viewfromaloft

Top Ten Things to Wake up to after a Downtown Weekend Hangover

LEADER OF THE PACK: Kenny "The Cat" Gutierrez, former resident of the downtown Los Angeles Arts District during the 1990's, sits in front of the former Blooms General Store July 14, 2011. The awning was taken down earlier that day.  iPhone photo by Gary Callahan.

Top Ten Things to wake up to after a downtown Los Angeles weekend hangover. 

10: Bloomfest is just a few days away.

9: An editor and writer loves living downtown, despite her crosstown commute to work. 

8: None of the downtown "Carmageddon" promotions included a seafood-based "Clamageddon."

7: A screenwriter hated living downtown and moved because he saw a neighbor being groped, and found blood in the streets.

6: A new can of worms opens with the talk of a Downtown baseball stadium is a “possibility.”

5:  Lindsey Lohan follows a screenwriter's scenario for a new video that has her being groped downtown and ends with blood in the streets.

4: There may be no one to call if your library materials are stolen in Little Tokyo.

3: The next big thing that will be seen, taped, or shot somewhere Downtown: Planking.

2: Frank McCourt is still in town.

1:  An Art Walk preview titled 'Chaos' became true in the saddest of ways.

 

'The Broad' Is Revealed: A Sneak Peek At Eli Broad's Downtown Museum

Diller, Scofidio + Renfro design for the Broad, Eli Broad's art museum on Grand Ave (Diller, Scofidio + Renfro via LAT).

The Los Angeles Times has a very early Wednesday night preview of Thursday's reveal for the $130-million three-story Eli Broad Museum, hereby known as the Broad.  Architecture Critic Christopher Hawthorne had time to mull over the design and declares there is "much to admire"  in the Diller Scofidio + Renfro design that has a "straightforward simplicity" and helps the museum "avoid becoming another of Bunker Hill's aloof, self-contained architectural landmarks."

Downtown Vid Pick: 'Los Angeles in the 20s'

 

VID PICK HISTORY EDITION: There is no music with this clip. In fact, there is not much documentation other than the Ford logo on the title cards. This silent travelouge of Los Angeles takes you through Central Park (Pershing Square), downtown's "Retail District," University of California (aka UCLA), "The Old Plaza," and includes a rare glimpse at the Hill street tunnel that once bore through a larger footprint of Bunker Hill.

Previous like-minded clips:

Broadway in the 1980s [vfal]

1898 /  South Spring Street by Thomas Edison [youtube] + and how it looks now? [youtube]

Arts District as Silent Film Location for Buster Keaton [vfal]

 

There is a Ghost of a Chance for Pro Football to come back to L.A.

Downtown Dios de los Muertos wearing California shades designed as a pro football team logo. 

ADDED 12.18: The introduction of renderings for AEG's proposed stadium were revealed Dec. 15.

 

Bringing NFL football back to Los Angeles is an idea that simply will not die.

The duel between Tim Leiweke and Ed Roski to resurrect L.A. as a NFL town is turning into a quarterback controversy between two players with high Power Rankings.

ESPN reports Vikings vice-president of public affairs Lester Bagley has stated both camps have approached the team to discuss relocation. The Vikings lease at their civic-owned stadium will soon end and there has been no commitment on a public funded stadium complex.

Now it has been reported that AEG plans to buy 35% of the San Diego Chargers, another team that has been on the relocation short list. Like the Vikings, they want a new stadium and have been unable to get beyond a conceptual rendering. Of course, the sale is being denied.

It also means that even if L.A. can land a team it won’t be naming it, disappointing provincial purists who prefer Los Angeles to finally have a sports franchise reflecting the region, not East Coast migration patterns.

There is some consolation with the Chargers's name. It has a L.A. pedigree. The Los Angeles Chargers are a charter AFL team and played here for one year.   The Los Angeles Vikings sounds out of place, but if they moved to Downtown it would have another relocated Minnesotan next door in The Lakers.

The bright side to a team that comes with a name is the tired snark won't come up;  monikers like LA Traffic, Taggers, or Wanna-bes.

Still, a new name can be more than a nod to the city and the diverse cultures that have a shared tradition.  Like the locals who honor the dead: Mexico’s Dias De Los Muertos in November,  Japan’s Obon Festival in August, the Chinese Ghost Festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month.

The Los Angeles Spirit, L.A. Phantom, or even Los Muertos. Crazed and loyal costumed L.A. football fans can fill a section dubbed The Haunt.

Not only that, naming a team after cultural apparitions would honor the long list of pro football teams that once played in L.A. and are no longer with us.

 

Professional Football Teams in Los Angeles

Los Angeles Buccaneers  (1926)  National Football League
Los Angeles Wildcats  (1926) American Football League *
California Shamrocks  (1935-1935?)  Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Hollywood Braves  (1935-1935?)  Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Los Angeles (Southern California) Maroons  (1935-1935) Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Westwood Cubs   (1935-1935?)  Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Hollywood Stars (1936-1938)  California Pro Football League
Los Angeles Bulldogs (1937) American Football League II*
Los Angeles Bulldogs  (1940-1945) Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Hollywood Bears  (1940-1942, 1945)  Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Los Angeles Mustangs (1943-1944) Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Hollywood Rangers (1944) American Football League lll*
Los Angeles Wildcats (1944) American Football League lll*
Hollywood Wolves (1944)  Pacific Coast Professional Football League
Los Angeles Dons (1946-1949)  All American Football Conference
Los Angeles Rams 1 (1947-1995) National Football League
Los Angeles Chargers 2  (1960-1961 )  American Football League lV*
Long Beach Admirals (1967) Continental Football League
Los Angeles Express  (1983-1985) United States Football League
Los Angeles Raiders 3 (1982-1995) National Football League
Los Angeles Cobras  (1988) Arena Football League
Los Angeles Xtreme  ( 2001) X Football League
Los Angeles Avengers  (2000-2009)  Arena Football League 

ADD: Southern California Sun (1974 -1975) World Football League

* There were four unrelated leagues over history named "American Football League."
1: Anaheim Stadium (Orange County) in 1980  /  St. Louis in 1995.
2: Moved to San Diego in 1961
3: Returned to Oakland in 1995.

List via L.A. Almanac

Graphic: (c) 2010 ed fuentes/ viewfromaloft

Night Before Christmas in Downtown L.A.

Merry Christmas from a Broadway Santa.

After linking last year's "A Downtown Christmas" someone emailed me to ask if I was doing another. Why not, I thought.  "A Night Before Christmas in Downtown L.A." is after the jump:

Street Fixtures

LINCOLN HEIGHTS LIGHTS: In the harsh blare of the Lincoln Heights 99 Cent Only Store, one of the 88 new steel roadway lights and 47 new pedestrian lighting poles retains its lines adding decorative flourish to N Broadway between Sichel Ave and the Los Angeles River, and a small jog of N Spring between Ave 18 and the LA River . . –– PR speak says CD14 Ed Reyes and the Department of Public Works Bureau of Street Lighting held a "North Broadway Street Lighting Ceremony " last night, to debut historic-style lights placed near the current 40-foot tall davits

 MORE LIGHT, PLEASE: The Art Deco overload known as the former Municipal Light Water + Power–– designed by Movie Palace Designer S. Charles Lee––looks even more impressive at night.

 

I had to blink twice

For anyone who does Downtown, this is a rare sight; an empty counter at Philippe the Original. According to the carvers, this is not unusual around 3pm, making the crowdless counter something to remember if you find yourself wondering where to go for a late lunch.

Encore: Philippe the Original Turns 100 [LAT Magazine]
In case you forget what the crowd looks like [EaterLA]
Welcome to Philippe's [website]

Pick Your Downtown Headline

This was crossing Main St at Fourth and had a personal photographer following it. The outfitted stilt walker was unavailable for comment, so it becomes our new online game: Make it up!

 

Downtown Rain

Assorted umbrellas were seen around Downtown, many must have been last-minute choices made by dwellers who see rain four times a year.  You can spot umbrellas that were trade show giveaways. They have product names emblazoned across the top.  Others were just wind bait, ready to be turned inside out by one good gust.  I think that's a sun umbrella on the right.

You can spot someone from a rain-soaked city. They will deftly close their umbrella outside a door, lightly tapping it twice, then have a last quick shake that slips off the rain, all in a careful motion. Others will stumble in, umbrella wide open, and wrestle with the handle, closing it only to get water all over themselves. "Rookie" I mumble as I dry off my shoes.

Pic of the Day

At 7th and Lebanon St, a background player for a commerical shoot found extra use for his prop briefcase.