From the category archives:

Life in Angel City

Yet Another Ill-Fated Hollywood Dream?

Life in Angel City

Here we go again… Yet another attempt to “bring Hollywood back to Hollywood.”
Ever on the lookout for L.A. stories that might inspire me to blog more, my Atlanta-based writer pal, Hilda, alerted me to this New York Times piece about the new five-star hotel going up at Hollywood and Vine. The article details the plans [...]

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Friday Flix: A City of Angels Holiday Double Feature!

Life in Angel City

Search on keywords “Los Angeles + Christmas” in the vast video wasteland that is YouTube, and this is the campy sort of thing that pops up…

For the more nostalgically minded, there’s also the following vintage three-clip Dragnet episode in which Sgt. Friday and fellow gumshoe Frank Smith perform the Christmas miracle of tracking down and [...]

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Return of the Autumnal Witching Season

Life in Angel City

Who doesn’t enjoy those first telltale signs of autumn returning to Southern California? Shorter days… Cool and breezy evenings… The  appearance of neighborhood Halloween superstores like this one in Silver Lake.
Yes, it seems the Witching Season is upon us again, earlier than ever.
Remember when Halloween was a minor holiday, with its merchandising confined to the [...]

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Random Scribblings: Flashing the Ol’ Jeep Gang Sign

Life in Angel City

Next time you see two Jeeps approaching each other in traffic, be on the lookout for their drivers flashing the Jeeper gang sign.
Known as the Jeep Wave, it’s a common greeting among Jeep owners, usually reminiscent of the Victory symbol from War War II. This, of course, makes sense because the vehicle’s roots can be [...]

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Who Let This Horse Out of the Barn?

Life in Angel City

Drive-By Shot: While cruising along Main Street this afternoon, I caught sight of this giant carousel pony in a salvage yard near Avenue 20, at the edge of downtown.
Towering a full story in height, I first thought the equestrian unit might be the project of some artist living and/or working in the nearby lofts. [...]

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Unshaken, But Very Much Stirred

Life in Angel City

I feel soooo left out. I missed Tuesday’s “big” seismic event.
No, I wasn’t out of town, but rather on the road with the Daring Doberman Duo in my Jeep, which is seldom a smooth ride to begin with. Thanks to all the shakes, rattles and wind noises of open-top driving, I and the dogs remained [...]

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Be Careful What Demolitions You Wish For…

Life in Angel City

They say you never really appreciate what you have until it’s gone.
Moving into the neighborhood three years ago, I was at first mildly intrigued by this old shell of a gas station along Echo Park Avenue (left).
Over time, I came to view it as just another languishing eyesore and wondered when gentrification would finally rid [...]

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Friday Flix: L.A.’s Mean Streets, Circa 1898

Life in Angel City

This week’s pick for most interesting, offbeat and/or entertaining web video sharing themes with this blog…
Searching: YouTube!
Keywords: “Los Angeles + Landmarks”

The Result: How times have changed! Modern downtowners fret about hailing a cab to get from place to place. Nineteenth century Angelenos had to hoof it in every sense of the phrase, as evidenced in [...]

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Where to Watch the Rockets’ Red Glare?

Life in Angel City

The 4th of July holiday just isn’t the same when the Dodgers are on the road. It’s not that I enjoy taking in a good ol’ fashion American ballgame on the 4th — I never do. Rather, unlike some of my Echo Park neighbors, I can’t get enough of the stadium’s post-game aerial bombardments exploding [...]

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Hailing a Cab, Or Simply More Whining?

Life in Angel City

According to Angelenic and other downtown blogs, the denizens at the heart of L.A. are growing restless. They want Hail-a-Cab, and they want it now.
The plan, which would allow taxis to pull over and pick up fares outside of currently specified zones, sounds like a good idea on paper — and downtowners are probably justified [...]

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Monday Ramblings: Finding Inspiration in Echo Park

Life in Angel City

I’d like to say it was a desire to live to be 100 that drove me to spend more time in the garden, but really it was a nasty case of writer’s block.
After gleefully telling the world I’ve finally entered the drafting stage of my book on the Feliz Curse, I got exactly 3,225 words [...]

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Gushing With Pride: SoCal’s Not So Secret Oil Wells

Life in Angel City

This just in… There’s oil in these here hills. Black gold. Texas tea. Possibly billions of gallons of it, says a CNN Situation Room report observed by Metblog L.A.’s Dave Markland.
Geez, you think?
Astounding as the news may be to Wolf and the rest of the outside world, it won’t come as a surprise to native [...]

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Fun With Junk Mail

Life in Angel City

It’s always amusing to try and profile the personalities of your home’s former residents based on the mail they continue to get long after they’ve moved.
Since buying my house three years ago, I’ve learned the previous tenant was a photographer/artist with interests in compost gardening, summer dinner parties, fine wines, delicious but decadent desserts, community [...]

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Street Scene: Paradise Lost Along Sunset Blvd.

Life in Angel City

Lately, I’ve been working to improve my amateur photography, especially with more challenging night shots. In fact, ever since shooting the Vista Theater at dusk last week, it seems I’ve been in a neon mood.
This image was taken last night about 11 p.m., outside Paradise, a stark-white no-tell motel trimmed in fetishy purple neon, that [...]

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Friday Flix: Trapsing Through the Tombstones

Angeleno Sights

We may not always be consistent about much else here at Dateline>City of Angels, but the one regular feature you can count on is Friday Flix. And now, without further adieu: This week’s choice for the most interesting, offbeat and/or entertaining web video sharing key words or themes with this blog…
Source: LiveVideo
Search Criteria: “Los [...]

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Friday Flix: Touring Echo Park

Life in Angel City

Google up web videos with the keyword Los Angeles and what do you get? Mostly a lot of junk. But search hard enough and you’ll also find a few gems. Welcome to Dateline>City of Angel’s new Friday Flix feature, where I offer my picks for some of the most interesting (or unusual) web videos referencing [...]

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In Case of Fire, Forget About Silver Lake

Life in Angel City

Up to now, most local bloggers have approached the draining of Silver Lake from two predictable angles:
(1) The ugly, gaping asphalt crater left behind now that the water’s gone, and
(2) The ongoing controversy between water officials and Silver Lake residents over whether or not the lake should be permanently covered.
Donna Barstow at Griffith Park Interrupted, [...]

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Angelyne: Still as Big as Ever?

Life in Angel City

Except for a few rare sightings of her and her famous pink Corvette buzzing up and down the Westside, I thought pseudo billboard icon Angelyne was a pop cultural relic of the past. You know: A has-been. Washed up. A cliche like any other. But according to Curbed L.A., she may yet have some [...]

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Urban Adventuring With the MTA

Life in Angel City

This week I had an appointment with some musty old manuscripts in the Rare Books Dept. of the Los Angeles Central Library, located downtown at 5th and Flower. Unlike some respected fellow bloggers who enjoy using mass transit to buzz about the metro area, I’ve always been an unrepentant disciple of Southern California’s automotive cult.
The [...]

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Shortchanging El Pueblo’s Past, Present and Future

Life in Angel City

Perhaps no site is more historically and culturally significant to Los Angeles than the El Pueblo Monument. As such, you’d expect the city to treat it as the crown jewel of Angeleno landmarks. Instead, it seldom seems to win any more respect than the common chucherias being hocked up and down Olvera Street.
Want proof? Witness [...]

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