The Guest Room

Editor's Note: The last installment of producer and director Harry Pallenberg's guest blog was delayed by our coverage of last week's fire. (Apologies, Harry!) He closes out his guest blog with everything you need to know to survive L.A.....

So after the stunning success of SHOTGUN FREEWAY - theatrically released on three screens across the nation, a run on the Sundance Channel... and just over 8 YEARS to break even! - well, let's just say I realized I needed a paying job. Luckily, Morgan (co-director of SHOTGUN ) was ready to change jobs, so I literally replaced him at Huell Howser Productions, where I became one of two producers for Huell. It's great. I love doing research on California, learning its strange and varied history, finding un-findable photos and films, tracking down distant descendants of Donner Party survivors (for the Wedding of the Waters episode - one of my favorites), and just generally checking out places that viewers suggest.

Stuff like that has filled my days for the past 13+ years.

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Editor's Note: This installment of producer and director Harry Pallenberg's guest blog looks at crime. First up, the crime chapter from Harry's film SHOTGUN FREEWAY, then Harry's crime tour of Los Angeles.

Shooting the fourth chapter of SHOTGUN FREEWAY about crime (seen above) was the most fun we had on the film. I mean, we got to hang out with James Ellroy for a whole day - and I mean ALL DAY! We were filming as Ellroy got off a plane, and he stayed with us until almost midnight. Then, "Jigsaw" St. John (also in CRIME) showed us an amazing place, one I keep coming back to and that is a great way to begin this week's post on L.A. crime: The Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club - a.k.a. the Los Angeles Police Academy.

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Following Margaret Crawford's suggestion in the previous post (a.k.a., chapter 2 of my film, SHOTGUN FREEWAY: Drives Thru Lost L.A.), I took a derive in 1994 or '95 and found York Blvd. (Derive is the Latin de revie - to drift; the Situationists were big fans.) I was actually already there, doing research for the film at the LADP Historical Society, but had no idea about the area otherwise.

Recently, I recreated that initial journey and - boy! has York Blvd. changed. The hip is now well established in Highland Park, but its nice to still see auto junkyards andpiñata supply stores side by side with a new gym called Anatomy Repair. What follows are some of my favorite York Blvd. stops. (You will notice a theme... food!)

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Harry Pallenberg is a documentary filmmaker. He has made two feature docs, and currently produces for the popular PBS series CALIFORNIA'S GOLD with Huell Howser. For the next month, he'll be guest blogging about his work and the Los Angeles he loves, as well as serializing his 1996 doc SHOTGUN FREEWAY: Drives Thru Lost L.A.. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and 2 children.

Today's segment from SHOTGUN FREEWAY picks up where part one of ended ends - with THE AUTO. (If you're just joining us, you can catch part one here.)

Obviously, the car is a truly important part of an Angelino's life. Below is the deathbed portrait of my first car - a '66 T-Bird that got crushed by a guy making an illegal left turn. My T-Bird's quarter-inch steel skin protected me even without seatbelts, but the Big Gulp I was holding between my legs (no cup holders back then) made it look like I wet my pants. It was embarrassing, but then I saw the other guy, who had been driving a tiny Toyota. He was all covered in blood, so I did not feel so bad after that.

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Harry Pallenberg is a documentary filmmaker. He has made two feature docs, and currently produces for the popular PBS series CALIFORNIA'S GOLD with Huell Howser. For the next month, he'll be guest blogging about his work and the Los Angeles he loves, as well as serializing his 1996 doc SHOTGUN FREEWAY: Drives Thru Lost L.A.. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and 2 children.

I've been working at KCET for Huell Howser for over 13 years, producing over 800 shows for various series. But, like Los Angeles, my career has taken me down many roads, turns and unexpected byways. I thought I'd share some interconnected stories about both - living in L.A. and making a doc about the place - with you over the next month.

I was born in NYC but have been full-time Angelino since '77. I got my start in the film biz as a P.A. on the 1988 Paul Morrissey film: Spike of Bensonhurst. I sealed the deal on the gig when I assured the producers I could drive a 15 passenger van - which I promptly used to cave-in someone's car door the first night of shooting in NYC! I drove away crying and ended up parking for the night about 30 blocks from my apartment. The next morning I brushed off my bruised ego and went to pick up the star of the film. When he got in he said "Harry?!? Harry Pallenberg, is that you?" It was Sasha Mitchell - we had gone to school together (4th - 6th grade) back in Laurel Canyon. P.A. & Star re-united!

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In this installment of the Guest Room, filmmaker Matthew Williams goes on a search for parenting advice and is reminded that he already has many, if not all, of the answers he needed.

I can honestly boast that, once upon a time, my daughter was the happiest baby on the block, but now she's two and things have changed. We've moved way past Harvey Karp's 5 "S's" and into a much more complex form of communication. Her tantrums, willfulness, and power to say NO! have caused the degree of difficulty meter to peak. Sometimes a first-time parent can feel way out of his league, but where to look for help?

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Today, the highest North Korean court found Current TV journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling guilty of illegal trespassing into North Korea. They are sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

By the time their sentence is finished, Lee will be nearly 50 and her 4-year old daughter will be old enough to get a drivers license.

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Current TV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee have been detained in North Korea since March 17. They were arrested for spying by North Korean police at the border between China and North Korea. This strikes endless worry into the hearts of people who know of the gulags, starvation and nuclear weapons proliferation in the most tightly controlled dictatorship in the world. North Korea is a country so secretive, the media has no photographs of Kim Jong Il's twenty something year old son, Kim Jong-un, who has been appointed his father's successor.  

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One Los Angeles neighborhood that didn't make it out of the 20^th century is Bronzeville. It was a name given to Little Tokyo when African Americans moved into Japanese American owned homes following President Roosevelt's executive order in 1942 to relocate people of Japanese ancestry. Jobs were booming in Southern California because of the defense and aerospace industries that were supporting World War II efforts, and this attracted all Americans to California. A major obstacle, however, for African Americans who headed west to Los Angeles was housing, because most whites would not rent or sell to them. Thus, an abandoned Little Tokyo was the destination for shunned migrants.

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