KIM COOPER

Kim is the creator of 1947project, the crime-a-day time travel blog that spawned the popular Crime Bus Tours, including Pasadena Confidential, the Real Black Dahlia and Weird West Adams. When the third generation Angeleno isn't combing old newspapers for forgotten scandals, she's editing Scram (a journal of unpopular culture) and books like Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, Lost in the Grooves and an oral history of the cult band Neutral Milk Hotel. Her campaign to save the historic 76 Balls from destruction resulted in ConocoPhillips agreeing to donate the gas station signs to museums nationwide. If you have a pressing problem, she suggests you Ask Grandma Anything at her grandparents', The OGs, website.

 

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RICHARD SCHAVE

art walk shuttle with richard hawking passengersRichard, who is the person that makes this all happen, has been at various times an art historian, a mason, an independent film producer, a computer programmer, and as its Director transformed the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk into a non-profit organization. On his tours, Richard fuses these otherwise exclusive experiences into a very special view of the city. Richard's tours include two different Raymond Chandler tours, John Fante’s Dreams from Bunker Hill, The Birth of Noir and the Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles series of architecture and urbanism tours.

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Cool Finds for August 22

Submitted by rss on Sun, 08/22/2010 - 8:44pm.


Cool Finds for August 10

Submitted by rss on Tue, 08/10/2010 - 4:52pm.


Cool Finds for August 2

Submitted by rss on Mon, 08/02/2010 - 8:34am.


Jim Linderman's offbeat American photo books, free for a limited time

Submitted by rss on Mon, 08/02/2010 - 7:02am.

Jim Linderman, photo collector and compiler extraordinaire, wants to win Blurb's Photography Book Now contest--and we'd like to help him out. You can click below to read the books online for free, then vote for them if you're inclined.

Bettie Page and her...
By Jim Linderman
Behind the Sitter i...
By Jim Linderman DUL...

The Flâneur & The City: Olvera Street

Submitted by rss on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 12:07pm.


Urban historian Richard Schave's site-specific discussion series "The Flâneur & The City" is an ongoing attempt to explore some of the more important issues revealed by the constantly changing heart of the metropolis.

The core notion of the series is of culture and history as commodities that are packaged and sold to a target demographic; meanwhile, it's the ignored and seemingly worthless scraps of meaning found on the sidewalks and marketplaces where the true remnants of positive public space can be found. All interpretations and nuisances of the word flâneur are examined -- from the modern-day aesthete dreaming of Baudelaire while carried along in the human tide past the stalls and shops of Broadway, to its more recent and perhaps relevant use, someone who is loitering. At its heart this series is a celebration of the simple act of getting out of your car and walking through a neighborhood and learning to see it with all your eyes.

In this installment, held on July 25, 2010, we visited Olvera Street, the historic seed of Los Angeles and the first place where issues of urban preservation entered the city's consciousness. On this free 45-minute walking tour, we explored the site's history, from the founding of the city (1781) to the present day, with a focus on the "classic" era: Christine Sterling's nearly thirty years of preservation and reinterpretation, which resulted in the entire Plaza becoming a State park, now managed by the city of Los Angeles.

The excerpt presented here is a brief discussion of Christine Sterling's conflicting motivations in preserving Olvera Street, and her alliances with business and publishing interests.

On this informative stroll through a provocative and multi-layered space, we explored such key questions as:

* What core challenges, goals and strategies are shared by Christine Sterling at the Plaza in the early 20th century and the developers of downtown's Old Bank District (4th & Main) in the early 21st century?

* Can arts and culture succeed as a tool for economic development for reinvigorating historic neighborhoods? Was Jane Jacobs right when she proclaimed that "new ideas need old buildings"?

* Is there a point on the continuum where the creeping kitsch of a tourist attraction overwhelms the value of a vital community space? Can a positive public space be ruined by popularity and accessibility?

For more on free events held under the umbrella of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association, visit http://www.lavatransforms.org

Cool L.A. Finds for July 27

Submitted by rss on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 7:48am.


Cool L.A. Finds for July 20

Submitted by kim on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 4:50pm.


The New Chinatowns tour preview

Submitted by kim on Tue, 07/13/2010 - 5:25pm.

Come discover the secret history of the San Gabriel Valley on this provocative and occasional Esotouric architecture tour from the series Reyner Banham Loves LA. Next tour: August 7, 2010.