View of Culver City & environs from the infamous steps of the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook

If, like me, you desire a small-town feel from our giant metro area every now and then, Culver City‘s Fiesta La Ballona, which takes place August 26-28, may be just the ticket. The Fiesta, which occupies Veteran’s Park at the intersection of Culver Blvd. and Overland Ave., is part cultural heritage festival and part small-town carnival.
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Glendale’s A Noise Within (ANW) has been the region’s premiere classical repertory theater company for a long time now.  Other than about a year at the end of last century spent at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal Sate Los Angeles, the company’s home has been the landmark Masonic Temple building at 234 S. Brand Boulevard.

But the company is Glendale’s no longer. It’s leaving its home and heading to its own dedicated space in Pasadena, a move that’s been more than five years in the making. And today as one of its final acts in the Jewel City before beginning its life in the Crown city, the company held a rummage sale to clear out its inventory. Everything from lighting equipment and furniture to props to costumes was priced to move.

But instead of looking for bargains, I took the opportunity to go looking around, sneaking backstage and up the stairs to explorie the 1928 building’s upper levels where I found this jaw-droppingly amazing top-floor space in mid-demolition/arrested decay (click to panoramally enlargify and/or check out this rotate-ready version of the image):

UPDATE (8.26): Where’d the picture go? Short-ish story is that a representative of the building’s owners, Frank DiPietro and Sons, contacted me the day after this post went live wanting to discuss the photograph’s publication. After some further consideration, it was politely requested of me today to remove the above image,  for several reasons. First, it was taken and published without their permission. Second, the picture shows the hall in a condition that doesn’t showcase it in the best light. Third, the company is in the midst of submitting plans and obtaining permits for a renovation/remodel of the space and the company is sensitive about photographs and information about the
building being released as that process progresses. So, basically,  I have agreed to honor their request because the simple fact is that it’s their private property and I was there on those upper floors without their knowledge. Since it’s not OK for them to sneak into my house and take pictures and put ‘em up on the internutz, down comes the pic.

I have no idea what the plans are for this hall and the rest of the building. But in the meantime I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that it doesn’t become a gym..

After the jump, a brief bio on the building’s historical significance excerpted from the Glendale Register of Historic Places.

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The City of Burbank is celebrating its 100th Anniversary today! Tonight, from 5pm to 10pm, you can join in the Centennial Celebration at the city’s “Party of the Century.” The free event is happening in Beautiful Downtown Burbank and will include appearances by local dignitaries and celebrities, an air parade, a mascot parade, a variety of live stage shows and special deals at many local restaurants. The night will be capped off with fireworks.

Burbank will always be a special place for me since it is where I first lived when I moved to L.A. nearly seventeen years ago. Besides, I only moved a few blocks outside of it, so it’s still a big part of my life. You can read a brief history here of the area that started as a sheep farm and is now one of the world’s preeminent media capitals.

Burbank’s Party of the Century is TONIGHT from 5pm to 10pm and is FREE!

I’m a bit of a collector of vintage cookbooks, mostly from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, and I recently picked up a copy of the Ford Treasury of Favorite Recipes from Famous Eating Places, initially published by the Ford in the late 1940s.  It’s a fascinating little book – each page has a recipe from a different restaurant somewhere in the U.S.  The book is organized by region, and was, apparently, designed to fit in the glove compartment of your car, so in addition to being a recipe book, it’s a travel guide.  The book is also beautifully illustrated, with a picture of each restaurant by a different artist, so it’s also a neat little anthology of mid-century design.

Los Angeles restaurants are extremely well-represented – below are some of the images and recipes from the book of L.A. restaurants of the past. Most of these are now long gone, but we can now re-create them in the comfort of our own kitchens, thanks to the magic of used bookstores and the internet!

“Blade Runner” is, for Angelenos, part of our cinematic DNA. It envisions a dystopic future Los Angeles that borrows from the past but, to some, it disturbingly resembles the present. However, I suspect that more than a few Angelenos are jaded by the repeated “Blade Runner” viewings and the comical number of versions that have been released, especially the “Blade Runner For Dummies” narration of the original U.S. theatrical release. As one such Angeleno, I was mesmerized upon discovering the above video showing the real-life “Blade Runner” filming locations matched shot-for-shot with their depictions in the movie.
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The handmade sign on the front door of mobster James “Whitey” Bulger‘s former home on 3rd Street in Santa Monica reads: “Go Away. People Live Here”. That’s the message I’d like to send to mobsters in Los Angeles and across the country. But they seem to keep popping up near where I live, or vice versa.
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Coming back from the Hollywood Home Depot yesterday afternoon, my wife Susan and I opted for surface streets back to Silver Lake instead of the backed-up southbound 101, and boy am I glad we did. Heading east on Fountain I looked south as we passed Kingsley Drive to find none other than renowned and prolific muralist Kent Twitchell doing some touch-up refreshment work to his 1971 Strother Martin Monument mural. With Susan understanding my OMG as we went around the block to pull up across the street from him, I got out and went pretty much total fanboy, interrupting him apologetically to gush about what an honor it was for me to see him in action, and get a picture of him:

I asked him if there was any hope of restoring the Ed Ruscha mural that had been despicably painted out in 2006 (and for which he ultimately settled a lawsuit in 2008 for a reported $1.1 million). He said he hoped for its return but that it would be put up in a different location.

The one mural of his also unceremoniously destroyed whose return I’ve long hoped for is his two-story cool-as-ice-blue Steve McQueen Monument, painted the same year as the one above.

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Yes, admitedly, “robot pianos” is a slightly hyperbolic description. Tomorrow night, Monday May 23, some friends of mine in the Ethnomusicology Archive at UCLA are hosting “Ethnickelodeon,” a really neat concert of vintage pianola music. The pianola is a player piano, the old-timey kind that play music off of paper rolls. Apparently, operating the controls of the pianola is a bit of an art-form: so Monday night’s event won’t just consist of a ghostly piano playing by itself on an empty stage, but will feature Bob Berkman, a master of the pianola genre and an expert on automated instruments,

operating the controls. Berkman recently donated a huge collection of folksongs on piano rolls to the Ethnomusicology Archive, and is coming down from Buffalo, NY to play some of those rolls.  You can see him in action, playing a Lithuanian tune, here .  Apparently there was a huge market for culturally-specific folk tune piano rolls during the early 20th century, as immigrants from abroad were moving to the US, so you can expect to hear Finnish, Jewish, Russian, Hungarian, Croatian, Ukrainian, Italian, Syrian, Greek, West Indian, Mexican, Argentinean, and Cuban music, as well as jazz, bluegrass, and classical. The concert is 7pm in Popper Theatre in Schoenberg Hall at UCLA, and admission is free.

After hearing about the concert, I was wondering if, given LA’s longstanding history as a center of the entertainment world, there was ever much of a pianola industry here. The all-knowing Wikipedia tells me that the Los Angeles Art Organ Company attempted to manufacture a pianola-like device, but was sued for copyright infringement by the Aeolian Company of New York. (The image of their factory, at left, is from the LA Public Library Photo Collection – I can’t track down an address for the building, unfortunately!) The Southern California Music Company, which is now based out of Glendale, and is one of the oldest operating stores in California (they opened in 1880), sold piano rolls and other related equipment – the ad above, from a 1911 edition of the California Outlook is for a pianola attachment that turns regular grand pianos into player pianos.

There are more details about Monday’s concert here, and you can find out more about the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive on their blog, the EAR.

I know it’s a print-is-dead digital world in which what’s new is old already, but if there’s something that still demonstrates the power and worth of newspapers, it’s the jaw-drop that happens when you unexpectedly find yourself holding almost half-century-old history in your hands, which in this case came when I moved some boxes out of my mom’s place and into our basement today. One such box in particular was my stepdad’s — something of a collector — and right on top of an amazing stack of Life and Look and Saturday Evening Post magazines from the 1920s through the ’70s were these two local publications, the first editions to hit the street after the assassination (click them for the bigger pictures):

Los Angeles Herald Examiner / Nov. 22, 1963

Los Angeles Times / Nov. 23, 1963

You can bet I’ll be going carefully through these pages gape-mouthed on a slow analog ride in the wayback machine.

One of the great things about writing for blogging.la is you get to go to writers’ meetups at some of LA’s classic eateries.

Today we met at Musso and Frank (a.k.a. my house), where Benevolent Dictator Jason hosted us for flannel cakes, bloody Mary’s with lots of fresh horseradish, and eggs Benedict.

Huzzah!

(and yeah, Will did do an entry about this – sorta – way back in ‘Ought Six)

[Sorry, too angry to dig for a CC photo]

I realize the world will end anyway on May 21st, but The Hollywood Reporter is, well, reporting that Grauman’s Chinese Theater is being sold and we should Expect Some Changes once their deal closes on May 20th.

Bull SHIT, sez me!

There’s a Facebook page to save it but everybody knows what that’s worth.

I’m not completely clear if they’re only getting the Mann Chinese 6 at Hollywood and Highland, or if the rumor that the developers are “considering turning the theater, which has 1,152 seats, into a nightclub,” is anything more than that, but still.

Really? The Chinese Theater? It’s not IT enough for you?

The Chinese is on all the historic registries, but developers (and Samaha in particular) are notorious for moving forward with their nefarious agendas and hoping no one will notice until it’s too late (Yes I Mean You out there bulldozing Johnnie’s Broiler).

Let’s not let this get swept under the rug, Angelenos!

Salon has a great piece today about the urban lore behind the rotating Happy Foot/Sad Foot sign on Sunset in Echo Park.  For future reference, if you’re driving the street and see the happy foot side, you’re in for a great day; if you see the sad foot side, you should stay in bed.  The sign has inspired several writers, including Jonathan Lethem and David Foster Wallace, to incorporate this symbol of chance and fate into their novels:

The Happy Foot/Sad Foot sign became better known to readers outside the Los Angeles area when it appeared in Jonathan Lethem’s 2007 novel, “You Don’t Love Me Yet.” In that book, the main character, a musician named Lucinda, can see the sign from the window of her apartment: “The two images presented not so much a one-or-the-other choice as an eternal marriage of opposites, the emblem of some ancient foot-based philosophical system. This was Lucinda’s oracle: one glance to pick out the sad or happy foot, and a coin was flipped, to legislate any decision she’d delegated to the foot god.”

The article tracks down a few other pop culture references, which I found fascinating.  You probably don’t want to let a sign play footsies with your fate (ha ha), but it is a fun thing to watch out for when you’re headed down Sunset.

Photo courtesy rachelkramerbussel and used under a Creative Commons license.

A wedding is happening. A big wedding. No, bigger than yours, and anyone else you’ve ever known. This wedding is ROYAL. This bride and groom is better than you.

Some kid named Will is going to say “I do” to some girl named Kate. Are you paying attention? Turn on the television. Any channel. There it is. Wall-to-wall-to-wall-to-wall-coverage. Journalists, bloggers, Mario Lopezes are falling all over themselves here and across the pond, gushing about pomp and circumstance. Or ceremony. Or whatever. What will they wear? Who will be there? How will she do her hair? Every single detail being examined as if by Birthers on a mission.

None of you are invited. But, luckily enough, you can pretend to live out this fairytale fantasy – right here in the San Fernando Valley. The Valley!

The affair is one of today’s top stories on the Los Angeles Daily News. They take a hard inside look at local celebrations of the far far away nuptials to come:

Golriz Moeini, co-owner of the White Harte Pub in Woodland Hills. “All of us are so stressed with natural disasters and wars. This is one happy thing that we have.”

What started out as a small get-together for Moeini’s friends has now turned into a royal wedding extravaganza complete with a live band, champagne and wedding cake. Guests are required to don wedding attire. That means jackets for the men and dresses for the ladies. And there might be a seating chart in one section.

I’m sure that some will argue with me about what a historic moment this is. A real-life prince making a commoner a real-life princess! It’s a storybook wedding!

Have fun with that. I’m sure the 217,000 men that died during the American Revolution won’t mind a bit.

If you’ve never had a bar full of hipsters chant “TORO TORO TORO” whilst you chug a crazy concoction of fruit & tequila, then now’s the perfect chance to visit a great Los Angeles institution. Opened in 1961 by an exotic cocktail mixologist Ray Buhen, Tiki-Ti served up traditional Polynesian drinks to the likes of Marlon Brando, Burt Rynolds & Jack Palance. Now with over 86 different cocktails on their menu, Ray’s son & grandson Michael and Mike Buhen carry on his legacy at one of the last classic neighborhood tiki bar.

For such a small bar, they do have a lot of little quirks… like their opening hours/days. Regulars know that you have to check their calendar before making the trek out, since the Buhen’s keep all their concoctions “in the family,” whenever they decide to take a little vacay, their bar shuts down. It’s also cash only, which for many card toting Angelino’s causes a problem… but never fear as they are stocked with an ATM in the back. And finally, smoking? I thought that was outlawed? Apparently not when the location is owner operated… no employees to worry about.

So come out Tomorrow to celebrate their 50th Anniversary! The Flatiron Truck will be there from 4-10pm providing bites of deliciousness to pair with outrageous cocktails! They will also have a Tahitian inspired menu serving Poisson Cru and free Coconut Cupcakes.

Tiki-Ti
4427 West Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 669-9381
www.tiki-ti.com

First getting shpritzed with some holy water during Saturday’s Blessing of the Animals and next dutifully adjourning to a patio table at Olvera Street’s La Golondrina where we watched the parade of animals and peoples pass while partaking religiously of our own personal Blessing of the Margaritas, Susan and I decided afterward to wobble along the cobbles and across Main Street to check out the freshly opened La Plaza de Cultura y Artes in the awesomely restored Brunswig and Garnier Block historic buildings just south of La Placita Church.

On a side note, seeing how it’s not a whole lot of people who arrive bearing reptiles, I’m pretty sure we made museum history as being the first (and perhaps only) people to visit the place with a tortoise in tow, and Buster was warmly welcomed (and admitted free of charge).

What an amazingly interactive and fantastic place — long overdue — and I greatly enjoyed the inaugural exhibition of “LA Starts Here,” an exploration of Mexican and Mexican-American history and culture spread throughout the expansive first floor, while wonderfully occupying the second floor was “Calle Prinicipal,” a hands-on re-creation of 1920s-era Main Street, at that time the heart of Los Angeles’s growing immigrant community.

Flickr photoset of the above thumbnails are viewable here.

What surprised me the most was how moved I was by a simple exhibition showcasing what I feel was one of the greatest injustices perpetrated by this city upon its citizens: the eviction and destruction of Chavez Ravine. The installation, consisting of a high chain link fence, through which pictures and quotes are visible under the heading of “Urban Renewal: Division of the Barrios,” left me deeply touched, especially by the following two statements:

“I don’t want to be responsible for taking another man’s private property through the use of eminent domain and giving it over to another private individual for his private gain.”

— De Witt McCann, aide to the mayor, resigning his job

“You may call this blight, but we call it our neighborhood.  Sure, we say get out if you can. But why not pave our streets? Give us decent streetlights like they have in Westwood or Pasadena. What gives you the right to take our land away from us? We didn’t sign on to ‘eminent domain.’ It’s unspeakable the way your dragged Mrs. Aurora Archega out of her very own house in Chavez Ravine — and put her in jail! You call it progress. We call it injustice.”

— Camos Vecinos

There’s much to see and experience and enrich yourself with at La Plaza. I highly recommend a visit. It’s open noon to 7 p.m., Wednesday through Monday. Closed Tuesdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Admission is $9 for adults, $7 for seniors, college students and military, $5 for children 5 and up, and free for children under 5.