Eric

'Looking for Eric' MPAA rating: Not rated Running time: 1 hour, 57 minutes Playing: At Laemmle's Sunset 5, West Hollywood, and Monica 4-Plex, Santa Monica

It's been nine months since I took a leave from this column to complete a book project, and a lot has changed in Los Angeles during that time: Eric Garcetti, who had just taken office when I left, has built an administration, submitted his first budget and established himself as mayor. Mayors invariably are compared to their predecessors, and Garcetti at this early stage is both the heir of Antonio Villaraigosa and his welcome antithesis. Like Villaraigosa, he's liberal and hardworking; unlike Villaraigosa, he's patient, perhaps to a fault, and he's determined to manage the city, not just to imagine its future.

The Metropolitan Transportation Agency (MTA) should consider renaming itself "Money Thrown Away." ERIC W. ROSE Thousand Oaks

Eric Church performed Friday night at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival before a wall built of several dozen amplifiers. Or at least they appeared to be amplifiers: With the singer's nickname "Chief" emblazoned on them in place of the amp maker Marshall's iconic logo, the large black boxes were almost certainly stage props -- a visual expression of the guitar-band intensity Church was promising in a headlining set that opened with his song...

In this time of dizzying change, I take great comfort in the dependable--like erIc (sic) Dickerson. I know I can always depend on erIc to: --Put erIc's needs ahead of his team's. --Be a divisive influence in the clubhouse. --Fumble in a critical situation. --Watch the championship game from the comfort of his own home. JOHN GERMAN Los Angeles

Eric: We love you, but we would love you a lot more if you could only hang onto the football. FRANK B. DRAPER Belmont Shore

Here's the major take-away from the raunchy new comedy "A Good Old Fashioned Orgy" — it's not a good idea. Even with booze to blur the vision and the thinking, there are still some things best left undone where friends are concerned. Uh, right. In fact, and I'm pretty sure this has been documented by serious scientific research, for most folks, getting naked and having group sex with friends is close to the top of the better-not-go-there list. However, that scientifically salient fact does make this movie about regular folks contemplating some outside-the-box behavior more amusing than you might expect, but probably not by much.

Michelle is certain that Eric, her husband of 10 years, is going to leave her. "He says he loves me," the 35-year-old civil engineer says, "but I know he doesn't mean it. And it's all because I'm too fat." Michelle never dreamed that anyone would fall in love with an ugly, overweight girl like her. "My mother convinced me of that. And she would hit me or scream at me whenever I didn't do something right."

Karin Sanchez speaks of the addiction of her son "Eric" (she requests that his given name not be used) with a restrained, powerful somberness deepened by the death of her husband from a heart attack two weeks earlier. The couple had been married 34 years, and if there was one thing they wanted, it was to provide a warm, stable home for their two sons and one daughter--something neither had had themselves. Born into a poor family in Germany, Karin Sanchez was 4 when her parents divorced.

Random facts we learned on Sunday's episode of "True Blood": -- Vampires cannot use tanning beds to commit suicide. -- Bleach is not a normal ingredient in Merlotte's gumbo recipe. The suicidal vampire, of course, is Tara, who's still struggling to come to terms with her new nature, and it's Lafayette, naturally, who inexplicably poisons a pot of stew before glancing up and catching a familiar-looking demon reflected back at him in the mirror. What did Jesus say about that old dark magic again?

A grass-roots group that has been railing against Los Angeles' parking ticket policies has agreed to team up with Mayor Eric Garcetti to look at changes to the enforcement system. Steven Vincent, founder of the Los Angeles Parking Freedom Initiative, said Garcetti invited members of his organization to participate in an official city working group. The panel, Vincent said, will look at an array of possible changes, such as reducing certain fines, expanding parking hours in key locations, making no-parking signs less confusing and halting the practice of using ticket revenue as a tool to balance the city's budget.

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and his wife, Amy Wakeland, have put the home they own in Silver Lake up for one-year lease at $8,500 a month. Built in 2010, the boxy contemporary features an open living room, dining room, media room, office/gym, six bedrooms and five bathrooms in 4,000 square feet of living space. The top-level master suite has views of the reservoir. Concrete counters and a walk-in pantry are among amenities in the sleek kitchen. There are multiple decks. The street just got a fresh coat of slurry, so it would appear the place is ready for new occupants.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and rapper Jay Z are scheduled to appear outside City Hall on Wednesday for what is expected to be an announcement on a two-day music festival for Labor Day weekend in Grand Park. The Budweiser Made in America, which advertises itself as being “curated by Jay Z,” could draw as many as 50,000 people to the heart of downtown, raising red flags  for Councilman Jose Huizar, who warned that street closures and beer sales could create "a nightmare.

WASHINGTON - Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. has been crusading for more lenient treatment for nonviolent drug offenders, making it a top priority before he is expected to leave office this year. Recently, however, he has been forced to confront an epidemic of deaths from heroin and prescription drug abuse, one that his opponents have cited as a reason for not loosening drug sentences. In prepared remarks for a speech Wednesday, Holder cited the "stunning rise in heroin and prescription opiate overdose deaths" and vowed the Justice Department was committed to "rigorous enforcement" of the drug laws and "robust treatment" of drug addicts.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and rapper Jay Z are set to appear Wednesday outside City Hall for what is expected to be an announcement on the two-day Budweiser Made in America music festival planned for Labor Day weekend in Grand Park. Garcetti sent an advisory saying the news conference will be attended by Budweiser Vice President Brian Perkins, along with county Supervisor Gloria Molina and City Council President Herb Wesson. The prospect of a major concert drawing as many as 50,000 people to the heart of downtown had raised red flags for Councilman Jose Huizar , who warned that street closures and beer sales could create "a nightmare" for downtown residents.

Mayor Eric Garcetti dropped no bombshells when he released his first budget Monday. The $8.1-billion spending plan was in line with the theme of his administration so far: focus on basic city functions, improve customer service, control costs and win back public trust. All in all, it's a modest budget from an administration that takes pride in being prudent. Most modest is his plan to trim the business tax. When the proposal was floated earlier this year, Garcetti was going to eliminate the business tax. Phase it out. Get rid of it. Businesses and entrepreneurs hate the city's business tax because it's significantly higher than almost all surrounding cities, and it's based on gross receipts, not profits, so a company could be hit with a big tax bill even if it made no money that year.

Prosecutors in the Randy Steven Kraft murder trial say a paper with 61 entries, found in his car trunk when he was arrested May 14, 1983, is a death list--Kraft's own score card of how many young men he had killed dating back to late 1971. Kraft's attorneys deny it is a death list, and call it meaningless information that will only inflame his jury. Kraft himself, in a 1983 interview, called the list nothing more than references to friends of his and his roommate at the time.

I still don't know why Sallie and I bothered to go to that party in the forest slope above Aspen. The people were all older than us and dull in a distinguished way, old enough that we, at 40-ish, passed as the occasion's young ladies. The house in Colorado was great -- if you like Ralph Lauren-style chalets: a rugged luxury cabin at 9,000 feet, complete with elk antlers, lots of kilims, and a wood-burning stove.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Monday unveiled a hold-the-line budget for the coming fiscal year, proposing modest increases in a handful of city services and zero reduction in the business tax -- an issue that the mayor repeatedly has promised to tackle. Garcetti's $8.1 billion financial proposal, which requires approval from the City Council, closes a $242 million gap in part by relying on increased tax revenue projections and reductions in vacant positions. The financial plan assumes the city's workforce, including police officers and firefighters, will not receive raises in the coming year.

Mayor Eric Garcetti wants buildings across Los Angeles to be graded for their seismic safety as part of an ambitious plan to help residents understand the earthquake risks of their office buildings and apartments. Garcetti announced what would be the nation's first seismic safety grading system for buildings during his State of the City address Thursday, when he also for the first time said he supports some type of mandatory retrofitting of older buildings that have a risk of collapse in a major earthquake.