"L.A.'s Essence": Coda

IF WE WERE having class this week, I would have pointed your attention to a dust up that's occurring in real time out here in the journo-world. The New York Times has been publishing a series of pieces by Verilyn Klinkenborg about Los Angeles, many of which haven't been sitting well with us "laid back" folks.

It's not so much what he is saying in these delicately appointed pieces about L.A. -- it's what he isn't saying, and the tone. There's always the tone.

Last Sunday, the Times published an editorial "Haunting Los Angeles" in which Klinkenborg explains that he is at a loss to understand Los Angeles' essenece: "The iconic glimpses don't help me in my quest -- not the sudden view of the Hollywood sign I get from the Hollywood Freeway, not the view of downtown almost floating in the sunset from Pasadena. Every now and then, I turn a corner and think that something essential is about to be revealed. The feeling intensifies all the way up Venice Boulvard into Culver City, and then I'm on National taking one of those curious hidden freeway entrances and suddenly the feeling vanishes"

Vanishes.

Klinkenborg, for all of his hesitation in his impossible quest for Los Angeles' essence concludes:

"If I had an extra lifetime to live, I'd live it here. I don't mean one lifetime lived, in the usual way. I mean a lifetime living within a block or two of the insurance shop on Venice Boulevard with the wrap-around neon facade. Another watching cars turn off National onto the 10 . . . . Perhaps then I could grasp what always escapes me here. Then I'd know whether it was worth looking for in the first place."

It's the final line that has created the dust up -- "worth looking for in the first place..." that has set off bells and has become an impetus for posts, tweets and columns this week (see Hector Tobar's piece in this week's L.A. Times.)

What it all said to me was exactly what we've been trying to move toward in this class. Many of you know the essence already and can articulate your corner, your street, the intersections, the essence -- without qualification or apology.

Go forward.

You know what you're looking for. And it doesn't escape you. It's in you.

-- L.G.

(photo credit: Robert Adams, courtesy the Getty website)

Iconic L.A.: Angel's Flight

CLOSED FOR nearly a decade after a German tourist died in an rail-related accident, Angel Flight, literally rises again. Today marks it's first day open to the public since 2001. The funicular, which rises up Bunker Hill connected the Broadway entertainment and business corridor to the "Hill." According to Kevin Roderick's site, L.A. Observed "Let's return to the days when the funicular originally called the Los Angeles Incline Railway was an integral part of Downtown life. Passengers paid a penny (later a nickel) to ride Olivet and Sinai between 3rd and Hill streets and the neighborhood of hotels and rooming houses on Bunker Hill." His full post relating the history of the two rail cars, Olivet and Sinai, that scale the steep grade and boast a mix of Arcadian and Utopian views of Los Angeles here.

The above piece, called "Angels Flight," was painted in 1931, by artist and architect Millard Sheets, a Claremont native. Sheets reinterpreted many L.A. street-scapes and this one hangs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. You don't need a Way-back machine when you have these. This is John Fante's L.A.

-- L.G.

illustration credit: LACMA Collections Online

Read L.A: Ruben Martinez's Territories

LAST CLASS, Professor Ruben Martinez, who is the Fletcher Jones Chair in Literature and Writing here at Loyola Marymount University (and my longtime colleague), spoke passionately about his time served here in Los Angeles as journalist, poet, performance artist and pundit -- and how at one point all of that seemed to have merged. He also spoke eloquently about race and class; about communities and causes that had been marginalized by the media; about how a writer finds his/her voice while attempting to describe life from the inside out, make the invisible visible.

Post session, I asked him to share a few of his favorite/resonant texts that deal with Los Angeles. Pulling from various sources and disciplines, he didn't stick to the page as you'll see.

Top-of-the-head response from a quick email:

ask the dust , john fante
white album, joan didion
chavez ravine (the album, the play, the book of photographs)
& of course city of quartz, mike davis

- L.G.

Iconic L.A. : Olvera Street

OLVERA STREET is distinctly Los Angeles due to its history. 1781, when the 44 pobladores accompanied by a militia and two priests as legend has it made their way to the very spot that the first mayor of Los Angeles had declared to the king of Spain a good spot to build a town the City of Angeles was born: Olvera Street. The Street, or as some would call it the very first calle in this city shows the spontaneous aspect of growth and development that has turned this desert into a city (chaparral). The sociology of this city has formed around the power of people and the continuous influx of new people has kept the heart of this city beating booms. As both a haven of immigration being that the original settles of Los Angeles were of mestizo, mulatto, and African ancestry it seems that Los Angeles grew into its Anglo centered origins long after. For myself with the air gorged on the thick smell of chicken, beef, and pork with all sorts of different spices and flavorings you just feel as if this place is an emblematic symbol of “old style Los Angeles.” a possessive feeling that one gets once going downtown and seeing the adobe re-creations and colorful dresses all juxtaposed not only against gentrification but also the ebb and flow of the 21st century being next to Union Station, “One of the last great railway stations,” all its own just makes you feel proud. Olvera Street isn’t just speckled with facts about the first street but also is a temptress, wanting the tourist to join into the traditional dances, song, and dress. Olvera Street is truly a symbol of Los Angeles and is a quaint reminder of those that called this place home way before today. Olvera Street seems to also be a beacon for the immigrant who comes to this city and needs a healthy dose of home. No place actually incorporates with such vigor elements of its past such as Olvera street serving as a real life representation of how things used to be. Even within the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and the domineering figures that have made Los Angeles a city of wonder. Olvera Street speaks to the immigrant and culture in a very real way. With Mexican flair and faithfulness the Immigrant can find a home away from home inside its Spanish speaking environs.
The wares that are sold can also be cherished Time after time. Tourism spots have made Olvera Street a must for those coming to see California and most of all Los Angeles. This city tainted with the light of a dystopia can find a very real culture beating under the heart of artificiality.

-- Jason Collins

(photo caption, middle: "Found on Olvera Street"
photo caption, bottom: "Avila Adobe on Olvera Street."
photo credits: Loren Javier, flickr pool, creative commons)

Loving Los Angeles

IT IS very important to know the history and background of the place in which we call “home” because without that deeper history there lacks any legitimate stance to belong to or own Los Angeles. Time and time again we see “I love L.A.” T-shirts and stickers that can be argued as either fashion statements or forms of personal statements but if we take a deeper look into the phrase can someone truly love a land without deeper knowledge of how it was discovered, divided and ultimately flourished? After recently viewing videos of a barren downtown covered with dirt roads, the production of a popular transit system in the 1940’s, the desegregated locations for various ethnicities, the Chavez Ravine land conspiracy, the Watts Riots in the 1960’s, the contribution from the Chandler family, the romanticized construction of Olvera St. and much more, a Los Angeles migrant like myself can only begin to appreciate the land and city for what it truly was and now is. Once you learn about how and why a place like the Dodgers Stadium was built, your association to it becomes completely altered and your experience in Los Angeles becomes heightened to a more enlightened level. After speaking with a close friend- a diehard Dodger’s fan who reps an L.A. sticker on her car- about the families who were relocated from Chavez Ravine for what later became the famous Dodgers Stadium, she was shocked and seemed somewhat disturbed because her perception of this place that she had been to year after year was altered. Although she may have claimed to have loved Los Angeles and the Dodgers before I filled her in on the story I can only hope that knowing a little bit of that history helped her understand her love for them even more. Exposing ourselves to Los Angeles’ history can only help create more passion, love and respect for those who helped build such a multifaceted and diverse city filled with art, culture, music, film, fashion, sports, journalism, education and much more.
-- Jayme Dolan