You See LA: Spring 2015
5 things to see and do around Los Angeles handpicked by Architecture and Urban Design Professor Mark
Five things to see and do in and around Los Angeles this spring.
EVENTS HANDPICKED BY MARK MACK
Mark Mack is a professor in the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design (UCLA A.UD).
I like music, food, funky architecture, unusual institutions, and nature; most of my selections of what to do in LA center on these subjects. I live in the historic Venice canals where I am very happy to be, so most of my ventures outside of this almost paradisiacal place involve the vices in which I engage.
Center for the Study of Political Graphics
Prisons: Slave Ships on Dry Land; Andalusia Knoll; Silkscreen, 2004; Pittsburgh, PA
Who’s the Illegal Alien, Pilgrim?; Yolanda M. Lopez; Offset, 1981; San Francisco, CA
The Center for the Study of Political Graphics
Founded by Carol Wells, a UCLA alumna (B.A. History ‘67, M.A. Art History ‘75) and former professor of art and architectural history at Cal State Fullerton, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) is a community, art resource and historical archive of political posters located in Culver City that offers an exciting visual journey into the history of political communication. Their slogan, “Reclaiming the Power of Art to Educate and Inspire People to Action” is a welcome and much needed antidote to the laissez-fair economic and socio-cultural realities of today. CSPG’s extensive collection of posters comprises “primary historical documents [that] reveal histories of struggles that are too often hidden, and more often forgotten.” Their collection includes more than 85,000 protest graphics from the 19th century through to the present—including the largest collection of post-World War II posters in the United States. A powerful resource that helps to educate about important social and political struggles of the past by presenting the visual languages that defined them, CSPG’s archive also serves as inspiration to those involved in framing critical issues of today on a local and national level. Their upcoming exhibit, No Human Being is Illegal: Posters on the Myths and Realities of the Immigrant Experience, will be on view at Mercado La Paloma from May 9 – June 28, 2015.
The Center for the Study of Political Graphics
3916 Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 103, Culver City, CA 90230
Tel: 310.397.3100 http://www.politicalgraphics.org
Current exhibit:
No Human Being is Illegal: Posters on the Myths and Realities of the Immigrant Experience Mercado La Paloma, 3655 South Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90007
Images from Kung Food Panda and Pinterest
K-Town Immersion
A high-density, 300-block, neighborhood of about 120,000 inhabitants—Los Angeles’s Korea-Town is one of the largest Korean communities outside of South Korea. Mixed in with a large Latino community, the area’s diverse demographic skews young - the average age of its residents is 30 years. Rents are low and housing is dense: this is a population that is not afraid to live in high-rise apartments like those typical of large Asian metropolises. Rich in cultural, entertainment, and culinary offerings—the neighborhood is a draw for L.A.’s hipsters, food connoisseurs, and late night owls. I like to start my K-Town immersion in the late afternoon with a spa visit at one of the large Korean-style jimjilbang for some sauna, soaking, lying on hot salt crystals, and a massage at Wi Spa, Natura Spa, or Crystal Spa. Next, I seek out some of the great down to earth one-pot eateries or Korean BBQ joint—like Ham Ji Park, Yu Chun, or KeunGaMa. For after dinner and hanging out, Dang Sung Sa, a funky beer bar with soju - the Korean rice wine or fermented barley wine, is my favorite. And sometimes you just need to top off your night with a visit to one of the many hopping Karaoke bars of K-town.
Wi Spa, 2700 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Tel: (213) 487-2700
Natura SPA, 3240 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010
Tel: (213) 381-2288
Ham Ji Park, 3407 W 6th St #101c, Los Angeles, CA 90020
Tel: (213) 365-8773
Yu Chun, 3185 W Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90006
Tel: (213) 382-3815
KeunGaMa, 3498 W 8th St, Los Angeles, CA 90005
Tel: (213) 365-6788
Dang Sung Sa, 3317 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90020
Tel: (213) 487-9100
Image from Resident Advisor
Eastside Music
Since the Westside has limited offerings in live music venues (as far as I am concerned, the music died in Venice in the seventies), I must travel east of my paradisiacal home to stay up and fly. I usually avoid the Hollywood clubs where overpriced bottle service, long lines, promoter arrangements, and table reservations cater to the tourist and non-locals crowd. Instead, I venture further east on Wednesday nights to the Airliner in Lincoln Heights near Chinatown, where Low End Theory—the experimental hip-hop and electronic music club—holds court. A more educated Electronic Dance Music (EDM) crowd listens to the sounds of The Gaslamp Killer with occasional sonic appearances by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Flying Lotus. For live music, I head to the Echoplex, where you can see everything from middle-eastern dance music to Scandinavian black metal. Sometimes, I don’t have to go quite so far east: the El Rey, on Wilshire near LACMA, books good upcoming talent as well as some great oldies—like Booker T. Jones or Cibo Matto, both of whom I recently saw perform there.
The Airliner, 2419 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90031
Tel: (323) 221-0721
The Echo and Echoplex, 1822 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Tel: (213) 413-8200
The El Rey Theater, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036
Tel: (323) 936-6400
Image from Malibu Creek State Park
Nature Walks
Even though the California drought has put a damper on the lusciousness of the California State Park system, I still consider the great State Park sites in and around Los Angeles one of the greatest assets of this region. My favorite is Malibu Creek State Park, called by many “The Yosemite of Southern California”: 7,000 acres of rolling tall grass plains, oak savannahs, and dramatic peaks. A 2,000-acre portion of the park that once served as the “shooting ranch” for 20th Century Fox Studios has doubled for many movies pretending to be other places. The original Planet of the Apes, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and television’s legendary program M*A*S*H were all filmed— at least in part—at what was then known as “Century Ranch.” The park, which opened in 1976, offers stunning and varied terrain that is great for hiking, biking, rope climbing, and jumping into Rock Creek Lake from a cliff—as long there is enough water in it. Considered the crown jewel of the Santa Monica Mountains, Malibu Creek State Park is accessible from the Westside and the San Fernando Valley. I like to drive to the park via scenic Mulholland Highway and Topanga Canyon for a full immersion in our region’s majestic natural environment. Before heading back to Venice, I also always like to take a peek at the somewhat sinister Malibou Lake.
Malibu Creek State Park
1925 Las Virgenes Road (at Mulholland Hwy), Cornell, CA 91301
Tel: (818) 880-0367 www.malibucreekstatepark.org
Images from Venice Beach & Pinterest
Venice Confidential
Even though I live in the Venice Canals, I never get tired walking in this unique—for Los Angeles—neighborhood. I especially enjoy the slower pace afforded when on foot or bicycle. The urban pattern of Venice is so much different from the rest of L.A. that exploration through a nuanced pace with open eyes is rewarding. As the early stomping ground of Pritzker Prize-winning architects Frank Gehry and Thom Mayne, Venice also boasts many smaller scale architectural landmarks worth viewing.
I recommend a slow walk starting from Lincoln Boulevard, the least attractive and most vital street in Los Angeles, which exposes itself in all its gritty beauty to arrivals from LAX travelling its path to the Westside. From Lincoln, one can take any of the residential ‘walk-streets’ that head west towards the beach and glimpse voyeuristically into lives of others. In these shaded surroundings you can find modern, contemporary, and quintessential California bungalow architecture side by side with idiosyncratic order; pick fruit from overhanging tree branches; and make friends with many dogs and cats along the way.
When you reach the now overly trendy Abbot Kinney Blvd., you can take in the many signature shops, enjoy a hipster coffee, and taste some delicious—but sometimes overpriced—food. Despite the arrival of Silicon Beach, it is still possible to find some of the original local flavor in the stores, bars, and curiosities of Abbot Kinney—though, sadly, many of these may soon be extinct: A cobbler making shoes from old ice-skating boots, a sculpture made from 8 foot high steel nails, an outdoor furniture store housed in shipping containers, a pop-up hotel housed in an airstream trailer in a large backyard that is currently for rent, local pottery shops, a store that only sells sneakers made for the Japanese market, and a storefront that peddles in handmade perfumes.
Continuing westwards from Abbot Kinney along almost any residential street (Windward or Grand), you can still feel the traces of the larger canals that used to define Venice at the turn of the 20th century—the shape of the original lagoon at the Venice circle (where Main Street ends and begins) and the eviscerated colonnades of what once was the epicenter of beach frills along Windward between Pacific and Ocean Front Walk.
And then there is Ocean Front Walk—the boardwalk—the ultimate flaneur environment for all types of Angelenos mixing with tourists from every corner of the world. While the stores along the boardwalk are the highest commercial per square foot rental properties in all of Los Angeles (way more than Rodeo Drive), the quality and character of this little strip has not changed much since the sixties—save for the newly installed marijuana doctors praising Californication.
The way back should take you through the now historic Venice Canal Neighborhood and Venice Blvd., where you can check out the former Venice City Hall and Jail—now occupied by Beyond Baroque and SPARC (founded by UCLA Professor Judy Baca)—two venerable Venice cultural institutions, before finding your way back to Lincoln.
Suggested route (see map): Lincoln Avenue / Marco Place / Abbott Kinney / Altair Place / Grand Avenue / Venice Circle / Windward Avenue / Ocean Front Walk - Boardwalk / Venice Canal Neighborhood / Venice Blvd. / Lincoln Boulevard.
S P A R C
Social and Public Art Resource Center
685 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Tel: 310-822-9560 info@sparcinla.org
Beyond Baroque
681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Tel: 310-822-3006 info@beyondbaroque.org