Getting the L.A. story

FUN, creative, and most importantly, cute.

It was hard to get away from that word this week when Paper magazine -- New York's pioneering style and culture publication -- landed here for a five-day stand of music, fashion, art and low-impact sports.

"The crowd last night was so cute. Not fashion cute, but creative cute. Cute," Paper co-founder and co-editor Kim Hastreiter said after Tuesday's opening night party. "To have a party that good and that cute, and not have a movie star, it's like a relief."

Paper came out West to check up on Los Angeles, and Los Angeles -- or a certain slice of it -- came out to check out Paper. Paper's been in Los Angeles before, but this is the first time it's brought the entire operation out here.

A roomful of reliable L.A. fashionistas, rockers and media types greeted the arrival of Paper and what the magazine calls its "cultural department store" at the ACME gaming shop and gallery on Melrose Avenue. Mark "The Cobra Snake" Hunter took pictures. The Hearts Challenger ice cream truck provided tasty treats outside. Bar service was provided by BeautifulBartenders.com. The magazine is bringing together L.A. artists, musicians, DJs, designers, curators and other creative types for panels, "fashion wrestling," themed aerobics sessions and lots of picture taking at the Paper Project L.A. site on Melrose. The result of all this will be Paper's first all-L.A. issue, due in February. The editors say it will celebrate the West Coast as a place that the East Coast can consider a fountain for inspiration. Especially at a time when the boho, do-it-yourself spirit is getting tougher to locate in rapidly Disney-fying Manhattan.

"L.A. is much funkier, in the best sense of the word, than New York. There's no, like, poor young creative people in New York anymore," Hastreiter said. "Whenever I come here, it really reminds me of what I miss."

"The whole graffiti street art world, a lot of it is here now," added co-editor David Hershkovits, who with Hastreiter founded Paper in downtown Manhattan in 1984 as a fold-up poster. "There's so much going on here. It has its own scene, and it doesn't need validation from the mainstream media for it to be good."

On Wednesday night, L.A. band Foreign Born played in the sleek, colorful space, followed by rapper Mickey Avalon, a white guy in glam-rock makeup.