 6-2, 190-pound (straight?) blond guy I met on there come to my apartment on Bundy where we proceeded to sit on my futon for 15 minutes making small talk before he seemed to grow impatient and finally decided to leave. The second the door closed, my roommate James walked in -- all teeth -- and said, "Who was that big hunk?" When I told him what had just happened, he laughed and told me you can't be shy in those situations, which to this day I'm still incredibly bad at! 

The Rex best thing ...

David and Keith stopped by Video West on "Six Feet Under" the other night and my late fees in West Hollywood came rushing back to me ...

Postcard From L.A. Pride

I hear it was a more understated occasion than when I marched in 2015. But I'm glad the people of Los Angeles did not let a cowardice mass murderer in Orlando -- or a would-be mass murderer from Indiana -- get in the way of celebrating LGBT Pride. That's my friend Danny having the best time one could given the situation, above.

If He Did It ...

Read HERE.

The knife he used was buried in his yard.

Marcia Clark reacts to the news:

"I think it’s a remarkable development if it does turn out to be connected to the murders of Ron [Goldman] and Nicole [Simpson Brown],” Clark told Entertainment Tonight. “It would be interesting if there was some evidence on that knife that pointed to who might have helped to bury it, if indeed someone else did.” 

The Wrap reports:

A construction worker is said to have found the knife buried at Simpson’s home on Rockingham Avenue in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles back in the ’90s, it was reported Friday, and subsequently turned it over to an off-duty police officer who happened to be nearby. But rather than hand the evidence over to authorities, the retired officer apparently kept it. Capt. Andrew Nieman, who led a press conference about the latest development Friday, noted that the former officer might have mistakenly believed that the case was closed. The officer, who retired in the late ’90s, planned to frame the knife as a keepsake and recently reached out to a friend at the LAPD for the case number of the murder investigation to include on a plaque with the weapon. The former officer’s friend alerted higher-ranking LAPD officers, who demanded the knife be turned over as evidence. 

“I really don’t know what to think of it,” Clark, the head prosecutor during Simpson’s trial in 1995, added. “I can’t believe someone gave a police officer what appears to be, could be, important evidence in a case — even if it is closed — and takes it home. I don’t know what to say about that except I can’t believe it, but it’s apparently what happened.” However, she is still cautious about the veracity of the knife. “I don’t know whether to say it is truly evidence, none of us knows that yet — it might be a hoax, it might be somebody who planted it and then just pretended to find it and gave it to the off-duty police officer, you don’t know,” Clark says. “But, of course, I’m glad the LAPD is taking it seriously and subjecting it to testing so we can find out.” Even if the knife proves to have any blood, hair, or fingerprint evidence, which Clark says could be found on the knife, and links Simpson to the murders of his ex-wife and Goldman, Simpson cannot be retried due to double jeopardy.

Unreal. I guess this series was good for something in probably got this moron to think about framing the knife again and thus alerting authorities of its existence.

UPDATE:

Not sure how reliable this initial report that it ain't the knife that did the cut, so you must let him strut, but the mere fact that a member of the LAPD would be dumb enough to keep it all these years further proves this case was doomed from the beginning.