Free LAVA Memorial Day weekend in L.A.: cemetery tours, blacklist film, Bunker Hill and palm tree lore
For immediate release
May 15, 2013
Free LAVA Memorial Day weekend in L.A.: cemetery tours, blacklist film, Bunker Hill and palm tree lore
WHAT: Documentary screening about blacklisted 1950s singer Hope Foye (Ms. Foye in attendance), LAVA Sunday Salon celebrating old Bunker Hill and Southern California's palm trees, and Memorial Day tours of 19th Century Savannah Cemetery in Rosemead
WHEN: Saturday, May 25, 2013, 4-6pm (Hope Foye documentary screening), Sunday, May 26, 2013, 12-2pm (LAVA Sunday Salon) and Monday, May 27, 2013, 12:30-2pm (Savannah Cemetery tours)
WHERE: See numbered event descriptions below for locations
COST: All events are free, reservations required for cemetery tours, donations welcome for documentary screening
MORE INFO: http://lavatransforms.org and the individual links below
CONTACT: Kim, amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 213-373-1947
LOS ANGELES- Recently honored with a Best Literary Salon award from Los Angeles Magazine, LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association is fast establishing itself as one of the city's most intriguing arts collectives, with a calendar packed with compelling, offbeat urban events and a growing list of notable Visionary contributors.
This Memorial Day weekend, LAVA's Visionary members host three unique, free events certain to appeal to Los Angeles explorers and culture seekers.
LAVA's free Memorial Day weekend events play out in this order...
1) "Red Hope: The Blacklisting of Hope Foye" documentary film screening, Saturday, May 25, 2013, 4-6pm, free (donations welcome). Hosted by LAVA Visionary Adrienne Crew. Location: Mayme Clayton Library and Museum, 4130 Overland Avenue, Culver City, CA, 90230. More event info at http://lavatransforms.org/hopefoye. Film info at http://www.redhopeblacklistingmovie.com
ABOUT THE FILM: "Red Hope: The Blacklisting of Hope Foye" will be screened at the Mayme Clayton Library and Museum in Culver City. The film's subject, Hope Foye, will be at the screening to discuss her life and career. Directed by Constance L. Jackson and narrated by Keith David. "Red Hope: The Blacklisting of Hope Foye" explores the life of African American classical opera singer Hope Foye—her struggles for justice, for survival, and for her music. "Red Hope" immerses the viewer into the Senate chambers with Hope Foye and the McCarran Sub-committee of HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) during her interrogation in 1952. The documentary also captures the richness of Hope's memories and of her today while showing images of the glamorous young singer, the times, performance stills, and family photos, all of it bringing Foye and her early career to vivid life. Framing and defining many of her performances and interviews of today are her songs—pieces filled with the horror, tragedy, and melancholia of a racist past as well as the faith and hope for a better future. Every note of pain, every crescendo of triumph, rings out clearly in the compelling voice of Hope Foye.
2) "LAVA Sunday Salon." Sunday, May 26, 12pm-2pm. Hosted by LAVA Visionaries Richard Schave and Kim Cooper. Free, no reservations required. Les Noces du Figaro (mezzanine level), 618 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, 90014. More info at http://lavatransforms.org/salon513
ABOUT THE LAVA SUNDAY SALON: Join LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association for its revived free monthly Sunday Salon series, formerly held at Clifton's Cafeteria. LAVA returns to South Broadway, to the mezzanine of Les Noces du Figaro, which was recently opened by the family behind Figaro Bistro in Los Feliz. This handsome space was formerly Schaber's Cafeteria (Charles F. Plummer, 1928), and the mezzanine features wonderful views of the Los Angeles Theatre.
On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles for a structured Salon featuring formal presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another.
The May Salon will be broken into two distinct presentations each lasting about 45 minutes. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early if they wish to order food and beverages from the counter downstairs, and bring their meal upstairs.
Presentation One: "29 Palms" by J. Scott Smith
The presentation will consist of two distinct elements: 1) a projected 35-minute presentation during which photographer J. Scott Smith describes the origins and creative process behind his "29 Palms" project. After the talk, join Scott for a pop-up gallery show featuring one or two full-scale finished works (3’ x 5’) along with a few smaller sized pieces (18.5” x 30”) on display in the mezzanine.
Artist’s Statement: "'29 Palms' is a mirage of sorts, a photographic re-imagining of the original oasis of twenty-nine native palms around which the desert city of the same name developed. Washingtonia filifera, the Golden State’s only indigenous palm, is featured in this collection alongside a remarkable variety of geographic transplants that flourish in Southern California’s benign climate. Captured with a large format view camera on 8 × 10” film and rendered in high-resolution 38 × 60” chromogenic prints, the '29 Palms' series is both a typological study of individual palm trunks and a shimmering reflection of the region’s ethnically diverse human population. I became aware of the extraordinary beauty of palm trunks when my beloved dog began to slow in his old age. Walking through a Santa Monica park lined with palms, I confronted their trunks at close range while Buck lingered and sniffed around the bases. Their intricate patterns evoked abstract landscapes and I resolved to create formal portraits by visually severing the columnar trunks from crown and base. I developed a fascination with the history of Southern California’s iconic palms and sought out both typical and unique specimens in public and private spaces."
http://jscottsmithphotography.com
Presentation Two: Old Bunker Hill - One Family's Perspective by Gordon Pattison
Have you ever wondered what Old Bunker Hill was really like? Have you ever wished you could have been there to see it? Well, our speaker, Gordon Pattison, can tell you and show you because he and his family lived there. The Pattison family owned the Castle and Salt Box, among others of the old Victorian buildings that were once there. Gordon will tell the story of Bunker Hill from a personal perspective, through recollections inspired from historical photographs of Bunker Hill as well as family photos taken there in the 1930s and 1940s. Old Bunker Hill isn’t gone. It floats ethereally in memory above Hope, Grand, Olive and Hill Street. And after this Sunday Salon, it will live in your imagination, too.
3) "Memorial Day tour of historic Savannah Cemetery in Rosemead." Monday, May 27, 12:30pm-2pm. Hosted by LAVA Visionaries Richard Schave and Kim Cooper. Free, reservations. Savannah Cemetery, 9263 Valley Boulevard, Rosemead, CA, 91770. More info at http://lavatransforms.org/savannah2013
ABOUT THE SAVANNAH CEMETERY TOUR: Join LAVA for a Memorial Day celebration at Savannah Memorial Park. Established circa 1851 and recently made a California Historical Landmark (#1046), it is the oldest American cemetery in Southern California. The City of Rosemead will host an official ceremony at 10:30am, complete with 21-gun salute and a bagpipe accompaniment. Around 12:15pm, following the city ceremony, LAVA members will gather at the main gate and at 12:30pm begin their tour of the cemetery. Tours guides, all of whom have decades of involvement with the cemetery, will recount the trials and tribulations of the pioneer families who braved the Santa Fe Trail and the Mojave Desert to make their homes in the lowlands of the eastern San Gabriel Valley, before finding eternal rest in these hallowed grounds. You won’t want to miss this very special LAVA excursion which has become an annual tradition.
Interested Angelenos are encouraged to come out and be part of one or more of these LAVA events celebrating the city and encouraging connections.
ABOUT LAVA: Through participation in LAVA, a select group of creative professionals come together to promote cultural programming that speaks to the urban experience while promoting positive public space. LAVA's creative partners share a love for L.A. and unique ideas for exploring it in their work. Formed by social historians RICHARD SCHAVE and KIM COOPER—proprietors of Esotouric bus adventures and the 1947project time travel blog series (including On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land)—LAVA brings together L.A.'s most visionary promoters, artists, writers and thinkers. The first crop of Visionaries in the growing curated community includes cultural chronicler ADRIENNE CREW, artist and Eastside historian AL GUERRERO, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, avant garde fashion maven A. LAURA BRODY, poet/publisher ALEIDA RODRIGUEZ, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, filmmaker ALLISON ANDERS, writer/curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, documentarian/radio producer ANTHEA RAYMOND, author/gallerist APRIL DAMMANN, memoirist BARBARA KRAFT, pop culture historian BECKY EBENKAMP, ethnomusicologist BETO GONZALEZ, puppeteer BOB BAKER, tile historian BRIAN KAISER, producer/promoter CHRISTIAN VOLTAIRE MEOLI, cultural events programmer CHRISTINA GALANTE, musician COUNT SMOKULA, performance artist CRIMEBO THE CLOWN, writer/Libros Schmibros proprietor DAVID KIPEN, Novelist DAVID ROCKLIN, forensic educator DEREK PACIFICO, sculptor DONALD GIALANELLA, forensic scientist/educator DONALD JOHNSON, author/educator DOROTHY RANDALL GRAY, educator and historic cemetery board member DWAIN CARLO CRUM, artist ELENA MARY SIFF, documentarian ELIJAH DRENNER, conversation curator ERIC VOLLMER, social connector EVONNE HEYNING, musician/performance artist FEATHERBEARD, photographer GARY LEONARD, pop critic/outsider artist GENE SCULATTI, musician/artist GEORGE EARTH, songsmith HARVEY SID FISHER, theater director HOLLY WITHAM, musician/writer IAN WHITCOMB, artist JASON HADLEY, food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, musician JEFF BOYNTON, filmmaker JEREMY KASTEN, musician JIMI CABEZA DE VACA, social historian JOAN RENNER, writer/artist JOE OESTERLE, writer JOHN BUNTIN, filmmaker JON ALLOWAY, documentarian JOHN DULLAGHAN, Musso & Frank co-owner JORDAN JONES, performance artist JULES ROCHIELLE, curator JULIE RICO, cultural curator and writer KIM OHANNESON, "Kristin's List" cultural chronicler KRISTIN BEDFORD, songstress/prognosticator MADAME PAMITA, esoteric scholar MAJA D'AOUST, author/broadcaster MANNY PACHECO, writer MARGUERITE DARLINGTON, performer McCRISTOL HARRIS, visual artist MELVIN HALE, journalist MICHAEL LINDER, photographic archivist MICHAEL RISNER, poet/dancer MONA JEAN CEDAR, architectural historian NATHAN MARSAK, writer NEAL POLLOCK, theater director NICHOLAS HOSKING, L.A. Historic Theater Foundation rep NICK MATONAK, music producer NO'A WINTER LAZERUS, musician OCTAVIUS, writer /photographer /musician PAUL KOUDOUNARIS, peace activist PAUL NUGENT of the Aetherius Society, 3-D photography expert RAY 3D ZONE, activist and performer RD PLASSCHAERT, historic ghost seeker RICHARD CARRADINE, artist/musician RICH POLYSORBATE 60, filmmaker/preservationist ROSS LIPMAN, singer-songwriter RUTHANN FRIEDMAN, ghost hunter SARAH TROOP, social networking mistress SHAWNA DAWSON, painter/gallerist SUSAN DOBAY, artist/writer/activist SUSANNA DAKIN, Warhol star and writer TERE TEREBA, sculptor TOM WALKER, musical entertainer THE UKULADY, and hat designer YASMIN DIXON.
Applications from prospective LAVA members are being taken at http://lavatransforms.org/apply
To learn more about LAVA, please visit http://www.lavatransforms.org
LAVA founders Kim Cooper and Richard Schave and most of LAVA's Visionary members are available for interviews. A limited number of journalists on assignment can be accommodated on ticketed events. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 213-373-1947.
LAVA Goes Gatsby with a weekend of Jazz Age Los Angeles cultural programming
For immediate release
May 6, 2013
LAVA Goes Gatsby with a weekend of Jazz Age Los Angeles cultural programming
WHAT: F. Scott Fitzgerald Walking Tours of West Hollywood and LAVA Sunday Salon celebrating Jazz Age Los Angeles
WHEN: Saturday, June 29, 2013 (Walking Tours at 10am and 5pm) and Sunday, June 30, 2013 (Salon, 12-2pm)
COST: Walking Tours are $15/person, Sunday Salon is free
MORE INFO: http://lavatransforms.org and the individual links below
LOS ANGELES- Recently honored with a Best Literary Salon award from Los Angeles Magazine, LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association is fast establishing itself as one of the city's most intriguing arts collectives, with a calendar packed with compelling, offbeat urban events and a growing list of notable Visionary contributors.
So it's no surprise that LAVA is pulling out all the stops in honor of that Visionary sometime-Angeleno F. Scott Fitzgerald, as Hollywood offers up the fourth film adaptation of his classic, "The Great Gatsby." During the weekend of June 29-30, LAVA Visonaries present a range of cultural programming celebrating Fitzgerald, Jazz Age Los Angeles, and the literature, architecture and social bonds that continue to fascinate after nearly a century.
The LAVA events play out in this order...
1) "The Last Days of F. Scott Fitzgerald Walking Tour." Saturday, June 29, 10am-12pm and 5pm-7pm. $15, advance reservations recommended. Hosted by Adrienne Crew (Dorothy Parker Society) and departing from near the intersection of Sunset Blvd & N Crescent Heights Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90046 (actual location provided to ticketed guests). More info at http://lavatransforms.org/fitzgeraldwalk3 and http://lavatransforms.org/fitzgeraldwalk4
ABOUT THE TOUR: LAVA Visionary Adrienne Crew of the Dorothy Parker Society will host a short walking tour of F. Scott Fitzgerald's (West) Hollywood and the places that were significant to him at the end of the writer's life. The tour will begin near the corner of Sunset Blvd and Crescent Heights (exact details furnished upon registration) and conclude at Greenblatt's Deli, where Sheilah Graham purchased the Hershey bar which was the last thing Fitzgerald ate.
A partial list of both extant and demolished locations along the route: The Garden of Allah hotel, Schwab's Drugstore, the apartment of Fitzgerald's mistress Sheilah Graham.
Special guest speakers Martin Turnbull and Marc Chevalier, presenters the following day at the LAVA Sunday Salon, will be on hand during the first 30 minutes of each tour to enhance the understanding of several of the locations covered on the tour.
2) "LAVA Sunday Salon: Jazz Age Los Angeles." Sunday, June 30, 12pm-2pm. Free, no reservations required. Les Noces du Figaro (mezzanine level), 618 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA, 90014. More info at http://lavatransforms.org/salon613
ABOUT THE SALON: Join LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association for its revived free monthly Sunday Salon series, formerly held at Clifton's Cafeteria. LAVA returns to South Broadway, to the mezzanine of Les Noces du Figaro, which was recently opened by the family behind Figaro Bistro in Los Feliz. This handsome space was formerly Schaber's Cafeteria (Charles F. Plummer, 1928), and the mezzanine features wonderful views of the Los Angeles Theatre.
On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles for a structured Salon featuring formal presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another.
The June Salon theme is Jazz Age Los Angeles, and the two talks by LAVA Visionaries Martin Turnbull and Marc Chevalier will focus on the intersection of Crescent Heights and Sunset Blvd.
Presentation One: Martin Turnbull on The Garden of Allah
Martin Turnbull, author of "The Garden Of Allah" novels will be discussing life at that hotel and its infamous bungalow courtyard during the 1920s and 30s. Its bootleg liquor, fizzy flappers, all night parties defined the Jazz Age in Los Angeles. When Scott Fitzgerald when came to L.A. in the mid 1930s with his $1000/week contract at MGM, it was at the Garden of Allah he chose to land. it was also the home-away-from-home for Algonquin Round Table refugees Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker, George S. Kaufman, Alexander Woollcott, Donald Ogden Stewart and Marc Connelly, so Fitzgerald must have feel at home. As did anyone answering Hollywood's siren call lucky enough to get a room there. Martin's talk will be punctuated by readings from his first novel in the series, "The Garden On Sunset."
About the Garden of Allah: Formerly the movie star mansion of luminous silent screen star, Alla Nazimova, the Garden of Allah opened its doors in 1927 at the height of the Jazz Age and in no time, word got out that Nazimova's Garden could always provide hopeful Hollywood arrivals with a pillow, a pal and a party. Over those years, a virtual who's who of Hollywood paraded through the place: Bogie and Bacall, Errol Flynn, David Niven, Harpo Marx, Tallulah Bankhead, Artie Shaw, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Dorothy Gish, Kay Thompson, Leopold Stokowski, Orson Welles, Ava Gardner, and Frank Sinatra.
Bio: Author Martin Turnbull has worked as a private tour guide showing both locals and out-of-towners the movie studios, Beverly Hills mansions, Hollywood hills vistas and where all the bodies are buried. For nine years, he has also volunteered as an historical walking tour docent with the Los Angeles Conservancy. He worked for a summer as a guide at the Warner Bros. movie studios in Burbank showing movie fans through the sound stages where Bogie and Bacall, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, and James Cagney created some of Hollywood’s classic motion pictures. His first novel in "The Garden Of Allah" series, "The Garden on Sunset," was published in 2011, followed by "The Trouble with Scarlet" in 2012. Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Martin moved to Los Angeles in the mid-90s.
Presentation Two: Marc Chevalier on the Crescent Heights Shopping Center and the ballyhoo spirit of the Jazz Age
For his talk, Marc Chevailer, the historian of the Oviatt Building, will focus on the Crescent Heights Shopping Center, just across the street from the Garden of Allah. First drawn to the building because of James Oviatt's proposed but never realized "satellite" shop for his famous downtown haberdashery, Marc soon become ensorcelled by this beautiful French Norman revival building. Built in 1925, this towered, marble-trimmed and mansard-roofed Norman "chateau" housed Schwab's Pharmacy and the Crescent Heights Market, which fed, drugged and boozed the Garden of Allah's voracious guests. It was where Hollywood's movielanders shopped, schmoozed, strove and scrounged for generations … where F. Scott Fitzgerald nearly died and Marilyn Monroe got her final prescription, and where Robert Mitchum, already a star, stocked grocery shelves just for fun. It was home to the Sunset Medical Center, the upscale Talmadge Jones flower shop (with its Rolls-Royce delivery trucks), a bakery, a dry cleaner, a beauty parlor, the infamous Crescent Heights Market (owned and managed by a cantankerous ex-speakeasy operator from New York, who randomly overcharged Hollywood's elite for its groceries), and a pharmacy that would be bought out by Schwab's in 1932. In 1949, Googie's would build its first coffee shop next to Schwab's. While nothing remains of it today, "the chateau that housed Schwab's" is ripe for rediscovery. Join Marc as he presents us a rich palimpsest of Hollywood from its halcyon era as he peels back the layers of the Crescent Heights Shopping Center, a compound which was drastically remodeled in the 1960s, and demolished in 1988.
BIO: Marc Chevalier stumbled across "the chateau that held Schwab's" while doing research for his upcoming biography of James Oviatt, the man behind L.A.'s Oviatt Building. In 2008, in partnership with filmmaker Seth Shulman, he researched / wrote / produced a feature-length documentary on the Oviatt Building's history. An English teacher by profession, Chevalier calls Los Angeles history his passion/addiction, and credits LAVA's Kim Cooper and Richard Schave for feeding it regularly.
Interested Angelenos are encouraged to come out and be part of one or more of these LAVA events celebrating the city and encouraging connections.
ABOUT LAVA: Through participation in LAVA, a select group of creative professionals come together to promote cultural programming that speaks to the urban experience while promoting positive public space. LAVA's creative partners share a love for L.A. and unique ideas for exploring it in their work. Formed by social historians RICHARD SCHAVE and KIM COOPER—proprietors of Esotouric bus adventures and the 1947project time travel blog series (including On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land)—LAVA brings together L.A.'s most visionary promoters, artists, writers and thinkers. The first crop of Visionaries in the growing curated community includes cultural chronicler ADRIENNE CREW, artist and Eastside historian AL GUERRERO, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, avant garde fashion maven A. LAURA BRODY, poet/publisher ALEIDA RODRIGUEZ, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, filmmaker ALLISON ANDERS, writer/curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, documentarian/radio producer ANTHEA RAYMOND, author/gallerist APRIL DAMMANN, memoirist BARBARA KRAFT, pop culture historian BECKY EBENKAMP, ethnomusicologist BETO GONZALEZ, puppeteer BOB BAKER, tile historian BRIAN KAISER, producer/promoter CHRISTIAN VOLTAIRE MEOLI, cultural events programmer CHRISTINA GALANTE, musician COUNT SMOKULA, performance artist CRIMEBO THE CLOWN, writer/Libros Schmibros proprietor DAVID KIPEN, Novelist DAVID ROCKLIN, forensic educator DEREK PACIFICO, sculptor DONALD GIALANELLA, forensic scientist/educator DONALD JOHNSON, author/educator DOROTHY RANDALL GRAY, educator and historic cemetery board member DWAIN CARLO CRUM, artist ELENA MARY SIFF, documentarian ELIJAH DRENNER, conversation curator ERIC VOLLMER, social connector EVONNE HEYNING, musician/performance artist FEATHERBEARD, photographer GARY LEONARD, pop critic/outsider artist GENE SCULATTI, musician/artist GEORGE EARTH, songsmith HARVEY SID FISHER, theater director HOLLY WITHAM, musician/writer IAN WHITCOMB, artist JASON HADLEY, food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, musician JEFF BOYNTON, filmmaker JEREMY KASTEN, musician JIMI CABEZA DE VACA, social historian JOAN RENNER, writer/artist JOE OESTERLE, writer JOHN BUNTIN, filmmaker JON ALLOWAY, documentarian JOHN DULLAGHAN, Musso & Frank co-owner JORDAN JONES, performance artist JULES ROCHIELLE, curator JULIE RICO, cultural curator and writer KIM OHANNESON, "Kristin's List" cultural chronicler KRISTIN BEDFORD, songstress/prognosticator MADAME PAMITA, esoteric scholar MAJA D'AOUST, author/broadcaster MANNY PACHECO, writer MARGUERITE DARLINGTON, performer McCRISTOL HARRIS, visual artist MELVIN HALE, journalist MICHAEL LINDER, photographic archivist MICHAEL RISNER, poet/dancer MONA JEAN CEDAR, architectural historian NATHAN MARSAK, writer NEAL POLLOCK, theater director NICHOLAS HOSKING, L.A. Historic Theater Foundation rep NICK MATONAK, music producer NO'A WINTER LAZERUS, musician OCTAVIUS, writer /photographer /musician PAUL KOUDOUNARIS, peace activist PAUL NUGENT of the Aetherius Society, 3-D photography expert RAY 3D ZONE, activist and performer RD PLASSCHAERT, historic ghost seeker RICHARD CARRADINE, artist/musician RICH POLYSORBATE 60, filmmaker/preservationist ROSS LIPMAN, singer-songwriter RUTHANN FRIEDMAN, ghost hunter SARAH TROOP, social networking mistress SHAWNA DAWSON, painter/gallerist SUSAN DOBAY, artist/writer/activist SUSANNA DAKIN, Warhol star and writer TERE TEREBA, sculptor TOM WALKER, musical entertainer THE UKULADY, and hat designer YASMIN DIXON.
Applications from prospective LAVA members are being taken at http://lavatransforms.org/apply
To learn more about LAVA, please visit http://www.lavatransforms.org
LAVA founders Kim Cooper and Richard Schave and most of LAVA's Visionary members are available for interviews. A limited number of journalists on assignment can be accommodated on ticketed events. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.
Raymond Chandler-themed Bus Tour Explores Philip Marlowe's Lost L.A.
For immediate release
April 30, 2013
Raymond Chandler-themed Bus Tour Explores Philip Marlowe's Lost L.A.
WHAT: Esotouric's "Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles: In A Lonely Place" bus tour
WHEN: Saturday, May 18, 2013, 11:30am-3:30pm
WHERE: Tour departs from the Los Angeles Athletic Club, 431 West 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90014.
COST: $58/person, includes complementary noir-themed gelato from Scoops
MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 213-373-1947
LOS ANGELES- In May, Esotouric, the eclectic bus adventure company whose tours reveal L.A.'s secret history, offers a bus tour dedicated to the city's greatest detective novelist, Raymond Chandler, from the downtown streets he roamed as a young oil executive to his uniquely poisonous portrayal of the city's hustlers, heavies and suckers. The tour reveals the secret historic city that still breathes under our modern streets, and offers unexpected insight into the life and work of a beloved writer and his immortal white knight detective hero Philip Marlowe.
And just to show that Chandler scholarship continues to evolve five decades after his death, Esotouric's Raymond Chandler tour features a startling new theory developed through Esotouric's original research. Get on the bus to learn all about the idealistic Los Angeles policeman whose one-man crusade against the evils of his own department is among the most convincing cases for a real life prototype of the Philip Marlowe character ever proposed. And you won't hear about him in any of the Chandler biographies, but only on the Esotouric bus.
For more original Raymond Chandler research uncovered by Esotouric, see the blog post "Raymond Chandler and the Creamery" about the criminal happenings the young writer might have witnessed at his first job in Los Angeles, at the link below.
http://www.esotouric.com/chandlerandthecreamery
And in 2011, Esotouric principals Richard Schave and Kim Cooper took a road trip to San Diego to attend the moving Valentine's Day ceremony in which the ashes of Raymond Chandler's wife Cissy (died 1954) were finally placed in his (died 1959) grave, as both had intended. In keeping with their pledge to share interesting Los Angeles lore on their tour bus and online, video and photos from the ceremony have been posted at the Esotouric blog: http://www.esotouric.com/chandlergrave
ABOUT THE TOUR:
RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES: IN A LONELY PLACE delves deep into a lost city that exists in shadowy parallels to contemporary LA. Bungalows. Crime. Hollywood. Blondes. Vets. Smog. Death. This was Raymond Chandler’s city, which resonated from deft and melancholy fits of his writer’s bow. Join Esotouric on an exploration of the city that shaped Chandler's fiction, and that in turn shaped his hard-boiled times, in a four hour tour of downtown, Hollywood and surrounding environs: Musso & Frank, Union Station, the Hotel Van Nuys, Paramount Studio’s gates, and beyond. Through published work, private correspondence, screenplays and film adaptations, the tour traces Chandler’s search for meaning and his anti-hero Philip Marlowe’s struggle to not be pigeonholed or give anything less than all he has, which lead them both down the rabbit hole of isolation, depression, and drink.
Get on the bus for a revealing time travel journey into the literary history of Los Angeles, and discover the places and people who inspired Raymond Chandler's timeless novels, screenplays and stories. And as a special treat, the tour's complementary snack break features a selection of noir-themed gelato flavors from the creative kitchen of Tai Kim's Scoops, the most interesting and acclaimed ice cream shop in Los Angeles. Scoops doesn't announce the featured flavors in advance, but Chandleresque offerings on past tours have have included Coffee/Jack Daniels, Bacon/Caramel, Guinness/Chocolate and even Nicotine (made with Nicorette gum)!
Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule (free events starred)
Sat May 4 - Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
Sat May 18 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
* Sun May 26 - LAVA's Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
*Mon May 27 - Tour of historic Savannah Cemetery (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat June 1 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour
Sat June 8 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour
Sat Jun 15 – Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat June 22 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour
* Sun June 30 - LAVA's Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat July 13 - Charles Bukowski's LA
Sat July 20 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare
Sat July 27 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
* Sun July 28 - LAVA's Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Esotouric's Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org
Tour host Richard Schave is available for interviews. Journalists and photographers on assignment can often be accommodated on Esotouric bus tours. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.
Explore L.A.'s dark oddball history on Esotouric's Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
For immediate release
April 22, 2013
Explore L.A.'s dark oddball history on Esotouric's Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
WHAT: Esotouric's Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour of the San Gabriel Valley
WHEN: Saturday, May 4, 2013, 12pm-4pm
WHERE: Tour departs from The Daily Dose Cafe, 1820 Industrial Street, Los Angeles, CA 90021.
COST: $63, includes dumplings (vegetarian options available on request)
INFO: http://www.esotouric.com or call 213-373-1947.
LOS ANGELES - On Saturday, May 4, the eclectic bus adventure company Esotouric presents its bizarre true crime and cultural history tour, BLOOD & DUMPLINGS. The tour celebrates a surprising side of Los Angeles history not found in tour books.
Starting from the premise that the secret heart of Southern California's eccentric lifestyle culture beats strongest in the Eastern San Gabriel Valley, the tour introduces passengers to such fascinating local characters as the costumed Man from Mars Bandit, legendary record producer and convicted murderer Phil Spector, lion farming tourist magnets Charles and Muriel Gay, and DIY filmmaking icon Timothy Carey, whose notorious "The World's Greatest Sinner" was shot on location in 1960s El Monte.
Heading due East out of downtown, the tour explores several historic communities that reflect the growth and eccentricity that are hallmarks of 20th century Los Angeles. Crime Bus passengers will discover notorious, strange, fascinating and forgotten tales from the past hundred years, each told at the scene of the crime. They'll thrill to the freakish case of the Man from Mars Bandit who stalked area supermarkets for months in 1951 before meeting his match in a police sharpshooter, shock to discover the deadly infighting among El Monte's hippie-era American Nazi Party members, mourn the Case of the Buried Bride dragged beneath her home on her wedding day by her secret lover, gnash teeth at the famous lion farm (home to every MGM lion) that served lion meat BBQ on special occasions, and view scenes of notorious cases including Phil Spector's spooky hilltop castle and James Ellroy's slain mother Geneva (the true-life inspiration for his Black Dahlia novel).
And since no visit to the San Gabriel Valley is complete without a delicious Chinese meal, the Crime Bus will stop at 101 Noodle Express (one of Jonathan Gold's picks for 99 L.A. restaurants not to be missed) to pick up a dumpling feast, which will be enjoyed picnic-style at La Laguna de San Gabriel (aka Monster Park), a remarkable sea-themed folk art environment recently saved from demolition and named a California state landmark. There passengers can enjoy their snack in the mouth of a concrete whale, or under a grinning octopus, then pose for photos with the creatures.
All this, plus wild shootouts, dope-dealing druggists, missing Salvador Dali paintings and the original "little girl down a well" 1940s television sensation. Don't miss the Crime Bus tour that guide Kim Cooper calls "A dark and daffy ride into the heart of the California psyche, packed to the gills with the offbeat history, horror, novelty and mystery that is the reason Esotouric exists."
For more info on Esotouric, visit
Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule (free events starred)
Sat April 27 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat April 27 - LAVA Literary Salon: A Dashiell Hammett Evening (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sun April 28 - Due to Fiesta Broadway, there will be no LAVA Sunday Salon today
Sat May 4 - Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
Sat May 18 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
*Sun May 26 - LAVA's Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
* Mon May 27 - Tour of historic Savannah Cemetery (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat June 1 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour
Sat June 8 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour
Sat Jun 15 – Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat June 22 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour
*Sun June 30 - LAVA's Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat July 13 - Charles Bukowski's LA
Sat July 20 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare
Sat July 27 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
*Sun July 28 - LAVA's Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Esotouric's Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org
Tour hosts Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are available for interviews. Members of the press on assignment are always welcome on the bus, space permitting. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 213-373-1947.
Noir Master Dashiell Hammett Honored at Literary Salon at Historic L.A. Athletic Club
For immediate release
April 16, 2013
Noir Master Dashiell Hammett Honored at Literary Salon at Historic L.A. Athletic Club
WHAT: LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) presents "A Dashiell Hammett Evening," the fifth LAVA Literary Salon, celebrating the hard-boiled novelist and screenwriter.
WHERE: The Los Angeles Athletic Club, 431 West 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90014.
WHEN: Saturday, April 27, 2013 from 6:30pm-10:30pm. (Formerly quarterly, the Salon is now offered on an occasional basis.)
COST: $100 per person, ticket price includes 1950s-inspired Continental buffet dinner, Salon presentations and parking. Cocktails not included.
TO PURCHASE TICKETS: http://esotouric.com/literarysalon5
FOR MORE INFO: Contact Kim Cooper, amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 213-373-1947.
FULL SALON DETAILS: http://lavatransforms.org/lavasalonhammett
"The sold-out crowd spoke to our hunger for a Southern California literary history." - Larry Wilson (Pasadena Star-News)... "Someone who didn't know any L.A. history would have found it to be a robust and welcoming introduction." - Carolyn Kellogg (L.A. Times)
LOS ANGELES- Launched in 2012 at the Musso & Frank Grill, LAVA’s Literary Salon is a place for lovers of great L.A. writers to come together in historic spaces for good company, fine food, and fascinating discussions by experts in the field.
On April 27, the fifth Salon happens in its new home, the historic Los Angeles Athletic Club--where Raymond Chandler, then a young oil executive, played bridge and eavesdropped on the powerful men who would shape the city and his detective fiction--for a celebration of Dashiell Hammett's work and life.
PREVIEW THE CONVERSATION: On Friday, April 12, presenter Julie M. Rivett and host Richard Schave were Ron Kilgore's guests on KFWB's Money 101, talking about Dashiell Hammett's fascinating life and work and the upcoming Salon event. The show is archived online at:
http://kfwbam.com/2013/04/12/l-a-literary-salon-celebrates-dashiell-hammett/
ABOUT THE HAMMETT SALON: It’s impossible to understand Los Angeles literature out of context of the place. In the 1920s and 1930s, L.A. was bursting at the seams, as one of the biggest boom towns the world had ever seen. And as the city grew, it attracted a varied and fascinating population: East coast intellectuals, filmmakers, European refugees, hustlers and visionaries of all stripes. One of the greats who called Los Angeles home was Dashiell Hammett.
Hammett is remembered for both for his contributions to hard-boiled crime fiction ("The Maltese Falcon," "The Thin Man") and his stand against McCarthyism. Host Richard Schave, creator of Esotouric's award-winning literary bus tours, welcomes Hammett scholar and granddaughter JULIE M. RIVETT as she explores her grandfather’s controversial political life, his relationship with Lillian Hellman, and the decades of consequent troubles that have tangled Hammett’s estate. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear an insider’s perspective on an important and too often misunderstood literary legacy. Ms. Rivett and Hammett's biographer RICHARD LAYMAN will close the evening with discussion and a question-and-answer session. Signed books will be available.
Also appearing at the Salon are members of THE LONG BEACH SHAKESPEARE COMPANY, who will present scenes featuring the legendary Hammett characters Sam Spade, The Continental Op and Nick and Nora Charles.
ABOUT THE BUFFET: Boris Chernyak, Executive Chef of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, is creating a special Salon menu inspired by the gourmet fare that was popular in high-end American restaurants circa 1950 and would have been enjoyed by the authors the Salon celebrates. The menu is comprised of Salads (Nicoise salad / Waldorf salad / Mixed greens / Assorted dressings and condiments), Entrees (Carving station with Baron of Beef Au Jus and horseradish cream / Parmesan-crusted Golden Tilapia / Chicken Tetrazzini) and Sides (Potato au Gratin / Grilled Vegetables/ Rice Pilaf / Steamed Asparagus).
ABOUT THE FEATURED SPEAKERS: Richard Layman has written or edited eight books on Dashiell Hammett, including "Dashiell Hammett: a Descriptive Bibliography," "Shadow Man: The Life of Dashiell Hammett" and "Discovering The Maltese Falcon and Sam Spade," nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Together Layman and Julie Rivett have edited four books by or about Dashiell Hammett. "Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett: 1921-1960" and "Dashiell Hammett: A Daughter Remembers" by Jo Hammett were published in 2001. "The Return of the Thin Man," with Hammett’s screen treatments for two of the beloved "Thin Man" film series sequels, was released in 2012. "The Hunter and Other Stories," featuring unpublished and previously uncollected Hammett fiction, will make its debut in November 2013.
ABOUT THE LAVA LITERARY SALON: The series is the brainchild of Kim Cooper & Richard Schave, proprietors of literary and historic tour company Esotouric. Their tours include Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles, The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare, Charles Bukowski's Haunts of a Dirty Old Man and John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill. The Literary Salon was honored with a Best of L.A. award from Los Angeles Magazine in 2012. Past Salons have celebrated the life and work of John Fante, Raymond Chandler, Jim Tully, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Dorothy Parker and the booksellers Jake Zeitlin, Stanley Rose, Louis Epstein (Pickwick Books) and Ernest Dawson (Dawson’s Bookshop).
ABOUT LAVA: Through participation in LAVA, a select group of creative professionals come together to promote cultural programming that speaks to the urban experience while promoting positive public space. LAVA's creative partners share a love for L.A. and unique ideas for exploring it in their work. Formed by social historians RICHARD SCHAVE and KIM COOPER—proprietors of Esotouric bus adventures and the 1947project time travel blog series (including On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land)—LAVA brings together L.A.'s most visionary promoters, artists, writers and thinkers.
To learn more about LAVA, please visit http://www.lavatransforms.org
LAVA co-founders Kim Cooper and Richard Schave and Salon presenter Julie M. Rivett are available for interviews. For more info, or to schedule an interview, contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 213-373-1947.
