2002-09-16 | 6:29 p.m.

corduroy licorice's music would often bring down the house. his garage band had that effect on his parents' property value.

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the l.a. weekly, los angeles' biggest free weekly, isn't just good for movie reviews and band listings...

it's also good for a smirk:

from an article on rave-related legislation:

"some 600 ravers gathered on the lawn outside the federal building in westwood last friday to protest proposed federal legislation that could force raves underground."

forcing raves underground? wasn't that the original appeal?

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and good for great political commentary:

like in this intelligent article about dubya and iraq by harold meyerson.

"ranking all the dangerous ideas and idiotic policies, foreign and domestic, that the bush administration has churned out in its 20 months in office is an arduous task, but pre-emptive war is plainly the biggest doozy of them all. the united nations charter�drafted, chiefly by the united states, in 1945�prohibits such wars, and understandably so. both world wars began with pre-emptive german attacks on neighboring states, and the vision of a world in which states could attack rival states for fear of what their rivals might someday do was abhorrent to the charter's authors."

"and it is on this thin reed�the unique undeterrability of iraq�that we are prepared to jettison the doctrine of deterrence (really, of international law itself) for one of pre-emption. as if this shift had no other consequence. as if india could not invoke pre-emption for an attack by its superior nuclear force on pakistan's inferior one. as if china could not invoke pre-emption for an attack upon taiwan. once pre-emptive war is the standard, any nation's apprehensions of its rival can be grounds for war."

maybe dubya's watched minority report too many times.

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and good for a laugh:

one of my favorite sections of the l.a. weekly is the "chance meetings" section of the personal ads. it's where people place ads to find people that they met by chance (without getting contact info) and want to find again.

it entertains me that people think there's a chance their lust object might be reading that section. even if the sought-after soul did find the ad, wouldn't they possibly be creeped out that someone was sorta stalking them?

the best ad i've ever read in that column must have been placed by the editors as a joke. it read like this:

"55 freeway. you were driving a red mercury tracer. i was in a white, beaten up, windowless van. you kept looking in your rear view mirror as i followed you home. i sensed you were interested. please call box #9505."

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oh, and by the way, someone's kicking david sedaris' ass and i think it's pablo.

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