Waves of Wonder in Downtown Los Angeles

WHENEVER I travel to downtown Los Angeles I am always hoping to drive by the Walt Disney Concert Hall. This building takes my breath away every time I see it and it is probably my favorite building in the city. My husband and I were recently downtown and even though we were going the The Lady of the Angels cathedral, which is another extraordinary building, I made him stop and take a picture of the Concert Hall. The picture is a quick shot on an iPhone and yet it captures the wonder that is this building. It looks perfect and as if if should be part of an ad for something. Built by Frank Gehry in 1999 this building exemplifies Los Angeles to me, it is a gorgeous piece of architecture something that might come for another world or movie and it looks like waves. Even in downtown where the ocean is not, Gehry brought the ocean to downtown and I love it.

--Mickala Jauregui
Photo credit: Matthew Jauregui via his iphone

A City of Palm Trees

SINCE THE beginnings of Los Angeles’ history, L.A. was said to be the American Mediterranean, the new Latin shore, a paradise. However, it would have been a tough sell for the original L.A. boosters to advertise Los Angeles as the new Mediterranean paradise with the lack of palm trees, even with the consistently 'perfect' and warm weather.

Although nearly every street in Los Angeles is lined with palm trees, only one species of palm tree, the Washingtonia filifera, is native to California. All other types of palm trees that can be seen lining the L.A. streets are imported, and even the Washingtonia filifera is not native to Los Angeles.

Los Angeles didn’t become a palm tree guarded city until the turn of the twentieth century, with most of the palm tree planting taking place in the 1930’s. On Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena palm trees were planted every hundred feet, and was almost renamed "Street of a Thousand Palms." In Venice, two hundred Washingtonia Robusta palms, or Mexican fan palms, were planted along Washington Boulevard.

In 1931, thousands of palm trees were planted in Los Angeles by the forestry division, which also helped the unemployed find work. The planting project cost $100,000, put around 400 unemployed men to work, and 40,000 palm trees were planted alongside 150 miles of city boulevards spaced forty to fifty feet apart, and many still line the streets of L.A. today.

The iconic palm trees in Los Angeles serve no purpose other than to confirm the original L.A. booster’s claim that L.A. is in fact the new Latin shore and to provide a picturesque paradise of a city. They provide no shade from the constant L.A. sun and provide and no fruit. The imported palm trees serve as a mask for Los Angeles to wear to hide her reality and promote fantasy that can be seen on nearly every street of Los Angeles.

-Nastassja Habers

-Photo Credit: SuperStock

A True Museum for LA

JUST A couple of miles east of the Pacific on Venice Boulevard, lies a hidden gem to Los Angeles called The Museum of Jurassic Technology.  This museum, founded by David Hildebrand Wilson in ’87, goes by unnoticed by most, but those who stumble across it quickly find themselves in no ordinary place.  As with the microminiature art sculptures that you must look through a microscope to see, the artifacts housed by the museum all contain unusual qualities.  In this dimly lit, claustrophobic labyrinth, viewers walk backwards in time and discover more about wonder than they do of the artifacts themselves.

David Wilson had no ordinary goals when he founded The Museum of Jurassic Technology.  In fact, he was steeped in wisdom about the evolution of museums, which explains why the museum functions as it does.  Through his studies, Wilson learned that museums were places dedicated to the muses in the ancient world.  As explained on The Museum of Jurassic Technology website, a museum is “a place where man’s mind could attain a mood of aloofness above everyday affairs.”  When society’s creative endeavors fell mute in the Middle Ages, so did the power of the museum.  It wasn’t until around the 16^th century when man picked museums back up as a way to preserve human culture.

 Nowadays, most museums are based off the traditions established by 16^th century museums, not antique museums like the great Alexandria.  Wilson’s Museum of Jurassic Technology fights that tendency, holding reverence to both the traditions of ancient museums but also in the artifacts they valued.  Visitors to The Museum of Jurassic Technology are supposed to feel most comfortable near the entrance where the contemporary exhibits are located, but will become less comfortable and familiar with the content that lies deeper in the labyrinth.  As described by one of Wilson’s idols, “the learner must be led always from familiar objects toward the unfamiliar - guided along, as it were, a chain of flowers into the mysteries of life”.  Perhaps the most interested facet of the museum is the myth that half of the objects are faked.  The thought is that Wilson intentionally left this ambiguous so that visitors would constantly question which artifacts could be regarded as authentic.  This inspires a certain skepticism in viewers that works perfectly with Wilson’s philosophical interest in the pursuit of wisdom.

-- Carey Uhl

Photo Credit 1: Rikomatic on Flickr

Photos 2 & 3: Ricky Jay

Abbot Kinney's Venice by the Sea

WALKING AROURND Venice, you might stumble upon its canals. They're clustered away from the Venice boardwalk and Abbot Kinney, in a part of the city that boarders Marina del Rey. The murky green water reflects skinny palms and bristling pine trees. You might have thought you were in Italy, you might have thought you were in the oak-filled Midwest. Bumming around its pathways a few weekends ago was me, my friend, and my family.

We were wandering. Just looking around at the different architecture of the houses, some of them funky and colorful, while others were quaint and rustic, while even more others fashioned ultra-hip contemporary. No congruity. It was remarkable to see such variety - people's differing tastes while sharing the similarity of living in the Venice canals, such a iconic location. Far from the city's namesake - the original Venice, Italy - the canals reflect a similar unsteady balance between mankind's structures and the natural world. In this setting, both contribute to the other's beauty.

We walked, we walked, we walked. We stepped along in single-file down the narrow paved sidewalks next to the water. By foot, I could observe the tiny details: the symmetry of a plant, the shallow depth of the water, the insides of houses. I'd always heard of the Venice canals, but had never experienced them as of yet. It's easy to get lost in the intricate system of pathways lining the canals. It was a mini-journey, a tiny discovery in the great wide expanse of land known as Los Angeles. It's comforting to know that these pockets exist, tiny places that feel like they belong to you even if it's your first time there.

-- Jennifer Pellerito

Photo Credit: Jennifer Pellerito

Charles Lummis: L.A. Booster

YESTERDAY was L.A.'s uber-booster Charles Lummis' birthday. You all read a little bit about him in David Fine's piece early in the semester -- Lummis and his brave long walk 3,507 miles from Cincinnati to Los Angeles.  Check out this link: http://lahistory.tumblr.com/post/18551953575/happy-birthday-charles-lummis-born-march-1-1859 and you'll find more.

Also, this Tumblr is  actually a really wonderful treasure trove of L.A. history in photographs, a rabbit hole for sure.

Enjoy!

-- L.G.

Let's Get Lost - Corner of 2nd & Wilshire

Fig Tree at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel

photo credit: Google Images

AMIDST THE chaos that is the city of Los Angeles, there is a place that radiates warmth to me - the corner of 2nd and Wilshire. Standing on the busy sidewalk you will encounter people bustling to work, sauntering back from the beach, strolling with an armful of shopping bags, or, of course, begging for change. This corner is a place I have spent quite a bit of time at over the past two and a half years I have lived in Los Angeles, but I am referring back to it for the idea of getting lost in L.A. because it was the first place I wound up in when I moved to L.A. and I was lost; albeit a sixty foot radius from the sun-spotted beach.

As I sit here today and take in the beach covered in mid afternoon mist, I can't help but smile. My brother once deemed Santa Monica a magical place in that "people are fun enough to party all night but active enough to be up for their morning jog," which is a description that rings true in this moment. There is always activity in Santa Monica, and from my perch on 2nd and Wilshire I can observe that activity and relish it for what it is - the type of area people dream about when they envision Los Angeles.

The corner has a neon brightness from the white light of the sun compared to the dimmer streets perpendicular to it, and maintains a peaceful air while it's 3rd street counterpart is packed with shops and popular eateries. This corner is quiet, boasting a hair salon and a dog groomer as well as smaller cafes and doctors' offices.

The aspect of this corner that makes it feel like a slice of home to me is the Fairmont Miramar hotel that spans the area between the corner and the beach. It is the hotel I stayed at with my parents the night before I started college, and it is the place that they stay each time they come and visit - which is twice as often as most of my classmates' parents! Any time I have taken a friend to the hotel to hang out with my parents, they comment on the gargantuan fig tree that sits in the middle of the sprawling entrance. Someone once told me that they purposely built around it to garner a homey feel.

And, at the end of the day, of course there is the beach. If you walk less than a mile into the bright sun you will reach Santa Monica Pier, with its gorgeous view and infamous rides.

Santa Monica is one of my favorite places to explore in Los Angeles, and the corner of 2nd and Wilshire is just one of the many spots I hope to find during my time living here.

-- Jordan Younger

Farewell, Clipper Darrell

CLIPPER DARRELL, also known as Darrell Bailey, is a resident of Lawndale, CA and for the past 15 years he has been arguably the most decorated sports fan for one of the most undecorated sports franchises--the Los Angeles Clippers. Despite the lack of success, support, and overall spirit of Clipper Nation, Darrell has remained loyal to our city's NBA step-child for over a decade and over 400 home games. From his attire, usually a wacky combination of red and blue, to his house, same description, he carries his Clipper faith him him everywhere. He has been more loyal to LA's notorious losing team than most of us, myself included, are to our best teams, like the Los Angeles Lakers. However LA has a tendency to remind us how valuable loyalty can be, and cannot be overnight. Clipper Darrell has recently been told by Clippers management that he must retire his Clipper affiliated name. Why? The Clippers feel that he has been using their name to market himself. Whether there is much of a case to make around this or not is up for debate, but it is a reminder for all of us Angelenos that at the end of the day we do not always get in return what we give to our sports franchises.

--Art Flores

Photo: Clipper Darrell's home

Credit: Darrell Bailey