LAVA Exclusives

Architecture/Design, Free, History, LAVA Exclusives, Preservation, The Flâneur & The City, Tours

The Flâneur & The City: Olvera Street

Richard Schave

0 1.6k

Urban historian Richard Schave’s site-specific discussion series “The Flâneur & The City” is an ongoing attempt to explore some of the more important issues revealed by the constantly changing heart of the metropolis.The core notion of the series is of culture and history as commodities that are packaged and sold to a target demographic; meanwhile, it’s the ignored and seemingly worthless scraps of meaning found on the sidewalks and marketplaces where the true remnants of positive public space can be found. All interpretations and nuisances of the word flâneur are examined — from the modern-day aesthete dreaming of Baudelaire while carried along in the human tide past the stalls and shops of Broadway, to its more recent and perhaps relevant use, someone who is loitering. At its heart this series is a celebration of the simple act of getting out of your car and walking through a neighborhood and learning to see it with all your eyes.

In this installment, we will visit Olvera Street, the historic seed of Los Angeles and the first place where issues of urban preservation entered the city’s consciousness. On this free 45-minute walking tour, we’ll explore the site’s history, from the founding of the city (1781) to the present day, with a focus on the “classic” era: Christine Sterling’s nearly thirty years of preservation and reinterpretation, which resulted in the entire Plaza becoming a State park, now managed by the city of Los Angeles.

On this informative stroll through a provocative and multi-layered space, we’ll explore such key questions as:

* What core challenges, goals and strategies are shared by Christine Sterling at the Plaza in the early 20th century and the developers of downtown’s Old Bank District (4th & Main) in the early 21st century?

* Can arts and culture succeed as a tool for economic development for reinvigorating historic neighborhoods? Was Jane Jacobs right when she proclaimed that “new ideas need old buildings”?

* Is there a point on the continuum where the creeping kitsch of a tourist attraction overwhelms the value of a vital community space? Can a positive public space be ruined by popularity and accessibility?

The 45-minute tour will be followed with a preview visit to downtown’s newest cultural institution, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in the old Brunswig Building just south of “La Placita” church. Here President and CEO Miguel Angel Corzo will give us a 30-minute walkthrough of the newly-refurbished site and touch on the core goals and objectives for the institution, which opens in the fall.

Space is very limited on this free walking tour, and each guest must sign up using their own name and email address–no plus ones can be accommodated. To reserve, please click “Signups” above (or at this link) and give your full name when filling out the form. If unable to attend, please cancel to free up space for another guest.

Parking will be validated for those who have signed up for the tour in the parking lot of La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, just south of 501 North Main Stree (see map link). Please plan to arrive about 10 minutes before the tour starts for check in at the entrance to La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, 501 North Main Street.

Blog, Food, Free, History, LAVA Exclusives, Poetry, Talks

LAVA’s Sunday Salon

Kim Cooper

0 1.3k

On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather on the third floor of the historic Clifton’s Cafeteria in Downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you’re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the shortbread.

Special program at the July 25 Salon: LAVA Visionaries will host curated conversations and presentations at tables around the room. Stay tuned as additional details are added closer to Salon time.

12:30pm: A table discussion hosted by Visionary Miguel Angel Corzo on the subject of adaptive reuse of historic buildings, a topic of particular interest to him in his capacity as the President of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, Los Angeles’ newest addition to the region’s cultural landscape, soon to open in the restored 1888 Brunswig Building. He is President Emeritus of The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and former Director of the Getty Conservation Institute.

1:00pm: A table discussion hosted by Visionary Joan Renner on the dark and nefarious history of L.A.’s old Chinatown (where Union Station stands today). From opium dens to fallen women, bartered babies to subterranean tunnels of vice, Chinatown embodied the weirdest fantasies of early 20th century Angelenoes. How much of it was true, how much a racist and pruprient fiction? Drop by Joan’s table to find out. Joan is a writer and a social historian with a passion for vintage cosmetics ephemera, and crime. As a tour guide for Esotouric she has created a personality profile of Elizabeth Short (aka The Black Dahlia) based upon her choice of makeup. Joan is currently developing a tour that will delve into graft and corruption in Los Angeles during the 1930s. Her blog Vintage Powder Room explores history, women, art, and provides her with a transparent excuse to add to her collection of over 500 items, which she has lectured on at the Queen Mary Art Deco Festival and at a past LAVA Salon.

Closing poem from Mike The Poet.

We regret to inform you that scheduled presenter Lin Van Hek is unable to appear due to unforseen circumstances.

Following the Salon, a limited number of attendees are invited to join LAVA founder Richard Schave on a free walking tour of historic Olvera Street and a preview visit to downtown’s newest cultural institution, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in the old Brunswig Building just south of “La Placita” church. Here President and CEO Miguel Angel Corzo will give us a 30-minute walkthrough of the newly-refurbished site and touch on the core goals and objectives for the institution, which opens in the fall. For more info or to reserve (required), click here.

Clifton’s Cafeteria is at 648 South Broadway, near the corner of 7th Street. There are numerous paid parking lots nearby, and the closest Metro station is Pershing Square. Clifton’s is online at https://www.cliftonscafeteria.com

Blog, Food, Free, History, LAVA Exclusives, Talks

LAVA’s Sunday Salon

Kim Cooper

0 1.4k

Special program at the June 27 Salon: LAVA Visionaries will host curated conversations and presentations at tables around the room. To see photos from this past LAVA event, click here.

12:30pm-1pm: A live fashion presentation from Visionary A. Laura Brody. Remake, redo and reuse. While it may sound a little cliché today, it was necessary for survival after the Great Depression and became a catch phrase during the rationing of WWII. Pushing consumerism during the ’50s made this notion unfashionable, and it has only recently come into fashion again. Unfortunately, it is often just that- fashion and a notion, not actual re-purposing or re-use. Here’s a way to experience actual, non-damaging to the environment re-purposing firsthand- on your body. Visionary A. Laura Brody will demonstrate live draping on a willing volunteer or volunteers, showing methods of creating clothing from existing scraps, fabrics and old clothing. The materials used will be the donated, left over and found remnants from her live draping Hollywood Fringe Festival event, Presque Prêt a Porter. The lucky mannequin/person will get a custom draped piece of clothing created just for him or her draped on him or her. Warning: scissors will be used close to the body. So will duct tape and staples. If this makes you very nervous, you may not be a good candidate. Perhaps 2 people can be draped within the 1/2 hour timeframe. She’ll also show you examples of her own re-purposed art and jewelry. ABOUT OUR FEATURED VISIONARY: A. Laura Brody is a professional costume designer and maker. Working for the entertainment industry exposes her to a disgusting amount of waste. To counter this (and as a matter of personal belief) she regularly re-uses material, notions, scraps and ideas in her designs, jewelry and art. If you’d like to see more, you can find her jewelry site on Etsy (the handmade lifestyle web site) at https://dreamsbymachine.etsy.com and her art at https://www.dreamsbymachine.com .

1:15-2pm: A table discussion hosted by Visionary Manny Pacheco, the award-winning author of Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History, which tells America’s story through the eyes of character actors. His paperback was recently added to the prestigious libraries of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Film Institute, and the Writer’s Guild Foundation. Pacheco is a 30-year Southern California radio and television personality who has appeared on Emmy-winning programs including NBC’s “Santa Barbara” and KCOP’s “In Studio.” At the LAVA Salon, he plans on sharing fascinating stories about Hollywood’s long and sometimes forgotten past during its Golden Age. Talking about character actors such as Lionel Barrymore, Van Heflin, Walter Brennan, Claude Rains, and Basil Rathbone, one can see that America’s story became an essential topic in the movies during the studio era of Cinema. Manny will also share his travels on what it took to get his book self-published. He will motivate you to start writing about your passions (whatever they may be). He will provide a step-by-step outline for bypassing the traditional East Coast elite in the publishing industry to get your inner-author out and into the hands of an eager public looking for new things to read. Whether you are a first-time writer or established scribe, you will want to listen to his motivating approach to the most traditional of businesses. You won’t want to miss a chance to meet the friendly and approachable Manny Pacheco, and check out his new book Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History!

Blog, Food, Free, LAVA Exclusives, Talks

LAVA’s Sunday Salon

Kim Cooper

0 1.5k

On the last Sunday of the month starting in March 2010, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather on the third floor of the historic Clifton’s Cafeteria in Downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you’re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the shortbread.

Special program at the May 30 Salon: LAVA Visionaries will host curated conversations at tables around the room.

12:30pm: Social historian Joan Renner presents Pandora’s Boxes: According to Greek mythology, when Pandora opened the box that Zeus had warned her never to open, all of the world’s evils escaped and only one thing remained inside – hope. This concept of hope is a fitting metaphor for cosmetics. Each container of face powder or jar of cold cream represents the dreams and desires of a woman seeking a magic potion that would make her beautiful. The exquisite and fragile packages used to market these dreams became the Pandora’s boxes of the early 20th century. Joan Renner has been collecting vintage cosmetics ephemera for over fifteen years. She has an extensive collection of commercial face powder boxes, rouge tins, advertisements, hair net packages and bobby pin cards. Please join her for a discussion of topics ranging from the design of the packaging to the use of arsenic laden face powder by women in 17th Century Italy to “accidentally” poison their unwanted husbands. Once gracing women’s dressing tables, various unique and beautiful items from Joan’s collection will be also be on display. These include items featured in her blog Vintage Powder Room and some never before exhibited. For a sneak peak at Joan’s collection, click this link.

1pm: Charles Fort, the League of Western Fortean Intermediatists, and a little town called Los Angeles: Phenomenologist Charles Fort (1874-1932) spent 27 years of his life humorously shredding orthodox science by collating thousands of accounts of unexplained phenomena which it couldn’t—and still can’t—explain away. The world has only gotten more phenomenal since Fort’s time, and the League of Western Fortean Intermediatists (L.O.W.F.I.) ensures that his spirit lives on: neither cranks nor skeptics, Forteans are characterized by their objectivity, good humor and lust for supernormal adventure. Based in Los Angeles, L.O.W.F.I.’s focus is on the long, strange life of the American southwest, gathering to discuss its enigmas, peculiarities and unexplainable events. Gonzo journalist and L.O.W.F.I. founder Skylaire Alfvegren has spent a lifetime researching the weird, wacky and unexplainable history of her hometown of Los Angeles. Join her as she explains Fort’s importance and the objectives of L.O.W.F.I., while detailing some of her favorite local cases of unexplainable phenomena. For more information, visit: https://forteanswest.com/wordpress-mu/?p=348

Architecture/Design, Free, History, LAVA Exclusives, Preservation, Tours

The Flâneur & The City: Dutch Chocolate Shoppe

Richard Schave

0 1.4k

In this installment, we will visit the famous Batchelder-tiled Dutch Chocolate Shoppe (aka Finney’s Cafeteria), strolling distance from our starting point, on West 6th Street near Broadway. Re-adapted numerous times since piping hot caldrons of cocoa kept Angelinos warm on those cool winter nights, we will try to trace the palimpsest of this city treasure. Topics include the proposed revisions to the city’s Cultural Heritage Ordinance, the impact these would have on a space such as the Chocolate Shoppe, and a history of the storefront from 1914 to the present. We will begin the tour from the bakery counter at Clifton’s Cafeteria, where you can obtain a hot beverage for the road, as there is no longer any cocoa to be found at our destination.

Free, History, LAVA Exclusives, Politics, Talks

Just the Facts: Chief William Parker’s War on Mickey Cohen and the Los Angeles Underworld

Richard Schave

0 4.0k

In April, John Buntin, author of the best-selling social history L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City (Random House), returns to Los Angeles to host a repeat engagement of the popular Esotouric bus adventure based on the book. As a special preview of his bus tour, LAVA exclusively presents John Buntin in a night of reading, discussion and curated vintage film and TV clips in the historic Los Angeles Athletic Club. Reservations are required for this free event – click “Signups” to reserve your spot.

ABOUT L.A. NOIR: In downtown Los Angeles in 1922, two very different men began their very different careers. William H. Parker III was a 17-year-old from Deadwood, SD, working as a movie usher at Loews’s State. Mickey Cohen was a 9-year-old hoodlum who was about to commit his first violent crime — a hold-up of the California Theater. The bitter rivalry between these two very different men would shape the culture of the LAPD and the history of 20th century Los Angeles.

In 1927, Parker became a police officer. Coldly cerebral (Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, a one-time L.A.P.D. officer and Parker speechwriter, reportedly based the character Mr. Spock on his old boss), intolerant of fools, and famously incorruptible (in a department that was famously corrupt), Parker gradually rose. In 1950, a scandal involving 114 Hollywood “pleasure girls” made Parker Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, a position he would hold for sixteen controversial years. In time, he became, in the words of Los Angeles Times publisher Norman Chandler, “the most powerful man in Los Angeles.”

Born Meyer Harris Cohen in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn in 1913, Mickey arrived in Los Angeles with his mother and sister at the age of three. By the age of six, he was hustling newspapers on the streets of Boyle Heights. One year later he was arrested for bootlegging. Mickey’s talent with his fists took the diminutive brawler to New York City to train as a featherweight boxer. His skill with a .38 took him into the rackets, first in Cleveland, then in Al Capone’s Chicago. In 1937, Mickey returned to Los Angeles to serve as gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel’s right hand man. It was a job that put him on a collision course with Bill Parker.

For three decades, from the Great Depression to the Watts riots, Parker and Cohen — the policeman and the gangster — engaged in a struggle for power, first as lieutenants to older more powerful men, then directly with each other. Their rivalry attracted the attention of a young Senate investigator named Robert Kennedy — and the antagonism of F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover — and involved some of the most powerful — and colorful — figures of the twentieth century: press magnates Harry Chandler and his nemesis, William Randolph Hearst; studio head Harry Cohn of Columbia; entertainers Jack Webb, Frank Sinatra, Lana Turner, and Sammy Davis Jr.; civil rights leaders Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

“[I]mportant and wonderfully enjoyable,” says the Los Angeles Times’ Tim Rutten of L.A. Noir. “A tour de force of non-fiction narrative,” agrees USC historian Kevin Starr. “Dragnet, One Adam Twelve, Police Story, LA Confidential all rolled into one captivating book… a great read,” says former LAPD chief Bill Bratton.

Join us for what is sure to be a lively reading and discussion. Reservations are required for this free event, and the Signup tab is at the top of this page.

Books, Free, History, LAVA Exclusives, Preservation, Talks, vintage

Naming of John Fante Square

Richard Schave

0 46.3k

Postscript: to see photos from this event, click here.

You are cordially invited to gather with John Fante’s family and fans for a celebration of the 101st anniversary of the author’s birth, as Councilmember Jan Perry (CD 9) officially re-names the intersection of 5th Street & Grand Avenue John Fante Square.

ABOUT THE EVENT: Please note that the dedication, originally scheduled for noon, is now starting at 11am. Following the formal dedication with short speeches from members of the Fante family, scholars and public officials, there will be a loosely structured free walking tour of John Fante’s lost and surviving downtown (starting around 11:30am), including a stroll up to Bunker Hill, a ride on the newly re-opened Angels Flight Railway, no-host lunch stop in Grand Central Market, ending up at the King Edward Saloon, which has declared April 8 to be John Fante Day, and is the last Skid Row bar and which was the place where the b-girls took Arturo Bandini’s royalty check in “Ask the Dust.”

You might also enjoy: John Fante’s Dreams from Bunker Hill bus tour (April 17)

The location of John Fante Square has been carefully chosen for its symbolism. 5th Street and Grand Avenue is the foot of the old Bunker Hill neighborhood where he lived and of which he wrote, and it was in the adjacent Central Library that the poverty-stricken young writer drank deeply of fiction and poetry. Years later, a young Charles Bukowski discovered “Ask the Dust” on the shelves at Central Library, and was himself inspired to become a writer. Fante Square’s nomination was initially proposed by LAVA founder Richard Schave, and made possible through the support of Councilmembers Jan Perry and Jose Huizar.

ABOUT JOHN FANTE: John Fante came to Los Angeles from Colorado in the midst of the Depression and soon found himself in a boarding house on Bunker Hill. Working odd jobs at the eastern foot of the hill and fortifying himself on a steady stream of reading material from the Central Library, he eventually became a published author—an event immortalized through the achievements of his anti-hero alter-ego Arturo Bandini in the classic 1939 novel “Ask The Dust.” Both the novel and the year are considered watersheds in Los Angeles’ literary history (“Day of the Locust,” “The Big Sleep,” “After Many A Summer Dies The Swan”).

Fante soon left downtown to raise a family and begin a lifetime career as a screenwriter in Hollywood. But the downtown Los Angeles of his youth remained alive in his imagination, and in 1982, blind and nearing the end of his life, he dictated his last novel, “Dreams From Bunker Hill,” to his wife Joyce.

The impact of Fante’s work on the wrap and weft of Los Angeles’ rich cultural heritage is significant. The lost world of old Bunker Hill—a populated and thriving neighborhood overlooking the teeming civic bustle of downtown—immortalized in his novels captivates readers from almost every continent and shows the universality and abiding draw of Fante’s prose.

Architecture/Design, Free, History, LAVA Exclusives, Politics, Preservation, The Flâneur & The City, Tours

The Flâneur & The City: Historic Core

Richard Schave

0 1.6k

Urban historian Richard Schave’s site-specific discussion series “The Flâneur & The City” is an ongoing attempt to explore some of the more important issues revealed by the constantly changing heart of the metropolis. The core notion of the series is of culture and history as commodities that are packaged and sold to a target demographic; meanwhile, it’s the ignored and seemingly worthless scraps of meaning found on the sidewalks and marketplaces where the true remnants of positive public space can be found. All interpretations and nuisances of the word flâneur are examined — from the modern-day aesthete dreaming of Baudelaire while carried along in the human tide past the stalls and shops of Broadway, to its more recent and perhaps relevant use, someone who is loitering. At its heart this series is a celebration of the simple act of getting out of your car, walking through a neighborhood and learning to see it with your own eyes.

The first installment of this series will begin on the roof of the Los Angeles Athletic Club for a general overview of the forces at play within the Historic Core and a basic orientation to the geography of the neighborhood, followed by a stroll along Broadway and Spring Streets to discuss the finer points of the impact of recent public policy on urban renewal, gentrification and positive public space on the fragile ecologies of these two important thoroughfares. Reservations will be required, and space is very limited for all events in this series. Reserve your space for the March 28 event by clicking “Signups” above ((before 10:30am on 3/28, after which you should just show up at the Sunday Salon and ask if there is space available), and subscribe to LAVA’s mailing list for announcements of future events in the series.

Film, Free, LAVA Exclusives, Occult

When Were You Born screening

Maja DAoust

0 1.4k

“True Astrology is a mathematical science, which teaches us what particular causes will produce what particular combinations, and thus, understood in its real significance, gives us the means of obtaining the knowledge how to guide our future births.” -H. P. Blavatsky (“Collected Writings, Volume VI” / The Theosophist, Vol. V, #9, June 1884)

Madame Blavatsky was one of esoteric scholar Manly P. Hall’s favorite historical figures, and all of her writings are lovingly collected in his library at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz. They are housed next to to the extensive Astrology section. In addition to his many books and lectures, one of Hall’s lesser-known accomplishments was writing the story for a major Hollywood motion picture whose theme was murder and astrology. The subject is no surprise, coming from the mind of the Los Angeles Philosopher who collected hundreds of charts examining astrological connections to the deaths of celebrities.

When Were You Born (1938) examines the validity and effectiveness of Astrology as a means of psychological profiling and to provide forensic evidence of crime. The film was directed by William C. McGann and stars Anna May Wong, Lola Lane and James Stephenson, with an appearance by a young Clayton “Lone Ranger” Moore as the D.A.’s Assistant.

This free screening is hosted by the United Lodge of Theosophy in association with LAVA, the Los Angeles Visionaries Association, and presented by Maja D’Aoust, librarian at the Philosophical Research Society. After the screening, Maja will lead a discussion of the film’s themes and their relevance to Madame Blavatsky’s work. The United Lodge of Theosophy in Los Angeles celebrated its 100 year anniversary in 2009, and has been in its current location since 1927. All are welcome to attend its classes without charge. This Lodge’s policy is “independent devotion to the cause of Theosophy without professing attachment to any Theosophical organization. It is loyal to the great Founders of the Theosophical Movement, but does not concern itself with dissensions or differences of individual opinion. The work it has on hand and the end it keeps in view are too absorbing and too lofty to leave it the time or inclination to take part in side issues. That work and that end is the dissemination of the fundamental principles of the Philosophy of Theosophy, and the exemplification in practice of those principles, through a truer realization of the SELF; a profounder conviction of Universal Brotherhood.”

Blog, Food, Free, LAVA Exclusives, Talks

LAVA’s Sunday Salon

Kim Cooper

0 1.2k

Special program at the April 25 Salon: starting at 1pm, LAVA Visionaries will host curated conversations at tables around the room.

1-2pm: Journalist and Educator Anthea Raymond hosts a table discussion on the use of Oral History in Media. How can first-person storytelling be used to build historical record? What is the role of media and journalism in giving voice to those stories? What is the difference between a journalistic interview and one for documentary purposes? How reliable is the information that comes from the latter? What is the importance of accuracy in historical memory? How has the use of first-person narrative changed as the nature of documentary itself has changed in the digital age?

1-2pm: Social historian and curator Allon Schoener arrived in LA on January 15. Considering himself to be a cosmopolitan, he finds it difficult to get the measure of LA. It is not like other major world cities with which he is familiar. Recognizing that new opportunities will become available to LA as the centers of economic, cultural and political power are shifting to Asia, he is hoping to find an answer to this question with his curated conversation, “What Is LA?”

1-2pm: Performer Michael “Crimebo the Clown” Perrick will lead a table discussion on the rich subject of Disappearing Los Angeles. Come share memories of vanished favorites, recommend endangered gems, and plumb the depths of your tablemates’ brains for lost locales half-recalled and possibly dreamed.

Following the Salon, you’re invited to join LAVA founder Richard Schave on a free walking tour of the historic Dutch Chocolate Shoppe around the corner. For more info or to reserve, click here.

And in the evening, Visionary David Caldwell opens his Arts District loft for a free presentation of his multi-media War Child Show. For more info, click here.

«< 13 14 15 16 17 >