Eric Lynxwiler and I will be the featured speakers in Westwood today at 4 pm at the inaugural literary salon of the Friends of the Westwood Library. It's a benefit for the Westwood branch library and also somehow tied in to the Los Angeles Film Festival, which has taken over the village this week. Our topic, of course, is Wilshire Boulevard.

Also, LA Observed columnist Bill Boyarsky is ending his five-year term on the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission and, no longer bound by the rules there, will be posting more freely here about City Hall and the political process. At his final meeting, one of the commissioners alluded uncomfortably to that likelihood — but well, it's our gain and their loss. Controller Laura Chick, who appointed Bill, said in a statement:

Bill redefined the very definition of reformer. He was fearless to ask the tough questions and to uncover the truth. Too often he was the lone voice on the Commission to bring about real and substantive change to City Hall and to elections.

More LAO news:

• Nice piece in today's L.A. Times Book Review on David Rensin's biography of Miki Dora: "It supplants a fairy tale for surfers with a kick-butt biography for everyone else....All for a Few Perfect Waves is much more than just another day at the beach." LAT
• Denise Hamilton took a flying trailer hitch through her windhsield at 55 miles an hour on I-5 and lives to blog about it. Native Intelligence
• Jenny Burman checks in on AbandonedCouches.com. Chicken Corner