All the talking heads are saying that the key to Sarah Palin's success in Thursday night's Vice Presidential debate with Joe Biden is to "let Sarah be Sarah."

I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I think the gist of it is that Palin has been over-managed by handlers who are stuffing her head with too much knowledge. And we all know a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Seems she does better in these setting when she knows less and is free to just let her stunning disposition shine. To put it another way, people like her when she's not trying to be knowledgeable. You could say she's on a need-to-not-know basis. I think it's about time we elected someone who doesn't know much. That would be a refreshing change.

Well, whatever they decide -- whether to try to fill her mind with useless stuff like knowledge, or not -- I do hope they give Palin one piece of advice. Stop wearing those Mother of the Children of The Corn, stiff-collar, hawk-neck, Amish prom dress type blouses. Particularly that red one. Put them away. They kill whatever tiny amount of kinky sex appeal is still left.

Unless you pick up a pitchfork to go with it. Then, I'm back in!

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BY MARC COOPER

Here's the only tin-foil if not exactly the silver lining in yesterday's literally depressing economic news: Next year's bread lines will be administered by a Democratic, not a Republican, administration. You can bet on it.

For personal reasons (like now I have to work till I'm 113) I'm not going to dwell on the monetary side of yesterday's events.

Let's stick with the political. Get out your tops, mix-masters or even your cement trucks but there are ain't no possible way to spin this episode other than as a crushing and humiliating setback for McCain in specific and the Republicans in general. It's not just that McBumbler was taking credit for the deal before the deal imploded.

That, my friends, is but a mere detail.

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On Monday, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled a $5 billion housing plan for the middle class and poor. Reaction to the plan was definitely mixed, and with good reason: According to the LA Times, "many City Council members and business and housing groups said they had not yet seen" it.

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Like so many young actors after the ravages of puberty or the pitfalls of adulthood had rendered them into celebrity non grata, Linda Blair’s post-Exorcist acting career dove headfirst into low-budget exploitation like Roller Boogie (1979) and Night Patrol (1984, which partners her with Pat Paulsen and The Gong Show’s Unknown Comic). However, unlike such never-was cases as Richard Grieco or Christopher Atkins, Blair’s fallow period was actually kinda fun, and she took to the grimier material with a remarkable good cheer motivated either by financial appreciation or genuine let’s-put-on-a-show spunkiness. The best of her B-pictures, 1984’s Savage Streets and Chained Heat (1983), get a rare screening at the New Beverly Cinema’s Grindhouse Film Festival tonight, which has been keeping creeps and weirdos off the streets with prints of rare horror and sexploitation movies for the better part of the last five years.

Savage Streets (which also received a recent double-disc treatment from Code Red) has Ms. B copping the Runaways’ fashion sense and attitude as the leader of the all-girl Satins, a good-girl gang who run afoul of the Scars, a psychotic male gang who rape and butcher Linda’s deaf-mute sister (psychotronic saint Linnea Quigley) over a perceived slight. Blair’s all-grown-up (and decidedly va-va-voomish) frame is central to the imagery of the film’s second half; decked out in spandex tights and toting a crossbow, she invests herself whole-heartedly into her role as avenging street angel, and if you don’t entirely believe her, she’s at least awfully nice to look at. TV habitués will note the presence of Johnny Venocur, a.k.a. Johnny V, whose deep-rooted bromance with Scott Baio is one of the most curious aspects of the latter’s reality series.

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Last week, the City's planning commission voted on a proposal that would tighten up the city's "specialty billboard district" laws. The plan to revamp the sign district ordinance came about after concerns that the city was frivolously granting too many sign districts to billboard companies.

The plan sets the minimum size of a billboard or sign district to one block or three acres, "which would have the effect of discouraging very small sign districts designed for one or two signs," says Dennis Hathaway, president of the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight.

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What would you think if you saw a Fed Ex logo made out of tulips as you were motoring along one of California's freeways? How about the Golden Arches made from yellow roses or buttercups along the shoulder of the road?

It turns out that putting "vegetative advertising" - a logo or advertisement made out of flowers, shrubs and other plants - along California's freeways is Caltrans latest plan to raise funds towards the financially strapped highway fund.

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The Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced this morning (well, if you don't count the New York Times and L.A. Times, both of which got the story last week for publication today) a $45 million donation from Stewart and Lynda Resnick. The gift will fund the building of a large new Renzo Piano exhibition space directly behind the architect’s Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM). The one-story building, 200 feet by 180 feet, will feature all natural light via a skylight system like that of BCAM, and is expected to house special exhibitions.

The announcement, held in a tent on the site, was made by LACMA director Michael Govan. (Okay, the CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, yadda yadda.) He introduced Lynda Resnick, who has been on the acquisitions board at the museum for 16 years. She credited Govan's leadership as being central to her and her husband's decision. Stewart Resnick said there were two reasons he decided to make the donation: "Number one, because Lynda wanted to do it."

At this point, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, sitting next to the podium, made an aside to Stewart Resnick, who laughed and said, "Antonio, who knows something about the relationship between men and women" – doh! – "says that's also the second reason." Stewart Resnick went on to add that Los Angeles had been very good to him, better than other places might have been, and that he believed in giving back to the community.

When the mayor spoke, he said how amazing it was that the Resnicks had accumulated so much wealth having started washing windows. Lynda Resnick, who was wearing a fetching gray outfit that suggested there are more millions where the 45 came from, immediately noted with a faint look of horror that it was not she who had done the windows.

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The Yes on Prop. 8 campaign has released a new television ad today, featuring San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Frank Schubert, campaign manager of ProtectMarriage.com, the umbrella group leading the fight to ban same sex marriage in California, also asks supporters to donate $3.6 million in the coming weeks so TV ads can be aired throughout the state. The additional money would put anti-gay marriage proponents over the $20 million mark in total contributions.

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Amidst the failed federal bailout and the ensuing stock market tumble, the media world had its own depressing contribution to today's news cycle. Tampa-based Creative Loafing, owners of the second largest alternative weekly chain in the country, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today.

The move comes just more than a year after Creative Loafing's purchase of the highly regarded Washington City Paper and Chicago Reader. Creative Loafing CEO Ben Eason counters suggestions his company may have overstretched by insisting the chain's failure to pay nearly $500,000 in interest payments and service fees, which contributed to the filing, "has little to do with the acquisition."

Washington City Paper's Erik Wemple reports that the company has no immediate plans for "liquidation," or layoffs, and that the move even has its sunny side: "Cuts to edit staffs at all the papers would be rolled back."

Wemple goes on to report, however, that the chain will hereby follow a new editorial mandate that "stress[es] that all the papers should proceed with “Web-first” publishing strategies, in which writers and editors customize their content for the Internet and subsequently transfer that content into their print products."

For some reason this sounds ominous. As good as putting LOL cats on the front page seems, take it from the L.A. Times -- not the way to go.

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Abuse for Its Own Sake

Needtheater's Fatboy is this week's Pick of the Week (See New Theater Reviews by pressing the READ ON tab at the bottom of this section.) It's John Clancy's vaudeville-clown show adaptation of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi which is a nihilistic spin on Macbeth, which is quite nihilistic to begin with. It's performing at Imagined Life Theater (formerly 2100 Square Feet), 5615 San Vicente Boulevard. www.needtheater.org.

To access a sneak preview of the weekend's NEW THEATER REVIEWS, press the READ ON tab at the bottom of this section. (The reviews are embedded in this coming week's comprehensive theater listings).

For this week's stage feature on The House of Blue Leaves and the larger purpose of the Mark Taper Forum, visit http://www.laweekly.com/2008-09-25/stage/renewal-at-the-mark-taper-forum-is-it-all-skin-deep/

FATHOMING AMERICA

If you want to understand this country, Colorado Springs, Colorado is a pretty good to start. If you want to understand Colorado Springs, check out The Civilians' This Beautiful City. It opened yesterday at the Kirk Douglas and is also reviewed below. http://centertheatregroup.org

Other reviews below include East West Players production incorporating Bruce Lee flicks, Be Like Water; Charlie Lustman's solo show with music about surviving cancer, Made Me Nuclear, at Santa Monica Playhouse; John Stark's The Great Election at the Odyssey; Open Fist Theatre Company's premiere of Frank Zappa's Joe's Garage; Nick Salamone's latest, Sea Change, at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's Davidson/Valentini Theatre; a pair of plays by Steve Stajich, Little Black Lies, at the Avery Schreiber; Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone at South Coast Repertory, and Kristina Wong's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at Miles Memorial Playhouse, presented by TeAda Productions.

ROBERT WILSON, ONSTAGE LIVE

The legendary director choreographer will discuss his creative process at USC's Bing Auditorium Tuesday night, Oct. 31, 7:30 p.m. It's free.

"FROM JAIL TO YALE"

Tuesday, October 7th at 8 p.m. at the Freud Playhouse at UCLA is a dramatization of the true story of Emmy Award winning actor, director and humanitarian Charles S. ‘Roc’ Dutton. It's about how he found his ‘moment of truth’ while serving time in prison, and went on to earn his college degree, graduate from the prestigious Yale School of Drama, and world wide acclaim on Broadway, on Television and in Movies.

The evening will launch a new dramatic arts education program that will give that same pathway for success to 1 million ‘at risk’ students over the next 4 years. http://www.actorshalloffame.org/benefit.html

For the weekend's latest NEW THEATER REVIEWS embedded in the coming week's comprehensive theater listings, press the READ ON tab directly below

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They say people turn to comfort food in times of grief and, well, nothing proved more true in Los Angeles over the weekend. To ease the worry brought on by the current economic crisis and looming presidential election, we gladly welcomed a weekend of over-eating and over-imbibing. Check out what we ate, who wet met and what we drank...

Dodger Debauchery
The Dodgers started their weekend early as they celebrated their Western Division championship on Thursday night in Echo Park. Pitcher Chan Ho Park and shortstop Angel Berroa donned goggles and snorkel masks as they showered fans with Moet champagne. Read Mark Groubert's full account of the evening.


Photo by Mark Groubert.

Art About Bukowski
Saturday at the Hyaena Gallery in Burbank was the opening of Art About Bukowski, a group show dedicated to the life of Charles Bukowski. In addition to the 13-plus artists involved, the opening also showcased Weirdo Delux author Matt Dukes Jordan who signed copies of his new book Bukowski's L.A. Guests were treated to a surprise appearance from Bukowski's wife, Linda, who smiled and greeted artists as she checked out the many portraits done of her husband. Check out the slideshow here or click on the image below.


Artist Jeremy Cross and Linda Bukowski.

Precious Cheese Italian Feast of San Gennaro L.A.
Friday through Sunday marked the seventh annual Precious Cheese Italian Feast of San Gennaro on Highland in Hollywood, hosted by funny guys Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla. We ignored the creepy carnies while we drank Pironi beer, feasted on cannolis and boned up on our history of Italian-American culture in Los Angeles. Check out the slideshow here or click on the image below.


Photo by Shannon Cottrell.

Abbot Kinney Festival
On Sunday we took in the ocean air and enjoyed the swap meet vibe of the Abbot Kinney Festival in Venice Beach. Later that night the weekend ground to a sobering halt when news broke of a deadly shooting that occurred on Abbot Kinney and San Juan streets, almost three hours after the festival closed. For details, read Liz Ohanesian's account of her day in Venice. Check out the slideshow here or click the image below.


Photo by Shannon Cottrell.

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At 9:20 p.m., almost three hours after Abbot Kinney Festival closed, a shooting occurred on Abbot Kinney and San Juan, killing one man and hospitalizing a woman. As of late Sunday night, no further information was available.

Organizers for the Abbot Kinney Festival make the claim that nearly 150,000 attend this annual street fair. That figure just might be accurate.

It took almost 40 minutes to find parking, and even then, the spot cost $10 and was an eight minute hike to the festivities. Inside the roped-off stretch of Abbot Kinney Boulevard, hordes of people sporting oversized sunglasses and miniscule dogs (yes, sometimes tucked into large shoulder bags) milled between rows of vendors hawking everything from handmade jewelry to Barack Obama t-shirts to mass produced clothing guaranteed to be out of style next summer and a few paintings thrown in for good measure. With 350 booths, the scene on Abbot Kinney was more swap meet than festival, albeit a swap meet without the piles of discounted tube socks and bootlegged DVDs.

Photograph by Shannon Cottrell. Click image for slideshow.

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Thursday night at Chavez Ravine, a crowd of 52, 569 crazed cheerleaders came to celebrate something that had already happened five hours earlier. With the loss of the Arizona Diamondbacks to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Dodgers were automatically the winners of the Western Division and heading into the post season for the second time in three years. Apparently nobody bothered to tell Padres pitcher Jake Peavy, the legendary Dodger-killer who led his team to a 7-5 meaningless victory over the newly crowned champs.

Dodgers pre-game ceremony announcing they've won division.

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BY MARC COOPER

What a shriveled tiny man John McCain turns out to be. And I don't mean physically.

I mean his soul.

Chris Matthews characterized McCain on MSNBC as a "troll" who was "angry at the world."

No kidding.

I am not the first to have noticed that in the first presidential debate, John McCain oozed contempt as he refused to as much as once even look at his opponent. And when Obama would differ with him on any issue of urgent seriousness, McCain would crack a condescending smile, a painful grimace as if someone was stuffing Freddie Mac up his arse.

There's plenty of spin out there so I'll keep it very, very short:

Read on...

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The Great Election at the Odyssey Theatre. Photo by Greg Jardin

For this weekend's comprehensive theater listings, press the READ ON tab at the bottom of this section.

Check back here Monday after noon for new reviews of Hamlet at A Noise Within; The Civilians' This Beautiful City (written by Steve Cosson and Jim Lewis) at the Kirk Douglas; East West Players production incorporating Bruce Lee flicks, Be Like Water; Charlie Lustman's solo show with music about surviving cancer, Made Me Nuclear, at Santa Monica Playhouse; John Stark's The Great Election at the Odyssey; Open Fist Theatre Company's premiere of Frank Zappa's Joe's Garage; Nick Salamone's latest, Sea Change, at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's Davidson/Valentini Theatre; a pair of plays by Steve Stajich, Little Black Lies, at the Avery Schreiber; needtheater's west-coast premiere of John Clancy's Fatboy; Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone and Kristina Wong's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at Miles Memorial Playhouse, presented by TeAda Productions.

Last weekend's New Theater Reviews can be found at http://www.laweekly.com/2008-09-25/stage/theater-reviews-9-to-5-the-musical-43-plays-for-43-presidents/http://law

for this week's stage feature on The House of Blue Leaves and the larger purpose of the Mark Taper Forum, visit http://www.laweekly.com/2008-09-25/stage/renewal-at-the-mark-taper-forum-is-it-all-skin-deep/

Creative Criticism

Just got back from five days in New York to sit in on the first couple of read-throughs of my play that's just started rehearsals at Abingdon Theatre Company. The whole atmosphere was intensely serious; answering the actors questions as they went through the play line by line, I felt like a student defending a dissertation, and it was great.

They were probing the play's ligaments with questions about time-lines and tone. They also wanted to know in detail about L.A.'s Beachwood Drive, where the play is set and where it takes its title from. Who lives there, what ethnicities, what's the traffic like, the architecture, etc.

What landed on me quite clearly was how the creative and critical impulses hold hands all the time. In this case they were dancing in the same room.

This was theater criticism at its best – driven by relentless curiosity and investigation in order to open up the world of the play. This company of actors made the case for me that artists can be among the most rigorous and qualified theater critics. What came to mind was the reality of one local SoCal newspaper dropping freelance critics from its payrolls and goading crime reporters to cover gallery openings and stage plays – people reluctant to do so because they themselves feel unqualified for the task.

Artist-critics open up the old can containing potential conflict of interest. But weigh that against the real conflict of interest when exhausted news writers are sent to cover an event in a field they know nothing about, when that venue's audience members may be better qualified to write a review. Chances are that a large percentage of that audience will be artists.

The key to sustaining some kind of enriching assessment of the still thriving activity we call theater is is to get qualified people to write on productions that are devoid of their personal friendships and ambitions. No easy answer, but that newspaper's solution is catastrophic for all parties, including their own readers.

For comprehensive theater listings, press theREAD ON tab directly below

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Models Begin Testifying in Rape Trial Sep 26, 2008
Avenues Gangster on Trial for Assault with a Firearm Sep 26, 2008
Election '08: A Day In The Life At The End Of The World Sep 26, 2008
Queer Town: The Faithful Fast, Valley Business Opposes Sep 26, 2008
Election '08: McFarce Sep 26, 2008
The Magic of Joe Torre Sep 25, 2008
The Trickle Down Economics of the Nation's Financial Crisis Sep 25, 2008
State Considers Advertising on Amber Alerts Sep 24, 2008
Stage Raw: Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Helen Gahagan Douglas Sep 24, 2008
Last Night: Chuck Klosterman and Spike Lee Double-Header at Book Soup Sep 24, 2008
LA Weekly Newspaper Helps Solve String of Arson Fires Sep 24, 2008
Election '08: Postcard From The End Of The World Sep 23, 2008
LA Business Journal Reports on Billboard Blight Sep 23, 2008
Queer Town: A Prop. 8 Town Hall Meeting at Young Israel Sep 23, 2008
Election '08: MoDo Conjures New Obama Advisor: West Wing's President Bartlet Sep 22, 2008
Witness Intimidation? Sep 22, 2008
Stage Raw: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ex-Presidents Sep 22, 2008
Queer Town: Tracking the Money for Prop. 8 Sep 22, 2008
Over the Weekend: Beck at the Bowl, Man Man Taco Fiesta, and Anniversary of Gram Parsons' Death Sep 22, 2008
Election '08: The McCain in Spain Fails Mostly to Explain Sep 19, 2008
Queer Town: New Poll Shows Voter Hesitancy To Strip Gays of Marriage Right Sep 19, 2008
Stage Raw: On the Blume Sep 19, 2008
Los Angeles Convention Center Before and After Sep 18, 2008
Last Night: Lucent Dossier Seduces the Absinthe Fairy, Turns Acrobatics into Erotics Sep 18, 2008
Queer Town: Brad Pitt Challenges Hollywood on Prop. 8 Fight Sep 17, 2008
Stage Raw: Speech & Debate Sep 17, 2008
LAPD Chief Bratton Wants 4 Officers 86'ed for May Day Screw Up Sep 17, 2008
Queer Town: Gay Marriage Supporters Behind in Fund Raising Sep 17, 2008
Election '08: White Privilege Sep 17, 2008
Grim Sleeper Serial Killer Website Makes its Debut Sep 17, 2008
"Valley Vote" and the "All About Me Mayor" Sep 16, 2008
Schwarzenegger may make history with a budget veto Sep 16, 2008
Election '08: Happy Days Are Here Again! Sep 15, 2008
Queer Town: Pro-Gay Marriage Fund Raiser at Ultra Suede Sep 15, 2008
Stage Raw: Underestimating Public Intelligence Sep 15, 2008
Fiestas Patrias are here! Ahoo-aaahh!!! Sep 15, 2008
Over the Weekend: Pee-wee's Big Adventure at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Paul Reubens Unveils Plans for Next Herman Film Sep 15, 2008
David Foster Wallace Friend John Seery Remembers the Late Writer Sep 14, 2008
Seth MacFarlane + YouTube: Master of Parody Launches Cavalcade Web Series Sep 13, 2008
Goddesses & Doormats: Anand Jon’s Rape Trial Begins Sep 12, 2008
Election '08: Palin By Comparison Sep 12, 2008
LAPD Asks for Public’s Help in Solving Grim Sleeper Murders Sep 12, 2008
Stage Raw: A New Era, or Just Another Robinsons? Sep 12, 2008
Fall-Time Yuk-Fest: Time Travel With Patton Oswalt and Comedy's Finest Sep 12, 2008
Sarah Palin Action Figures, Get 'Em While They're Out of Ammo! Sep 11, 2008
Villaraigosa's Pose for Madame Tussaud Sep 11, 2008
Election '08: Remembering Kissinger and the Original September 11th Sep 11, 2008
Texas greener than California? Sep 10, 2008
Stage Raw: In Defense of Sarah Palin Sep 10, 2008
Queer Town: LA Unified Opposes Prop. 8 Sep 10, 2008
City Council Will Consider Selling Rights for Electronic Billboards Sep 10, 2008
Ape Escape: Bikini-Clad Gorilla Girls Strike a Pose Sep 9, 2008
Los Angeles City Committee Will Consider Motion to Rewrite Billboard Ordinance Sep 9, 2008
Election '08: Who Change What? Sep 8, 2008
Stage Raw: The Sarah Palin Dictionary Sep 8, 2008
Strange & Ugly Times for Villaraigosa Sep 8, 2008
Rirkrit Tiravanija and his 'Palm Pavilion' Sep 5, 2008
Stage Raw: Zombie Joe's Underground Scores in New York Sep 5, 2008
North Hollywood High or McCain Mansion? Sep 5, 2008
LAPD Tip Line Busy After News of $500,000 Reward in Grim Sleeper Investigation Sep 5, 2008
Election '08: Governor Gidget -- Sorry, Sarah Palin -- Speaks . . . Once I Was Blind Sep 4, 2008
Election '08: Beyond The Palin Sep 4, 2008
Queer Town: The Obama Pool Report Sep 4, 2008
Election '08: Taking Down Amy Goodman and Donna Brazile Sep 3, 2008
Los Angeles City Hall offers $500,000 for Grim Sleeper Sep 3, 2008
Stage Raw: Last Call for "Wicked" Sep 3, 2008
LA Weekly Catches Grief Over Serial Killer Nickname Sep 2, 2008
Stage Raw: Better Late Than Never? Sep 1, 2008