Buffalo Bill wouldn’t understand: The Calabasas Days...

Buffalo Bill wouldn’t understand: The Calabasas Days Pumpkin Festival is proud to announce what may be the first politically correct Wild West show next month. The Oct. 24-25 event is described as “a no-gun, no-shooting, thoroughly nonviolent” extravaganza. We think this could be the start of a trend, one that Hollywood is sure to notice.

Look for remakes of such film classics as “Group Therapy at the O.K. Corral,” “This Consultant for Hire” and “Annie Get Your Attorney.”

Hiding its past?It’s ironic that the affluent community of Calabasas would be promoting a no-shoot-’em-up, considering its exciting past. In the latter part of the 19th Century, Calabasas was a frontier settlement marked by lawlessness. Westways magazine called it “a place where an unwary stranger might be met with a gun aimed at his forehead by a Calabasan deciding whether he liked his looks well enough to let him live.”

In fact, the magazine added, a common insult of that era was:

“He’s from Calabasas.”

Fast-forward to exciting L.A.: Murals at government installations often present an idealized picture of things. But not so the work by Carlos Almaraz and Elsa Flores in the atrium of the Ronald Reagan State Building downtown. Their colorful mural (a portion of which is pictured) incorporates such L.A. features as the HOLLYWOOD sign, the Hollywood Bowl and City Hall, along with the city’s newest symbol: the omnipresent police helicopter.

The family values thing: When the L.A. County Domestic Violence Council held a forum the other day, representatives of both presidential candidates were invited. The Democrats attended but the Republicans declined. A spokesman for Bush/Quayle explained that “the focus of your forum is not at a federal level. While the President is concerned about the issues of domestic and family violence, these are matters which are best addressed by state and local authorities.”

One could get the impression that “family violence” is considered a local issue by the Bush/Quayle folks while “family values” is a federal issue worthy of much speechifying at the party’s national convention.

Must be a case of writer’s elbow: Arthur Purcell says he was seated at a sidewalk cafe in Westwood when a parking enforcement officer pulled up “to a car at an expired meter. She got out and asked if the car belonged to anyone seated. When one of the patrons called out it was his car, she politely reminded him that his meter had expired and that he should put in another quarter!” Let’s hope her supervisor doesn’t find out.

miscelLAny:

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