Category: Uncategorized

Since the Asian tsunami in December 2004, we have been hearing, ad nauseum, about the developing friendship of former Presidents Bush and Clinton. They travel together with favorite nicknames and secret handshakes. They work on such issues as flood, hurricane and famine relief. A few days ago, they showed up again (along with the current President, First Lady and former President Carter) at the funeral of the late Coretta Scott King, basking in the ebony glow of a moral force now preserved as history.

Is it heartening to think that these two oppositional politicians get along so well–or is it philosophically depressing? Despite their very different viewpoints, the two former Presidents Bush and Clinton seem to both lack core beliefs, and are willing to compromise as long as the end result is power and its preservation. But how can they reconcile the two enemy camps, as generals in a partisan war? Do they just keep their personal opinions to themselves, or are they such practical politicians that words become tools of policy rather than expressions of feelings?

Surely, Mr. Bush cannot have supported the constant personal attacks on Bill Clinton that were a feature (and still are) of the Republican Party. There is scarcely a day that goes by, that some idiotic policy of the current administration isn’t justified by saying, “Clinton did it first”.

Does Mr. Clinton believe that his own impeachment charges were more serious than the current Presidential policy of unwarranted wiretapping and spying on Americans? Is lying about weapons of mass destruction, in order to forment an invasion, not an impeachable offense? If dishonesty about an affair with an intern merits removal from office…..well these elder leaders must not discuss such minor things.

And what about the forked tongue Hillary Clinton?

She voted for the war, yet sort of opposes it, and thinks we should fight on. But she is also in a hurry to get the troops home, but not before they’ve finished the job that she doesn’t really think necessary, but that is vital to our national interest. She is busy preparing to run for President in 2008 or 2012 or 2016 and erasing her left wing life at Wellsley College. She is bolstering her Christian credentials by fighting against the most evil force on Earth: video games. Like an old cum stain on a dark blue dress, her record is becoming more murky. She wants to be all things to all people, but most of all she wants to be President.

“W” himself is pulling these marionettes on a string. He has cast the lip-biting performer Bill Clinton and co-starred him with good ole DAD. The two ex-Presidents are servants to those humanitarian productions that the Executive Branch cannot successfully produce: hurricane and flood relief, AIDS and education. ‘W’ has cleverly wooed Mr. Clinton, to help insure that Ms. Clinton will not be able to criticize the Republicans too strongly. The moral of the story is to keep the moral in the story.

Befriending the Bushes is OK with Mrs. Clinton, because her principles are as malleable as her loyalities. Friends are only temporary allies on the way to the Oval Office. By contrast, Mr. Bush has eternal loyalty to his friends, and sticks firm to his beliefs, even if they are illegal, unconstitutional and dead wrong. What a pair of friends these two families make!

Moule and Polyzoides (M&P) has gained some fame for their “new urbanist” designs that utilize such early 20th century concepts as context in sensitively restoring the dismembered urban neighborhood. Their courtyard buildings are not innovative, as it is understood by the nose pierced on Abbott Kinney, but M&P works extremely well in providing a civilized and private environment for their inhabitants.

Along the Arroyo Seco, the “Vista del Arroyo” incorporates already existent historic buildings that had fallen into ruin, and restores them, adding new houses that will create an expensive and expansive encampment, along the cliffs of Western Pasadena. The details are correct, and not just pasted on. This is a highly technical, well planned and very expensive project that involves hillside engineering, environmental and historical protections.

People who are fooled by some modernism imagine that it is somehow more “intelligent” than the over two thousand year old tradition of classical architecture. These thrilling structures on Grand Avenue prove that there is more power left in the Golden Mean.

Along the western perimeter of Van Nuys Airport, on Balboa Blvd., is a collection of Cold War era buildings. They have a lonely and sinister aura, are unoccupied and most likely awaiting demolition. Spies, secrecy, clandestine plans…. what activities went on here 50 years ago? Those dark times can scarcely be imagined in the bright light of today.

The architecture, of steel windows and flat roofs, is plain and straightforward, like the old Disney studio structures that emphasized efficiency and work instead of gloss and pretense. Barbed wire fencing and “no trespassing” signs keep vandals at bay.

This is a landscape made of men, American men, who once built things and earned the world’s respect for their guts, innovation and fairness. On screen, the guys who worked here would have been tersely played by Robert Mitchum or Dana Andrews. Dressed in black bomber jackets and flat front khakis, the heroes would have kissed Donna Reed or Dorothy McGuire before flying off to Korea to do their duty.

Let it also not be forgotten that yesterday’s fog also recalls “Casablanca”, part of which was filmed here in 1942.

The airport still engenders cinematic tribute: Brian Terwilliger’s new documentary about the history of the airport called “One Six Right“, dramatizes the glorious history which includes Amelia Earhart, bootleggers and Hal Fishman.

MORE PHOTOS

In 1948, architect Rudolph Schindler designed these 20 apartments on a 19,143 square foot lot at 11833-37 Laurelwood Avenue. Unfortunately, the property is in bad condition, awaiting a buyer ($5.9 million asking price). It is also a “City of Los Angeles Cultural Historic Monument” #228.

“By the mid-’40s Schindler had designed enough multifamily units to be able to arrive at this elegant solution to dense dwelling on a long, skinny lot. The garages form a barrier on either side of the entry. Their solid massing with overhanging eaves seduces the visitor into the central walkway access, which seems to narrow and unfold, revealing the twenty apartments-ten on each side. The units are simultaneously fanned out and stepped up and then down on the undulating site. Arguably no architect has divided and conquered a rectangle so successfully.”-Barry Sloane, Art Forum, May 2001

More photos of the Laurelwood Apartments.

A recently successful Hollywood director, said that his inspiration for writing a screenplay, later turned into a film, came from meeting his sister’s boyfriend. “We just hated him on the sight,” he said. The maligned couple lasted four years and then broke up. The sister was apparently relieved and the screenwriter later plowed his hate towards creative and financially rewarding career ends.

Hollywood is like that. You take a negative (abusive parents, bad marriage, a drug problem) and you create a TV series, or a film or a video game. In ten years, I have met many people here in Los Angeles and almost none of them are really true friends, except for one or maybe two. Meanwhile, every year I create another “enemy” or someone whom I mistake for a friend when they are merely a passing alliance at a studio or production company. Sometimes those enemies become my friend again when they are out of work, or the stupid joke I played on them is forgotten.

But hating and despising people even when it is justified, is a self-destructive act. It eats away at the fiber of our soul. There may be self-interest at work in heeding Christ’s call to “love thy neighbor as thyself”. But Christ himself is the star of a book with many tales of killing, betrayal and lying. It makes for some fantastic reading.

The problem is that mere love without revenge makes for very bad storytelling. Hate makes Hollywood run.