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Nobody Drives In LA — Celebrating Ten Years Since Kicking My Car Habit
Today marks the tenth anniversary of my not owning a car. On 18 July 2011, my 1990 Suburu Loyale nicknamed the C.A.R.D.I.S. (Car And Relative Dimensions In Space) blew a head gasket or two somewhere...
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No Enclave — Australian Los Angeles
Today was Australia Day from 1915 til 1935 (when it was moved to 26 January) and Los Angeles is home to far more Australians than any other American city. According to the Australian...
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Happy 818, or, San Fernando Valley Day!
Pendersleigh & Sons Cartography’s Map of the San Fernando Valley Although the date format of most countries is “day/month/year,” the US, as we know, likes to fly in the face of global conventions...
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No Enclave — Exploring Honduran Los Angeles
Hondurans are the eighth largest group of Latin Americans living in the US in the US and, after Salvadorans and Guatemalans, the third largest population of Central Americans in the US. However,...
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The Stylers
INTRODUCTIONFor fans of a particular era of Chinese-language pop-rock, in particular the excellent Singaporean pop-rock of the 1960s and ’70s, there’s one name one finds written on records by many of...
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Azuki’s Second Birthday
27 September we observed Azuki Dingus‘s second birthday. Being a rescue, no one knows her exact birthday but as she seemed to be about four months old when she left the pound in late January 2020,...
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No Enclave — Chumash Los Angeles
INTRODUCTION Before the Spanish invasion of the region, what’s now California enjoyed the highest human population density north of what is today Mexico. Today, Los Angeles is home to more people of...
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No Enclave — Puerto Rican Los Angeles
Many — perhaps most — Angelenos know that Los Angeles is home to the largest populations of Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans outside of their of their respective homelands. I know that I wasn’t...
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Ghosts of the Silver Lake Reservoir
A few years ago, whilst researching the history of the Silver Lake Reservoir, I was rather surprised to learn that several people had drowned in it early in its history. Where there’s water, I...
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Nobody Drives in LA – North Trail Canyon Road with Mike Morgan [Pilot Episode]
A couple of years ago I had an idea for a Nobody Drives in LA series of some sort — in addition to the weblog series, that is, which I’ve been writing for years. My conception was of taking transit,...
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Mist & Iron — Visiting Paauw, or, Palomar Mountain
INTRODUCTION After Desert Daze, my friend Mike Morgan found himself in a dilemma. Namely, he had more firewood than he knew what to do with and so proposed camping somewhere. I suggested Palomar...
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Swinging Doors — Los Angeles’s Oldest Bars
INTRODUCTION In 2018, I made a map of Los Angeles’s oldest restaurants and wrote a bit about them. It proved relatively easy because there was lots already written on the subject. When I started...
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1972 in Music — 50 Years Later
Happy New Year! It’s now 2022. That means — assuming my math is correct — it’s been 50 years since it was 1972. And so, as I do ever year, I’ve made a playlist of music from that year — not just my...
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Los Angeles’s Corner Drugstores & Independent Pharmacies
The corner drug store isn’t what it used to be, although I’m not sure when it stopped. Probably quite a few years before I was born… although there are still a few hanging ’round. I’m talking about...
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California Fool’s Gold — Exploring Whittier
INTRODUCTION For this chapter of California Fool’s Gold, I explored the city of Whittier. Whittier is a city in Southeast Los Angeles (County), separated from the San Gabriel Valley to the north by...
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Swinging Doors — Los Angeles’s Early Houses
Say what you will about Los Angeles but it’s unlikely that anyone has ever described it in earnest as a “city that never sleeps.” It is not, in other words, Barcelona, New York City, New Orleans, or...
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California Fool’s Gold — Exploring Larchmont Village
INTRODUCTION Pendersleigh & Sons Cartography‘s map of Larchmont Village, available in art prints and on a variety of merchandise This edition of California Fool’s Gold is about Larchmont Village....
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The Brightwell Guide to Incense
INTRODUCTION I love incense. I’ve been fascinated with it since I was a young child and discovered that my parents had two boxes of cone incense. One was sandalwood and had an image of the Taj Mahal...
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Foods Invented in Los Angeles
What you are about to read could probably be considered, if you’re uncharitable, a “listicle.” “But wait,” you say, “you hate listicles!” You are correct, and yet here I am, offering you the lowest...
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Nobody Drives in LA — Silver Lake Stairs – Street View
In the 1920s, Los Angeles boomed. At the beginning of the decade, Los Angeles had a population of 576,673. By the end of the decade, it had more than doubled to 1,238,048. Basically, it went from the...
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