LA. Observed

Writing what you know: crime reporter Michael Krikorian

By Kevin Roderick | November 20, 2013 11:58 PM

When we last heard about journalist Michael Krikorian, he had written a colorful and revealing op-ed piece about the night he shot some guy in a brawl near Compton. [Technically, the last mention at LA Observed was when Krikorian blogged about his annual trip to Italy with girlfriend Nancy Silverton, the Pizzeria Mozza chef. But that was just a Morning Buzz brief.] That night outside a bar near Compton, Krikorian pulled an AK-47 from his car trunk and fired off 17 rounds. Not your average LA Times crime reporter.

Now he's out with his first crime novel, Southside, in which a main character is an LA Times gang reporter in South LA. Writing about what you know and all that.

Los Angeles Times gang reporter Michael Lyons has just left his favorite downtown saloon when he is shot and wounded on the sidewalk two blocks from City Hall. After the initial shock, fellow reporters put together a betting pool. The bet? "Who Shot Mike?" There are a lot of contenders. When the LAPD's investigation stalls, the Times runs editorials critical of the police. Then, when detectives uncover an audio tape of Lyons talking to a gang member about the benefits of getting shot, they release the tape. The embarrassed newspaper editor fires Lyons, who then sets out on the streets of Southside Los Angeles with a vengeance to find the shooter. When three seemingly unrelated people are murdered on the streets of L.A., Lyons connects them to his own shooting. The tie-in? An imprisoned, notorious gang shot-caller known as Big Evil, who Lyons made famous in a gang profile and whose younger brother is among the victims. But who is doing the killing?

Bestselling author Michael Connelly, himself an ex-Times crime reporter who sets his crime novels on the streets of Los Angeles, says of "Southside:" “In a place as well traveled by storytellers as Los Angeles, Michael Krikorian blazes a unique path with this powerful first novel.Southside has muscle, insight and all the right stuff."

Pizzeria Mozza's Hot Chocolate Under Investigation

After receiving a formal complaint from the American Hot Chocolate Society, a federal investigation has been launched into the "hot chocolate" served at Pizzeria Mozza to determine if the fabled dessert is what it claims to be, or actually a chocolate sauce.

If the inquiry finds the dessert, which bills itself as "Cioccolato Calda", is, in fact,  a sauce, it could be stripped of its many awards, including Best Hot Chocolate in the World, as well as America's Most Titillating Hot Chocolate.  

"It's not fair to other hot chocolates to be compared to Mozza's, not only because it's so much better, but because it's not even the same thing," said Wilhelm Von Smithers of the Hot Chocolate Institute based in Vienna, Austria. 

The hot chocolate served at Pizzeria Mozza. is a turbocharged version of what chef Nancy Silverton learned to make more than 30 years ago in Paris at Angelina on the Rue Rivoli. Silverton, gracious in crediting the originals, said she's added spices and a marshmallow topping to the Angelina version. 

Some Pizzeria Mozza loyalists felt the federal probe was just another waste of taxpayer's money. It was unclear at press time wither the Trump Administration would continue to fund the investigation after they begin to rot in hell.

"Who cares what it is?" said Sarah Culberon, a princess from the Southside of Sierra Leone. "The main and only thing is that it is absolutely delicious."

Princess of Sierra Leone savors Hot Chocolate

The Subject of a federal probe

Camel Defies San Diego Zoo Ban, Reads "Southside"

Openly defying an official order that banned the crime novel "Southside" from the San Diego Zoo, Mongo the Camel read the crime thriller at the tourist attraction Wednesday while thousands of visitors tried in vain to get his attention. 

Zoo officials, who had banned the critically acclaimed novel Monday in an effort to keep humans from reading  it - and therefore ignoring the animals -  were dumbfounded by Mongo's blatant ignoring of zoo rules as well as his apparent fascination with the Michael Krikorian book, 

Sources within the zoo quoted Mongo, a Bactrian or "Two Hump" camel from the Gobi Desert in the  Southside of Mongolia, as saying "Southside was the best book I've read since "Life of Pi'". 

Christi Carreno, a zoo events organizer, said that while the ban is still officially in effect,  zoo officials would meet in an emergency session today to consider all possibilities. "We want what's best for the animals and if they want to read Southside, then maybe the ban will be lifted for them. But, not for humans."

A Cape Buffalo, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said "We're gonna read Southside. That's not the question. The question is are we going to read legally or illegally. Me, I don't give a damn. I'm just waiting on my copy from Amazon. You feel me?"

Mongo reads the Krikorian thriller

San Diego Zoo Officials Ban "Southside"

"I didn't come all the way from Sumatra to be ignored for Southside" - Anthony the Tiger. ..

...Claiming the new crime novel by Michael Krikorian was inciting "gross animal ignoring", San Diego Zoo officials took extraordinary measures Tuesday and banned the crime writer's critical acclaimed "Southside" from the beloved tourist attraction.

"Too many people were reading the book and just walking right by the rhinos, hippos, tigers and others beasts and that's not fair to the animals," said Zoo official Christi Carreno. "Southside will no longer be allowed in the zoo. And, no, this is not a form of censorship It's simply pro-animal feelings."

Hailed as the best novel ever about a crime reporter covering street gangs, "Southside" chronicles the exploits of fictional journalist Michael Lyons as he explores Los Angeles' roughest neighborhoods. The book began showing up at the world famous San Diego Zoo last week and immediately caused problems.

"I took a bath, shampooed my coat, even used that Paul Mitchell conditioner one of the zebras gave me, but so many visitors walked right by with their snout in that damn Southside book," said Fatbiscuit, a hippopotamus from the Eastside of Uganda.

But, it was an Indian rhinoceros who lead the movement to ban Krikorian's novel by starting a hunger strike this past weekend. The rhino, Calcutta Slim, said he would refrain from any tandoori-based snacks until the book was banned. Other animals quickly joined the hunger strike, including the lions who said they would not eat humans until Southside is banished.

Monday their demands were met.

(Humans will be rerouted around the lion's den for at least one week.)

Zoo visitor ignores Calcutta Slim

Pastry Chef Narvaez Gave Russians Budino Secrets

Renowned American pastry chef Dahlia Navaez was arrested Monday in San Diego after FBI agents discovered she had supplied the Russians with top secret Mozza recipes including  the classified caramel-to-butterscotch ratio on the restaurant's trademark budino.

Navarez is being held without bail at the brig of the USS Midway aircraft carrier which is docked less than half a mile from Pizzeria Mozza San Diego which is set to open today in Seaport Village.

"National security does not just involve guns and bombs, it entails butter and salt also, " said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.  "When a country has an advantage over an enemy, do not supply that enemy with  that advantage. But, that's what Narvaez has done. Allegedly."
Under the rules of the Geneva Convention's .Code of Prisoner Treatment, Narvaez was allowed to have one book. Without hesitation, Narvaez demanded - and received - the highly praised crime novel "Southside" by MIchael Krikorian .

Dahlia in the brig at the USS Midway

One of the Most Entertaining Thrillers of 2013 - S.F. Book Review

San Francisco Book Review,  Nov. 11, 2013

"Southside" 

--- Michael Krikorian is a professional writer, a journalist, showing the world he can turn his hand to fiction and, in Southside, produce one of the most entertaining thrillers so far this year. In this first novel, he’s playing safe by setting the book in LA, with his hero working for the Los Angeles Times. Not that the book is in any way autobiographical, of course. But the character of the hero draws on people the writer has known over the years. The result is both immensely thrilling and wonderfully informative. Indeed, a part of the fun of reading this book is the opportunity to learn more about the cultures in both the newsroom and on the streets where the gangs rule.

So here we go with the first in a series featuring Mike Lyons, a reporter on the gang beat in the Southside of LA with a shady past of his own and a habit of drinking while on the job. When someone shoots him in the gut, he’s not surprised, just a little puzzled at the timing. So then it’s a race to find out who took the shot before he comes back for another attempt.

- Reviewed by David Marshall 

Here's the link to the review

http://citybookreview.com/southside/

Manual Arts student, 14, killed in Vermont Square

 "You never know, i mean, you know what you've got, but you never really, really know 'til it's over and it's all gone."  - Carresha Skiffer on the killing of her 14-year-old son Elawnzae. 

Saturday night, Nov 9, after working out, Elawnzae Peebles was walking toward 47th Street and Kansas Avenue in Vermont Square. He was roughly 200 feet from his cousin's house where he had been living for the last two months. You know what's coming.

One, maybe two cars rolled up on Kansas Avenue. Gunshots. Elawnzae, a Manual Arts HIgh School student, was struck. He managed to run around the corner to 46th Street. But, there, a shooter finished off the boy, according to the street. Elawnzae was not a gang member,  according to everybody, including the police.

Monday, at the first shooting scene, there was a hasty memorial  - a photo of a smiling boy surrounded by murder candles -  the grim urban prop known on almost every corner of the Southside of Los Angeles.  Elawnzae's grandmother, who had raised him,  arrived as local television news stations were filming that familiar, awful tribute.  

"Is this where it happened?" grandma Brenda Chatma asked in a weary voice. She bowed her head and decried the violence. She had raised the boy when his mother was unable to. 

Standing solemnly on Kansas Avenue,  his cousin, Josiah, 15, and his friends, Wisdom Muhammad, 17,  and Elijah Phillips, 15, told how Elawnzae kept to himself, never bothered anyone, liked to crack jokes and loved to eat.   

 "He was little, but, man, could he eat," said Elijah.  "We just went to Denny's the other day. He got the unlimited pancakes and a smoothie."

"Mango," said his dejected couisn Joisah.

 "He almost ate all the pancakes there," said Wisdom with a sad laugh.

A minute later, a member of the local gang, the Rollin 40s Crips, walked up and tried to console Elawnzae's mother and aunt.

"He was a good kid," said the 25-year-old gang member who asked that his name not be used.  "Hell, no, he wasn't in the 40s or any gang. I used to tell him to stay in school. It ain't the world, it's the people in it, You feel me?"

Elawnzae had been living in Lancaster with his aunt Falesha - who gave him his unique name -  but moved to Los Angeles in September to be closer to his mother Carresha.

"I talked to him on the phone after he worked out Saturday night," said Carresha.  "The  last thing I said to him was "You get home safe."

Elawnzae doing what he loved to do.

Marlo Stanfield Is Now Det. Harry Bosch's Partner

Facing life in prison for conspiracy to operate a drug organization and orchestrating dozens of murders, Marlo Stanfield has agreed to enter the Actor's Protection Program, where he will pretend to be the detective partner of MIchael Connelly's iconic LAPD  homicide investigator Harry Bosch for an upcoming Amazon series.    

Using the alias Jamie Hector, the once-murderous thug who took on the Avon Barksdale gang in West Baltimore while trying to repulse a rampage by Omar Little, was on the set of "Bosch" as they shot Wednesday on the roof of LAPD's  Hollywood Station,  Take after take, Hector appeared from a darkened stairwell to met Bosch, played by Titus Welliver, who was smoking a cigarette and contemplating his latest difficulties with the LAPD brass. 

"Man, this is acting is harder than simply telling Chris and Snoop to go kill someone," said Marlo, oops, I mean Jamie,  who, nevertheless seemed to be coasting into the role of Bosch's partner, Det. Jerry Edgar.

"He's doing great," said real life Det. Tim Marcia of LAPD's Robbery Homicide Division.  Marcia regaled Stanfield, oops I mean Hector, with colorful stories of being on patrol in LAPD's dangerous Southeast Division.

"I wish he was my boot," said Marcia, referring to the term for a police officer straight out of the academy.

The show is expected to premiere on Amazon's Prime Instant Video in early Spring, 2014.

Classic combination  Detective Tim Marcia actor Jamie Hector and writer Michael Connelly on the set of "Bosch"

Ten Memorable Quotes From Outlaws I've Interviewed

1. "What's wrong with society today is there are no more fist fights". --Sonny Barger, leader of the Oakland Hells Angels 5/2/1996  L.A. Times

2. "Then I was going to stick the knife in his forehead, and I was hoping his mother was coming to visit him that day. That's how vicious I was, I knew I was going to death row."- Donald "Big D" Garcia, Mexican Mafia hitter-turned gang interventionist on his about his plan to kill a Hoover in County back in the 70s. 6/9/2003 L.A. Times

3."We should be on the list, We the most hated gang in town" - Set Trip from 5-deuce Hoover on a list complied by the  Mayor of L.A. and the chief of the LAPD of the 11 "worst" gangs in the city. 

 

4.  "I guess it's the establishment that I spent three years fighting for. You take off the khakis and the blue and put on some jeans and a leather jacket and immediately you become an asshole."  - "Wino" Willie Forkner, the outlaw biker who inspired the Marlon Brando movie "The Wild One" on what he was "rebelling against". When asked that in the 1954 film, Johnnie, the Brando character, replies famously "Whaddaya got?" 5/2/1996 L.A. Times.

5. "All the guys getting busted, they don’t realize what a life sentence is. When the pop goes off, when their head pops out of their ass and they realize they ain’t going home after just five years. When they realize they’ll never be able to taste a Big Mac or a Quarter Pounder again. To see them go crazy when they hear their moms is dying and they’re locked up and can’t go see her. When they hear their woman is pregnant by their best homeboy. When they realize they’ll never see a night sky again." - Ronald "Kartoon" Antwine, storied former menace to society Bounty Hunter who  is now a Hollywood location scout.  From LA Weekly cover story "War and Peace In Watts". 7/14/2005 LA Weekly 

6. "Armenian people who put AP down, that say we are a disgrace, they don't know this life, This gangster's life." - Armen "Silent" Petrossyan, fallen leader of Armenain Power. 8/18/1997 L.A. Times

7. "Two girls are dead. If I'm not a monster than what am I? - Rex Krebs in a jailhouse interview admitting he killed two college students in San Luis Obispo. Krebs is on Death Row for the killings 4/27/1999 Fresno Bee

8. "Man, we've all lost homies, I know you're upset and hurt about your dead homies, but we have to move forward," -- Kevin "Big Cat" Doucette, feared  Rollin '60s shot caller urging younger gang members in his gruff way to focus on the living, not the dead. 4/5/1998 L.A. Times

9. "Who?" - Convicted cop killer Carlos "Stoney" Velasquez on being asked "Did you know Abel?" referring to Abel Escalante, the Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff he was convicted of killing. "Oh, yeah. Man, I don't even know his first name." 10/21/2010 LA Weekly

10. "Getting the death penalty saved my life." - Big Evil.  11/29/1998   Nearly 15 years later, late in the summer of 2013 I reminded Big Evil of that quote. He nodded and said "It did."