-
An RV For the Person with Many Homes Around the World.
Today, on our morning walk, around 6:30am, we passed an old RV that had pulled up near Kittridge. A tall, gaunt, middle-aged man came out with a cigarette and a big can of Colt 45. He walked up Noble, beer and smoke in hand. And, like so many of us these days, seemed headed to…
-
Mike Mandel, Photographer, San Fernando Valley, 1970s
________________________________________________________________________ The New Yorker has a photo essay about Mike Mandel, who was born in 1950, studied at CSUN, and made a large body of photography here in the 1970s. His work reminds me of the people who grew up here during that time, kids who were lucky to live a good life in houses…
-
Furniture Stores, Van Nuys, mid 1950s.
One of the fastest growing categories of business in 1950s Van Nuys, CA, was the modest priced furniture retailer. The opening of a store on Van Nuys Boulevard was an event for the whole family. Mom, Dad, Janet, Billy and Sally would come down to see dinette sets, bunk beds, and wall-to-wall carpet that would…
-
Sunday Errands
Yesterday, Sunday, there were no evident calamities around us. Tragedy took a day off. The air was clear from fire smoke, some blue showed in the sky, and we went for an air-cooled drive around our San Fernando Valley behind tinted windows and masked faces. We passed Woodley Park, once a bird sanctuary, now just…
-
Escaping the Haze
Seeking to escape the haze and home confinement, we went where we used to go on Sunday in normal times: Santa Monica. We parked on one of the wide, flat streets north of Montana, away from crowds. And we walked in masks that we imagined shielded us from dangers visible and invisible. At Adelaide and…
-
1975 Los Angeles by Ed Ruscha
The Getty has 45,856 digitized photographs of Los Angeles by Edward Ruscha. I went to look at just a part of it, May 1975 (3,724 images). There are black and white photographs of entire stretches of streets in our city, for example every structure along Melrose Avenue for miles. Many who possess far greater insights than I will concoct…
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Here in Van Nuys 