You Can't Eat The Sunshine--Esotouric's Weekly Podcast

Join us this week as we talk with historian Jim Dawson about his book “Los Angeles’s Bunker Hill: Pulp Fiction’s Mean Streets and Film Noir’s Ground Zero!” and how this lost neighborhood has infiltrated the collective consciousness of film buffs the world over. We’ll also visit with Navajo photographer Pamela J. Peters, whose most recent project focuses on the legacy of relocated Native Americans in mid-century downtown Los Angeles, evoked through contemporary images in the spirit of Kent McKenzie’s 1961 film, “The Exiles.” We’ll also discuss the closure of the Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club Cafe, sharks in the Venice canals, an overdue revamp of the L.A. Times comments policy, Geoff Palmer’s non-Tuscan development at 9th and Broadway, the Dal Rae steakhouse's destruction of its vintage neon sign, historical programming at Sycamore Grove and possible alternatives for California’s redevelopment agencies. All this and more as Kim & Richard usher in the week of March 3rd, 2014 Photo: Pamela J. Peters

Join us this week as we talk with Marc Chevalier, historian of the Oviatt Building, about debunking myths and bringing L.A.‘s past back to life. We’ll also visit with Terence Eagen, who is restoring Henry Huntington’s century-old “faux bois” (artificial wood) arbors in the Huntington Gardens, to learn about this nearly-lost art form and the process of collaborating with a long-dead, anonymous master craftsman. We’ll also discuss the planned reopening of the long-shuttered ticket concourse in Union Station, an espresso bar planned beneath the old Roseland taxi dance hall, somewhat encouraging news in the ongoing saga of Rufus the carrot-eating tiki fish and a proposed development for the former site of Hazard’s Pavillon and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. All this and more as Kim & Richard usher in the week of February 24th, 2014. Photo: Faux Bois arbors at the Huntington

Join us this week as we talk with Gale Banks, the guru of automotive turbo-charging, about the mentors and apprenticeships that shaped his career in high performance. We’ll also visit with Erick Lopez, a Los Angeles City Planner, to learn about about zoning changes intended to create a more transit- and pedestrian-oriented city, and new tools for development for Downtown L.A. Plus a possible new home for the Bahooka’s famous carrot-eating fish Rufus, why the zoning code enables McMansions, folk artist Leonard Knight of Salvation Mountain dies and a revamped Glassellland sign is coming soon. All this and more as Kim & Richard usher in the week of Feb. 17th, 2014 Photo: Gale Banks with his award winning 10th grade Science Project

Join us this week as we talk with Jackie Miller of Sister Aimee Semple McPherson’s Heritage Center on Echo Park about the celebrated evangelist’s motion picture connections, including Charlie Chaplin’s mentorship and her friendship with the young Anthony Quinn. We’ll also visit with Southern California tile expert Brian Kaiser to hear about the splendor which was The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and the historic elements that have managed to survive multiple renovations. We’ll also discuss Irving Gill’s failed Torrance Utopia, the campaign to save Long Beach’s giant donut, tough times for carrot-eating Bahooka fish Rufus, the KRKD radio towers saved and lit up, a critique of the Broadway Streetscape Master Plan, Tony Lovett’s death and. All this and more as Kim & Richard usher in the week of February 10th, 2014. Photo: Entrance to The Blossom Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel circa 1928

Join us this week as we talk with historian Don Lattin about the British expatriate writers Gerald Heard & Aldous Huxley and their work with Eastern Mysticism and psychedelics. We’ll also pay a visit to Tim Dundon, aka Zeke The Sheik, Altadena’s composting master and self-proclaimed “Guru of Doo-Doo,” for a meditation on reincarnation and cosmic consciousness in the garden. We’ll also discuss a child’s boycott of his school’s field trip to the Autry Museum, a proposal to reclaim South LA’s alleys as green space, Burlington Coat Factory to replace the Big Lots store at 7th and Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles, the first stage of implementation of the Broadway streetscape master plan, a Santa Monica resident offers the lament of an “urban villager” and UC Berkeley issues a report on L.A.‘s older concrete buildings. All this and more as Kim & Richard usher in the week of February 3rd, 2014. Photo: Tim Dundon in his Altadena garden. Photo by Daniel Chamberlin

Join us this week as we talk with Dan Lewis, Chief Curator of Manuscripts at the Huntington Library, about “Remarkable Works, Remarkable Times,” the permanent installation in the Library’s newly renovated Exhibit Hall. We’ll also visit with Justin, an artist who works in the Los Angeles landscape, to talk about cowboys, Indians, neighborhood pride and the collaborative process. We’ll also discuss the opening of the “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” gift shop in Monrovia’s historic Aztec Hotel, one programmer’s home grown solution to the kludgy LA City planning department website and a photographic tour of the Union Theatre, home of a 19th century-style Panorama. All this and more as Kim & Richard usher in the week of Jan. 27th, 2014. Photo: Native Soil Project Sculpture by Erma Yazzie Installation by Justin and The Friends Of The Southwest Museum Location: Indian Alley in Downtown Los Angeles’s Skid Row Special Thanks to: Stephen Zeigler

Join us this week as we talk with Ed Nordskog, senior arson investigator for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, about his new book, Fire Raisers, Freaks and Fiends: Obsessive Arsonists in the California Foothills. We’ll also visit with historian Marc Chevalier, LAVA’s 2014 Visionary of the Year, to discuss one of his more recent obsessions, Hollywood’s late, great Schwab’s Pharmacy. We’ll also discuss changes to the MTA’s restrictive seating policy in the grand hall of Union Station, what Richard has been thinking about while on holiday from the podcast (collaborative writing with version control and the larger promise of eBooks), a look at the streetcar question at a Federal policy level, Nathan Masters’ visit to the newly-opened Ace Hotel in the former Texaco Building and United Artists Theater, LA’s libraries resume Sunday hours, artist Tim Youd begins his Raymond Chandler cycle and one last chance to repurposing the Riverside-Figueroa Bridge. All this and more as Kim & Richard usher in the week of January 20th, 2014.

Join us this week as we talk with Gale Banks, the guru of high-performance automotive turbo-charging, about his time as a child prodigy on the Southern California evangelical circuit in the 1950s. We’ll also visit with Craig Berry of the Star Sapphire Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis, for an introduction to Aleister Crowley’s Law of Thelema, and the impact of Crowley’s mystical thinking on the culture of Southern California. We’ll also discuss the seating area at Union Station now open only to Amtrak and Metrolink passengers, abandoned South LA rail tracks could become a greenbelt, and the 2014 season at Brookledge and beyond kickstarter project. All this and more as Kim & Richard usher in the week of December 16th, 2013. Photo: Rev. C.D. Yoder, Gale’s grandmother’s second husband, circa 1950.

Join us this week as we talk with actor/producer Paul Sand about his “Song Story” of Brecht-Weill tunes, a 1920’s German, waterfront cabaret act with pretty girls, and handsome men singing songs of revenge, murder and broken hearts at the far Western edge of the Santa Monica Pier. We’ll also visit with author Martin Turnbull to learn how his research into the lost lore of the celebrated Garden of Allah hotel has resulted in two historical novels, with seven more to come. We’ll also discuss the fire at the Institute For Figuring and how you can help, Gloria Molina’s call for Evergreen Cemetery to water their lawns, the restoration of the lost courtyard in the Pacific Mutual Building, the re-lighting of the Rialto Theatre’s neon sign and a Kickstarter campaign for the secret magic theater at Brookledge. All this and more as Kim & Richard usher in the week of December 9th, 2013. Image Credit: Marie Lalanne

Join us this week as we talk with writer Rick Baudé about his research into the little-known Great Eleven cult, a fascinating group whose eccentricities and brash proselytizing provide backdrop to The Kept Girl, our Kim Cooper’s forthcoming novel about Raymond Chandler in 1920s Los Angeles. We’ll also visit with LA Noir author John Buntin to learn about “The Combination,” Los Angeles’ underworld from that time, made up of a potent mixture of bootleggers, elected officials and their henchmen, and about Thomas H. James, the do-gooding cop who stood up to them, one of the “real life” Philip Marlowes who inspired Chandler in his detective fiction. In lieu of a “closely watched trains” section this week, our intro is dedicated to exploring the jazz age Los Angeles of Kim Cooper’s forthcoming historical mystery novel The Kept Girl. We’ll discuss the true crime research and unexpected discoveries that led her from a pair of dangerously charismatic cult leaders atop Bunker Hill to the young Raymond Chandler’s work in the oil business to the “real life Philip Marlowe” policeman who railed against corruption on a busy Broadway street corner. Then we’ll discuss how the various threads have been drawn together into a fictional narrative of a 1920s detective story, and the opportunity for listeners to Subscribe to the book and receive some fabulous benefits. All this and more as Kim & Richard usher in the week of December 2, 2013.

Join us this week as we talk with novelist Martin Turnbull about the celebrated and much lamented Garden of Allah, from its humble beginnings as a fixer-upper for silent screen star Alla Nazimova to its halcyon days as club house for the Hollywood “Smart Set” to its demolition in 1959. We’ll also visit with the Dorothy Parker Society’s Adrienne Crew to discuss the inimitable Mrs. Parker, her time at the Garden of Allah, her two marriages to Alan Campbell and her abiding friendship with Algonquin Round Table founder Robert Benchley. We’ll also discuss a proposal that USC take over management of the Southwest Museum, a Navajo chief statue erected on Skid Row to call attention to the Southwest Museum controversy, architect John Parkinson, new owners for the landmark Sears tower in Boyle Heights, a St. Francis dam disaster tour organized by LA's Obscura Society, the Redlands Conservancy’s new walking tour program, Leslie Zemeckis’ interview with Pepper Aavorld about the old Follies burlesque house on Main Street and an upcoming meeting about the Sixth Street Viaduct project. All this and more as Kim & Richard usher in the week of November 25th, 2013.

Join us this week as we visit with Jackie Miller, historian at the Parsonage of Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, about the design and construction of the monumental Angelus Temple which opened on New Year’s Day, 1923 at the north end of Echo Park. We’ll also talk with Tom Rothmann, the Senior City Planner charged with revamping Los Angeles’ nearly 70-year-old municipal zoning code for the needs of the 21st Century. We’ll also discuss corrupt Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo’s scheme to create a Southeast LA “super city,” good news about an endangered Wallace Neff house in Beverly Hills, the pending sale of the former CRA/LA Angels Knoll plot, protests over limited Southwest Museum access, the negative impacts of private conservancies on city parks, the start of the MTA Linkages study, a chance to contribute to the John Parkinson documentary, upcoming Pershing Square task force meetings and the sparing of Brentwood’s Barry Building. All this and more and Kim & Richard usher in the week of November 18th, 2013. Photo: Sister Aimee Semple McPherson

Join us this week as we talk with Dave Judson, the 5th generation proprietor of the Judson stained glass studios (founded 1895) about the rich legacy of the Arroyo Guild of Craftsmen and its role in the Southern California Arts & Crafts movement. We’ll also visit with Frank Gallagher, a Pasadena-based stonemason from County Fermanagh, Ireland, about Arts, Crafts, the intersection between the two, and how Pasadena circa 1900 represented the perfect mix of materials, craftsmen and location to allow a creative renaissance to bloom. We’ll also discuss L.A.‘s pilot plan to expedite sidewalk dining permits in the downtown area (but excluding St. Vincent Court), the VA’s neglect of its historic properties, some challenges for the Riverside-Figueroa bridge park proposal, Councilman Gil Cedillo’s opposition of an historic landmark nomination in Highland Park, and a call to help rebuild the scanning center of the Internet Archive. All this and more as Kim & Richard usher in the week of November 11th, 2013. Photo: Gate built by Frank Gallagher. Slate, arroyo boulder, & clinker brick.

Join us this week as we talk with Carolyn Paxton, proprietor of Urban Radish, about the inspirations behind her new gourmet market in the Arts District. We’ll also visit with curator Terry Ellsworth to get a cross-section of life at the corner of Traction & Hewitt in the late 1980s, when there were more parking spaces than residents, and loft living was reserved for artists who liked things cheap and on the edge. We’ll also discuss Sierra Madre’s beloved pig spared eviction, the possibility of a Starbucks moving into the landmark Gilmore Gas filling station on Highland, remembering L.A.‘s lost hills and tunnels, architect John Parkinson remembered in his home town of Bolton, England, a petition launched for turning the Historic Figueroa-Riverside Bridge into a park and a momentary snag at the Centennial Commemorative Civic Event and Reenactment at the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Also this and more as Kim & Richard usher in the week of November 4th, 2013. Photo: Marc Kreisel at Al’s Bar in the early 1980s. Photograph by Anne Knudsen / Herald-Examiner

Join us this week as we talk with Ken Bernstein, Manager of the Office of Historic Resources of the City of Los Angeles, about that organization and its creation and oversight of the city’s Historic Preservation Overlay Zones. We’ll also visit with Tom Sitton, Curator Emeritus of the Natural History Museum, to discuss his new book, “The Courthouse Crowd: Los Angeles County and Its Government, 1850-1950,” which traces the origins of our regional governance, some influential politicians, and the issues which continue to steer public policy in Southern California. We’ll also discus the 50th anniversary of John Rechy’s groundbreaking novel “City of Night,” the restoration of Walker & Eisen’s Hotel Normandie, a mixed use development proposed for the former site of the Union Rescue Mission at Second and Main, SB 416 calls for Caltrans to sell off the landmark South Pasadena houses in the path of the proposed 710 extension and the Southwest Museum has its first exhibition since 2006. Also this and more as Kim & Richard usher in the week of October 28th, 2013. Photo: Los Angeles County Courthouse (left), architects: Curlett, Eisen and Cuthbertson. 1891