We’ve been occupied, not exactly caught in the situation of the poor bastard on this pulp cover, but something akin to it as we struggled like a Pilgrim through a hard few weeks. But the lights are still on, we got a loaf of TJ’s bread in the kitchen, a cold 40 on the desk and we’re back in action.

An arrest in connection to the June 21 shooting outside The Echo nightclub that left three people injured portends the outbreak of a new gang war in the streets of LA.

“The suspect is Jose Luis Sanchez, 25, of Los Angeles. He is a suspected Mongols gang member, and the motive is believed to be his intent to shoot the Hell’s Angel at the club” Lt. Wes Buhrmester, LAPD Rampart Patrol Division wrote today on East LA blog The Eastsider.
 Despite the shooter’s intent, no Angel was hit. But three concert goers leaving the Echo were, and word of the arrest brought a sense of relief to at least one of the victims. “I hope they got the right guy. I’ve been shaky about going back to the Echo” shooting survivor Adam D’Zurilla tells Legman exclusively.

Self-evidently, the blood feud between the Mongols Motorcycle Club and the Hells Angels MC only skipped a beat since 2008 when the longest undercover operation in law enforcement history ended in mass arrests of Mongols. Over a thousand cops, feds and deputized ATF agents swarmed down on members of the gang, nabbed 60 members across five states but coming as it did amid the presidential election fury the story went largely unoticed.
  “Outlaw bikers are the most dangerous criminal  organization operating in the United States} is  how the Mongols are described in the 177 page federal indictment which

Grazed by Bullets, Survivor Tells of Shooting at The Echo
A night of ambient psychedelic rock at uber hip music mecca The Echo ended in bloody carnage last Sunday after a motorcycle riding gunman opened fire into the crowd outside the club in LA’s Echo Park. Two were shot and seriously injured while a third vic, music agent Adam D’Zurilla amazingly was just grazed by bullets. “I’m lucky to be alive” he tells Legman exclusively, left with only a scar on his temple after facing a pistol wielding gunman who callously fired ten rounds into a crowd exiting a show by The Warlocks, The Meek, and Green Eyes. D’Zurilla says the shooter, a middle aged Mexican man dressed in black from head to toe was no Hell’s Angel as was reported by some local news outlets.

From our collection of pulp fiction cover art

ACE Gallery was a spectacular white box whose monolithic walls and rays-from-heaven- like lighting lent import to any damn thing on the wall when it was in SoHo back in the day. And while the adjacent deli that sells tallboys remains on 6th Avenue, ACE has long moved to LA  where it became grander; occupying theme-park-scaled gallery space at two locations. We hit their Wilshire Avenue space the other night for the opening of opera designer Achim Freyer’s painting show


Now this is how to run an awards show.  Robert Scheer whose web magazine Truthdig.com won best political blog at the 14th Annual Webby Awards Monday night, wins the crowd too. The event was held, fittingly, on NYC’s Wall Street.