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.

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 April 24 Salon: 

• In keeping with the Easter Sunday theme, LAVA Visionary The Ukulady and her band the Evil Sandwiches will sing quirky songs on ukulele, banjo and omnichord while Visionaries and honored guests craft Egg-centric & Bunnyriffic crafts, including magnets, pins, pipe-cleaner jewelry, egg dioramas and more!

• LAVA Visionary Ian Whitcomb will lead us on a ramble through his checkered past: how, while still a student at Trinity College Dublin, he came to Los Angeles in 1965–as a Justin Beiber-style teen idol with his lubricious hit, “You Turn Me On.” How he fell in love with the glamor–surf, girls, bodies in general, onion rings, and what not–and how, over the years, although the glamor has faded, he is even more entranced with L.A as a city of hidden treasures and odd folk, who are now his friends. He made a BBC film about the GB colony, he has been a radio host since the early 1980s ( KROQ, KCRW, KPCC) and now talks about his life here on his XM (Channel 152,Extreme Radio) and Luxuriamusic.com radio shows and also in his monthly “Letters From Lotusland” posted online. While online travel to YouTube and see Ian in his rock  star splendor and go through the years with him as he transforms from rocker to ragtimer and finally to ukester–you can even watch the BBC documentary mentioned above–it’s heavy with sex and nudity) He will illustrate his ramble with extracts from his latest book, “Letters From Lotusland–An Englishman In Exile” (especially from the episode where his dog Rollo is taken for a ride by a Hollywood scam audition outfit ), and, with his ukulele he will sing his song , “Come And Make Your Heaven In L.A.”  (as featured in the horrible slasher feature, “Bloody Movie” and on You Tube). Ian, by the way, was instrumental in the  revival of the ukulele– back in the 1960s and early 70s on Dick Clark’s “Where The Action Is” and Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” and, of course, though his hit single “Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday On Saturday Night?”

Ian’s Presentation on Youtube.

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