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The April issue of Los Angeles with Shaq on the cover (not yet online) has an on-balance unfavorable review by Tom Carson of Peter Biskind's Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film. Carson talks about the book's "basic fraudulence" and shortage of analysis.
Despite a litter of factual errors...I don't doubt that Biskind's overall picture is roughly accurate, and its details are certainly vivid...[but] you find yourself wondering how much of this was worth recording for posterity.
Also in the issue are shorter, more satisfied reviews of Eric Lax's new The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of Penicillin and the Modern Age of Medical Miracles, of The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and the Boys of Crenshaw by Michael Sokolove and of Graceland by UC Riverside creative writing teacher Chris Abani. A new coffee table book on Nudie Cohn, the late Lankershim Boulevard cowboy-tailor who clothed stars from Elvis to Cher, also gets a mention.
Short items in the issue: The website Beneath Los Angeles, tied to a forthcoming book on local cemetery lore, and a list of Dodgers-related websites leading with Jon Weisman's Dodger Thoughts.