Esotouric™

Esotouric is honored to be the westernmost distributor of Robert Waldmire's Original 8-Postcard Set of Large Letter Old Route 66 Scenes. (We also have his 60-Postcard set and fold-out Route 66 maps available.)

Each postcard shows the highlights of one state's portion of Route 66: Illionois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, with the state's name written large across the card with illustrations inside each letter. Keep them all for yourself, or treat 8 friends to Waldmire's exquisite annotated drawings--everything you need for a virtual tour of the old mother road. Each postcard is printed on 100% recycled cream cardstock with drawings and hand-written copy on front and back, with a full color inset memorial sheet showing the artist posed in front of his beloved 1972 VW camper van (immortalized as Fillmore in the movie "Cars"). The set comes packages in a plastic sleeve.

We get these direct from the estate of the artist, who for years roamed old Route 66 in his much-loved van, making friends and having adventures that feature in his map and postcard designs.

The postpaid price below is for US addresses. Are you elsewhere? Email us for cost and payment options.

Esotouric is honored to be the westernmost distributor of Robert Waldmire's Original 60-Postcard Set of Old Route 66 Scenes. (We also have his 8-Postcard set and Route 66 fold-out map available.)

Keep them all for yourself, or treat 60 friends to Waldmire's exquisite annotated drawings, which include state overviews, vintage cityscapes, celebrated landmarks, natural wonders, googie motel signs, country stores, classic cars, novelty architecture--everything you need for a virtual tour of the old mother road. Each postcard is printed on 100% recycled cream cardstock with drawings and hand-written copy on front and back, with a full color overview sheet showing the entire route -- Illinois to Santa Monica, CA -- featured in the postcards.  The set comes packages in a plastic sleeve.

We get these direct from the estate of the artist, who for years roamed old Route 66 in his much-loved van, making friends and having adventures that feature in his map and postcard designs.

The postpaid price below is for US addresses. Are you elsewhere? Email us for cost and payment options.

LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association

All across this vast and confusing city, little pockets of creative energy flare up, like molten lava oozing from the earth's core. But if you blink, you'll miss them. The failure to find real connection in Los Angeles is a cliché rooted in truth. You could easily spend frustrating years searching for the real thing, those hidden gems and secret gatherings that give this city a soul. Or you can look to a new entity called LAVA (the Los Angeles Visionaries Association) for guidance.

LAVA has been several months in the making, and we're so excited to push it out into the world and see where it takes us. We hope the LA folk reading this will please have a look and let us know what they think of the site.

More info:
LAVA aims to reveal the hidden heart of Los Angeles and facilitate connections between people with shared passions and sensibilities. Through participation in LAVA, a select group of artists comes together to promote cultural programming that speaks to the urban experience while promoting positive public space. LAVA's creative partners share a love for L.A. and unique ideas for how to express and explore it in their work.

Formed by social historians RICHARD SCHAVE and KIM COOPER -- proprietors of Esotouric bus adventures and until recently the Director and Curator of the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk -- LAVA brings together L.A.'s most visionary promoters, artists, writers and thinkers. Not virtually, though LAVA's online calendar is packed with gems, but in frequent gatherings of living, breathing, collaborating, connecting human beings, held all around the town -- including a monthly Sunday Salon at Clifton's Cafeteria.

The first crop of Visionaries in the growing curated community includes cultural chronicler ADRIENNE CREW, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, former Metropolitan Museum curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, master puppeteer BOB BAKER, producer and promoter CHRISTIAN VOLTAIRE MEOLI, performance artist CRIMEBO THE CLOWN, the NEA's outgoing Director of Literature DAVID KIPEN, documentarian and exploitation film historian ELIJAH DRENNER, pop critic and outsider artist GENE SCULATTI, no-longer-Teenage Glutster food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, horror film director JEREMY KASTEN, social historian JOAN RENNER, Musso & Frank co-owner JORDAN JONES, performance artist JULES ROCHIELLE, curator and activist JULIE RICO, "Kristin's List" cultural chronicler KRISTIN BEDFORD, esoteric scholar and lecturer MAJA D'AOUST, poet and dancer MONA JEAN CEDAR, L.A. Historic Theater Foundation rep NICK MATONAK, music producer and impresario NO'A WINTER LAZERUS, peace activist PAUL NUGENT of the Aetherius Society, social networking mistress SHAWNA DAWSON, and hat designer and multi-media artist YASMIN DIXON.

LAVA's core members are multi-generational (ranging from age 21 through 86) genre-hoppers who are already beginning to collaborate on a series of exclusive LAVA happenings, many of them free to attend. Forthcoming free LAVA exclusives include the L.A.-themed exploitation film series Tinseltown Tarnish (hosted by Elijah Drenner and Jeremy Kasten), a screening of the astrologically-themed 1938 film "When Were You Born" at the historic United Lodge of Theosophy (hosted by Maja D'Aoust) and a new series of "Flâneur & the City" downtown walking tours (led by Richard Schave). And starting in March, LAVA hosts a monthly Sunday Salon at Clifton's Cafeteria, where all curious folks are invited to come learn about the LAVA community and enjoy short presentations from select Visionaries.

LAVA's website debuts today with a community calendar that features an eclectic mix of events: occult lectures, Tom Waits bus tours, musical gatherings, art openings, puppet spectaculars, historic theater tours, saucy nurse performance art, comedy benefits for Haitian relief, ancient Hindu scripture classes, and a free walking tour of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Los Angeles. Coming soon: podcasts, community forums and printable event calendars.

Then there's the community blog, a chance for LAVA's secret weapon to shine. Click BLOG and you'll find ALLON SCHOENER, the 84-year-old cultural historian, author, exhibition originator and art world "Zelig," who in January moved from Hudson, NY to Hollenbeck Palms, the historic Boyle Heights retirement home, dusted off his laptop and started planning his creative life in Los Angeles. Allon's first blog post in a series of recollections of meetings with 20th Century tastemakers is the story of how he brought the first domestic espresso machine to Hollywood in the 1950s. Coming soon: Allon's 100% true tales of life as Charles and Ray Eames' houseguest, socializing with Imogen Cunningham, brainstorming with George Nelson and studying art history with Soviet spy Anthony Blunt.

On Sunday, February 7, 2010, Esotouric rolled south from Philippe's The Original on an urban exploration tour bookended by the sites of three old Lugo adobe homesteads (The Plaza/Olvera Street, Boyle Heights, Bell Gardens). Here are a few of the scenes seen along the way.

A highlight of the day came when Lauren Baumann opened her home, the historic Rives Mansion in Downey, for a fascinating tour through this beautiful early 20th century mansion. We also met Miss Downey Princess Natalia Amador, and learned about the evangelical youth work done at the house, including after-prom events and plenty of music.

At the Gage Mansion in Bell Gardens, that strange and fascinating adobe-wrapped-in-a-Victorian-wrapped-in-a-trailer-park, an eagle-eyed passenger spotted a wee hummingbird mama sitting on her eggs in nest built around an antique hanging lamp. She was gracious enough to pose for photos before zipping off to fill up on nectar.

In Downey, land of surprises, we listened to some vintage Carpenters' tracks before slipping down a side street to spy a striking modernist home by Edward Durell Stone, architect of the Museum of Modern Art.

The lovingly restored Harvey's Broiler provided a rare glimpse of new mascot Big Boy, rendered entirely in balloons, and an introduction to teenage cruising culture from restaurant manager and hometown boy Joe. Cruise nights are Wednesdays and Saturdays, if you're planning a visit.

We paused to pay our respects to a deceased and possibly cursed tavern with an amazing doubled neon and bulb sign.

And were blown away by the precision and grace of the long lost Irving Gill-designed Clarke Estate in Santa Fe Springs, seen below in this shot of the interior courtyard, where tour host Richard Schave discussed Gill's influence on California modernism.

To see more from the day's adventures, visit the  photo set  on Flickr, or get on the bus  any weekend in February for another tour in the Reyner Banham loves LA series.

Vintage L.A.-centered cult film series Tinseltown Tarnish debuts with "Spider Baby"

WHAT: Esotouric pals Jeremy Kasten and Elijah Drenner present Tinseltown Tarnish: director Jack Hill introducing "Spider Baby: Director's Cut"
WHEN: Thursday, February 18, 7pm
WHERE: Los Angeles Athletic Club, 431 W 7th St., Los Angeles, CA 90014
COST: Free, reservations required from www.spiderbabyonline.com

Introducing Tinseltown Tarnish, a provocative new film series curated by filmmakers Jeremy Kasten ("The Wizard of Gore") and Elijah Drenner ("American Grindhouse"). Tinseltown Tarnish features favorite cult films that capture vintage Los Angeles locations.

The series debuts on February 18 with a free 7pm screening at the historic Los Angeles Athletic Club in downtown Los Angeles of "Spider Baby: Director’s Cut." This highly influential cult classic from writer-director Jack Hill ("Switchblade Sisters," "Foxy Brown") tells the demented and darkly comic tale of the Merrye children -- all of whom suffer from a rare genetic malady that causes its victims to mentally regress to a condition of "pre-human savagery and cannibalism." Starring Lon Chaney Jr., Sid Haig and Carol Ohmart and shot in 1964, this black and white horror/comedy was partially filmed on location in Highland Park and utilized the large Victorian Smith Estate, which still stands to this day, that was built in 1887.

The public is invited to join Jeremy Kasten, Elijah Drenner and special guest "Spider Baby" writer/director Jack Hill for this rare screening, followed by a Q&A about the film and its locations.

This event is free and open to the public. You must RSVP for this event by visiting Spider Baby Online. Make sure to put "Spider Baby screening RSVP" in the subject header. Space is limited to 200 people, so please put your RSVPs in as early as possible. Each guest name must be included in the email. Please note that audiences who come to the event without RSVP-ing cannot be allowed in. RSVP Deadline is Wednesday, February 17th at 10 pm.

Parking: 3 Hour Parking validation is available with a purchase of food or drink at the Olive Street parking lot, just north of 7th St.

Just off Rosemead Boulevard in a quiet, semi-industrial section of the San Gabriel Valley is the unexpected sight of the oldest Protestant cemetery in Southern California, Savannah Memorial Park.

Operated on a volunteer basis by descendants of the pioneer residents and considered a source of bad luck by superstitious Asian neighbors, the graveyard desperately needs your support and attention if it's to remain open for public visits, and well maintained.

Next Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 10am, Savannah hosts its Annual Meeting at the El Monte Historical Museum, 3150 Tyler Avenue, El Monte, California. We'll be rolling with our Weird West Adams tour that day, but encourage interested folks to attend and get involved with this extraordinary southland gem.

For more info, visit the cemetery website. More photos from our recent visit are here.

MAJA'S MYSTERIES is a series of guided excursions to some of the city's most fascinating spiritual sites hosted by Maja D'Aoust, lecturer and librarian at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz, in association with Kim Cooper and Richard Schave of Esotouric. Come join us on an Esotouric bus adventure into the hidden realms of Los Angeles spirituality, with stops at some of the most unique and compelling worship spaces in the Southland.

TOUR THEME

This tour explores the fundamental contradiction in the two primary paths to salvation: Grace or Karma. The concept of Grace sees salvation and the Messiah (rapture) as imminent and tangible.  Karma is predicated on reincarnation, the cycle of many, many lives lived through selflessness and right action as the soul strives to achieve release.

These two notions, while irreconcilable, both inspire real and profound relationships with God in Los Angeles, from the church basements where believers speak in tongues, or in brightly light congregation rooms praying over gigantic crystals.

Join Maja as we explore tantric Vedic practices, the Pentecostal rapture, the channeled Venusian stylings of an alien entity and other fascinating paths to salvation.

TOUR LOCATIONS

The Aetherius Society. A center for cosmic consciousness and healing founded in 1955 by UFO contactee Dr. George King, where we will hear actual recordings of an extraterrestrial voice conveying significant messages.

Krotona Apartments. A former Theosophical retreat founded in 1914, where we will have a rare opportunity to visit the central courtyard and view the Rosicrucian window of this now-private residence.

Parsonage of Sister Aimee Semple McPherson. On the northern edge of Echo Park lake is the rock upon which Sister Aimee Semple McPherson built her Foursquare Church. One of Los Angeles’ most charismatic characters, Sister Aimee spread her technologically-inspired Pentecostal gospel from the Angelus Temple, while enjoying quiet moments in her adjoining Parsonage home. Recently restored, the Parsonage is now a museum of her life and work, which to this day contains to ring clear to millions of believers worldwide.

The Vedanta Society of Southern California. Founded in 1930 to bring sacred Hindu philosophy to the West, where we will be given a presentation on the Society’s history and programming, and browse in its fine gift shop.

One passenger can take all four tours in February 2010's REYNER BANHAM LOVES LOS ANGELES series and save $47 off the regular price with a special Banham Bundle. Click below to purchase using Paypal, or email us to send a check.

Tours include: South Los Angeles, Route 66, The New Chinatowns and The Lowdown on Downtown.