Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Brennan, a.k.a. “The Wicked Witch of Westword,” sure does like to fire people, (or “cut the fat” as she puts it) so we can probably expect more carnage on the alt-weekly horizon. Fingers crossed it doesn’t reach the LA Weekly.

Our hometown alt-weekly was last purchased in 2005 when New Times Media, run by Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, purchased Village Voice Media and adopted the company name. Lacey and Larkin will retain Backpage.com, the online classified ad site that was the most profitable — and controversial — part of Village Voice Media.

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With the advertisement below, sponsored by social service organization FAIR Girls, activists hope to increase public pressure on VVM to remove prostitution ads from Backpage.com. The ad, which will first air this Sunday on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, encourages viewers to visit the FAIR Girls website, where they can sign a petition urging VVM to shut down the adult services section on Backpage.com.

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To date, the aforementioned LA Weekly blog post remains fiercely critical of the paper’s coverage in ’92, despite the revelation that they missed an entire issue dedicated to the riots, one they confess to not having read. Why a newspaper would choose trashing its own legacy over re-writing a blog post is beyond us.

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Sometimes bloggers can cross the line.

And sometimes we need to be put in check, like Venice Beach resident Karen Wolfe plans on doing to Venice Stakeholders Association president and blogger Mark Ryavec.

Ryavec (who sounds like a bit of a nutjob) listed the names and home addresses of 10 politicians, journalists and activists — including Wolfe — on his website as places where the homeless could set up camp and sleep overnight because he considered them advocates in the ongoing battle between Venice residents and transients.

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This Fishie wandered into the flamewar a little late, and by then the catfight was in full swing. “You got butthurt,” Rebecca taunted Dennis, “Admit something for once in your life.” Dennis replied, “Glad to see I’m still in your thoughts. I, like the rest of the planet, had forgotten u exist.”

It was too juicy to ignore.  So we did a little digging and here, dear readers, is how journos bitch slap each other via the humble Tweet:

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As a minor, ‘Alissa’ was trafficked by pimps on Backpage.com. Alissa was her street name; she told Kristof she didn’t want to use her real name for fear Village Voice Media, the owner of Backpage.com, would retaliate. And VVM has in the past used the editorial pages of their newspapers, including the LA Weekly, to mock critics.

Kristof acknowledges that sex trafficking is a complicated issue, that many of the prostitution ads on Backpage.com are placed by adult women of their own volition, and that simply closing down the site won’t make sex slavery go away. And sex workers have come forward to argue that closing Backpage.com would make prostitution more dangerous, not less.

But to a victim like Alissa, providing any forum for trafficking is unacceptable. “For a Web site like Backpage to make $22 million off our backs, it’s like going back to slave times.” she told Kristoff.

(Photo: Ashley Gilbertson/VII / The New York Times)

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Even when reporting on the horrific crimes committed against the victim, the Village Voice promoted its own agenda via a strange disclaimer:

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“The chilly Wednesday evening before Angeli Caffe closed for good, you could grab a bar seat at Pizzeria Mozza without waiting, and there were only two or three dudes in line at Pink’s hot dog stand. If you were ambling down Melrose on your way to a bite or a drink, you could have had your choice of any table at any restaurant on the usually crowded strip.

But Angeli was really crowded, astonishingly crowded, with people there to wish the restaurant well — longtime customers, mostly, some of them with college-age kids who had been going to Angeli since infancy: patting out floury balls of pizza dough as toddlers, graduating to roast chicken as children, perhaps having their first dates there as teens, knowing the mashed-potato croquettes and the gnocchi with brown butter and sage would never let them down.

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LA Weekly staffer Patrick O’Connor is leaving his gig at the alternative weekly. O’Connor posted a farewell on his blog:

This week’s cartoon is my last print cartoon for the LA Weekly. I’ve been on staff since January of 2009 and it’s been an amazing experience. All the best to the Weekly and all the talented folks who put it together. We might continue to work together in another capacity….creating online creating animated shorts…but more about that later.

[H/T LA Observed]

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Simone Wilson of the LA Weekly provided an update of the messy scene at the Metropolitan Detention Center:

The situation at the Metropolitan Detention Center — where photojournalist Heder and gobs of other arrestees are being held — is, by all accounts, total chaos.

“They’re all scheduled to be out of here by Friday, within the 48 hours,” says watch commander Sergeant Angelo. “Thats our goal.” But he adds that “there were so many bodies, so many people” that he can’t guarantee anything.

Heder’s attorney, Joe Singleton, says there’s a “big wait” at the detention center, where he’s trying to help Heder. “The court is having problems tracking down the right paperwork from the City Attorney’s office. They’re just trying to figure out what’s going on. Nobody’s told me anything.”

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The question on Gold’s mind this go-round was “what is an essential Los Angeles restaurant?”:

I was thinking about that over lunch at Providence a couple of months ago, contemplating a dish of Santa Barbara sea urchin cosseted with gently scrambled egg, wondering whether the uni might go better with an Alsatian pinot blanc or a Central Coast viognier.

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We’re not clear why the LA Weekly said farewell to Mr. Harvey, but it’s likely related to last month’s firing of Senior Features Editor Tom Christie, who edited the Arts section. As for whether the LA Weekly will be cutting down on arts coverage, or if they simply expect Christie’s replacement to bring in all new people, it’s a wait-and-see.

Photo swiped from Doug Harvey’s personal blog.

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We recommend reading Turner’s gentle, mocking critique in its entirety, but have included highlights below:

LA Times: Changes to the area have reached a tipping point in the last two years as a new wave of upscale destinations opened their doors to the area’s ever-increasing population of artists, musicians and loafers.

Turner: “New wave”? “Hip party people”? What, “pepped-up hepsters looking for a happening that would freak them out” was taken? Did the Times hire Z-Man Bartell as a line editor when we weren’t looking? Also, “loafers”? “LOAFERS”?

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“I had a great run,” he tells FBLA, “but I’m very much looking forward to moving on.”

Christie says he has no idea how is departure will affect the LA Weekly‘s arts coverage–which he’d been in charge of for years. He says the newfound time will allow him to finish up a documentary he’s been working on about sculptor Richard Serra as well as a screenplay adaptation of AW Hill‘s novel “Nowhere-Land.”

Christie is one of the best editors in Los Angeles, who learned his craft under the great Harold Hayes. We wish him the best of luck out there.

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From Pelisek’s story in the Daily Beast:

The first body was found in a patch of weeds in L.A.’s industrial wastelands. The victim, a woman, was naked; her feet and wrists had been bound.

The second body was discovered in a vacant field near a school sixty miles east of the city. The woman, also naked, lay facedown, in a semi-fetal position.

The third body was found, partially clothed, in a dirt gulley of a desolate area miles away in the county of Riverside. She, like the others, had been strangled.

The murders were 20 years apart yet police believe they were committed by the same person—a serial killer still on the loose.

It should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway. Creepy.

Previously on FBLA: Christine Pelisek Leaves LA Weekly for the Daily Beast

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