Esotouric™

Just before Memorial Day, your intrepid urban adventurers stepped outside of their asphalt-coated comfort zone for a lightning 40-hour road trip to explore some notable, rural Central Californian attractions. This is the third of several blog posts sharing scenes from the road.

While Nitt Witt Ridge is definitely the granddaddy of all folk art environments on the Central Coast, anyone interested in manifestations of amateur creativity and raw feeling should schedule a visit to Cambria's historic, eclectic, mountain cemetery.

Unlike tidy urban graveyards that frown on mourners placing their own messy memorials on loved ones' burial sites -- it makes it so hard to mow, after all -- Cambria Cemetery welcomes all manner of personal expressions of grief, from elaborate sculptures showing the deceased in life...

...to collections of shiny treasures reflecting their former passions.

Exploring the shaded woodland paths populated with expansive expressions of love and loss, one gets the sense that this is a community that's learned how to say goodbye in a way that encourages healing and personal growth. While all of the deceased were strangers to us, as is typically the case when visiting an historic graveyard, we left Cambria Cemetery feeling as though we had spent an hour with hundreds of distinct individuals. While serene and lovely, it's the farthest thing from sad as a cemetery could be.

For more photos from Cambria Cemetery, click this link.

Just before Memorial Day, your intrepid urban adventurers stepped outside of their asphalt-coated comfort zone for a lightning 40-hour road trip to explore some notable, rural Central Californian attractions. This is the second of several blog posts sharing scenes from the road.

After shaking off the eerie quiet of La Purisima Mission, we took the slow route up the central valley, hitting a few thrift shops in Santa Maria and enjoying an al fresco Mexican lunch in weedy Nipomo. Late afternoon found us rolling into drizzly, seaside Cambria, where Michael O'Malley was waiting for us at Nitt Witt Ridge, the uninhabited home and folk art environment for which he and wife Stacy serve as caretakers.

Michael came bounding down the steps when he heard our car pull up, and threw open the gates with a big welcoming grin. With a warning to walk carefully, and be prepared to duck under low beams, he led us up the abalone shell-risered steps, holding tight to metal stair rails that once doubled as Nitt Witt Ridge's water pipes -- some of them with electrical light fixtures frighteningly entwined.

But there is no longer any flowing water at Nitt Witt Ridge. The water meter, a valuable commodity in a community that actively limits growth, was sold off to a developer years ago, and the old jerry-rigged electric system has been (wisely) switched off. Today, Nitt Witt Ridge exists outside of the modern era, best visited by daylight, and if you want a glass of water or (its builder's favorite tipple) cheap American beer, you'd better bring your own.

During our hour-long exploration of the property that Art Beal designed, built and decorated over the course of 50+ years, Michael shared myths and facts about the eccentric builder, known variously as Der Tinkerpaw or Captain Nitt Witt. Although Michael never met the old curmudgeon, he's made it his business to gather stories (and a rather mean-spirited vintage "Real People" TV clip) to enliven the experience of visiting a place that was once synonymous with its maker.

When Michael bought the place a few years after Art's death, many rooms were stuffed high with junk, and looters had made off with whatever valuables remained. Left behind were Art's real treasures, little bits of junk he accumulated in his decades as Cambria's garbage man and occasional hauler for William Randolph Hearst's San Simeon castle. Bits of salvaged paper, cloth, ceramic and metal are stacked in every cubby, and open dresser drawers reveal Art's personal archives, news clippings and photos fading under dust. Inside the kitchen cupboards repurposed from radio cabinets destined for Cambria's dump, murky canned foods float in jars. Art's clothes still hang in the closet. Dust is everywhere. You feel Art, and art, all around. It's wonderful.

Out in the garden, stacks of cemented metal car wheel rims made for sturdy columns, and an open air puttering workshop was bedecked with climbing nasturtium. A little prodding of the seemingly solid earth at the top of the property has revealed Der Tinkerpaw's ingenious methods: instead of driving out to the dump with the community's garbage, as his contract dictated, plenty of junk ended up in the gully above Art's main house, followed by loads of dirt, until a comfortable garden area with exceptional views was constructed on what was once thin air. A recycled fountain of couple of old sinks spilling into a bath made for an open air washtub.

At the top of the property a visitor reaches a ramshackle fence with a conventional wooden shack ruin behind it. This is the old house, where it was said Art once lived with a woman named Gloria. One day she ran off with the contents of his bank account, and he let the place rot. There may be something to this sad legend: Michael has crept inside and found a lady's shoe and other evidence of habitation.

Art Beal lived a long life, but despite his best intentions, did not die in the home he built. The narrative is muddy, but it seems a small loan obtained for medical services in the 1970s went unpaid, and the lender sought to take Art's land. Some do-gooders formed a foundation to save Nitt Witt Ridge, but Captain Nitt Witt didn't cotton to interfering kids or their newfangled ideas. Art became senile, and often ran around naked and hollered at passersby. Complaints were made about self-neglect, social workers started sniffing around, and eventually Art was forced to go into a nursing home. He died there in 1992, and a few years later Michael and Stacy came along and were compelled to take up the mantle of maintaining the strange house on the hill.
 
Although Nitt Witt Ridge is a California Historical Landmark, the city of Cambria hasn't made it easy for Michael and Stacy to make a go of their tourist attraction. Some community members disliked Der Tinkerpaw during his lifetime, and that animosity has continued after his death. Large houses have sprung up all around the structure, and while Art's was there first, some seem to have built their homes with the expectation that Nitt Witt Ridge would be absorbed by the elements or demolished. While neither has happened, thanks to Michael and Stacy's devotion, small indignities are trotted out to discourage them.

So this landmark example of California vernacular architecture cannot be visited by tour buses, a modest fee cannot officially be charged for Michael's delightful tour (though you are welcome to tip), and we were denied the opportunity to purchase a commemorative Nitt Witt Ridge t-shirt or tea cosy. To which we say phooey on Cambria. Art Beal's spirit, and his incredible home, will outlive such petty prejudices. We highly recommend a visit to Nitt Witt Ridge if you're visiting the Central Coast. Call Michael at 805-927-2690 to book a private tour, and tell him Esotouric sent you.

Video links:
See Art Beal and his kitties
Watch Michael lead a tour

 For more photos from Nitt Witt Ridge, click this link. Up next: Cambria's unique community cemetery.

Just before Memorial Day, your intrepid urban adventurers stepped outside of their asphalt-coated comfort zone for a lightning 40-hour road trip to explore some notable, rural Central Californian attractions. This is the first of several blog posts sharing scenes from the road.

After filling the cat bowls with high-end dry nibbles and promising the beasts we'd be back soon, we hit the highway around 6:00 AM with the aim of a hearty mid-morning breakfast at Ellen's Danish Pancake House in Buellton, just across the road from the more famous Pea Soup Andersen's.

Seated under the Zen gaze of an elaborately coiffed Ron and Nancy Reagan, Richard enjoyed the Danish Pancakes with Danish Sausage (after enduring a grilling from the friendly waitress who wanted to be sure he understood there would be sausage slices between his crispy pancakes and not on the side), Chinta had a fluffy omelet and the buttermilkiest biscuit imaginable, while Kim tucked into a big plate of those crisp pancakes with a side of poached eggs.

After a brief stroll to Pea Soup Andersen's for the ritual Ha' Pea and Swea' Pea photo op, we climbed back into the Exploration Wagon for the short trip out to La Purisima Mission, the most complete of all the restored California Missions, and a California State Historic Park.

While the Mission has a newish glass-and-steel information center and trumpets its interpretive history programs, we were fortunate to arrive on a day when the expansive grounds were nearly empty of human inhabitants, giving the impression that a sudden disaster had whisked away all the padres, noviates and Indians, leaving their livestock, workshops, chapels, gardens and fountains behind.

We split off to explore the vast grounds separately, coming unexpectedly upon lovely scenes that evoked the romance of old Mission days familiar to readers of Ramona and Charles Lummis.

Of course, La Purisima is a simulachra, an imaginary Mission replicated from a briefly-inhabited 19th Century ruin by a young crew of federal workers in the 1930s. The real La Purisima, closer to Lompoc, was destroyed by the Santa Barbara earthquake in 1812, and this unusually long quake-resistant compound failed to find favor among the local Indian tribes. Following a violent rebellion in the 1820s, most of the villagers fled, and within a decade the Mission was abandoned as Spanish rule faded. Once the roof tiles were taken, it only took a few years until the the adobe buildings melted into their foundations. The restoration was completed in 1941.

And yet on a quiet morning, with the ground squirrels gamboling and swallows zipping from beneath the red roof tiles, cool water flowing over the fountain tiles and stark shadows delineating the long, cool white walls symbolizing European faith and order, this might be the most powerful early California experience available anywhere. If you live in Southern California and have looked in vain for a place where the Spanish era feels real and alive, take a drive up to Santa Barbara County and let La Purisima get under your skin.

For more photos from the first part of our trip, click this link.

Up next: Nitt Witt Ridge, a recycled folk art environment facing some unique preservation problems in coastal Cambria.

On April 8, 2010, the City of Los Angeles officially designated the corner of Fifth and Grand at the foot of Bunker Hill as John Fante Square. To watch a film of that ceremony, featuring speakers Councilwoman Jan Perry, Fante Square nominator Richard Schave of Esotouric, John Fante's children Vickie Fante Cohen, Jim Fante and Dan Fante, his biographer Stephen Cooper, resident of Historic Bunker Hill Gordon Pattison, Tom Hyry from UCLA Special Collection and Louise Steinman of the L.A. Public Library's Aloud program, click below:

On April 8, 2010, the 101st birthday of the great Los Angeles writer John Fante, the City of LA named the intersection of Fifth & Grand, alongside the Central Library, John Fante Square.

Our own Richard Schave made the nomination to City Council, and that's Richard third from left in this gleeful shot that also includes (L-R) biographer Stephen Cooper, Aloud curator Louise Steinman, John Fante's kids Vickie Fante Cohen, Jim Fante who has turned away, Dan Fante, and Councilwoman Jan Perry.

To see all the photos from the dedication ceremony and downtown walking tour of Fante's lost LA, click here. And our John Fante's Dreams From Bunker Hill tour rolls again on Saturday, April 17.

In honor of the dedication of John Fante Square and the author's 101st birthday, Esotouric and On Bunker Hill have created a digital map to a selection of Downtown locations that played a significant role in Fante's life and work, and can be easily visited on foot. To explore the annotated map of Fante-related locations, including locations from "Ask The Dust" and the little known last remaining stone retaining wall from old Bunker Hill, visit the link below http://johnfantesdowntown.notlong.com

(Photo: John Fante's children Dan Fante and Vickie Fante Cohen at the top of Angels Flight, July 2009 John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill tour)

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.