Random scenes from the 2018 Dragon Parade. It’s very cool how the Mexican-American community, which shares the Pueblo with the Chinese, supports the parade.
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Tag Archives: OnlyinLA
Vine Street; locals and tourists pace the Walk of Fame. People crowd Hollywood today more than any time since the 50′s. It seems nobody on the streets seems interested in Hollywood itself: the built city; the entertainment industry workplaces; the once-famous studios and theater monuments.
The (current) Avalon nightclub began life as “1735 Vine” – a Spanish Baroque theatre built in Hollywood’s Golden Year of 1927. When the New Deal came in, it became the WPA Federal Theatre – and in a sweet irony, in the ‘50′s, it was where Richard Nixon broadcast his “Checkers Speech.” In 1964, it became the famous Hollywood Palace, home (and title) of one of the biggest radio and television variety shows in broadcast history. Bing Crosby was one of the many famous hosts, and every star in the Hollywood galaxy appeared over its seven-year run. The show had a consideration deal with the Hotel Knickerbocker and cross-promoted it in the opening, with glamor shots of famous neon sign.
Across the street from the (old) Palace is the Capitol Records Building, the Queen of Vine. This is the best architecturally, and one of the most significant historically, of all the buildings in Hollywood. Its prominent (and beloved) spot in the skyline is lately threatened with over-development plans around it – much of the outrageous Dubai-style excess appears to have been mitigated; a new tower dimly seen behind it seems to echo it gracefully. But this corner of Vine is still a highly endangered “view-shed”; I hope developers will remember what people used to love about Hollywood.
The Great Wall of Los Angeles, ½ mile of acrylic on concrete, 1978-present. The world’s longest mural, by reputation.
Valley Glen, the northern neighbor of Valley Village, is a modest and comfortable place, for modest and comfortable people. It seems the last place to host a cultural attraction of world-class artistic and historical significance, but it does.
The section of the Tujunga Wash along Coldwater Canyon Boulevard, from Burbank Blvd. to Oxnard Blvd., tells an astonishing picture-story of the land and people of Los Angeles from the end of the Ice Age to the present. The main themes of the artists were ethnic inclusion, gender conflicts and tensions, social transformation, and dissent and diversity in the making of California. Events of California history are depicted in ways specifically designed to afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted. Pretty strong stuff, for middle-middle-class Valley Glen.
In 1974 the Army Corps of Engineers asked arts consultant Judith Baca about their ugly concrete eyesore; she called it “a scar where the river once ran.” They asked her to make it pretty, and she founded S.P.A.R.C. – the Social and Public Art Resource Center – to undertake the massive project. She and her partners took four years to research local history, conquer technical problems, and recruit 400 schoolchildren as artists.
Baca studied Mexican muralism at the Taller Siqueiros in Cuernavaca. David Siqueiros was a master muralsit and developer of many of the technics that Baca would employ. [Siqueiros famously shocked, panicked, and scandalized Los Angeles in the 1930′s with his mural American Tropical on Olvera Street.]
These pics are just a few random, representative moments in the L.A. saga as depicted in the riverbed. Take the dog for a gorgeous walk under shady trees, and watch the fascinating spectacle unfold.
Just add a little moisture to the Valley and it suddenly takes on a completely different appearance. The massive sky, the enclosing mountains, the lowering clouds, and the soaked streets reflect unusually spectacular effects of light.
The open-space area with the radio towers is fantastic, a leftover chunk of what the Valley floor looked like in a State of Nature. But the site is a bit of a mystery. It appears on some maps, but is marked on none I’ve ever seen. There is no sign anywhere. My best guess is that the towers are used in aviation, by either Van Nuys Airport, or Burbank Airport, and (maybe since the war?) the space has been put off-limits in a Top Secret kind of way.
I admit, that’s a total guess. If anybody knows the real answer, I’d love to know. But it sure is fun to walk along the perimeter and look up at the Angeles Crest.
The Valley Village View 