The Adventures of Downtown Oliver Brown

The Adventures of Downtown Oliver Brown is a semi-fictional tale of Downtown nightlife written by Stan Lerner.

Forty-year-old Oliver Brown, a talented and critically acclaimed writer, just did not find the success he deserved in Hollywood. It made financial sense to move Downtown and no lack of good bars and restaurants eased the pain.

Stan Lerner is an award winning-author whose diverse credits include the novel “Stan Lerner’s Criminal,” the novella “In Development,” and the children’s book “Stanley The Elephant.” He's lived in Downtown Los Angeles for the last thirteen years.

Be sure to check back each week to see where Oliver's latest adventures have taken him.

Oliver's Reputation Preceeds Him

By Stan Lerner — December 04, 2008
3 Comments

I spotted Tim Leiweke, the president of AEG, out of the corner of my eye. I had just sat down at Starbucks, 11th and Grand, to finally focus on a script about a writer who moves Downtown to get away from the pretentious idiots in Hollywood. The irony of course being that I was there to write a script for Stan Peters, the subject of the cult classic book “In Development”...


Oliver's Thanksgiving

By Stan Lerner — November 26, 2008
4 Comments

“Hi, Oliver Brown speaking,” I said into my iPhone. “Oliver, Stan wants to see you in his office with something on paper,” said Iren Shmeklestein, longtime sidekick of the powerful and scummy producer, Stan Peters. “Iren, it’s not that I’m avoiding Stan. And I am truly grateful that he kept me from running off with someone else’s bride-to-be at Lucky Strike...


Oliver Strikes Out

By Stan Lerner — November 24, 2008
6 Comments

I was just minding my business dancing away at three in the afternoon inside of the always cool, on a Saturday, Hard Eight Lounge. “Downtown Oliver Brown,” said the beautiful DJ Eden, dancing up to me. “Eden, you’re so beautiful it hurts my soul.” She twisted and turned around me. “So, what did you think of Lucky Strike?”


A Day Full of Writing

By Stan Lerner — November 19, 2008

There is a part of me that misses those days in the hills above Sunset… This is as far as my script about an author who moves Downtown to escape the pretentious idiots in Hollywood had progressed. See, I write at Starbucks and most of my friends don’t understand that a writer’s office is pretty much wherever he opens his laptop—in this case 11th and Grand.


An Intersection of Locals

By Stan Lerner — November 13, 2008
30 Comments

1100 Wilshire had been an office building with no tenants before the most recent housing boom came along and made it a place that people who enjoy a sky-pool call home. Frankly, the pool at the Skyline, where I am currently borrowing a rich friend’s place, is probably the nicest in Downtown—I’ve used it once. Anyway, it was David Kean’s fortieth birthday so there...


Hanging with Stretch

By Stan Lerner — November 05, 2008
2 Comments

“Hey Oliver, slow down a second.” I stopped half a block short of 7th on Flower so my homeless buddy Stretch could put a torch lighter to the pipe in his hand. I call him Stretch because he’s almost seven- feet-tall and looks like he weighs one-sixty or less. “Stretch, you know I don’t approve of you smoking crack.” “Oliver, I’m a homeless black man with HIV—give...


Introducing Oliver

By Stan Lerner — November 03, 2008
7 Comments

“I just dropped Kevin off at the airport, so I can come hang out,” Joe’s voice rang out through my iphone. “Where are you?” “I’m at Starbucks on 11th and Grand—come pick me up,” I answered back, wondering how I was going to get my hair cut at Salon Eleven and meet Joe in the same one hour time frame—oh well. Some background: Joe, like most of my friends, has...