Santa Spotted Over Valley Village!
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Merry Christmas From The View
Hail the blest morn, see the great mediator
— American folk tune from “Southern Harmony”, 1835 Reginald Heber, 1783-1826
Down from the regions of glory descend.
Shepherds, go worship the babe in the manger,
Lo! for his guard the bright angels attend. Chorus:
Brightest and best of the stars of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness and lend us thy aid.
Star in the east, our horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant redeemer was laid.
Cold on his cradle the dew drops are shining,
Low lies his bed, with the beasts of the stall.
Angels adore him, in slumber reclining,
Wise men and shepherds before him do fall.
Chorus Say, shall we yield him, in costly devotion,
Odors of Eden and offerings divine,
Gems from the mountain and pearls from the ocean,
Myrrh from the forest and gold from the mine?
Vainly we offer each ample oblation,
Vainly with gifts we his favor secure;
Richer by far is the heart’s adoration,
Nearer to God are the prayers of the poor.
Jolly Old St. Nicholas — Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round
In memoriam Julio Gosdinski
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PqOmMc9dStEtvi2b-GYdFhgiXTlYQ_SK/view?usp=sharing
Don’t miss clicking on the video, if you missed it last year when I first posted it. This may be a rare record of the of King of Merry-Go-Rounds, the Spreckels in Griffith Park.
On August 8th last, when everything briefly re-opened (remember?) I got a yen to check online if they had re-opened the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round, since it could be a good outdoor, nobody-around, wear a mask, Janet gets a scrollwork bench while we ride horses, all enjoy it outing. I’m glad I checked, and I’m grateful for LAist for covering the story, but I was really sad to see the guy who ran it and kept it running like a throroughbred for years, had tragically, suddenly gone to his reward. And as these things go, HE WAS THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD WHO KNEW HOW THE BLOODY THING WORKS. https://laist.com/2020/08/08/julio-gosdinski-dies-griffith-park-carousel-merry-go-round.php
Keep watching this space to see what happens, after the plague has passed, with this magnificent and historic old instrument. The Disney folks ought to get involved — for years Walt told the story that it was here, while watching his kiddies go round, that he dreamed up Disneyland. I regret that I found it so late, that my visit recorded above may have been my last.
The stately old trees waltz around in the breeze
— Dorothy Fields and Sigmund Romberg, from “Up In Central Park” 1945
Near the small carousel in the park
The children and nurses quite empty their purses
To ride to the music, and shout all the verses
It’s simply enchanting to see grandma panting
Sedately atop a white horse
But children and grandma go home when it’s dark
And then every lover is free to discover
The small carousel in the park!
Black History In Santa Monica
LOCAL HISTORY DEPT.
This is one of the best local history articles I’ve read in a while; it filled in huge gaps in my knowledge of a place I thought I knew intimately. If there is any Patient Reader with a direct line to Santa Claus: please ask him to support local journalism in LA this year, with an LAist donation. It’s worth it just for this article alone.
https://laist.com/2020/12/23/black_santa_monica_history_vintage_los_angeles.php
I lived for a few fantastic years in my twenties on 4th Street just above Rose. Our apartment house was just over the border of Venice, so my daily life straddled this old Black neighborhood of Ocean Park and the old Black neighborhood of Venice, Oakwood. All of these were a few blocks from, indeed overlapped with, the old Gay neighborhoods around the music-dance-dine-and-drink nightlife of Ocean Park pier, and the poet-and-artist colonies along the Canals and the walk-streets. When I arrived in the late eighties, these cultures were dead but still warm — or rather, I showed up just as the awesome but fleeting ghost of this old beach culture was leaving the corpse. My God — why was this amazing place, with its funky/grand architecture, magnificent beaches, diverse attractions, and cheap rents lying empty, vacant, forlorn? It was part of the mystique of the place it took me years to really understand. And believe me, once gentrification sets in, YOU SUDDENLY UNDERSTAND. The old Belmar, Ocean Park, Oakwood, Canals didn’t die, they were killed so richer people could move in. Sic semper Californienorum.
The Valley Village View 