The Weird Side of the Superbloom

Gentle reader...

If you haven't spent springtime hiding under a rock, you've heard about the superbloom, the wildflower explosion that followed California's big winter rains.

The desert flowers really are magnificent, from tiny colored carpets in the sand to spectacular cactus blossoms to fields of orange poppies and purple lupines.

But yesterday, we trekked out to Joshua Tree National Park for a hike that highlighted the weirder side of the superbloom. Making the ascent on the Fortynine Palms Oasis trail in the cool of the dawn, we began to feel as if someone was watching us. It wasn't until we headed back down, with the sun warming the rocks, that we realized those watching eyes were Chuckwalla sized!

The path was busy with these docile giant lizards, our local iguana, basking, bobbing their heads in a dominance ritual and gobbling up fat caterpillars snatched off their wildflower perches. (Chuckwallas are supposed to be herbivores--not this year!)

So don't hide under a rock (unless you're this guy): get out and explore the most abundant springtime we've seen in many years. Who knows the weird wonders you may find along the trail?

We're on the bus on Saturday with an inspiring tour of writer Charles Bukowski's haunts and havens. On Sunday, we host a sold out forensic science seminar. New tours are posted through August, along with a Bukowski-themed May LAVA Sunday Salon. Join us, do!

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RECENTLY TOURED

Passage of the angels, Calvary Cemetery.

LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 4/23

Four times a year, we gather in the teaching crime labs of Cal State Los Angeles under the direction of Professor Donald Johnson to explore the history and future of American forensic science. On April 23, 2017, join us for From The Crime Lab To The Coroner's Office, an afternoon of historic murders and modern day investigation techniques. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. This event is now sold out. Click here for more info, or to get on the waiting list.

RECOMMENDED READING

Newly released: Kindle edition of Brad Schreiber’s Death in Paradise: An Illustrated History of the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner, tales from the dark side of local lore. Brad presents at Sunday’s sold-out forensic science seminar and hosted our recent special event tour based on his new book about Patty Hearst and the SLA.

COMING SOON

CHARLES BUKOWSKI'S L.A. - SAT. 4/22... Come explore Charles Bukowski's lost Los Angeles and the fascinating contradictions that make this great local writer such a hoot to explore. Haunts of a Dirty Old Man is a raucous day out celebrating liquor, ladies, pimps and poets. The tour includes a visit to Buk's DeLongpre bungalow, where you'll see the Cultural-Historic Monument sign that we helped to get approved, and a mid-tour provisions stop at Pink Elephant Liquor. New: souvenir Bukowski's L.A. booklet available. (Buy tickets here.)

FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR AT CAL STATE LOS ANGELES - SUN. 4/23... Sold out! Professor Donald Johnson hosts "From The Crime Lab To The Coroner's Office," featuring author Brad Schreiber's historic crime research and an introduction to crime scene investigations. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. (For more info, or to get on the waiting list, click here.)

RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES - SAT. 4/29... Follow in the young writer's footsteps near his downtown oil company offices to sites from The Lady in the Lake and The Little Sister, meet several real inspirations for the Philip Marlowe character and get the skinny on Chandler's secret comic operetta that we discovered in the Library of Congress nearly a century after it was written. Plus a stop at Scoops for noirish gelato creations and a visit to Larry Edmunds Bookshop. (Buy tickets here.)

THE LAVA SUNDAY SALON & BROADWAY ON MY MIND WALKING TOUR - SUN. 4/30... Our free cultural lecture series recently relaunched on the basement level of Grand Central Market with a walk to follow. This month, our focus is the history and current restoration of the Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial, above Chinatown. Free, reservation required.

BLOOD & DUMPLINGS - SAT. 5/6... Forget Hollywood, babe, 'cause the quintessential L.A. town is definitely El Monte, its history packed with noirish murders, brilliant thespians, loony Nazis, James Ellroy's naked lunch and the lion farm that MGM's celebrated kitty called home. See all this and so much more, including the Man from Mars Bandit's Waterloo, when you climb aboard the daffiest crime tour in our arsenal, and the only one that includes a dumpling picnic at a landmark playground populated with fantastical giant sea creatures. Special on this tour: the secret diary of Vilma, El Monte's sassy Clifton's Cafeteria camera girl. Not frequently offered, you won't want to miss this ride. (Buy tickets here.)

HOLLYWOOD! - SAT. 5/13... This new tour reveals the unwritten history of the sleepy suburb that birthed the American dream factory, a neighborhood packed with fascinating lore and architectural marvels. You won’t see the stars’ homes or hear about their latest real estate deals, but we’ll show you where some colorful characters breathed their last, got into trouble that defined the rest of their lives and came up with ideas that the world is still talking about. So for unforgettable stories you won’t hear on anyone else’s Hollywood tour, climb aboard and tour noir landmark Cross Roads of the World (Robert V. Derrah, 1936) and much more. (Buy tickets here.)

WEIRD WEST ADAMS - SAT. 5/20... On this guided tour through the Beverly Hills of the early 20th Century, Crime Bus passengers thrill as Jazz Age bootleggers run amok, marvel at the Krazy Kafitz family's litany of murder-suicides, attempted husband slayings, Byzantine estate battles and mad bombings, visit the shortest street in Los Angeles (15' long Powers Place, with its magnificent views of the mansions of Alvarado Terrace), discover which fabulous mansion was once transformed into a functioning whiskey factory using every room in the house, and stroll the haunted paths of Rosedale Cemetery, site of notable burials (May K. Rindge, the mother of Malibu) and odd graveside crimes. Featured players include the most famous dwarf in Hollywood, mass suicide ringleader Reverend Jim Jones, wacky millionaires who can't control their automobiles, human mole bank robbers, comically inept fumigators, kids trapped in tar pits, and dozens of other unusual and fascinating denizens of early Los Angeles. (Buy tickets here.)

THE LAVA SUNDAY SALON & BROADWAY ON MY MIND WALKING TOUR - SUN. 5/28... Our free cultural lecture series recently relaunched on the basement level of Grand Central Market with a walk to follow. May's Salon: S.A. Griffin celebrates Charles Bukowski. Free, reservation required.

Additional upcoming tours: Special Event: Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits’ L.A. (6/3), Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (6/10), Special Event: Desert Visionaries: Llano del Rio, Antelope Valley Indian Museum & Aldous Huxley’s Pearblossom Ranch (6/17), Eastside Babylon (6/24), Pasadena Confidential (7/8), The Real Black Dahlia (7/15), Charles Bukowski's L.A. (7/22), Raymond Chandler's L.A. (7/29), South L.A. Road Trip: Hot Rods, Adobes, Googie & Early Modernism (8/6), Weird West Adams (8/12), The Lowdown on Downtown (8/19) and Boyle Heights & Monterey Park: The Hidden Histories of L.A.'s Melting Pot (8/26).

OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST

Back from hiatus! In Episode #118: Adventures in the Hollywood Preservation Trenches: Lytton Savings & Frank Sinatra’s Bungalow, we get to know two dedicated history lovers, Steve Luftman and Douglas Quill, and learn how they're working to save places that matter. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!

AND FINALLY, LINKS

Great Streets branding fail… Maybe it's a sign that Pedro doesn't need such fancy signage?

On the Nickel, 1974. It's chilling to watch this footage, knowing that in just a few months, serial killer Vaughn Greenwood, the Skid Row Slasher, would begin praying on these vulnerable souls.

A proposal to make a clean slate surrounding City Hall leaves mid-century landmark Parker Center teetering on the brink.

Preservation is good public policy—and good publicity. Angels Flight restoration leads this Vogue magazine profile of Mayor Eric Garcetti.

And this is why historic buildings should never be sacrificed for speculative developments. Is there even going to be an Academy Museum?

Daffy LA landlord George Pan-Andreas proves poor steward for 19th century Wisconsin convent.

If you see Dr. Bourne on the trail, watch your wallet.

Duckling yoga in East Los Angeles.

Uncivil behavior at CD1 debate demonstrates L.A.’s need for smaller, more representative City Council districts.

yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric