Whitey Littlefield–Long Beach beer baron philanthropist, who rose from delivering brew to owning a Budweiser distributorship with Frank Sinatra–is dead at 75.
We’ll tell you more about Mr. Littlefield in coming days–but it’s already becoming clear that, in the words of his close friend, restaurateur John Morris, “The guy’s had a life.”

The estate of Bob Cole donates $16.4 million to Cal State Long Beach’s music department. Cole, who made his money in real estate, was an amateur piano player and his money will be used to provide scholarships to student musicians. Also, the music department gets gold toilets and premium toilet paper (known in Europe as [...]

(Because the lady gets the chair!)
Machinal is the story of a murderess.
It is not a sexy, song-and-dance-filled story of a murderess. Renee Zellweger will not appear to surprise us with good acting and a terrific little cha cha cha. (Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Roxie Hart!) Nor is our murderess a vamp, a la Hedda Gabler, [...]

Last night’s Long Beach City Council meeting probably had more reporters per square inch than any council meeting since the Queen Mary came to town in ‘67 (but feel free to substitute your own significant local event here).
As near as I can tell, Cal State Long Beach’s Daily 49er was actually the first paper to [...]

Fifteen months after the ouster of Hal Nelson, its director of 17 years, the Long Beach Museum of Art finally has a new executive director.

Tues | Feb 19 Found out today there is an apartment building in Alamitos Beach that is home to 12 sex offenders. That’s right, 12 sex offenders all living under the same roof—which, coincidentally, was the original concept for Two and a Half Men. We didn’t find out about this until KFI’s John and Ken [...]

Ludacris, Leader of H.U.M.A.N.Z.

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY
The huge Ludacris news now is that the Atlanta rapper is gong to open a high-end Singaporean diner—there’s a new album scheduled for this year, too, but the restaurant is probably going to be ready for your American dollars first. Plus two Luda movies, one regular (Guy Ritchie crime [...]

Finally, an exhibit for your inner meddler

Little could be more innocuous and fun than John Underkoffler’s “Tamper: Gestural Interface for Cinematic Design” at the University Art Museum. Wear the special “gesture recognition” (motion-sensing) gloves and pluck images from great old movies—Night of the Hunter, Once Upon a Time in the West—finger-gun them onto a screen, [...]

UAM in the Thunder Dome

LOTHAR SCHMITZ: SURVIVAL STRATEGIES
Every rocket scientist, microbiologist, and physicist I have known (and they are legion; I keep excellent company) has led a double life as a poet, a danseur, a nerdy rock superstar. This always surprises people somehow; they have been led by sterile plastic and white lab coats (and [...]

Vector Control 2007
As author of ‘Vector Control,’ the question I hear most often is, “Will you ever get back with Liza?” That seems an odd sort of question and is probably the reason I don’t get you people. Apparently, you don’t always get me or “Vector,” because the other question I hear a lot [...]