The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 43

I (7 As SHORTCUTS Bill Maher is his comically correct self in "Docs Anybody Have a Problem With That?" E6 TRUE STORY? After the explosion in Atlanta, "Red Mercury" is a novel that comes close to the truth. E3 INDEX Abby E3 Ann E3 Astrology E5 Book Review E6 Camp Comics E4-5 Doonesbury. E2 SECTION MONDAY, JULY 29, 1996 1 Cos Angeles SRmes Painting Their Way to the Sights ofL.A. "These papers had to achieve a critical mass to be fun," says Executive Editor Michael Lacey, left, with SCOTT TROYANOS Assoda(dPraa" New Times Inc. Chairman and CEO JimLarkinr.

New Kids on the Block A chain of weeklies has upped the ante in the battle for newspaper readers. Itf newest weapon: Los Angeles View. By BEVERLY BEYETTE TIMES STAFF WRITER A mention of Grandma Moses, a naive painter of a slightly earlier era, elicits only blank stares. But mention Alexandra Nechita now that rings a bell. Like them, she's a young painter from Romania, though that's about all they have in common.

Alexandra, an abstract painter being hyped as the next Picasso but called a hoax by some, is, at 10, a corporation and American citizen living in Norwalk. Reportedly, she's enjoyed $1.5 million plus in sales. The other young Romanian artists live in Albesti, a village of 700 families about 100 miles northwest of Bucharest. Sale of their paintings enables them to buy such things as a log cutter to make it easier to stoke the wood-burning stove in their schoolroom. "The little Picasso, she has a different life from what they have," says their teacher, Elena Stoica, who is visiting California with a dozen of her students.

And, she adds, with a touch of justifiable pride. "They don't really copy anyone's style. They do it on their own." They do it so well that a sale in December of about 100 of their tempera paintings at the Brentwood Art Center raised to fly the 10- to 14-year-olds, three chaperons and two translators to California for a four-week fling. Today it's Universal Studios. Last week it was Disneyland, an up-close-and-per-sonal meeting with "Baywatch" star David Hasselhoff (yes, they watch "Bay -watch" in Albesti), tours of the Norton Simon and Huntington museums, and a meeting with Mayor Richard Riordan.

The odyssey of the Cromo Club, as the art group is known, began with a 1994 meeting between Stoica, who had brought a few students to L.A. as part of a cultural exchange program during soccer's World Cup, and Georgiana Far-noaga, a Romanian scholar at UCLA. When Stoica returned home, she left some paintings with Farnoaga, explaining that in Romania there were few who could afford to buy them. Farnoaga took them to her friend Sarah Adams who, she knew, had recently visited Romania. Enchanted with the children's art with its exuberant depictions of country life, traditional celebrations and Romanian fairy tales and folklore Adams asked Palisades Parents Together, a group she co-founded, to sponsor an exhibit.

A modest beginning, it raised $1,200 for supplies for the artists. Later, Adams and her husband, Tom, visited Stoica in Albesti and brought back the bulk of the paintings for the December sale. Buoyed by its success-one painting brought an unprecedented $850 the Adamses formed a committee to bring the young artists for a visit. The group, 10 girls and two boys, arrived with several sporting Chicago Bulls caps, souvenirs picked up during an unscheduled overnight stop resulting from a missed connection in the wake of tightened airline security. Days later, they were eating barbecue at the Palisades home of Ann Kerr, whose son Steve is a Bull.

With a lot of help from their friends. Please see TOWN, E2 if: i i A CAROLYN COLE Loa AngelwTimw Artist Cosmin Mandita is, at 10, the talented baby of the Cromo Club. is 1 l'''rS irr -in A ,1,,,.,,, i i nn 1 By IRENE LACHER TIMES STAFF WRITER I he war is not over. But I this time, the expres sion "newspaper war is taking on a different color. The battle once reserved for dailies duking it out for space at the breakfast table has moved to the alternative press.

And the recent arrival of New Times, the scrappy, irreverent, Phoenix-based chain, is sending tremors across L.A.'s landscape of weekly newspapers. Ground zero was the decade-old Los Angeles View, an eccentric tabloid that specialized in politics and culture. New Times scooped up the weekly for a reported $1.5 million last month, vowing to retool it according to New Times' highly successful signature formula: in-depth, investigative pieces on local issues; biting humor and commentary; music, film and arts coverage and criticism; and dining and entertainment listings. And, last week, rumors swept alternative circles that New Times 1 A' t' I. i ROBERT AUTHIER Los Angelet Times The View will be edgy, says Editor Rick Barrs, with classified ad manager Staci Thompson, center.

"This town is too damn polite." New Times Powerhouse Partners a Brash Journalist and a Savvy Businessman Know How to Kick Up Dirt CAROLYN COLE Lw Angelea Timet LA Weekly Publisher Mike Sigman doesn't seem too worried about competition from New Times. By PAUL DEAN TIMES STAFF WRITER PHOENIX Michael Lacey snorts at the thoughts. That the fire in his belly is now from Irish whiskey, not journalistic passion. That a Cadillac and a home in Paradise Valley a Bel-Air with saguaros means he has slipped from enfant terrible to an eminence grise sucking on the establishment he once bashed. And that buying Los Angeles View and importing his feisty New Times organization to diverse, overgrown L.A.

is a 3.5-million-person bite even this executive editor won't be able to chew. "That's bull says Lacey. That's his favorite dismissal. Especially when dismantling suggestions that his verve has turned to tapioca. "Writing so people will understand working with writers, with editors is still the most important thing I do." Although not as exciting as entering cities like William Tecumseh Sherman and sticking it to what he sees as overfed administrations and complacent media.

As he has in Arizona for 26 years, and more recently in San Francisco, Denver, Dallas, Houston and Miami. With noise, the busting of chops and spaying of sacred cows. Yet with the reputation of an award -winning crusader for causes he believes are rarely heard above the bluster of soiled businessmen please see PARTNERS, E6 was also buying the L.A. Reader i. and planning to fold it after the Aug.

16 issue. If the sale goes through, New Times could scoop up the Reader's national advertising, which is handled by the New Times-owned Ruxton Group, observers said. The atmosphere at the Reader was grim. "I think at this point we figure we're on three weeks' notice, and we're hoping we get reasonable severance," said Managing Editor Erik Himmelsbach, referring to New Times' reputation for cleaning house. Reader Editor and Publisher James Vowell didn't return phone calls, and New Times Executive Editor Michael Lacey declined to comment on "prospective business deals," adding: "If it was done, it would be announced." That would leave New Times going head-to-head against Southern California's grande dame of alternative journalism the 18-year-old LA Weekly, which is also corporately owned.

Like New York's Village Voice, the Weekly is armed with the deep pockets of owner Stern Publishing Inc. At this point, both the Weekly and New Times are soft-pedaling the prospect of an old-fashioned newspaper war. Please see WEEKLIES, E6 The reality is that having reported upon a wide variety of topics for 26 years, I dont trust anyone's I want to look at the situation and tell our readers and they can make up their minds. Michael Lacey, Executive editor of New Times.