Hidden L.A: Crime, Chandler & Clifton's

HIDDEN LOS ANGELES' Lynn Garrett, didn't forget to send along the video of crime in 1930s Los Angeles. You'll find it here on her site.

Here some little intro bits . . . "

a really great 30 minute long documentary (shown in 3 parts) about iconic author Raymond Chandler’s take on the corruption of Los Angeles in the 1930s… a paradise infiltrated by dope fiends, smut peddlers, schemers in low places and high, crooked cops and crooked politicians…

And she adds in an email to me:


The 1930s documentary I was recommending to the students about LA crime in the 30s (it features the story about Clfford Clinton’s house being firebombed too)

Enjoy!


-- L.G.

Hidden Venice Beach

MY FRIEND THOM moved from Venice Beach to New York a few months ago, and this weekend he was in town to visit my roommate and me. On Friday morning, we were craving a tasty sit-down breakfast but wanted to find a somewhere walking distance to avoid warm weather parking frustration. We thought of all the places on Abbot Kinney Boulevard since it’s the closest street from our apartment, but Thom knew better—he had a secret up his sleeve that would surely meet our breakfast needs.

Without telling us the specifics of where our destination was located, we followed Thom up and down different streets, to an area that seemed more like a residential neighborhood than a restaurant location. But sure enough we turned one last corner and there it was—The Brick House, literally a red brick building with a small patio facing the street. “This place has great breakfast” said Thom as he looked inside and signaled a waitress.

He was right, the food was great and the patio was as sunny and comfortable as could be. There was only one other group seated outside with us; they wore urban-hipster-style duds of plaid prints and skinny jeans - a common style in Venice. They also had a small dog with them, resting underneath the table as they ate. Wearing sunglasses throughout their meal, they talked with one another over coffee and eggs, and had a cigarette before paying the bill and leaving.

As I looked out at the streets surrounding the restaurant, it reminded me of “Hidden Los Angeles” and all the places that exist here that remain unseen or underappreciated. I have lived in Venice for a while now, and I had never even heard of The Brick House, much less had the urge to give it a try.

I ordered the Venice Eggs Benedict, and was completely satisfied with my choice as it contained one of my favorite foods—artichokes. The more I thought about it, the more this restaurant seemed to epitomize what I love about living in Venice Beach. It’s owned by Venice locals, the best way to get there is on foot, and it’s one of those places that must be found, explored and appreciated, unlike the more popular (crowded) trendy restaurants along Abbot Kinney.

Now I find myself wanting to go there more often and take people there who do not know about it already. It’s close, comfortable, and the food really is wonderful—from a wide assortment of omelets and waffles for breakfast, to burgers as pasta dishes for dinner—The Brick House is truly a hidden treasure in Venice Beach.

-- Lauren McHale
(photo credit: lauren mchale)

Become an Explorer

HOLLYWOOD, BEVERLY HILLS and Santa Monica are the top three things foreigners want to see when they visit “the land of celebrities and sun,” more commonly known as Los Angeles. As Angelenos we sigh and grunt when another friend from out of state or country asks to see this Los Angeles which we know to be stereotypical. Yet it’s not that we don’t like these areas of town, rather, that we know there is much more to L.A. than this.

As I began to think about outside impressions of Los Angeles, I thought of my own impressions of other countries I have visited in the world. When I went to London I wanted to see the West End, Big Ben, and Parliament. When I went to Scotland I wanted to see Edinburgh Castle and when in Paris I wanted to see the Eiffel Tower, Louvre and Sacre Coeur . When reflecting on my travel plans, I began to realize that I was more like the aforementioned crowd than I realized because that’s what we all are, tourists in areas that we are not from.

I’ve found that in order to veer off the beaten path of the tourists, guidebooks can be helpful but also seem overwhelming. In my experience the best way to truly see a city is in the eyes of a local or of someone who has held residence there for an extended period of time. Some of my favorite times when studying abroad were from recommendations by the locals, say of a great place to eat or a hidden place with an amazing view, both of which were not frequented by tourists. These new discoveries made me feel like I was truly entering another world and not one where everyone around me was the same.

Moreover, I find that when friends go to London I make a list a mile long of all of my favorite places for them to discover that are off the beaten path because when studying abroad, I explored and would take long walks and see what I could find. Unfortunately, here in Los Angeles so many of us are so busy with our day to day lives that we miss the richness that our city has to offer. But next time, I’m not going to tell my friends who visit, about the typical place, instead I’m going to immerse myself with them and explore my city. Will you?

--Emily Day

photo caption, view from the old los angeles zoo; 3rd and Fairfax
photo credit: omar omar, flickr creative commons

Hidden Los Angeles Visits LMU

TOMORROW NIGHT, W. Lynn Garrett will speak to our class about her adventures putting together the Hidden Los Angeles website and its Facebook fan page. Take a spin here. Hidden L.A. is a site dedicated to "embracing the depth beneath the shallow" -- which has been "Telling L.A.'s Story's" focus this semester as well. Please come with spirited, deep questions about the region.
-- L.G.

"I'd Like Hidden L.A. to Stay That Way"

THIS IS A no joke (or semi-no-joke) to the Hidden L.A. site/page on Facebook (& webpage). It's done with great spiky humor. Even Lynn Garrett commented on her page today:

Hidden Los Angeles has a new favorite FB page (after ours of course). We are sorry for having to ban this gentleman off our page for being "unhelpful" during our first giant surge in traffic... but we *adore* his response. If we knew how to un-ban people we would... so anyone who knows him, please let him know that he's made us laugh out loud and has been un-banned in our hearts. Tell him to write us at contact@hiddenLA.com... we'd like to give him something for his pain and suffering. ;)

Lovely.
-- L.G.

photo from "i'd like hidden l.a. to stay that way."
photo caption: "this is pretty much what every main thoroughfare in the city looks like."

Urban Legends of Venice Beach

AFTER MOVING into my new apartment in Venice Beach, I took a walk with my roommate who had already been living in the apartment for a semester, so he knew the ins and outs of the neighborhood. What was interesting was the first story he told me about a man living in a house across the street from us.
“The guy who lives in that house is crazy” he said. “What do you mean, crazy?” I asked. Apparently the man has been living in Venice Beach for over 50 years, and rumor has it that he once went to the Venice Beach boardwalk where he invited a homeless man and a drug addict to live in his home with him. As my roommate explained this story, I stared across the street at this man’s home. Surrounded by a metal gate, the front yard is covered with old, broken chairs, tables, and shrubs that look like they haven’t been attended to in years. It was like a game of I Spy; I found four American flags hanging in various areas, a large mirror on top of the house, a clock displayed next to a window, and an old bike covered in dirt. His car sits in front of the house, an old blue VW wagon with all of the windows rolled down as if he has no concern for the car being robbed or stolen. As we walked back to our apartment, the man was leaving his home with his three dogs, all of which are of some mix of Pitbull—all without a leash. One is wearing a cone around its neck, and one has lost the functioning of its back right leg. The third dog, with a fatty tumor on its back the size of a baseball, has crossed paths with a smaller dog and is barking furiously in its direction as the man walks ahead, seemingly uninterested in the conflict.
Soon enough I believed the rumor to be true—this man must be crazy, yet there also must be a story there. How true are the stories we hear about “crazy” neighbors? With so many American flags, could he be a veteran? Has he created a halfway house for the homeless and the addicted? Venice Beach has always steered clear of being considered a stereotypical Los Angeles community, and he is the epitome of this ideal. Taking the advice of Professor George, I have resisted the urge to walk up alone, knock on his door and talk to him, but not a day goes by that I don’t look at his cluttered yard and wondered what his LA story is.

-- Lauren McHale

(photo credit: Lauren McHale)

Hidden L.A.: Late Night Speakeasies

ONE OF the best things about L.A. is finding the hidden pockets that you only discover by talking to people, the kind of places that people don't necessarily want to let you know about because they want to make sure that only the right people are there. You know when you meet a guy who is trying to pick up girls in a Venice bar by simply using the line "I'm a musician" that A: this guy is shady! and B: he's weird enough to know some really rad hangouts.
This is how I stumbled onto the speakeasy at the Stronghold, which is a clothing store by day, free-for-all by night. I couldn't give you any specific details other than the fact that magic goes down there on most weekend nights, as there doesn't seem to be an established time, cover, or genre. First, you stand downstairs and drop a general name of someone who you clearly don't know (but there's always a Bill, right?) to try to get into the place for free, which we did by yelling at someone who poked his head out from an upstairs window. You make your way upstairs to a sea of locals, real musicians, "musicians", druggies, forty-something soccer moms, and other twenty-two year olds with empty pockets like myself, trying to live on the edge of adventure.

There's a thirty-year-old woman in a vintage wedding dress and glasses heating up the dance floor. The band is good, and they've got the kind of sound you'd probably pay thirty dollars to see on Sunset with a jazzy-country blend that's got people going wild, and the old, blind, bass player with sunglasses on is just jamming out. For good conversation, there are the smokers on the back porch, who seem to either be members of the band or drunk singles trying to figure out where they fit into the scheme of things. I was there until after three A.M., but it seems that at the Stronghold, the party never stops. I highly recommend checking out this hidden nook of Los Angeles, especially with friends that seem to be in the anti-L.A. funk. This place has a twenties feel that brings L.A. back to another decade with less headaches and more fun. Those from small towns will feel right at home, the trendy chic won't feel out of place, and the music lovers will be hit in all the right places.

The Stronghold- 1625 Abbott Kinney Blvd, Venice

-Thea Green

Read L.A.: What Makes Mike Run?

JOURNALIST, TEACHER and poet, Mike Sonksen, (BKA, Mike the Poet) touched down in class last Monday night and spun L.A. history via shimmering rhyming couplets. He threw out names of some of his favorite books, authors and hidden places in L.A. Full list to follow but here are a few of the books and/or authors he made mention of both in conversation and verse:



Budd Schulberg: What Makes Sammy Run?





Kamau Daaood, Leimert Park CD



John Fante, Ask the Dust




Charles Bukowski, Hollywood

L.G.

Hidden L.A.? It's in a neighborhood near you . . .

DON'T WALK, leap into this smart, lively and sometimes contentious discussion (it's L.A. of course so everybody has an opinion). Hidden L.A. hosts L.A. stories told from the inside out, by natives, transplants and all manner of modern-day boosters. The website zeroes in on the Los Angeles we are all hoping to get closer to -- the one that lives on the edges of much of the rest of the world's imagination. Webmaster, W. Lynn Garrett has humanized the city -- it's the contours and shadings that interest her not the broad stroke. While many of her posts feature found video, old newscasts and newspaper clips, ("Local Interest," "Flashbacks," "Bookmarks") Garrett (who designs boardgames by day, she revealed on a recent Facebook post) has now taken to hosting in-person events/mixers around the city, like a recent cocktail hour at Hollywood's iconic Musso and Frank's. Many of the events are happily a little more off-the-beaten path than Musso's (Tiki bars in our far-flung Valleys and the like). And what turns out to be a vast treasure trove for the enterprising reporter are the the plentiful discussion boards on-site and on Facebook where those loquacious opinionated Angelenos really get going. The site's popularity has been more than its poor webmaster's server could bear however. For example: the reason we couldn't get onto the site last night was, well, that server crashed! Tonight, however, all is right in the world at hiddenla.com

-- L.G.

photo caption: HiddenLA opening page
photo credit: Hidden L.A.