Run to the Hillside -- Exploring Hillside Village

Run to the Hillside -- Exploring Hillside Village

Hillside Village - home of King Torta, Ming Ya Buddhist Temple, Cha Cha Chili, Johnnie's, and Paul Williams's Woodrow Wilson High School

Been up to City Terrace to see what's a-happening -- Exploring City Terrace at the Amoeblog

Been up to City Terrace to see what's a-happening -- Exploring City Terrace

Dooley and I recently explored the neighborhood of City Terrace. We found a lot of murals, figurines of Mary, empty bags of Tapatio-flavored chips, and friendly folks with angry dogs (it's the Eastside).

Well slice me nice, Eurodisco legend Fancy is coming to Orange County! at the Amoeblog

Well slice me nice, Eurodisco legend Fancy is coming to Orange County!

1980s Italo/Euro-disco star Fancy is coming to Orange County in January. You might know him from his smash hits "Angel Eyes," "Bolero," "China Blue," "Cold as Ice," "Flames of Blue," "Lady of Ice," "Latin Fire," and "Slice Me Nice."

Running up that hill -- Exploring Monterey Hills at the Amoeblog

Running up that hill -- Exploring Monterey Hills

There are the Monterey Hills -- technically the Repetto Hills -- that run from the Arroyo Seco to the Rio Hondo (and pass through Monterey Park, naturally). Then there is Monterey Hills, a secluded neighborhood between El Sereno, Hermon, and Montecito Heights that's mostly home to condos and townhouses. While house-sitting on the Eastside, Dooley the dog and I explored it on our first long walk.

Between Olympus and Paradise -- Exploring Happy Valley at the Amoeblog

Between Olympus and Paradise -- Exploring Happy Valley

Have you heard of Happy Valley? It's a small Eastside neighborhood and one of Los Angeles's oldest barrios. Yet it has no Wikipedia entry and isn't included in Los Angeles Times' "Mapping LA" project. I explored it recently with a dog named Dooley.

Pseu Pseu Pseudio - Pseudonymous Musical One-Offs at the Amoeblog

Pseu Pseu Pseudio - Pseudonymous Musical One-Offs

Whatever the reason, sometimes artists release music under assumed names. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two: T. Rex who released a single under the name "Big Carrot," and Denim, who released a single as "Supermarket" (which the liner notes claimed were two young boys from Denmark). Who else is there?

Who would float me to my island dream? -- A Channel Islands Primer at the Amoeblog

Who would float me to my island dream? -- A Channel Islands Primer

I've still only been to one of the Channel Islands -- Santa Catalina. The Channel Islands archipelago is a real treasure with over ten thousand years of human history and amazing biodiversity. Here's my Channel Islands primer. Happy Native American Heritage Month!

Blow some my way -- Exploring Chesterfield Square

Blow some my way -- Exploring Chesterfield Square

Have you heard of Chesterfield Square? It's where Boyz N the Hood was filmed, where Good Fred Hair Oil was invented, and where Ray Harryhausen lived and rented a special effects studio. It also has the highest violent crime rate in the city and county but that shouldn't stop you from visiting... nothing bad is going to happen to you!

Exploring the South Bay Metro Green Line Extension | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

Exploring the South Bay Metro Green Line Extension | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

I can't wait for the Green Line to extend to Torrance Prefecture! I walked along the right-of-way and explored its likely route. Check it out!

In praise of the papoose - Happy Native American Heritage Month! at the Amoeblog

In praise of the papoose - Happy Native American Heritage Month!

November is Native American Heritage Month (also known as American Indian Heritage Month). Here's a gallery of historical photos of papooses.

A look at French writer and thinker Paul Valery on the anniversary of his birth

A look at French writer and thinker Paul Valery on the anniversary of his birth

Today is the birthday of French poet Paul Valéry, a Symbolist in the vein of Stéphane Mallarmé.

Visiting LACMA's Bing Theater for a Tuesday Matinee

A recent viewing of The Shining reminded me of just what a good idea it is for people who work at home (and perhaps have a bit of a tough time pulling themselves away from work) to forgo all work for occasional play. I also regularly suffer from a sort of paralysis that occurs when I try to figure out which of the hundreds (maybe thousands) of daily cultural events and then stay home. A good place for cineastes to check out is Film Radar, a website which lists most of the special film events taking place around town. After checking the site and seeing the names Samuel Fuller and Douglas Sirk, I decided before paralysis could take hold to take the Metro to LACMA’s Bing Theater (incidentally one of the few local movie theaters that doesn’t go for the pretentious, supposedly (because it’s nearly ubiquitous) “chiefly British” spelling of “theatre”) to see Shockproof (1949).





I’ve been to the Bing Theater a few times before. On the most memorable occasion I saw Mother (마더, 2009) there, a film directed by masterful genre-blender Bong Joon-ho (who, it also transpired, was sitting next to me. On the other side, by the way, was Charles Reece). That film screened back when the Bing Theater still had regular weekend screenings of films by the likes of Andrei Tarkovsky, Hong Sang-soo, and William Wellman. Sadly, the current CEO and director of the museum decided to pull the plug on the screenings -- faced as he was with declining attendance and the inability to find sufficient funding to continue what his predecessors had successfully done for more than four decades. (Here’s a thought: concession stands provide 85% of the profits for most successful cinemas and it’s frankly perverse watching a movie without popcorn or Jujyfruits).

The Bing Theater with a wall listing a few of the museum's donors

Although many big Hollywood filmmakers predictably expressed their dismay with the killing of the program, apparently they were less willing to loosen their purse and neither were the usual big-money donors. Luckily, the Bing Theater still has Tuesday matinees for just $4 and occasional special screenings attached to art exhibitions. In the meantime there’s a petition to return the weekend screenings (click here to sign).

Leo S. Bing Center

The Bing Theater is located, along with the LACMA Café, inside the Leo S. Bing Center, one of the three original buildings (alongside the Ahmanson Building and the Lytton Gallery (since renamed the Frances and Armand Hammer Building)) designed by mid-century futurist William L. Pereira – the guy who designed San Francisco’s iconic Transamerica Pyramid, much of the campus of University of California, Irvine, and (with Charles Luckman, Paul Williams, and Welton Becket), the Theme Building at LAX.


LACMA opened in its present location in 1965 along a stretch of Wilshire Boulevard in Midtown’s Miracle Mile neighborhood that came to be known as Museum Row (after it was joined by the A+D Architecture and Design Museum, the Craft & Folk Art Museum, the George C. Page Museum, the Petersen Automotive Museum, and the Zimmer Children's Museum. Before that, the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art had been located at Exposition Park in South Los Angeles’s Westside since 1910. Its move in the 1960s to the Mid-Wilshire area was part of a greater cultural and capital shift away from the vicinity Downtown vicinity toward Central Los Angeles and the Westside during the mid-20th Century.

Inside the Bing Theater

The theater itself is a 600-seat, single-screen cinema equipped with DTS and SDDS capabilities and various projects film and video formats. I took Metro Rapid Line 720, which conveniently drops riders off at the intersection of Wilshire and Fairfax (where Christopher George Latore “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace was gunned down in 1997). In another ten years, the Metro Purple Line (aka “Subway to the Sea”*) is scheduled to arrive at the intersection because apparently digging a subway tunnel with spoons and chopsticks is easier than changing a stupid, century-old law regarding the city’s primary east-west street that states:

No railroad or pipe line franchise shall ever be granted, and no railroad track or pipe line shall ever be laid or constructed, except water pipes, sewers, gas mains and conduits for telephone and electric wires, for service of the property fronting on said boulevards and house connections and connections of water, sewers, and gas pipe lines, or conduits for telephone and electric wires on intersecting streets.

Shockproof turned out to be highly enjoyable – wonderfully welding Fuller’s pulpy sensibility to Sirk’s melodramatic style. I’d guess that the average age of the audience was somewhere around 65 years old and one of the only people around who looked decidedly too young for retirement looked suspiciously like Stephin Merritt (although I couldn’t be sure since I’ve never seen him at a talkie before).

Other members of the eccentric crowd included a guy wearing a fur-lined hunting cap (the temperature outside was somewhere in the mid-20s… Celsius). Another had an elaborate comb-over fashioned from and consisting of a single dreadlock arranged like a bouffant and attached to a visor. He snacked from a baggy full of sliced mangos (again, why no concession stand?) Behind me a man behind me grew increasingly aggitated, asking in an irritated voice that grew progressively louder, “So? …so what? …WHO CARES?!” Turning around and expecting to see either a Bluetooth or someone whispering into nasty nothings into his ear, I instead discovered that the nagging voice was apparently coming from within his head. Thankfully both were quiet once the film began.

There was considerable clapping throughout many of the film’s opening minutes. “Directed by Douglas Sirk” was followed by a round of applause. Written by Helen Deutsch and Samuel Fuller – cue a second round of clapping. A shot of “Hollywood Blvd.” painted on a curb – more clapping. The interior of the Bradbury Building – another uproar. When the site of Patricia Knight’s gams produced another paroxysm, I wondered how long this Pavlovian exercise would continue. The appearance of Cornel Wilde was thankfully followed by the last clap although someone later blurted out “the room is dark!” – which was both a statement of fact and a helpful reminder for those otherwise too wrapped up in the film.

After the film ended, the walker-heavy audience shuffled slowly toward the exit – often struggling to reach past their walking aids to open the non-automated doors and slowing the flow of filmgoers to a point that I honestly thought that I might lose my balance and topple over.



I attempted to return home on the 720, but was turned away with several others because the bus was too full. I took the alternative, not-rapid (and less-full) Metro 20, which stops about every eight feet and crawls along only slightly faster than the Bing’s audience. Our already slow progress ground to a halt when the driver of a minivan (license plate 2KGY858) attempted to merge his vehicle with a bus and found it impossible. Rather than exchange information, the driver crawled away with comical slowness through gridlock to a red light about twenty feet from the scene of the accident as the bus driver calmly looked on (those buses are equipped with interior and exterior cameras). At that point I decided to walk across Koreatown and Little Bangladesh, neighboring enclaves whose uniquely Los Angeles mash-up was perfectly embodied by a Bengali boy in a dobok.

As I trekked across the area I thought about the Bing Theater and Los Angeles, the so-called “Entertainment Capital of the World” and where our great theaters fit into the larger picture.  Los Angeles has been home to 369 movie theaters -- 307 of which have closed, 171 of which are demolished, and only 43 are currently showing films. More than the crummy Walk of Fame, the fairly lame Hollywood and Highland, or the 35-year-old replica Hollywood real estate sign, the city’s movie theaters are arguably the greatest legacy and embodiment of the city’s cinematic soul. Today the Broadway Theater District – the first and largest historic theater district listed on the National Register of Historic Places – is home to only concentration of picture palaces in the country (twelve in six blocks). For now the Bing Theater remains a small but important part of that fabric but seems to be heading in the opposite direction.

Los Angeles has a great legacy of placing importance on private space which I respect. But as Angelenos increasingly ditch cars for public transit and single-residence suburban bungalows for urban, mixed-users, hopefully they’ll also remember how much better it is to watch almost anything in a public cinema than streamed on a smartphone.

Shockproof is available on DVD in The Samuel Fuller Film Collection (which also includes It Happened in Hollywood, Adventure in Sahara, Power of the Press, The Crimson Kimono, Scandal Sheet, and Underworld U.S.A.


*The “Subway to the Sea” is scheduled to reach the VA – still six kilometers from the sea – in 2035. Meanwhile, the light rail alternative Metro Expo Line will be celebrating twenty years of seaside service.

***** 

Eric Brightwell is a writer, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener who is always seeking writing, speaking, traveling, and art opportunities; however, job offers must pay more than slave wages as he would rather write for pleasure than for peanuts. Brightwell’s written work has appeared in Amoeblog, diaCRITICS, and KCET Departures. His work has been featured by the American Institute of Architects, the Architecture & Design Museum, the Craft & Folk Art Museum, Form Follows Function,  the Los Angeles County Store, Skid Row Housing Trust, and 1650 Gallery. Art prints of his maps are available from 1650 Gallery and on other products from Cal31. Brightwell has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Magazine, and on Notebook on Cities and Culture. He has been a guest speaker on KCRW's Which Way, LA? and at Emerson College. He is currently writing a book about Los Angeles and you can follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

C'mon N' Ride It: Exploring Along the WeHo PickUp Line | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

C'mon N' Ride It: Exploring Along the WeHo PickUp Line | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

The free WeHo PickUp Line is operating as part of a pilot program from July through December. It's primary aim is to shuttle people safely to bars, restaurants, and nightclubs but I decided to use it to explore West Hollywood's public art and architecture -- while drinking a bit along the way.

Show-Me Hollywood -- Missourians in Hollywood on Missouri Day at the Amoeblog

Show-Me Hollywood -- Missourians in Hollywood on Missouri Day

You probably haven't heard but today is Missouri Day. For this piece I'm honoring Missourians who've worked in Hollywood -- mostly as actors but as directors and film scorers as well.

San Clemente -- The Spanish Village in OC at the Amoeblog

San Clemente -- The Spanish Village in OC

San Clemente recently became the most voted for place for me to explore and so this past weekend, I did. I spent two days exploring as much as I could of the small community. I was going to take Metrolink over there but there wasn't service to either of its stations on Saturday. There's a lot of nearly century old Spanish Colonial Revival architecture and the whole place has an interesting vibe. Next up, Anaheim!

Lucien Levy-Dhurmer -- Artist, explorer, and autumn son at the Amoeblog

Lucien Levy-Dhurmer -- Artist, explorer, and autumn

148 years ago, artist Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer was born. Much of this autumn son's best work is infused with autumnal vibes, which make his work ideal for enjoyment at the beginning of fall -- especially as the sun sinks over the horizon.

On the Waterfront: Riding San Pedro's Port of Los Angeles Waterfront Red Car Line | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

On the Waterfront: Riding San Pedro's Port of Los Angeles Waterfront Red Car Line

Somehow the fact that San Pedro has operated a short replica Red Car line (1.5 miles) for more than a decade completely escaped me. Of course, once I found out I about there I headed down to ride it and explore one of my favorite neighborhoods in the process.

37 Years! Celebrating (or at least thinking about) VHS at the Amoeblog

37 Years! Celebrating (or at least thinking about) VHS

The first Cassette Store Day just happened, in which a lot of music stores and bands gave love to the old audio cassette. Two days later was the 37th birthday of another cassette, the VHS video cassette. For lack of anything better to write about, really, here's a bit of history and some musing on the old format.

Six Shooter -- The Radio Western Starring Jimmy Stewart Debuted 20 September, 1953 at the Amoeblog

On this date (20 September) in 1953, one of my favorite old time radio Westerns debuted on NBC -- Six Shooter. It was created and written by Frank Burt, who'd also written for The Whistler, The Man Called X, and The Unexpected. It was produced by Jack Johnstone (Buck Rogers, The CBS Radio Workshop, Richard Diamond, Somebody Knows, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, and others). The music director, Basil Adlam, arranged and conducted the theme,Ralph Vaughan Williams’s "The Highland Lament." The announcers were Hal Gibney (and John Wald), who introduced each episode with the words "The man in the saddle is angular and long-legged. His skin is sun-dyed brown. The gun in his holster is gray steel and rainbow mother-of-pearl, its handle unmarked. People call them both "the Six Shooter."

The only recurring character was Britt Ponset – played with greatness by Jimmy Stewart, who'd been interested in starring in a radio drama for some time before Six Shooter. Other actors that frequently appeared on the series included Parley Baer, Virginia Gregg, Harry Bartell, Howard McNear, Jeanette Nolan, Dan O'Herlihy, Alan Reed, Marvin Miller and William Conrad (though often credited as "Julius Krelboyne" since, at the same time, he was starring on Gunsmoke over at NBC's rival network, CBS).


ADULT WESTERNS

Six Shooter is one of the finest examples of the Adult Western (no, I'm not talking about Bareback Mountain or How the West Was Hung). Unlike their juvenile counterparts in which a quick-draw sheriff in all white nearly always disposes of the villain in all black in a duel, Adult Westerns were more concerned with inner turmoil and moral gray areas, leading some to call them Western Noir.

The subgenre first arose in the 1940s with radio westerns like Hawk Durango (1946) and Hawk Larabee(1946) and films like I Shot Jesse James (1949). In the early 1950s, when TV began to erode the audiences of both film and radio with family-friendly fare, both film and radio responded by offering more examples of Adult Westerns with movies like Winchester '73 (1950) and High Noon (1952) and radio series like Frontier Town (1952) and best of all, Gunsmoke (1952).


JIMMY STEWART 

Six Shooter had something in its chamber that most radio programs didn’t – a movie star – in this case, Jimmy Stewart. As Britt Ponset, Stewart portrayed the wandering gunslinger as a reluctant, yet highly efficient, ronin cowboy. As is still mostly the case, even then film, radio, and TV stars rarely dabbled in more than one format (as they were and are competitors). Stewart was primarily a film actor, having built a reputation on films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington(1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940), and It's a Wonderful Life (1946), among others.

His first adult western film had been Destry Rides Again (1939). Beginning with 1949’s Winchester '73, Stewart also began a fruitful collaboration on a series of noir-influenced adult western films with director Anthony Mann which continued with Bend of the River (1952) andNaked Spur (1953) before coming to radio.

Six Shooter wasn’t Stewart's first foray into radio.  He'd previously graced anthology programs like Lux Radio Theater's The Screen Guild Theater as well as Screen Guild Theater, Theater Guild of the Air and others with his widely-imitated, slow, fumbly, South Midland drawl. He also appeared numerous times as a guest on radio variety shows. Six Shooter, however, was his first and only starring radio role.


THE PRECURSOR AND AUDITION 

On 13 April, 1952, NBC's Hollywood Star Playhouse anthology series aired an episode called "The Six Shooter" that -- like the series to come -- was written by Burt, directed by Johnstone, and starred Jimmy Stewart. A subsidiary of MCA-TV called Revue Productions expressed interest in fleshing out the episode into a series and reunited its participants.

The following year the group produced an audition script with guest stars William Conrad as Sheriff Ed Scofield, Ben Scofield as the sheriff's son, Parley Baer as Fred Wilmer, and Herb Vigran as 'Heavy' Norton, the town blacksmith. 

SERIES PICKED UP 



Less than a month later, Coleman Home Heaters became the series' sponsor. It debuted on 20 September and ran for 39 more episodes. The episodes veered between tense action and light comedy, sometimes in a single program. In most, Ponset found himself drawn into a situation that he often ended up reluctantly shooting his way out of. It seems that the series was popular but Stewart probably found starring on a weekly series and continually making films too time-consuming. Although I haven't seen any reputable sources to confirm it, by most accounts Coleman oddly dropped their sponsorship and Liggett & Meyers stepped in but Stewart was unwilling to star in a show hawking Chesterfields. It seems to me that, since the program was possible, some other sponsor could've been found if Stewart really wanted to continue doing the show. Whatever the reasons, it ended but luckily for modern fans, all episodes of the series remain in circulation today.


MORE SIX SHOOTER

Six Shooter moved to television in 1957, re-titled The Restless Gun, and without the involvement of Stewart or Johnstone but with Burt on board for its two year run as consultant. Instead of Britt Ponset its protagonist was Vint Bonner -- played by John Payne.

Stewart revived the Ponset character for two 1957 episodes of the television anthology series General Electric Theater -- "The Town with a Past" and "The Trail to Christmas" (although in the latter his name was for some reason changed to "Bart"). Two years later, the anthology Startime, based the episode "Cindy's Fella" on Six Shooter's "When the Shoe Doesn't Fit" although in it Stewart played an unnamed character rather than Ponset.


AFTER RADIO

Stewart continued making films (including adult Westerns with Anthony Mann) like The Man from Laramie (1955 -- co-written by Frank Burt), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Vertigo(1958), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and many more. In 1989 Stewart published a collection of poetry titled Jimmy Stewart and his Poems that I used to own a copy of although sadly seem to have long ago lost or misplaced.

*****

Big thanks to the incomparable old time radio researchers at Digital Deli Too. Old Time Radio programs are located in Amoeba's Spoken Word section.

*****

Eric Brightwell is a writer, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener who is always seeking writing, speaking, traveling, and art opportunities; however, job offers must pay more than slave wages as he would rather write for pleasure than for peanuts. Brightwell’s written work has appeared in Amoeblog, diaCRITICS, and KCET Departures. His art has been featured by the American Institute of Architects, the Architecture & Design Museum, the Craft & Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles County Store, and 1650 Gallery. Art prints of his maps are available from 1650 Gallery and on other products from Cal31. Brightwell has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Magazine, and on Notebook on Cities and Culture. He has been a guest speaker on KCRW‘s Which Way, LA? and at Emerson College. He is currently writing a book about Los Angeles and you can follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

All Roads Lead to Culver City -- Exploring the Heart of Screenland

All Roads Lead to Culver City -- Exploring the Heart of Screenland

My latest neighborhood/community exploration, this time of Culver City. Who knew Culver City was so important to... erm, Hollywood? Even though Culverites are keen to be recognized for that fact, there's a lot more to the community to enjoy as well.

Happy Cassette Store Day at the Amoeblog

Happy Cassette Store Day

Happy Cassette Store Day! Yes, that's a real (new) thing. Is it just a twee joke? Gen X nostalgia? ...or could there more to tape appreciation?

Euro Disco star Lian Ross is coming to Orange County and Texas! at the Amoeblog

Euro Disco star Lian Ross is coming to Orange County and Texas! at the Amoeblog

Attention Euro Disco dancers, Hi-NRG heads, and Vietnamese New Wavers: 80's star Lian Ross is coming from Germany to Little Saigon/North Orange County (Stanton to be exact) and Houston, Texas.

Happy Birthday, Gildy -- The Great Gildersleeve debuted on this day in 1941 at the Amoeblog

Happy Birthday, Gildy -- The Great Gildersleeve debuted on this day in 1941 at the Amoeblog

Today is the 72nd anniversary of the debut of radio's greatest sitcom -- The Great Gildersleeve! Leeeroy...

Exploring the Planned Course of the Metro Purple Line Extension | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

Exploring the Planned Course of the Metro Purple Line Extension | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

Here's a piece that I wrote for KCET after I explored along the route of the Westside Subway Extension. 

Upcoming Satyajit Ray screenings in Los Angeles, London, and Vienna at the Amoeblog

Upcoming Satyajit Ray screenings in Los Angeles, London, and Vienna at the Amoeblog

There are a bunch of Satyajit Ray films coming up in Los Angeles, London, and Vienna. 19 of the auteur's 36 films have been restored by the Academy Film Archive and only a few of them are currently available on DVD, Blu-Ray, or Netflix. Here's your chance to see restored prints as they were meant to be seen -- on the big screen.

Don't Knock the Rock 2013 is coming

Don't Knock the Rock 2013 is coming

Two films are playing on opening night of "Don't Knock the Rock" that I'm very excited to see, "Lawrence of Belgravia" about Lawrence (Felt, Supermarket, Denim, Go-Kart Mozart) and "Autoluminescent" about Rowland S. Howard (Young Charlatans, Boys Next Door, Birthday Party, Tuff Monks, Crime & the City Solution, These Immortal Souls)

Jon Moritsugu Retrospective in Downtown Los Angeles plus his latest film, Pig Death Machine at the Amoeblog

Jon Moritsugu Retrospective in Downtown Los Angeles plus his latest film, Pig Death Machine

If you like trash cinema and are in Los Angeles, you should check out the Jon Moritsugu retrospective at the Downtown Independent, which includes his latest film, Pig Death Machine.

Upcoming outdoor film screening -- Monsoon Wedding at the Amoeblog

Upcoming outdoor film screening -- Monsoon Wedding at the Amoeblog

Summer in Los Angeles means outdoor screenings. Sometimes Indian food is involved :D

What you neighbors know about the Dirty South? -- A South County primer at the Amoeblog

What you neighbors know about the Dirty South? -- A South County primer

Here's one of the last Southland primers that I've to write. I suppose that I still need to do one for the Los Angeles County Channel Islands and that will be it! Hopefully this will prompt some votes for various South Orange County communities to be the future subjects of coverage.

To see my home in East Pasadena at the Amoeblog

To see my home in East Pasadena -- My latest neighborhood exploration

I've explored and written about Pasadena, South Pasadena, and Altadena. Here's the latest neighborhood exploration: East Pasadena

Laguna Beach -- a weary rover's dream at the Amoeblog

Laguna Beach -- a weary rover's dream at the Amoeblog

My latest community exploration, this time of Laguna Beach. If you don't live in Orange County you might be surprised that this wealthy South County community has a big gay scene, an even bigger arts scene, and a history of tolerance and bohemianism. It also might be the most beautiful place in Orange County.

Exploring the Remains of L.A.'s Little Italy | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

Exploring the Remains of L.A.'s Little Italy | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

Did you know that Los Angeles used to have a Little Italy? There are still remnants here and there I if you can walk 3.5 miles, you too can check them out.

Tales of the Texas Rangers -- Police Procedural with a Lone Star Twist at the Amoeblog

Tales of the Texas Rangers -- Police Procedural with a Lone Star Twist at the Amoeblog

Today, in 1950, Tales of the Texas Rangers debuted on the radio. Don't let the title full you -- this is a police procedural more in line with Dragnet than the Lone Ranger.

Somebody Knows and Wanted -- Golden Age Radio's great unsolved mysteries at the Amoeblog

Somebody Knows and Wanted -- Golden Age Radio's great unsolved mysteries at the Amoeblog

This week in 1950 CBS and NBC launched two rival true crime radio dramas. In the post-Dragnet world of Old Time Radio, listeners wanted more authenticity and both programs attempted to meet that demand whilst introducing a couple of clever gimmicks to the game. Though both were influential, both were also short-lived.

Where the samba takes you out of nowhere -- Visiting Santa Catalina Island and Avalon at the Amoeblog

Where the samba takes you out of nowhere -- Visiting Santa Catalina Island and Avalon at the Amoeblog

My Los Angeles Counties series travels overseas! (well, overchannels). After living in Los Angeles since 1999 I finally visited one of the Channel Islands, Santa Catalina. Here then is a bit of history and my account of the high seas adventure.

Exploring Downtown's Clavin S. Hamilton's Pedway | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

Exploring Downtown's Clavin S. Hamilton's Pedway | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

If you've been downtown there's a good chance that you've noticed the concrete overpasses above the streets, but probably never thought much about them. My curiosity was only sufficiently awakened after the Los Angeles Times published an article about these pedways, which they described as being built as "the first phase of what would become a mechanized people mover."

The Cooper's Doughnuts Uprising - LGBT Heritage Month at the Amoeblog

The Cooper's Doughnuts Uprising - LGBT Heritage Month at the Amoeblog

Although it's usually overshadowed by New York's Stonewall Riots, ten years earlier Los Angeles was home to what's often considered to be the first gay uprising in modern time. Happy LGBT Heritage Month!

Dragnet - The greatest police procedural and realest of the real at the Amoeblog

Dragnet - The greatest police procedural and realest of the real at the Amoeblog

Dragnet is one of my top five favorite radio dramas. It debuted 64 years ago (and nine days -- sorry for the belated look).

Exploring Dodger Stadium Without Baseball | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

Exploring Dodger Stadium Without Baseball | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

The other day I got to behind the scenes and explore the newly renovated Dodger Stadium. I'm not a baseball fan so was more interested in the views, architecture, history, landscaping and other stuff that might be more interesting to others who don't care for baseball.

Sriracha 101: Dispelling myths and misinformation about Sriracha at the Amoeblog

Sriracha 101: Dispelling myths and misinformation about Sriracha at the Amoeblog

I love sriracha as much as the next person. I don't, however, think I take it nearly as seriously as some... which wouldn't bother me if they weren't so annoying and full of much misinformation. Here's the straight dope on sriracha. Lighten up and expand your horizons!

We cannot walk the floor at night in peace -- a look back at Perry Boys

We cannot walk the floor at night in peace -- a look back at Perry Boys

Perry Boys -- so named due to their predilection for Fred Perry tennis shirts -- are one of the great, obscure and unsung British youth subcultures. Information about them is fairly scant -- maybe because the London-centric British media took years to catch on to what was happening up in Manchester.

Happy Birthday Wah Ming Chang -- Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month at the Amoeblog

Happy Birthday Wah Ming Chang -- Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month at the Amoeblog


Today is the birthday of artist, animator and prop designer Wah Chang. He worked anonymously for Walt Disney and George Pal before really making his mark on Star Trek. Among his most notable creations are the iconic communicator and tricorder on Star Trek. Because it's his birthday, Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, and with Star Trek Into Darkness in theaters, now seemed like a great time to honor this largely unsung hero.

From Confluence to Atwater: Exploring Along San Fernando Road | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

From Confluence to Atwater: Exploring Along San Fernando Road | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

The Los Angeles River is coming back! What will that mean for the riverside communities like Lincoln Heights, Cypress Park, Glassell Park, and Atwater Village? I explored the ruins of the Santa Fe Railroad's Taylor Yard -- which is destined to become part of a large, riverside park -- and the neighborhoods along a short section of the river's eastbank.

East of the Eastside -- the Far Eastside at the Amoeblog

East of the Eastside -- the Far Eastside at the Amoeblog

Los Angeles County is home to several official (mostly Asian-American) ethnic enclaves. However, most of the Asian-American population resides in a group of communities in the San Gabriel Valley. East of the Eastside and in acknowledgement of the implications, I affectionately refer to them as "The Far Eastside."

Los Angeles's Secret, Foreign Language Movie Theater Scene at the Amoeblog

Los Angeles's Secret, Foreign Language Movie Theater Scene at the Amoeblog

Do you know about the foreign language cinemas around the Southland catering to Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese films?

Happy Beltane! Your guide to observances and Beltane in popular culture at the Amoeblog

Happy Beltane! Your guide to observances and Beltane in popular culture at the Amoeblog

Happy Birthday, Johnny Madero, Pier 23 at the Amoeblog

Happy Birthday, Johnny Madero, Pier 23 at the Amoeblog

On this day (well, yesterday) one of Jack Webb's snappy, hard-boiled detective shows debuted on the Mutual network. Only two episodes are known to have survived... you can listen to one here as you read about the show!

Shifters and sugarcubes -- Happy Bicycle Day!

Shifters and sugarcubes -- Happy Bicycle Day!

Today (19 April) is Bicycle Day, marking the day back in 1943 that Swiss Chemist Albert Hofmann dropped LSD, hopped on his bike and ultimately made his way home (where he thought his neighbor was an evil witch who'd poisoned him). Later his trip got better. Also -- I had NO IDEA that there were so many songs written about bikes! (Research fatigue)

Italo-Disco star Ken Laszlo is Coming to SoCal on Memorial Day Weekend 2013 at the Amoeblog

Italo-Disco star Ken Laszlo is Coming to SoCal on Memorial Day Weekend 2013 at the Amoeblog

Italo-Fans/New Wavers in Southern California (or further away if you're willing to make the pilgrimage) -- Ken Laszlo and Fred Ventura are coming to Club Avec in Huntington Beach. Also on hand will be singer TQ and DJ BPM... and me.

Exploring a Section of the Old Glendale and Edendale Red Car Lines | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

Exploring a Section of the Old Glendale and Edendale Red Car Lines | Block by Block | Land of Sunshine | KCET

Los Angeles used to have the largest interurban rail network in the world. A couple of weeks ago a friend (and her baby and dog) and I explored a trail through Silver Lake where the old Edendale and Glendale-Burbank Lines used to run. Now it's a strange, neglected, beautiful parcel and the frequent site of planned developments which never come to fruition.

Italo-Disco star Fred Ventura -- Coming to SoCal on Memorial Day Weekend 2013

Italo-Disco star Fred Ventura -- Coming to SoCal on Memorial Day Weekend 2013

Very exciting news for Italo Disco fans and/or Vietnamese New Wavers. Ken Laszlo will be there too (I'll write about him next week).

Beyond Sustainability -- a fund raiser for Creative Migration at the Amoeblog

Beyond Sustainability -- a fund raiser for Creative Migration at the Amoeblog Good food, good beer, good cause in Silver Lake on 6 April.

Trans-Jovian Moons in Fact and Fiction at the Amoeblog

Trans-Jovian Moons in Fact and Fiction at the Amoeblog