The Guest Room

The Forgotten L.A. Panthers

2010-03-10T20:11:18Z

Director Gregory Everett didn't know his father growing up. But he did know that he had been a Black Panther. Everett would sometimes mention that when he wanted kids to back off on the playground. And they did.

In 2001 Everett reconciled with his father, and began to work in earnest on a film about him and the other members of the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party. The result is 41st and Central: The Untold Story of the L.A. Panthers . A weeklong run of the film begins Friday in Los Angeles, after two oversold screenings at the recent Pan African Fim Festival.

]]> Director Everett says his film is unique in its focus on Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter, who founded the Southern California Branch of the Panthers. Carter was a leader in the Slausons gang and its spinoff the Slauson Renegades. He spent four years in prison, where he became a Muslim. He started the Panthers chapter in early 1968. Carter and another Panther were shot dead a year later on the UCLA campus. Soon after, the Southern California Chapter was no more.

Gregory Everett says he began to think about the project when he met former Panther Roland Freeman in the early 1990s. Freeman told him about his mother's scrapbook about the Southern California Chapter. Those materials would be the foundation of the elements Everett used to bring the Panther story to life.

Everett went on to interview a number of former Panthers, including his own father Jeffrey Everett, about the Southern California Panthers' founding and philosophy -- especially its commitment to self-defense and weaponry. In this clip, Jeffrey Everett recalls the August 6, 1969 shoot out at Adams Boulevard and Montclair Avenue where police killed two Panthers.

Other interviews include eyewitness accounts of the deaths at UCLA, and the December 9, 1969 shoot out with the LAPD's new SWAT unit at Panther headquarters at 41st Street and Central Avenue in Los Angeles. Everett also talks to former LAPD Police Chief Bernard Parks and members of US, a black nationalist group also prominent in LA at the time.

Everett, who works as a producer for TV One, hopes a television network will broadcast the project, perhaps as a four-part mini-series. It's chock full of historic clips that make it costly to air, so he'll need to extra funding. But he's already seen the film's broad appeal. A recent panel at the Pan African Film Festival brought together former Panthers, US members, and LAPD brass to discuss -- and enjoy -- the film.

41st and Central: The Untold Story of the L.A. Panthers opens Friday, March 26, 2010 at the Culver Plaza Theatres, 9919 Washington Boulevard, Los Angeles. For more info about the film, click here.

Remembering Brendan Mullen

2009-11-24T19:49:04Z

Public radio journalist Anthea Raymond shares this remembrance of Los Angeles music icon Brendan Mullen, who died on October 12, 2009.
photo credit: Brendan Mullen holding Brendan Mullen, photo by Gary Leonard, all rights reserved.

Brendan Mullen was a booker's booker - and then some. During the late 80s I was one of the producers of KCRW's InTown Tonight, a live music and culture show that aired on Sunday nights, and the gig allowed me to watch every move Brendan made as he filled the Club Lingerie's tiny stage with the best of R&B, rock, and country. In June of 1989 we got a chance to book him as a guest on InTown Tonight's summer preview show and we were thrilled. He showed up a little late, a little tipsy. But he lived up to his legend: a Scotsman holding his own against our British host.

When he died last month at the age of 60, I ripped my house apart looking for a recording of that particular show. I was hosting KCRW's Morning Edition the day after his death and wanted to play a clip, but I couldn't find it. It was a small thing, but it upset me that this tangible trace of Brendan was gone as well. What a relief, then to walk into the memorial for Brendan at the Echoplex on November 15th. I saw plenty of flyers and photos and film clips, along with plenty of tears and smiles.

Gary Leonard, the documentary photographer, was there as well, taking pictures of the show and the crowd. He too was glad so much of Brendan's life - from the physical to the intangible - remains.

Gary was kind enough to share some photos of the memorial, as well as some memories of Brendan.

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Gary Leonard: He was more than a promoter. He did this club but then he wanted to talk about history. And he spent the final years of his life doing just that. We shared that passion because that's what I do, too: record history in the hopes that it will come out and they'll get it right.

Anthea Raymond: You're talking about Brendan's books on the Germs and the L.A. punk scene.

GL: And the several books that he was supposed to come out with. He was working on a book about the 80s. I would have liked to have seen that book come out. The last time we spoke we talked about digging into my archives for it.

AR: Back during the memorial I heard you say Brendan was important, but that he couldn't have existed without a much larger cultural movement that was happening in Los Angeles.

GL: There was a creative culture going on all over the city, in Chinatown, in the Valley, and it was a DIY culture --- do it yourself. You could see it in the record stores, Zed Records in Long Beach, and Bomp Records in the Valley, and Rhino. So he was part of something bigger. Billy Shire, Steve Samioff, Gary Panter, people who were doing graphics in magazines and record companies. Brendan was part of that.

AR: So how'd you meet him?

GL: I met him in November of 1980. You don't forget [when you met Brendan]. It's funny. That accent and how he would just go off. Like what Keith Morris was doing tonight, telling a story the way Brendan would tell a story. And you just didn't forget it. And you immediately liked him. You know I mentioned to Kateri [Butler, Brendan's companion] that I loved Brendan. And her response was: he was lovable. And I thought, "That's the right answer." I guess I wasn't alone.

AR: Did you shoot any of the shows at the Masque?

GL: Well, I shot the ten year reunion. They opened up the Masque and held a concert there. So yeah, I did. It's funny how everybody qualified what they said tonight. They were not cool because they didn't go to the first show. Or they didn't perform. They just went to a show. You always felt that somehow your credentials as being part of the scene were being called into question. I met Brendan later on. But we became friends and he became a big part of what I was photographing and what I was following. And he's a huge part of my archives.

AR: Him personally or his shows?

GL: Both. I always made it a point to take any chance I could to spend time with Brendan and take his picture. I remember a shoot for the book 24 Hours in Los Angeles. We went to a supermarket. He was dressed in kilts and a Scottish outfit. That stands out because it was so odd, in such an odd setting.

AR: Did you shoot at Lingerie too?

GL: Every night. And obviously it wasn't every night. But it was such a big part [of the city]. Particularly during the time that he booked the club. I remember hearing the name and thinking "Lingerie. Club Lingerie. What kind of name is that?" And I remember hearing it at the Zero, which was another place, an after-hours club where a lot of scenes converged. And once you start talking about the different places, you realize it wasn't about the Masque or the Lingerie. It was about a cultural movement, of people who were disenfranchised and who were finding one another. And I heard that mentioned tonight -- a fraternity, a brotherhood, a sisterhood or sorority. And Brendan just seemed to know everybody. And in my case he just always made a good picture.

AR: You say you were documenting the alternative music community that came out of punk as a way of documenting L.A.. Was there anything important or unique about the aesthetic of that community that stays with you today?

GL: I'm not sure it was the aesthetic. It was the late 70s, early 80s. And you had the bicentennial happening in the city and the Olympics were coming in the 1984. I knew that the cultural establishment was trying to make the city a showplace for the rest of the world. And these kids were doing something that was greater than anything I saw in the establishment.

AR: Do you think it helped that Brendan wasn't from this country?

GL: I'd never thought about that. Maybe. But isn't that what L.A.'s always been about? It's always been a mix. There are those of us who were born here. And there's a few of us. But people from out of town found each other, came here to make something happen.

AR: OK, when we talk about what Brendan Mullen gave to Los Angeles, how would we describe his legacy?

GL: He was a catalyst. Look at the numbers here [ED: at least 600 people] and the influence that he had. Hopefully his papers will be going to libraries. I'd like to see them in the Huntington. And what will be his legacy? That he did what he did. That there was a Masque. That there was a Lingerie. And out of that there was a culture that inspired others to go out and be creative.

photo credit - memorial flyer photo by Scott Lindgren / Courtesy of Empire Of The Image

Surviving Los Angeles

2009-08-27T18:09:57Z

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.

]]> I am also the "all things tech" person. I helped bring Huell Howser Productions out of the age of linear editing on 1 inch videotape machines -

- and into the world of digital video editing with Final Cut Pro. (That thing is literally 6 feet tall.) I also enjoyed bringing us on-line adding MySpace , YouTube , iTunes, Facebook and now even Twitter into the fold.

The worst part of my job is that people are always asking me where to eat or what to do. (You don't show you doctor friends your boils, do you? With that in mind, here are a few L.A.-centric places to eat and things to do.

DRINKS: Too many to list. Also, I'm not really a bar kind of guy, so if I've been there it is probably OVER. But, if I have to, I like Yamashiro for drinks or MOVIE NIGHT, and there's also the Tiki-Ti if in Hollywood. It is tiny, but literally under my office window. Or better still Tonga Hut if in the Valley. Seems like some roller-derby vixens were there last time - always a good thing.

You might be able to tell I'm partial to sweet drinks with umbrellas.

PIZZA: As a former New Yorker (who has embraced all things L.A.), I still have an odd kinship with pizza, so I won't say what's best. But Mulberry is fine for a plain slice and the sausage at il Capriccio on Hollywood is pretty darn good.

GENERAL EATS: Musso & Frank's is a true classic, oldest in Hollywood. Red leather booths. Do not order pasta - this is a meat and potatoes kind of place. I usually get this: Hearts of lettuce salad with the Roquefort vinaigrette, filet mignon, Cottage Fries (order right away as they take 40 minutes) and creamed spinach... Martini, or Bloody Mary. Unless it's Thursday when the special is Chicken Pot Pie. There's also Barney's Beanery, which sports over 130 some odd beers, a few pool tables, and the 2nd best Chili in L.A.. ....Can't tell you about #1.

BREAKFAST: Dukes used to be at The Tropicana, former hotel to music legends touring through LA. Now only the Cafe exists at its new location by the Whiskey. GREAT for breakfast, make sure you add a Banana Shake to your order. Then there's Good Neighbor. Maybe not as good as Dukes, not as much history, but its family run: Mom & Pop are managers and some of their kids are wait-staff. Great low prices, and spicy pico de gallo added to omelets make this a favorite of mine. The parking can be a pain, if you are coming from the west - just grab the first spot on the street half way between Lankershim and the next block.

THAI: Sanamluang Cafe. No Thai Elvis (that's at Palms Thai) but it's the best Thai around. Open till 4AM... crazy good Noodles (Pad Kee Mow), but sometimes you just gotta get the crunch Garlic Pepper Beef over rice. Chase either down with a HUGE Thai Iced Tea.

WAT THAI - R.I.P.

MEXICAN : It's almost too hard to figure out what to post... For Tamales go to La Mascota buy a bunch and freeze 'em - only $1.35 each! For a non-dive / non-taco truck experience try some mole at La Cabinita. Best dive type, maybe not so safe depending on the time and if you are alone is Carnitas Michoacan... The al pastor or carne asada are great as long as you get it with LOTS of the smoky red salsa, and a horchata. Best 'Gringo-Mex' (aka totally safe, not autentico) is Poquito Mas. I still like the original in the Chauenga Pass - same mini-mall & parking issues at Good Neighbor. This is L.A. so, if you can't park, I recommend driving on to the next hole in the wall you see - probably not too bad.

Want to go SALVADOREAN? El Amanecer Salvadoreno. Only 1 review on Yelp, but I love this place Beef stew - ropa vieja-ish - is very good.

BURGER: I am a true In-N-Out kind of guy (animal style, please), but The Counter just opened up close to my house and I must say it's a bit spendy - but damn good. Get the onion strings and sweet potato fries 50/50 basket.

MIDDLE-EASTERN: Carousel - the one on Hollywood Blvd. Not as fancy or 'nice' as the Glendale one, but the food is insane. Lentil soup - YES; walnut paste thingy - YES; everything - YES! Next up - even if it is just for the Iraqui Laffa bread, and multi-salad sampler - The Hummus Bar & Grill

Eaten your fill? On to THINGS TO DO:

Half do / half eat: Take a horseback ride past the Hollywood sign and have a Mexican dinner then ride back over the hill.

Another half & half: Walk around and eat free fruit.

Lots of tours, and they are not only for tourists, even the ones that are and are actually in Japanese can be quite fun... get out and take some. ESOTOURIC, The Neon Tour, and Starline are a few of the better ones. Otherwise try this.

Spring is when you can see an amazing thing. Spain has its running of the bulls, but we have the Grunion Run. It's a late night, but the kids love it.

At Laurel Canyon Dog Park you can maybe see some movie stars. Last time I saw Mindy Cohn (Facts of Life) and Jessica Alba. Or better yet, maybe you'll get to see dogs and coyotes fence fighting.

Franklyn Canyon - I had been going here for years, feeding the ducks, but it wasn't until we did a show on the place that I found out it's literally the center of L.A.. Here the marker in case you get lost.

Ever wanted to fly a plane? Well you can fly a scale model with the L.A. Valley Flyers they have there own mini air-field and fly under the take-off pattern for Van Nuys airport. Another good one for the kids.

LAist always has good current info.

Want to see a game, or go to a game and people watch? Go to Dodger game when they let you on the field & watch fireworks - usually on a Friday night. The only bad thing is that Dodger Stadium is the only baseball stadium in the USA with NO public transportation going to it. In fact, L.A. has a TON of sporting options: Dodgers, Angels, Lakers, Clippers, Galaxy, Chivas USA, Sparks, Kings, Ducks, UCS, UCLA, Auto racing at Irwindale Racetrack, Calif. Speedway. Horse Racing at Hollywood Park or Santa Anita, LA Marathon and the easier / funner Bike-a-thon as well as various and misc other colleges, minor leagues and strange events - like The Derby Dolls Roller Derby.

Want some more history? Visit Campo de Cahuenga - the "Birthplace of California." Then there's the best hidden gem ever: The Zanja Madre. It's over by Olvera Street. which is crazy touristy (although it is close to Phillipe's.. yum), but if you fight your way over to the Avila Adobe you can find some herringbone patterned brick that marks the Zanja Madre or Mother Ditch - which was made to bring water to the 1st Angelino's. You can actually still see some of it sticking out of the steep embankment along Broadway. It was still around in Mulholland's time, in fact one of his early successes was covering the top so animals would not foul the water! Pretty cool bit of old LA history.

Last to do - SEE A MOVIE! Hollywood is the movie capitol of the world, so after you Nextflix SHOTGUN FREEWAY - you should see some other films... and don't just see them at a multi-plex get out there. The Thom Andersen film Los Angeles Plays Itself. A documentary on how Los Angeles has been used and depicted in the movies. Here is a YouTube clip.

You can also go to some of the many outdoor screenings like Cinespia at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Across the street from my office is The Hollywood Outdoor Cinema. You can also still do it the old fashioned way - at the drive in. My favorite is the MISSION TIKI. Regular drive-in too blasé? How about a drive in that DRIVES IN like the Hollywood MobMov? Along the same lines is The Angle City Drive-in. Hope to see you at the Sept. 12th screening of Fast Times At Ridgemont High!

Now speaking of all these movies, tune in to my latest movie WOMEN IN BOXES - The Documentary Film About Magic's Better Half!

You can set your Tivo's for Friday Sept. 25 at 9:00PM on the Documentary Channel, or Log onto http://www.fancast.com or http://www.snagfilms.com in early September. You can also wait till October and catch us on iTunes.

Your Los Angeles Crime Tour

2009-08-21T00:38:59Z

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.

]]> The Police Academy is tucked away in Elysian Park and is, surprisingly enough, a good spot to grab lunch. The Cobb Sandwich is actually pretty tasty, but you are not really going here for the food.

That noise you hear is LAPD target practice - you can look, but not shoot. Below is the shooting range, and a few helpful signs:

The next picture IS NOT Hef's grotto:

After lunch at the Daryl F. Gates Lounge & Dining Center, you can walk off the fries by paying a visit to the Academy's amazing rock garden - compete with waterfalls. In fact, while you're there think of a reason to have a party because it's available to rent! Weddings come to mind.

Finally, before you leave don't forget to stop in the gift shop. They have everything from T-shirts and LAPD trinkets, to real guns & tactical riot gear!

Jack Webb's guns are right by the entrance for those of you old enough to remember him.... He sure scared the hell outta me as a kid.

After the Academy, you can pay a visit to in at the LAPD Historical Society. While we were making SHOTGUN FREEWAY, the Society was trying to get a museum off the ground, so we cleaned and restored dozens of hours of old LAPD training films in exchange for being able to use them. Now they have a cool little museum and store, where the kids will enjoy sitting on a motorcycle or in the copter.

For a much darker tour of LA Crime history sign up for the ESOTOURIC Crime Tour. As their website explains:

Esotouric bus adventures debuted in May 2007 and soon was offering more than a dozen provocative tours into the secret heart of Los Angeles and the incredible personalities that made the city great, from the mad scientists of Pasadena Confidential to literary lions like Raymond Chandler and Charles Bukowski.

Don't want to get out of your armchair to actually take a tour? Then here are a few virtual ways to brush-up on historic L.A. crimes.

One crime for each day... of 1947.

1947 too current? Here are some older mysteries, solved and unsolved.

If you want something more - check out the last 7 days worth of crime right in your 'hood with (former) Chief Bratton's L.A. crime map. There are generous helpings of additional stats to be found there, but don't believe everything you find on a map... if you believe this L.A. Times story: Los Angeles Police Department's interactive crime map is full of errors, Times analysis finds

Speaking of the L.A. Times and believing the LAPD: The Times helped bring to light one a sad case involving a FOAF (friend of a friend): Bruce Lisker, who has been in jail for 26 years for a crime he did not commit - the murder of his mother. He will probably (I hope) be free by the time you read this, but his whole crazy story is here.

Bruce and his Mother in happier times.

Closing crime thought - hope you never need this.

Looking for serialized episodes from SHOTGUN FREEWAY: Drives Thru Lost L.A.? Episode 1 is here. Episode 2 - The Auto - is here.

A York Blvd. Derive

2009-08-12T16:58:52Z

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!)

]]> Galco's (5702 York Boulevard Los Angeles, Ca (323) 255-7115) has been a family biz for over 100 years. Now they pretty much just focus on sodas, beer and old-fashioned candy. (where else can you still find Wax Lips & Bubble-gum cigarettes with powdered sugar smoke?)

As you can see from the photos above, my family has been working on a root beer float competition. So far Olde Rhode Island is the best, and a few of the unworthy bottles did not make the photo. You can also pick up real Coke & original Dr. Pepper. (100% cane sugar baby!)

After you grab your sodas at Galco's, head a few blocks down to the Huarache Azteca Restaurante (5225 York Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90042 (323) 478-9572). It's a tiny place, and really the best thing to get is the Huarache - and no: it is not a shoe, but a flat bread, bean, cheese and meat concoction that's REALLY good!!!

(Thanks to EXILEKISS for the Huarache photos!)

If that sort of footwear scares you, or if sitting at a table is too fancy for you, try Taco La Estrella - its just down the block a bit, it is literally a full-time parked taco truck - with permanent signage. The Carne Asada Tacos ($1.25 each!) are AMAZING - make sure you get the smoky, spicy red salsa on the taco - just order it 'con todo'

(A lot of Yelpers & Chowhounders give props to the El Pique taco truck which is literally 40 yards from La Estrella, but I'm 2 for 2 with less than stellar meals.)

Those of you looking to land on the gentrified side of the blvd, you can be hip & cool and well fed on a burger & beer (15 or so on tap) at The York on York (5018 York Blvd. LA CA 90042 323-255-9675.) Yummy, fun and a bit $pendy. This is the vibe much of York Blvd. will have in a few years, but in the meantime, you can keep up to date on all things York Blvd here

Looking for serialized episodes from SHOTGUN FREEWAY: Drives Thru Lost L.A.? Episode 1 is here. Episode 2 - The Auto - is here. Worried about CRIME? (The episode, that is.) You can watch it here.

Shotgun Freeway: The Auto

2009-08-06T20:47:08Z

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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These days I drive a Prius (a tiny Toyota!) and am averaging over 45 MPG combined!

Since L.A. is such a car town, I thought a good companion to THE AUTO chapter of SHOTGUN FREEWAY would suggestions for good places to go see all kinds of cars.

The biggest and most exposed would be the L.A. Auto Show. Also pretty well known would be The Petersen Museum - you'll certainly get some history here, kids should love it and its small and manageable. They have some nice permanent collections and new exhibits.

For the true auto-buff there is the Nethercutt Collection, not quite as kid-friendly or interactive as the Petersen, but the cars are AMAZING. Look for the 1932 Maybach - Zeppelin DS 8/Convertible Sedan. My grandfather actually sold that car to Mr. Nethercutt. My mother would drive it back in the day to the original In-N-Out Burgers #2 restaurant.

Imagine her driving one of these for a burger! Total So-Cal moment.

Below is my mom, BTW:

But probably the coolest (if you are 10 years old and it's a Sunday) is the Automobile Driving Museum. As they say themselves, it's a museum that takes you for a ride!!!

As you can see from the video, you get to drive the cars at the Automobile Driving Museum. Free parking, free admission, donation requested - come on; kick them a few bucks. Check their website for driving info, but the skinny is: walk-in and drive on Sundays, other days, drive by appointment.

Lastly, I am saddened to be watching the slow death of the Thomas Brothers Map book, thanks to GPS. I still have my 1st one and know locations not by street name, but by page number. For those of you who swear by your electronic devices, they also sell giant wall maps. More modern maps of LA can be found here.

Okay, that's it for today. My next will be all about my own derive, from the Latin de riva to drift...

Looking for serialized episodes from SHOTGUN FREEWAY: Drives Thru Lost L.A.? Episode 1 is here. Worried about CRIME? (The episode, that is.) You can watch it here.

A Big Screen Drive Thru My L.A.

2009-08-04T19:05:35Z

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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This launched the first leg of my career in the biz, a stretch that included working on sci-fi and horror films, as well as working for the Playboy Channel on a lusty (but not pornographic!) soap opera. (Among other things, I got to take young, tall Playboy models to LAX to get them through customs to the location in Mexico; people always wondered who the short guy with the gaggle of bombshells was.) After a few years of this I was totally burnt out, not to mention depressed when I got to see the cigar and scotch budget for the suits on one of the few big-ish films I'd worked on. I thought to myself: I could make a whole movie for that much! I even had a topic already in mind, something about the history - or purported lack thereof - in our city of angels. Luckily, a high school friend named Morgan Neville (who continues to make docs here in Los Angeles) was looking to make basically the same film. Luckier still, another high school friend named Scott King (who helped fund a bunch of other films, and now blogs about his massive ticket-stub collection here), was in the mood to finance such a film to the tune of your average cigar and scotch budget: $50,000. Thanks Scott!

And so SHOTGUN FREEWAY: Drives Thru Lost L.A. was born. It's a feature length film-collage of old chamber of commerce films, accompanied by the views and insights of 14 noted Angelino's, including David Hockney, Buck Henry, Joan Didion and James Ellroy. We did pretty much everything ourselves and it took Morgan and I three years to finish it. The living-room of our apartment was covered in tapes and archival films that we'd begged, borrowed, and (depending on the statute of limitations) stolen. In classic DIY fashion, we did whatever we needed to do to get it done. At one point we were editing SHOTGUN FREEWAY from 10PM to morning on the Northern Exposures series Avid system, which was fun until I re-calibrated the monitors one night. For another long stretch we found ourselves hand cleaning 100's of hours of old films that the LAPD Historical Society had discovered in a back jail cell, this in exchange for permission to use their materials in our own doc. (More on the Historical Society later.)

Morgan and I had been driven to make the film in response to the endless harping we'd hear from our New York and San Francisco friends about the lack of history in L.A.. We wanted to prove them wrong, and that desire turned into a 3-year quest that taught us amazing, amazing things about the region. Below you can watch the intro chapter to the film. Next post we'll tackle chapter 2: THE AUTO. You can watch it here.

Looking for serialized episodes from SHOTGUN FREEWAY: Drives Thru Lost L.A.? Episode 2 - The Auto - is here. Worried about CRIME? (The episode, that is.) You can watch it here.

Parenting From the Inside Out

2009-07-14T00:21:27Z

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?

]]> I approached my daughter's day care teacher for suggestions and she pointed me towards a seminar called Parenting from the Inside Out. Led by Dr. Daniel J. Siegel, a clinical professor from UCLA, the seminar was billed as way to explore the internal world of parenting through an examination of emotional childhood memories, storytelling, and brain function. Siegel claims that undergoing a "self-understanding process" leads to the development of what he calls a "secure attachment" with your child, helping them to thrive and you to retain your sanity.

On the way over I imagined I'd be walking into a quaint, supportive hand-holding session, maybe held in a pastel pre-school classroom. Instead, I was one of about 200 people packed inside a church in Santa Monica. It was a bit unnerving at first. The revival atmosphere had me thinking that I was such a bad parent that I needed a religious intervention. I literally started having an anxiety attack as I sat there, which flashed me back to a period in my mid-20s when I would have such attacks all the time.

The root cause of my youthful neurosis was no mystery: I was having a very difficult time with a new job as a junior high school teacher in the South Bronx. At the time a therapist tried to help me develop tools to become a better communicator - to listen to my students while separating my own personal baggage from the meaning or intent of their words - but I didn't get very far before another set of life changes had me leaving teaching altogether.

Back in Santa Monica, my anxiety lifted enough for me to realize Dr. Siegel was painting the same picture of language, memory and emotion as my old therapist had, only now applied to parenting. The way individuals react to any given exchange stems from their own experiences, and, for parents trying to raise their children, everyday stresses can trigger deep and dark memories of their childhoods and difficult events between them and their family members.

Dr. Siegel came up with a great example: imagine you are getting your child ready for bed. You go with her to the bathroom to help her brush her teeth, but she insists the other parent help instead. That moment of seeming favoritism can easily trigger a memory response rooted in a moment when your own parents seemed to choose someone else over you, thereby causing you to act irrationally towards your child.

Sitting in the seminar, I kept hoping that there wasn't some traumatizing memory lurking in the recesses of my unconscious mind, something to turn me into Joan Crawford from Mommy Dearest.

I can't imagine anything so drastic rising to the surface, but it was great to be reminded that my own childhood traumas could be potentially driving my present-day responses to my daughter. Knowing is just half the battle, but I had to thank Dr. Siegel for helping me make the connection... Not to mention reminding me of that most excellent therapist in NY!

12 Years for Laura Ling and Euna Lee

2009-06-08T20:45:56Z

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.

]]> There is hope for release. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who has dealt with North Korea in releasing Americans held within their borders, told the Today Show that the conviction starts the groundwork for release. Once found guilty, the two American journalists could be pardoned under a framework of negotiations.

The families, including Laura Ling's sister TV reporter Lisa Ling, were silent from the time the women were arrested on March 17 until a media blitz last week that culminated with a national vigil on Wednesday. They have gone back into silence, offering some hint at further negotiations.

The journalists' employer, Current TV, has been mysteriously silent.

In addition to releasing the Americans in the past, Pyongyang has offered other goodwill gestures, though they have been shadowed by criminal acts. The government allowed five Japanese that were kidnapped by North Koreans between the late 1970s and early 1980s to return to Japan in 2002. One of the Japanese, Hitomi Soga, was allowed to have her husband and daughters leave North Korea and reunite with her in Indonesia two years later.

Vigil for Journalists Detained in North Korea

2009-06-03T18:26:45Z

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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Since the women's arrest, family members had been silent, hoping to work out their release quietly. Now, family members, including Lisa Ling, have made emotional public entreaties for the US and North Korea to talk.

The trial for the two women begins June 4 in North Korea.

Lisa Ling will be at the Santa Monica vigil on Wednesday, June 3, that starts at 6:30pm at Wokcano on 1413 5th Street. This is part of a national show of support in Chicago, Washington, New York, Birmingham, Portland and San Francisco.

Public support played no small part in the freeing of journalist Roxana Saberi in Iran. She narrowly avoided an eight-year prison sentence after she was accused of spying. Now, two more journalists need the public's support in avoiding an uncertain fate in North Korea.

Little Tokyo, f.k.a. "Bronzeville"

2009-05-14T22:04:12Z

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.

]]> But not all Japanese Americans followed the order for internment.

Tim Toyama and Aaron Woolfolk's play "Bronzeville" tells the fictional story of one Japanese American holdout against the internment--a college graduate who hid in his attic. The story reveals the culture clash and understanding that develops between two different and oppressed peoples when an African American family moves into the home. The family must decide what to do with the fugitive (since, as Fred Korematsu had affirmed in his Supreme Court case against the government, resisting internment was against the law) and come to terms with who has the rightful claim to the home.

Unfortunately, tickets for the remaining performances directed by Ben Guillory at The New LATC (Los Angeles Theatre Center) are sold out. But to learn more about the real Bronzeville, and the political alliances between African Americans and Japanese Americans, check out Scott Kurashige book The Shifting Grounds of Race: Black and Japanese Americans in the Making of Multiethnic Los Angeles.

The UCLA PhD now teaches urban politics and Asian and African American history at the University of Michigan. Kurashige teases out the political alliances between the two ethnic groups and details the painful struggle against racism by reminding readers that Los Angeles did not intend to become a mecca of diversity. One 1920s marketing campaign to entice residents to Eagle Rock, described by Kurashige, uses racial homogeny as an incentive: "enjoying immeasurably the ideal climate that is ours, you will observe that the residents of Eagle Rock are all of the white race."

Today, such a claim of any Los Angeles neighborhood is impossible to make, but in the era of Bronzeville, it was the hard truth.

Asian Pacific Heritage Month: Events

2009-04-30T19:11:27Z

If the recession seems difficult to deal with as an adult, imagine what it's like for kids who have been abandoned by their single parents. Two of the centerpiece films at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival tell the stories of how resourceful and imaginative children can be in dire situations. The films also reveal the disappointment of depending on an uninvolved adult. The festival starts on Thursday, April 30, at the Directors Guild America.

]]> Tze Chun's Children of Invention is the opening film at 7:00pm. It's the story of two Chinese-American children and their immigrant mother living near Boston. The mother struggles to make ends meet and falls into one scam after another until one day, she disappears. The brother and sister pair learns how to take care of themselves and watch out for one another.

Treeless Mountain, which screens on Saturday, looks at two siblings left by their mother to the care of disinterested relatives. It's the second feature by director So Yong Kim (reviews).

Is the story of abandoned children fending for themselves in an unforgiving world a common theme in this festival? Surprisingly, yes, according to Visual Communications executive director Shinae Yoon (VC hosts the festival). The theme appears in several selections from around the world featured in the festival. And of course the biggest film of the year that tells the story of resourceful, abandoned children is Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire.

Why are directors telling these stories? Find out after the screenings that start tonight. There's a reception where you can meet Asian American producers, directors and actors, including Sung Kang, Brian Tee and Russell Wong.

The festival ends on Thursday, May 7 with the screening of Departures, this year's Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film. It's a story about a laid off cellist who secretly becomes a mortician and learns the traditional burial rituals of the dead.

I CAN HAS PODCAST

2009-04-08T21:49:18Z

In the last three weeks, I've done three podcasts on my site, madeleinebrand.com. The topic of the site: parenting. It's not a place where you'll hear a debate over cloth v. disposable diapers or why Madonna should stop adopting Malawian babies. I want it to be a place where we discuss real issues we parents deal with and talk about amongst ourselves. The latest podcast topic is what should your child learn at preschool? The answer I received may surprise you: the best thing they can learn is how to deal with delayed gratification. It's a lesson we adults probably need to relearn.

This new media thing has a steep learning curve. ProTools - arrgh! And I've gone from a staff of 15 to a staff of one. But it's really rewarding doing something by yourself and for yourself. (Well, hopefully for a few more people.) Someone once said (I think it was me, actually) that working for a big company is like being a child in a family: you have security, three meals a day--but you can't control when you eat those meals or what's in them. And ultimately Mom and Dad can kick you out of the house if they want to downsize.

I'm literally working in my own house now. So far the roof hasn't caved in. And the three meals taste pretty good, too.

The image associated with this post was taken by Flickr user jschneid. It was used under Creative Commons license. Many thanks, jschneid!

One Day at a Time: Hollyweird

2009-04-01T00:35:53Z

Here's the question everyone asks me now (after the requisite expressions of outrage/anger at NPR's decision to cancel Day to Day): "So what are you going to do now?" A very reasonable question to which I don't really have an answer. "Oh, I'm pursuing a bunch of things," I respond vaguely. The truth is, there's nothing concrete, nothing that's paying me a dime. But I feel like I'm being productive because I'm taking a lot of meetings in the tv industry, as they say here. I've lived in Los Angeles for five years, but only now am I learning about the beast that makes this city tick--tv and movies. Here are a few of my observations about what goes down at these meetings.

]]> 1) I am always offered a free bottle of water from the receptionist. Never coffee, never a soft drink, never a glass of water.

2) The people I meet with are exceedingly nice, with the exception of one high-profile producer, who said after rejecting everything I proposed: "I don't want to waste your time." (actually, maybe he was the nicest of all. I"ll have to see how it all pans out.)

3) Agents wear suits; everyone else wears jeans.

4) Never, ever pitch a show with the words "user-generated content, " as in what I said at my first pitch meeting: "I see it as a documentary series where people film themselves, you know - like YouTube - a lot of user generated content." First of all, I don't really know what that means. Second, the producer did, and hated it. After we left, my agent politely advised me never to utter those words again.

5) The meetings end with a lot of smiles and overly validated parking passes.

It's been months of these meetings, and only now do I feel like I made a good match. I met a group of producers whom I really like and who - I think - really like me. So now what? A whole new round of meetings.

Check out Madeleine's website to see more of what she's been up to.

The image associated with this post was taken by Flickr user darrylh and used under the Creative Commons license.

Madeleine Brand: One Day at a Time

2009-03-23T22:30:24Z

Editor's note: Every month, one of your neighbors - famous, anonymous, maybe infamous - will be joining the KCET Local team in order to blog about their corner of Southern California. First up is radio host Madeleine Brand, formerly of the late great NPR newsmagazine Day to Day.

For the first time in nearly 12 years, I'm no longer "Madeleine Brand, NPR News." The radio show I hosted for five of those years, here in LA -- DAY TO DAY -- was canceled and I was laid off.

During the last five minutes of the show, most of the staff was in the studio, and we did the show close live, all together ("Day to Day was a production of NPR News and Slate dot com.") It was intense. I cried after it was over. We all hugged. I miss them all already. That's one of the best things about the office, about work: the camraderie, being part of a group effort.

]]> Day to Day One (of my new life)

I slept in this morning. I got up at 6:30, a full half-hour after I would have already been at work in my old life. For the past five years (minus a few months off for maternity leave), my hours have been 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Now, as of today, they're pretty much what I want them to be.

So, what did I do with all this newfound freedom? Before the kids were up, I did the laundry, unloaded the dishwasher, made breakfast for everyone, made the kids' lunches. Then, I got the kids up, fed them, got them dressed, took them to school. So far, this is sounding pretty un-free, I know.

OK - here's the freedom part: I went to an exercise class, met with my agent about some tv pitches, had lunch out by myself, and did some window shopping (I love that expression; it reminds me of my Jewish grandmother who wore animal print pantsuits.) And now I'm writing this blog entry.

So, far nothing that's earning me any money. That will change, I'm sure.