L.A. Man: Profiles from a Big City and a Small World
The O. Henry Prize Stories 2016
We Dropped a Bomb on You: The Best of Slake I-IVFuture Man
Originally printed in Surfer’s Journal TAKE LAS VIRGENES ROAD FROM THE 101 FREEWAY and drive into the heart of Malibu Canyon past hoary Mulholland and keep going to Piuma Road. Then, take a left and climb through the rolling hills up toward the mountain peaks and find Las Flores Canyon Road, the downward glide of […]
The Pirate of Penance
Originally published in Slake: Los Angeles, issue #1 “Still Life”, summer 2010. Featured in We Dropped A Bomb on You: The Best of Slake I-IV, spring 2014 Mystic Beginnings When Lorey Smith was 12 years old, her father loaded her and her brother into his black 1965 Mustang and drove them down the Pacific Coast […]
What’s Wrong With Wes Anderson?
Originally published in the LA Weekly IF WE WERE BACK IN Wes Anderson’s native Texas, the plate of food he’s showing little mercy might be called the Morning Roundup or the Wildcatter’s Special. Unfortunately for my wallet, we’re in a booth at Kate Mantilini on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills and here it’s called Barry’s Breakfast and costs […]
The Heart of Darkness — Jerry Stahl
I’M DEEP INTO A HARROWING Diane Sawyer special about hillbillies in Kentucky (a cautionary tale about the pre- and post-natal effects of Mountain Dew if ever there was one) on a cold and stormy night in early March, when something slams into my front door, causing me to jump off the couch. Opening the door, I […]
Paul Westberg, All Shook Down
This article was originally published by the LA Weekly, February 24, 1999. Before you head out the door to meet Paul Westerberg for dinner, you might want to skip reading the liner notes to All for Nothing/Nothing for All, the 1997 Replacements compilation of near misses and never-meant-to-be’s. Otherwise you could end up sitting at […]
Sean Penn, With His Own Two Eyes
Originally published in the LA Weekly Let fury have the hour, anger can be power D’you know that you can use it? —The Clash, “Clampdown” THE DRIVE FROM OAKLAND to Mill Valley sends you across the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge, worth the $4 toll for its breathtaking views of Mount Tamalpais, the sentinel of Marin County, and the […]
Christian Bale and the Art of Extreme Acting
Originally published July 3, 2007 in the LA Weekly Christian Bale is an actor who may be as well known for what he does to his body as he is for his body of work. He’s done extreme things to that body in the name of art. Turning it as hard and sharp as an ice […]
Davey Latter
DAVEY LATTER ISN’T MOVING TO SILVER LAKE, not yet anyway. But he thinks about it all the time. “I love Silver Lake. I love those mountains and I love those little houses with the yards. I would love to live there,” he tells me over breakfast after we surf his favorite South Bay break, just […]
Who’s That Girl? Lauren Weedman’s Search for Home
Originally published in the LA Weekly, 2007 “DID YOU EAT MY NAPKIN?” asks Lauren Weedman when I return from dousing myself with cold water in the bathroom. No, but it’s a fair question seeing as how I have eaten all of our bread, plus the calamari-in-marinara-sauce appetizer, my chicken ravioli, some of the better bits […]
