If you suspect that voters don’t seem...

If you suspect that voters don’t seem to count for much anymore, your pessimism will be confirmed by a sign outside the city clerk’s office in Norwalk. It says:

“Dog License and Voter Registration Have Moved Across the Courtyard.”

The Los Angeles Business Journal reports that Capitol Records is considering moving out of its 38-year-old home in Hollywood if it can find a good property in a more scenic area.

Which raises an interesting question. If Capitol builds new headquarters elsewhere, would it reprise the company’s distinctive cylindrical design, a stack of 45 r.p.m. records topped by a stylus? Or would the company go with an updated look--a building in the shape of a stack of CDs? (Cassettes are passe, right?)

And, as for Capitol’s current home: Who would buy an old oldies building?

Francie Murphy of Malibu was shopping for movies at a videotape rental outlet in Santa Monica when she heard another customer mulling over the selections with her children. The only unusual thing about the conversation was that the children weren’t there. The customer was speaking with them on a portable phone.

Is visiting grave sites a recreational activity?

That was the question raised in a lawsuit filed against Hollywood Memorial Park--the “Cemetery to the Stars”--by a late-night trespasser who suffered an injury there.

The fence-climbing trespasser, who claimed that he was putting together “a picture book of various gravestones throughout the area,” sat inside a monument and placed his hands around an urn, “when suddenly, the urn fell on plaintiff’s head.”

He sued, contending that the cemetery was negligent in its management of the property.

The 93-year-old tourist haunt, which is open to the public, contended that it was protected by a section of the Civil Code that “immunizes landowners from liability when recreational users are injured on their property.”

A Superior Court judge agreed, dismissing the suit.

But the state Court of Appeal reinstituted the suit the other day, pointing out that activities with a “recreational purpose” include “fishing, hunting, camping, water sports, hiking, spelunking (cave-exploring). . . .” But not grave-visiting.

Greg Huntington of North Hollywood wonders if anyone else who happened to be driving on the Simi Valley Freeway last Friday night saw a nude man dancing to ‘70s music with a nude woman in the back of a pickup truck.

Just asking.

miscelLAny:

The Big Yellow House in Cerritos isn’t painted in the restaurant chain’s customary bright shade. The city wouldn’t allow it. So Cerritos’ Big Yellow House is beige.