LAVA Sunday Salon

LAVA Salon April 2015

Richard Schave

0 2.4k

Join poet and memoirist Joan Jobe Smith for an afternoon of poetry & storytelling at the LAVA Sunday Salon. The newly published Tales of An Ancient Go-Go Girl by long-time Long Beach, California resident Joan Jobe Smith, is a picaresque True Tale, a 50-year Glotessey spanning the 1965 Los Angeles Watts Riots, near death at the hands of a homicidal ex-husband, the counter-culture go-go swinging let-it-all-hang-out 1960s-‘70s, single Motherhood and Feminism. Rarely does a natural poet and historian such as Joan Jobe Smith endure such ordeals and challenges and survive to tell the tale. It is a Tale written with go-going panache and patois, and heart, courage and humor to make our lives richer and wiser. The event will be a series of short Q&As with LAVA’s Richard Schave on milestones from the memoir, punctuated by Joan reading poetry selections which span her career.

Excerpts from 5-Star Reviews of Tales of An Ancient Go-Go Girl:

“Charles Bukowski said the inimitable Joan Jobe Smith’s writing ‘has the reality of force properly put down on paper; she cuts herself loose into the stratosphere.’ Joan’s heart is so damned big. She’s not only cut herself loose into the stratosphere, she takes anyone who wants to go with her along for the ride. And now we have this raw-edged, honest, beauty of a book…” —L. Jakiela, Creative Writing Professor, University of Pittsburgh

“Vividly conjures up the dark shadows and wisecracks of a Film Noir, set in 1960s-‘70s L.A., with a cast of glamourous yet vulnerable dancers, slimy bosses, wharf rats (both rodents, ex-husband and customers) with walk-ons by celebrities (Dick Dale, Ike and Tina Turner) amongst the burgeoning pop music and drug counter-culture of the era. Energized by Joan Jobe Smith’s poetic eye and exuberant syntax, these true Tales will enthrall readers, revealing its author as a brilliant chronicler of her Noir-ish life and times.“—Jules Smith, London’s Times Literary Supplement

“I just finished reading Joan Jobe Smith’s Tales of An Ancient Go-Go Girl. She has such a descriptive, poetic talent for words as she weaves her true life tales of love, jealousy, near murder and trials. Bukowski advised her to write about her go-go girl years. I admire her ability to bring scenes from the ’60s and ’70s so vividly to life.”–Linda King

Youtube Channel link for April 2015 LAVA Sunday Salon

LAVA Salon March 2015

Richard Schave

0 2.6k

Architectural Historian Nathan Marsak, the LAVA Visionary of the Year for 2015,Â presents on the forgotten architectural landscape of nineteenth-century Los Angeles—a lost world whose most salient impulse was toward the imposing, rough-hewn blocks of the Romanesque.

The common narrative regarding the visual development of early Los Angeles usually involves the native vernacular of the pueblo, which one may still visit in any number of extant adobes; from there, following some historic boom times, we Angelenos and visitors alike are regaled by the wondrous Beaux-Arts high-rises of downtown. If pure Victorian architecture is considered, one likely turns attention to the Eastlake and Queen Anne examples along Carroll Avenue, or to the used-car lot of gingerbread, Heritage Square.

This does a disservice, asserts Marsak, to the wonderland of Richardsonian Romanesque, Romanesque Revival, and Romanesque-hybrid office blocks and civic structures that once defined our city. A confluence of money and local pride, primarily in the late-1880s, resulted in what was arguably America’s greatest center of the style, short-lived though it may have been. The ethos of the City Beautiful movement, skyscraper construction, and other factors contributed to its demise.

It is especially striking that these structures, whose construction exuded solidity and permanence, should have been removed on so great a scale. Besides illuminating twenty of the most notable lost masterpieces, Marsak’s lecture will visit those few remaining examples of the style. Attention will be given as well to the styles that fought for dominance in defining Victorian Los Angeles, e.g., French Empire.

Youtube Channel link for October 2011 LAVA Sunday Salon

LAVA Sunday Salon, Library Bar Sunday Salon

LAVA Salon February 2015

Richard Schave

0 2.4k

Join LAVA Visionary and art historian Dr. Paul Koudounaris, author of “Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures and Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs” and “The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses” for a very special presentation inaugurating the relaunch of the monthly LAVA Sunday Salon at Library Bar.

Demonically-Possessed Cats with Dr. Paul Koudounaris

Does your cat do things like:

spit fire?

speak in tongues?

levitate?

shape shift?

wantonly kill people for no apparent reason?

This behavior may be more than simple bad kitty syndrome—your cat may be possessed by a demon. But don’t worry, you’re not alone. In fact, there is an entire history of demonically-possessed cats. Felines were once considered by theologians to be easy prey for demons, who could enter their bodies and wreck incredible havoc on mankind. And did you know… demonically-possessed cats are still believed to be with us today?! Dr. Paul Koudounaris has immersed himself in the study of demonic cats, in order to to give a talk on this sadly neglected topic. Cat lovers will like this lecture, and cat haters will like it even more. Neither side will ever look at a domestic cat the same way again.

Please note this lecture has been given by Dr. Koudounaris in abbreviated forms about town, but this only time he will present the full lecture in Los Angeles.

Youtube Channel link for LAVA Sunday Salons

LAVA Sunday Salon, Les Noces du Figaro Sunday Salon

LAVA Salon August 2014

Richard Schave

0 2.2k

Join LAVA for our revived free monthly Sunday Salon series. We return to South Broadway, to the mezzanine of Les Noces du Figaro, which was recently opened by the family behind Figaro Bistro in Los Feliz. This handsome space was formerly Schaber’s Cafeteria (Charles F. Plummer, 1928), and the mezzanine features wonderful views of the Los Angeles Theatre.

On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a structured Salon featuring formal 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 eclairs.

Read about the original Sunday Salon at Clifton’s Cafeteria here.

A Note On Arriving Downtown on Sunday

The Made In America concert will close off the Civic Center (the area around City Hall) for the whole weekend.Please do not, if you are driving, take the 101 freeway to come downtown, as you will be plagued with festival detours.The Pershing Square Metro Station is the closest transit stop to Cafe Figaro. If you are driving, it is easy to access 7th & Broadway if arriving via the 10 freeway, the 60 or the 5. We recommend taking public transportation, or allowing yourself more time than usual if you are driving.

Presentation One: Charlie Parker’s Central Avenue Jazz

Alto saxophonist Charlie Parker arrived at Los Angeles’ Union Station in December of 1945 all but tied to his seat. Somewhere in the southwestern desert his heroin withdrawals had caught up with him and the rest of the band knew they were going to be in for a long trip. But none was going to be as long as Parker’s.

The two titans of bebop, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, had booked a winter gig in sunny LA.Six nights a week in a Hollywood nightclub was a nice way to get out of the City and introduce a new audience to their innovative bebop sounds — but Parker’s spiraling drug problem was a liability before the band had even packed their bags.

When the residency finally ended, relationships were in shambles, box office receipts were disappointing and the band was eager to just get home. But Parker didn’t show up for the flight. It took him over a year to finally get out of Los Angeles. During his extended stay, Parker had disastrous recording sessions, transcendent recording sessions, he signed over royalties to his drug dealer, lit his hotel room on fire and eventually served six months in a mental institution.

Author Sean J. O’Connell chronicles Los Angeles’s unique 20th century jazz scene in his newest book, Los Angeles’s Central Avenue Jazz. For his first LAVA presentation, he will chart the journey of jazz’ greatest destructive genius through the nightclubs and back alleys of 1940s Los Angeles.

Presentation Two: Living a Magickal Life

What is magick and how does one live it? From kitchen witchery and crafting to ceremonial magic, join us to examine the core principles underlying magick and discover ways to enrich your life by creating change in accord with Will.

Soror Lilya is an Initiate of Ordo Templi Orientis, a Thelemite and a Crafter who has been working with Magick for over 20 years.

The Salon will be followed by a free walking tour, The Flaneur & The City: Broadway on My Mind walking tour #12. Please visit the tour series Landing Page for videos and descriptions of past tours and the goals of the series.

Youtube Channel link for LAVA Sunday Salons

LAVA Sunday Salon, Les Noces du Figaro Sunday Salon

LAVA Salon July 2014

Richard Schave

0 2.3k

Read about the original Sunday Salon at Clifton’s Cafeteria here.

Presentation One The Mystique of the Orange.

Cloaked in mystery and available only to the elite until modern times, the orange has been known as the fruit of the gods, the food of emperors, a token of gratitude and a symbol of health, wealth and love. Since it entered history, the dream of California has been that it is a place of plenty, of potential, of personal opportunity. The orange became a glowing symbol of this dream. David Boulé, author of the recently released The Orange and the Dream of California (Angel City Press), will take a lively, literary and extraordinarily visual look at this colorful and captivating history and reveal the tremendous impact of the orange on the culture and development of California, and how these two entities have built on one another to feed the imagination and conjure a compelling fantasy.

A third generation Californian, David has a lifelong fascination with the history, culture, achievements and uniqueness of the region. “The enduring image of California as paradise and the orange as unique among all fruit is because, partially, these things are true. These traits have then been magnified by poets and boosters, artists and hucksters, songwriters and bureaucrats—with both artistic and commercial motivation—to appeal to people’s continuing desire to believe that such exceptional perfection can really exist,” he says.

Presentation Two Charlie Chaplin & Keystone’s Centennial.

One hundred years ago, Charlie Chaplin made his film debut in Mack Sennett’s Keystone Comedies. Within the year, he would become the biggest star in motion pictures, going on to set filmmaking artistic standards that some feel have never be duplicated. During that first year of 1914, Chaplin filmed in various Los Angeles neighborhoods, and—in several cases—used actual events (ranging from the dedication of a Wilmington wharf to various auto races on streets and tracks) as a backdrop for his comedies. Brent E. Walker, author of Mack Sennett’s Fun Factory, will take us on a guided tour of Chaplin in 1914, and the Los Angeles history revealed in these early comedies.

PLEASE NOTE: this Sunday Salon will be slightly longer than usual in order to accommodate three talks.

The second presentation will end at 1:45pm. The third presentation runs from 2:00pm-2:30pm, and will serve as an introduction to the Broadway On My Mind Walking Tour which immediately follows.

Presentation Three: Open Street Map & Historical Overlays

Join us as Charlotte Wolter explains how OpenStreetMap is creating an open, free map of the world that anyone can use.

It works by marshaling the energies and knowledge of tens of thousands of volunteers around the globe who contribute their time and local knowledge in a phenomenon known as “crowd-sourcing,” focusing this mass of people in a common effort for the common good.

[OpenStreetMap] is also a sophisticated technical effort, one in which some of the best minds in geographic / mapping science and computing have contributed their abilities to create the storage system that keeps all of OpenStreetMaps’ huge data files safe and quick to access.

These programmers also have helped to develop an online mapping interface that make it easy for anyone to contribute to OpenStreetMap. If you have an interest in the history of a place, OpenStreetMap (and its corollary, OpenHistoricalMap) are here to provide a way to put that history, literally, on the map.

If you’d like to map historical sites that still exist, you’ll use OpenStreetMap. For lost locations, OpenHistoricalMap is the place where contributors can provide reconstructions of places that existed in the past, whether the buildings still exist today or not.

In this presentation, you will have an opportunity to try your hand at contributing to OpenStreetMap, using your knowledge of historic sites in Los Angeles. You can even bring your laptop computer if you’d like to learn how to edit Open StreetMap at home. The tools and techniques you’ll discover in this presentation will also be useful if you’d like to add lost locations to OpenHistoricalMap .

The Salon will be followed by a free walking tour, The Flaneur & The City: Broadway on My Mind walking tour #11. Please visit the tour series Landing Page for videos and descriptions of past tours and the goals of the series.

Youtube Channel link for July 2014 LAVA Sunday Salon

LAVA Sunday Salon, Les Noces du Figaro Sunday Salon

LAVA Salon June 2014

Richard Schave

0 2.2k

Read about the original Sunday Salon at Clifton’s Cafeteria here.

Presentation One: 24 writers: 20th Century Science Fiction

Milt Stevens, a long time Science Fiction fan who for a bit over fifty years has been a member of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society — the world’s oldest science fiction club, and which for many years met down the street at Clifton’s Cafeteria — will talk about 24 writers who are major influences on 20th century SF. By Milt’s own admission his presentation will be anecdotal and by no means comprehensive. Some of the writers to be discussed are Jack Williamson, Kurt Vonnegut, Leigh Brackett, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Murray Leinster, Octavia Butler, Philip K. Dick, Poul Anderson and Ray Bradbury.

Presentation Two: The Magical World Of Jack Parsons

The fascinating story of Jack Parsons — follower of Aleister Crowley, pioneering rocket scientist, and early member of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society — has become increasingly well known in recent years. But few have examined his beliefs and practices. To really understand the man who summoned the goddess Babalon into physical manifestation, you need to start with the law of Thelema, proceed through Ordo Templi Orientis, Qabalah and Enochian magick, and continue to the reception of Liber XLIX and the transformation of Witchcraft for a new Aeon. Join Craig Berry, an initiate of Ordo Templi Orientis, on a journey through the magical world of Jack Parsons.

The Salon will be followed by a free walking tour, The Flaneur & The City: Broadway on My Mind walking tour #10. Please visit the tour series Landing Page for videos and descriptions of past tours and the goals of the series.

Youtube Channel link for June 2014 LAVA Sunday Salon

LAVA Sunday Salon, Les Noces du Figaro Sunday Salon

LAVA Salon May 2014

Richard Schave

0 2.0k

Read about the original Sunday Salon at Clifton’s Cafeteria here.

Because of the scope and scale of the program, this month’s Sunday Salon will not follow our usual varied two-act structure, but will focus almost entirely on Electronic Music. The program will include the history of the genre, some theoretical discussion, a performance and a hands-on demonstration. We will break for about ten minutes about an hour into the presentation.

Our focus is on Electronic Music, and the sub-genre known as Circuit Bending. Circuit Bending is the creative rewiring of pre-existing circuits to make new media. Often these circuits are found in inexpensive children’s toys and “obsolete” devices. Important aspects of Circuit Bending are the D.I.Y (Do It Yourself) autodidactic nature of immediate exploration into new electronic sounds and the ability to engage in instrument building without the need for an electrical engineering degree. The artists presenting today, Andy Ben, Jeff Boynton and Mona Jean Cedar, explore the implications of Circuit Bending through a variety of contexts, including performance, documentary video and education.

For Mona Jean Cedar (poet, dancer and sign language interpreter) and Jeff Boynton (electronic musician), “Circuitry and Poetry” arose out of a desire to create collaborative artwork. Jeff’s initial impulse was to create interactive electronic instruments that would respond to Mona’s hand and body movements. This did not happen immediately due to the steep learning curve of electronics, but it led to the discovery of the “black art” of Circuit Bending. This was the jumping off point, and eventually Jeff was able to develop interfaces that would allow Circuit Bent instruments to respond to light, sound and movement. Mona had already been creating work in which poetry and movement was composed specifically for how well they will work with sign language. Presenter Andy Ben is a musician and technologist and film maker who is interested in the digital convergence and post consumer culture.

The LAVA Sunday Salon will also feature a short presentation by the scholar and writer Fanny Daubigny about the American translator Louise Varèse and her work with 19th century French poetry. (Louise Varèse was the wife of Edgar Varèse, whose compositions are considered a cornerstone of electronic music.)

The Salon will be followed by a free walking tour, The Flaneur & The City: Broadway on My Mind walking tour #9. Please visit the tour series Landing Page for videos and descriptions of past tours and the goals of the series.

Youtube Channel link for May 2014 LAVA Sunday Salon

LAVA Sunday Salon, Les Noces du Figaro Sunday Salon

LAVA Salon April 2014

Richard Schave

0 2.4k

Read about the original Sunday Salon at Clifton’s Cafeteria here.

The Salon will be broken into two distinct presentations each lasting about 45 minutes. You are encouraged to arrive early if you wish to order food and beverages from the counter downstairs, and bring your meal upstairs.

Presentation One: In celebration of National Poetry Month, Suzanne Lummis, Cece Peri and Dale Raoul will present a series of readings in the vein of Poetry Noir. The readings will explore the themes of this genre: crime, decay, anonymity, hauntings from the past and a palpable sense of place and feel unique to Los Angeles.

Presentation Two: Architectural historian Nathan Marsak, author of Los Angeles Neon, will present on Los Angeles’s great public mausolea.In this cultural and architectural history of how Los Angeles came to understand the community mausoleum, Marsak will chart the southland’s parallels with and digressions from America’s developing mores and attitudes toward the space of death.

Emerging from the early 20th-century Garden Cemetery movement, Los Angeles not only contributed the concept of the memorial park, but also many of the finest–and sometimes strangest–grand public mausolea known. Los Angeles, long noted for its mimetic “California Crazy” and futuristic Googie architecture, needed, in its funerary architecture, to strive for solemnity and sublimity. Nevertheless, its cemetery buildings betray a peculiar and genuinely Southern Californian ethos in their expression.

Discussed will be the 1903 Chapel of the Pines crematory and columbarium; the early community mausolea of the ‘teens; the interbellum wonders of Forest Lawn’s neogothic Great Mausoleum, Angeles Abbey’s Arabian wonderland, and early-Christian meets Art Deco at Calvary Cemetery. Particular study will be given to the postwar era and the specific challenges mausoleum design faced adapting to Modernism–it is during this period they are routinely disparaged as filing cabinet necro-tenements–and how new considerations of population and land management influenced the building of open garden-court mausolea and columbaria.

Their legacy has left us with a means to gauge the city’s development (as well as remarkable tile work and stained glass). Through this lens, Marsak will reveal this significant, yet little-valued aspect of our architectural landscape.

Youtube Channel link for April 2014 LAVA Sunday Salon

LAVA Sunday Salon, Les Noces du Figaro Sunday Salon

LAVA Sunday Salon March 2014

Richard Schave

0 2.4k

Read about the original Sunday Salon at Clifton’s Cafeteria here.

Presentation One

In its first century of existence, beginning in 1850, Los Angeles County government evolved from a frontier institution with only a few constituents, a meager treasury and few duties, to an early American “urban county” and an innovator in local government at this level. The issues faced by the county’s leadership in the form of the Board of Supervisors had a profound effect on the economy and quality of life in what would become the most populous county in the nation. Many of these challenges, as examined in Tom Sitton’s book The Courthouse Crowd: Los Angeles County and its Government, 1850-1950 would persist in the post-World War II era and are still apparent today. In his presentation, author Tom Sitton will discuss a few of these issues and some of the increasingly powerful Supervisors who faced them, share a colorful “rogues’ gallery” of some of the most corrupt politicians in the region’s history, and describe how the book was written.

Presentation Two

A joint presentation centered around The Kept Girl (Esotouric Ink, 2014), LAVA co-founder Kim Cooper’s novel of 1929 Los Angeles starring the young Raymond Chandler, his devoted secretary and the real-life cop who is a likely model for Philip Marlowe. Kim will dig deep into the book’s true crime and literary inspirations and the process of bringing the book to press. Artist Paul Rogers will discuss his cover art for The Kept Girl, then move into a more freeform discussion of his often historic L.A.-themed creative process, from the germ of an idea, to photos, sketches, all the way to a complete series of prints.

The Salon will be followed by yet another tour in our series, The Flaneur & The City: Broadway on My Mind walking tour #7. Please visit the tour series Landing Page for past tours, videos and goals & objectives.

Youtube Channel link for March 2014 LAVA Sunday Salon

LAVA Sunday Salon, Les Noces du Figaro Sunday Salon

LAVA Sunday Salon February 2014

Richard Schave

0 2.3k

Read about the original Sunday Salon at Clifton’s Cafeteria here.

Presentation One

Back by popular demand, LAVA Visionary Joe Oesterle, author of Weird Hollywood and the classics Weird California and Weird Las Vegas. Joe will read some spooky stories from his books and share anecdotes from his weird road travels, and sign copies of Weird Hollywood. The multi-talented Joe Oesterle is a former Senior Editor of National Lampoon, a visual artist, musician, animator and curator of the strange and marvelous. At the Salon, Joe will be joined by Count Smokula, a 496-year-old accordion-playing vampire from the vaguely Eastern-European nation of Smokesylvania. A mainstay in the Los Angeles Underground scene, the Count has been described as a cross between Bela Lugosi and Jackie Mason. Please join us as the Count delights us with several numbers on his accordion.

Presentation Two

Poet Fred Voss will read for about 20 minutes from his Bloodaxe (UK) collections Hammers And Hearts Of The Gods and Carnegie Hall With Tin Walls and from Tooth And Fang And Machine Handle, his winning chapbook from Nerve Cowboy‘s (USA) 2013 Competition. Poems mostly about his working experiences, reflections on those experiences, and his 35-year life as a machinist which will include non-machine shop philosophical poems and a couple domestic-comedy “Frank & Jane” poems which bear a striking resemblance to his marriage to poet Joan Jobe Smith.

A teenager in 1950s’ L.A., go-go girl in swinging 60s-70s, poet, writer, teacher, mentor, founding editor of PEARL, and confidante of Charles Bukowski for nearly a decade, Joan Jobe Smith will read 20 minute’s worth of selected poems about the movies, lands of a 1,000 dances, and her friendship with Bukowski from her 2012 literary profile Charles Bukowski: Epic Glottis: His Women & His Art (& me), and the 2013 Bukowski Anthology, both published by Silver Birch Press.

(Linda King, previously scheduled to appear at this Salon, regrets that she is unable to attend.)

The Salon will be followed by the 6th Broadway On My Mind walking tour which will focus on John Parkinson buildings around the intersection of 5th & Broadway. Please visit the tour series Landing Page for past tours, videos and goals & objectives.

Youtube Channel link for Landing Page for LAVA Sunday Salons

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