Destination: California
Diane Keaton on the Lessons of the Ambassador Hotel
by Michael Yessis | 10.17.08 | 9:40 AM ET
A thoughtful op-ed this week from the actress, who is also a trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
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Yahoo! BuzzThe World’s Greenest Museum?
by Joanna Kakissis | 10.03.08 | 10:06 AM ET
Renzo Piano’s design for the $488 million, 410,000-square-foot California Academy of Sciences is reaping accolades for its architecture (“an unusually rich, thoughtful and evocative building”), content (exhibits include a planetarium, rain forest and aquarium) and opening-weekend popularity (the entrance line was a mile long).
R.I.P. Elmer Dills
by Jim Benning | 09.16.08 | 5:25 PM ET
The travel and restaurant critic was an institution in Los Angeles media. He was 82.
Night at Hearst Castle to be Auctioned on eBay
by Michael Yessis | 09.11.08 | 4:03 PM ET
Photo by mbtrama, via Flickr (Creative Commons)
I’m sure the bids will be astronomical, as they should be. Hearst Castle‘s beds haven’t seen overnight visitors in 50 years, and the winner of the auction—and his or her companion—will have the run of Julia Morgan‘s hilltop masterpiece in San Simeon, California. Among the things the top bidder will be able to do: Screen a movie in William Randolph Hearst’s private theater. Of course, only one movie should top everyone’s must-watch list: Citizen Kane.
Movies: Searching for the ‘Essential DNA’ of Los Angeles
by Michael Yessis | 09.04.08 | 4:19 PM ET
The Los Angeles Times counts down the 25 best L.A. movies of the last 25 years. To make the list, a “movie had to communicate some inherent truth about the L.A. experience,” writes Geoff Boucher. The top pick: L.A. Confidential.
The Sounds of Los Angeles in Musical Form
by Jim Benning | 09.04.08 | 1:18 PM ET
NPR’s “Day to Day” recently asked musicians to send in their “takes on the California Dream,” and the show just highlighted its favorite: a song composed entirely of sounds of urban Los Angeles, from squeaking bus brakes and clicking skateboards to clacking shoes. It turns out that the 25-year-old artist who created it, Quinn Kiesow, has done the same (albeit in shorter bits) for other cities, including Madrid and New York. You can hear them all here. The Los Angeles recording took 80 hours to produce. It’s particularly intriguing because Kiesow offers great color commentary over it.
Inflatable Chutes Deployed at LAX Emergency Landing
by Jim Benning | 08.05.08 | 3:24 PM ET
The American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu made an emergency landing after smoke was detected in the cabin.
R.I.P. Acres of Books
by Eva Holland | 08.05.08 | 12:20 PM ET
The family-run bookstore has been operating in Long Beach for nearly 75 years. It’ll be making way for a mixture of housing and art galleries, as part of a redevelopment project put together by the city. As for the owners? They’re going traveling. (Via The Book Bench)
Photo by Molly Bewigged via Flickr (Creative Commons)
The Greatest Thing About Los Angeles Is ...
by Michael Yessis | 07.24.08 | 10:33 AM ET
Amoeba Music? So say the readers of Los Angeles magazine, who during the last few months took 64 stellar things about the City of Angels and whittled them down to one greatest thing in a March Madness-style bracket showdown. That a Bay Area export won provoked a lot of kvetching, according to the mag’s editors, and rightfully so.
The LAX Theme Building, Then and Now
by Jim Benning | 07.03.08 | 12:05 PM ET
Among the travel-related art hanging on my walls is a poster of this shot taken by Garry Winogrand in 1964. The subject, of course, is LAX’s Theme Building, which opened in 1961 and is among Los Angeles’ most intriguing landmarks. To me, few buildings say more about Los Angeles, a city ever focused on the future, often at the expense of the past, than this Tomorrowland-esque structure. The two women in the photo, I like to imagine, have donned their finest dresses and highest heels for a transatlantic flight, perhaps to Paris or London. The L.A. sun is beaming down on them. The future couldn’t be brighter.
‘66 Drives’ in Southern California
by Michael Yessis | 06.25.08 | 1:33 PM ET
I didn’t think I’d ever truly get nostalgic for Southern California traffic, but Andrew Bush’s 66 Drives has made it happen. Bush attached a camera to his car and snapped images of fellow drivers while he was traveling around the area from 1989 to 1997. All 66 images from his book are online, and, as a whole, they capture the feeling of driving Southern California roads. Here’s my favorite. (via Boing Boing)
Related on World Hum:
* New Travel Book: ‘Are We There Yet?’
* Shrinking Planet Statistic of the Day: Cars
R.I.P. Tu Ciudad Magazine
by Jim Benning | 06.16.08 | 4:47 PM ET
The glossy magazine serving upscale Latinos in Los Angeles had offered an interesting perspective on the city. Unfortunately, it is no more.
Cross-Cultural Theme Restaurants on the Rise in Los Angeles
by Jim Benning | 06.13.08 | 12:20 PM ET
The Los Angeles Times covers this very cool shrinking planet phenomenon. Just one example: “[I]n Culver City, you will find a New York art collector’s interpretation of a Japanese maid cafe (or “maid-kissa”)—Royal/T Cafe, which opened last month in the Royal/T art gallery. Works by the likes of Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama and Chris Ofili are featured.” I know where I’m going for dinner soon.
Photo by forklift via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
High-Speed MagLev Train from Disneyland to Las Vegas Gets $45 Million
by Michael Yessis | 06.09.08 | 3:23 PM ET
The money, which was earmarked in the transportation bill President Bush signed Friday, “will pay for environmental studies for the first leg of the project,” reports the AP. Gizmodo wonders if it’s just greenwashing, since $45 million is but a fraction of what it might cost to build a legitimate high-speed MagLev rail line. I think it’s a fine step forward, and likely not the last. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hails from Nevada, and he’s on the record supporting the project. That’s a powerful ally.
Gidget, Miki Dora and the Creation of the Surfing ‘Lifestyle’
by Eva Holland | 06.06.08 | 11:51 AM ET
Photo by rappensuncle via Flickr (Creative Commons)
n the latest issue of The Believer, Peter Lunenfeld chronicles surfing’s meteoric rise from SoCal subculture to global brand. “The thing to remember is that, since 1957, surfing as something you buy has overshadowed surfing as something you do,” he writes. “I would hazard that no other activity has ever generated as many products among people who neither know how to do it, nor follow those who do.” The essay touches on topics ranging from Gidget to Freud to Malibu Barbie, and uncovers the unlikely role of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in propelling the sport to pop culture dominance.