Welcome to the blog of writer and musician Andrew Martin. Here I'll post original photographs and observations as I encounter the history and culture of the San Fernando Valley, the City of the Angels, Alta California and the far-flung Pacific Rim… but mostly the Valley.
Some gracious angel was up the tower on the morning of the day before the church was engulfed in flame, and took this absolutely breathtaking video. Is this the ringing of matins? I haven’t heard about the fate of the bells. Bells are a symbol of resurrection; phoenix-like, they can be re-cast and ring new tones in a new life. Still, I can’t imagine the bells or the tower or the shutters or the pulleys or the ropes or the flywheels will ever be the same. God bless whoever took this video; especially with such AWESOME sound. This is a world heritage sound. Click, and spend nine minutes as close to heaven as you can get.
To soothe you with distractions during the anxious hours before Midnight, the Valley Village View offers a look at photos that never made the editor’s cut. Good pictures, interesting subjects, and maybe I intended to blog about them, but never found the right angle, or didn’t have the time to research. Or conversely, I felt I had so MUCH to say about a subject that I set the whole thing on the back burner, and forgot. So fill the fireplace with enough wood to last until 12:00, curl up with your bottle of Korbel Brut, and enjoy the re-View!
LA’s City Hall shines in dark times; an incorruptible beacon aloof from the tawdry commerce of the streets.
In February, 2018, I went to Rome. I wanted to write about how Roman history affected the civic development of modern cities like Los Angeles. I still do.
Mother’s Day brunch at the Scientology Celebrity Center. It’s a thing.
The blog doesn’t need more photos of cacti. But note that they are frequently the victims of graffiti.
Alan Chapman and Gail Eichenthal, stalwart hosts of America’s number ONE classical music station, and America’s number ONE most popular NPR station, in any format. Go KUSC!So I went to Lodi….here it is.Lovely mid-century memorial mosaic in Valley Village Preesbyterian.The atrium at the Central Library.
LA has fascinating cemeteries, but it seems morbid to highlight them more than once a year at Days of the Dead. One day I’ll get to Hollywood Forever, which has more famous stars than any other. Till then, taste eternity. The reflecting pool is the double grave of Douglas Fairbanks, Senior and Junior.
The campus at Los Angeles Valley College has been re-designed. You get the idea: “Old and New at Valley College.”
Saved from destruction, happily installed on the patio of the Idle Hour in NoHo.
Some curiosities of California vernacular architecture. A) Replacing a 100-year old redwood roof by scraping the old shingles off with pitchforks. B) The porch of a gorgeous Craftsman in Placerita Canyon, minus the Craftsman. C) The fascinating double-roofed cold storage house at Los Encinos, which turns out to be storing… D) A load of adobe bricks! Jackpot!
Corredore at NoHo High, forlorn during a school break.L.A.’s replica of the Mexican bell that rang out the “Grito de Dolores”. This holiday, November 19, is celebrated as the beginning of Mexican independence from Spain.
I have no idea what this bell is — but it’s outside the Central Library.
Caution: Robot at Work. NoHo Station.
Every Labor Day, a little traveling fun fair still enlivens NoHo Park.Local celebrity Angelyne, spotted in Valley Village.
Walk streets near the Southwest Museum, one of LA’s most historic neighborhoods. I came upon a memorial shrine in the staircase; and another to the Black Virgin of Guadalupe, whose apparition to Juan Diego is celebrated on December 12.
The Valley Village View 