Gentle reader,
This video vignette is a gift from our preservation pal Steve Lucero, who publishes incredibly beautiful dronescape footage of Los Angeles landmarks and landscapes on his The Artery, Los Angeles channel.
These days almost every news outlet has a drone, but much aerial footage produced is artless and choppy. Steve has a balletic style, a master’s sense of light and composition, and excellent luck with passing birds, and we eagerly tune into his new dronescapes… and sometimes, we even get the chance to commission one!
Here’s Steve’s entire dronescape of Charles Bukowski’s Westlake, produced in celebration of this Saturday’s literary walking tour debut. We’ve been telling stories about Charles Bukowski and helping to preserve his city since launching Esotouric in 2007, so there’s a lot going into this one.
In the footage, which includes the middle portion of our tour route, you’ll see the lovely pink bungalow court where the 30-something Bukowski recovered from his alcohol-induced bleeding ulcer and made the vow that he was going to be a poet before he died, the hillside Cooper Apartments (recently named The Bukowski by the fans who own it) where he wooed his first great love Jane (played by Faye Dunaway in the film Barfly), and a bonus view of J.M. Close’s fabulous Egyptian Revival Osiris Apartments, with its rare incandescent bulb roof sign.
If you’ve been wanting to take an Esotouric tour, this is a pretty special one, in a neighborhood that feels lost in time, but is rich with 21st century culture and community, and you can end the tour with a nosh at Langer’s. Join us, do!
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim & Richard
Esotouric
Psst… If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar and a subscriber edition of this newsletter, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. You can share this post to win subscriber perks. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking and bus tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.
UPCOMING BUS & WALKING TOURS
• Charles Bukowski’s Westlake (Sat. 5/11) • Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (Sat. 5/18) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sat. 5/25) • POP – Preserving Our Past Featuring the Dutch Chocolate Shop (Sat. 6/1) • Westlake Park (Sat. 6/8) • Highland Park Arroyo (Sat. 6/15) • Film Noir / Real Noir (Sat. 6/29) • The Real Black Dahlia (Sat. 7/6) • Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue (Sat. 7/13) • Miracle Mile Marvels and Madness (Sun. 7/21) • Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop (Sat. 7/27) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 (Sun. 8/4) • West Adams Sugar Hill and Angelus Rosedale Cemetery (Sat. 8/10) • Broadway: Downtown Los Angeles’ Beautiful, Magical Mess (Sun. 8/25) • Raymond Chandler’s Noir Downtown Los Angeles (Sat. 8/31)
A bird's-eye view of Charles Bukowski's Westlake neighborhood