For immediate release

18 March 2010

DLANC Grievance Hearing Reveals Huge Ethics Gap in Downtown LA

LOS ANGELES- On Wednesday, March 17, a Grievance Hearing was held at the Central Library which was supposed to usher in a new era of transparency and accountability for the embattled Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council. Instead, a huge ethics gap in the NC bylaws was revealed, with Committee Chair Gunnar Hand admitting in closing statements that while the accused, DLANC President Russell Brown, was supposed to try to behave ethically, he was not obligated to do so. While his actions may have been unethical and undemocratic, under the bylaws of DLANC, they were acceptable. All charges against Brown were dismissed.

Although DLANC had been instructed by the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) in February to implement new rules for hearing grievances in which DLANC President Russell Brown was banned from personally investigating the charges of his own ethical violations, the Neighborhood Council failed to provide a level playing field in which the grievance could be heard.

The Grievance Hearing, organized by DLANC's James Doizaki, Acting Chair of the Rules & Elections Committee, was remarkable for its poor planning, last-minute changes in format and utter community invisibility. The event was never announced through DLANC's community email lists, nor was it placed on the DLANC calendar. Although the subject of the Grievance was DLANC President Russell Brown's interference in the workings of the Downtown Art Walk non-profit, it was scheduled at the same time and blocks away from the monthly Arts Committee meeting attended by many interested parties. The participants were not informed of the location of the hearing, the format or agenda, or the need to provide six copies of all supporting documents, until the day before the event. Then as the hearing began, grievance filer Kim Cooper was informed that the agenda had been changed and two of four issues raised by her complaint could not be heard or considered based on information just provided by the City Attorney's Office. Any question of conflicts of interest or defamation were removed from consideration.

In order to hear a complex case concerning allegations of gross misconduct over nearly a year, with dozens of pieces of supporting material supplied by both sides, the Grievance Committee had booked a room in the Central Library which closed at 7:50pm--just one hour and twenty minutes after the hearing began. With maintenance staff sweeping under their feet and a security guard asking when they would be leaving, the Grievance Committee elected to hold a rush vote without reading any of the supporting evidence.

Since the most serious charges against Russell Brown had been tossed out as the hearing began, there remained only two minor points to rule upon. On the question of if Russell Brown told Art Walk Director Richard Schave that DLANC funding for the Art Walk shuttle would be ending before the DLANC board voted on the matter, the answer was that he had probably done so, but the Committee didn't think it mattered under their bylaws.

The question of whether Russell Brown had actively impeded Richard Schave from speaking out at the December 2009 DLANC meeting was more complicated. In testimony and printed documents, Russell Brown freely admitted that he and Art Walk board member Bert Green had conspired during the DLANC meeting to send a text message to then-Acting Director of the Art Walk Marc Loge, asking him to come to the DLANC meeting and deal with "the problem" of speaker cards from community members who wished to speak about Art Walk. A disheveled Mr. Loge did appear at the meeting after having run several blocks, did call Richard Schave outside, and did make a false promise to reinstate him as Director of the Art Walk if Schave would say nothing against Russell Brown at the meeting, where CNN cameras were filming for another reason. The Grievance Committee determined that since Schave was not physically intimidated or otherwise prevented from speaking, that no violation had occurred under DLANC's bylaws -- but some members expressed frustration that their own bylaws did not permit them to make another decision.

Among the issues removed from discussion as the meeting began was the serious question of Russell Brown's conflicts of interest. Brown, who has been asked in a local newspaper editorial to resign from one of his two jobs due to ethical conflicts, is President of DLANC (a community service organization serving all local citizens) and Executive Director of the Historic Downtown Business Improvement District (a private landlords organization).

However, one piece of evidence introduced by Russell Brown on his own behalf is a striking illustration of the deep conflicts of interest which negatively impact his work in the community and make him incapable of representing all constituents equally. In a June 2009 email thread between Brown, HDBID Board Chair Tom Gilmore (Brown's employer) and Downtown Art Park manager George Stiehl, Gilmore states "Richard is the new 'Director' of Artwalk and obviously wants to start off on the wrong foot. I would ignore. Official/smoficial, who cares?" Russell Brown's contemptuous treatment of Richard Schave as Director of the Art Walk, the subject of yesterday's Grievance Hearing, was simply an extension of his employer's poor attitude.

Russell Brown also testified that he told gallery owner Bert Green in June 2009 that the Art Walk non-profit under Director Richard Schave would never get the support of DLANC (the entity of which he is President) or of the BID (the entity of which he is Executive Director). Schave did not begin formally running the Art Walk until July 2009.

The Neighborhood Council system is undergoing major changes, with DONE, the agency charged with overseeing their activities, folded into a separate city agency due to its failure to properly manage the Councils. Yesterday's failed DLANC Grievance Committee Hearing demonstrates the compelling need for a citywide ethics and grievance policy which is not hamstrung by poorly written Neighborhood Council bylaws, disorganized volunteers and a lack of a strict format for how grievances are to be handled in an equitable manner. Until that happens, the Neighborhood Councils will remain a failed experiment in community empowerment, their systems manipulated by savvy political operators like Russell Brown.

Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are available for interviews. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

"RUSSELL BROWN SHOULD RESIGN" PETITION LINK - http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stepdownrussbrown

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS LINK - http://stepdownrussbrown.wordpress.com

For immediate release

14 March 2010

Grievance Hearing for Downtown Neighborhood Council President Who Threatened Art Walk Organizers

WHAT: Grievance Committee hearing on ethics complaint against Russell Brown, President of Downtown LA Neighborhood Council (DLANC)
WHERE: Los Angeles Central Public Library
WHEN: Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 6:30pm
MORE INFO: This Grievance Committee hearing is a public meeting, and all interested members of the community or press are welcome to attend.  Additional details will be posted at

http://stepdownrussbrown.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/status-updates/

LOS ANGELES- On Wednesday, March 17, a new era of openness and accountability begins in Downtown Los Angeles. That's the date of the first Grievance Hearing held under new rules in which powerful Downtown L.A. Neighborhood Council board members are no longer permitted to investigate charges against themselves, a policy which has resulted in past grievances being ignored, questionable behavior going uninvestigated and community disenfranchisement.

The March 17 Grievance Hearing concerns Russell Brown, the DLANC President who has been charged with sabotaging the Downtown L.A. Art Walk non-profit through a campaign of false claims against its volunteer board members. Side effects of the original grievance include Russell Brown threatening citizens who question his political activities, and a major shift in DLANC's grievance policy.

This grievance also resulted in the discovery that several past grievances against Russell Brown and DLANC going back to 2005 have disappeared from the files of the Neighborhood Council oversight agency Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) and have been removed from the DLANC website. The missing grievances include serious claims of election fraud, conspiracy, gender-based bullying and harassment and Brown Act violations. All records of how these grievances were resolved are also missing. And since this grievance was filed in January, DONE itself has been absorbed into a separate agency (Department of Community Development) and DONE's General Manager BongHwan Kim has been removed from his position.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE GRIEVANCE: For much of 2009, Richard Schave and Kim Cooper, the couple who are the brains behind Esotouric bus adventures and the newly launched creative consortium LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association), volunteered to transform the wildly popular monthly Downtown Art Walk into a non-profit community organization with an ambitious new program of cultural activities. That ended on November 9, when Richard and Kim resigned in response to months of false claims from Russell Brown. Brown, who has been asked in a local newspaper editorial to resign from one of his two jobs due to ethical conflicts, is President of DLANC (a community service organization serving all local citizens) and Executive Director of the Historic Downtown Business Improvement District (a private landlords organization). With their resignations, Richard and Kim stated they felt they could do more good for the community off the Art Walk board than on it.

On January 22 at 3:40am, Russell Brown sent a disturbing email threatening to bring civil and criminal charges against Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, using the enormous resources of the City Attorney's office. Why? Because Kim filed a formal ethics complaint against Mr. Brown with DONE, the City agency that oversees the Neighborhood Councils, and has been exercising her First Amendment right to criticize Mr. Brown's political activities online. Even more disturbingly, DONE immediately sent Kim Cooper's complaint to Russell Brown, outing a whistleblower and exposing her to threats. Russell Brown's threats are also directed at Richard Schave, who did not file a complaint, but whose wife did.

On February 9, Richard Schave addressed the elected board of DLANC with a message from DONE: the oversight agency recommended that DLANC reject their current grievance policy, in which Russell Brown and his four colleagues on the Executive Committee would investigate the grievance against himself. Instead, DLANC should adopt the new grievance policy which was voted into existence in summer 2009, but which Brown's Executive Committee failed to file with DONE: a random selection of five unbiased board members would investigate. In a unanimous vote, DLANC elected to immediately change their grievance policy, which means no other community member runs the risk of having their grievance provided to the person they are complaining about. (See related video link below - http://vimeo.com/9361300)

The March 17 Grievance Committee hearing represents the first opportunity for Downtown community members to see DLANC President Russell Brown held accountable for his often controversial words and actions, and according to one local newspaper, is believed to have triggered a wave of additional grievance filings. So stay tuned as Downtown L.A. politics gets a breath of fresh air and the Neighborhood Council system begins to grow up.

Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are available for interviews. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

"RUSSELL BROWN SHOULD RESIGN" PETITION LINK - http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stepdownrussbrown

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS LINK - http://stepdownrussbrown.wordpress.com

For immediate release
 
March 5, 2010
 
Downtown L.A. tour celebrates novelist John Fante's birthday and Fante Square unveiling

WHAT: Esotouric's "John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill" bus and walking tour
WHEN: Saturday April 17, 12pm-4pm, departs from Clifton's Cafeteria, 648 South Broadway, Los Angeles, California 90014
COST: $58/person
MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767
RELATED EVENT: Thursday, April 8, 12 noon, birthday dedication of John Fante Square (Fifth at Grand), info http://lavatransforms.org/johnfantesquare

LOS ANGELES- John Fante (1909-1983) was Charles Bukowski's favorite writer, his "Ask the Dust" was the book Robert Towne wanted to film after "Chinatown" (it finally was made in 2006 starring Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek, and Donald Sutherland) and he is honored with an annual festival in Italy—but in 21st Century Los Angeles, his name often gets a shrug. That's too bad, because Fante might be the funniest, most heartwarming, honest and appealing writer to ever take this city as his subject.

But on April 8 John Fante's local fame will get a big jolt. That's when Councilwoman Jan Perry unveils an official City of Los Angeles sign designating the highly-trafficked intersection of 5th Street and Grand Avenue (at the foot of Fante's beloved Bunker Hill and next to the Central Library where Bukowski discovered "Ask the Dust") as JOHN FANTE SQUARE. April 8 is also the 101st anniversary of John Fante's birth, and the perfect date to recognize his literary legacy and continued influence on the culture of downtown Los Angeles. Los Angeles is invited to come out and celebrate Fante's birthday and this exciting honor with members of the Fante family, city officials and fans of the author's unforgettable downtown anti-hero Arturo Bandini.

Then on April 17, in honor of the new Fante Square and the author's birthday, Esotouric rolls out its very occasional literary bus and walking tour, JOHN FANTE'S DREAMS FROM BUNKER HILL. This tour is a chance to discover a great writer and the lost downtown he celebrated, through the narration of Esotouric's Richard Schave, the L.A. historian who proposed the Fante Square designation and guided it through the City Council approval process.

Downtown Los Angeles is a neighborhood to watch, but the New Downtown exists on the footprint of a fascinating old neighborhood whose stories are in danger of being lost.  Many of Esotouric's tours are devoted to revealing this lost downtown, from the burlesque and freak show delights of Main Street Vice to the secret post war woman's history of The Real Black Dahlia to the architectural anthropology of The Lowdown on Downtown.

On JOHN FANTE'S DREAMS OF BUNKER HILL, passengers walk and ride in the footsteps of Fante and his anti-hero Arturo Bandini, from the lost Bunker Hill Victorian rooming houses where Fante starved and dreamed of fame, the main library where he roamed the stacks (and later, where Bukowski discovered "Ask the Dust"), the Skid Row bars where b-girls pocketed his royalty payments, the Grand Central Market where kindly Japanese farmers gave the poor writer free oranges, to the retirement home Angelus Plaza to see Kay Martin's stunning paintings of Bunker Hill's mansions just before the city condemned them.
 
Get on the bus to bask in the spirit of the weird old L.A. that's not there anymore, where a poor Italian-American Colorado kid could sell a novel, become a screenwriter, and inspire a new generation of writers just by telling the raw and funny truth. And eventually, even get a street corner outside the main city library named in his honor!

To learn more about Esotouric's forthcoming tour of John Fante's Bunker Hill, visit
http://www.esotouric.com/fante

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sat March 13 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat March 20 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release (debut)
Sat March 27 - Raymond Chandler's Bay City
Sun March 28 - FREE tour The Flâneur & The City (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat April 3 – Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A.
Thurs April 8 - John Fante Square designation
Sat April 10 – John Buntin's L.A. Noir
Sat April 17 - John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill
Sat April 24 – Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sat May 1 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour with Crimebo the Clown
Sat May 8 - Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
Sat May 15 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat May 22 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's So. Cal Nightmare
Sat June 5 - Weird Adams crime bus tour
Sat June 26 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour
Sat July 10 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat July 24 - Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sun Aug 1- Reyner Banham Loves LA: South Los Angeles
Sat Aug 7- Reyner Banham Loves LA: The New Chinatowns
Sat Aug 14 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: Route 66
Sat Aug 28 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: The Lowdown on Downtown

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

John Fante bus tour host and Fante Square nominator Richard Schave is available for interviews, as are John Fante's children. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release

March 4, 2010

New Esotouric bus tour explores the historic L.A. NOIR world of mobster Mickey Cohen and LAPD Chief Parker

WHAT:  Second edition of Esotouric's "L.A. Noir" bus and walking tour, which debuted in a sold-out September 2009 run
WHEN:  Saturday April 10, 12pm-4pm, departing from Clifton's Cafeteria, 648 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014
COST:  $62/person including snack
MORE INFO:  visit http://www.esotouric.com/lanoir or call 323-223-2767
RELATED TOURS:  Esotouric's Spring guest tour series also includes "Maja's Mysteries: Rapture and Release: (3/20) and "Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' LA" (4/3)

LOS ANGELES, CA-- Other cities have histories. Los Angeles has legends. For more than sixty years, writers and directors from Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder to Roman Polanski and James Ellroy have explored L.A.'s origins, its underbelly, and (yes) its blondes in fiction and films like "The Big Sleep," "Double Indemnity," "Chinatown," and "L.A. Confidential." Yet this preoccupation with a mythic past has obscured something important -- the true history of noir Los Angeles.

Now John Buntin, the author of "L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City" (Random House), and Esotouric, L.A.'s most eclectic bus adventure company, have teamed up to explore the forgotten haunts, hits, and harems of underworld L.A. and the rivalry between the two men who shaped it -- one L.A.'s most notorious gangster, the other its most controversial police chief. The tour debuted in a sold out run in September 2009.

Featherweight boxer Mickey Cohen left the ring for the rackets, first as mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel's enforcer, then as his protégé and successor. Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum, and Sammy Davis Jr. palled around with him; TV journalist Mike Wallace wanted his stories; evangelist Billy Graham sought his soul.

William H. Parker was the proud son of a pioneering law enforcement family from the fabled frontier town of Deadwood. As a rookie patrolman in the Roaring Twenties, he discovered that L.A. was ruled by a shadowy "Combination" of tycoons, politicians and underworld bosses. His life mission became to topple it -- and to create a police force that would never answer to elected officials again. In the process, he created the Dragnet-era LAPD, unwittingly paving the way for the Watts riots and creating a culture that LAPD police chief Charlie Beck continues to struggle with even today.

Novelist Michael Connelly calls "L.A. Noir" "fascinating, flat out entertaining." "[I]mportant and wonderfully enjoyable," says Tim Rutten of the Los Angeles Times. Kirkus Reviews raves, "A roller coaster ride... Gripping social history and a feast for aficionados of cops-and-robbers stories, both real and imagined," and USC historian Kevin Starr says the book is "a tour de force of non-fiction narrative." Together, Buntin and Esotouric take you on a journey to the sites where Hollywood madam Brenda Allen played and where Mickey's enforcers killed to enforce his will.

From Clifton's redwood-themed Brookdale Cafeteria downtown, L.A. Noir passengers will proceed on foot to the movie palace where 17-year-old Bill Parker worked as an usher -- and fell into a disastrous love affair -- as well as the site of 9-year-old Mickey Cohen's first holdup. Boarding a luxurious coach class bus, the tour will visit Mickey Cohen's childhood haunts in the old Jewish neighborhood Boyle Heights, as well as the site of one of L.A.'s most notorious attempted assassinations, en route to significant spots in LAPD and mob history. We'll stop by "the glass house," visit one of fashion plate madam Brenda Allen former haunts, revisit Billy Graham's "canvass cathedral" and discuss the evangelist's decade long effort to "save" Mickey Cohen, stop by Cohen's old commission office, hear a first-hand account of how Mickey operated, and visit the old Lincoln Heights jail, site of the brutal Christmas 1951 events that inspired the opening of James Ellroy's "L.A. Confidential."

With Kim Cooper, the creator of Esotouric's true crime tours and creator of the new L.A. time travel blog In SRO Land (http://www.insroland.org) riding shotgun, there will also be plenty of surprises. So get on the bus as the whole filthy truth is spread out before you, as only the Esotouric crew and special guest stars like John Buntin can do.

ABOUT ESOTOURIC: Founded in 2007 by newlyweds Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, the company quickly cornered the market on offbeat true crime history tours and highbrow literary and architectural explorations. From their "The Real Black Dahlia" tour ("an L.A. classic" -- Los Angeles Times) to "Raymond Chandler's L.A.," sold-out personal history tours guest hosted by James Ellroy to alternative neighborhood guides like "Pasadena Confidential," Esotouric's weekly bus adventure has become a must for locals seeking to know their city better, and a lucky find for savvy travelers.

Author John Buntin's full schedule of L.A.-area appearances:
* April 9, 5:30 pm  -- Whittier Reads, Whittier Public Library, 7344 S. Washington Ave., Whittier, CA  90602  (562) 464-3450
* April 10, 12 pm -- "John Buntin's L.A. Noir" Esotouric bus adventure, Clifton's Cafeteria, 648 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014, (323) 223-2767
* April 10, 5:30 pm -- Metropolis Books, 440 South Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013, (213) 612-0174
* April 23rd, 12 pm -- Lunch at The Library, Whittier Public Library, 7344 S. Washington Ave., Whittier, CA  90602  (562) 464-3450
* May 15, 2 pm -- Marie Northrop Lecture Series: "Mayor Frank L. Shaw: 1933 to 1938,"  Taper Auditorium, Richard Riordan Central Library, 630 W. 5th Street Los Angeles, CA 90071, (213) 228-7069

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sat March 13 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat March 20 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release (debut)
Sat March 27 - Raymond Chandler's Bay City
Sun March 28 - FREE tour The Flâneur & The City (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat April 3 – Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A.
Thurs April 8 - John Fante Square designation
Sat April 10 – John Buntin's L.A. Noir
Sat April 17 - John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill
Sat April 24 – Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sat May 1 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour with Crimebo the Clown
Sat May 8 - Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
Sat May 15 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat May 22 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's So. Cal Nightmare

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

A limited number of journalists on assignment can be accommodated on the bus. For interviews with John Buntin, contact Jessica Reich at (212) 547-6501. Esotouric founders Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are also available for interviews, contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release
 
March 3, 2010
 
March Gets Metaphysical in L.A. as LAVA and Esotouric collaborate with White Witch Maja

WHAT: Maja D'Aoust, The White Witch of LA, hosts a series of Vernal Equinox springtime events including free vintage astrology-themed LAVA film screening (3/6), the debut of her new lecture series (3/14) and a new Esotouric bus adventure (3/20).
GENERAL INFO: http://esotouric.com/maja2, 323-223-2767

LOS ANGELES- The Vernal Equinox (first day of Spring) has long been a major holiday in the Southland, appealing to practitioners of the many offbeat faiths that thrive here.  And in March one of Los Angeles' most fascinating spiritual historians and modern cult figures, the lovely and brainy MAJA D'AOUST  (pronounced MAH-ja da-OO), THE WHITE WITCH OF L.A. pulls back her veil to host a series of intriguing and transformative Springtime events.

The excitement begins on SATURDAY, MARCH 6, with a FREE SCREENING of the rarely-seen astrological thriller WHEN WERE YOU BORN (1938), which examines the validity and effectiveness of Astrology for psychological profiling and to provide forensic evidence of crime. The film was directed by William C. McGann and stars Anna May Wong, Lola Lane, James Stephenson and a young Clayton "Lone Ranger" Moore. Also featured, the legendary Los Feliz-based esoteric scholar, Manly P. Hall, founder of the Philosophical Research Society where Maja serves as Librarian. Maja will introduce the film and Hall's extraordinary collection of astrological charts of celebrity death dates, and lead a discussion of the film's themes and their relevance to Theosophy founder Madame Blavatsky's work. The event is presented by The United Lodge of Theosophy in association with LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. (Details: FREE, screening 7-9pm, United Lodge of Theosophy, 245 West 33rd Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90007, phone: 213-748-7244, http://lavatransforms.org/whenwereyouborn)

On SUNDAY, MARCH 14, Maja D'Aoust's popular esoteric lecture series finds a new home and a new name. Long hosted at the Philosophical Research Society, where it was a weekend must for much of the neo-psychedelic Silverlake music scene, the Second Sunday series moves to the historic Besant Lodge in Beachwood Canyon. The debut talk at MAJA'S MAGIC SCHOOL is "Synchronicity, Magical Encounters & Carl Jung's Web of Connected Consciousness." (Details: $5 per person, 6pm-8pm, Besant Lodge, 2560 N. Beachwood Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90068, http://godismyboyfriend.com)

Then on SATURDAY, MARCH 20 (the actual Vernal Equinox) comes the debut excursion of the new Esotouric bus adventure MAJA'S MYSTERIES: RAPTURE AND RELEASE, a metaphysical journey into history, faith and salvation, with in-depth visits to some of L.A.'s most compelling and mysterious spiritual sites. At each stop, Maja will introduce passengers to members of the faith, lead a tour of worship space, and put the group's history and beliefs into context in the histories of religion and L.A. Stops include: THE AETHERIUS SOCIETY, a center for cosmic consciousness and healing founded in 1955 by UFO contactee Dr. George King, dedicated to promoting peace on earth and beyond. KROTONA APARTMENTS, a former Theosophical retreat founded in 1914, where guests will have a rare opportunity to visit the beautiful central courtyard pond and view the Rosicrucian window of this now-private residence. SISTER AIMEE SEMPLE MCPHERSON'S PARSONAGE, the beautifully restored private home and museum to the life of the influential and charismatic founder of the Foursquare Church on the edge of Echo Park. THE VEDANTA SOCIETY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, founded in 1930 to bring sacred Hindu philosophy to the West, where guests will be given a presentation on the Society's history and programming, and browse in its fine gift shop. (Details: $62 per person, tour 11am-3pm, departs from Clifton's Cafeteria, 648 South Broadway, Los Angeles, California 90014, info 323-223-2767, http://esotouric.com/maja2)

So make your March more metaphysical when Maja D'Aoust takes you through the looking glass, and beyond, with her free screening, provocative lecture, and a stunning bus adventure through the secret paths of California faith.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule (Maja events starred)
Sat March 6 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
*Sat March 6 - FREE film screening When Were You Born (1938), Theosophy Hall
Sat March 13 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
*Sun March 14 - Maja's Magic School Lecture
*Sat March 20 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release (debut)
Sat March 27 - Raymond Chandler's Bay City
Sun March 28 - LAVA Sunday Salon gathering at Clifton's Cafeteria  
Sun March 28 - FREE tour The Flâneur & The City (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat April 3 – Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A.
Thurs April 8 - John Fante Square designation
Sat April 10 – John Buntin's L.A. Noir
Sat April 17 - John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill
Sat April 24 – Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sat May 1 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour with Crimebo the Clown
Sat May 8 - Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
Sat May 15 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat May 22 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's So. Cal Nightmare

Maja D'Aoust is a proud member of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org

For Maja's Mysteries Esotouric bus tour info, visit http://www.esotouric.com/maja2
For Maja D'Aoust lectures info, visit http://godismyboyfriend.com/
For free screening info visit http://lavatransforms.org/whenwereyouborn

Maja D'Aoust and her Esotouric co-host Richard Schave are available for interviews, and journalists on assignment can often be accommodated on the Esotouric bus. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release
 
March 2, 2010
 
Save LAPL Campaign Reminds Lawmakers To Protect the Los Angeles Public Library

WHAT: SaveLAPL.org site, which in 2008 successfully protested Mayor Villaraigosa's Proposed $1-Per-Book Fee and negative book buying budget, comes back online to defend the library from further deep budget cuts
WHERE: http://www.savelapl.org

LOS ANGELES- As the city faces the biggest financial crisis in decades, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council have some tough decisions to make. The city's libraries are on the chopping block along with other services, which is why a previously successful grassroots community website, SaveLAPL.org, has come back online to again allow concerned citizens, with a single click, to email the Mayor and every member of City Council voicing their support for keeping libraries open and staffed with qualified professionals.

The SaveLAPL.org website is no stranger to the LA budget battlefields. In 2008, its community tools were successful in reversing a proposed $1 per book inter-library loan fee, branch closures, staff firings and a freeze on book purchases. The website is built using the open source Drupal content management system that was originally created for the Howard Dean presidential campaign.

SaveLAPL founder Kim Cooper says, "The last time we mobilized SaveLAPL to protect the library, the outpouring of community support made a big impact on City Council. Bernard Parks got up to say he couldn't check his email without bring overwhelmed with messages from passionate library fans, and he definitely was getting the message. So we're calling on the community to once again visit SaveLAPL.org and with one easy click send their email supporting LA's public libraries to Mayor Villaraigosa and all members of City Council. Show them that you care!"

SaveLAPL.org isn't the only website helping to get the word out about protecting library budgets -- there is also the informative site sponsored by the Librarian's Guild union (www.SaveTheLibrary.org), which includes social media links, background info and printable petitions that can be circulated at schools, farmers' markets and in libraries.  

The SaveLAPL.org website was launched by Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, the L.A. writers and social historians behind Esotouric bus adventures, LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association and the 1947project time travel blogs. This preservation campaign follows successful campaigns to Save the 76 Ball and to have writer Charles Bukowski's East Hollywood bungalow named a historic-cultural monument. They also promoted the use of goats as ecologically-sound brush clearing machines, prior to the city's introduction of herds to clear Angels Knoll in Downtown LA. Now they again turn their organizing efforts to protecting the Library they grew up in and still use constantly in their daily life and work.
 
Originally launched in April 2008, and revived in March 2010, www.savelapl.org is galvanizing the support of thousands of library users and community organizers,  who are again using the site to send their urgent emails to the Mayor and City Council. The message is clear: keep the Library free!

SaveLAPL is a project of LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org

SaveLAPL website creators Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are available for interviews. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release
 
March 2, 2010
 
John Fante Square sign unveiled on the downtown LA writer's 101st birthday

WHAT: Councilwoman Jan Perry unveils the commemorative JOHN FANTE SQUARE sign
WHERE: Corner of 5th & Grand, downtown LA (next to the Central Library)
WHEN: Thursday, April 8, **TIME CHANGED TO 11AM** – John Fante's 101st birthday
FOLLOWED BY: Saturday, April 17, 12 noon – Esotouric bus tour "John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill"

LOS ANGELES- John Fante (1909-1983) was Charles Bukowski's favorite writer, his "Ask the Dust" was the book Robert Towne wanted to film after "Chinatown" (it finally was made in 2006 starring Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek, and Donald Sutherland) and he is honored with an annual festival in Italy—but in 21st Century Los Angeles, his name often gets a shrug. That's too bad, because Fante might be the funniest, most heartwarming, honest and appealing writer to ever take this city as his subject.

But on April 8 John Fante's local fame will get a big jolt. That's when Councilwoman Jan Perry unveils an official City of Los Angeles sign designating the highly-trafficked intersection of 5th Street and Grand Avenue (at the foot of Fante's beloved Bunker Hill and next to the Central Library where Bukowski discovered "Ask the Dust") as JOHN FANTE SQUARE. April 8 is also the 101st anniversary of John Fante's birth, and the perfect date to recognize his literary legacy and continued influence on the culture of downtown Los Angeles. Come celebrate Fante's birthday and this exciting honor with members of the Fante family, city officials and fans of the author's unforgettable downtown anti-hero Arturo Bandini.

Then on April 17, Esotouric rolls out its very occasional literary bus and walking tour, JOHN FANTE'S DREAMS FROM BUNKER HILL. This tour is a chance to discover a great writer and the lost downtown he celebrated, through the narration of Esotouric's Richard Schave, the L.A. historian who proposed the Fante Square designation and guided it through the City Council approval process.

Downtown Los Angeles is a neighborhood to watch, with some of the hottest bars and restaurants in the city. But the New Downtown exists on the footprint of a fascinating old neighborhood whose stories are in danger of being lost.  Many of Esotouric's tours are devoted to revealing this lost downtown, from the crimes of Hotel Horrors to the burlesque and freak show delights of Main Street Vice, the secret post war woman's history of The Real Black Dahlia to the architectural anthropology of The Lowdown on Downtown.

On JOHN FANTE'S DREAMS OF BUNKER HILL, passengers walk and ride in the footsteps of Fante and his anti-hero Arturo Bandini, from the lost Bunker Hill Victorian rooming houses where Fante starved and dreamed of fame, the main library where he roamed the stacks (and later, where Bukowski discovered "Ask the Dust"), the Skid Row bars where b-girls pocketed his royalty payments, the Grand Central Market where kindly Japanese farmers gave the poor writer free oranges, to the retirement home Angelus Plaza to see Kay Martin's stunning paintings of Bunker Hill's mansions just before the city condemned them.
 
Get on the bus to bask in the spirit of the weird old L.A. that's not there anymore, where a poor Italian-American Colorado kid could sell a novel, become a screenwriter, and inspire a new generation of writers just by telling the raw and funny truth. And eventually, even get a street corner outside the main city library named in his honor!

To learn more about Esotouric's forthcoming tour of John Fante's Bunker Hill, visit
http://www.esotouric.com/fante

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

John Fante bus tour host and Fante Square nominator Richard Schave is available for interviews, as are John Fante's children. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release
 
March 1, 2010
 
Once-A-Year L.A. Bus Tour Follows in Tom Waits' Youthful Footsteps

WHAT: 2010 edition of "Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' Los Angeles" bus tour
WHEN: Saturday April 3, noon-4pm
WHERE: Bus tour departs from The King Edward Saloon, 131 E 5th Street,  Los Angeles 90013
COST: $62/person
MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767

LOS ANGELES- Fans of the legendary musician Tom Waits just don't get a lot of chances to get together. Last time he toured, fans in his old hometown of L.A. were out of luck--all the dates were in the South. So once each year, Esotouric, the bus adventure company whose offbeat tours expose LA's secret history, offers a bus tour celebrating the life and work of Waits, a rare opportunity for fans to scratch that gravelly voiced itch in good company.

CRAWLING DOWN CAHUENGA: TOM WAITS' LOS ANGELES  is the definitive tour of Tom Waits' formative creative life and the people, places and late night pastries that shaped it.

Calling all rain dogs, gin-soaked boys and Gun Street girls! Climb aboard as your hosts David Smay (author of the acclaimed 33 1/3 series book on Tom Waits' "Swordfishtrombones" album) and Esotouric's Kim Cooper (a Zoetrope Studios intern who'll tell how she used teenage subterfuge to arrange a private concert by the man) lead you on a scrupulously researched ride through Waits' epic misdeeds and shenanigans, from the Trashing of the Troubadour to epic nights at the Tropicana.

And oh, there are such tales to tell, from food fights with L.A. Punks and smackdowns with L.A. Police. We'll crawl through the Sewers of Paris, tattle on the Ivar Theater, and get the lowdown on Waits' legendary performances at the Wiltern and elsewhere. Before departing for points rural, Tom Waits left his mark all over L.A., from Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Studios to Sunset Sound to Skid Row. We'll show you where he found his true love and collaborator, Kathleen Brennan, and how all the pieces came together to transform a drunken, desperate singer into the multi-faceted, multi-media artist he'd become.

Raised near San Diego, Tom Waits launched his musical career in L.A., signing with David Geffen's Asylum Records in 1972, living in a famously cluttered room in the raunchy Tropicana Hotel (where he sawed off the kitchen drain board so his piano would fit), and building a reputation as a songwriter willing to risk his own health and sanity to get inside the sad sack characters that peopled songs like "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)," "On The Nickel" and "Pasties And A G-string (At The Two O'clock Club)."

By 1980, Waits was 31 and starting to feel the effects of his hard living. While scoring the music to Francis Ford Coppola's "One From The Heart," he met Kathleen Brennan, whose influence would completely transform his life and his art. After a whirlwind courtship the pair married and began a 30-year creative and personal partnership, beginning with the revolutionary album "Swordfishtrombones," the subject of tour host David Smay's latest book.

Passengers gather in the historic King Edward Saloon, the last surviving Skid Row bar since the 2007 closure of Craby Joe's, before boarding Esotouric's luxury coach class bus, where the mood is set with vintage photos and live footage. CRAWLING DOWN CAHUENGA spans Tom's personal city, from The Nickel (aka Skid Row) to once-ratty West Hollywood, favorite strip clubs and midnight diners, recording studios, night clubs, record labels and film studios, before rolling back downtown for a last bottle of beer at the King Eddy.

ABOUT THE HOSTS: Longtime collaborators David Smay and Kim Cooper co-edited the books "Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth" ("quite simply the most fun music book I have ever read." -Bucketfull of Brains) and "Lost in the Grooves: Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed" ("the perfect book for the advanced record collector" -Ear Candy) before penning their solo 33 1/3 series books on Tom Waits and Neutral Milk Hotel. Kim hosts Esotouric's true crime and occasional rock and roll history tours. David Smay lives in San Francisco, where he is working on a history of the Beats.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule
Sat March 6 -  Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat March 13 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat March 20 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release (debut)
Sat March 27 - Raymond Chandler's Bay City
Sat April 3 – Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A.
Sat April 10 – John Buntin's L.A. Noir
Sat April 24 – Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sat May 1 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour with Crimebo the Clown
Sat May 8 - Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
Sat May 15 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat May 22 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's So. Cal Nightmare

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

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

For more info on David and Kim's previous books, visit
http://www.bubblegum-music.com
http://www.lostinthegrooves.com

Tom Waits tour host David Smay is available for interviews. To schedule time with him, contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release
 
February 24, 2010
 
Viva LAVA! Announcing the birth of the Los Angeles Visionaries Association

WHAT: LAVA is a consortium of the some of L.A.'s most offbeat and original creative artists, featuring a shared events calendar and weekly mailings, Sunday Salon gatherings, exclusive free happenings, a provocative blog and much more to come.
WHERE: http://www.lavatransforms.org

LOS ANGELES- All across this vast and confusing city, little pockets of creative energy flare up, like molten lava oozing from the earth's core. But if you blink, you'll miss them. The failure to find real connection in Los Angeles is a cliché rooted in truth. You could easily spend frustrating years searching for the real thing, those hidden gems and secret gatherings that give this city a soul. Or you can look to a new entity called LAVA (the Los Angeles Visionaries Association) for guidance.

LAVA aims to reveal the hidden heart of Los Angeles and facilitate connections between people with shared passions and sensibilities. Through participation in LAVA, a select group of artists comes 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 how to express and explore 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. Not virtually, though LAVA's online calendar is packed with gems, but in frequent gatherings of living, breathing, collaborating, connecting human beings, held all around the town -- including a monthly Sunday Salon at Clifton's Cafeteria.

The first crop of Visionaries in the growing curated community includes cultural chronicler ADRIENNE CREW, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, former Metropolitan Museum curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, master puppeteer BOB BAKER, producer and promoter CHRISTIAN VOLTAIRE MEOLI, performance artist CRIMEBO THE CLOWN, the NEA's outgoing Director of Literature DAVID KIPEN, documentarian and exploitation film historian ELIJAH DRENNER, pop critic and outsider artist GENE SCULATTI, no-longer-Teenage Glutster food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, horror film director JEREMY KASTEN, social historian JOAN RENNER, 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, poet and dancer MONA JEAN CEDAR, L.A. Historic Theater Foundation rep NICK MATONAK, music producer and impresario NO'A WINTER LAZERUS, peace activist PAUL NUGENT of the Aetherius Society, social networking mistress SHAWNA DAWSON, and hat designer and multi-media artist YASMIN DIXON.

LAVA's core members are multi-generational (ranging from age 21 through 86) genre-hoppers who are already beginning to collaborate on a series of exclusive LAVA happenings, many of them free to attend. Forthcoming free LAVA exclusives include the L.A.-themed exploitation film series Tinseltown Tarnish (hosted by Elijah Drenner and Jeremy Kasten), a screening of the astrologically-themed 1938 film "When Were You Born" at the historic United Lodge of Theosophy (hosted by Maja D'Aoust) and a new series of "Flâneur & the City" downtown walking tours (led by Richard Schave). And starting in March, LAVA hosts a monthly Sunday Salon at Clifton's Cafeteria, where all curious folks are invited to come learn about the LAVA community and enjoy short presentations from select Visionaries.

LAVA's website debuts today with a community calendar that features an eclectic mix of events: occult lectures, Tom Waits bus tours, musical gatherings, art openings, puppet spectaculars, historic theater tours, saucy nurse performance art, comedy benefits for Haitian relief, ancient Hindu scripture classes, and a free walking tour of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Los Angeles. Coming soon: podcasts, community forums and printable event calendars.

Then there's the community blog, a chance for LAVA's secret weapon to shine. Click BLOG at lavatransforms.org and you'll find ALLON SCHOENER, the 84-year-old cultural historian, author, exhibition originator and art world "Zelig," who in January moved from Hudson, NY to Hollenbeck Palms, the historic Boyle Heights retirement home, dusted off his laptop and started planning his creative life in Los Angeles. Allon's first blog post in a series of recollections of meetings with 20th Century tastemakers is the story of how he brought the first domestic espresso machine to Hollywood in the 1950s. Coming soon: Allon's 100% true tales of life as Charles and Ray Eames' houseguest, socializing with Imogen Cunningham, brainstorming with George Nelson and studying art history with Soviet spy Anthony Blunt.

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
 
February 23, 2010
 
One Week Left To Sign Petition Supporting Writer Charles Bukowski's Postage Stamp

LOS ANGELES- In 1969, when the 49-year-old underground poet and columnist Charles Bukowski quit his job at the Terminal Annex US Postal Service sorting facility, he was one step ahead of a pink slip. Offered $100 a month by an editor who believed in his work, Bukowski took the leap to become a professional writer, and in just a few weeks produced his first novel, the autobiographical "Post Office." 
 
Bukowski never held a day job again. He would go on to write six more novels, the screenplay to "Barfly" and thousands of poems, and to find international acclaim as one of the truly distinctive voices of Los Angeles literature. Although he died in 1994, his literary output continues with posthumous anthologies, and he is widely known among American booksellers as the most shoplifted author on their shelves.

In 2006, Bukowski's archives were acquired by the Huntington Library, and in 2008 the modest East Hollywood cottage where he wrote "Post Office" was named one of the Historic-Cultural Monuments of the City of Los Angeles.

But one perfectly apt honor still eludes Bukowski: shouldn't the second most famous American postal worker after Benjamin Franklin have his own postage stamp? 

Richard Schave and Kim Cooper of the L.A.-based literary bus tour company Esotouric think so, and have launched a petition asking the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee to consider recommending that a commemorative Bukowski stamp be released on the 20th anniversary of his death (March 9, 2014). 

Esotouric's celebrations of Bukowski's life and work include the bus tour "Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's LA" (next scheduled on April 24), working on the campaign to have his home landmarked, and inviting journalist Marco Mannone to host a Bukowski Salon at the October 2009 Downtown LA Art Walk. They also spearheaded the successful campaign to have the corner of Fifth and Grand, at the LA Central Library, designated John Fante Square, after the writer who Bukowski called "my God." (Fante Square signs will be erected sometime in Spring 2010.)

Currently containing more than 350 signatures, the online Charles Bukowski Stamp Petition will remain active until March 1, 2010, when it will be printed out and submitted to the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, the volunteer group that advises the postal service on appropriate choices for commemorative stamps.

To view or sign the petition, please visit:
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/bukowskistamp

For more on the process for recommending new postage stamps, see:
http://www.usps.com/communications/organization/csac.htm

To learn about Esotouric's repertoire of offbeat Los Angeles bus tours, visit:
http://www.esotouric.com

Esotouric's Richard Schave and Kim Cooper are available for interviews. Journalists and photographers on assignment can often be accommodated on Esotouric bus tours. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule
Sat Feb 27 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown-The Secret History of LA
Sat March 6 -  Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat March 13 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat March 20 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release (debut)
Sat March 27 - Raymond Chandler's Bay City
Sat April 3 – Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A.
Sat April 10 – John Buntin's L.A. Noir
Sat April 24 – Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sat May 1 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour with Crimebo the Clown
Sat May 8 - Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
Sat May 15 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat May 22 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's So. Cal Nightmare