Discover the Secrets of Historic Downtown Los Angeles on This Saturday's 2 Hour Walking Tour - May 11th Starting 11 AM at The Last Bookstore

The Last Bookstore (and it's  2nd floor with 100,000 books at only ONE DOLLAR each!)  Presents


... The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles!

I am continuing the  HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tour this Saturday May 11th and the following Saturday, May 18th.  And there will also be tours on other upcoming weekends.  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.

Next Walking Tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles Saturday May 11th & May 18th. Starts at 11 AM at THE LAST BOOKSTORE AT 5th & Spring

The Last Bookstore (and it's  2nd floor with 100,000 books at only ONE DOLLAR each!)  Presents


... The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles!

I am continuing the  HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tour this Saturday May 11th and the following Saturday, May 18th.  And there will also be tours on other upcoming weekends.  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.

Twelve Winners for MY LA2050 Project Announced

Here is a link to the page listing the 12 winners - all of whom have great projects worthy of funding. And congratulations to all the winners - and thanks to the Goldhirsh Foundation for creating this transformative project for all of Los Angeles!

Thank you for participating in the My LA2050 challenge. We received 279 submissions, and more than 70,000 people voted to help us choose the ten winning proposals. We were blown away by the diversity and the high quality of the submissions. The selection process was extremely competitive.  

We are pleased to announce the ten winners who will receive $100,000 to implement their project: 

• Arts & Cultural Vitality - Hammer Museum
• Education – 826LA
• Environmental Quality - C.H.C., C-Lab, 596 Acres
• Health - Public Matters
• Housing – TRUST South L.A.
• Income & Employment - E.L.A.C.C. & L.U.R.N.
• Public Safety – Homeboy Industries
• Social Connectedness - CicLAvia
• Wild Card - Mission Asset Fund
• Wild Card - No Right Brain Left Behind, Green Dot Public Schools 

After reading this article about Los Angeles in one of New York's better journals, my first thought was to check if it was  posted on April's Fools Day - or if it was a reprint from the Onion. Alas - neither assumption, however logical, proved true.

In this recent blog post at the New York Review of Books (not to be confused with the New York Times Book Review section), Martin Filler reviews two local museum shows about LA that should be seen by everyone who cares about this city.  And I will discuss them both in later posts.  

Unfortunately, the review  -  'LA's Alternate Realities' - appears to use the word 'alternate'  in the exact way authors Timothy Leary and Carlos Castaneda meant to have it used.  He also excavates practically every old cliche  about LA verbatim - some of them so hoary they are approaching the hundred year mark - though he does try to update some of them in attempt to keep up with the times.

To list only three of more obvious,  and clearly obviously incorrect, cliches, Dorothy Parker never said LA was 73 suburbs in search of a city, but Alexander Woolcott in his book 'While Rome Burns' did say LA was 7 suburbs in search of a city - in 1934; second, Los Angeles is not and has never been a desert - it has a Mediterranean climate - and has 2 or 3 more inches of rain per year than cities such as San Diego - which I do not recall ever being called a desert in the NYT  (any true New Yorker's paper of record for all things LA); and, third, the whole fantasy about the street cars being removed due to a conspiracy by General Motors, has long been exposed as just that... a fantasy.And speaking of 'fantasy', when discussing a proposed Civic Center designed in the 1920's by Lloyd Wright, he decries the fact its style is based in part upon:  

... pre-Colombian monuments that inspired the elder Wright’s California buildings of the 1910s and 1920s—lacks any sense of ecological appropriateness.

This, I presume, is in striking contrast to the 'ecological appropriateness' the City of New York showed when it used Greek temples as models for its major civic buildings.

Moving on to newer cliches, he manages to cite Westwood Village as the place to go for nightlife after it has been dwarfed - for decades - by the crowds going to Santa Monica to eat, shop and go to movies.  Granted Westwood still has pedestrian nightlife, but it also has lots of vacant stores and most local articles about it are of the -'is Westwood finally ready to come back' tone. Out of date observations such as that makes one wonder if he has been to either place after dark in the past 20 years.

But he manages to top that when he contrasts the vibrant pedestrian nightlife of Los Feliz (which he may have confused with Silver Lake/Echo Park) with the lack of nightlife in 'desolate' Downtown; a statement which makes it clear if he has been to LA in the recent past - he never set foot out of his car in either neighborhood after dark.

However, there could be a reason for these specific omissions and errors. For if he had included the booming nightlife and pedestrian scene in Downtown and Hollywood - and in Koreatown and Old Town Pasadena - all of which are connected with each other by subways and light rail lines - then he could not have used  false LA cliche #27  -  that the only places you can walk in LA are - places you have to drive to.

Lastly, here again is the link to the article and below are the first few paragraphs:

LA’s Alternate Realities

Martin Filler

Alan E. Leib Collection

Rendering of Pereira, Becket, Luckman, and Williams's Theme Building at LAX airport, 1958

How can the most architecturally innovative part of the United States also be such a thoroughgoing urban mess? Los Angeles can boast, among other showpieces, Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall of 1989–2003, Charles and Ray Eames’s own Case Study House Number 8 of 1947–1949, and Raymond M. Kennedy’s Grauman’s Chinese Theater of 1926–1927—to name three of my favorite landmarks there. And yet LA is also a highway-strangled, traffic-choked expanse of artificially lush desert with no discernible organizing principle save for the allées of palm trees that filmmakers reflexively use to establish a recognizable sense of place.

Describing the persistent incoherence of Los Angeles, Dorothy Parker famously jibed that it was “seventy-two suburbs in search of a city.” More sympathetic observers like the British architectural historian Reyner Banham have long pointed out that it’s futile to apply traditional standards of urban design to this 469-square-mile sprawl, which they see not as a dysfunctional megalopolis but as a prophetically modern phenomenon. Yet to comprehend why the City of Angels remains so enduringly weird to outsiders, it is not architectural specialists but rather imaginative writers—from Nathanael West and James M. Cain to Evelyn Waugh and Joan Didion—to whom we must turn.

 This spring and summer, two complementary exhibitions in Los Angeles seek to bring the unfathomableness into focus. The first, “Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940–1990,” which is at the J. Paul Getty Museum through July 21, explores how the city emerged through fitful initial development, explosive postwar growth, and a distinctive built legacy. The second, “Never Built: Los Angeles,” which opens at LA’s Architecture and Design Museum on July 13, examines a stunning array of unexecuted projects to show why the city didn’t become something else.

And the rest of the piece is here.

Next Walking Tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles Saturday May 11th & May 18th. Starts at 11 AM at THE LAST BOOKSTORE AT 5th & Spring

The Last Bookstore (and it's  2nd floor with 100,000 books at only ONE DOLLAR each!)  Presents


... The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles!

I am continuing the  HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tour this Saturday May 11th and the following Saturday, May 18th.  And there will also be tours on other upcoming weekends.  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.

Why Geting a Proper Education Rather Than Going to College Needs to Be America's Goal

A recent article in Time Magazine by Ramesh Ponnuru questions if having the majority of US students attend college - and particularly traditional 4 year colleges - is good for either them - or the country as a whole.  The fact that a majority of students can not get a degree after four years - and 40% can't get a degree even after six years -  demonstrates that something in the present system is not working.  

I have two comments.  First, speaking of misguided - and cruel - educational priorities (which the article claims is forcing unprepared students into 4 year colleges) - the requirement that you need to pass algebra to get a high school diploma in states such as California is easily the number one reason why students drop out of high school without a degree.

I took advanced placement algebra, calculus, physics and geometry in high school and - not once - have ever had any need to use anything I learned. Nor did it teach me anything about 'reasoning' that I did not already know.  The idea that we need to train everyone in higher math to prepare people for future jobs is absurd.  If someone can't pass basic algebra - they will never be up for a job which needs those skills.

But in the attempt to cram higher math down every one's throats, we are ending up with a sizable population with no high school diploma and the inability to even use basic math in their daily lives, much less on their jobs.

Second, with all the possible options that currently exist - or, more correctly, should exist, the four year college model is becoming obsolete for most students.  And if there is anything major educational foundations should be funding - it is the development of those multiple new models.

Here is part of the article's opening argument, but go to the website and read the entire piece. 

The benefits of putting more people in college are also oversold. Part of the college wage premium is an illusion. People who go to college are, on average, smarter than people who don't. In an economy that increasingly rewards intelligence, you'd expect college grads to pull ahead of the pack even if their diplomas signified nothing but their smarts. College must make many students more productive workers. But at least some of the apparent value of a college degree, and maybe a lot of it, reflects the fact that employers can use it as a rough measure of job applicants' intelligence and willingness to work hard.

We could probably increase the number of high school seniors who are ready to go to college — and likely to make it to graduation — if we made the K-12 system more academically rigorous. But let's face it: college isn't for everyone, especially if it takes the form of four years of going to classes on a campus.

Now read the rest of the article.

Next Walking Tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles Saturday May 4th & May 11th. Starts at 11 AM at THE LAST BOOKSTORE AT 5th & Spring

The Last Bookstore (and it's  2nd floor with 100,000 books at only ONE DOLLAR each!)  Presents


... The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles!

I am continuing the  HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tour this Saturday May 4th and the following Saturday, May 11th.  And there will also be tours on other upcoming weekends.  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.

Why Demolishing Most of the LACMA Campus Makes No Sense - UPDATE!

In this morning's LA Times,  Christopher Hawthorne has an excellent summary of the soon to be unveiled plan to demolish four buildings of the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art and replace them with one huge glass walled structure along Wilshire Boulevard.

                                   Original Design
In my opinion, though, tearing down the original complex of LACMA is a mistake that will be regretted by later generations. Just as the once much maligned Music Center of the same era has weathered far better architecturally than the buildings of Lincoln Center, the original three buildings of LACMA - immortalized in Ruscha's famous painting, LACMA on Fire, are now excellent examples of the architecture of that era.  They are also a part of the civic and cultural history of Los Angeles during the time LA began to emerge as a major center for contemporary art. 

                                                 Current View of Ahmanson Building
And even while a large part of the hostility towards the buildings was - and is - due to the admittedly tragic decision to not hire Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as the project's architect, that does not mean making another mistake is the solution.

                                                     Current View of Bing Center Building
A far bigger problem is the urban planning aspect of the project. Replacing four buildings with one huge monolithic glass wall facing Wilshire Boulevard - looming one story above the sidewalk - will not only continue but extend the problem created by the 1986 Richard Anderson Building.

                                                          Another Current View of Ahmanson
The final objection is that after spending $450 million for this building - LACMA will still have the same square footage as it does today.  It adds no space.  In fact, with the recent – albeit brilliant - move of turning the May Company into a film museum, the combined projects will create a net loss of gallery space.

And here is the opening of Christopher Hawthorne's article: 

Director Michael Govan turns to Swiss architect Peter Zumthor for a dramatic new building that would involve demolishing the main museum campus.

Next month LACMA will publicly unveil a $650-million plan by Pritzker Prize winner Peter Zumthor for a dramatic new museum building along Wilshire Boulevard.
In scope and ambition, the Zumthor plan is reminiscent of a proposal by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas that would have razed the main museum campus and replaced it with a collection of low-slung gallery buildings under a giant, tent-like translucent roof. The LACMA board approved that project in 2001, but after fundraising struggles museum officials dropped the effort less than two years later.Museum Director Michael Govan is convinced he can help the latest design avoid a similar fate. He has worked since his arrival at LACMA in 2006 to groom a new generation of donors and enlarge the museum's board, which he believes is now ready to launch a $650-million capital campaign to finance the new building. The construction cost is estimated to be at least $450 million, with the remaining $200 million earmarked for expenses including contingencies and operations.

And you can read the rest at the LAT's website.

AND - in response to Karl Dahlquist's answer to my semi-rhetorical question of why LA destroys its cultural landmarks  - "Because no one is from here?'  - here was my response on Facebook:

You hit the nail on the head! No one involved in this project can recall when they first saw Ruscha's painting of LACMA on Fire - or can still recall the exact spot where they saw Kienholz's Back Seat Dodge '38 (which I got to see despite being only 17) or can recall looking at the still fresh white paint that covered the spay painted names of the artists of ASCO - one of whom lives just down the street from my office and all of whom went on to having an important impact upon both the LA - and the international art worlds. On sadder notes, there are those of us who can still recall where the once great California impressionist collection was shown in depth - before it was dumped for almost nothing when it was deemed unfashionable - and where great local collections had been shown before they ended up dispersed at auction sales.

And you better believe that no one pushing for this ever grew up seeing the only general art collection in the city when it was housed in the Natural History Museum. I was in the 6th grade when I first noticed that there were paintings in the Natural History Museum. But when I saw names such as Rembrandt attached to them - I naturally assumed by there being in this type of environment - and some paintings were hung in hallways and stair landings - they must be copies.

Very Temporary Shakespeare, Middle English & Joseph Conrad (and Proust & Bronte) Installation in the One Dollar Section of The Last Bookstore!

Due to several recent acquisitions & donations, not only does the round floor main section of The Last Bookstore have an even better collection than usual of books about Shakespeare and his time sand the Middle English period of English Literature - but as long as the existing supply lasts there is a special section of the Labyrinth for just books (around 40 in total) about Shakespeare and the Middle English literature - plus a handful of books about the writings of Joesph Conrad.  AND - also books about Proust and all the Brontes.

This collection can be found starting this Saturday morning at 10:30 in the sec don room of books which you reach from the first room by going through the book tunnel and then - once you enter the second room - there are two bookcases on your right - across from the carousel of white books - the Shakespeare, Middle English books and handful of books about Joseph Conrad books are on the bottom three shelves of the second bookshelf.

And remember - they will only be there for as long as the existing supply lasts!  And if you have any questions,. I will be there until by 11 AM - 1 PM walking tour of Historic Downtown starts - tickets are $15 per person - and then I will be back around 1:30 PM for awhile and in and out for the rest of the weekend.

Wrestling May Be Dead at the Olympics - But It's LIVE at the Alexandria Hotel This Saturday Night, April 27th, from 6 PM to 9 PM. And It's a Benefit to Help Kids With Cancer.

If you've never been to a professional wrestling show - then you can check that off your 'bucket list' this Saturday, April 27th - from 6 - 9 PM in the Alexandria's hotel's Palm Room with its Tiffany Glass ceiling - and you can also support this worthy cause helping kids with cancer - the Scott L/ Schwartz Children's Foundation.  The event is sponsored by the Wrestling Cares Association (WCA).

Tickets for this event are $20 or you can buy front row seats that include tickets to the after party for $40 each.  Or you can just make a donation of any amount to a great charity.

MATCH #1:
COLT CABANA, "Art of Wrestling Podcast" Host, Former NWA World Champion and Wrestler/Entertainer Extraordinaire!
VS.
KYLE MATTHEWS, Rampage Pro Wrestling (RPW) TV Champion and 2012 Cauliflower Alley Club Future Legend Award Winner!

MATCH #2:
KYLE O'REILLY, One half of the reigning Ring of Honor (ROH) Tag Team Champions!
VS.
DAVEY RICHARDS, International Superstar and former Ring of Honor (ROH), Pro Wrestling Guerilla (PWG), and Full Impact Pro (FIP) Heavyweight Champion!

MATCH #3:
JAMIN OLIVENCIA, Reigning Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) Heavyweight Champion and record-setting 8-Time OVW TV Champion!
VS.
SAMI CALLIHAN, Former Pro Wrestling Syndicate (PWS) Heayweight Champion, and 2012 CZW Best of the Best Tournament Champion!

MATCH #4:
ADAM COLE, Reigning Pro Wrestling Guerilla (PWG) World Champion and Former Ring of Honor (ROH) Television Champion!
VS.
ANTHONY NESE, "The Premiere Athlete", reigning New York Wrestling Connection (NYWC) Fusion Champion!

MATCH #5:
CAPRICE COLEMAN, T-Town’s Favorite Preacher, The Charismatic Ring of Honor Star and Tag Team Specialist brings his infinite skills to L.A. in the Race for the Ring!
VS.
STEVE ANTHONY, The Wildkat Heavyweight Champion and TCW Superstar, The King of the 450 Splash!

MATCH #6:
PEPPER PARKS, Former HWA Heavyweight Champion & Wrestling’s Life Coach and Wellness Guru!
VS.
VORDELL WALKER, Pro Wrestling Xtreme’s Heavy-Hitting Striker & Amateur Wrestling/MMA Expert!

MATCH #7:
DREW GULAK, Former CZW Wired Champion & Tag Champion, Leader of Campaign for a Better CZW!
VS.
BOBBY SHARP, Reigning CNWA Canadian National Champion in his Stateside Debut!

MATCH #8:
B-BOY, The Brutally Tough New Age Punisher and California’s Favorite Thug Brings the Pain to WCA!
VS.
JEFF MCALLISTER, One of the NWA’s Best, Mr. Intensity Makes a Huge Return to L.A. in Race for the Ring!

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