For immediate release

October 4, 2011

Discover lost L.A. history with a Blood & Dumplings crime tour and free Archives Bazaar "L.A. Noire" demo

WHAT: Esotouric & 1947project offer a weekend of lost Los Angeles lore with a live, historian-narrated tour through the animated 1947 "L.A. Noire" video game city at the free Archives Bazaar (Saturday, October 22) and a wild Blood & Dumplings San Gabriel Valley crime bus tour (Sunday, October 23)

WHEN: Archives Bazaar is Saturday, October 22, 9am-5pm. Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour is Sunday, October 23, 12-4pm.

WHERE: Archives Bazaar is at Doheny Memorial Library, USC University Park Campus, 550 Trousdale Parkway University Park Campus Los Angeles CA 90089-0185. Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour departs from Philippe The Original, 1001 N Alameda, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

COST: Archives Bazaar is free. Bus tour is $63, includes dumplings. 

ARCHIVES BAZAAR INFO: http://www.laassubject.org/index.php/archives_bazaar

ESOTOURIC INFO: http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767

1947project CRITIQUES L.A. NOIRE's ACCURACY (blog post and video link): http://www.1947project.com/47PplaysLANoire

http://lavatransforms.org/lanoiretalk

LOS ANGELES- On Saturday, October 22 and Sunday, October 23, the eclectic bus adventure company Esotouric and the "time travel blog" 1947project present two opportunities to discover the fascinating, lost history of Los Angeles in the company of passionate local historians.

EVENT #1 - ESOTOURIC AT THE ARCHIVES BAZAAR: First up is the 6^th-annual Archives Bazaar (Saturday, October 22, 9-5am, free). This gathering of historically-minded Los Angeles organizations is a treat for anyone with a passion for the city's past. At Esotouric's table, come meet architectural historians and "1947project time travel bloggers" Nathan Marsak and Richard Schave, hosts of the recent sold-out walking tour "The Flâneur & The City: Downtown Los Angeles in the age of digital reproduction." 

Nathan and Richard will be demonstrating the new video game "L.A. Noire" and taking visitors on a live journey through the downtown cityscape that has been digitally re-created in the game. Using rare vintage photographs, postcards and film stills for comparison, they'll explore how Rockstar/Team Bondi's simulacrum of 1947 downtown Los Angeles holds up, where and how it succeeds and fails --  they failed to build L.A.'s most iconic lost neighborhood, Bunker Hill -- and why you should care. Featured locations include the Spring Arcade, a 1923 reproduction of London’s iconic Burlington Arcade (1819), the Barclay Hotel (whose halls and color palate have been borrowed for various other places within the game), Clifton’s Brookdale, Angels Flight, and various historic sites which no longer remain, but which "live again" in one of the most ambitious video games ever released. 

Come check out the criticism that "L.A. Noire's" publisher didn't want you to see. Nathan Marsak's April blog post at 1947project previewing the game by criticizing its architectural accuracy has been viewed by nearly 10,000 people, was widely discussed on game sites and history blogs and resulted in multiple requests from the game's publisher that it be removed from the internet. It remains the top search engine hit for "L.A. Noire accuracy."

http://www.1947project.com/47PplaysLANoire

Also featured at the Esotouric table, a raffle for free tickets for upcoming Esotouric bus adventures and a slide show of newly-discovered color images of Downtown's Main Street and Skid Row from the Union Rescue Mission's 1949 short film "Of Scrap and Steel," which is getting its first screening in fifty years on the roof of the URM on Thursday, October 20, with an introduction by Nathan Marsak and Richard Schave. The screening is free, but reservations are required from LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. Link for info: http://lavatransforms.org/scrapsteel

ABOUT THE ARCHIVES BAZAAR: Los Angeles history comes alive at the 6th-annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar. Organized by L.A. as Subject and presented by the USC Libraries, the annual event celebrates the diversity of Southern California’s history. For scholarly researchers, journalists, history buffs, and those simply interested in exploring the stories of Los Angeles, discovery awaits everyone at the Archives Bazaar. This event is free and open to the public. The Archives Bazaar draws its strength from the breadth and variety of its participants’ collections. Large institutions such as the Autry National Center of the American West and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County will be represented at the bazaar along with smaller organizations and private collections whose materials fill the gaps left in the city’s official history. Other participating organizations include the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, the California African American Museum, El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, and the Japanese American National Museum. In all, more than 80 archives are represented.

EVENT #2 - ESOTOURIC'S BLOOD & DUMPLINGS CRIME BUS TOUR: On Sunday, October 23, Esotouric presents its most bizarre true crime and cultural history tour, BLOOD & DUMPLINGS. The tour celebrates a surprising side of Los Angeles history that you won't find anywhere else.

Starting from the premise that the secret heart of Southern California's weirdo pop culture beats strongest in the Eastern San Gabriel Valley, the tour introduces passengers to such fascinating local characters as the costumed Man from Mars Bandit, eccentric record producer and ladykiller Phil Spector, lion farmers Charles and Muriel Gay, and DIY filmmaking icon Timothy Carey, whose notorious "The World's Greatest Sinner" was shot on location in 1960s El Monte.

Heading due East out of downtown, the tour explores several historic communities that reflect the growth and eccentricity that are hallmarks of 20th century Los Angeles. Crime Bus passengers will discover notorious, strange, fascinating and forgotten tales from the past hundred years, each told at the scene of the crime. They'll thrill to the freakish case of the Man from Mars Bandit who stalked area supermarkets for months in 1951 before meeting his match in a police sharpshooter, shock to discover the deadly infighting among El Monte's hippie-era American Nazi Party members, mourn the Case of the Buried Bride dragged beneath her home on her wedding day by her secret lover, gnash teeth at the famous lion farm (home to every MGM lion) that served lion meat BBQ on special occasions, and view scenes of notorious cases including Phil Spector's spooky hilltop castle and James Ellroy's slain mother Geneva (the true-life inspiration for his Black Dahlia novel).

And since no visit to the San Gabriel Valley is complete without a delicious Chinese meal, the Crime Bus will stop at 101 Noodle Express (one of L.A. Weekly critic Jonathan Gold's picks for 99 L.A. restaurants not to be missed) to pick up a dumpling feast, which will be enjoyed picnic-style at Monster Park, a remarkable sea-themed folk art environment recently saved from demolition. There passengers can enjoy their snack in the company of a bright pink concrete whale, a grinning octopus, giant starfish, jumping dolphins and other whimsical creatures.

All this, plus wild shootouts, dope-dealing druggists, missing Salvador Dali paintings and the original "little girl down a well" 1940s television sensation. Don't miss the Crime Bus tour that guide Kim Cooper calls "My personal favorite of all our tours, packed with more offbeat history, horror, roadside architecture and fabulous Route 66 vistas than any other." 

For more info on Esotouric, visit

http://www.esotouric.com 

For more on the 1947project time travel blogs and critiques of L.A. Noire, visit

http://www.1947project.com/47PplaysLANoire

http://lavatransforms.org/lanoiretalk

http://www.1947project.com (crime-a-day posts for 1907, 1927 and 1947)

http://www.onbunkerhill.org ("a lost neighborhood found")

http://www.insroland.org ("lost lore of the historic core" currently featuring the Union Rescue Mission archives)

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule 

Sat Oct 8 - Gold Diggers & Snake Handlers: Deranged L.A. Crimes From The Notebook of Aggie Underwood (Joan Renner's free lecture, info at lavatransforms.org) 

Sat Oct 15 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles

Thurs Oct 20 - free rooftop screening of 1949 color downtown film  (info at lavatransforms.org)

Sat Oct 22 – Archives Bazaar (info at http://www.laassubject.org/index.php/archives_bazaar)

Sun Oct 23 - Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour

Sun Oct 30 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)

Sat Nov 5 - Weird West Adams

Sat Nov 12 - Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles

Sun Nov 27 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)

Sat Dec 3 – Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown (weekend pass available)

Sun Dec 4 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)

Sat Dec 10 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour

Esotouric's Kim Cooper, Richard Schave and Joan Renner and 1947project blogger / architectural historian Nathan Marsak are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org

Tour hosts Kim Cooper and Richard Schave and 1947project blogger/ architectural historian Nathan Marsak are available for interviews. Members of the press on assignment are always welcome on the bus, space permitting. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767. 

For immediate release

September 21, 2011

Free rooftop screening of newly-discovered 1949 color film shot on Main Street, Downtown L.A.

WHAT: Free rooftop screening of “Of Scrap & Steel,” a newly-discovered 30-minute color film shot by the Union Rescue Mission in Downtown Los Angeles in 1949, box suppers available for purchase to benefit the URM; Event jointly organized by LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association, the In SRO Land time travel blog and the Union Rescue Mission
WHERE: The newly renovated rooftop of the Union Rescue Mission, 545 South San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90013
WHEN: Thursday, October 20, 6-8:30pm (in the event of rain, the event will be rescheduled for Thursday, October 27)
COST: Screening is free, but space is limited and reservations required from http://lavatransforms.org/scrapsteel
RELATED WALKING TOUR: Free (sold-out) walking tour “The Flâneur & The City: Victorian Los Angeles,” including two URM locations, Sunday, September 25. Spots available for members of the press on assignment. Info http://lavatransforms.org/flaneur911
RELATED BLOG: Discover the URM’s Skid Row history at the In SRO Land blog http://insroland.org/urmposts

LOS ANGELES- On Thursday, October 20, a select group of downtown history fans will gather at sunset on the newly renovated roof of the Union Rescue Mission to see a lost piece of downtown L.A. history come to life and to get an introduction to the URM’s century-plus of community service.

“Of Scrap & Steel,” a 30-minute color film shop circa 1949 on Main Street and along Skid Row, is just one of the most remarkable artifacts of mid-century Los Angeles to emerge from the research that contributors to In SRO Land (a time travel blog in the 1947project series) has been doing in the newly-discovered archives of the Union Rescue Mission.

ABOUT THE FILM: In mid-1948 the Board of Directors of the Union Rescue Mission approved the expenditure of $5,000 to make the 30-minute film “Of Scrap & Steel” which portrays the redemption and good works of Arthur Hawkins, an alcoholic executive who ended up on the streets of Los Angeles and was whose life was saved when he turned to the URM for help. Porter Hall (Arthur Hawkins) is one of only two actors in a film otherwise populated by real Los Angeles characters. (You may recall Hall’s performance as the pesky guy on the train in “Double Indemnity.”)

“Of Scrap & Steel” was only shown in screenings organized by the URM or related organizations, and would have been completely lost if Liz Mooradian, URM historian, had not saved a deteriorating 16mm print and had it transferred to video before it was too late. “Of Scrap & Steel” is just one of the remarkable artifacts discovered in the Union Rescue Mission archives and explored in the In SRO Land blog.

This entertaining and powerful short film is a compelling snapshot of life on Skid Row (Main Street) circa 1949, and a fascinating document of the important work that the URM continues to do with the most needy in the community. Although downtown Los Angeles features in numerous noir films, it is extremely rare to see color images of eastern downtown, and rarer still to see full-color live-action footage of the vibrant street scene that included rescue missions, pawn shops, amusement parlors, bars, restaurants and the ever-patrolling paddy wagon in search of drunkards to haul away to jail or County work crews.

ABOUT THE EVENT: This free rooftop screening is jointly organized by the Los Angeles Visionaries Association, the In SRO Land time travel blog and the Union Rescue Mission. Seating will be provided, and attendees are encouraged to dress warmly for the cool night air.

Gourmet box dinners, “Meals with a purpose” will be available for purchase ($7, cash only), with a choice of sandwich (vegetarian, roast beef or chicken), cookie, fruit, crackers and beverage. 100% of proceeds from your meal donation goes to the URM, and the proceeds from each dinner will feed two other people.

Limited free parking is available at the URM’s underground parking lot. Just tell the attendant you are there for the film. Please carpool. If each guest arrives with one other person in their car, there should be enough parking for all. Those arriving later will have to leave their keys with the parking attendant. Should the URM lot fill up, there is also off-site, paid parking available at Joe’s Parking Lot at 1st & San Pedro. Nearest Metro station: Little Tokyo.

Rain check: if it’s raining on October 20, this event will be rescheduled for October 27.

Schedule:

6pm – Doors open
6pm-7pm – Box dinners available for purchase
7pm – Introduction to the URM by Rev. Andy Bales, CEO; Historians Nathan Marsak & Richard Schave introduce the film in the context of the neighborhood’s history, and their work on the In SRO Land blog.
7:30pm – Film screening
8pm – Q & A
8:30pm – Event ends

To sign up for this free event visit http://lavatransforms.org/scrapsteel

ABOUT 1947project: Launched in 2005, the 1947project series of “time travel blogs” has revealed a forgotten and fascinating city through the lens of historic true crime, social history, architecture and urban development. Blog founders Kim Cooper and Richard Schave also took the show on the road with their Esotouric bus adventures tours, which include such popular excursions as The Real Black Dahlia, Raymond Chandler’s L.A., Pasadena Confidential and The Lowdown on Downtown.

1947project readers have become familiar with the lost residential neighborhood of Bunker Hill as it existed before it was cleared by the largest eminent domain action in U.S. history, learned of fascinating true crimes of 1947 that have been overshadowed by the Black Dahlia case, and discovered dozens of incredible characters who came to Los Angeles to find their dreams.

Earlier this month, 1947project announced the launch of a very special new series, The Union Rescue Mission at In SRO Land.

Past 1947project blogs have always been based in historic newspaper research. That changes, with the launch of the first 1947project blog series based entirely on original research in an historic, significant, and previously unknown, Downtown archive, the Archive of the Union Rescue Mission (http://urm.org).

Since their arrival on Skid Row in 1891 and to the present day, the people of Union Rescue Mission have provided food, housing, clothing, counseling and hope to the most needy of the city, acting as a faith-based flipside to public policy. The very phrase “on the wagon” to describe a reformed alcoholic refers to the URM’s famous Gospel Wagon which once rolled up and down the bar-lined streets of eastern Downtown, welcoming aboard anyone who asked for help.

Through this project, the InSROLand bloggers will be revealing never-before-seen documents from more than a hundred years of life-saving and soul-saving work among the poor, the diseased, the drunken and the mad along Skid Row. Themes explored will include TESTIMONIALS (the confessions of former sinners whose lives have been redeemed through the aid of the mission, starting with safecracker Bill Stiles, who claimed to be a member of the Jesse James-Cole Younger Gang: http://insroland.org/urm/bill-stiles)... PUBLIC POLICY & POLICING (http://www.insroland.org/urm/enforcement1)... WARTIME OUTREACH (http://www.insroland.org/urm/twosidesofthestreet)... PHOTOGRAPHS (documents of now-demolished URM buildings and unpublished downtown streetscapes)... ARCHITECTURE (the history of the URM’s early, now-demolished Main Street buildings, put into context with discussions of Victorian Downtown’s removal to clear the way for the development of the Civic Center) and more.

WALKING TOUR: To celebrate the launch of this project, bloggers Nathan Marsak and Richard Schave will give a FREE WALKING TOUR on September 25, immediately following the free monthly Sunday Salon of LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. The tour, which includes two of the early Union Rescue Mission sites, is called “The Flâneur & The City: Victorian Los Angeles.” Within a small footprint, guests will discover some of the most fascinating structures in L.A. history, most of them quite forgotten and long-demolished. The tour and blog present an opportunity for exploring the lost lore of the old commercial neighborhood which was largely cleared via eminent domain in the 1920s-1930s in order to provide a clean slate for the erection of City Hall and other government buildings, a dramatically-different precursor to the much larger Bunker Hill clearance project of the 1950s-1960s. Locations on the walking tour will include Joseph Newsom’s exquisite Bryson-Bonebrake Block (1888), first two Union Rescue Mission locations, and the original “civic center” encompassing the Courthouse (1887), the Hall of Records (1911) and the State Building (1931). For more info on this sold out tour, visit http://lavatransforms.org/flaneur911 (spots are available for members of the press on assignment)

PRESS CLIPS: Rolling Stone magazine has called 1947project: ”[One] of the best true crime sites on the Net.” LAist raved: “Brilliantly, unhealthily obsessed… We can’t imagine our daily routine without it.” And Wil Wheaton said: “1947project is much more than just a blog. It is fantastic literature which just happens to be presented in the blog format. If you’re a fan of noir, or just a proud Angeleno, you’re going to love it.”

ABOUT INSROLAND: InSROLand.org explores the forgotten history of Downtown LA, up the grand entertainment boulevard of Broadway (where SRO means “Standing Room Only”) and down the mean streets of Main (where SRO stands for “Single Room Occupancy,” shorthand for a rented room with a sink in the corner, shared toilet down the hall). Between these two poles, straddling the financial center of Spring Street, modern Los Angeles was born. IN SRO LAND is home to cops and killers, stars and fans, architects and decorators, dancers nude and clothed, freak shows, classic Vaudeville, street preachers and blues shouters, dreamers and schemers, shoplifters, slumming millionaires, pulp writers, bar keepers, finger men and B-girls, the innocent and the profane. Tune in often to discover the lost lore of the Historic Core, and the fascinating souls who made this town their own. The blog’s contributors are an eclectic mix of social historians and journalists, and include KIM COOPER (1947project creator, Esotouric bus adventures), BARBARA BOGAEV (public radio host “Weekend America” and “Fresh Air”), JOHN BUNTIN (author of “L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City”), ROB CLAMPETT (producer of ” Beany and Cecil: The Special Edition” volumes 1 & 2, and manager of the Bob Clampett animation archives), ADRIENNE CREW (LAObserved, LABrainTerrain), NATHAN MARSAK (1947project, On Bunker Hill, co-author of “Los Angeles Neon”), JOAN RENNER (tour guide for Esotouric bus adventures and the Los Angeles Conservancy, Vintage Powder Room blog) and RICHARD SCHAVE (Esotouric bus adventures). Additional contributors will be joining the team as the project develops.

For more info on IN SRO LAND, or to explore the first posts from the Union Rescue Mission Archive, please visit http://insroland.org/urmposts

Event host Richard Schave and the In SRO Land blog’s contributors are available for interviews, as is Reverend Andy Bales, CEO of the Union Rescue Mission. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release

September 19, 2011

Esotouric's L.A. rock history bus tour rolls again in association with 100.3-FM The Sound

For immediate release

September 15, 2011

Mostly Dead Poets: A Halloween Poetry Reading at the Ruskin Art Club

WHAT: A scary poetry reading at the Ruskin Art Club

WHEN: Sunday, October 30, 2011, at 2 p.m. (the day before Halloween)

WHERE: Ruskin Art Club, 800 S Plymouth Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90005. (Directions: Take Wilshire Boulevard to Plymouth and turn south. The Ruskin Art Club is on the southeast corner of 8th and Plymouth.) 

COST:  $10 per person. 

MORE INFO: Eric Howard, (323) 420-6954; Ruskin Art Club (323) 936-4632, http://www.facebook.com/RuskinArtClub

LOS ANGELES--Wear your Halloween costume a day early and come to a scary Halloween reading at the Ruskin Art Club. The reading will feature Brendan Constantine and Laurel Ann Bogen reading creepy poems, including Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," "October Knob and Broom," "Also Frankenstein," and "Postcard Written Under Halloween Flashlight." A special guest will read from "Flight among the Tombs" and from "Death's Jest Book." Refreshments served. 

BIOS: Brendan Constantine was born in 1967 and raised in Los Angeles. The second child of  two working actors, his parents named him for Irish playwright Brendan Behan. He is an ardent supporter of Southern California’s poetry communities and one of its most recognized poets. He has served these communities as a teacher of  poetry in local schools and colleges for the last fifteen years. In addition to this, he has led similar classes in hospitals and shelters for the homeless.  In 2002 he was nominated for Poet Laureate of the state.

His work has appeared in numerous journals, most notably "Ploughshares," "The Los Angeles Review," "The Cortland Review," "RUNES," and LA Times Bestseller "The Underground Guide to Los Angeles." New work can be found in the spring editions of "Ninth Letter" and "The Boxcar Poetry Review," as well as the anthology "Bright Wings," forthcoming from Columbia University Press and edited by Billy Collins.  His collection, "Letters To Guns," was released in February 2009 from Red Hen Press.

Mr. Constantine is currently poet in residence at the Windward School in West Los Angeles and the Idyllwild Arts Summer Youth Writing Program in Idyllwild, California. He holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and lives in Hollywood at Bela Lugosi’s last address.

Laurel Ann Bogen is the author of ten books of poetry and short fiction, including "Washing a Language;" "Fission;" "The Last Girl in the Land of the Butterflies," and "Rag Tag We Kiss."  Her New and Collected Poems is forthcoming from Red Hen Press. From 1996 to 2002 Bogen was literary curator at the L.A. County Museum of Art, and, since 1990 has been an instructor of poetry and performance for the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, where she received the Outstanding Instructor of the Year award in 2008. Well known for her lively readings, Bogen was selected "Best Female Poet/Performer" by "L.A. Weekly" and has read her work at Cornell University, The Savannah College of Art and Design, The Knitting Factory (NYC), The L.A. Metropolitan Transit Authority, MOCA and LACE.  Bogen is a recipient of the Pacificus Foundation’s Curtis Zahn Poetry Prize and of two Academy of American Poets awards, and her work has appeared in over 100 literary magazines and anthologies. 

Brendan Constantine and Laurel Ann Bogen are available for interviews, and photos are available on request. For more information, contact Eric Howard at (323) 420-6954. Ruskin Art Club info (323) 936-4632, http://www.facebook.com/RuskinArtClub

For immediate release

September 8, 2011

Blog reveals forgotten Downtown L.A. history through newly-discovered archives of the Union Rescue Mission

WHAT: The launch of a new series on the 1947project time travel blog In SRO Land ("lost lore of the historic core"), featuring never-before-seen documents from a century's worth of archives of the Union Rescue Mission

WHERE: http://insroland.org/urmposts

WALKING TOUR: To celebrate, bloggers Nathan Marsak and Richard Schave will give a free walking tour on September 25 following the free monthly Sunday Salon of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. The tour, which includes two of the early Union Rescue Mission sites, is called "The Flâneur & The City: Victorian Los Angeles." For more info or to reserve, visit http://lavatransforms.org/flaneur911

PREVIOUSLY: Other blogs in the 1947project time travel series include http://www.1947project.com (1907 and 1927 stories), http://1947project.blogspot.com (1947 crime stories) and http://www.onbunkerhill.org (Bunker Hill stories)

LOS ANGELES- Launched in 2005, the 1947project series of "time travel blogs" has revealed a forgotten and fascinating city through the lens of historic true crime, social history, architecture and urban development. Blog founders Kim Cooper and Richard Schave also took the show on the road with their Esotouric bus adventures tours, which include such popular excursions as The Real Black Dahlia, Raymond Chandler's L.A., Pasadena Confidential and The Lowdown on Downtown.

1947project readers have become familiar with the lost residential neighborhood of Bunker Hill as it existed before it was cleared by the largest eminent domain action in U.S. history, learned of fascinating true crimes of 1947 that have been overshadowed by the Black Dahlia case, and discovered dozens of incredible characters who came to Los Angeles to find their dreams.

Today, 1947project is thrilled to announce the launch of a very special new series, The Union Rescue Mission at In SRO Land.

Past 1947project blogs have always been based in historic newspaper research. That changes today, with the launch of the first 1947project blog series based entirely on original research in an historic, significant--and previously unknown--Downtown archive, the Archive of the Union Rescue Mission (http://urm.org).

Since their arrival on Skid Row in 1891 and to the present day, the people of Union Rescue Mission have provided food, housing, clothing, counseling and hope to the most needy of the city, acting as a faith-based flipside to public policy. The very phrase "on the wagon" to describe a reformed alcoholic refers to the URM's famous Gospel Wagon which once rolled up and down the bar-lined streets of eastern Downtown, welcoming aboard anyone who asked for help.

Through this project, the InSROLand bloggers will be revealing never-before-seen documents from more than a hundred years of life-saving and soul-saving work among the poor, the diseased, the drunken and the mad along Skid Row. Themes explored will include TESTIMONIALS (the confessions of former sinners whose lives have been redeemed through the aid of the mission, starting with safecracker Bill Stiles, who claimed to be a member of the Jesse James-Cole Younger Gang: http://insroland.org/urm/bill-stiles)... PHOTOGRAPHS (documents of now-demolished URM buildings and unpublished downtown streetscapes)... ARCHITECTURE (the history of the URM's early, now-demolished Main Street buildings, put into context with discussions of Victorian Downtown's removal to clear the way for the development of the Civic Center) and more.

To celebrate the launch of this project, bloggers Nathan Marsak and Richard Schave will give a FREE WALKING TOUR on September 25, immediately following the free monthly Sunday Salon of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. The tour, which includes two of the early Union Rescue Mission sites, is called "The Flâneur & The City: Victorian Los Angeles." Within a small footprint, guests will discover some of the most fascinating structures in L.A. history, most of them quite forgotten and long-demolished. The tour and blog present an opportunity for exploring the lost lore of the old commercial neighborhood which was largely cleared via eminent domain in the 1920s-1930s in order to provide a clean slate for the erection of City Hall and other government buildings, a dramatically-different precursor to the much larger Bunker Hill clearance project of the 1950s-1960s. Locations on the walking tour will include Joseph Newsom’s exquisite Bryson-Bonebrake Block (1888), first two Union Rescue Mission locations, and the original “civic center” encompassing the Courthouse (1887), the Hall of Records (1911) and the State Building (1931). For more info or to reserve, visit http://lavatransforms.org/flaneur911

PRESS CLIPS: Rolling Stone magazine has called 1947project: "[One] of the best true crime sites on the Net." LAist raved: "Brilliantly, unhealthily obsessed... We can't imagine our daily routine without it." And Wil Wheaton said: "1947project is much more than just a blog. It is fantastic literature which just happens to be presented in the blog format. If you're a fan of noir, or just a proud Angeleno, you're going to love it."

ABOUT INSROLAND:  InSROLand.org explores the forgotten history of Downtown LA, up the grand entertainment boulevard of Broadway (where SRO means "Standing Room Only") and down the mean streets of Main (where SRO stands for "Single Room Occupancy," shorthand for a rented room with a sink in the corner, shared toilet down the hall). Between these two poles, straddling the financial center of Spring Street, modern Los Angeles was born. IN SRO LAND is home to cops and killers, stars and fans, architects and decorators, dancers nude and clothed, freak shows, classic Vaudeville, street preachers and blues shouters, dreamers and schemers, shoplifters, slumming millionaires, pulp writers, bar keepers, finger men and B-girls, the innocent and the profane. Tune in often to discover the lost lore of the Historic Core, and the fascinating souls who made this town their own. The blog's contributors are an eclectic mix of social historians and journalists, and include KIM COOPER (1947project creator, Esotouric bus adventures), BARBARA BOGAEV (public radio host "Weekend America" and "Fresh Air"), JOHN BUNTIN (author of "L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City"), ROB CLAMPETT (producer of " Beany and Cecil: The Special Edition" volumes 1 & 2, and manager of the Bob Clampett animation archives),  ADRIENNE CREW (LAObserved, LABrainTerrain), NATHAN MARSAK (1947project, On Bunker Hill, co-author of "Los Angeles Neon"), JOAN RENNER (tour guide for Esotouric bus adventures and the Los Angeles Conservancy, Vintage Powder Room blog) and RICHARD SCHAVE (Esotouric bus adventures). Additional contributors will be joining the team as the project develops.

For more info on IN SRO LAND, or to explore the first posts from the Union Rescue Mission Archive, please visit http://insroland.org/urmposts

Project leader Richard Schave and the blog's contributors are available for interviews, as is Reverend Andy Bales, CEO of the Union Rescue Mission. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767. 

For immediate release

September 6, 2011

Raymond Chandler-themed Bus Tour Explores Philip Marlowe’s Lost L.A.

WHAT: Esotouric’s “Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles: In A Lonely Place” bus tour
WHEN: Saturday, October 15, 2011, 12-4pm
WHERE: Tour departs from Clifton’s Cafeteria, 648 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014
COST: $58/person, includes complementary noir-themed gelato from Scoops
MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767

LOS ANGELES- In October, Esotouric, the eclectic bus adventure company whose tours reveal L.A.’s secret history, offers a bus tour dedicated to the city’s greatest detective novelist, Raymond Chandler, from the downtown streets he roamed as a young oil executive to his uniquely poisonous portrayal of the city’s hustlers, heavies and suckers. The tour reveals the secret historic city that still breathes under our modern streets, and offers unexpected insight into the life and work of a beloved writer and his immortal white knight detective hero Philip Marlowe.

Earlier this year, Esotouric principals Richard Schave and Kim Cooper took a road trip to San Diego to attend the moving Valentine’s Day ceremony in which the ashes of Raymond Chandler’s wife Cissy (died 1954) were finally placed in his (died 1959) grave, as both had intended. In keeping with their pledge to share interesting Los Angeles lore on their tour bus and online, video and photos from the ceremony have been posted at the Esotouric blog: http://www.esotouric.com/chandlergrave

And just to show that Chandler scholarship continues to evolve 52 years after his death, Esotouric’s Raymond Chandler tour features a startling new theory developed through Esotouric’s original research. Get on the bus to learn all about the idealistic Los Angeles policeman whose one-man crusade against the evils of his own department is among the most convincing cases for a real life prototype of the Philip Marlowe character ever proposed. And you won’t hear about him in any of the Chandler biographies, but only on the Esotouric bus.

For more original Raymond Chandler research uncovered by Esotouric, see the blog post “Raymond Chandler and the Creamery” about the criminal happenings the young writer might have witnessed at his first job in Los Angeles, at the link below.
http://www.esotouric.com/chandlerandthecreamery

ABOUT THE TOUR:

RAYMOND CHANDLER’S LOS ANGELES: IN A LONELY PLACE delves deep into a lost city that exists in shadowy parallels to contemporary LA. Bungalows. Crime. Hollywood. Blondes. Vets. Smog. Death. This was Raymond Chandler’s city, which resonated from deft and melancholy fits of his writer’s bow. Join Esotouric on an exploration of the city that shaped Chandler’s fiction, and that in turn shaped his hard-boiled times, in a four hour tour of downtown, Hollywood and surrounding environs: Musso & Frank, Union Station, the Hotel Van Nuys, Paramount Studio’s gates, and beyond. Through published work, private correspondence, screenplays and film adaptations, the tour traces Chandler’s search for meaning and his anti-hero Philip Marlowe’s struggle to not be pigeonholed or give anything less than all he has, which lead them both down the rabbit hole of isolation, depression, and drink.

Get on the bus for a revealing time travel journey into the literary history of Los Angeles, and discover the places and people who inspired Raymond Chandler’s timeless novels, screenplays and stories. And as a special treat, the tour’s complementary snack break features a selection of noir-themed gelato flavors from the creative kitchen of Tai Kim’s Scoops, the most interesting and acclaimed ice cream shop in Los Angeles. Scoops doesn’t announce the featured flavors in advance, but Chandleresque offerings on past tours have have included Coffee/Jack Daniels, Bacon/Caramel, Guinness/Chocolate and even Nicotine (made with Nicorette gum)!

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

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sat Sept 10 – Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat Sept 24 – The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain’s Southern California Nightmare
Sun Sept 25 – LAVA’s free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Oct 1- The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat Oct 8 – Gold Diggers & Snake Handlers: Deranged L.A. Crimes From The Notebook of Aggie Underwood (Joan Renner’s free lecture, info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Oct 15 – Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles
Sun Oct 23 – Blood & Dumplings
Sun Oct 30 – LAVA’s free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Nov 5 – Weird West Adams
Sat Nov 12 – Charles Bukowski’s Los Angeles
Sun Nov 27 – LAVA’s free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Dec 3 – Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown (weekend pass available)
Sun Dec 4 – Eastside Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sat Dec 10 – Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour

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

Tour host Richard Schave is available for interviews. Journalists and photographers on assignment can often be accommodated on Esotouric bus tours. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

For immediate release

August 22, 2011

LAVA's September wild weekend packs Downtown Los Angeles with unique cultural programs

WHAT: On Saturday, September 24 and Sunday, September 25, members of LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) present a weekend of eclectic cultural happenings: Esotouric's occasional "The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare" bus tour and LAVA's 19^th monthly Sunday Salon featuring a preview of  art historian/photographer Paul Koudounaris' highly anticipated book "The Empire of Death" and a musical performance from The Ukulady  

COST: LAVA's Sunday Salon is always free, Esotouric's "Birth of Noir" tour costs $58 

LOCATION: Esotouric's "Birth of Noir" tour departs from Philippe The Original, 1001 N. Alameda, Los Angeles, CA 90012. LAVA's Sunday Salon always happens at Clifton's Cafeteria, 648 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014.

MORE INFO: http://lavatransforms.org and the individual links below

LOS ANGELES- Have you heard about LAVA? The Los Angeles Visionaries Association is a creative consortium of artists, musicians, writers, storytellers and filmmakers who since February 2010 have come together on the last Sunday of the month for a free cultural lunch Salon at Clifton's Cafeteria, in addition to sharing their far-flung activities on a community calendar.

Created by Richard Schave and Kim Cooper—the busy married couple who lead historical bus tours under the Esotouric flag ("The Real Black Dahlia," "Raymond Chandler's L.A."), successfully campaigned to save the endangered 76 Balls, Charles Bukowski's house and L.A.'s Public Libraries, put the Downtown Art Walk into a non-profit, and most recently assembled a collective of the region's best independent tour guides at www.7DaysinLA.com -- LAVA  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 September, the LAVA calendar shines with fascinating events reflecting the group's eclectic diversity, with something to delight and inspire anybody looking for a memorable outing. The events play out in this order...

EVENT #1: Saturday, September 24, 12-4pm – An Esotouric bus adventure, "The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare" (departs from Philippe The Original, 1001 N. Alameda, Los Angeles, CA 90012, $58)

INFO/RESERVATIONS: http://lavatransforms.org/noir911

ABOUT THE BIRTH OF NOIR: Southern California, 1931: Musing over fresh urban sprawl atop bulldozed orange groves and the bitter realization that you can't eat the sunshine, newly arrived writer James M. Cain found a kernel of truth and his voice. That voice would become the dominant note in the development of a unique American genre, Film Noir, which spawned the abiding Los Angeles myth of the solitary, relentless detective. THE BIRTH OF NOIR is a four-hour luxury bus tour celebrating the life, work, myths and passions of hard-boiled American novelist James M. Cain through his best known books, "The Postman Always Rings Twice," "Mildred Pierce" (which came to HBO as a new Todd Haynes-directed mini-series starring Kate Winslet in Spring 2011) and "Double Indemnity," and how their screen adaptations shaped Film Noir. 

How did East Coat sophisticate Cain go from editor of "The New Yorker" to populist novelist accused of writing dirty books? The tour explores the writer's life and work with a focus on his time in Southern California, where his observations on Malibu, Hollywood, Pasadena and the low rent 'burbs of Glendale are as provocative today as they were seventy years ago. 

The tour also covers the gifted people who transformed Cain's tales into movies, among them Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler, Joan Crawford and Lana Turner. "The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare" is a complex portrait of a fascinating character who was seduced and transformed by his time in the Southland, a hard working movie industry professional who sank into drink and despair, ultimately a uniquely Californian artist.

Hosted by Esotouric's Richard Schave, the tour departs from beloved dining landmark Philippe the Original, where passengers can enjoy delicious pie in honor of legendary baking mama Mildred Pierce. The tour itself draws on Cain's essays, short stories, novels, films and the memories of his friends and colleagues to paint a portrait of LA in the 1930s and 1940s through the eyes of the writer. The tour spans Hollywood to Glendale and along old Route 66, and includes illuminating visits to the actual "Mildred Pierce" house, the Glendale Train Station where the "Double Indemnity" murder plot played out, and the punch line to a Billy Wilder joke so subtle, it's taken six decades for anyone to get. Get on the bus to share in the laughter and the pathos of Cain's Southern California.

EVENT #2: Sunday, September 25, 12-2pm - LAVA's free monthly Sunday Salon features a musical performances "human muppet" The Ukulady, and a preview of  art historian/photographer Paul Koudounaris' highly anticipated book "The Empire of Death" (upstairs at Clifton's Cafeteria, 648 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014, free)

SALON INFO: http://lavatransforms.org/salon911

ABOUT THE AUGUST LAVA'S SUNDAY SALON: On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather on the third floor of the historic Clifton's Cafeteria in Downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you're interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the shortbread.

Special program at the September 25 Salon: 

LAVA Visionary and Salon favorite THE UKULADY & The Evil Sandwiches return to L.A. after a triumphant and adventure-filled residency in Barra De Navidad Mexico! Dubbed "the Love Child of Pee Wee Herman and Cyndi Lauper," The Ukulady will share songs and stories of Mexico, L.A. and their cultural similarities and differences, plus interactive crafting and photo-ops with the Unicorndog, The Evil Sandwich & Dr. Steve Chicken!

LAVA Visionary and PhD in Art History PAUL KOUDOUNARIS will discuss the research for his new book, "The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses." Five years in the making, the book will be available for the first time at a signing and photo show the night prior to the Sunday Salon, and the LAVA talk will be the author’s first public presentation on the work. The research for this unique book took the author to over 70 preserved charnel houses and skeletal shrines on four continents, to document the otherwise forgotten history of the veneration of the dead in Christian culture through the direct presence of human remains. The presentation will not only illuminate a forgotten history, it will also reveal the surreal saga of the research itself: among other tribulations, in the course of completing his research, the author was pursued by malevolent spirits, handcuffed to a table in a striptease bar by a prurient monk, forced to undergo a religious pilgrimage and exorcism, and arrested by the Austrian police.

ABOUT LAVA: Through participation in LAVA, a select group of creative professionals come together to promote cultural programming that speaks to the urban experience while promoting positive public space. LAVA's creative partners share a love for L.A. and unique ideas for exploring it in their work.  Formed by social historians RICHARD SCHAVE and KIM COOPER -- proprietors of Esotouric bus adventures and the 1947project time travel blog series (including On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land) -- LAVA brings together L.A.'s most visionary promoters, artists, writers and thinkers. The first crop of Visionaries in the growing curated community includes cultural chronicler ADRIENNE CREW, artist and Eastside historian AL GUERRERO, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, avant garde fashion maven A. LAURA BRODY, poet/publisher ALEIDA RODRIGUEZ, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, filmmaker ALLISON ANDERS, writer/curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, documentarian/radio producer ANTHEA RAYMOND, pop culture historian BECKY EBENKAMP, ethnomusicologist BETO GONZALEZ, puppeteer BOB BAKER, tile historian BRIAN KAISER, producer/promoter CHRISTIAN VOLTAIRE MEOLI, cultural events programmer CHRISTINA GALANTE, musician COUNT SMOKULA, performance artist CRIMEBO THE CLOWN, writer/Libros Schmibros proprietor DAVID KIPEN, sculptor DONALD GIALANELLA, forensic scientist/educator DONALD JOHNSON, author/educator DOROTHY RANDALL GRAY, artist ELENA MARY SIFF, documentarian ELIJAH DRENNER, conversation curator ERIC VOLLMER, social connector EVONNE HEYNING, musician/performance artist FEATHERBEARD, photographer GARY LEONARD, pop critic/outsider artist GENE SCULATTI, musician/artist GEORGE EARTH, songsmith HARVEY SID FISHER, theater director HOLLY WITHAM, musician/writer IAN WHITCOMB, food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, urban explorer (Ranger) JENNY PRICE, filmmaker JEREMY KASTEN, musician JIMI CABEZA DE VACA, social historian JOAN RENNER, writer/artist JOE OESTERLE, writer JOHN BUNTIN, filmmaker JON ALLOWAY, documentarian JOHN DULLAGHAN, Musso & Frank co-owner JORDAN JONES, performance artist JULES ROCHIELLE, curator JULIE RICO, "Kristin's List" cultural chronicler KRISTIN BEDFORD, songstress/prognosticator MADAME PAMITA, esoteric scholar MAJA D'AOUST, author/broadcaster MANNY PACHECO, performer McCRISTOL HARRIS, visual artist MELVIN HALE, journalist MICHAEL LINDER, photographic archivist MICHAEL RISNER, President of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes MIGUEL ANGEL CORZO, poet/dancer MONA JEAN CEDAR, architectural historian NATHAN MARSAK, writer NEAL POLLOCK, theater director NICHOLAS HOSKING, L.A. Historic Theater Foundation rep NICK MATONAK, music producer NO'A WINTER LAZERUS, musician OCTAVIUS, writer /photographer /musician PAUL KOUDOUNARIS, peace activist PAUL NUGENT of the Aetherius Society, 3-D photography expert RAY 3D ZONE, historic ghost seeker RICHARD CARRADINE, artist/musician RICH POLYSORBATE 60, filmmaker/preservationist ROSS LIPMAN, singer-songwriter RUTHANN FRIEDMAN, ghost hunter SARAH TROOP, social networking mistress SHAWNA DAWSON, painter/gallerist SUSAN DOBAY, artist/writer/activist SUSANNA DAKIN, Warhol star and writer TERE TEREBA, sculptor TOM WALKER, musical entertainer THE UKULADY, and hat designer YASMIN DIXON. 

Applications from prospective LAVA members are being taken at http://lavatransforms.org/apply

To learn more about LAVA, please visit http://www.lavatransforms.org

LAVA founders Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, Salon presenters Paul Koudounaris  and Thessaly "The Ukulady" Lerner, and most of LAVA's Visionary members are available for interviews, and a very limited number of journalists on assignment can be accommodated on the Esotouric bus. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767. 

20 independent L.A. tour companies team up to reject their competitive reputation

For immediate release

August 8, 2011  

Offbeat bus tour reveals the sexy, strange and sometimes bloody history of Downtown L.A.

WHAT: Esotouric presents Hotel Horrors and Main Street Vice, a Downtown double-feature bus and walking tour

WHEN: Saturday, September 10, 12pm-4pm 

COST: $58/person

WHERE: Departs from Cafe Metropol at 923 East 3rd Street, LA 90013, tour covers downtown LA's historic core

INFO: http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767

TOUR PHOTOS: http://flickr.com/photos/richardschave/sets/72157623986634614

LOS ANGELES- 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 stories have been lost.

That's why Esotouric, the eclectic bus adventure company whose tours reveal the secret history of L.A. through crime, culture, literature and architecture, is offering HOTEL HORRORS AND MAIN STREET VICE, a tour meant to bring alive the old ghosts and memories that cling to the streets and structures of the historic core. 

The HOTEL HORRORS section of the tour is steeped in true crime and oddities, featuring some of the wildest, weirdest, goriest and most memorable happenings in historic hotels like the Alexandria, Hayward, Barclay, King Edward and Cecil. Join the tour and you'll step inside several of these legendary locales, and find out where Night Stalker Richard Ramirez slept, which hotel saw a visit from the Skid Row Slasher, where two traveling chocolate salesmen laughed so hard they fell backwards out a window to their deaths. You'll also explore the fiery curse that repeatedly leveled the St. George Hotel, and hear some light hearted stories to help the blood and gore go down.

The MAIN STREET VICE section is a social history lesson 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, a street that every Angeleno knew offered more (yet less) of what could be seen anywhere else. 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 number of gems that survive.

And if you're looking for offbeat L.A. history but can't wait to ride the Esotouric bus, there's plenty of good stuff online. In addition to this and other historic Los Angeles bus tours, Esotouric's team created the 1947project "time travel blog" series of alternate history websites, including In SRO Land ("lost lore of the historic core" at www.insroland.org), On Bunker Hill (www.onbunkerhill.org) and the original 1947project ("a crime a day" from 1947, 1927 and 1907 at www.1947project.com and 1947project.blogspot.com).

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule 

Sat August 20 - Charles Bukowski's L.A.: Haunts of a Dirty Old Man

Sat August 27 - Reyner Banham Loves L.A.: The Lowdown on Downtown

Sun August 28 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)

Sat Sept 10 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour

Sat Sept 24 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare

Sun Sept 25  - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)

Sat Oct 1- The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour  

Sat Oct 15 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles

Sun Oct 23 - Blood & Dumplings

Sun Oct 30 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)

Sat Nov 5 - Weird West Adams

Sat Nov 12 - Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles

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 hosts Kim Cooper and 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

August 3, 2011

LAVA’s August wild weekend packs Downtown Los Angeles with unique cultural programs

WHAT: From Friday, August 26 through Sunday, August 28, , members of LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) present a series of eclectic cultural happenings: Al Guerrero’s once-a-year Richard Ramirez – Night Stalker walking tour, Esotouric’s revealing “Lowdown on Downtown” historic bus and walking tour, a rare presentation of Ross Lipman’s of “The Book of Paradise Has No Author” (as part of “Inquiry Towards the Practice of Secular Magic”) and LAVA’s 18th monthly Sunday Salon featuring a preview of Al Guerrero’s Night Stalker tour and musical performances from The Ukulady and Ruthann Friedman.
COST: LAVA’s Sunday Salon is always free, other events ticketed at $10-$58 (details below)
LOCATION: Various (details below). LAVA’s Sunday Salon always happens at Clifton’s Cafeteria, 648 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014.
MORE INFO: http://lavatransforms.org and the individual links below

LOS ANGELES- Have you heard about LAVA? The Los Angeles Visionaries Association is a creative consortium of artists, musicians, writers, storytellers and filmmakers who since February 2010 have come together on the last Sunday of the month for a free cultural lunch Salon at Clifton’s Cafeteria, in addition to sharing their far-flung activities on a community calendar.

Created by Richard Schave and Kim Cooper—the busy married couple who lead historical bus tours under the Esotouric flag (“The Real Black Dahlia,” “Raymond Chandler’s L.A.”), successfully campaigned to save the endangered 76 Balls, Charles Bukowski’s house and L.A.’s Public Libraries, put the Downtown Art Walk into a non-profit, and most recently assembled a collective of the region’s best independent tour guides at www.7DaysinLA.com—LAVA 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 shines with a series of fascinating events reflecting the group’s eclectic diversity, with something to delight and inspire anybody looking for a memorable outing. The events play out in this order…

EVENT #1: Friday, August 26, 8:30pm-11pm (repeats Saturday, August 27) – LAVA Visionary Ross Lipman presents “The Book of Paradise Has No Author” as part of “Inquiry Towards the Practice of Secular Magic” (presented by Los Angeles Filmforum and the Disembodied Theater Corporation at piXel (+) freQuency (931 E Pico Blvd. STE 202 Los Angeles, CA 90021, $10)
INFO/RESERVATIONS: http://lavatransforms.org/inquiry826

ABOUT INQUIRY TOWARDS THE PRACTICE OF SECULAR MAGIC: Secular magic is the alchemical act of transmuting everyday life into fiction, and vice versa. The traveling, continually evolving Inquiry examines actions both State-sanctioned and autonomous, and includes live cinema performances, archival documents, films, artworks, and artifacts. EXPERIENCE AND OBSERVE: strange objects, questionable events, and unknown histories in a bewildering tapestry of transfigured reality! This is a BYOS event: Bring Your Own Seating! There are some chairs and sofas, but not enough. Plenty of floor space, so small folding chairs, cushions and blankets encouraged. Floor is hard so bring something comfortable. The proceedings include: Ross Lipman’s THE BOOK OF PARADISE HAS NO AUTHOR, a live documentary on the Cave People of the Philippines; Marcy Saude’s illustrated lecture on George Van Tassel, inventor of the Integratron; Stephen Berkman’s authentic contemporary Ambrotypes; Luke’s embryonic brains as nightmare; Liz Goetz’s “astronomically correct” cut-out star quilt; Anjali Sundaram’s reseach on the legendary Daughter of Kong; Nina Hoechtl’s video installation on the Emperor and Empress of Mexico, Maximilian and Carlota,
and their strange relationship to the comedian Cantinflas; Inna-Marie Strazhnik’s medical illustrations and astounding prosthetic eye; and live music and sounds by Eric Potter

EVENT #2: Saturday, August 27, 11am-3pm – Esotouric presents twice-a-year “Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown” bus and walking tour (departs from Cafe Metropol, 923 E. 3rd. Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013, $58)
INFO/RESERVATIONS: http://esotouric.com/lowdown

ABOUT THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN: Join your host, Esotouric’s 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. This is a tour about the populated, vibrant mid-20th Century Downtown Los Angeles you’ve only heard about, and about the 21st Century Downtown which will rise again with a richness of heritage and quality of life that leaves natives and visitors gaping in disbelief. This is a tour about Downtown’s invisible neighborhoods and great public spaces which managed to escape the wrecking ball. This is a tour about how gentrification sprung up on the city’s meanest streets, with all the conflicts that go along with a major socio-economic shift in a small community. This is a tour about the real Los Angeles, the city even natives don’t know.

Get on the bus for the real Lowdown on Downtown, as no one but Esotouric’s Richard Schave can reveal it. Our tour begins in the corporate public spaces of Bunker Hill and Pershing Square, each the result of deliberate social engineering (the razing of old Bunker Hill which displaced 9,000 residents; the elimination of positive public space in Pershing Square to thwart public address and gatherings). We segue to the underappreciated yet extremely successful public spaces of the Historic Core and then to the emerging live/work community of The Old Bank District, where developer Tom Gilmore’s gentrification and the popular monthly Art Walk are bringing life to spaces which have been dead for decades. The tour concludes in the DIY loft spaces of the Arts District for a reception at an artist’s gallery.

Having studied under architecture critic Reyner Banham in the mid-1980s, tour host Richard Schave has taken it upon himself to correct his teacher’s gross oversight of downtown Los Angeles, relegated to a dismissive coda in his seminal Los Angeles guidebook Los Angeles: A Study of Four Ecologies.. Richard and his wife Kim Cooper work extensively with the history and lost cultures of downtown in their bus tours, in their work for Art Walk, on blogs including On Bunker Hill and 1947project, and through public lectures on the subject.

This tour has a significant walking component, down the stairs along Angels Flight, around Pershing Square, through several other pedestrian locations. It is broken up, but please be advised to be ready to stretch your legs. Locations on the tour include: Angels Flight, Grand Central Market, Mercantile Arcade Building, Bloom’s General Store and a visit to artist Dave Hollen’s studio.

EVENT #3: Sunday, August 28, 12-2pm – LAVA’s free monthly Sunday Salon features musical performances from ‘60s pop legend Ruthann Friedman and “human muppet” The Ukulady, and local historian Al Guerrero on the social history of the 1984-85 Night Stalker murder spree (upstairs at Clifton’s Cafeteria, 648 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014, free)
SALON INFO: http://lavatransforms.org/salon811

ABOUT THE AUGUST LAVA’S SUNDAY SALON: On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather on the third floor of the historic Clifton’s Cafeteria in Downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you’re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the shortbread.

Special program at the August 28 Salon:

LAVA Visionary and Salon favorite THE UKULADY & The Evil Sandwiches return to L.A. after a triumphant and adventure-filled residency in Barra De Navidad Mexico! Dubbed “the Love Child of Pee Wee Herman and Cyndi Lauper,” The Ukulady will share songs and stories of Mexico, L.A. and their cultural similarities and differences, plus interactive crafting and photo-ops with the Unicorndog, The Evil Sandwich & Dr. Steve Chicken!

LAVA Visionary RUTHANN FRIEDMAN wrote the early bubble-pop anthem “Windy” for The Association while crashed out on Crosby’s couch, swung with Zappa’s crew, and she almost got that Jefferson Airplane vocalist slot before bitch goddess Grace slunk in. Ruthann’s 1970 LP Constant Companion is a recording of sublime beauty and abstract folky ruminations which should’ve sent ol’ Joni running to Essra Mohawk and Judee Sill for consolation (and inspiration!) — but sadly recognition was a long time in coming. Friedman’s lone 45, “Carry On (Glittering Dancer)” is another bit of genius, fleshed out by captivating Van Dyke Parks arrangements a la Smile or Song Cycle. At the Sunday Salon, Ruthann will sing reflections of her life growing up in Los Angeles in the fifties and sixties, and let you in on intimate personal stories that have a universal appeal. Accompanied by her own guitar and the bass playing of David Jenkins, she bridges the gap between generations.

Local artist and historian AL GUERRERO is the LAVA Visionary behind the “Richard Ramirez – Night Stalker Walking Tour.” For the Sunday Salon, he will be conducting a short presentation and discussion on this bloody chapter of L.A. crime history. Attendees will experience a chilling narrative of the fear and terror that gripped the Los Angeles area during the fearful, hot summer 1985, during the Night Stalker’s wave of terror. Al will share first-hand accounts and reveal little known facts and gruesome details of the case, including details about the Night Stalker’s haunts in the downtown area surrounding the Salon. Immediately following the Sunday Salon, Al Guerroro’s “Richard Ramirez – Night Stalker Walking Tour” will depart from Clifton’s Cafeteria—advance reservations suggested—this will sell out.

EVENT #4: Sunday, August 28, 2:15pm-6:15pm– LAVA Visionary Al Guerrero hosts “Richard Ramirez – Night Stalker walking tour” (departs from Clifton’s Cafeteria, 648 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014, $20/ advance reservations suggested)
INFO/RESERVATIONS: http://lavatransforms.org/nightstalker2011

ABOUT RICHARD RAMIREZ – NIGHT STALKER WALKING TOUR: On August 30th 1985, Richard Ramirez, the satanic serial killer and rapist named “The Night Stalker,” was chased down, beaten and captured by an angry mob in East Los Angeles, California. His bloody rampage came to an end on that August morning as angry blows crashed down upon his head to the cries of “Es El! El Maton!” (“It’s HIM! The Killer!”). Bloodied and dazed, Ramirez begged for the mercy he never granted his victims, and ironically, he thanked God and the arriving rookie Deputy Sheriff for saving his life. On this tour we will retrace Ramirez’s last fateful steps leading to his arrest and capture. We will follow the chronicles of his crimes within the living backdrop of the actual streets, stores and neighborhoods that once bore the shadows of “The Night Stalker.” We will walk the path of his final run and meet the unassuming heroes who ultimately lifted the bloody veil of horror from a terrified, sleepless city in that sweltering summer, the hottest summer L.A. had experienced in 100 years.

Tour guide Al Guerrero says “This tour’s journey actually began 26 years ago. During the Hellishly hot summer of 1985, when nightfall brought only sleepless fear, bloody nightmares, cold sweat, and doors and windows locked tight, Richard Ramirez, “The Night Stalker,” became a part of my psyche on many levels. Ramirez and I were born within two years of each other, and raised within a few blocks of each other in El Paso, Texas. Decades later, his path of death would cross my very own East Los Angeles neighborhood. We feared his shadow lurking on our streets, as mere minutes away, he prowled and killed in the neighboring cities of Monterey Park and Whittier. Richard Ramirez was the reason my parents installed security windows on our home. I often, unknowingly, surely crossed paths with Ramirez as we both frequented the same downtown L.A. locations within the very same time period. His capture within a few miles of my home involved friends I’ve known for most of my life. My family and the rest of the city of L.A. experienced “The Night Stalker’s” terror during that blistering summer in 1985, and it seems that I have been formulating this tour ever since. In 2010, on the 25th anniversary of Richard Ramirez’ capture, the time had come to stir the demons of the Night Stalker’s satanic legacy once more…”

After the overwhelming response to last year’s sold-out 25th Anniversary Night Stalker Tour, and having completed work this year as creative consultant for a U.K. documentary based on the life of Richard Ramirez, Al Guerrero will re-embark on a 2011 tour narrative based on extensive research and interviews with the principal players of “The Night Stalker” case, including the late author Philip Carlo, Homicide detective Gil Carrillo, indirect communication with Ramirez himself, and surprising new revelations from the residents of East L.A.’s Hubbard Street who were responsible for the killer’s capture.

Tour guests will be chilled by the shadow of “The Night Stalker” as we explore one of the most horrifying and terror filled chapters in Los Angeles crime lore. For more info, visit http://nightstalkertour.blogspot.com/

Prior to the tour, Al Guerrero will give a short LAVA Salon presentation on “The Night Stalker” case and the experience of living through L.A.’s “summer of fear.” Following the presentation, the tour will embark from Clifton’s Cafeteria after the 2 p.m. conclusion of LAVA Salon. This event was a complete sell-out last year, so reservations are strongly recommended. Also, guests are advised as to the graphic nature of some portions of the tour.

ABOUT LAVA: Through participation in LAVA, a select group of creative professionals come together to promote cultural programming that speaks to the urban experience while promoting positive public space. LAVA’s creative partners share a love for L.A. and unique ideas for exploring it in their work. Formed by social historians RICHARD SCHAVE and KIM COOPER—proprietors of Esotouric bus adventures and the 1947project time travel blog series (including On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land)—LAVA brings together L.A.’s most visionary promoters, artists, writers and thinkers. The first crop of Visionaries in the growing curated community includes cultural chronicler ADRIENNE CREW, artist and Eastside historian AL GUERRERO, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, avant garde fashion maven A. LAURA BRODY, poet/publisher ALEIDA RODRIGUEZ, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, filmmaker ALLISON ANDERS, writer/curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, documentarian/radio producer ANTHEA RAYMOND, pop culture historian BECKY EBENKAMP, ethnomusicologist BETO GONZALEZ, puppeteer BOB BAKER, tile historian BRIAN KAISER, producer/promoter CHRISTIAN VOLTAIRE MEOLI, cultural events programmer CHRISTINA GALANTE, musician COUNT SMOKULA, performance artist CRIMEBO THE CLOWN, writer/Libros Schmibros proprietor DAVID KIPEN, sculptor DONALD GIALANELLA, forensic scientist/educator DONALD JOHNSON, author/educator DOROTHY RANDALL GRAY, artist ELENA MARY SIFF, documentarian ELIJAH DRENNER, conversation curator ERIC VOLLMER, social connector EVONNE HEYNING, musician/performance artist FEATHERBEARD, photographer GARY LEONARD, pop critic/outsider artist GENE SCULATTI, musician/artist GEORGE EARTH, songsmith HARVEY SID FISHER, theater director HOLLY WITHAM, musician/writer IAN WHITCOMB, food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, urban explorer (Ranger) JENNY PRICE, filmmaker JEREMY KASTEN, musician JIMI CABEZA DE VACA, social historian JOAN RENNER, writer/artist JOE OESTERLE, writer JOHN BUNTIN, filmmaker JON ALLOWAY, documentarian JOHN DULLAGHAN, Musso & Frank co-owner JORDAN JONES, performance artist JULES ROCHIELLE, curator JULIE RICO, “Kristin’s List” cultural chronicler KRISTIN BEDFORD, songstress/prognosticator MADAME PAMITA, esoteric scholar MAJA D’AOUST, author/broadcaster MANNY PACHECO, performer McCRISTOL HARRIS, visual artist MELVIN HALE, journalist MICHAEL LINDER, photographic archivist MICHAEL RISNER, President of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes MIGUEL ANGEL CORZO, poet/dancer MONA JEAN CEDAR, architectural historian NATHAN MARSAK, writer NEAL POLLOCK, theater director NICHOLAS HOSKING, L.A. Historic Theater Foundation rep NICK MATONAK, music producer NO’A WINTER LAZERUS, musician OCTAVIUS, writer /photographer /musician PAUL K, peace activist PAUL NUGENT of the Aetherius Society, 3-D photography expert RAY 3D ZONE, historic ghost seeker RICHARD CARRADINE, artist/musician RICH POLYSORBATE 60, filmmaker/preservationist ROSS LIPMAN, singer-songwriter RUTHANN FRIEDMAN, ghost hunter SARAH TROOP, social networking mistress SHAWNA DAWSON, painter/gallerist SUSAN DOBAY, artist/writer/activist SUSANNA DAKIN, Warhol star and writer TERE TEREBA, sculptor TOM WALKER, musical entertainer THE UKULADY, and hat designer YASMIN DIXON.

Applications from prospective LAVA members are being taken at http://lavatransforms.org/apply

To learn more about LAVA, please visit http://www.lavatransforms.org

LAVA founders Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, Salon presenters Ruthann Friedman, Thessaly “The Ukulady” Lerner and Al Guerrero, and most of LAVA’s Visionary members are available for interviews, and a very limited number of journalists on assignment can be accommodated on the bus and on the walking tour. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.