Missing Murals from Old State Building in Los Angeles Not Missing - But Stolen!

California, Flags, Beauty and History
The Lucile Lloyd Mural, The Origin and Development of the Name of the State of California, is permanently installed in the John L. Burton Hearing Room behind the dais.

On October 16, 1937 three murals painted by Lucile Lloyd were unveiled at the State Building in Los Angeles. Commissioned specifically for the building through a Great Depression -Era program (the WPA), they remained on view for 38 years. The building was torn down for safety reasons in 1975. Fortunately, the murals were saved and in 1991, the Senate Rules Committee had them restored and installed in the California Room, recently rededicated The John L. Burton Hearing room, in honor of former Senate President pro tempore John Burton.

In a sweeping panorama, the three panels tell the history of the name of California. The two side panels portray important flags that have flown over the state. The central panel shows the history and development of the state through the Spanish Mexican and American eras. Realistic figures trace the state’s history, and vivid, colorful images illustrate the state’s unique natural beauty and resources.

Brand Books in Glendale to Close!

I don't what is harder to believe.  That Brand Books is only 29 years old (which means I must have started going there right after it opened - or that is now closing.  Sameea Kamal, of the LA Times has the full story in their Glendale paper.  sameea.kamal@latimes.com
 

Brand Bookshop to close doors after 29 years

A man searches the shelves of used books in at Brand Bookshop. The store will be closing its doors this summer after 29 years in business. (File Photo / June 28, 2014)

After 29 years in business, Brand Bookshop will be closing its doors.

Store employee Mauricio Ramirez confirmed the Brand Boulevard store that specializes in used books would be closing sometime in August.
Noriaki Nakano, adopted son of owner Jerome Joseph, said the decision to close the store was due to his Joseph’s poor health after a fall he took in July 2013.
“He lost the ability he used to have, not just simple memory, but the ability to handle or comprehend the business,” Noriaki said.
Joseph is now at an assisted living facility in Glendale since he is unable to live alone, Nakano said.
In addition, Nakano said it doesn't make sense to invest more in a business that is not bringing in a lot of money.
“I want to use the money for a better life for [Joseph], and to spend more time with him.”
Nakano, who is 66, said he has also reached the age for retirement himself.
The 5,000-square-foot bookshop has an inventory of about 100,000 books, Nakano said.

“It’s a big operation,” he said.

Joseph opened Brand Bookshop in 1985 with his business partner, Larry Mullen, a science fiction enthusiast who suggested the idea back when bookstores were still thriving, he told the News-Press in a previous interview.

“Business was good around 1993 up to about 2003 and that’s when business began to really slow because of the Internet and the economy,” Nakano told the News-Press in November 2013. “Lots of bookstores are downsizing or closing right now.”

Nokano said that sales at Brand Bookshop were down by 30% to 40% at the time, but they hoped the holiday season would help boost sales.

The store sent out a notice about its closing to its email list of 2,600 people. and while he received a lot of responses that were ‘difficult to deal with,’ he feels it was the best move for him and the store.

“The book business has changed dramatically,” he said. “People do not need to buy books, they can actually access reading any book on the Internet, so I understand, in a way, it’s very practical, especially among the young generation.”

As part of the store’s closing sale, all books will be 50% off from July 1 until the store closes.

Customers with store credit are also encouraged to spend it as soon as possible.

“My dad has actually built up such an empire, it was really a cultural landmark in the city of Glendale and it will be missed by many, many people,” Nakano said. “But nothing lasts forever. It’s time to close and move on.”

Lots of Literary Action at Figaro Bistro at 618 S. Broadway in DTLA from 5 PM to 11 PM Tonight!

 

The Downtown Literary Alchemy Laboratory, is experimenting in the literary arts, the business of publishing and the process of building community with 90 events in 90 days @ Figaro, 618 S. Broadway Ave, LA, CA 90014. Open 6/27-9/27/2014, M-Su 5:00-11:00 pm. A project of Writ Large Press. Contact writlargepress@gmail.com with inquiries.

Saturday, June 28

EXT. 
Discussion of art created in community, the role of art in building community and as an expression of community, featuring Chris Anthony, Jessica Ceballos, and Luis Rodriguez.
6:00 pm
INT.
Readings exploring the deeply personal followed by a discussion on the line between art and life and the role of the personal in connecting to a larger community, featuring Douglas Kearney, Jen Hofer, Wendy C. Ortiz, and Amarnath Ravva, Stalina Villarreal.
8:00 pm
Panelists/Peformers:
Chris Anthony is Associate Artistic Director at The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles. Chris is a director, teacher, actor and administrator specializing in community-based art making. Holding an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, she has taught in venues ranging from Elementary Schools to Adult Correctional Facilities. Chris oversees SCLA’s Youth & Education programs, specializing in youth development for adolescents. Recent directing credits include Lunch Lady Courage at Cornerstone Theater, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo & Juliet, and Othello at the St. Louis Black Rep, and Romeo & Juliet at SCLA. She has been a guest lecturer at the UC Davis, University of Southern California, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal Poly Pomona and Laverne University. A former board member of TYA/USA, her other professional affiliations have included P.L.A.Y. at Center Theatre Group, TeAda Productions, Plaza de la Raza, and Shakespeare at the Huntington.
Jessica Ceballos is a poet who dabbles in music and photography. She's a volunteer, community advocate, avid traveler, and cultural wanderer. Third generation Southern Californian, Jessica has been recognized by the Los Angeles City Council for her work bringing literary arts to the community. (She's even been nominated as Angeleno of the Year !) In April of 2014 Jessica was elected into the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council(HHPNC) as a Director At-Large. As a writer, her work has most recently appeared in Cultural Weekly, Los Angeles Magazine, YAY!LA, LA Examiner, La Boga, Hinchas de Poesia, Haight Ashbury Journal, EAP Journal #1, The RPB - LA Anthology, and RA, among others. She has featured at venues throughout Southern California, often with musical accompaniment. recently she's collaborated with El-Haru Kuroi, Taco Shop Poets & Los Illegals and an LA-based jazz trio featuring Emile Porée, Aaron McLendon, and Isaias Elpes at the Grand Park stage.
As a member of the Hollywood Institute of Poetics, Jessica co-founded (along with Rafael Alvarado), organizes, and hosts the Bluebird Reading Series at Avenue 50 Studio in Highland Park, CA. In the past, she has hosted a monthly reading at Beyond Baroque and has co-facilitated their 20th Century Latin American Poetry Workshop. In 2013, Jessica was invited by Avenue 50 Studio to curate the Poesia Para La Gente reading series, taking place throughout the North East LA area.
Luis J. Rodriguez is a leading Chicano writer with fifteen books in poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and nonfiction. His first memoir, 1993′s “Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.” has sold close to 500,000 copies and is considered one of the 100 most censored books in the United State by the American Library Association. He is cofounder of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore and founding editor of Tia Chucha Press. He is also a renowned gang intervention/urban peace leader and has traveled throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Europe, and Japan to read poetry, do workshops or speak. In addition, he is a Native American/Mexican healer and thinker, and has been involved in revolutionary social change for forty years. His latest book is the sequel to “Always Running,” entitled “It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing,” which in 2012 became a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Luis recently ran for Governor of California and is continuing the “Imagine a New California” campaign intersecting the three pillars of a healthy and thriving society—the environment, the economy and social justice.
Poet/performer/librettist Douglas Kearney’s second, full-length collection of poetry, The Black Automaton (Fence Books, 2009), was Catherine Wagner’s selection for the National Poetry Series. Red Hen Press published Kearney’s third collection, Patter, in March 2014. He has received fellowships at Cave Canem, Idyllwild, and others. His work has appeared in a number of journals, including Poetry,nocturnes, Pleiades, Callaloo, Fence, LA Review of Books, The Iowa Review, and The Ninth Letter. His produced operas include Sucktion,Mordake, and Crescent City. Raised in Altadena, CA, he lives with his family in California’s Santa Clarita Valley. He teaches at CalArts, where he received his MFA in Writing (04).
Wendy C. Ortiz is a Los Angeles native. Her first book, Excavation: A Memoir, will be published by Future Tense Books in July 2014. Her second book, Hollywood Notebook, is forthcoming from Writ Large Press in 2014. She currently writes the monthly column "On the Trail of Mary Jane" about medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles forMcSweeney's Internet Tendency. Wendy holds an M.A. in Clinical Psychology and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. A Writer-in-Residence at Hedgebrook in 2007 and 2009, Wendy is also co-founder and curator of the Rhapsodomancy Reading Series at the Good Luck Bar in Hollywood.  Wendy has written op-eds for The Olympian and the Los Angeles Times, as well as numerous articles for Works In Progress in Olympia, Washington. Wendy is an adjunct faculty in creative writing and has also facilitated creative writing workshops with Los Angeles youth in juvenile detention facilities. Wendy is at work on a book based on her Modern Love essay published in The New York Times, as well as a poetry collection. She writes, parents, and works as a marriage and family therapist in Los Angeles.
Amarnath Ravva has performed at LACMA, Machine Project, the MAK Center at the Schindler House, New Langton Arts, the Hammer Museum, USC, Pomona, CalArts, and the Sorbonne. In addition to his writing practice, he is a member of the site specific ambient music supergroup Ambient Force 3000 and for the past eight years he has helped run and curate events at Betalevel, a venue for social experimentation and hands-on culture located in Los Angeles’ Chinatown. He holds a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley and an M.F.A. from CalArts, where he was awarded an interdisciplinary grant to help support his documentary work in South India.
Jen Hofer is a Los Angeles-based poet, translator, social justice interpreter, teacher, knitter, book-maker, public letter-writer, urban cyclist, and co-founder of the language justice and literary activism collaborative Antena. Her translation of Negro marfil by Mexican poet Myriam Moscona, published as Ivory Black by Les Figues Press in 2011, won the 2012 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets and the 2012 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. Her other translations include the homemade chapbook En las maravillas/In Wonder (Libros Antena/Antena Books, 2012);sexoPUROsexoVELOZ and Septiembre, a translation fromDolores Dorantes by Dolores Dorantes (Counterpath Press and Kenning Editions, 2008); lip wolf, a translation of lobo de labioby Laura Solórzano (Action Books, 2007); and Sin puertas visibles: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by Mexican Women (Ediciones Sin Nombre and University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003).
Her most recent books are the handmade chapbook Lead & Tether (Dusie Kollektiv, 2011); a series of anti-war-manifesto poems titled one (Palm Press, 2009); and The Route, a collaboration with Patrick Durgin (Atelos, 2008). She has poems, essays and translations forthcoming from Dusie Books, Insert Press, Kenning Editions, and Litmus Press. She teaches in the MFA Writing Program at CalArts and the Graduate Writing Program at Otis College of Art & Design, and works nationally and locally as a social justice interpreter through Antena. Most recently she has been hand-sewing quilted poems; her installation “Uncovering: A Quilted Poem Made from Donated and Foraged Materials from Wendover, Utah” is currently on view at the CLUI.
Stalina Villarreal is a Mexican and Chicana poet, a translator, and an instructor of English. The book (H)emötoma by Minerva Reynosa has been the main focus of her translations, for which she attended World to World, Mundo a Mundo in 2009 to workshop poems from the book. She is also the translator of “Grace Shot,” by Luis Alberto Arellano in Sèrie Alfa: Artiliteratura, “Eight Fabulous Animals” by Ilan Stavans in Eleven Eleven, and nine poems by Minerva Reynosa in the latest Mandorla. She has an MFA in Writing from the California College of the Arts in the San Francisco Bay Area. Stalina lives and works in Houston.

Discover the Secrets of the Past, Present & Future of Historic Downtown LA this Saturday & Sunday

Yes, for the months of July there will be walking tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles every Saturday and every Sunday starting at The Last Bookstore including this Saturday July 5th and Sunday July 6th.
The Last Bookstore (and its  2nd floor with 50,000 books at ONE DOLLAR each!)  Presents  June & July 10:30AM Saturday and a 11AM Sunday START TIMES FOR 2 hour walking tours  of the The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles -  FEATURED In GQ MAGAZINE and Endorsed By - LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE!

 
There will be a HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tour every Saturday from 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM and every  Sunday there will be a start time of 11:00 AM and an ending time of 1:00 PM. And among the many things you will learn this weekend is that if a friend of Wyatt Earp's had not built the Alexandria Hotel - it would have been impossible for George Gershwin to have written his iconic Rhapsody in Blue.

And all tours start at THE LAST BOOKSTORE in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th and Spring and they are still only $15 per person.

And  besides our regular scheduled tours, we will be offering customized tours on different days and different times and from one to three hours including weekdays - depending on your schedule.  With a minimum of four reservations, we will design a tour of any part of Downtown focusing on any subject matter you choose.  These tours can be after work, during lunch breaks - or??

FOR MORE INFORMATION  - contact Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 - or bradywestwater@gmail.com

BRADBURY BUILDING

All tours begin at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street in the Spring Arts Tower and will be led by long time Downtown resident Brady Westwater who, besides being involved with the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, the Historic Downtown BID, Gallery Row, Art Walk, and the BOXeight and the CONCEPT Fashion Weeks, has brought over 150 businesses, artists and non-profit institutions to Downtown.  All tours are only $15 per person.  

Wyatt Earp

If you are a participant in 'Historic Downtown Los Angeles 101' Tour, you will see the first motion picture theater built,  the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emmet Dalton,  actor Ryan Gosling and more.  And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.

You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral.  At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.

You will also see where the first new lofts were opened, the places where Gallery Row and the Art Walk began and where Fashion Week returned to Downtown.  You will see many of the new boutiques, designer showrooms and stores that have recently opened in the area along with getting a sneak preview of what will soon be happening in the area.

Tickets for either tour are only $15 per person - free for children under 8 - and reservations can be made by calling Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 or emailing bradywestwater@gmail.com.  All credit card orders will be processed  at Last Bookstore and cash payments may be made at the start of the tour.   All proceeds will go towards the revitalization and the study of the history of the neighborhood.  

Lastly, future tours will feature specialized areas of interest such as architecture, art of all kinds, shopping and food, single streets, sports (from steer wrestling to luchador wrestlers to a Sumo wrestler), transportation, specific periods of history, the hidden Wild West history of Los Angeles, movie locations, Downtown after hours and many other aspects of the neighborhood. And custom designed can be developed by request  for groups of four or more.

We will also be soon starting weekday and evening tours on what it's like to live in Downtown Los Angeles. You will be introduced to the many of stores, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues (and often their owners, too) - along with being given previews of one of a kind special events - so you can get a feel for what it is like to live in Downtown Los Angeles.

We expect this tour to be popular with not only people considering moving to Downtown and people who work in Downtown and who would like to know what to do after hours in Downtown - but also to recent and even long established Downtown residents who want to know more about their neighborhood.

Six Reasons Why Zumthor's New Design for LACMA Can Never Be Built

Kevin Roderick over at LA OBSERVED has the best round-up of articles on architect Peter Zumthor's latest revised design for a new LACMA; a design that now crosses Wilshire Boulevard and  incorporates part of the parking lot (and future LACMA development site) across the street.  This was done to lessen the building's impact on the tar pits in Hancock Park.  But by doing this, new problems have been created - two of which are large enough to - in my opinion - kill the project once they are properly considered.

But there is a potential solution to this possible stalemate..  Build a new museum on the parking lot parcel - which eliminates the need to demolish any of the existing buildings at this time - and then decide what to do with the rest of the campus.

Below are the six reason why I feel this project will not go forward.  But it is really reason number 6 - and 5 to a lesser extent - that I feel will make the project impossible to construct.  But first read Kevin Roderick's summary.


1.  The original LACMA buildings - though not the great architecture they could have been if Mies van der Rohe had been selected - are increasingly emblematic of their time and are now an important part of our social and cultural heritage.  The complex is also reaching an age when the merits of its urban planning design and its architectural style are able to be better appreciated and evaluated.

The Anderson building is more problematic.  Its architecture is merely typical of hundreds of buildings of its time and its awkward siting disrupted the entrance to the original complex.  Still, with a new architect, the Anderson might be reconfigured to play another role or be totally remodeled/rebuilt to become part of  the new building design and possibly the new main entrance to the complex.

Ideally, the Bart Prince designed Pavilion for Japanese Art would also be kept.

2.  The proposed new building still remains a sprawling blob with no clear entrance and no obvious connection with either the sidewalk or the street.  It remains an alien object hovering over Wilshire; an object seemingly meant to be driven by - and driven under - but never actually entered.  It is the literal recreation of the old Los Angeles myth that LA is not a city but only 37 suburbs in search of a city. Now, granted, those who already regularly go to art museums will likely find the alien quality of the structure - towering above them on 30 foot silicon legs, intriguing.  But it is far less likely that those who already find art museums too intimidating will feel welcomed by this structure.

3.  The sprawling floor plan is a museum goers nightmare.  By going horizontal rather than vertical - besides eating up all the usable land on the existing site and destroying the viability of the site across the street - Zumthor makes navigating the museum much harder.

Tourists already suffering from museum feet after days of walking and locals who want to stop by for an hour to see some of their favorites will no longer be able to take an elevator in the Ahmanson or the Anderson and find what they want to see.  They will instead have to walk far longer distances to get from one part of the museum to the other.  This design is to museums what urban sprawl is to cities.

4.  The new building will still plunge everything under it into darkness.  But that shadow now also includes Wilshire Boulevard and the sidewalks  on both sides of the street.  Unlike the Getty or the present LACMA complex (which allow you to go out into the sunlight and the fresh air of a plaza between each building to refresh your palate), Zumthor rejects any interaction with the ground or the outside world other than viewing it from up high through windows.

5.  Unexpectedly, this latest plan also has the side affect of making any major future, logical expansion of the museum - close to impossible.  By having the building across Wilshire and incorporating the middle of the parcel across the street that LACMA had  bought for future development - Zumthor not only destroys what previous architects have built - but he also destroys the ability for LACMA to have any future architect develop a major building on the other site - or on any other part of the existing LACMA campus

And now that the May Company - which was originally going to be part of LACMA before it became the Hollywood Museum (one of the brilliant moves Michael Govan has made since taking the reins at LACMA) is gone and with the new building now being forced to sprawl over all the developable land on the other side of Wilshire, any major future expansion will have to occur on another site.

And since the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is only LA museum that collects the entire history of  art and in every possible medium from medieval armor to contemporary fashion to antique zoetropes - the only way it can compete for major donations for its dozens of different collections  - is by having the land for major donors to build the spaces needed to greatly expand those collections.

6.  Finally - here is the last - and most important - reason why this plan can never never be built.

Throughout history art has found itself under attack by those who oppose the culture it sprang from.  Al Queda's destruction of major cultural monuments in Afghanistan and the current destruction of  'offensive'  art and artifacts in Iraq are only two of many recent examples  And if LACMA  constructs a massive art museum over Wilshire Boulevard that millions of people will pass under each year -will  create not just a target  - but the perfect target imaginable for those who oppose the cultures that created that art.

All it will take is one person - a single Timothy McVeigh - or a solitary terrorist with misguided religious beliefs  -  to detonate a truck filled with explosives - or a portable bomb - while driving under LACMA to bring the building's connection over Wilshire tumbling down  And there is no way that type of attack can be prevented.

So by building a museum filled with thousands of years of Western (and non-Western) art over a major iconic road in the heart of a major city, LACMA will be creating a uniquely - and totally unnecessarily vulnerable -  target; a compelling, failure free target perfect for any international terrorist group  - or any single person - wanting to attack that culture.

And that alone is reason enough not to build this project.

Excellent Article on Brigham Yen and Downtown LA in Los Angeles Register

I don't know how I missed it, but a few days ago Bill Johnson of the Los Angeles Register had a feature piece on a four hour tour given to him by DTLA resident and blogger Brigham Yen.  I'll just give you the opening two sentence below - and then you can go to the Register website and read the rest.

You have not truly arrived, I believe, until Brigham Yen takes you under his wing for one of his massively informative and exhaustive tours, one that almost everyone knows about and jockeys to join. The man simply loves downtown. You might think this would have everything to do with his chosen avocation as a real estate agent here, but that seems almost insulting now, post-tour, as I sweat profusely and my feet scream out in agony.

 And here - again - is the link to the rest of the story.

Only One of the Five Largest US Book Publishing Companies is American Owned

In The Good Men Project, mystery writer J. E. Fishman uncovers the mystery of how while everyone has been worrying about the power of Amazon -  the five largest publishers in the United States have ended up in the hands of foreigners.  Two are owned by German companies, one by the French and a fourth is owned by an Australian firm; a tally which does not cover smaller publishers owned by the Brits, among others.  And, according to Fishman, even the last remaining US owned major publisher may soon slip out of American hands.

That leaves, among the Big Five, Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS, which is actually an American company for real. But before you indulge visions of launching a rearguard action from the remaining wisp of ‘Murican cultural territory, you might consider rumors that CBS has considered pitching this dead tome overboard since at least 2013. Maybe the Russians will buy it. Gazprom and Schuster, anyone? - See more at: http://goodmenproject.com/arts/book-war-authors-already-lost-hesaid/#sthash.iMJ30NYK.dpuf

That leaves, among the Big Five, Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS, which is actually an American company for real. But before you indulge visions of launching a rearguard action from the remaining wisp of ‘Murican cultural territory, you might consider rumors that CBS has considered pitching this dead tome overboard since at least 2013. Maybe the Russians will buy it. Gazprom and Schuster, anyone?

Now even though I was roughly acquainted with these facts, it was not a situation I much thought about - or even now feel particularly concerned with, much less, am worrying about.  But - still - it is a reality every US writer should be aware of.  Here is the opening of his piece:

J.E. Fishman questions the importance of publishing companies in a book’s success. 

____

Question: If books are an important part of the culture — and I believe they are — does it follow that the way we publish and sell books is an equally important part of the culture?

If you answered Yes, you should know we’ve been under siege from foreign forces for a long time.

It started back in the Thirties when a newly minted British company called Penguin sent a flotilla of cheap paperbacks to our shores and changed the economics of American book publishing forever. I know what you’re thinking: Who knew that the British had founded anything new at all since the nineteenth century? But at that time, apparently, they spotted some economic flaws in the hidebound U.S. book industry.

When those dime paperbacks flooded the market, you can bet that a lot of stodgy old east-coast publishers started pissing their dollar-stuffed pants. The new competition soon put their fat margins under pressure, eventually forcing them to indulge in the sincerest form of flattery: imitation. Pretty soon there were dime paperbacks (later known as mass market paperbacks) everywhere.

Through all of this disruption no one asked authors what they thought. When it came to business, authors were there to be read and not heard — at least not on the subject of business. Many authors probably stood appalled, but others jumped in and wrote pulp fiction until their fingers bled. Some of these authors went on to become major brands. Go figure.

But the foreign invasion didn’t stop there. It took a pause for World War II, and with the whole world a smoldering wreck and the U.S. standing proud we had nothing to fear for a while from foreign dominance. Then the Germans, of all people, came ashore.

In 1986 that now-famous German publishing conglomerate Bertelsmann — of whom, I guarantee, not a soul in America had ever heard before 1986 — purchased venerable old publisher Doubleday for nearly half a billion dollars. With that kind of loot kicking around the Nelson Doubleday household, our cultural defenders forgot to contemplate whether this acquisition was good for American letters. Maybe it helped knowing that Bertelsmann had begun life as that most unthreatening of all entities: a Bible publisher.

 Anyway, once again, no one asked authors — you know, those originators of the content that makes the book business the book business — what they thought. The only option authors had was to go on writing books and hope it all worked out.

The rest of the article is here.

The Book War That Authors Have Already Lost

June 21, 2014 by The Weeklings 2 Comments

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J.E. Fishman questions the importance of publishing companies in a book’s success. 

____

Question: If books are an important part of the culture — and I believe they are — does it follow that the way we publish and sell books is an equally important part of the culture?
If you answered Yes, you should know we’ve been under siege from foreign forces for a long time.
It started back in the Thirties when a newly minted British company called Penguin sent a flotilla of cheap paperbacks to our shores and changed the economics of American book publishing forever. I know what you’re thinking: Who knew that the British had founded anything new at all since the nineteenth century? But at that time, apparently, they spotted some economic flaws in the hidebound U.S. book industry.
When those dime paperbacks flooded the market, you can bet that a lot of stodgy old east-coast publishers started pissing their dollar-stuffed pants. The new competition soon put their fat margins under pressure, eventually forcing them to indulge in the sincerest form of flattery: imitation. Pretty soon there were dime paperbacks (later known as mass market paperbacks) everywhere.
Through all of this disruption no one asked authors what they thought. When it came to business, authors were there to be read and not heard — at least not on the subject of business. Many authors probably stood appalled, but others jumped in and wrote pulp fiction until their fingers bled. Some of these authors went on to become major brands. Go figure.
But the foreign invasion didn’t stop there. It took a pause for World War II, and with the whole world a smoldering wreck and the U.S. standing proud we had nothing to fear for a while from foreign dominance. Then the Germans, of all people, came ashore.
In 1986 that now-famous German publishing conglomerate Bertelsmann — of whom, I guarantee, not a soul in America had ever heard before 1986 — purchased venerable old publisher Doubleday for nearly half a billion dollars. With that kind of loot kicking around the Nelson Doubleday household, our cultural defenders forgot to contemplate whether this acquisition was good for American letters. Maybe it helped knowing that Bertelsmann had begun life as that most unthreatening of all entities: a Bible publisher.
Anyway, once again, no one asked authors — you know, those originators of the content that makes the book business the book business — what they thought. The only option authors had was to go on writing books and hope it all worked out.

- See more at: http://goodmenproject.com/arts/book-war-authors-already-lost-hesaid/#sthash.iMJ30NYK.dpuf

hat leaves, among the Big Five, Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS, which is actually an American company for real. But before you indulge visions of launching a rearguard action from the remaining wisp of ‘Murican cultural territory, you might consider rumors that CBS has considered pitching this dead - See more at: http://goodmenproject.com/arts/book-war-authors-already-lost-hesaid/#sthash.iMJ30NYK.dpuf

hat leaves, among the Big Five, Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS, which is actually an American company for real. But before you indulge visions of launching a rearguard action from the remaining wisp of ‘Murican cultural territory, you might consider rumors that CBS has considered pitching this dead - See more at: http://goodmenproject.com/arts/book-war-authors-already-lost-hesaid/#sthash.iMJ30NYK.dpuf

That leaves, among the Big Five, Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS, which is actually an American company for real. But before you indulge visions of launching a rearguard action from the remaining wisp of ‘Murican cultural territory, you might consider rumors that CBS has considered pitching this dead tome overboard since at least 2013. Maybe the Russians will buy it. Gazprom and Schuster, anyone - See more at: http://goodmenproject.com/arts/book-war-authors-already-lost-hesaid/#sthash.iMJ30NYK.dpuf

That leaves, among the Big Five, Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS, which is actually an American company for real. But before you indulge visions of launching a rearguard action from the remaining wisp of ‘Murican cultural territory, you might consider rumors that CBS has considered pitching this dead tome overboard since at least 2013. Maybe the Russians will buy it. Gazprom and Schuster, anyone - See more at: http://goodmenproject.com/arts/book-war-authors-already-lost-hesaid/#sthash.iMJ30NYK.dpuf

Latest New Books in the $1 room at The Last Bookstore!

Latest new arrivals at The Last Bookstore at 5th and Spring in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles include over one hundred trade paper backs of quality contemporary fiction and even more hardcover & paperback books in the literary history/criticism section, lots of newer sports books, 4 more boxes for the African American section, 30 more Hollywood bios, and over a hundred more books added to the American, European and Asian history/culture sections - plus at least a hundred added to business, psychology, the social sciences, Latin America, natural history & gardening - plus more vintage books for film and TV sections.  And at 11 AM this Sunday June 21st, there will be a two hour walking tour of Historic Downtown Los Angeles.

Discover the Secrets of Historic Downtown LA This Saturday & Sunday at The Last Bookstore!

Yes, for the month of July there will be walking tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles every Saturday and every Sunday starting at The Last Bookstore.
The Last Bookstore (and its  2nd floor with 50,000 books at ONE DOLLAR each!)  Presents  a 10:30AM Saturday and a 11AM Sunday START TIME FOR 2 hour walking tours  of the The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles -  FEATURED In GQ MAGAZINE and Endorsed By - LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE!

 
There will be a HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tour every Saturday from 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM and every  Sunday there will be a start time of 11:00 AM and an ending time of 1:00 PM. And among the many things you will learn this weekend is that if a friend of Wyatt Earp's had not built the Alexandria Hotel - it would have been impossible for George Gershwin to have written his iconic Rhapsody in Blue.

And all tours start at THE LAST BOOKSTORE in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th and Spring and they are still only $15 per person.

And  besides our regular scheduled tours, we will be offering customized tours on different days and different times and from one to three hours including weekdays - depending on your schedule.  With a minimum of four reservations, we will design a tour of any part of Downtown focusing on any subject matter you choose.  These tours can be after work, during lunch breaks - or??

FOR MORE INFORMATION  - contact Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 - or bradywestwater@gmail.com

BRADBURY BUILDING

All tours begin at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street in the Spring Arts Tower and will be led by long time Downtown resident Brady Westwater who, besides being involved with the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, the Historic Downtown BID, Gallery Row, Art Walk, and the BOXeight and the CONCEPT Fashion Weeks, has brought over 150 businesses, artists and non-profit institutions to Downtown.  All tours are only $15 per person.  

Wyatt Earp

If you are a participant in 'Historic Downtown Los Angeles 101' Tour, you will see the first motion picture theater built,  the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emmet Dalton,  actor Ryan Gosling and more.  And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.

You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral.  At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.

You will also see where the first new lofts were opened, the places where Gallery Row and the Art Walk began and where Fashion Week returned to Downtown.  You will see many of the new boutiques, designer showrooms and stores that have recently opened in the area along with getting a sneak preview of what will soon be happening in the area.

Tickets for either tour are only $15 per person - free for children under 8 - and reservations can be made by calling Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 or emailing bradywestwater@gmail.com.  All credit card orders will be processed  at Last Bookstore and cash payments may be made at the start of the tour.   All proceeds will go towards the revitalization and the study of the history of the neighborhood.  

Lastly, future tours will feature specialized areas of interest such as architecture, art of all kinds, shopping and food, single streets, sports (from steer wrestling to luchador wrestlers to a Sumo wrestler), transportation, specific periods of history, the hidden Wild West history of Los Angeles, movie locations, Downtown after hours and many other aspects of the neighborhood. And custom designed can be developed by request  for groups of four or more.

We will also be soon starting weekday and evening tours on what it's like to live in Downtown Los Angeles. You will be introduced to the many of stores, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues (and often their owners, too) - along with being given previews of one of a kind special events - so you can get a feel for what it is like to live in Downtown Los Angeles.

We expect this tour to be popular with not only people considering moving to Downtown and people who work in Downtown and who would like to know what to do after hours in Downtown - but also to recent and even long established Downtown residents who want to know more about their neighborhood.

Discover the Secrets of Historic Downtown LA This Saturday & Sunday at The Last Bookstore!

Yes, for the month of July there will be walking tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles every Saturday and every Sunday starting at The Last Bookstore.
The Last Bookstore (and its  2nd floor with 50,000 books at ONE DOLLAR each!)  Presents  a 10:30AM Saturday and a 11AM Sunday START TIME FOR 2 hour walking tours  of the The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles -  FEATURED In GQ MAGAZINE and Endorsed By - LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE!

 
There will be a HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tour every Saturday from 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM and every  Sunday there will be a start time of 11:00 AM and an ending time of 1:00 PM. And among the many things you will learn this weekend is that if a friend of Wyatt Earp's had not built the Alexandria Hotel - it would have been impossible for George Gershwin to have written his iconic Rhapsody in Blue.

And all tours start at THE LAST BOOKSTORE in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th and Spring and they are still only $15 per person.

And  besides our regular scheduled tours, we will be offering customized tours on different days and different times and from one to three hours including weekdays - depending on your schedule.  With a minimum of four reservations, we will design a tour of any part of Downtown focusing on any subject matter you choose.  These tours can be after work, during lunch breaks - or??

FOR MORE INFORMATION  - contact Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 - or bradywestwater@gmail.com

BRADBURY BUILDING

All tours begin at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street in the Spring Arts Tower and will be led by long time Downtown resident Brady Westwater who, besides being involved with the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, the Historic Downtown BID, Gallery Row, Art Walk, and the BOXeight and the CONCEPT Fashion Weeks, has brought over 150 businesses, artists and non-profit institutions to Downtown.  All tours are only $15 per person.  

Wyatt Earp

If you are a participant in 'Historic Downtown Los Angeles 101' Tour, you will see the first motion picture theater built,  the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emmet Dalton,  actor Ryan Gosling and more.  And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.

You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral.  At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.

You will also see where the first new lofts were opened, the places where Gallery Row and the Art Walk began and where Fashion Week returned to Downtown.  You will see many of the new boutiques, designer showrooms and stores that have recently opened in the area along with getting a sneak preview of what will soon be happening in the area.

Tickets for either tour are only $15 per person - free for children under 8 - and reservations can be made by calling Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 or emailing bradywestwater@gmail.com.  All credit card orders will be processed  at Last Bookstore and cash payments may be made at the start of the tour.   All proceeds will go towards the revitalization and the study of the history of the neighborhood.  

Lastly, future tours will feature specialized areas of interest such as architecture, art of all kinds, shopping and food, single streets, sports (from steer wrestling to luchador wrestlers to a Sumo wrestler), transportation, specific periods of history, the hidden Wild West history of Los Angeles, movie locations, Downtown after hours and many other aspects of the neighborhood. And custom designed can be developed by request  for groups of four or more.

We will also be soon starting weekday and evening tours on what it's like to live in Downtown Los Angeles. You will be introduced to the many of stores, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues (and often their owners, too) - along with being given previews of one of a kind special events - so you can get a feel for what it is like to live in Downtown Los Angeles.

We expect this tour to be popular with not only people considering moving to Downtown and people who work in Downtown and who would like to know what to do after hours in Downtown - but also to recent and even long established Downtown residents who want to know more about their neighborhood.

Just Arriving in the Last Bookstore's $1 Room! Collections of vintage books on film & TV, Russia & Soviet Union, African-American History, Sports, Military History, all things Nautical and much, much more

And this Sunday - when you are visiting the $1 room upstairs at the Last Bookstore (at 5th & Spring in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles) - you can bring your Dad along and give him a gift certificate at The Last Bookstore and you can also give a the gift of a two hour walking tour of Historic Downtown LA before taking him to lunch or dinner.

And when you are at the bookstore, you can see the thousands of books that have just arrived - all for only one dollar each - including over 50 books on Russia and the Soviet Union, four more boxes in the African-American section, over 100 more books in the business section and - most importantly - you can also see part of an extensive collection of very early, early and more current books that have just been acquired from a major institutional collections that dates back to the early 1920's  And every day more and more of these books are being shelved (covering the business, technical, production, distribution and artistic sides of early and current Hollywood - and foreigh -  film and TV) from this one of a kind type of collection.

Also recently shelved are considerable numbers of books on the theater, American & European history, early and current photography, gardening, natural history, all the social sciences, Native Americans, mountainering, poetry, literary criticism, pets, short stories & memoirs and many other topics - as well as a wide range of best selling novelists in both hardback and paperback.

Two Father's Day Walking Tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles.

For a Special Father's Day present, this Sunday give your dad a two hour walking tour of Historic Downtown Los Angeles starting at The Last Bookstore (and inhouse gift certificates for books may be purchased over the phone or at the store) in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th and Spring.  For reservations for the $15 per person tour call Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 - or email bradywestwater@gmail.com  And check out what has just arrived at the bookstore.

And you can follow that with a Father's Day lunch at one of over DTLA 100 restaurants ranging from brand new to classic restaurants to 100 year old  establishments such as Cole's or Phillipe's.

And you can make reservations for Sunday May 15th  at 11 AM -  or you order a customized tour later in the afternoon (3 person minimum) and end the tour at a restaurant where you can have a Father's Day dinner - or you can give him a gift certificate for a tour on another weekend - along with a gift certificate for the Last Bookstore.

And - yes, for the month of June there will be walking tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles every Saturday and every Sunday starting at The Last Bookstore.
The Last Bookstore (and its  2nd floor with 50,000 books at ONE DOLLAR each!)  Presents  a 10:30AM Saturday and a 11AM Sunday START TIME FOR 2 hour walking tours  of the The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles -  FEATURED In GQ MAGAZINE and Endorsed By - LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE!

 
There will be a HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tour every Saturday from 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM and every  Sunday there will be a start time of 11:00 AM and an ending time of 1:00 PM. 

And all tours start at THE LAST BOOKSTORE in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th and Spring and they are still only $15 per person.

If you are a participant in 'Historic Downtown Los Angeles 101' Tour, you will see the first motion picture theater built,  the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emmet Dalton,  actor Ryan Gosling and more.  And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.

You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral.  At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.

You will also see where the first new lofts were opened, the places where Gallery Row and the Art Walk began and where Fashion Week returned to Downtown.  You will see many of the new boutiques, designer showrooms and stores that have recently opened in the area along with getting a sneak preview of what will soon be happening in the area.