Local Musicians Inspire Sour Note

Ever-vigilant Phil Proctor noted this “very L.A.” disclaimer in the “Rock & Pop” listings of the L.A. Weekly:

“Due to the erratic lives of L.A. musicians and the capricious personalities of booking agents, all of the following bookings are subject to change for no apparent reason.”

TALK ABOUT A STRONG MARTINI. . . . In Pages magazine, mystery novelist Steve Martini (“The Attorney”) recalled that he once worked downtown at the L.A. Daily Journal near “a place called the Red Dog Saloon.”

Martini said the Red Dog “was a hangout for politicians and columnists,” adding redundantly:

“It was quite a seedy little place.”

One wonders if Martini might have been sensitive about the inevitable jokes that his name would have inspired among the witty denizens of the bar.

In any event, the Red Dog--formally known as the Redwood Second Street Saloon--is now in its 58th year of business (and its second location).

Its greatest claim to fame was its role as the model for the bar in the 1970s TV show, “Lou Grant.”

Just as with Grant’s L.A. Tribune, The Times has a telephone extension at the Redwood in case editors need to round up hookey-playing reporters.

OK, they got me once or twice.

GET ME REWRITE! Far be it for me to edit a best-selling novelist, but I think that “seedy” was a bit too harsh of a description by Martini.

For instance, I’ve heard of only one occasion in which a man rode a horse into the saloon.

It happened in the 1950s and the jockey was Times “Cityside” columnist Gene Sherman.

He ordered a beer for himself. The bartender missed out on the chance of a lifetime by not asking the horse:

“Hey, why the long face?”

Come to think of it, I never got any laughs with that joke in the Red Dog.

DINING GUIDE FOR THE ADVENTUROUS: Hi, I’m Steve and I’ll be your waiter today (unless my agent calls and says my screenplay has been purchased).

Anyway, may I start you off with some really hot fried bean curd (submitted by Karen Streisand of San Pedro)?

Or, you might try some food that is “severed” in an elegant setting.

George Marques of Orange spotted that delicacy.

To drink, Raul Avila of Norwalk, Tom Bevill of Bellflower and J.F. Kravos of Upland found some beer evidently made with a new brewing process.

Finally, if you’d rather serve yourself, in our annex we have a fine selection of “health foods,” which Sherry Barber of Whittier happened upon (see accompanying photo).

L.A., THE PACE-SETTER: John Daley of Santa Maria passed along a clipping from that city’s Times newspaper about a debate over whether to move the city’s only strip club, the Spearmint Rhino, from downtown to the airport industrial area.

Several residents in that Central California city decried that proposal, the paper said, citing “the impression an exotic bar would make on travelers arriving at the airport, like in Los Angeles.” (Seedy Los Angeles.)

The idea was rejected by the City Council.

One ordinance that was approved, however, requires that tips be placed only in a “nonhuman gratuity receptacle.”

miscelLAny:

You know how Florida likes to copy California, with its own versions of Disneyland, Universal Studios, etc.?

Now it’s gone too far.

Dale Franz of Woodland Hills points out that the telephone number for Florida Keys tourist information is (800) FLA-KEYS.

Hey, California is the world capital of flakeys, not Florida!

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES Ext. 77083 (if he’s not at the Redwood), by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.