For immediate release
 
August 5, 2010
 
LAVA's August wild weekend celebrates culture and history in Downtown Los Angeles

WHAT: On Saturday August 28 and Sunday August 29, members of LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) present four eclectic downtown cultural happenings, including Esotouric's The Lowdown on Downtown bus tour, a 25th Anniversary Night Stalker Murders tour from Eastside Desmadre, LAVA's monthly Sunday Salon at Clifton's Cafeteria featuring a talk from David Kipen about his new bookshop/ lending library Libros Schmibros in Boyle Heights, and a rare chance to see David Caldwell's multi-media performance installation War Child Show in his Arts District loft.
COST: Two of the four events are free (War Child Show and Sunday Salon).
MORE INFO: http://lavatransforms.org and the individual links below

LOS ANGELES- Launched in February by Richard Schave and Kim Cooper--the founding Director and Curator of the Downtown Art Walk non-profit--the creative consortium 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.

And during the last weekend in August, the LAVA calendar is packed with four incredible Downtown events (two of them free) reflecting the group's eclectic diversity, with something to delight and inspire anybody looking for a memorable cultural outing. The events play out in this order...

1) Esotouric's Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown bus tour, Saturday 8/28, 11am-3pm, $58, departs from Philippe. Info http://lavatransforms.org/lowdownaugust10

Join LAVA co-founder Richard Schave, the founding director of the Downtown LA Art Walk non-profit, on a tour that reveals the secret history, and the fascinating future, of this most beguiling LA neighborhood. THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN is a guided social history of the mysterious, complex and rapidly evolving center of L.A., a thriving neighborhood that was intentionally depopulated in the 1950s and is currently experiencing an extraordinary rebirth. Everyone complains L.A. lacks a center -- this tour explains why. Passengers will visit exquisite architectural gems, including some seldom seen by the general public, but they'll also enjoy a sophisticated analysis of the economic and social tools used to rebuild downtown, learn how gentrification sprung up on the city's meanest streets with all the conflicts that go along with a community's socio-economic shift, meet creative residents and explore unique destinations. Featured locations include the intentionally depopulated Bunker Hill and its Angels Flight funicular railway, Grand Central Market, the concrete design disaster Pershing Square (with its tribute to novelist John Fante), European-style dining alley St. Vincent's Court, the lyrical glass-topped Mercantile Arcade Building (an exact replica of a London landmark). Get on the bus for the real Lowdown on Downtown, as no one but Esotouric's Richard Schave can reveal it.

2) 25th Anniversary of the Capture of Richard Ramirez "The Night Stalker" Guided Tour, Sunday 8/29, 12pm-4pm, $25. Info http://lavatransforms.org/nightstalker

Join LAVA Visionaries Al Guerrero and Crimebo the Clown for the debut of an incredible new crime tour by a provocative new tour company. To commemorate the 1985 capture of the infamous Los Angeles serial killer Richard Ramirez, Eastside Desmadre Tours will conduct a guided walking/public bus tour to explore the downtown L.A. haunts and dwellings of the "The Night Stalker." Included in the tour is a visit to the East L.A. street where he was captured, as well as interviews with local witnesses involved in his apprehension.

3) LAVA's monthly Sunday Salon, Sunday 8/29, 12pm-2pm, Free, Clifton's Cafeteria, Downtown. Info http://lavatransforms.org/salon810

On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather on the third floor of the historic Clifton's Cafeteria for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. August's theme is literature, and the Salon features a presentation from Visionary David Kipen, former head of literature for the NEA who recently opened Libros Schmibros, a free lending library and bookstore in Boyle Heights. David will discuss his vision for the space and the challenges facing L.A.'s booklovers as libraries are closed due to lack of funding, in addition to other literary discussions to be announced.

4) War Child Show, Sunday 8/29, 7pm-9pm, Free, David Caldwell's Loft at 454 Seaton St., Arts District. Info http://lavatransforms.org/warchild810

LAVA Visionary David Caldwell presents a rare (and free) presentation his War Child Show on the evening of LAVA's monthly Sunday Salon, featuring wine, snacks and a most unusual multi-media art presentation. Doors open 7pm, show starts around 8pm. ABOUT THE SHOW: "War Child is a Monumental Sculpture. An Installation in the form of a Magically Elaborate Altar. 14 feet high, 40 feet wide, and 26 feet deep. It gives Birth to a 40 minute experience. A Video, Sound, and Light Show Performance. The Video Juxtaposes Manipulated Images, Of Nature, Civilization, Creation, and Destruction. War Child's 3 Dimensional and Technical Wizardry entice the Audience on a Journey. The Paradigm of Duality, That Shapes Human Existence. A Synthesis of Multiple Systems, War Child becomes a Living, Breathing, Speaking, Organic Entity. All of the Technology is Embedded, and Fully Integrated into the Performance. The Living Installation Impacts, Space, Sight, Sound, and Memory. A Shifting, Constantly Changing Environment, Envelops the Audience, and Transports Them, to Another Dimension."

Interested Angelenos are encouraged to come out and be part of some or all 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 until recently the Director and Curator of the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk -- 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 and publisher ALEIDA RODRIGUEZ, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, filmmaker and festival promoter ALLISON ANDERS, former Metropolitan Museum curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, documentarian and radio producer ANTHEA RAYMOND, pop culture historian BECKY EBENKAMP, ethnomusicologist BETO GONZALEZ, master puppeteer BOB BAKER, producer and promoter CHRISTIAN VOLTAIRE MEOLI, 826LA events manager CHRISTINA GALANTE, performance artist CRIMEBO THE CLOWN, the NEA's outgoing Director of Literature DAVID KIPEN, green sculptor DONALD GIALANELLA, author and educator DOROTHY RANDALL GRAY, visual artist ELENA MARY SIFF, documentarian and exploitation film historian ELIJAH DRENNER, musician and performance artist FEATHERBEARD, photographer GARY LEONARD, pop critic and outsider artist GENE SCULATTI, film and fashion historian HALA PICKFORD, songsmith HARVEY SID FISHER, theater director HOLLY WITHAM, no-longer-Teenage Glutster food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, horror film director JEREMY KASTEN, musician and composer of silent film scores JIMI CABEZA DE VACA, social historian JOAN RENNER, journalist and author JOHN BUNTIN,Musso & Frank co-owner JORDAN JONES, performance artist JULES ROCHIELLE, curator and activist JULIE RICO, "Kristin's List" cultural chronicler KRISTIN BEDFORD, esoteric scholar and lecturer MAJA D'AOUST, author and broadcaster MANNY PACHECO, President of the new LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes MIGUEL ANGEL CORZO, poet and dancer MONA JEAN CEDAR, , theater director NICHOLAS HOSKING, L.A. Historic Theater Foundation rep NICK MATONAK, music producer and impresario NO'A WINTER LAZERUS, musician OCTAVIUS, peace activist PAUL NUGENT of the Aetherius Society, 3-D photography expert RAY 3D ZONE, historic ghost seeker RICHARD CARRADINE, filmmaker and preservationist ROSS LIPMAN, Boyle Heights ghost hunter SARAH TROOP, social networking mistress SHAWNA DAWSON, painter/gallerist SUSAN DOBAY, Warhol star and writer TERE TEREBA, metal artist TOM WALKER, and hat designer and multi-media artist 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. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release
 
July 26, 2010
 
Offbeat South L.A. bus tour shines a light on fascinating, forgotten neighborhoods

WHAT: Esotouric presents "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South Los Angeles" architecture / urbanism bus tour
WHEN: Bus tour is Sunday, August 1 from 11am-3:30pm
COST: Tour costs $58, or save $40 with a three-tour discount series Banham Bundle ticket ($134), http://www.esotouric.com/banhambundle
WHERE: Tour departs from Philippe's downtown, tour covers Vernon, Bell Gardens, Santa Fe Springs, Downey, East L.A.
TOUR INFO: http://esotouric.com/reyner, 323-223-2767
RELATED TOURS IN THE SERIES: The New Chinatowns (August 7); The Lowdown on Downtown (August 28)

LOS ANGELES- Architecture critic Reyner Banham called them "The Plains of Id"—those vast, uncharted flatlands between the freeways of Los Angeles, home to millions of L.A. residents but rarely talked about unless something extraordinary happens--like the recent scandal over outrageous city salaries in poor, tiny Bell.

But to Esotouric, The Plains of Id are among the most fascinating parts of Los Angeles, deserving more attention than a brief, scandalous blip. And with their unpredictable SOUTH LOS ANGELES tour, they delve deep into the uncharted wonders of two centuries of history through the neglected neighborhoods where some of the city's most compelling and unexpected landmarks rub elbows with stucco taquerias and seemingly endless sprawl. The tour rolls through Vernon (the zone of industry with a lively Prohibition-era past), Santa Fe Springs (a bucolic retreat destroyed when oil was discovered -- but not before Irving Gill built one of the most beautiful houses in Southern California), Bell Gardens (site of the boggling architectural layer cake of an adobe-wrapped-in-a-Victorian-wrapped-in-a-trailer-park), East Los Angeles (an important site in the history of Southland rail transit) and Downey (home of the Carpenters, Kustom Kar Kulture and the grand Rives mansion).

Inspired by the British architectural critic Reyner Banham, who host Richard Schave studied under at UC Santa Cruz, the four tours in the REYNER BANHAM LOVES LOS ANGELES series (South LA, Route 66, The New Chinatowns and The Lowdown On Downtown) offer a fresh way of looking at the urban web of history, mass transit, migration and mystery that somehow holds L.A. together.  

The SOUTH LOS ANGELES Esotouric bus adventure begins downtown and works its way south through Vernon, Bell Gardens, Santa Fe Springs and Downey, and through the past two centuries, exploring some of L.A.'s seldom-seen gems. The bus goes into areas not traditionally associated with the important, beautiful or significant, raising issues of preservation, adaptive reuse and the evolution of the city from Spanish ranchos to the 'burbs. The locations all speak to the power, mutability and reach of the Southern California Dream.

Tour stops include:

The Gage Mansion, Bell Gardens (1808). The oldest adobe structure in L.A. County, this fascinating home sits in the middle of a 65-year-old trailer park on the banks of the Rio Hondo River in Bell Gardens. Between the layers of context at this site is the history of migration and growth in the Southland, from Spanish land grants to the dust bowl to the vast waves of stucco suburbs.

The Clarke Estate, Santa Fe Springs (1919). A recently rediscovered masterpiece by tilt-slab concrete innovator Irving Gill, this Mission Revival-inspired dwelling features symbolic leaves pressed into the walls and feels like a time capsule from a simpler California.

East Los Angeles Train Station, East L.A. (1932). A prominent location in the 1946 film "The Postman Always Rings Twice," it was built to deal with congestion and overcrowding in the existing downtown terminals. Currently a picturesque Mission-style ruin in the shadow of the wacky Citadel shopping center, will it rise again as the rail lines reassert themselves?

Johnie's Broiler, Downey (1958/2009). A cautionary tale about historic preservation, this beloved Downey diner with its landmark neon sign was illegally demolished by a renter who wanted to park use cars in its place. The site was barred from further commercial use due to public outcry, and was recently lovingly restored as a Bob's Big Boy.

The Rives Mansion, Downey (1912). Pioneer publisher and civic leader James C. Rives built this striking Colonial Revival home, which has been a Downey landmark for nearly a century, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Tropicana Bakery. Downey's celebrated Cuban sandwich and sweet shop, creators of such temptations as the Choco-Flan, the giant cake-and-fruit-filled Florentine cookie, and the Flan/Cheesecake layer cake. Passengers will enjoy a snack and conversation stop in this charming establishment.

These are just some of the extraordinary buildings and stories passengers explore on the South L.A. edition of "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles," Esotouric's unique architectural tour series. This tour was also presented as a lecture by Richard Schave entitled "Learning from... Los Angeles" at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal in 2009.
 
Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and event schedule:
Sun Aug 1- Reyner Banham Loves LA: South Los Angeles
Sat Aug 7- Reyner Banham Loves LA: The New Chinatowns
Sat Aug 28 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sun Aug 29 - LAVA Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Sept 11 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat Sept 18 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour
Sat Sept 25 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat Oct 9 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's So. Cal Nightmare
Sat Oct 16 - John Buntin's L.A. Noir
Sat Oct 30 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release
Sat Nov 6 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat Nov 13 - Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sat Dec 4  - Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown
Sat Dec 11 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour

For more info on Esotouric, please visit http://www.esotouric.com

Esotouric's Richard Schave and Kim Cooper are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org

For more on Reyner Banham, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reyner_Banham

And the BBC documentary "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles"
http://reyner.notlong.com
 
Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles tour host Richard Schave is available for interviews. Journalists on assignment can often be accommodated on the bus. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release
 
July 13, 2010
 
Three August L.A. Architecture Tours follow in the steps of critic Reyner Banham
 
WHAT: Esotouric presents three tours in the "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles" architecture and urbanism series

WHEN:
Tour #1 - South L.A. (Sunday, August 1, 11am-3pm),
Tour #2 - The New Chinatowns (Saturday, August 7, 11am-3pm)
Tour #4 -The Lowdown on Downtown (Saturday, August 28, 11am-3pm)

COST: $58 each, or save $40 with a three-tour discount series Banham Bundle ticket ($134), http://www.esotouric.com/banhambundle
WHERE: Tours depart from Philippe the Original, 1001 N. Alameda, LA CA 90012
VIDEO: Preview The New Chinatowns tour at the link below
http://newchinatownspreview.notlong.com

"Reyner Banham was as smart and sassy as any critic in the postwar period. What made him distinctive was his passion for the edgiest expressions of his technological age, not only in avant-garde architecture but in anything designed - Cadillacs and transistor radios, custom hot-rods and painted surfboards, gadgets and gizmos." –Hal Foster
 
LOS ANGELES- No city has so fascinated scholars of urban and cultural studies than L.A., that sprawling, self-referential zone of mystery and glamour. And for all the films, books and flim-flam, there is no American city that's harder to understand. That's where Esotouric, L.A.'s most ambitious tour company, comes in. Esotouric's REYNER BANHAM LOVES L.A. architectural tour series is dedicated to exploring the city's infrastructure, history, the built and natural environment, transportation corridors, drive-ins, attractions and oddities

This August, get on the bus to explore the real Los Angeles, as no one but Esotouric's Richard Schave can reveal it. Richard's unique expertise on unknown L.A. has seen him as a featured guide on television's "Globe Trekker" (Grand Central Market) and "Cities of the Underworld" (downtown's prohibition-era tunnels) and speaking at the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Hammer Museum. And all through August, he'll be exploring different sections of Los Angeles, following in the footsteps of his mentor Reyner Banham—in a luxury coach class bus.

British writer and architecture professor Reyner Banham was the first to love L.A.'s ugliness as well as her beauty. In the early 1970s he abandoned his academic preconceptions to revel in freeways, foothills, beaches and suburbs, discovering extraordinary spaces that were often overlooked for being too remote, too industrial, or simply occupying invisible "flyover country" beneath the great freeways. Banham saw that behind the urban sprawl was a pattern, almost a language, which could not be understood through old modes of architectural criticism, but which required new ways of seeing and of thinking.
 
Two decades after his death, Banham's one-time student, Esotouric's Richard Schave, leads a series of provocative bus tours that take urban explorers deep into uncharted downtown L.A., across mysterious Vernon to the mysterious flatlands of South L.A. and through the thriving New Chinatowns of the San Gabriel Valley, to explore how Southern California has changed since Banham mapped it and reveal the secret wonders that survive.

ABOUT THE TOURS:

SOUTH L.A. (8/1) is a provocative bus adventure that works its way south through Vernon, Bell Gardens, Santa Fe Springs and Downey, and through the past two centuries, exploring seldom-seen gems. Turning the West Side-centric notion of an L.A. architecture tour on its head, the bus goes into areas not traditionally associated with the important, beautiful or significant, raising issues of preservation, adaptive reuse and the evolution of the city. The locations all speak to the power, mutability and reach of the Southern California Dream. Featured stops include the county's oldest adobe structure The Gage Mansion which is set in the midst of an historic trailer park, tilt-slab concrete architect Irving Gill's exquisite lost masterpiece The Clarke Estate (1919), the abandoned East Los Angeles Train Station (1932), the stunning and recently-restored Johnie's Broiler drive-in (1958/2008), Downey's exquisite Colonial Revival Rives Mansion, and a restorative snack stop at Downey's beloved Cuban bakery Tropicana.

THE NEW CHINATOWNS (8/7) is an illuminating historical and cultural tour celebrating significant people, remarkable places and delicious delicacies. Come discover the San Gabriel Valley's fascinating history, from the land and oil booms of the 1920s, halcyon postwar days as a suburban outpost for lower middle class Angelenos and birthplace of the Hula Hoop, to the "white flight" of the 1970s which created the vacuum that facilitated fresh waves of migration from China and a new type of suburban American "Chinatown." Significant sites include: Divine's Furniture, decorating Monterey Park homes with fine antiques since the 1920s; The Venice Room (Monterey Park), a groovy grill-your-own-steak bar, still family-run after fifty years; Browning Realty (Monterey Park), site of the 1920s oil mania; El Encanto (Monterey Park), exquisite showplace of the failed 1920s luxury housing development intended as the Beverly Hills of the East; Mission Superhardware (San Gabriel), still run by the Fabriano family after seven decades, where Howard Roach built some of the Southland's first television sets; site of the original Laura Scudder potato chip factory (Monterey Park); and pioneering purveyors of high quality Asian herbs, teas and notions Wing Hop Fung, where we will enjoy a tea tasting.

THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN (8/28), a bus tour with quite a bit of walking, is a guided social history of the mysterious, complex and rapidly evolving center of L.A., a thriving neighborhood that was intentionally depopulated in the 1950s and is currently experiencing an extraordinary rebirth. This is a tour about the real Los Angeles, the city even natives don't know. Everyone complains L.A. lacks a center—this tour explains why. The tour offers a sophisticated analysis of the economic and social tools used to rebuild downtown, and the challenges ahead. Learn about the Art Walk, a grassroots social movement which transformed one lost neighborhood (the Historic Core, AKA Skid Row) through the energies of artists and art lovers—get the inside scoop from your host Richard Schave, the non-profit's founding Director. Come explore Downtown's invisible neighborhoods and great historic public spaces which managed to escape the wrecking ball. Featured locations include Angels Flight Railway, Grand Central Market, Mercantile Arcade Building, St. Vincent's Alley and a private studio tour with sculptor David Caldwell in the Arts District.

Each of these provocative Esotouric bus adventures provide fresh ways of seeing the Southland and an opportunity to mingle with fascinating fellow travelers. They are a must for urban explorers, architecture buffs, curious locals, daring tourists, and anyone who enjoys turning over rocks to reveal the secrets beneath.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule:
Sat July 24 - Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sun July 25 - LAVA Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sun Aug 1- Reyner Banham Loves LA: South Los Angeles
Sat Aug 7- Reyner Banham Loves LA: The New Chinatowns
Sat Aug 28 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sun Aug 29 - LAVA Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Sept 11 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat Sept 18 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour
Sat Sept 25 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat Oct 9 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's So. Cal Nightmare
Sat Oct 16 - John Buntin's L.A. Noir
Sat Oct 30 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release
Sat Nov 6 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat Nov 13 - Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sat Dec 4  - Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown
Sat Dec 11 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour

For more info on Esotouric, please visit http://www.esotouric.com

For discount tickets for all three tours, http://www.esotouric.com/banhambundle

For a video preview of The New Chinatowns tour, see
http://newchinatownspreview.notlong.com

For more on Reyner Banham, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reyner_Banham

And the BBC documentary "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles"
http://reyner.notlong.com
 
Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles tour host Richard Schave is available for interviews. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release
 
July 7, 2010

LAVA's wild weekend spans the Southland with unique and free cultural programs

WHAT: On Saturday July 24 and Sunday July 25, members of LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) present six eclectic cultural happenings, including The Aetherius Society's World Peace Pilgrimage to Mount Baldy, Esotouric's Charles Bukowski bus tour, the LA Street Food Fest at the Rose Bowl, an artist's tea party in Highland Park, LAVA's monthly Sunday Salon at Clifton's Cafeteria and a walking tour of Olvera Street and downtown's newest cultural institution LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes.
COST: Four of the six events are free (Bukowski tour and LA Food Fest are not).
MORE INFO: http://lavatransforms.org and the individual links below

LOS ANGELES- Launched in February by Richard Schave and Kim Cooper--the founding Director and Curator of the Downtown Art Walk non-profit--the creative consortium 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.

And during the last weekend in July, the LAVA calendar is packed with six incredible events (four of them free) reflecting the group's eclectic diversity, with something to delight and inspire anybody looking for a memorable cultural outing. The events play out in this order...

1) World Peace Pilgrimage to Mount Baldy, Saturday 7/24, 9am-dusk, Free, San Gabriel Mountains. Info http://lavatransforms.org/mountbaldy710

LAVA Visionary Paul Nugent invites you to participate in the second World Peace Interfaith Pilgrimage to Mount Baldy in the gorgeous San Gabriel Mountains, 50 miles east of L.A. Mount Baldy has long been recognized as a Holy Mountain by the local Gabrielino/Tungva Native Americans. Since 1959, this mountain has also been considered holy by Members of the non-profit spiritual organization, The Aetherius Society, who recognize this sacred mountain as having been charged with Cosmic energies. Each summer since 1959, they have been visiting the mountain to send out powerful waves of spiritual energy to the world for World Peace and Global Healing through the action of selfless prayer. The first World Peace Pilgrimage in August 2009 marked the 50th anniversary of the charging of this Holy Mountain. Over 200 people from various religious traditions, and no religious traditions, gathered to send a wave of prayer energy to the world. You are invited to join in to make this second World Peace Pilgrimage an even greater success.

2) Esotouric's Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles Bus Tour, Saturday 7/24 12-4pm, $58, departing from Philippe's, Downtown. Info http://lavatransforms.org/buk0710

LAVA co-founder Richard Schave's literary bus tour focuses on writer Charles Bukowski’s great passions: writing, screwing and Los Angeles. It takes in the canonical locations of his life and myth: the Postal Annex Terminal where he gathered the material for "Post Office," the De Longpre apartment where he briefly experimented with marriage and fatherhood, one of his favorite bars and liquor stores, and more, while exploring the people and ideas that made up the warp and weft of Buk’s rich inner life. Host Richard Schave was part of the team that helped make Bukowski's former home a city landmark, and the wild tale of the City Hall landmark battle between preservationists and the former landlord who falsely accused the writer of being a Nazi sympathizer will be shared at the site.

3) LA Street Food Fest's Summer Tasting Event, Saturday 7/24, 5:30pm-9pm, $45+, The Rose Bowl, Pasadena. Info http://lavatransforms.org/summertasting

LAVA Visionary and food truck dining maven Shawna Dawson invites you to explore the world of mobile cuisine as her hugely successful LA Street Food Fest returns with an all-new Summer Tasting Event at The Rose Bowl. Sample unlimited signature bites from almost 60 vendors from hot gourmet food trucks, old school carts and stands to celeb chefs and street inspired dishes from LA's best restaurants, enjoy an open bar including Singha beer gardens, mixologist made cocktails, tequila tasting and juices. Musical entertainment provided by Warpaint and The Deadly Syndrome and DJ Bryan Davidson, and your ticket benefits St. Vincent Meals on Wheels & Woolly School Gardens. Free parking, pre-sale tickets only.

4) Artist's Tea for An Exhibition of Quilts by Ruby Nishio, Sunday 7/25, 12-4pm, Free, Future Studio Gallery, Highland Park. http://lavatransforms.org/teawithruby

LAVA Visionary Amy Inouye invites you to take tea with award winning quilt artist, Ruby Nishio at Inouye's gallery. Ruby Nishio approaches her quilt making with intensity and seemingly boundless energy in her first one-person exhibition. Vibrant colors, striking contrasts, impeccable craftsmanship and exquisite hand quilting distinguish her work.

5) LAVA's monthly Sunday Salon, Sunday 7/25, 12-2pmpm, Free, Clifton's Cafeteria, Downtown. Info http://lavatransforms.org/salon710

On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather on the third floor of the historic Clifton's Cafeteria for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. July's Visionary presentations will be announced shortly.

6) The Flâneur & The City: Olvera Street walking tour and preview of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, Sunday, 7/25, 2:45-4pm, Free, Olvera Street, Downtown. Info http://lavatransforms.org/olveraflaneur

Following the Salon, a limited number of attendees are invited to join LAVA founder Richard Schave on a free walking tour of historic Olvera Street and a preview of downtown's newest cultural institution, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes. Here President and CEO Miguel Angel Corzo will give a walkthrough of the newly-refurbished historic Brunswig Building and touch on the objectives for the institution, which opens in the fall. Urban historian Richard Schave's site-specific discussion series "The Flâneur & The City" is an ongoing attempt to explore some of the more important issues revealed by the constantly changing heart of the Metropolis. This installment features Olvera Street, the seed of Los Angeles and the first place where issues of urban preservation entered the city's consciousness. Come explore the site's history, from the founding of the city (1781) to the present, with a focus on the "classic" era: Christine Sterling's nearly thirty years of preservation and reinterpretation. On this informative stroll through a provocative and multi-layered space, we'll explore the suprising connections between Olvera Street and downtown's recently redeveloped Old Bank District, how kitschy tourist attractions impact the pleasures of public space, and more. Reservations required.

Interested Angelenos are encouraged to come out and be part of some or all 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 until recently the Director and Curator of the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk -- 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, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, avant garde fashion maven A. LAURA BRODY, poet and publisher ALEIDA RODRIGUEZ, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, filmmaker and festival promoter ALLISON ANDERS, former Metropolitan Museum curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, documentarian and radio producer ANTHEA RAYMOND, pop culture historian BECKY EBENKAMP, ethnomusicologist BETO GONZALEZ, master puppeteer BOB BAKER, producer and promoter CHRISTIAN VOLTAIRE MEOLI, 826LA events manager CHRISTINA GALANTE, performance artist CRIMEBO THE CLOWN, the NEA's outgoing Director of Literature DAVID KIPEN, green sculptor DONALD GIALANELLA, author and educator DOROTHY RANDALL GRAY, documentarian and exploitation film historian ELIJAH DRENNER, musician and performance artist FEATHERBEARD, pop critic and outsider artist GENE SCULATTI, songsmith HARVEY SID FISHER, theater director HOLLY WITHAM, no-longer-Teenage Glutster food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, horror film director JEREMY KASTEN, musician and composer of silent film scores JIMI CABEZA DE VACA, social historian JOAN RENNER, journalist and author JOHN BUNTIN,Musso & Frank co-owner JORDAN JONES, performance artist JULES ROCHIELLE, curator and activist JULIE RICO, "Kristin's List" cultural chronicler KRISTIN BEDFORD, esoteric scholar and lecturer MAJA D'AOUST, author and broadcaster MANNY PACHECO, President of the new LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes MIGUEL ANGEL CORZO, poet and dancer MONA JEAN CEDAR, , theater director NICHOLAS HOSKING, L.A. Historic Theater Foundation rep NICK MATONAK, music producer and impresario NO'A WINTER LAZERUS, musician OCTAVIUS, peace activist PAUL NUGENT of the Aetherius Society, 3-D photography expert RAY 3D ZONE, historic ghost seeker RICHARD CARRADINE, filmmaker and preservationist ROSS LIPMAN, Boyle Heights ghost hunter SARAH TROOP, social networking mistress SHAWNA DAWSON, Warhol star and writer TERE TEREBA, metal artist TOM WALKER, and hat designer and multi-media artist 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. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release
 
July 5, 2010
 
L.A.'s favorite blogging grandparents The OGs go national Tuesday on The TODAY Show

LINK: http://www.the-ogs.com

LOS ANGELES- Two years after launching The OGs blog, and after amassing thousands of passionate fans who treasure them as their own internet grandparents, sassy 90-something bloggers Barbara and Harry Cooper, aka "Cutie" and "Pop Pop" are about to go national in a big way, as The TODAY Show features them in a long segment in the 8am hour on Tuesday, July 6.

TODAY reporter Lee Cowan spent the day at Hollenbeck Palms retirement home in Boyle Heights with Barbara and Harry, getting the skinny on their touching story of 72 years of marriage and unexpected internet celebrity, which has recently seen them on the front page of the Los Angeles Times (Column One) and the front of the Toronto Star Living section.

In addition to revealing interviews with the OGs and their granddaughters Kim and Chinta Cooper, creators of the OGs blog, the segment is slated to include greatest hits moments from their charming videos, and a chance to follow Cutie and Pop Pop on their adventures around Los Angeles -- including a hot fudge sundae date at their favorite retro diner (Twohey's in Alhambra) and a return to West Hollywood's Poinsettia Park, site of the tennis courts where they first laid eyes on each other in 1937.

Tune in to TODAY to watch the OGs on Tuesday morning, or check out their segment on the TODAY website later at http://today.msnbc.msn.com/

And for a feel-good family story with a an original twist, check out Barbara and Harry Cooper on The OGs blog. After 72 years of marriage, and at 98 and 93 they're still going strong, enjoying Los Angeles, good eats and good adventures with their family and friends.

LINKS (OGs blog and grandma Barbara's popular Yelp restaurant review page)
http://www.the-ogs.com/
http://barbaracooper.yelp.com/

For more information about The OGs, Barbara and Harry Cooper, contact their granddaughter/publicist Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release
 
June 28, 2010
 
Explore the Gritty Side of L.A. Literature With A Charles Bukowski Bus Tour

WHAT: Esotouric's "Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A." bus tour
WHEN: Saturday July 24, 12pm-4pm, departs from Philippe The Original, 1001 N Alameda, Downtown LA  
COST: $58/person, includes coffee and donuts served at Bukowski's favorite Pink Elephant Liquor Store.
MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767
RELATED TOURS: Esotouric's July literary series also includes RAYMOND CHANDLER'S  L.A. on July 10. Discounted two-tour tickets ($30 off) available at http://www.esotouric.com/hankChandlerCombo
 
LOS ANGELES- On July 24, Esotouric rolls out its popular and occasional Charles Bukowski bus tour, HAUNTS OF A DIRTY OLD MAN. The tour departs from Philippe The Original, the legendary downtown sandwich shop where postal worker Bukowski often ate while employed across the street at the brutal Terminal Annex sorting facility.
 
The tour is hosted by Richard Schave, one of the forces behind the recent successful campaign to have Bukowski's one-time bungalow on De Longpre Avenue in East Hollywood declared an historic-cultural monument.

HAUNTS OF A DIRTY OLD MAN spans Bukowski's personal city, from the Skid Row bars where he tuned his young writer's ear to the voices of old rummies to the once-genteel Crown Hill apartments where he fought with his first love Jane, favorite bars and liquor stores, "Barfly" locations to the downtown library, where he discovered his "God," novelist John Fante (recently honored with a Square in his name outside that library, a designation that was initially proposed to City Council by tour host Richard Schave).

German born, Charles Bukowski spent most of his life in L.A., working for the US Postal Service, as "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" columnist for the underground press and writing the screenplay for the autobiographical "Barfly." The city and its characters are everywhere in the work, so this tour celebrates the artist within his city with visits to places that were important to him and to his work. The tour includes a stop at Pink Elephant Liquor in East Hollywood for complementary coffee and donuts, though many riders also pick up a little something stronger for the road.

Esotouric has made its name with true crime bus tours (Black Dahlia, Pasadena Confidential) and explorations of literary LA (Raymond Chandler, John Fante, James M. Cain). Here they'll turn their creative attentions to Bukowski, the prolific poet, novelist and screenwriter whose rough-hewn tales of boozing, wild women and rotten jobs never obscure the deep vein of sweetness and hope that runs through all his work.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sat July 10 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat July 24 - Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sun July 25 - LAVA Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sun Aug 1- Reyner Banham Loves LA: South Los Angeles
Sat Aug 7- Reyner Banham Loves LA: The New Chinatowns
Sat Aug 28 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sun Aug 29 - LAVA Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Sept 11 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat Sept 18 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour
Sat Sept 25 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour

For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com

Esotouric's Richard Schave and Kim Cooper 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.

For immediate release
 
June 21, 2010

On 6/27 LAVA flows in Downtown LA with cultural demonstrations on recycled fabric fashion and Golden Age character actors

WHAT: On Sunday, June 27, LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) presents an afternoon of free cultural exploration in Downtown L.A. with the monthly Sunday Salon gathering at Clifton's Cafeteria at 648 South Broadway (noon-2pm)
SALON INFO: http://lavatransforms.org/salon610

LOS ANGELES- Launched in February by Richard Schave and Kim Cooper--the founding Director and Curator of the Downtown L.A. Art Walk non-profit--the creative consortium LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) is already making a splash with a calendar packed with compelling, offbeat urban events and a growing list of Visionary contributors.

LAVA's Sunday Salon is fast becoming one of the hottest (free) tickets for urban explorers seeking intelligent conversation, connection and inspiration—not to mention Clifton's famous home cooking. The Sunday Salon returns to Clifton's Cafeteria on Sunday, June 27 from noon-2pm, and all are welcome to dine together and socialize, or attend two different presentations by LAVA Visionaries.

6/27 SALON PRESENTATION #1) From 12:30pm-1pm, fashion designer and avid recycler A. LAURA BRODY presents REMAKE, REDO AND REUSE. While it may sound a little cliché today, it was necessary for survival after the Great Depression and became a catch phrase during the rationing of WWII.  Pushing consumerism during the '50s made this notion unfashionable, and it has only recently come into fashion again. Unfortunately, it is often just that- fashion and a notion, not actual re-purposing or re-use. Here’s a way to experience actual, non-damaging to the environment re-purposing firsthand -- on your body. Visionary A. Laura Brody will demonstrate live draping on a willing volunteer or volunteers, showing methods of creating clothing from existing scraps, fabrics and old clothing. The materials used will be the donated, left over and found remnants from her live draping Hollywood Fringe Festival event, Presque Prêt a Porter. The lucky mannequin/person will get a custom draped piece of clothing created just for him or her at the LAVA Salon. She’ll also display examples of her re-purposed art and jewelry designs. A. Laura Brody is a professional costume designer. Working for the entertainment industry exposes her to a disgusting amount of waste. To counter this (and as a matter of personal belief) she regularly re-uses material, notions, scraps and ideas in her designs, jewelry and art.  For more info, visit her Etsy jewelry shop at http://dreamsbymachine.etsy.com and her art site at http://www.dreamsbymachine.com .

6/27 SALON PRESENTATION #2) From 1:15-2pm, enjoy a table discussion hosted by Visionary MANNY PACHECO, the award-winning author of "Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History," which tells America's story through the eyes of character actors. Pacheco is a 30-year Southern California radio and television personality who has appeared on Emmy-winning programs including NBC's "Santa Barbara" and KCOP's "In Studio." At the LAVA Salon, he'll share fascinating stories from Hollywood's Golden Age. Looking at character actors Lionel Barrymore, Van Heflin, Walter Brennan, Claude Rains, and Basil Rathbone, one sees how America's story was told through the movies during the Studio Era. Manny will also share his travels on what it took to get his book self-published. He will motivate you to start writing about your passions and provide a step-by-step outline for bypassing the traditional East Coast elite in the publishing industry to get your inner-author out and into the hands of an eager public. Whether you are a first-time writer or established scribe, you will want to listen to his motivating approach. You won't want to miss a chance to meet the friendly and approachable Manny Pacheco, and check out his new book "Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History." For more information about Manny Pacheco, visit http://www.forgottenhollywood.com/

ABOUT PREVIOUS LAVA SALONS: In March, the new LAVA community came together in the first monthly Sunday Salon for the debut exhibition of Visionary GENE SCULATTI's outsider art scroll drawings of imaginary cities, a smash hit for the nearly 100 cultural explorers in attendance, and now under development as a documentary film. And in May, vintage cosmetics packaging collector JOAN RENNER captivated the crowd with a discussion of the social and cultural context of 20th century cosmetics, illustrated with a display of exquisite Art Deco and Art Nouveau powder boxes from her collection.

Photos from these recent Salons are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardschave/sets/72157623729484726/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardschave/sets/72157624174080520/

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 until recently the Director and Curator of the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk -- 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, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, avant garde fashion maven A. LAURA BRODY, poet and publisher ALEIDA RODRIGUEZ, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, filmmaker and festival promoter ALLISON ANDERS, former Metropolitan Museum curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, documentarian and radio producer ANTHEA RAYMOND, pop culture historian BECKY EBENKAMP, ethnomusicologist BETO GONZALEZ, master puppeteer BOB BAKER, producer and promoter CHRISTIAN VOLTAIRE MEOLI, 826LA events manager CHRISTINA GALANTE, performance artist CRIMEBO THE CLOWN, the NEA's outgoing Director of Literature DAVID KIPEN, green sculptor DONALD GIALANELLA, author and educator DOROTHY RANDALL GRAY, documentarian and exploitation film historian ELIJAH DRENNER, musician and performance artist FEATHERBEARD, pop critic and outsider artist GENE SCULATTI, songsmith HARVEY SID FISHER, theater director HOLLY WITHAM, no-longer-Teenage Glutster food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, horror film director JEREMY KASTEN, musician and composer of silent film scores JIMI CABEZA DE VACA, social historian JOAN RENNER, journalist and author JOHN BUNTIN,Musso & Frank co-owner JORDAN JONES, performance artist JULES ROCHIELLE, curator and activist JULIE RICO, "Kristin's List" cultural chronicler KRISTIN BEDFORD, esoteric scholar and lecturer MAJA D'AOUST, author and broadcaster MANNY PACHECO, President of the new LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes MIGUEL ANGEL CORZO, poet and dancer MONA JEAN CEDAR, , theater director NICHOLAS HOSKING, L.A. Historic Theater Foundation rep NICK MATONAK, music producer and impresario NO'A WINTER LAZERUS, musician OCTAVIUS, peace activist PAUL NUGENT of the Aetherius Society, 3-D photography expert RAY 3D ZONE, historic ghost seeker RICHARD CARRADINE, filmmaker and preservationist ROSS LIPMAN, Boyle Heights ghost hunter SARAH TROOP, social networking mistress SHAWNA DAWSON, Warhol star and writer TERE TEREBA, metal artist TOM WALKER, and hat designer and multi-media artist 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, Salon discussion hosts A. Laura Brody and Manny Pacheco, and most of LAVA's Visionary members are available for interviews. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release
 
June 10, 2010

LAVA's weekend of ghosts and witches spans the city with unique cultural programming

WHAT: On Saturday June 12 and Sunday June 13, members of LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) present three events in a spooky vein and for all budgets, including Esotouric's "Hotel Horrors and Main Street Vice" historic Downtown crime bus tour (Sat 12-4pm, $58), Maja's Magic School lecture "Witches, Ladies of the Beasts" (Sun 6-8pm, $5) and The Ghost Hunters of Urban L.A. (GHOULA)'s monthly Spirits with Spirits cocktails in haunted places gathering at Monrovia's Aztec Hotel (8pm-midnight, free)
MORE INFO: http://lavatransforms.org and the individual links below

LOS ANGELES- Launched in February by Richard Schave and Kim Cooper--the founding Director and Curator of the Downtown Art Walk non-profit--the creative consortium LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) is already making a splash with a calendar packed with compelling, offbeat urban events and a growing list of notable Visionary contributors.

And this weekend, the LAVA calendar is packed with events celebrating the dark and mysterious side of Los Angeles life, where the dead, lost and forgotten souls frolic, and welcome the living to visit their favorite haunts. The events play out in this order...

1) Saturday 6/12, 12-4pm, $58, departing from Cafe Metropol, 923 east 3rd street, LA 90013, http://esotouric.com/mainstreet-6-12-10

First up on Saturday is LAVA founders Richard Schave and Kim Cooper's Esotouric Downtown bus and walking tour HOTEL HORRORS AND MAIN STREET VICE, an exploration of the lost lore of the historic core. From the founding of the city through the 1940s, downtown was the true center of Los Angeles, a lively, densely populated, exciting and sometimes dangerous place. After many quiet decades, downtown is making an incredible return. But while many of the historic buildings remain, their human context has been lost. This downtown double feature tour is meant to bring alive the old ghosts and memories that cling to the streets and structures. The HOTEL HORRORS portion features some of the wildest, weirdest, goriest and most memorable happenings in historic hotels like the Alexandria, Rosslyn, Barclay and Cecil. Get on the bus to see inside some of these legendary locales and find out where Night Stalker Richard Ramirez liked to stay and the hotel that saw a visit from the Skid Row Slasher, and where two traveling chocolate salesmen laughed so hard they fell backwards out a window to their deaths. Also included are some light hearted stories to help the blood and gore go down. The MAIN STREET VICE portion is a social history tour celebrating the ribald, racy, raunchy old promenade where the better people simply did not travel, but kicks were had by all who did. Burlesque babes and dirty picture parlors, mummified western outlaws and old time tattoo parlors, wax museums and pawn brokers, "professors" offering sex lectures and magazine peddlers with nudie Marilyn Monroe calendars under the counter, sophisticated steak houses and nickel donut dives -- these were the pleasures and the people to be found along Main during the first half of the 20th century. We'll visit the scenes of some more unforgettable debaucheries and share stories of crime, smut, passion and commerce. Climb aboard for a time travel journey back to the downtown that's not there anymore, and the surprising amount of gems that survive.

2) Sunday, 6/13, 6-8pm, $5, Annie Besant Lodge 2560 N. Beachwood Drive Los Angeles, CA, 90068, http://lavatransforms.org/maja0610

Maja D'Aoust, the White Witch of Los Angeles and a featured luminary in the LA Weekly's 2010 People issue, hosts MAJA'S MAGIC SCHOOL, a new metaphysical lecture series held on the second Sunday of each month in the historic Annie Besant Lodge in Beachwood Canyon. Maja is the librarian at Manly P. Hall's Philosophical Research Society, where she lectured for four years, the co-author of "The Secret Source: The Law of Attraction is One Of Seven Hermetic Laws, Here are the Other Six" and hostess of the Maja's Mysteries series of Esotouric bus adventures. The theme of tonight's provocative lecture is: Witches, Ladies of the Beasts.

3) Sunday, 6/13, 8pm-midnight, free (no-host bar), Aztec Motel, 311 W. Foothill Boulevard, Monrovia , CA, 91016, http://ghoula.blogspot.com/2010/05/junes-spirits-with-spirits.html

GHOULA (Ghost Hunter of Urban L.A.) meets for cocktails in haunted places on the 13th of each month. "SPIRITS with SPIRITS" is a casual gathering of regional ghost hunters and those that just like ghost stories. Open to all, from the curious skeptic to the passionate phantom pursuer. Make friends, and toast a ghost! Let's put the "Boo!" back into "booze." All those who attend will receive a free G.H.O.U.L.A. button. If you already have one, please wear it so others can find you. This month's meeting will be held at the historic (and haunted) Aztec Hotel, one of the iconic roadside attractions of old Route 66. In addition to its place in Southern California's car culture, it is also said to have been (over the decades) a brothel, a speak-easy, a gambling den, a mobster hangout, and a half-way house. The management has agreed to give attendees tours of haunted room 120, where an actress (or possibly a prostitute) died when her head cracked open on the radiator during the throws of passion.  In addition, there will be themed live entertainment in the bar, and some other spooky surprises.

Interested Angelenos are encouraged to come out and be part of some or all 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 until recently the Director and Curator of the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk -- 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, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, avant garde fashion maven A. LAURA BRODY, poet and publisher ALEIDA RODRIGUEZ, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, filmmaker and festival promoter ALLISON ANDERS, former Metropolitan Museum curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, documentarian and radio producer ANTHEA RAYMOND, pop culture historian BECKY EBENKAMP, ethnomusicologist BETO GONZALEZ, master puppeteer BOB BAKER, producer and promoter CHRISTIAN VOLTAIRE MEOLI, 826LA events manager CHRISTINA GALANTE, performance artist CRIMEBO THE CLOWN, the NEA's outgoing Director of Literature DAVID KIPEN, green sculptor DONALD GIALANELLA, author and educator DOROTHY RANDALL GRAY, documentarian and exploitation film historian ELIJAH DRENNER, musician and performance artist FEATHERBEARD, pop critic and outsider artist GENE SCULATTI, songsmith HARVEY SID FISHER, theater director HOLLY WITHAM, no-longer-Teenage Glutster food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, horror film director JEREMY KASTEN, musician and composer of silent film scores JIMI CABEZA DE VACA, social historian JOAN RENNER, journalist and author JOHN BUNTIN,Musso & Frank co-owner JORDAN JONES, performance artist JULES ROCHIELLE, curator and activist JULIE RICO, "Kristin's List" cultural chronicler KRISTIN BEDFORD, esoteric scholar and lecturer MAJA D'AOUST, President of the new LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes MIGUEL ANGEL CORZO, poet and dancer MONA JEAN CEDAR, , theater director NICHOLAS HOSKING, L.A. Historic Theater Foundation rep NICK MATONAK, music producer and impresario NO'A WINTER LAZERUS, musician OCTAVIUS, peace activist PAUL NUGENT of the Aetherius Society, 3-D photography expert RAY 3D ZONE, historic ghost seeker RICHARD CARRADINE, filmmaker and preservationist ROSS LIPMAN, Boyle Heights ghost hunter SARAH TROOP, social networking mistress SHAWNA DAWSON, Warhol star and writer TERE TEREBA, metal artist TOM WALKER, and hat designer and multi-media artist 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. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release
 
June 9, 2010
 
Esotouric's July Literary Tours Explore Raymond Chandler's and Charles Bukowski's Personal Cities

WHAT: Esotouric's July literary bus tours in Los Angeles: Raymond Chandler (Sat 7/10, 12-4pm) departing from the LA Athletic Club (431 West Seventh Street, Los Angeles, CA 90014), and Charles Bukowski (Sat 7/24, 12-4pm) departing from Philippe The Original (1001 N. Alameda, Los Angeles, CA 90012)
COST: Regular price $58/person per tour. Special offer: ride both July literary tours for $86 (save $30). Contact Esotouric to reserve.
MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767

LOS ANGELES- This July, the eclectic bus adventure company Esotouric offers two Richard Schave-hosted bookish bus tours of LA literary landmarks, focusing on the lives and work of Raymond Chandler and Charles Bukowski. They're also offering a special promotional ticket celebrating LA's literary legacy. Passengers can ride any one of the tours at the regular $58 rate, or ride both for an $86 combo ticket (saving $30). For more info or to reserve visit http://www.esotouric.com and see the "July Literary Tour Discounts" links in the left sidebar.

ABOUT THE TOURS:

RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES: IN A LONELY PLACE (Sat, July 10, 12-4pm) 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 Los Angeles, which resonated from deft and melancholy fits of his writer’s bow.

Passengers gather in the historic, private Los Angeles Athletic Club, for a rare tour of the place where the young Chandler drank, played bridge, hid from his oil company bosses across the street and gained inspiration for the characters and locations that would appear in his classic mystery novel "The Lady in the Lake."

This exploration of the city that shaped Chandler's fiction, and that in turn shaped his hard-boiled times, is a four hour tour of downtown, Hollywood and surrounding environs: Musso & Frank, Union Station, the Hotel Van Nuys, Paramount Studio’s gates, the Mayfair Hotel (scene of the young oil exec's affairs and suicide threats), possible Marlowe apartments, and much, much more. On this tour, you'll discover why an unassuming stretch of Olive Street near Pershing Square is much more deserving of the Raymond Chandler Square designation than the Hollywood corner that bears the honored name. 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. As the bus rolls from point to point, guide Richard Schave draw the lines between Chandler's life and his fiction, offering insight into his peculiar marriage to the much-older Cissy, the enigmatic redhead who appears in many forms in his short stories and novels.

A tour highlight comes with a stop at Scoops Gelato in East Hollywood for a complementary sampling of avant garde ice cream master Tai Kim's unexpected flavors, which have in the past included the Chandler-inspired Bacon-Caramel, Coffee-Jack Daniels and Nicotine (made with crushed Nicorette gum). For more info, visit http://www.esotouric.com/chandler

HAUNTS OF A DIRTY OLD MAN: CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S LOS ANGELES (Sat, July 24, 12-4pm)- This tour focuses on the poet and novelist's great passions: writing, screwing and LA. We’ll take in the canonical locations of his life and myth: the Postal Annex Terminal where he gathered the material for "Post Office," his newly-landmarked East Hollywood bungalow where he briefly experimented with marriage and fatherhood, the Skid Row bars where he tuned his young writer's ear to the voices of old rummies to the once-genteel Crown Hill apartments where he fought with his first love Jane, favorite bars and liquor stores, "Barfly" locations to the downtown library, where he discovered his "God," novelist John Fante. Along the way, we’ll explore the people and ideas that made up the warp and weft of Buk’s rich inner life.

German born, Bukowski spent most of his life in L.A., working for the US Postal Service, as "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" columnist for the underground press and writing the screenplay for the autobiographical "Barfly." The city and its characters are everywhere in the work, so this tour celebrates the artist within his city with visits to places that were important to him and to his work. Included is a stop at his favorite liquor store, Pink Elephant in East Hollywood for complementary coffee and donuts, though many riders also pick up a little something stronger for the road.

The tour is hosted by Richard Schave, one of the forces behind the recent successful campaign to have Bukowski's one-time bungalow on De Longpre Avenue in East Hollywood declared an historic-cultural monument and the corner of 5th & Grand named John Fante Square. For more info, visit http://www.esotouric.com/buk

Get on or both of Esotouric's July literary tours to discover how deeply the city informs the work of two of its most fascinating writers, and the secret spots where their creative spirits can still be felt.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sat June 12 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat June 26 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour
Sun June 27 - LAVA Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat July 10 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat July 24 - Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sun July 25 - LAVA Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sun Aug 1- Reyner Banham Loves LA: South Los Angeles
Sat Aug 7- Reyner Banham Loves LA: The New Chinatowns
Sat Aug 28 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sun Aug 29 - LAVA Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Sept 11 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat Sept 18 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour
Sat Sept 25 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour

Esotouric's Richard Schave and Kim Cooper are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org

For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com
 
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.

For immediate release
 
June 3, 2010
 
Newly discovered color photos of old Bunker Hill bring lost Los Angeles back to life

WHAT: The first publication in fifty years of lost 3-D color photographs of the historic Bunker Hill neighborhood taken by vaudeville star George Mann in the 1950s and 1960s
WHERE: http://www.onbunkerhill.org/georgemann

LOS ANGELES- The lost Victorian neighborhood of Bunker Hill was demolished fifty years ago in a misguided urban renewal project, but a newly discovered set of incredible color photographs taken shortly before the bulldozers came has local history buffs all a-buzz. They're featured only on L.A.'s time travel blog, On Bunker Hill.

Taken in 1958 and 1962 by former Vaudeville star George Mann (half of the comedy acrobatic dance troupe Barto & Mann) for placement in the 3-D viewing machines he manufactured and distributed to Southland bars and restaurants, the 21 stunning Bunker Hill images include several photographs of the Angels Flight Railway in its original location, iconic Grand Avenue mansions-turned-rooming houses The Richelieu and The Castle, and everyday scenes of Bunker Hill residents combing their cats and enjoying the sunshine against a backdrop of gorgeous Victorian architecture.

George Mann's Bunker Hill photos were discovered in his archives by daughter-in-law Dianne Woods, who says, "I manage the George Mann Archive full time, I love his images -- it's personal. When I recently stumbled upon the photographs that George shot of Bunker Hill it was so clear that I had 'something.' I was on the internet looking for a home even before I had them scanned.  Kim Cooper's blog On Bunker Hill is, of course, that home.  I'm almost never wrong when it comes to the impact of George's photographs, and the Bunker Hill images have been no exception. It is a complete thrill for us, and we know it would have been for George, to contribute this bit of time-travel to the Bunker Hill community."

On Bunker Hill contributor Nathan Marsak (author of "Los Angeles Neon") raves, "Any new collection of Bunker Hill images would be an important find, but the scarcity of color images means historians will see the Hill with fresh eyes.  Of course the vibrant beauty and immediacy of Mann's work will lead new folk to the subject, further widening the scope of people who discover Los Angeles's lost acropolis," while Jim Dawson (author of "Los Angeles's Angels Flight") calls them, "A photographic trove of breathtaking new angles of Bunker Hill that brings its Victorian and early twentieth-century neighborhoods alive again."

And John H. Welborne, president of the Angels Flight Railway, notes, "The George Mann color photographs of Bunker Hill, like the colorful 1960s paintings by Leo Politi, record a now-lost neighborhood of classic architecture and diverse and interesting residents. In the post-1980s world, so many of these buildings and people would not have become the victims of 'urban renewal,' as happened in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, the best of the past more often can be incorporated into 'redevelopment.' But our original -- and real -- Bunker Hill is gone. Today, the little Angels Flight Railway, also well depicted by George Mann in his photographs, is all that remains."

To see George Mann's rediscovered Bunker Hill photographs and learn about his fascinating career that took him and his diminutive sidekick Dewey Barto (real-life pop of TV's "Rhoda's" mom Nancy Walker) from the stages of west coast vaudeville to the Great White Way, including a featured place in the smash show "Hellzapoppin'" and rare film of their act, visit the On Bunker Hill blog at  http://onbunkerhill.org/georgemann

Also featured in the blog post are film noir-style photographs of George Mann's model bride Barbara Bradford, and links to Mann's collection of historic theatre marquee photographs (many featuring his name) and stunning photos taken all across mid-century America and Europe.

ABOUT BUNKER HILL and the ON BUNKER HILL blog: Bunker Hill in the 1870s was early Los Angeles' most distinguished address, an enclave of grand Victorians, gorgeous gardens and clear-skied views out to Catalina and beyond. By the 1910s the wealthy had moved on, and the Hill's mansions became rooming houses. Up on the Hill, life moved at a different pace. Writers Raymond Chandler, John Fante and Charles Bukowski came and were captivated by the place. Painters Leo Politi, Kay Martin and Millard Sheets made its rotting hotels and sad-eyed residents the subject of their art. And down at City Hall, planners schemed about how Bunker Hill could be declared a slum, its old houses pulled down, its people moved along, leaving a blank slate where skyscrapers could grow. By 1970, Bunker Hill was a field of dirt. In 2008, the time travel bloggers of 1947project turned their attention to Bunker Hill. Over a year, the blog grew into a house-by-house survey of the great old downtown residential neighborhood that was demolished to create the high rise district that shares its name, but none of its charms. The blog's contributors, including authors, historians, librarians and tour guides, delved deep into historic archives to uncover the most fascinating tales of more than a century of life on Bunker Hill. 1947project is the brainchild of Kim Cooper, pop music historian ("Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth"), tour guide (Esotouric bus adventures) and  preservation activist (Save the 76 Ball). She was joined ON BUNKER HILL by author Nathan Marsak, LAPL history librarian Mary McCoy, Esotouric's Joan Renner, LAPL photo collections manager Christina Rice, Esotouric's Richard Schave and author John Toomey.

For more info about ON BUNKER HILL, please visit http://www.onbunkerhill.org
 
Explore Lost Downtown Los Angeles on these upcoming Esotouric bus adventures: Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (June 12, September 11); Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles (July 10); The Lowdown on Downtown (August 28); The Real Black Dahlia (September 25). More info at http://www.esotouric.com

On Bunker Hill founder Kim Cooper and the blog's contributors including Nathan Marsak are available for interviews, as is historian Jim Dawson, John H. Welborne of Angels Flight Railway, and George Mann's archivist daughter-in-law Dianne Woods and his son Brad Smith. To schedule interviews, contact Kim Cooper, amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.