Clothing compliments of Screaming Rags. Photo by Cindy Beal.

By Teresa Willis

Retro. Been hearing that work a lot lately. It’s the new craze. Everyone is dressing the way everyone used to. Articles of clothing that looked dated or just plain stupid a mere six months ago are now the cutting edge of cool… again. When you talk to people in the 30-plus age range about this retro thing, the overwhelming and amazingly common response is, “I just finally threw all that stuff out about a year ago.” Those in younger circles, who are embracing this phase with the enthusiasm of Hunter S. Thompson on acid, vaguely acknowledge that their parents used to dress this way, but they don’t want to talk about the “retro” aspect of retro. They are the new hippies (a word, they assume, that is some derivative of “yuppie”). Don’t tell them it’s a borrowed identity. They like to think they made it up. Continue reading →

Toni Bull Bua and Gene Bua

By Linda L. Simeone

Where is a more appropriate place to conduct an interview with Gene and Toni Bua than at Cindy’s Corner, a homespun, old-fashioned coffee shop on Magnolia Boulevard across from Gene Bua’s Acting For Life Theatre in Burbank? Complete with cozy red leather booths and a running off-white formica and chrome counter with red-topped stools, Cindy’s Corner is a unique coffee shop where you can easily order a vegetarian egg roll alongside your corned beef hash and scrambled eggs, or get a double cheeseburger with a side of chop suey.

Across From Cindy’s Corner is an inspirational one-man-show chronicling Gene Bua’s legacy and dedication to his career and craft as a performer. Directed and produced by Toni Bull Bua, Gene’s wife, it also addresses his first love — singing. Continue reading →

Jillian Segal

By Eileen Winters

On Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood stands a pink building that has been a landmark for 28 years, “Al’s Furniture” Al Siegel is the owner. Jillian Segal (different spelling), his wife, is the stunning blonde actress who can be seen on the cable commercials for Al’s Furniture.

From their pink landmark has sprung another landmarks the “Women’s Care Cottage.” Al and Jillian have created a haven for homeless women and their children. Continue reading →

Mark “Happenin’ Harry” Harrison

Insomnia. Cobalt. Eagles. Eclectic. Joe. Emersons. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Due to the recent salvo of Valley coffee houseries and the unwritten Cartesian motto du jour: “I take cappuccino, therefore I am,” one might balk at the idea of reading yet another story, like this one, about another caffeine establishment. However, do not abandon hope ye who plod on, for The Boom Boom Room, located at Colfax and Riverside (yes, in North Hollywood), is a latenight faux bohemian living room with a twist. Open about three months and serving up the mandatory lattes, iced mochas, cheesecakes, and muffins, The Boom Boom Room is a warm and airy storefront painted lime green with white lattice borders, and appointed with overstuffed chairs and sofas and large coffee tables spread with gossipy magazines. The crowd on most evenings looks like a slice of North Hollywood life: 12-step meeting goers getting a legal buzz, intimate couples getting more intimate, serious, bespectacled types with big, esoteric books, and barefooted neighborhood regulars bantering with friendly owner Richard Gloria. However, come Friday night, the mood, clientele and even the establishment’s title change dramatically as The Boom Boom Room becomes “Happenin’ Harry’s Love Shack,” a night club sans booze. Continue reading →

By Jim Berg

On June 18th, I received an invitation from the planners of the NoHo Arts Festival to allow young people connected with the Street Artist’s Workshop to Paint on the plywood wall facing Lankershim Blvd. at the Academy. Given no advance notice (less than an hour) I was able to assemble about 15 people for this project. I simply made two phone calls which mobilized this underground culture. The interesting thing about it is that I called a Chicano youth (Eberardo featured in the June issue) in Sun Valley and a White youth in Granada Hills. They in turn contacted their friends in North Hollywood, and we all met at Eagles Coffee Pub. Continue reading →

By Jim Berg

I need a job. Since January, when the first issue came out, I have been able to eke out a starving artist’s living from the magazine. Don’t ask me how. All I know is that I haven’t been evicted (yet) and I have been able to feed myself. But I haven’t been able to pay for parking tickets and the registration on my car (’71 VW camper van), which brings me to my current crisis. Continue reading →

By Frank McDonough

It was a typical phase shift 90s evening. The Rodney King federal trial verdicts had come in that morning and, like London or Hanoi between bombing raids, nothing but the purest. uncertainty hung over Los Angeles. It was under these circumstances that I went to see The Instant Show at 9:00 pm at the Wildside Theater in NoHo.

I brought a friend. Murrey, an aerospace engineer who after being out of work for almost a year had just rejoined the ranks of the employed. As the lights dimmed at the start of the show we realized something—that because of the riot paranoia Murrey and I were the only ones attending the show that night. Still, the show went on. Continue reading →

By Jim Berg

I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one caw run aver on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter, we never need read of another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications? To a philosopher, all news, as it is called, is gossip…

Henry David Thoreau wrote this almost 150 years ago. Imagine if he were alive today to see the Five O’clock News. As an acknowledged news junky, his words give me pause. That a man sitting alone in the sticks of New England so long ago could speak so directly to me, a man sitting in front of a 33 megahertz 486PC in Los Angeles. Continue reading →

By Jim Berg

What is wrong with theatre in L.A.?

Why isn’t it the thriving, exciting art form it is in other major cities?

I’m not the only one asking these questions.

A waitress at the Eclectic Cafe who had just graduated from college in San Diego and had just moved to L.A. went out with a friend to see a play. The play was bad. It was very bad. She asked me why, in the shadow of Hollywood, where talent is drawn from all over the world, where there’s a screenplay under every pillow, an actor waiting every table, a director driving every cab, how can you possibly put on a bad play with so much to draw from? Continue reading →

By Frank McDonough

‘Theater… is a cure, a nurturer against what’s wrong in society…” says David Cox, co-founder and artistic director of the American Renegade Theater, “…I think people are starting to recognize that.” He also thinks that plays with strong and topical messages can help bring an ailing community like Los Angeles together. This strong belief that community and theater are inexorably linked runs contrary to the popular notion of artists as lone islands of creativity in a sea of ignorance and indifference. It has been his strong belief in community theater mutualism that has lead him to organize the Valley Theatre League, and to become one of the major motivators for the creation of the NoHo Arts District here in North Hollywood. Continue reading →