Tumbleweed snow couple near Elysian Park. Photo: M.Imlay.
The return of these tumbleweed snowmen to Stadium Way can only mean one thing: It’s officially Christmas time in the City of Angels.
It’s amusing how ingrained the concept of a White Christmas is in our pop culture. Even here, at the edge of the Mojave Desert, these are the lengths we’ll go to in “recreating” the idealized winter wonderland.
Perhaps that’s in large part because we’re a region populated by countless East-Coast transplants like a friend of mine, who every year laments that here in Los Angeles we never enjoy a “real” Currier and Ives Christmas like the ones he had back home. (It’s one of the many common complaints East Coasters seem to have about L.A., along with our supposedly “unfriendly” atmosphere, poor public transportation, and the inability to find a “decent” — i.e., New York-style — pizza anywhere.)
Reality Check
On the other hand, I maintain that a SoCal Christmas is just as “authentic” as any commercialized fantasy concocted by Macy’s, Hallmark or those maniacal Rankin/Bass cartoonists — perhaps more so. After all, a good portion of the world never sees snow in December. Count among that number Jesus himself, who was born in Bethlehem, a city that also shares a Mediterranean clime like ours in which snow is rare. Moreover, if you take into account current scholarship that dates his actual birth to spring or possibly summer, there’s not a snowball’s chance in you-know-where that the first Christmas was white.
Photo: Curious Country Creations
And yet for some reason, from California to New Mexico, we denizens of the Southwest still feel an annual compulsion to build snowmen — even if we have to resort to spray-painted tumbleweeds to do it. (Not surprisingly, there are even commercial enterprises ready to help us with the basics for as little as $59.95!) But I’ll happily take a tumbleweed snowman over the “real” variety any day.
The great thing about Southern California is you can visit the snow in the nearby mountains whenever you like without ever worrying that the fluffy wet stuff is going to follow you home.
Or you can do like me, forget about the powder and slush altogether, and just hit the beach instead.
Whatever your preference, here’s to a happy, healthy, traditional SoCal holiday season — clear, balmy, and Santa-Ana breezy, with just enough scattered showers here and there to keep the smog at bay…
While the rest of us were carving up our turkeys for the holiday, it appears someone — or something — in southern Colorado was engaging in an otherworldly animal carving ritual of their own.
According to this Associated Press story, “a creepy string of calf mutilations” has left local ranchers and sheriff’s officials “mystified:”
“Four calves were found dead in a pasture just north of the New Mexico state line in recent weeks. The dead calves had their skins peeled back and organs cleared from the rib cage. One calf had its tongue removed.”
For those who aren’t too squeamish, grainy pictures of the carnage can be found here. The lack of blood, guts, footprints and predator or ATV tracks at the scene has raised speculation in some quarters that the cattle may have met with a close, deadly encounter of the alien kind.
But before you laugh this whole thing off as an isolated incident in rural Colorado, check out this ranching forum, where the story has stirred some buzz. At least one “real-life” tale shared there is oddly reminiscent of killings attributed to Latin America’s fabled Chupacabra.
Meanwhile, my question has always been why alien travelers never seem to visit us in the big city, preferring instead sparsely populated desert, wilderness and plains communities. But maybe any slight toward us urbanites is completely unintentional.
Perhaps after traveling thousands of light years they merely prefer the dining experiences offered by quiet little out-of-the-way spots.
Dateline>City of Angels will resume regular posting after the holiday weekend. In the meantime, enjoy this Gloria Gaynor parody, courtesy USA Green Card Center.
Who says L.A. has no history? Open your eyes (or in this case your camera lens) wide enough, and you’ll literally discover it in the most out-of-the-way corners of town.
While shooting the Broadway viaduct the other day, I parked my Jeep in front of this old brick building on N. Spring Street, thinking little of it. Located at the northernmost fringes of the downtown train yards, there’s nothing all that remarkable about the neighborhood — just a lot of aging warehouses and machine shops. Still, returning from my photoshoot, I liked the way the light was playing off the structure, so I took a few quick photos before driving off.
As I processed the images, the building’s backstory began to gnaw at me. How old was it? Who constructed it? What was its original purpose? On a lark, I launched an Internet search, not really expecting to find anything noteworthy. Little did I know…
Oil, Acrylics and Feminism
It turns out the 16,000-square-foot building was erected in 1914 (some sources say 1917) as a sales office for the once-illustrious Standard Oil Corp. In fact, the relief topping the door represents the oil company’s former logo. But the now-forlorn edifice has an even greater claim to fame. In 1975 it became home to the legendary non-profit feminist art and education group, Woman’s Building. Here are the details, courtesy Wikipedia:
“In 1973, artist Judy Chicago, graphic designer Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, and art historian Arlene Raven founded the first independent school for women artists, the Feminist Studio Workshop…. Central to the founders’ vision was the idea that the arts should not be separated from other activities of the burgeoning women’s community, and the three looked for a site for their school that could also be shared with other organizations and enterprises.”
They first chose the old Chouinard Art Institute near MacArthur Park, which they re-dubbed “Woman’s Building” after an 1893 Chicago World’s Fair structure designed by Sophia Hayden to showcase women’s arts and crafts. (In fact, not since Hayden had anyone undertaken such an exclusive center for women’s art.) However, when the Korean Culture Center purchased the Chouinard building in 1975, the group was forced to move.
The Gallery of Sisterhood
Photo: M.Imlay
They landed here at the corner of Spring and Aurora. Though somewhat isolated above Chinatown, for 16 years the new Woman’s Building went on to distinguish itself as a hub of creative activism for feminist artists, poets and writers. It hosted programs and events featuring some of women culture’s biggest names while also variously housing theater groups, the Sisterhood Bookstore, a thrift shop, a travel agency, cafes, an arts and crafts store, and offices for Chrysalis Magazine and the Woman Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW) organization.
By 1991, though, the original Woman’s Building organizers had all moved on to other projects, and the enterprise shut its doors. Today the momentous brick-and-mortar building is again up for lease as creative/office space.
Hopefully it will find a new occupant worthy of its history.
It’s either the best of wall art or it’s the worst of wall art, depending upon your perspective. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But if you ever needed a demonstration of the self-evident principle that murals mirror the life and cultural assumptions of their respective communities, this is it.
This first [...]
“The Los Angeles River was a beautiful, limpid little stream with willows on its banks….it was so attractive to me that it at once became something about which my whole scheme of life was woven. I loved it so much.” — William Mulholland, 1855-1935.
You have to admit there’s a certain irony to this quote. Thanks [...]
A purported sighting of the elusive Sasquatch along the trails of Los Angeles’ oldest city park near Dodger Stadium. Obviously this little clip is intended as a spoof, but even if it weren’t, there’s a glaring flaw in the video that should raise astute Angeleno eyebrows.
Can you guess what it is? Here’s a clue: Look [...]
A week ago this blog brought you the news that L.A.’s streets have been ranked the nation’s third most deadly to pedestrians. But have our streets always been so mean?
Obviously, such statistics weren’t kept 117 years ago, but this April 21, 1892, Los Angeles Times “City Brief” may offer a clue:
“People should be careful about [...]
Imagine trekking more than 3,000 miles to take a job. Yet that’s exactly what Charles Fletcher Lummis did in 1884 after accepting a reporting position at the Los Angeles Times.
In what has to be one of the greatest early promotional stunts in L.A. Media history, Lummis journeyed on foot from Cincinnati to the City of [...]
A colorful gate to a community garden catches the morning sun in the Elysian Valley’s Frogtown neighborhood. Just a block or two from the river, this is one of the nicest community gardens I’ve ever stumbled across. Everything is very neatly arranged and tidy, with a well-maintained brick path leading past a variety of fruit [...]
At first I thought this new billboard along Sunset’s 4400 block might be the work of advertising amateurs — or possibly a lone disgruntled customer angry enough to splurge on an outdoor display. The slogan’s catchy enough, but there’s nothing to support the message or make us care. For all we know, the alleged “injustice” [...]
It was a long time in coming, but Silver Lake finally saw the much-anticipated opening of its new $12-million library this morning. The residents’ campaign for the building actually began in the mid-1990s, but considering how Silver Lake’s elite history dates to the early 1900s, you wonder why it even took that long.
In any event, [...]
The aquatic park entertained millions of visitors to the Palos Verdes Peninsula from 1954 to 1987. Opening a year prior to Disneyland, it was then the world’s largest oceanarium and arguably California’s first major theme park.
But the whales, dolphins and performing seals are all history now, along with the ruins shown in this video [...]
Readers with a thirst for spirits — both the distilled and paranormal kind — should consider some monthly barhopping with GHOULA, the Ghost Hunters of Urban Los Angeles.
Last night the group’s “Spirits With Spirits” gathering descended on Olvera Street’s famous La Golondrina Mexican Cafe for dinner, drinks and an impromptu tour of the not-so-public upstairs [...]
As if you didn’t have reason enough, now there’s even more cause to fear the mean streets of Los Angeles.
The Transportation for America (TFA) advocacy group has released a report ranking Los Angeles as 27th in the nation for pedestrian accidents, but third in pedestrian fatalities.
In other words, your stroll along Main Street carries less [...]
If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s for Tournament of Roses officials to bring a trademark “rosy optimism” to each New Year’s celebration.
For a year overshadowed by malaise like 2010 promises to be, could they have done any better to lift our spirits than naming Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger as the parade’s Grand [...]
Halloween used to be my favorite holiday. I guess it still is, but I just don’t seem to enjoy it as much nowadays.
The past several years a busy work schedule usually kept me on the road for the holiday. No costume parties, no Day of the Dead processions at Olvera Street, no ghosts, ghouls or [...]
Like Sunset Boulevard’s fictional movie fatale Norma Desmond, I hate the word “comeback,” so let’s take her cue and call this blog’s resurrection a “return.”
After a catastrophic attempt to update WordPress over a month ago, your humble blogger was left scrambling to recover hundreds of former posts and photos and redesign Dateline>City of Angels from [...]
The pumpkins are carved, the skeletons are hanging from the rafters, dusk has descended, and the witching hour is upon us.
Yes, it’s the Eve of All Hallows, and at long last the resurrection of this blog after its recent crash. Most of the infrastructure has been repaired, so, fittingly, I plan to recommence regular posts [...]
If you’re reading this, you likely reached Dateline>City of Angels either through a back door or some search engine, and are now wondering why it appears so … incomplete.
Answer: We’re still under construction — or rather, “re-construction” — after a nasty blog crash several weeks ago. That reconstruction has meant changing locations to a new [...]
