The Case Of The Missing Murals

 Today the Open Culture Blog has a piece summing up the current state of murals in the city of Los Angeles, with a short documentary called Behind the Wall, which harshly denounces graffiti artists who ruin murals, but also directly criticizes the city's inability to protect its cultural artifacts. As the film describes it, murals are "bludgeoned by graffiti, censored by the city." The film claims that the city spent $60 million on graffiti removal between 2008 and 2009, but none on mural restoration.

Los Angeles has long been known as the street mural capital of the world. But in the past few years the city has painted over more than 300 murals,according to the Los Angeles Times, enforcing a decade-old ordinance that makes it a crime to create murals on most private properties. “The mural capital of the world is no more,” street artist Saber told the Times. “They buff beautiful pieces, harass property owners and threaten us like we are in street gangs.”

Some of the problems started in 1986, when the city was looking for a way to alleviate the growing scourge of billboard blight. The city was being blanketed with unsightly commercial advertising, so the Los Angeles City Council adopted a code to reduce commercial billboards. The new restrictions exempted artwork. Advertisers responded by suing the city, arguing that they had the same right of free speech as the muralists. So in 2002 the Council “solved” the matter by amending the code to include works of art. “The law left many murals technically illegal,” wrote the Timesin an Oct. 29 editorial, “no matter how talented the artist or how willing the owner of the wall or how inoffensive the subject matter.”

A favorite from my childhood

During my 28 1/2 years in Los Angeles, Ive seen many a mural come and go, not to mention tagged over, and it always breaks my heart.  The ones I feel especially connected to are on the freeways, painted for the 84' Olympics. I remember images from my childhood much much more than actual events, and these are significant for me. Sadly, after decades of tagging, these seem to be disappearing the fastest.

Behind The Wall: The Battle for LA's Murals from Oliver Riley-Smith on Vimeo.

To be fair, Los Angeles has been making news with recent efforts to update the citywide Mural Ordinance, which would theoretically protect old murals and foster new ones. In addition to initial hearings in front of a joint committee of the City Council, the Planning Department has been holding public meetings to discuss the proposed ordinance.
· The Battle for LA's Murals [Open Culture]
· City Working on Bringing Murals Back to LA's Walls [Curbed LA]

"Tamale Cafe" located at 6421 Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles

Why oh why isn't this still in business?

Then:

Now:

Ciao, Tony.

This bums me out. LA's freeway murals are being removed at a rapid rate, and it's been well established I don't like change in LA.

You won't have Tony Curtis to distract you from Hollywood traffic anymore. The 16 year old mural on the 101 Freeway at Sunset has been scraped off by artist George Sportelli, who told Los Angeles magazine's Chris Nichols "the freeway is the stupidest place for a mural.…Tomorrow is the last day I’m going down that frickin’ overpass. What a pain in the ass." Sportelli tells us he's been maintaining the mural on his own all these years and confirms that it's now completely gone. Jill Curtis sponsored a replica mural, which Sportelli painted at Hollywood Blvd. and Bronson Ave. last month. He's now fixing up a section of the original freeway mural to be installed at Jill and Tony Curtis's Shiloh Horse Rescue near Las Vegas next month--he say"Tony Curtis liked the original mural so much that Jill Curtis wanted to have it at the ranch as a memorial." The mural also exists in graffiti-resistant banner form.

Johnnie Can You Hear Me?

With the motion picture Academy moving its movie museum into the old May Company building (YAY!) at Wilshire and La Brea and the 99 Cents Only Stores being sold, everyone's wondering what's going to happen to the old 99 Cents-owned Johnie's Coffee Shop at the northwest corner of the intersection. The restaurant was designed by Googie architects Louis Armet and Eldon Davis and first opened in 1955 as Romeo's Times Square. Not even the New York Times knows: "Executives at the 99 Cents Only Stores, which still rents out the diner for film shoots, did not respond to queries last week about the diner’s future." [NYT]

Hamburger Hamlet

News came yesterday that the original location of the once-strong Hamburger Hamlet chain will be closing for good in December. The Sunset Strip Hamlet opened in 1950, and drew a celeb crowd and a loyal fan base,says Eater LA.

Dean Martin spent loads of time there in his early and later life, and was regular in the 90s, where he could be spotted several times a week, eating a bowl of pasta, and drinking himself to death.

Go have one for Dean, and have a bowl of lobster bisque for me.

Never Change.

Ever since Grauman's Chinese Theatre sold in May (to entrepreneur Elie Samaha and movie producers Don Kushner and Steve Markoff), rumors have flown about big changes at the historic site. Today the LA Times reports that the theater "is undergoing a renovation that will include a restaurant to serve gourmet food and a renovated lobby that will be used to host parties of up to 1,000 guests." 


Ugh.
I'm all for new and shiny, but some things should just not change. Call me old fashioned. I call myself a purist.

Summer Days

All photos by my friend, the best photographer ever, Calethia DeConto

LA....

....is a sunny place for shady people

Los Angeles In The 1920s

Dine And Dash

Went to Eveleigh yesterday, a new restaurant on Sunset for the first time, and just loved it. Beautiful inside and out, you feel like your in a tree house. It was surprisingly empty for brunch, which I cant imagine will continue much longer, although its possible, as the restaurant is surprisingly huge. It still feels very intimate though, due in part to a plethora of different seating areas. The staff was really friendly (although aggressive on the water pouring), and the mimosas are only $8. I had the "soft scrambled eggs", which is essentially eggs benedict scrambled, with trout substituted for ham. 

 Good eggs benedict is so good, and bad eggs benedict is the worst. The hollandaise is the tipping point, and this managed to be both flavorful and light.
I'm already craving it, and I'm taking Steven to try it out ASAP, as hes a trout fan.
You can tell the space is set up to be beautiful at night as well. I'd definitely recommend this as a date spot.


Yesterday I just felt like myself. I really got my LA fix, and I realized a lot of that had to do with driving. I just don't drive that much anymore. I've totalled two cars, have honestly been in more accidents than I can remember, and whenever I have dreams where I die, it's from a car crash. I've never liked driving at night, and the whole ordeal is often high anxiety for me. I usually put Steven in the role of chauffeur, and so often my trips into the city consist of "turn here", and "at the next light...".
Theres something about zipping in, out, and around a place you know like the back of your hand, taking side streets and alleys, knowing there is no way to get lost, and, in a way, having to pay attention less than you do as a passenger. Driving is such an intrical part of the Angeleno experience, and, while I don't feel the need to drive on the freeways, I might take the reigns in town a little more. Funny the things that make us feel at home. 

LA's Streetcar Reef

Metro's Primary Resources blog dug up old Fish Bulletin 124 from the Department of Fish and Game--the 1964 document details the department's results with using old streetcars, automobiles, and other objects to create artificial reefs off the coast of Los Angeles. These photos show the Malibu reef, made up of 20 old cars dropped at Paradise Cove in 1958, and the Redondo Beach reef, made up of six wooden streetcars also dropped in 1958 (the streetcars were purchased for $100 each). The report says that "To determine the true value of artificial reefs, we carried out routine diving so we could observe and obtain as much information as possible on the numbers and kinds of fishes occurring around artificial habitat...Kelp growth, numbers and species of invertebrates, animal behavior, and many other observations also have been made.


All part of The Great American Streetcar Scandal?

Weep For The Great Transit System Los Angeles Used To Have

Click to enlarge

L.A. Landmarks

This blog is what I wish I had the time and patience to do. LA history, one landmark at a time!
Big Orange Landmarks

Echo Park Lake Closure

The Echo Park lake will be closed for the next 2 years, while it's drained, cleaned, and generally rehabbed. Should we guess on how many guns are found at the bottom?
So glad that a few years ago, when I heard they were taking out the paddle boats due to budget cuts, that I took a day out of my life to experience them for the first and last time.

Lost Angeles

It was over three years ago that the 38-year-old, chandelier-laden Mann National theater in Westwood was demolished--its death was to supposed to make way for a one-story retail structure from developer Ron Simms, but that has yet to appear (an overgrown lot that is routinely shaved down every six months currently occupies the spot). Now a mystery preservationist has left a memorial to the Mann, complete with a box of notecards for locals to leave their own personal memories--many have taken the offer. A notable missive from a Mark A. Reda: "Absolutely one of the saddest moments in my life to walk past the parking garage and come upon an empty lot filled with weeds." Across the street, the Hollywood Video is getting bulldozed to possibly make way for a 29-story hotel, but no one seems too torn up about that one. This same thing happened when they tore down Dublins on Sunset Blvd years ago, only to have it replaced with a club built on spec that has never been occupied.
Tragic.
· Demolition Watch: Mann National's Giant Gaping Hole [Curbed LA]

One Fake Rail car, One Yurt, a 70 Foot Tower, No Permits In Action

My dream place:

"Fahey says he tried to do things by the book when he first started building Phonehenge in 1984, but the inspectors wanted tons of changes, lost his plans, and eventually stopped showing up. They reappeared in 2006. The Times likens Fahey to another builder who worked for decades on his pet project without ever getting permits: Simon Rodia, building his Watts Towers in the twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties."

Vintage Los Angeles

This place blew my mind as a kid.

I have a new favorite facebook page, hell, new favorite place on the internet. I stumbled upon Vintage Los Angeles this morning, when looking for photos.
They absolutely, positively, have the BEST compilation of Los Angeles photos Ive ever seeen. 690 photos is this set total, and I looked at every single one. And there many more sets to go! I have fallen down this rabbit hole, and may never come out. See you next week.

BEST LOS ANGELES PHOTO SET EVER.

A Peek Inside LA's Famous "House Of Davids"!

The "house of Davids" is an LA institution! Know for its gaudy statues of David, and their amazing Christmas display in which the whole place is blindingly lit up and the statues don Santa hats, the HOD is rivaled only by the infamous "sheiks house" of beverly hills.
After years of speculation, we know know what it looks like on the inside, because its on the market! Perfect place for a lost weekend.

The photos I was able to steal were too low res, even for me. Click here to see the whole set.. You kind of need to in order to get the full effect of the floating table held up with fishing wire.

The Future Skyline Of Hollywood

If hollywood ever looks like this, and of course, one day, it will, I'm REALLY going to lose my mind.

On Friday, the owners of the Capitol Records Tower, Millenium Partners and Argent Ventures, announced plans for a big mixed-use development that would straddle Vine Street in the area around the Tower, just south of Yucca Street. Right now, the 4.47 acre site is mostly parking lot. A press release from the developers says the project could include two new towers that could go as high as 585 feet--or 48 stories, according to the LA Times. That's way higher than the 28 story tower in the Columbia Square development at Sunset and Gower, which has had some Hollywooders clutching their pearls.
it includes "up to approximately 492 residential units, 200 luxury hotel rooms, 250,000 square feet of Class A office space that includes the Capitol Records Tower and [little neighbor] Gogerty Building, 35,000 square feet of restaurant space, 40,000 square feet of sports club use, and 15,000 square feet of retail space."


Honestly, what the fuck. Hollywood is already a disaster, with too many people in too small a space. 10 out of the 147 W condos sold a block away, and there are many more buildings just like it. What developers seem to fail to understand when they build in Hollywood is that the majority of people who want to live down there are young people without money. This will probably not see the light of day in the near future,  but it still just bums me out.

Moby's Throught On L.A.

Love this excerpt from a new Moby interview. Well said.
Whole interview Available Here.


You moved to LA last year after 25 years in New York City. I am not entirely sure why, but this feels almost like a betrayal...

M: Perhaps it is. But if I were to be really petulant, I would say New York is the one doing the betraying. Because the New York I fell in love with doesn't really exist anymore. When I was growing up, I fetishised New York City. It was the land of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, it was where Leonard Cohen wrote 'Chelsea Hotel', it was CBGBs and all the punk rock clubs. Artists and musicians lived there, and it was cheap and dangerous. And now it's a very attractive city where hedge fund managers and wealthy Europeans spend a lot of money for food. The interesting people have been priced out to the outer reaches of Brooklyn and Queens. The same thing has happened to London as well – I find London really exciting but there's a lot of vicious success here. Like New York, there's a lot of incredibly successful people who feel incredibly entitled, perhaps justifiably, but I don't want to be around viciously entitled people. I'd rather be around broken people who have a degree of humility, and just get on with their work.

So you like the broken-down, grungy side of LA?

M: LA is such a crumbling mess of a city. Basically in all my years of travelling, I haven't found another city in the western world that interest me as much as Los Angeles – which might sound like heresy, but most cities, history has already happened and the people living there are sort of living on the bones of the thousand years of history that's already happened there. Whereas LA is always reinventing itself. There is a dysfunctional strangeness to Los Angeles that doesn't exist in any other western city. The roads are crumbling, no-one knows what they're doing, the city government barely works. You can't find an uglier urban environment than the centre of Hollywood, but then you go to Griffith Park, you go to the beach, you go to the mountains, and it's rural. I live up in the Hollywood Hills and I have frogs, owls, coyotes, mountain lions - but I'm ten minutes from the centre of the city.