October 2009 Archives
82. Hockney and L.A.
By D.J. Waldie
October 23, 2009
I once went to All Saints church in Pasadena to hear Lawrence Weschler give a talk. We are acquaintances, and we like each other’s work. (He is a man of many enthusiasms.) Weschler had recently written about David Hockney and in particular Hockney’s blue/gray/green Yorkshire landscapes. Hockney and his partner, John Fitzherbert, came to hear Weschler speak.
I had gotten to the church on Colorado Boulevard by foot, bus, train, and subway (in various combinations). The walk from the Gold Line station wasn’t far, but it still would be daunting at the hour when the lecture would be over. I hoped that Weschler might give me a lift back to the station, or that he or someone with enough time to kill might even take me back to Lakewood (about 45 minutes away).
It turned out that John Fitzherbert and David Hockney gave me that ride – to the Del Mar station of the Gold Line. Weschler had asked Hockney on my behalf.
Permalink Discuss (1 Comments)81. The constant fan
By D.J. Waldie
October 14, 2009
Blue is the color of true love, to twist a lyric sung by Donovan and Joan Baez. Dodger blue, in this particular instance. And no, I’m a not a fan. But I'm a friend of fans. And they know another fan of heroic proportions. He’s a fan of the Dodgers – a big fan – from Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, etc., etc.
I’ve been to Belfast, been to neatly gridded neighborhoods of semi-detached villas where Dodger fans today are as rare and unlikely as Catholic householders once were in those neighborhoods, Belfast being Belfast. And Irish hearts there beat fast for Manchester United football and the red and the black. Dodger blue doesn’t figure in at all.
But Conor Caldwell of Belfast bleeds the truest blue of City Terrance, Boyle Heights, East L.A., El Monte, Maywood, Bell, Rosemead, and everywhere that the voice of Vin Scully reaches the mind’s ear and conjures some essential part of what means to be of our wonderful and terrible place. Vin via the Internet and cable TV wings over the world to cool and rainy Belfast even.
Permalink Discuss80. Constant complaint
By D.J. Waldie
October 9, 2009
We who are of this place are continually approached by provincials who complain that Los Angeles isn’t like ________ (insert the name of someplace with blizzards). Departing L.A. Chief of Police Bratton is the latest exile who says he is returning east, in part, because the climate here is “too constant.”
That indictment is one of the oldest on record. Richard Henry Dana, working aboard a merchant ship from Boston, arrived in southern California in 1834 and stayed nearly a year tanning hides. He hated the climate and condemned the Californios because of it. The memoir of his voyage – Two Years Before the Mast – became an American bestseller in 1840.
Permalink Discuss (1 Comments)79. Forget it, Jake, It’s LA
By D.J. Waldie
October 2, 2009
I rode up to USC on Friday by bus and train to hear Bill Boyarsky. He is a 30-year veteran of the Los Angeles Times, a member of multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning teams of reporters, the writer of several books about California politics, and a columnist now for TruthDig.
Bill was to talk about his new book and take questions from what is always an idiosyncratic audience – the members of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities. (I am a member of the LAIH, and both Bill and I are published by Angel City Press in Santa Monica.)
Bill’s book is Inventing LA: The Chandlers and their Times, a companion – but not exactly – to the new PBS documentary by Peter Jones. Inventing LA: The Chandlers and their Times documentary will be broadcast on KCET on Monday, October 5 at 9:00 p.m.
Permalink Discuss (2 Comments)More KCET Local Blogs
404 City- Read Ophelia Chong's latest post, OCD: Savoring A Moment
Blur + Sharpen- Read Holly Willis's latest post, The Color of the Great Pumpkin
Cakewalk- Read Erin Aubry Kaplan's latest post, You Got A Problem With That?
City of Angles- Read Brian Doherty's latest post, Citizen Activists Win With Council
Movie Miento- Read Adolfo Guzman-Lopez's latest post, Watch
Pixeltown- Read Maxwell Strachan's latest post, The SoCal Spin 10/23
Think Tank LA- Read Jeremy Rosenberg's latest post, Basketball's Think Tanks
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