Beauty and the bursting of L.A.: One...

Beauty and the bursting of L.A.: One publication that did not praise Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” was the Massachusetts Review, a literary journal that linked the movie to the L.A. riots.

“The more moviegoers identify with the (film’s) magic circle of admiring servants and waltzing lovers, the more limited their vision of society must be,” the Review article said. “After all, the jurors in the (first) trial of the police who beat Rodney King were ordinary citizens who could not face the graphic evidence of police viciousness and could not see the human face of the suffering and rage in South Los Angeles.”

The film, the article says, “invites viewers to associate the beast not with a spoiled elite (in the castle) but with an enraged and frustrated mob in the poorest streets of America.”

Hey, you don’t get stuff like this from Siskel and Ebert.

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You weren’t going to do any housework that day, anyway: A Brentwood seminar described as a “Basic Clutter Boot Camp” will be offered Saturday to those willing to come clean with $39 for the admission.

Topics will include “the root causes of clutter” and “specific clutter issues such as mail and time clutter.”

Tama Winograd, who noticed the program announcement, observes that speaker Lila Gruzen practices what she preaches. Gruzen warned those interested in attending that “space is limited.”

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A macabre type of clutter? Barry Maiten of West L.A. read it in the L.A. Conservancy’s newsletter--an event for which tickets are “available in advance, or at grave-site check-in, if space is available.”

Actually, the event is a historic tour Saturday at the landmark Rosedale Cemetery in the West Adams district, whose permanent residents include Cora Phillips, the madam-to-the-stars at the turn of the century. Price: a down-to-earth $6.

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Who says the Postal Service isn’t concerned about making money? The other day, the county Animal Control Department received a dog-license renewal check that had been written in March, 1989.

“To add insult to injury,” Director Frank Andrews said, “the 25-cent stamp on the letter was deemed insufficient postage. So the Post Office made us pay an additional four cents to receive a letter they lost for more than four years.”

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A lot of baloney: We can see why the enclosed ad, sent along by both John Lyons and Ron Stowe, was directed at “business persons.” What corporate sharpie could resist an offer for a sandwich priced at $3.40 more than it’s worth?

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This just in! And, now, the winning entry in the Library Joke Contest held by the Friends of the Sunland-Tujunga Branch Library:

“Did you hear about the librarian who tried to sell e e cummings at the Friends Book Sale? The venture failed. It was undercapitalized.”

Laughing’s not allowed in the library, by the way.

miscelLAny:

Taggers may soon be trashed on the Hollywood Freeway. Caltrans plans to test an experimental sound wall that appears to be graffiti-resistant. The wall will be made of recycled plastic bottles taken from landfills.