Forensic science and cultural history collide with LAVA's serial arson / Downtown crime lore weekend
For immediate release
February 2, 2012
Forensic science and cultural history collide with LAVA’s serial arson / Downtown crime lore weekend
EVENT #1: Saturday, March 3, 12-4pm – Esotouric presents Hotel Horrors and Main Street Vice, a Downtown double-feature bus and walking tour (departs from Americano, formerly Cafe Metropol, 923 E. 3rd. Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013, $58/person)
INFO/RESERVATIONS: http://esotouric.com/hotelhorrors-3-3-12
TOUR PHOTOS: http://flickr.com/photos/richardschave/sets/72157623986634614
EVENT #2: Sunday, March 4, 12-4pm – Professor Donald Johnson, in association with LAVA and Esotouric, presents a fundraiser lecture/tour benefiting the CSULA Criminalistics graduate department “Inside the Mind of the Arsonist” (at The Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center at Cal State L.A., 1800 Paseo Rancho Castilla, Los Angeles, CA 90032, $36.50/person)
INFO/RESERVATIONS: http://lavatransforms.org/crimelabmarch4
LOS ANGELES- There’s just something special about the notorious crimes of Los Angeles, the way they resonate in the consciousness, and continue to fascinate years after the fact. In March, LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association, dedicates a weekend to uncovering the reality behind some of the city’s most compelling and unusual true crimes.
These two remarkable events – Esotouric’s historic Hotel Horrors and Main Street Vice bus and walking tour exploring the criminal lore of a grand old neighborhood, and a crime lab tour and lecture featuring the personal experiences and research of Ed Nordskog, an active arson/bomb detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and author of the new book ”’Torchered’ Minds: Case Histories of Notorious Serial Arsonists.” The program offers an opportunity to get behind the headlines and the hype and explore fascinating true crime cases with a depth and seriousness rarely offered to the public. This LAVA weekend is a must for intelligent crime aficionados and those with a passion for the untold stories of Los Angeles.
ABOUT ESOTOURIC’S HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE TOUR:
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.
ABOUT LAVA’S CRIME LAB EVENT: The March 4 event “Inside the Mind of the Arsonist is a fundraiser for the Criminalistics graduate department at Cal State L.A., the latest in a series of events at the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center at Cal State L.A.
“Inside the Mind of the Arsonist” is an exploration of the scientific investigation of fire-related felony offenses, revealed through methods of evidence analysis, profiling and select case histories. Attendees will also have an opportunity to tour Cal State LA’s state-of the-art teaching and research facilities in the Criminalistics Department of the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center.
“Inside the Mind of the Arsonist” is hosted by Ed Nordskog, an active arson/bomb detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and author of the new book ”’Torchered’ Minds: Case Histories of Notorious Serial Arsonists.” Copies of Mr. Nordskog’s book will be available for sale at this event.
The presentation consists of two lectures from Ed Nordskog, with a related breakout scientific workshop offering illustration of the concepts raised by the lectures.
LECTURE #1 is an introduction to the six main motives behind the crime of arson – spite/revenge, financial gain, crime concealment, excitement/recognition (hero fires), extremism, juvenile fires (curiosity/experimentation/vandalism)—and to Ed Nordskog’s investigative specialty, a modification of the standard arson investigation in which he “profiles” the arson scene in order to determine a “motive” for the crime. He does this by determining the actual “target” of the arson attack and the method of ignition for the event. This usually indicates a motive and the level of sophistication of the offender. Because arson is a very personal crime in which the victim nearly always knows who set the fire, it is relatively easy to identify a suspect—although proving they were involved is not so easy.
LECTURE #2 focuses on select cases studies of convicted serial arsonists, including nationally known crimes and cases on which Ed Nordskog worked personally. Included will be discussion of Glendale arson investigator / arsonist John Orr and the prolific Washington D.C. arsonist Thomas Sweatt.
Following this second lecture, attendees will have the opportunity to purchase copies of Ed Nordskog’s book ”’Torchered’ Minds: Case Histories of Notorious Serial Arsonists.”
By the afternoon’s conclusion, attendees will have a deeper understanding of the real work that’s done in the field by arson investigators, and the tools and techniques used to interpret crime scenes for the benefit of investigating officers and juries.
ABOUT ED NORDSKOG: Ed Nordskog is an active arson/bomb detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He has been a detective since 1990, working specifically in the arson and explosives world since 1997. He has conducted over sixteen hundred fire investigations and as of this writing has personally arrested and interviewed over 250 persons who were convicted of fire setting and related crimes. He has testified in court as a recognized expert in this field on over fifty-five occasions. He has been consulted by prosecuting attorneys on death penalty cases involving arson and murder on three occasions. He has been personally involved in over twenty serial arson investigations. The author has a master’s degree in emergency services management and is certified as a fire investigator by the California State Fire Marshal and the California Conference of Arson Investigators. He is a graduate of the National Fire Academy Arson Investigation Course, the ATF Advanced Arson Investigation Course, the Forensic Fire Death Investigation Course, and numerous other arson investigation courses. He is involved in course development and teaches fire scene investigation, major arson case investigation, serial arson investigation, and arson murder/fire death investigation. He is a course developer and instructor for the state of California’s Arson and Explosives Investigation Course. He is an instructor for the state of California’s Homicide Investigator’s Course. In 2004, the author was named Arson Investigator of the Year by the International Association of Arson Investigators and Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by the International Association of Special Investigations Units; both of these awards are for his work as the lead investigator on a massive arson for hire scheme, involving fifty-five burned properties. He has received over eighty-five commendations, awards, and medals throughout his law enforcement career related to successful criminal investigations. He is author of the book ”’Torchered’ Minds: Case Histories of Notorious Serial Arsonists” (http://www.torcheredminds.com).
Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and LAVA special event schedule
Sat Feb 4 – Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66
Sat Feb 25 – Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sun Feb 26 – Victorian Los Angeles Part Two (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat March 3 – Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sun March 4 – Inside the Mind of the Arsonist (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat March 10 – Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat March 17 – Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun March 18 – East Side Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sat April 7 – Charles Bukowski’s Los Angeles (weekend pass available)
Sun April 8 – John Fante’s Dreams from Bunker Hill (weekend pass available)
Sat April 14 – The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat April 21 – Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits’ L.A.
Sat April 28 – Maja’s Mysteries: Rapture & Release
Mon April 30- The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank featuring John Buntin (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat May 19 – Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles
Sun May 20 – Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com
Esotouric’s Richard Schave and Kim Cooper are proud members of LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org
Tour 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.
LAVA and Musso & Frank Announce Second Literary Salon Celebrating the Famed Back Room of Hollywood's Oldest Restaurant
For immediate release
January 31, 2012
LAVA and Musso & Frank Announce Second Literary Salon Celebrating the Famed Back Room of Hollywood's Oldest Restaurant
WHAT: LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) presents the "Down These Mean Streets: Raymond Chandler's Underworld," the second quarterly LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank featuring John Buntin.
WHERE: Musso & Frank Grill, 6667 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90028.
WHEN: Monday, April 30, 2012 from 6-11pm.
COST: $100 per person, ticket price includes 3-course prix fixe dinner prepared by Musso & Frank chefs and Salon presentations. Cocktails not included.
TO PURCHASE TICKETS: Call Musso & Frank at (323) 467-7788 or visit the restaurant Tuesday-Saturday between 9am and 5pm.
FOR MORE INFO: Contact Kim Cooper, amscray@gmail.com, 323-223-2767.
FULL SALON DETAILS: http://lavatransforms.org/mussosalon2
LOS ANGELES- There is simply no Hollywood restaurant more closely tied to the city's literary legacy than Musso & Frank--a favorite of Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Fante, Hellman, Hammett, Chandler, Cain, Saroyan, Parker, West, as well as a new generation of luminaries.
In honor of this ongoing writerly tradition, LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) has launched a new dinner and lecture series, The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank, a quarterly literary salon and prix fixe dinner celebrating the great writers and personalities who have frequented the establishment. The first Salon, featuring Dan Fante reading from his recent memoir, was a rousing success, with Larry Wilson of the Pasadena Star-News observing "The sold-out crowd spoke to our hunger for a Southern California literary history."
The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank is the brainchild of Kim Cooper & Richard Schave, proprietors of literary tour company Esotouric -- Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles, James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare, Charles Bukowski's Haunts of a Dirty Old Man, John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill -- who through 2009-10 hosted a free cultural Salon on the last Sunday of the month at Clifton's Cafeteria. With the new series, LAVA expands its congenial, intelligent and unpredictable cultural programming into Hollywood with a quarterly literary Salon event held in Musso & Frank on a night when the restaurant is closed to the general public. Seating is extremely limited, and these intimate gatherings are sure to sell out quickly.
On Monday, April 30, John Buntin, author of "L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City" (recently optioned by TNT as a Frank Darabont-directed pilot) is the special guest speaker for "Down These Mean Streets: Raymond Chandler's Underworld," a fresh look at criminal Los Angeles of the 1920s and ‘30s. This is the culture which informs noir master Raymond Chandler’s short stories and early novels. The corrupt civic machine (“The Combination”) fueled the biggest boom town this country has ever seen, and inspired the real life struggles between Good Guys and Bad Guys which in turn influenced much of the fiction and film of the mid 20th Century. At the Salon we’ll examine the crusading cop who was the real-life inspiration for Philip Marlowe, then shine our light onto other crusaders, prosecutors and policy makers, who through the decades shift from teetotalers to civil libertarians, but always retain those constants of every Chandler hero: a chance at redemption.
Also appearing at the April 30 Salon is Howard Prouty (Acquisitions Archivist at The Academy Foundation/Margaret Herrick Library and proprietor of ReadInk) with a talk on Jake Zeitlin, another in his ongoing Salon series on important booksellers in Los Angeles. And before and after the formal dinner and Salon presentations, guests will mingle with Hollywood historian Philip Mershon (proprietor of The Felix in Hollywood Tour Company) and actress Kasey Wilson, appearing in the character of the helpful female book clerk from "The Big Sleep."
THE BACK STORY:
For much of the mid-20th Century, to rub shoulders with America's greatest novelists and screenwriters, one needed merely to go to the corner of Cherokee Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard. Here, within the tight triangle of the Writer's Guild offices, Musso & Frank Grill and the Stanley Rose Bookshop, flowed the commercial and social sap that nourished the tree of American letters. The famous minds who congregated still inspire awe: William Faulkner, Scott Fitzgerald, John Fante, Lillian Hellman, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, William Saroyan, John O'Hara, Dorothy Parker, Nathanael West and many more.
And at the center of it all was the famed "Back Room" of Musso & Frank, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood. Beginning in 1936, in response to the restaurant's growing popularity, Musso's expanded its operations into a small room tucked behind the Vogue Theater. A door was punched through the west wall of the dining room, and a haughty door man installed. His instructions were simple: the back room was to be the exclusive domain of Hollywood's literary lions, their friends and romantic partners. It was called, informally, The Cocktail Room or The Round Table or the Algonquin West.
The party raged on, six nights a week, for twenty glorious years.
In 1955, Musso & Frank expanded to the east, and the contents of the "Back Room"—the long bar, chairs, light fixtures, coat racks-- were moved wholesale into the "New Room." The "New Room" was no longer the exclusive retreat of literary Los Angeles, but the writers kept coming. Today, Musso & Frank's clientele still includes celebrated novelists, screenwriters, poets and songwriters, all of whom cherish the old world hospitality, traditional Continental cuisine and opportunity to soak up the same rarified air that nourished the greats.
LAVA co-founder Richard Schave, the Salon host and co-curator, says "I would argue that along the bar in the old Cocktail Room, somewhere between the drinking, bragging, fighting and general hell-raising, the better half of the Hard-Boiled School of American Letters was hashed out and put down on paper. The purpose of the Salon is two fold. First, to set the record straight on some basic milestones: the rise and fall of the original Cocktail Room and its reincarnation as the "New Room" and the symbiotic relationship Musso & Frank shared with the legendary bookshop next door, Stanley Rose's. Secondly, a more ephemeral aim: in these hallowed rooms, that still bear the nicotine stains from Raymond Chandler's pipe and Charles Bukowski's cigarettes, we want to seek out and amplify the spark which all those great souls have left behind. Musso & Frank is just bricks and mortar, but incredible ideas and connections were forged here, and we believe that spark is waiting to be reignited and make its impression felt in Los Angeles again."
Each Musso's Salon evening will focus on different aspects of Hollywood's literary lore, feature fascinating speakers and special guest historians, and be hosted by LAVA co-founder Richard Schave.
Mark Echeverria, 4th generation General Manager/Proprietor of The Musso & Frank Grill, says "For 93 years The Musso & Frank Grill has been a keystone in Hollywood's ever-evolving history. Some of the world's greatest people have walked through our doors, sat at a booth or a bar stool, and dreamt the unimaginable. That is what makes Hollywood so unique: unimaginable things come true. Musso & Frank Grill has always been that inspiration in people's lives to make the impossible, possible, and it is now time to tell the true story of the people who put Hollywood on the map, and the restaurant they did it in--The Musso & Frank Grill. We are extremely excited to work with LAVA to bring you living history in a setting where history continues to happen, even 93 years later. So please enjoy an authentic dinning experience you would have found in the early decades of last century, and bring yourselves back to the time era of the literary giants, and truly get a journey through the history of Hollywood, in the restaurant that Hollywood grew up around, The Musso & Frank Grill."
John Buntin, speaker at the April 30 quarterly LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank, says, "Sixty years ago the producer David O. Selznick likened Hollywood to ancient Egypt, 'full of crumbled pyramids.' But Musso & Frank's is still there, and like Hollywood itself, it's celebrating its Silver Age. I'm excited -- and honored -- to be speak in such celebrated surroundings to my fellow noir enthusiasts and to the spirits of writers past who are always in attendance there."
Future Salons will focus on the life and works of Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Bukowski, Nathanael West and other fascinating characters who've contributed to nearly a century of literary culture at Musso & Frank.
ABOUT LAVA: Through participation in LAVA, a select group of creative professionals come together to promote cultural programming that speaks to the urban experience while promoting positive public space. LAVA's creative partners share a love for L.A. and unique ideas for exploring it in their work. Formed by social historians RICHARD SCHAVE and KIM COOPER -- proprietors of Esotouric bus adventures and the 1947project time travel blog series (including On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land) -- LAVA brings together L.A.'s most visionary promoters, artists, writers and thinkers. The first crop of Visionaries in the growing curated community includes cultural chronicler ADRIENNE CREW, artist and Eastside historian AL GUERRERO, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, avant garde fashion maven A. LAURA BRODY, poet/publisher ALEIDA RODRIGUEZ, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, filmmaker ALLISON ANDERS, writer/curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, documentarian/radio producer ANTHEA RAYMOND, author/gallerist APRIL DAMMANN, 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, artist JASON HADLEY, food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, musician JEFF BOYNTON, 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, 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 co-founders Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, 4th generation General Manager/Proprietor of The Musso & Frank Grill, Mark Echeverria, and Salon presenter John Buntin are available for interviews. A very limited number of journalists on assignment can be accommodated at the Salon. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.
Discover secret histories of urban Los Angeles with Esotouric's February architecture tours
For immediate release
January 11, 2012
Discover secret histories of urban Los Angeles with Esotouric's February architecture tours
WHAT: Esotouric's architecture and urbanism tour series, REYNER BANHAM LOVES L.A. and a free LAVA walking tour of VICTORIAN LOS ANGELES PART TWO
WHERE/WHEN: Esotouric's ROUTE 66 tour departs Saturday February 4, 11am from Big Bang Coffee Shop (behind Union Station), 530 Ramirez St,. Los Angeles, CA 90012; Esotouric's THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN tour departs Saturday, February 25, 11am from Cafe Metropol, 923 E. 3rd. Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013); LAVA's walking tour VICTORIAN LOS ANGELES PART TWO departs Sunday, February 26, 1:30pm from LA Police Headquarters, 100 W 1st St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
COST: $58/person for ROUTE 66 or THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN bus tours; VICTORIAN L.A. PART TWO walking tour is free, but already fully booked
INFO: Esotouric bus tours http://www.esotouric.com, LAVA walking tour http://lavatransforms.org/flaneur0212, or call 323-223-2767
LOS ANGELES- Los Angeles is a place that defies easy understanding or description. Love it or hate it, few would ever say the city isn't interesting. This February join the Los Angeles natives of Esotouric, the offbeat bus adventure company whose tours reveal the secret heart of the southland, as they host twin excursions deep into the region's most fascinating crannies: along ROUTE 66 in the San Gabriel Valley, and into the heart of the urban core for THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN. The month ends with a very special event, as Esotouric's Richard Schave and architectural historian Nathan Marsak host a free downtown walking tour, VICTORIAN LOS ANGELES PART TWO, under the umbrella of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. All tours begin downtown.
ABOUT THE ROUTE 66 TOUR (February 4):
It's a common misconception that ROUTE 66 only gets interesting in Arizona. But when Esotouric's Route 66 bus tour departs from downtown Los Angeles, passengers are in for a four-hour tour packed with stunning retro jewels plucked from L.A.'s own backyard. ROUTE 66 only exists today in small fragments, but many of the unique attractions that dotted its length survive and flourish today. Get on the bus to explore the real Southland, as no one but Esotouric's Richard Schave can reveal it. Richard's unique expertise on unknown Los Angeles has seen him as a featured guide on television's "Globe Trekker" (Grand Central Market) and "Cities of the Underworld" (downtown's prohibition-era tunnels) and speaking at the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Hammer Museum. The ROUTE 66 tour explores California's original mass transit corridor and the building of its dream, from climate to citrus industry, Kalifornia Krazy architectural novelties to bucolic bungalows. Highlights in this edition of ROUTE 66 include a tour of E. WALDO WARD FARM (the oldest surviving commercial citrus facility in LA, where passengers can buy scrumptious preserves and almond-filled olives to take home), a stroll through Robert Stacy Judd's 1924 masterpiece THE AZTEC HOTEL (and yes, it's haunted), a swing around the homes of the feuding SLAUSON SISTERS tucked among vast cleared fields awaiting new development (hidden gems of Azusa lore and family dynamics, and a reminder of how fragile ecologies fall to the incessant crush of progress). Passengers will also tour the seldom-seen Civil War-era FAIRMOUNT CEMETERY and view the evocative BUNGALOWS of old Monrovia accompanied by host Richard Schave's lively rendition of a vintage bungalow booster tune.
ABOUT THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN TOUR (February 25):
Join Richard Schave, the founding director of the Downtown LA Art Walk non-profit, on a tour that reveals the secret history, and the fascinating future, of this most beguiling LA neighborhood. THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN is a guided social history of the mysterious, complex and rapidly evolving center of L.A., a thriving neighborhood that was intentionally depopulated in the 1950s and is currently experiencing an extraordinary rebirth. Everyone complains L.A. lacks a center -- this tour explains why. Passengers will visit exquisite architectural gems, including some seldom seen by the general public, but they'll also enjoy a sophisticated analysis of the economic and social tools used to rebuild downtown, learn how gentrification sprung up on the city's meanest streets with all the conflicts that go along with a community's socio-economic shift, meet creative residents and explore unique destinations. Featured locations include the intentionally depopulated Bunker Hill and its Angels Flight funicular railway, Grand Central Market, the concrete design disaster Pershing Square (with its tribute to novelist John Fante), European-style dining alley St. Vincent's Court, the lyrical glass-topped Mercantile Arcade Building (an exact replica of a London landmark) and a visit to artist David Hollen's live/work studio. Get on the bus for the real Lowdown on Downtown, as no one but Esotouric's Richard Schave can reveal it.
ABOUT THE VICTORIAN LOS ANGELES PART TWO TOUR (February 26, note that the tour is already fully booked, but interested journalists on assignment should inquire about comp tickets)
For the latest installment of urban historian Richard Schave's site-specific discussion series "The Flâneur & The City," Richard (Esotouric bus adventures) is joined by architectural historian Nathan Marsak (1947project, On Bunker Hill, In SRO Land). This walking tour will cover First Street north to Aliso and Los Angeles Street west to Broadway. It is a distinct departure from Part One, which almost exclusively dealt with the development of the mature business block of the 1880s and '90s. This tour will deal, for the most part, with the hotels and early business blocks of the 1870s, whose unique stylistic developments in this "bust out" time are heavily influenced by the experiences of Angelenoes in the "tempestuous '60s." This is an era which saw drought, disease, plagues (of grasshoppers no less), and the bottom falling out of the real estate market, and those citizens who dared remain were the toughest and most stubborn ones. The Bella Union, US Hotel, Hotel de Paris, the Baker Block, the Temple Block, and the whole slew of county and city buildings surrounding Pound Cake Hill and Fort Moore will all be discussed as we orient you to their locations beneath what exists today. It is a Los Angeles that you will not recognize, and yet, strangely, you will not be surprised at all. For as we hold as a vademecum for this tour that haunting quote from Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame: "When a man understands the art of seeing, he can trace the spirit of an age and the features of a king even in the knocker on a door." By the conclusion of Part Two of Victorian Downtown, with only the rich region of the Plaza left for Part Three, we will have covered sufficient ground and decades to begin to make sweeping generalizations about the aesthetics of Victorian Los Angeles and how they drove the growth, appearance and very spirit of the city.
ABOUT THE REYNER BANHAM LOVES L.A. TOUR SERIES:
In addition to the upcoming and ROUTE 66 and THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN tours, Esotouric's ongoing architecture and urbanism tour series includes THE NEW CHINATOWNS, BOYLE HEIGHTS and SOUTH L.A.. Inspired by the British architectural critic Reyner Banham, who host Richard Schave studied under at UC Santa Cruz, the REYNER BANHAM LOVES LOS ANGELES series offers a fresh way of looking at the urban web of history, mass transit, migration and mystery that somehow holds L.A. together. The Reyner Banham Loves LA series of Esotouric bus adventures provides fresh ways of seeing the Southland and mingling with fascinating fellow travelers, and are a must for urban explorers, architecture buffs, curious locals, daring tourists, and anyone who enjoys turning over rocks to reveal the secrets beneath. Come ride and see for yourself.
Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sat Jan 14 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat Jan 21 - Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles
Mon Jan 23 - The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank featuring Dan Fante (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Jan 28 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare
Sat Feb 4 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66
Sat Feb 25 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sun Feb 26 - Victorian Los Angeles Part Two (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat March 3 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sun March 4 - Inside the Mind of the Arsonist (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat March 10 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat March 17 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun March 18 - East Side Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sat April 7 - Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles (weekend pass available)
Sun April 8 – John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill (weekend pass available)
Sat April 14 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat April 21 - Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A.
Sat April 28 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release
Sat May 19 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sun May 20 – Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
Esotouric's Richard Schave, Kim Cooper and Joan Renner are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org
For more on Reyner Banham, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reyner_Banham
And the BBC documentary "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles"
http://reyner.notlong.com
Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles tour host Richard Schave is available for interviews, and journalists on assignment can often be accommodated on Esotouric bus tours or on LAVA walking tours. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.
Legendary L.A. Pranksters The Cacophony Society Honored with Art Exhibit and Documentary Preview
For immediate release
January 4, 2012
Legendary L.A. Pranksters The Cacophony Society Honored with Art Exhibit and Documentary Preview
WHAT: Cacophony Society art exhibition and "Into the Zone: The Story of the Cacophony Society" benefit screening followed by a Q&A with Boing Boing, block party and art exhibition.
WHEN: Saturday, February 4, 2012 - 3pm (cocktail reception), 4pm (screening), 5:30pm post-film Q&A, 6:30-11pm (block party), 7-10pm (art opening, art exhibition continues through April 15)
WHERE: Benefit preview screening at The Yost Theater, 307 N Spurgeon St., Santa Ana, CA 92701; Art opening for "The Cacophony Society Zone Show: You May Already be a Member" at Grand Central Art Center, 125 North Broadway, Santa Ana, CA 92701
COST: Film screening $9.99, the block party and art exhibition are free
ADVANCE TICKETS FOR FILM: http://www.yosttheater.com/calendar/2011/into-the-zone-the-story-of-the-...
FILM INFO: http://www.intothezonemovie.com/
EXHIBITION: The Cacophony Society Zone Show is a retrospective look at the Cacophony Society, a national collective of guerrilla artists, dada pranksters, and various eccentrics pursuing "experiences beyond the mainstream." Dedicated to activities mocking societal expectations, sacred cows, and good taste, The Cacophony Society evolved from the San Francisco Suicide Club and its members were chief organizers of the Burning Man Festival in Northern Nevada. The Society's pranking served as inspiration for the activities of Project Mayhem in Chuck Palahniuk's "Fight Club." The exhibition transforms the museums main gallery into a wildly immersive environment filled with photos, graphics, video, props, costumes, and original art from Society events. Exhibition runs through April 15. FREE!
BLOCK PARTY: The Feburary 4th opening will be celebrated with a block party featuring carnivalesque music and performance from artists associated with the Society, art cars, competing protestors, dangerous stunts, an on-call ambulance, and other surprises. Check http://intothezonemovie.com for complete lineup TBA. FREE!
FILM: This benefit preview screening of the documentary "Into the Zone: The Story of the Cacophony Society" will be held at the historic Yost Theater, only a few blocks from the museum. From 3-4pm, a cocktail reception will be held at the theater's bar, followed by screening and Q&A with Mark Fraunfelder (boingboing.net) interviewing film maker Jon Alloway and Cacophony instigators John Law, Danger Ranger, Chuckles Klown, and Reverend Al. The film features extensive rarely seen footage as well exclusive interview of Chuck Palahniuk on his experiences with the Society. Advance tickets advised. (Recently re-opened, this 100-year-old theater formerly served the area in a dual capacity: vaudeville palace upstairs and basement holding cells dedicated to Orange County drunks and criminals.) Advance tickets recommended: http://www.yosttheater.com/calendar/2011/into-the-zone-the-story-of-the-....
MUSEUM EXHIBITION HOURS
Feb. 4 - April 15
Closed Mondays
Tuesdays - Sundays 11:00 am - 4:00 pm.
Extended hours: Friday & Saturday 11:00am – 7:00 pm.
(First Saturday of the month galleries are open until 10:00 pm)
For the most up-to-date holiday hours call 714-567-7233
VISUALS AND ADDITIONAL INFO
Film Website: http://www.intothezonemovie.com/
Film Trailer: http://youtu.be/v4MC2Ng1BDE
Gallery of photos for web & print: http://alridenour.com/FTP/cacophony-press/pressphotos.html
Director Jon Alloway and Cacophony organizer Al "Reverend Al" Ridenour are available for interviews, and a limited number of journalists can be accommodated at the film screening. Contact Jon Alloway - Dreamlan11ATaolDOTcom, (323) 270-8854, Al Ridenour (aka "Reverend Al") - alridenourATsbcglobalDOTnet, (213) 220-7654
Go inside the mind of serial firestarters at arson investigator Ed Nordskog's LAVA crime lab workshop
For immediate release
January 3, 2012
Go inside the mind of serial firestarters at arson investigator Ed Nordskog's LAVA crime lab workshop
WHAT: Cal State Los Angeles Professor Donald Johnson, in association with LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association and Esotouric, present a new lecture / demo in the ongoing crime lab series, "Inside the Mind of the Arsonist" hosted by Ed Nordskog, co-lead investigator in the recent Hollywood arson spree
WHEN: Sunday, March 4, 12:00pm-4:00pm
WHERE: The Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center (Cal State L.A.), 1800 Paseo Rancho Castilla, Los Angeles, CA 90032
COST: $36.50 per person, includes refreshments
ED NORDSKOG'S BOOK: Copies of "TORCHERED" MINDS will be available for purchase at the event, $20 cash only. More info at http://www.torcheredminds.com
RESTRICTIONS: Due to the graphic nature of the presentation, children may not attend.
PHOTOS: To see images from a previous crime lab workshop, visit http://lavatransforms.org/crimelabpics
INFO/RESERVATIONS – http://lavatransforms.org/crimelabmarch4, or call 323-223-2767
LOS ANGELES- The City of Angels spent the New Years holiday in a state of fear, as a serial arsonist roamed the darkened streets, igniting dozens of cars, carports and nearby buildings. To the relief of millions, a suspect was arrested on Sunday night, there were no fatalities, and the spree seems to have ended. What makes someone set fire to cars and buildings? What twisted line of thinking drives an otherwise nondescript citizen to endanger the lives of strangers? While he won't be speaking about this open case, on March 4 you can join Ed Nordskog, co-lead investigator on the Hollywood arson spree, for a fascinating afternoon of exploring "Inside the Mind of the Arsonist," an in-depth presentation drawing on his own casework and notorious, high profile cases.
Turn on the TV today and odds are good you'll see white lab coats, DNA swabs and magnified fingerprints on computer screens. CSI is hot stuff, in fictional series ("NCIS: Los Angeles," "Bones," "Dexter," "CSI") and documentary programming. But it's not often that the general public gets a chance to tour a real crime lab with the forensic investigators and educators who use its tools to solve crimes and develop new research strategies.
Leave it to LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association), the creative consortium helmed by Richard Schave and Kim Cooper, the married couple whose Esotouric bus adventures have transformed the guided tour experience, to make a real-life CSI experience accessible to interested laypersons. Working closely with one of LAVA's most intriguing Visionary members, Professor Donald Johnson, they've developed a series of events highlighting the work conducted at Cal State L.A.'s state-of-the-art Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center, presented through tours and short lectures from the scientist/educators and graduate students who work there.
LAVA's inaugural lecture and tour in the CSULA crime lab in October 2010 was fully reserved in three hours, with hundreds of people signing up to be on the waiting list. The repeat engagement in November also sold out quickly, as did the Phil Spector trace evidence presentation in April 2011, the July 2011 event focusing on Patrick Tillman's death in Afghanistan and the November 2011 program on using national databases to solve local crimes. We expect the March 4 debut of Ed Nordskog's "Inside the Mind of the Arsonist" to sell out, as well.
Space is very limited and pre-reservation recommended for this unprecedented opportunity to tour the crime lab, learn from experienced forensic investigators and educators, and discover the real art and science of crime scene investigation. A portion of the proceeds from this event supports the research of Criminalistics graduate students at Cal State Los Angeles.
"Inside the Mind of the Arsonist" is an exploration of the scientific investigation of fire-related felony offenses, revealed through methods of evidence analysis, profiling and select case histories. Attendees will also have an opportunity to tour Cal State LA's state-of the-art teaching and research facilities in the Criminalistics Department of the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center.
"Inside the Mind of the Arsonist" is hosted by Ed Nordskog, an active arson/bomb detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and author of the new book "'Torchered' Minds: Case Histories of Notorious Serial Arsonists." Copies of Mr. Nordskog's book will be available for sale at this event.
The presentation consists of two lectures from Ed Nordskog, with a related breakout scientific workshop offering illustration of the concepts raised by the lectures.
LECTURE #1 is an introduction to the six main motive behind the crime of arson – spite/revenge, financial gain, crime concealment, excitement/recognition (hero fires), extremism, juvenile fires (curiosity/experimentation/vandalism)—and to Ed Nordskog's investigative specialty, a modification of the standard arson investigation in which he "profiles" the arson scene in order to determine a "motive" for the crime. He does this by determining the actual "target" of the arson attack and the method of ignition for the event. This usually indicates a motive and the level of sophistication of the offender. Because arson is a very personal crime in which the victim nearly always knows who set the fire, it is relatively easy to identify a suspect—although proving they were involved is not so easy.
LECTURE #2 focuses on select cases studies of convicted serial arsonists, including nationally known crimes and cases on which Ed Nordskog worked personally. Included will be discussion of Glendale arson investigator / arsonist John Orr and the prolific Washington D.C. arsonist Thomas Sweatt.
Following this second lecture, attendees will have the opportunity to purchase copies of Ed Nordskog's book "'Torchered' Minds: Case Histories of Notorious Serial Arsonists."
By the afternoon's conclusion, attendees will have a deeper understanding of the real work that's done in the field by arson investigators, and the tools and techniques used to interpret crime scenes for the benefit of investigating officers and juries.
ABOUT ED NORDSKOG: Ed Nordskog is an active arson/bomb detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. He has been a detective since 1990, working specifically in the arson and explosives world since 1997. He has conducted over sixteen hundred fire investigations and as of this writing has personally arrested and interviewed over 250 persons who were convicted of fire setting and related crimes. He has testified in court as a recognized expert in this field on over fifty-five occasions. He has been consulted by prosecuting attorneys on death penalty cases involving arson and murder on three occasions. He has been personally involved in over twenty serial arson investigations. The author has a master's degree in emergency services management and is certified as a fire investigator by the California State Fire Marshal and the California Conference of Arson Investigators. He is a graduate of the National Fire Academy Arson Investigation Course, the ATF Advanced Arson Investigation Course, the Forensic Fire Death Investigation Course, and numerous other arson investigation courses. He is involved in course development and teaches fire scene investigation, major arson case investigation, serial arson investigation, and arson murder/fire death investigation. He is a course developer and instructor for the state of California's Arson and Explosives Investigation Course. He is an instructor for the state of California's Homicide Investigator's Course. In 2004, the author was named Arson Investigator of the Year by the International Association of Arson Investigators and Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by the International Association of Special Investigations Units; both of these awards are for his work as the lead investigator on a massive arson for hire scheme, involving fifty-five burned properties. He has received over eighty-five commendations, awards, and medals throughout his law enforcement career related to successful criminal investigations. He is author of the book "'Torchered' Minds: Case Histories of Notorious Serial Arsonists" (http://www.torcheredminds.com).
ABOUT LAVA: Through participation in LAVA, a select group of creative professionals come together to promote cultural programming that speaks to the urban experience while promoting positive public space. LAVA's creative partners share a love for L.A. and unique ideas for exploring it in their work. Formed by social historians RICHARD SCHAVE and KIM COOPER -- proprietors of Esotouric bus adventures and the 1947project time travel blog series (including On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land) -- LAVA brings together L.A.'s most visionary promoters, artists, writers and thinkers. The first crop of Visionaries in the growing curated community includes cultural chronicler ADRIENNE CREW, artist and Eastside historian AL GUERRERO, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, avant garde fashion maven A. LAURA BRODY, poet/publisher ALEIDA RODRIGUEZ, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, filmmaker ALLISON ANDERS, writer/curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, documentarian/radio producer ANTHEA RAYMOND, author/gallerist APRIL DAMMANN, 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, forensic educator DEREK PACIFICO, 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, artist JASON HADLEY, food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, musician JEFF BOYNTON, 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, 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, Professor Donald Johnson, Ed Nordskog and most of LAVA's Visionary members are available for interviews, and a very limited number of journalists on assignment can be accommodated at the event. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.
For immediate release January 2, 2012 Celebrating great L.A. writers all January with bus tours and a Musso & Frank literary s
For immediate release
January 2, 2012
Celebrating great L.A. writers all January with bus tours and a Musso & Frank literary salon
WHAT: Esotouric's January literary bus tours: Raymond Chandler's L.A. (Sat 1/14 11:30am-3:30pm departing from the L.A. Athletic Club, 431 West Seventh Street, Los Angeles, CA 90014); Charles Bukowski's L.A. (Sat 1/21, 12-4pm departing from Philippe The Original, 1001 N. Alameda, Los Angeles, CA 90012); James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare (Sat 1/28, 12-4pm departing from Cafe Metropol, 923 E. 3rd. Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013). Plus the debut LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank featuring Dan Fante talking about his father John Fante, William Faulkner and more (Mon 1/23 6-11pm at The Musso & Frank Grill, 6667 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90028).
COST: Regular price $58/person per bus tour. LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank is $100/person including dinner.
MORE INFO: For Esotouric tour info visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767. For Musso & Frank Salon info, visit http://lavatransforms.org/mussosalon1 or call 323-467-7788
LOS ANGELES- This January, the eclectic bus adventure company Esotouric offers three Richard Schave-hosted bookish bus tours of LA literary landmarks, focusing on the lives, works and loves of Raymond Chandler, Charles Bukowski and James M. Cain. With his wife Kim Cooper, Schave also hosts the debut of a quarterly literary LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank, featuring writer Dan Fante discussing his new memoir and Howard Prouty on the history of the influential Stanley Rose Book Shop.
ABOUT THE TOURS AND MUSSO & FRANK SALON:
JANUARY 14: 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 Los Angeles, which resonated from deft and melancholy fits of his writer’s bow.
Passengers can choose to gather early in the historic, private Los Angeles Athletic Club, for a pre-tour brunch in the place where the young Chandler drank, played bridge, hid from his oil company bosses across the street and gained inspiration for the characters and locations that would appear in his classic mystery novel "The Lady in the Lake."
This exploration of the city that shaped Chandler's fiction, and that in turn shaped his hard-boiled times, is a four hour tour of downtown, Hollywood and surrounding environs: Musso & Frank, Union Station, the Hotel Van Nuys, Paramount Studio’s gates, the Mayfair Hotel (scene of the young oil exec's affairs and suicide threats), possible Marlowe apartments, and much, much more. On this tour, you'll discover why an unassuming stretch of Olive Street near Pershing Square is much more deserving of the Raymond Chandler Square designation than the Hollywood corner that bears the honored name. Through published work, private correspondence, screenplays and film adaptations, the tour traces Chandler’s search for meaning and his anti-hero Philip Marlowe’s struggle to not be pigeonholed or give anything less than all he has, which lead them both down the rabbit hole of isolation, depression, and drink. As the bus rolls from point to point, guide Richard Schave draw the lines between Chandler's life and his fiction, offering insight into his peculiar marriage to the much-older Cissy, the enigmatic redhead who appears in many forms in his short stories and novels.
A tour highlight comes with a stop at Scoops Gelato in East Hollywood for a complementary sampling of avant garde ice cream master Tai Kim's unexpected flavors, which have in the past included the Chandler-inspired Bacon-Caramel, Coffee-Jack Daniels and Nicotine (made with crushed Nicorette gum). For more info, visit http://www.esotouric.com/chandler
JANUARY 21: HAUNTS OF A DIRTY OLD MAN: CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S LOS ANGELES. This tour focuses on the poet and novelist's great passions: writing, screwing and LA. We’ll take in the canonical locations of his life and myth: the Postal Annex Terminal where he gathered the material for "Post Office," his recently-landmarked East Hollywood bungalow where he briefly experimented with marriage and fatherhood, the Skid Row bars where he tuned his young writer's ear to the voices of old rummies to the once-genteel Crown Hill apartments where he fought with his first love Jane, favorite bars and liquor stores, "Barfly" locations to the downtown library, where he discovered his "God," novelist John Fante. Along the way, we’ll explore the people and ideas that made up the warp and weft of Buk’s rich inner life.
German born, Bukowski spent most of his life in L.A., working for the US Postal Service, as "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" columnist for the underground press and writing the screenplay for the autobiographical "Barfly." The city and its characters are everywhere in the work, so this tour celebrates the artist within his city with visits to places that were important to him and to his work. Included is a stop at his favorite liquor store, Pink Elephant in East Hollywood for complementary coffee and donuts, though many riders also pick up a little something stronger for the road.
Like Esotouric's other literary excursions, the tour is hosted by Richard Schave, one of the forces behind the successful campaigns to have Bukowski's one-time bungalow on De Longpre Avenue in East Hollywood declared an historic-cultural monument and the corner of 5th & Grand named John Fante Square. For more info, visit http://www.esotouric.com/buk
JANUARY 23: THE LAVA SALON AT MUSSO & FRANK FEATURING DAN FANTE is the debut event in a new quarterly literary salon and dinner series held in the Hollywood's oldest restaurant on a night when it is closed to the public.
For much of the mid-20th Century, to rub shoulders with America’s greatest novelists and screenwriters, one needed merely to go to the corner of Cherokee Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard. Here, within the tight triangle of the Writer’s Guild offices, Musso & Frank Grill and the Stanley Rose Bookshop, flowed the commercial and social sap that nourished the tree of American letters. The famous minds who congregated still inspire awe: William Faulkner, Scott Fitzgerald, John Fante, Lillian Hellman, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, William Saroyan, John O’Hara, Dorothy Parker, Nathanael West and many more.
And at the center of it all was the famed “Back Room” of Musso & Frank, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood. Beginning in 1936, in response to the restaurant’s growing popularity, Musso’s expanded its operations into a small room tucked behind the Vogue Theater. A door was punched through the west wall of the dining room, and a haughty door man installed. His instructions were simple: the back room was to be the exclusive domain of Hollywood’s literary lions, their friends and romantic partners. It was called, informally, The Cocktail Room or The Round Table or the Algonquin West.
The party raged on, six nights a week, for twenty glorious years.
In 1955, Musso & Frank expanded to the east, and the contents of the “Back Room”—the long bar, chairs, light fixtures, coat racks—were moved wholesale into the “New Room.” The “New Room” was no longer the exclusive retreat of literary Los Angeles, but the writers kept coming. Today, Musso & Frank’s clientele still includes celebrated novelists, screenwriters, poets and songwriters, all of whom cherish the old world hospitality, traditional Continental cuisine and opportunity to soak up the same rarified air that nourished the greats.
In honor of this ongoing writerly tradition, LAVA (The Los Angeles Visionaries Association) is delighted to announce the January 2012 launch of The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank, a quarterly literary salon and prix fixe dinner celebrating the great writers and personalities who have frequented the establishment. The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank is the brainchild of Kim Cooper & Richard Schave, proprietors of literary tour company Esotouric—Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles, James M. Cain’s Southern California Nightmare, Charles Bukowski’s Haunts of a Dirty Old Man, John Fante’s Dreams from Bunker Hill—who for the past twenty months have been hosting a free cultural Salon on the last Sunday of the month at Clifton’s Cafeteria (recently moved to the Los Angeles Athletic Club). Now, LAVA expands its congenial, intelligent and unpredictable cultural programming into Hollywood with a quarterly literary Salon event held in Musso & Frank on a night when the restaurant is closed to the general public. Seating is extremely limited, and this intimate gathering is sure to sell out quickly.
LAVA co-founder Richard Schave, the Salon host and co-curator, says “I would argue that along the bar in the old Cocktail Room, somewhere between the drinking, bragging, fighting and general hell-raising, the better half of the Hard-Boiled School of American Letters was hashed out and put down on paper. The purpose of the Salon is two fold. First, to set the record straight on some basic milestones: the rise and fall of the original Cocktail Room and its reincarnation as the “New Room” and the symbiotic relationship Musso & Frank shared with the legendary bookshop next door, Stanley Rose’s. Secondly, a more ephemeral aim: in these hallowed rooms, that still bear the nicotine stains from Raymond Chandler’s pipe and Charles Bukowski’s cigarettes, we want to seek out and amplify the spark which all those great souls have left behind. Musso & Frank is just bricks and mortar, but incredible ideas and connections were forged here, and we believe that spark is waiting to be reignited and make its impression felt in Los Angeles again.”
Each Musso’s Salon evening will focus on different aspects of Hollywood’s literary lore, feature fascinating speakers and special guest historians, and be hosted by LAVA co-founder Richard Schave.
Appearing at the debut Salon is novelist, poet and playwright Dan Fante, reading from and discussing his new memoir "Fante: A Family's Legacy of Writing, Drinking and Surviving" (Harper Perrenial). Dan Fante’s parents, the novelist-screenwriter John Fante and the poet-playwright Joyce Fante, were regulars in Musso’s back room and at Stanley Rose’s book store. Dan’s stories about their adventures are ribald, hilarious and deeply moving. Also appearing at the first Salon is Howard Prouty (Acquisitions Archivist at The Academy Foundation/Margaret Herrick Library and proprietor of the ReadInk book sales catalog) with an introduction to the culture of Stanley Rose’s book shop. And during the cocktail hours before and after the formal dinner and Salon presentations, guests will mingle with Hollywood historian Philip Mershon (proprietor of The Felix in Hollywood Tour Company) and actress Kasey Wilson, appearing in the character of irresistible, murderous Phyllis Dietrichson (“Double Indemnity”), the only villainess jointly created by James M. Cain (novel) and Raymond Chandler (screenplay).
Mark Echeverria, 4th generation General Manager/Proprietor of The Musso & Frank Grill, says “For 93 years The Musso & Frank Grill has been a keystone in Hollywood’s ever-evolving history. Some of the world’s greatest people have walked through our doors, sat at a booth or a bar stool, and dreamt the unimaginable. That is what makes Hollywood so unique: unimaginable things come true. Musso & Frank Grill has always been that inspiration in people’s lives to make the impossible, possible, and it is now time to tell the true story of the people who put Hollywood on the map, and the restaurant they did it in—The Musso & Frank Grill. We are extremely excited to work with LAVA to bring you living history in a setting where history continues to happen, even 93 years later. So please enjoy an authentic dinning experience you would have found in the early decades of last century, and bring yourselves back to the time era of the literary giants, and truly get a journey through the history of Hollywood, in the restaurant that Hollywood grew up around, The Musso & Frank Grill.”
Dan Fante, speaker at the inaugural quarterly LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank, says, “For me Musso & Frank Grill is the last authentic remnant of Old Hollywood. To walk into the place is stepping into a time machine. The passengers riding with you are guys like Raymond Chandler, Nathanael West, John Fante, William Faulkner, and Charles Bukowski. Not bad company to tip a glass with.”
Future Salons will focus on the life and works of Raymond Chandler, Charles Bukowski, Nathanael West, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker and other fascinating characters who’ve contributed to nearly a century of literary culture at Musso & Frank.
For more info, visit http://lavatransforms.org/mussosalon1
JANUARY 28: THE BIRTH OF NOIR: JAMES M. CAIN'S SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NIGHTMARE 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" (recently revived on HBO as a Todd Haynes-directed mini-series starring Kate Winslet) 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.
The tour 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.
Get on one of Esotouric's literary tours or attend the debut LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank to discover how deeply the city informs the work of its most fascinating writers, and the secret spots where their creative spirits can still be felt.
Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sat Jan 7 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat Jan 14 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat Jan 21 - Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles
Mon Jan 23 - The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank featuring Dan Fante (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Jan 28 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare
Sat Feb 4 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66
Sat Feb 25 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sat March 3 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sun March 4 - Inside the Mind of the Arsonist (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat March 10 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat March 17 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun March 18 - East Side Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sat April 7 - Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles (weekend pass available)
Sun April 8 – John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill (weekend pass available)
Sat April 14 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat April 21 - Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A.
Sat May 19 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sun May 20 – Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
Esotouric's Richard Schave, Kim Cooper and Joan Renner are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org
For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com
Literary tour and salon host Richard Schave is available for interviews. Journalists on assignment can often be accommodated on Esotouric bus tours, and a very limited number of journalists on assignment can be accommodated at the Musso's event. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.
Bus Tour Rolls On the 65rd Anniversary of the Black Dahlia's Disappearance
For immediate release
December 27, 2011
Bus Tour Rolls On the 65rd Anniversary of the Black Dahlia's Disappearance
WHAT: 65rd Anniversary Edition of Esotouric's Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour
WHEN: Saturday January 7, 12pm-4pm
WHERE: Departing from The Millennium Biltmore Hotel, 5th & Olive, L.A.
COST: $58/person
INFO: http://www.esotouric.com, 323-223-2767
LOS ANGELES- On January 7, the eclectic bus adventure company Esotouric offers a special anniversary edition of its most popular true crime tour, THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA, on the 65rd Anniversary of the notorious kidnapping. It was January 9, 1947 when Beth Short left the Biltmore Hotel for a nearby bar and vanished, only to be found cut in two in a vacant Crenshaw District lot six days later.
Since January 1947, this one iconic murder mystery has lingered unsolved at the forefront of the American imagination, with dozens of books, films and websites dedicated to solving the slaying of Beth Short, the Massachusetts girl who came to Hollywood hoping to make it, and ended up cut in two in a vacant lot. Suspects in the Black Dahlia murder have included L.A. Times publisher Norman Chandler and Orson Welles, crazed lesbians, twisted drifters and more than one writer's father, but still the mystery abides.
The Real Black Dahlia tour dedicates itself to revealing who victim Elizabeth Short really was by exploring her life in Los Angeles from mid 1946 to her January 1947 murder through examination of the police investigation and news coverage. The various theories are up for discussion during the onboard Q&A sections, and the hosts share their idea of who the killer might have been, but the focus is firmly on the 22-year-old woman whose death continues to fascinate. Along the way, passengers will explore the social history of postwar Los Angeles and its lively downtown scene and learn the role the city played in Short's mysterious death.
The tour begins at the Biltmore Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, where Beth Short went after checking her bags at the Greyhound Terminal. Passengers will tour the beautifully restored hotel before heading south, to the low rent Olive Street bar where she met her murderer. The Downtown portion of the tour includes the Examiner newspaper offices, where the crime became myth as pioneering female City Editor Aggie Underwood spun the case for weeks, and the Figueroa Hotel, where Short stayed in happier times.
The bus then heads west towards Leimert Park and the formerly vacant lot where Short's bisected body was discovered on January 15, 1947. Also in this neighborhood, passengers visit the site of another unsolved 1940s kidnap-murder and the home of Dr. Walter Bayley, who has emerged in recent years as the most compelling suspect, with his personal ties to Beth Short's family and the crime scene, and the surgical skill needed to bisect the body. The tour includes a cop-approved snack stop for coffee and donuts near the body dump site.
The tour concludes at the Biltmore, where passengers may choose to linger over a late afternoon tea to remember Beth Short.
Also featured: a special presentation from cosmetics historian Joan Renner exploring Beth Short's unusual proto-goth make up, so different from the popular girl next store look of 1947, and a key to understanding her psychology.
Passengers on this eye-opening and informative tour will leave with a new understanding of the Black Dahlia case and what it was like to be a single woman in 1940s Los Angeles. It is highly recommended for natives and newcomers, crime and history buffs and anyone who likes to seek out the unexpected.
Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sat Jan 7 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat Jan 21 - Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles
Sat Jan 28 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare
Mon Jan 23 - The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank featuring Dan Fante (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Feb 4 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66
Sat Feb 25 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sat March 3 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat March 10 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat March 17 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun March 18 - East Side Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Esotouric's Richard Schave, Kim Cooper and Joan Renner are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org
For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com
For more on the Dr. Walter Bayley theory, visit Larry Harnisch's "Heaven is Here" website http://www.lmharnisch.com/
Tour hosts Kim Cooper, Richard Schave and Joan Renner are available for interviews, and journalists on assignment can often be accommodated on the Esotouric bus. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.
Urban experiences holiday sale from independent guided tour consortium 7 Days in L.A.
For immediate release
December 13, 2011
Urban experiences holiday sale from independent guided tour consortium 7 Days in L.A.
Link: http://www.7DaysinLA.com
LOS ANGELES- Holiday shopping can be a struggle, exhausting for the giver and often disappointing for the recipient. This Christmas, the independent guided tour providers of Los Angeles are making things easy for holiday shoppers to give the gift of a unique experience with special offers on gift certificates and seasonal tours.
To discover dozens of unique excursions into the mysteries and marvels of the Southland, visit www.7DaysinLA.com, a one-stop online calendar featuring the city's most interesting guided bus, car and walking tours.
Holiday specials from 7 Days in L.A. members include:
1) Save 25% off your ticket for a cinema history stroll along the canals from VINTAGE VENICE TOURS REEL TO REAL when you mention 7 Days in LA. More info and upcoming tour dates at http://www.7daysinla.com/vintage-venice
2) Bulk discounts on ESOTOURIC gift certificates through December 24—save $8 to $16 per certificate, depending on how many are ordered. Certificates are good for such popular tours as THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA, RAYMOND CHANDLER'S L.A., PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL, CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S L.A., THE BIRTH OF NOIR and many more. Details are at http://www.esotouric.com/holidaygifts
3) Special for 7 Days in L.A. visitors: save $10 off on gift certificates through December 19 ($30, regularly $40) for the scandalous DEARLY DEPARTED TOUR or the historic HOLLYWOOD MOVIE TOUR. Details are at http://www.findadeath.com/DDT/Dearly_departed_tours_in_partnership_with_7_days_in_la.htm
ABOUT 7 DAYS IN L.A.
Why 7 Days in L.A? Because this city is too big and too complicated to understand without a native guide, and because you're smart enough to know that a one-size-fits-all experience is the wrong size for you.
7 Days in L.A. isn't a tour operator, but a consortium of the region's best independent tour operators. Whatever your interest--from architecture to true crime, film locations to graveyards, gay history to iconic L.A. literature--you'll find the perfect excursion on the 7 Days in L.A. community calendar, and all the information needed to book a high quality tour to suit any budget.
Sign up for the weekly newsletter to receive coming event announcements and special offers, exclusively for 7 Days in L.A. subscribers. Like the website says, "Give us few hours, or your whole week, and we'll change the way you think about Los Angeles forever."
7 Days in L.A. is the brain child of Kim Cooper and Richard Schave, the husband and wife behind Esotouric bus adventures, the cultural tourism company known for eclectic offerings like The Real Black Dahlia, Pasadena Confidential and Charles Bukowski's L.A. Because Esotouric only offers tours on weekends, Kim and Richard regularly recommend select L.A. tour companies to customers inquiring about weekday excursions or companies on a similar wavelength—and these folks often return the courtesy. 7 Days in L.A. is a real world extension of that spirit of cooperation and mutual support that makes L.A.'s independent tour guide community so special.
Participating tour companies and solo guides include: Architecture Tours L.A., Crimebo the Clown's Downtown Art Walk Gallery Tour, Dearly Departed Tours, The Dorothy Parker Society, Esotouric Bus Adventures, The Felix in Hollywood Tour Company, Hollywood Forever Cemetery Tour, Hollywood Movie Tours, L.A. Active Adventures, L.A. Gang Tours, Melting Pot Food Tours, Out & About - Hollywood's 1st & Only Gay Bus Tour, Santa Monica Venice Tours... Now and Then, Take My Mother*Please (*or any other VIP), Terry Bolo - The Hollywood Gal and TOURific Escapes.
7 Days in L.A. is something new in the competitive world of tourism: the first consortium of independent tour companies and solo guides who actually want you to check out the other guy or gal's tour. Since the June 1 launch, the one-stop website calendar featuring the most interesting guided bus, car, bike and walking tours in Los Angeles has made America's second largest city a lot easier to navigate--and a lot friendlier.
You'll find the 7 Days in L.A. online calendar packed with a wide array of urban tour options, with Saturday listings regularly exceeding ten different tours to choose from, spanning the city from the beach to the foothills to the urban core, with something to attract all types of tourists or curious natives.
For more info on 7 Days In L.A., visit http://www.7DaysinLA.com
The creation of 7 Days in L.A. represents a landmark moment in the history of L.A tourism, and the participating guides each have incredible stories to tell about how they got here and what comes next. All participating tour guides are available for interviews, and journalists on assignment can often be accommodated on their tours. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.
L.A. neighborhoods get the historic crimes they deserve in Esotouric's final 2011 bus tours
For immediate release
November 15, 2011
L.A. neighborhoods get the historic crimes they deserve in Esotouric's final 2011 bus tours
WHAT: Esotouric, L.A.'s most eclectic tour company, reveals the criminal history of L.A.'s fascinating neighborhoods with the PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL / EAST SIDE BABYLON crime bus tour weekend and HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE
WHEN: "Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown" tour Saturday, December 3, 12-4pm; "East Side Babylon" tour Sunday, December 4, 12pm-4pm; "Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice" tour Saturday, December 10, 12pm-4pm
WHERE: "Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown" departs from Fair Oaks and Arlington Street, Pasadena, CA 91105; "East Side Babylon" and "Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice" tours depart from Cafe Metropol, 923 E. 3rd. Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013
COST: Pasadena Confidential or East Side Babylon tickets $58/person (weekend pass for Pasadena and East Side tours $90/person); Hotel Horrors and Main Street Vice tour tickets $58/person.
INFO: http://www.esotouric.com, 323-223-2767
LOS ANGELES- Ask the average person to name a true crime location in Los Angeles and you'll hear about Nicole Brown's Brentwood condo, the Manson Murders scene in the Hollywood Hills or Bugsy Siegel's Beverly Hills death house.
But when the crack researchers of Esotouric, L.A.'s most eclectic bus tour company, go crime hunting, they throw out the map to the stars homes and cast their eye to less glamorous L.A. neighborhoods that prove to be packed with bizarre crime histories. True crime buffs have already heard the famous stories a dozen times before on cable TV, but the forgotten crimes Esotouric digs up are fresh, fascinating and truly chilling. And to close out their 2011 calendar, Esotouric offers three different tours packed with the weirdest crimes ever committed in three of L.A.'s most iconic communities: the old money suburb of Pasadena, the gritty working class neighborhoods on the East Side of the L.A. River and the city's Historic Core.
TOUR #1:
First up, on Saturday, December 3, it's Esotouric's popular, occasional PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL WITH CRIMEBO THE CLOWN tour, a true crime bus adventure delving deep into the weird and horrible past of one of L.A.'s most exclusive suburbs. Making a special appearance on this tour: it's Crimebo the Crime Clown capering as only Crimebo can. This is Crimebo's first appearance on the crime bus since he was featured in Daily Candy and gained thousands of new fans.
Crime fiends will enjoy a four-hour guided luxury bus tour to the darkest recesses of Pasadena history, with vintage photos and film clips show to set the scene. From celebrated cases like the Robert Kennedy assassination (Sirhan Sirhan was a local Pasadena resident), "Eraserhead" star Jack Nance's strange end, black magician/rocket scientist Jack Parsons' death-by-misadventure and the 1926 Rose Parade grand stand collapse, to fascinating obscurities, the tour's multitude of murders, arsons, kidnappings, robberies, suicides, auto wrecks and oddball happenings provide an alternate history of Pasadena that's as fascinating as it is creepy. Crime Bus passengers will tour the old Millionaire's Row on Orange Grove, boggle at the shocking Sphinx Murder on the steps of the downtown Masonic Hall, thrill to the misadventures of one very poorly-behaved (but beautifully dressed!) chimpanzee and discover why people named Judd and rocket scientists should think twice before moving to Pasadena. They'll also enjoy the offbeat charms of Crimebo the Crime Clown as he leads passengers out onto Suicide Bridge for a personal look down into the gorge that tempted dozens of tormented souls to their demise. Riders on this eye-opening, funny and informative tour will forever see Pasadena in a new light. It is highly recommended for natives and newcomers alike, crime and history buffs and anyone who likes to seek out the unexpected.
Tour guide Kim Cooper, who researches and writes all of Esotouric's true crime tours, says, "I believe every neighborhood gets the crimes it deserves, and Pasadena's dark side is suitably rife with rocket scientists driven mad by their work, wealthy eccentrics spoiling their pet chimps and bears, seemingly respectable families misbehaving behind tall hedges and a general air of genteel psychic decay."
TOUR #2:
Then on December 4, a select crew of urban explorers will climb aboard for EAST SIDE BABYLON, the latest addition to Esotouric's popular crime bus tour series. Passengers on this unusual bus adventure will discover fascinating, little-known historic neighborhoods and the grim memories they hold. With crimes spanning the 20th Century, some hideously gruesome, others weird and frankly unbelievable, the tour provides a new way of discovering the city, via crime scenes and oddities that make ordinary houses and intersections seem to vibrate with a mysterious energy. Come visit Boyle Heights, where Night Stalker Richard Ramirez was captured and a mad dad ran amok. Roam the hallowed lawns of Evergreen, L.A.'s oldest cemetery and home of some memorable haunts and strange burials. Visit East Los Angeles, where a deranged radio shop employee made mince meat of his boss and bride--and you can get your hair done in a building shaped like a giant tamale. Explore the ghastly streets of Commerce, where one small neighborhood's myriad crimes will shock and surprise. Visit Montebello, for scrumptious milk, eggnog and cookies at Broguiere's Farm Fresh Dairy washed down with a horrifying case of child murder. All this, and so much more on EAST SIDE BABYLON, Esotouric's exploration of L.A.'s most horrifying forgotten crimes and offbeat oddities.
Tour #3:
The final tour of the year comes on December 10, with 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.
Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
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
Sun Dec 25 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Jan 7 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat Jan 21 - Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles
Sat Jan 28 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare
Mon Jan 23 - The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank featuring Dan Fante (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sun Jan 29 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Feb 4 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66 (weekend pass available)
Sun Feb 5 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South Los Angeles (weekend pass available)
Sat Feb 25 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sun Feb 26 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat March 3 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat March 10 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat March 17 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun March 18 - East Side Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Esotouric's Richard Schave, Kim Cooper, Joan Renner and Michael "Crimebo the Clown" Perrick are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org
For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com
Tour hosts Richard Schave, Kim Cooper and Michael "Crimebo the Clown" Perrick are available for interviews, and journalists on assignment can often be accommodated on the Esotouric bus. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.
Celebrate L.A.'s Visionaries with Susanna Dakin's 1984 An Artist for President performance & free 1920s downtown architecture to
For immediate release
November 8, 2011
Celebrate L.A.'s Visionaries with Susanna Dakin's 1984 An Artist for President performance & free 1920s downtown architecture tour
EVENT #1: Sunday, November 27, 11am-1pm - LAVA's free monthly Sunday Salon features performance artist / author Susanna Dakin discussing her new memoir about her 1984 political performance campaign "An Artist for President" and the seasonal musical oddities of the Krampus Choir (upstairs at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, at 431 West 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90014.)
COST: Free, but see detailed instructions for attendees entering this event held in a private club at the link below
IMPORTANT: Note new time for the LAVA Sunday Salon, 11am-1pm (was 12-2pm)
SALON INFO: http://lavatransforms.org/salon1111
EVENT #2: Sunday, November 27, 1:30pm-4pm – LAVA presents "The Flâneur & The City: Walker & Eisen, the Calculus of Aesthetics" a free walking tour hosted by Esotouric's Richard Schave and architectural historian Nathan Marsak focusing on several landmark downtown buildings by the architectural firm of Albert R. Walker and Percy A. Eisen, including the Oviatt Building and Fine Arts Building (departs from exterior lobby of the Oviatt Building, 617 South Olive Street, Los Angeles, CA 90014, free but space is limited and reservations required)
INFO/RESERVATIONS: http://lavatransforms.org/flaneur1111
LOS ANGELES- For more than a century, Los Angeles has been a place where people can come to realize their wildest dreams, whether they are to build the most beautiful buildings in town, or to become the country's first Artist-President. In November, LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association, dedicates an afternoon to revealing a wide swath of extraordinary only-in-Los-Angeles narratives in a two very special, free events.
These two remarkable events –LAVA's free monthly Sunday Salon (featuring performance artist / author Susanna Dakin talking about her 1983-84 year-long campaign performance as An Artist for President, the subject of her new book and the seasonal musical oddities of the Krampus Choir) and Richard Schave's and Nathan Marsak's free downtown walking tour of the jazz age 1920s landmarks designed and built by the underappreciated firm of Walker & Eisen -- offer an opportunity to explore fascinating aspects of little known Los Angeles history and the ongoing influence of historic places and happenings on contemporary life. This LAVA Sunday is a must for those with a passion for the untold stories of the city and a taste for the unusual.
ABOUT LAVA'S SUNDAY SALON: On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather at the Los Angeles Athletic Club from 11am-1pm (note new location and time), for a free, loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another.
Special program at the November 27 Salon:
1) LAVA Visionary SUSANNA DAKIN is a sculptor, performance artist, writer and once upon a time publisher of artists’ books, magazines and a community newspaper. She is currently on the Board of the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, California. She has taught sculpture and drawing, exhibited both in solo and group shows, and completed a few large-scale sculpture commissions. She has done several unique performance pieces at various venues in southern California. Dakin’s most well known work was a year-long performance campaign around the United States as “An Artist for President” in 1983-84, in which she advanced the idea that “The Nation is the art work and we the people are the artists.” The book about that campaign, as timely today as it was then, is being published in fall 2011. Dakin will reprise the campaign as a book tour. ABOUT "AN ARTIST FOR PRESIDENT ": In 1984, Reagan was running for his second-term, while pursuing what would become a relentless, multi-decades long retreat from democratic ideals. Susanna Dakin, sculptor, performance artist and "High Performance Magazine" publisher, had an outlandish notion: she declared with the Federal Elections Commission as an Artist/Candidate for President of the United States. Now a compelling and high-entertaining book, as timely today as it was then, "An Artist for President" makes a case for the vital role of art and creativity in all aspects of life, including politics. This "biography of an event," records the loony ideas people hold about woman, artists and the political process. November is Election Month, so cast your vote for art, civil liberties and freedom of expression, by attending this fun refection on where we’ve been and where we’re going.
2) LAVA is proud (and not too terrified, since we’ve been good this year!) to present the KRAMPUS CHOIR, who will literally kick-start the holiday season with their odes to the Real ghost of Christmas, Lord Krampus. You’ve heard all about Santa’s Evil Twin, who follows the Jolly One with burlap sack in hand, taking gifts away from miscreant children and giving them a thrashing to boot! This long-toothed, tongued charmer now has his very own CHOIR, who, in dulcet harmony, will regale our Visionaries and guests with such favorites as, “Bleeding through the Snow,” “O Shining Lump of Coal,” and “Bring a Switch, Jeannette Isabella.” King Krampus himself will be on hand to autograph your child’s deficiency notices. Don’t miss this one-time-only event!
SALON INFO: http://lavatransforms.org/salon1111
ABOUT THE "WALKER & EISEN" ARCHITECTURAL WALKING TOUR: Urban historian Richard Schave’s site-specific discussion series "The Flâneur & The City" is an ongoing attempt to explore some of the more important issues revealed by the constantly changing heart of the metropolis. At its heart this series is a celebration of the simple act of getting out of your car, walking through a neighborhood and learning to see it with your own eyes. For "The Flâneur & The City: Walker & Eisen, the Calculus of Aesthetics," Richard is joined by architectural historian Nathan Marsak (1947project, On Bunker Hill). On this excursion they’ll focus on several landmark buildings by the architectural firm of Albert R. Walker and Percy A. Eisen. The firm’s significant contributions to the downtown skyline have been overshadowed by the massive structures erected since the 1957 ordinance permitting buildings to be taller than 150’. On this tour, we’ll ignore such behemoths while shining our spotlight on the modest beauties that Walker and Eisen constructed in the Historic Core. Walker & Eisen made their mark on downtown during the building boom which immediately followed the first World War. What we think of as “Jazz Age” L.A. architecture is in large part defined by this very successful team. Walker & Eisen were the spiritual heirs of the now-forgotten Victorian-era architects Robert A. Young & Burgess J. Reeve, who shaped Los Angeles during its early boom years and depressions, and on which our last tour focused. Standing on their shoulders, and in the shadow of C.C. Julian’s financial scandal, Walker & Eisen quietly, distinctly, and on budget, translated the hopes, dreams, and sometimes outright arrogance of their clients into beautiful meditations on surface treatment and the play between light, window and wall. The two buildings of prime focus will be the Oviatt (1927) and the Fine Arts Building (1928). We will not be visiting the penthouse of the Oviatt, and it will be at the discretion of the building’s management if we are permitted a peek inside the the former Oviatt & Alexander haberdashery. The Fine Arts Building lobby will be open, and we plan on spending a fair amount of time in it, amongst the Batchelder tile. The walking tour is free, but space is limited and reservations required.
INFO/RESERVATIONS: http://lavatransforms.org/flaneur1111
INFORMATION FOR LAVA SUNDAY SALON ATTENDEES: The Los Angeles Athletic Club is located at 431 West 7th Street, on the north-east corner of 7th and Olive Streets. When you enter the Athletic Club, inform the person at the desk that you are there as a guest of club member Richard Schave attending the LAVA event. They will sign you in, and send you upstairs to the third floor. If you want to have breakfast, please arrive no later than 10:30am. The price per person for the buffet breakfast is $15.50 (including taxes and gratuity), and the buffet includes juices, cereals, fruits, waffles, omelettes to order, etc. If you want to attend the Salon, you should arrive by 11am. We recommend parking under Pershing Square at Fifth and Olive, which is also the nearest Metro Station. If you order food, the Athletic Club will validate for their parking lot.
ABOUT PREVIOUS LAVA SALONS: In March 2010, the new LAVA community came together in the first monthly Sunday Salon for the debut exhibition of Visionary GENE SCULATTI's outsider art scroll drawings of imaginary cities, a smash hit for the nearly 100 cultural explorers in attendance, and now under development as a documentary film. And in May 2010, vintage cosmetics packaging collector JOAN RENNER captivated the crowd with a discussion of the social and cultural context of 20th century cosmetics, illustrated with a display of exquisite Art Deco and Art Nouveau powder boxes from her collection. For Halloween 2010, the GHOST HUNTERS OF URBAN L.A. debuted their supernatural internet time capsule project, "Weird Hollywood" author JOE OESTERLE shared weird tales and Skid Row misfortune teller Mesmerelda (aka avant garde sonstress NORA KEYES) sang of downtown misery. In December 2010, THE UKULADY sang while supervising an interactive crafting workshop, HARVEY SID FISHER serenaded each astrological sign in attendance, and strange vintage board games were played. In March 2011, the Salon revealed the secret history of the Cacophony Society and spin-off performance troupe Art of Bleeding, via documentarian JON ALLOWAY and chief instigator REVEREND AL RIDENOUR. Each Salon is very different, but always free, unpretentious, and thought-provoking. In April 2011, musical historian IAN WHITCOMB told the wild tale of his experience as a teenage British Invasion pop star. In May 2011, NATHAN MARSAK demonstrated the historic L.A. video game "L.A. Noire" and critiqued the architectural recreation of 1940s downtown. In June 2011, MILT STEVENS of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society gave a hilarious history of LASFS's decades downtown. In July 2011, decorative arts historian BRIAN KAISER shared fascinating stories of his work preserving endangered California artistic tile. In August 2011, historian AL GUERRERO spoke on the social history of the Night Stalker murder spree and singer RUTHANN FRIEDMAN previewed her new album and told stories of the 1960s L.A. music scene. In September 2011, PAUL KOUDOUNARIS discussed his five-year journey documenting European churches decorated with human bones.
Photos and video from some recent Salons are here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lPdqRcXVs
http://lavatransforms.org/salonvideo311
http://lavatransforms.org/hauntsandhorrors
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardschave/sets/72157623729484726/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardschave/sets/72157624174080520/
ABOUT LAVA: Through participation in LAVA, a select group of creative professionals come together to promote cultural programming that speaks to the urban experience while promoting positive public space. LAVA's creative partners share a love for L.A. and unique ideas for exploring it in their work. Formed by social historians RICHARD SCHAVE and KIM COOPER -- proprietors of Esotouric bus adventures and the 1947project time travel blog series (including On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land) -- LAVA brings together L.A.'s most visionary promoters, artists, writers and thinkers. The first crop of Visionaries in the growing curated community includes cultural chronicler ADRIENNE CREW, artist and Eastside historian AL GUERRERO, Cacophony Society co-founder AL RIDENOUR, avant garde fashion maven A. LAURA BRODY, poet/publisher ALEIDA RODRIGUEZ, back-to-nature pioneer ALICIA BAY LAUREL, filmmaker ALLISON ANDERS, writer/curator ALLON SCHOENER, designer/mom of Chicken Boy AMY INOUYE, custom tours maven ANNE BLOCK, documentarian/radio producer ANTHEA RAYMOND, author/gallerist APRIL DAMMANN, 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, artist JASON HADLEY, food blogger JAVIER CABRAL, musician JEFF BOYNTON, 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, 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, November's Visionary Salon presenters Sue Dakin and The Krampus Choir, and most of LAVA's Visionary members are available for interviews. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.
