Dateline>City of Angels

What’s in a name? Well, here in Los Angeles there’s a longstanding feud among locals over the most historically (versus politically) correct way to refer to ourselves. Are we Angelenos with an “e” or Angelinos with an “i”? As Jenny Burman points out in her Chicken Corner blog, the ultimate answer might be contained in the history surrounding Angeleno Heights, the city’s second oldest neighborhood-district.

I don’t know why this young lady fascinates me so, but she does.

Maybe it’s her coy, backward glance and easy, confident smile. Or perhaps it’s her dark, penetrating eyes and casual sense of fashion.

Whatever it is, I was transfixed from the moment I saw her and had to know her story: Why was she here, all alone, lending considerable poise and personality to an otherwise dingy alleyway near Sunset and Benton?

Today I finally stopped and asked.

“A friend painted her about seven years ago,” shrugged the busy owner of the furniture store that occupies the building. “He’s an artist. He does paintings all around this area.”

No more details than that, except that the painted lady’s come-hither looks have enticed other “urban artists” (translation: taggers) to add their own flourishes to the simple, black-and-white work. The most recent “BTC” addition was apparently sprayed on just last night by a tagger whose signature reads “Duck.” (At least Duck and crew were tasteful enough to stay true to the initial artist’s color scheme.)

The Silver Lake/Echo Park area boasts scores of murals, not to mention countless examples of “non-commissioned” urban art (translation: graffiti). But I’m also bemused by the faded, original names of cafes, stores and apartments that grace the sides of numerous early 1900s structures. Plus, you never know when renovation or new construction will suddenly expose a long-lost soda, booze or similar ad from a bygone era.

We pass by them each day, oblivious to their messages. But every once in a while, at least for the nostalgically minded, these works ignite the imagination: Who painted them? Who lived or worked in the building way back when? What were the circumstances of their lives? What, if anything, did they go on to accomplish? Where are they now? Is this all that survives them?

Perhaps that’s really what fascinates me about the Young Lady of the Wall. She and her counterparts throughout the neighborhood lend more than a “sense of place.” They unite past, present and future, prompting occasional musings about life, art, our own mortality and the legacies we may (or may not) leave behind.

While researching some local urban legends this morning, I accidentally stumbled across an interesting blog entitled California Folklife. Written by California native Stephen Higa, the blog is an extension of a “regional folklore night” he developed as a grad student in Rhode Island. While he only posts sporadically, what he has written is all at once entertaining and thought-provoking. Well worth checking out.

Higa’s stated purpose is to promote an appreciation of the “rich cultural heritage of the Far West.” When he introduced the blog back in July, he invited readers to share articles, songs, photos and “anything that somehow documents the grassroots culture of greater California, past and present.” No sign that anyone’s taken him up on the offer, so maybe Dateline>City of Angels readers can lend this kindred spirit a hand. I’ve added his site to my blogroll under The Great Beyond header.

One of the best things about the 90026 zip code is our eclectic mix of homes. No cookie-cutter housing tracts for us. We prefer our neighborhoods to express charm and character through a variety of architectural forms. Victorians, California Bungalows, Mediterraneans, Mid-Centuries, 1960-70s stucco Dingbats, Moderns, Post Moderns — you name it, they all stand side by side in peaceful harmony on any given street, often exhibiting unexpected color schemes and innovative landscaping.

That’s why I especially applaud this unusually artsy example off Allesandro Street in Echo Park. If this were Orange County, Glendale or the San Gabriel Valley, you’d probably be reading about up-in-arms neighbors and crusty civic officials wringing their hands over its “eccentric” design elements, which include a gable-topping mermaid, two monkeys and warm, circus-train-like embellishments and hues. Adding to the whimsy, a fiberglass cow grazes contentedly at a trough in the front yard. (Unfortunately, my hastily snapped digital pix don’t really do the scene justice.)

Several years ago the hillside house, which boasts a commanding view of Atwater, Frog Town and environs to the north, was a seemingly abandoned structure just begging to be demolished — complete with unsightly, aging wood siding, broken windows and a weed-ridden yard. My guess is some artist took pity on it, moved in, and set about painstakingly breathing new life into the lonely old house, unleashing considerable creativity in the process. (Talk about bringing out a home’s unseen potential…)

Whatever the story behind the place, today steady streams of neighbors race by it on their daily commutes without even batting an eye. There have been no complaints among locals. (At least none that I’ve heard, but then, I don’t live on that block.) For most of us, it’s merely another routine sight in the ‘hood — and personally, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I must be the only writer in L.A. without a script in the oven. I say this, because whenever I tell people what I do at a party or cocktail gathering, they instantly light up with questions about my TV and movie credits.

Upon explaining that I’m not a script writer — that my work is mainly PR and magazine features — I start to lose them. When I add that my most recent work has been for an off-road trade journal, their eyes really glaze over. After all, how relevant can that be to most people’s lives?

Judge for yourself: Marketable Trends is my latest piece for Off-Road Business Magazine, appearing in this month’s issue. Even if you aren’t a Jeeper, Baja racer or dune buggy enthusiast, you may find it interesting. As automakers step up their manufacturing of products and parts for this segment, more and more mainstream American companies are injecting “off-road lifestyle” imagery into their advertising and marketing campaigns. Plus, an increasing number of tourist destinations are courting off-highway vehicle users to give their local economies a boost. Once reserved for hardcore outdoor adventurers, this unique form of motorsports (along with the money fueling it) is definitely on the rise.

Thank heavens we’re well underway into 2008. For me, 2007 ended not so much with a bang but a crash — and then a whimper.

Early December, my old (a relative term when it comes to computers) PC suffered a catastrophic failure. Near as the hastily summoned technoid from Make It Work could tell, an internal short circuit somehow managed to fry both the on/off switch and the motherboard. The system was DOA.

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