Los Angeles Visionaries Association

Per 'building permits' submitted at LAVA's Sunday Salon 1-30-11, construction of the following projects was today completed on the Majestic Blvd. West cityscape:

Terry Ellsworth project: Edith Massey's Thrift Store: Edie's Shopping Bag, in its expanded new location: "Surprises Galore!"

Jim Trombetta projects: Billboard for the movie Quanto: The Man Who Can Be in 2 Places at Once! and Gentry condominion towers.

This week, construction was completed on two more projects on the 'cityscape' scroll, as suggested in building permits filed 1/30. These are the consulate general of Smokessylvania (submitted by Count Smokula) and Sylvie's Ye-Ye record shop (submitted by Neal McCabe). The record store is situated behind the Johnny Hallyday Convalescent Hospital, which was also a McCabe project.

Following today's Sunday Salon, construction was completed on the Majestic West Extension portion of the cityscape on the Johnny Hallyday Convalescent Home, as proposed in the building permit submitted 1/30 by Neal McCabe of Eddy Mitchell Enterprises. Per the permit, an adjoining ye-ye record shop will be added next. This structure joins the already complete headquarters of Ian T. Whitcomb Industries, the headquarters and tower of radio-station KCFK of Kelley Broadcasting, and Alexis Animation Studios, as the first tenants in the West Majestic Media District. 

Following the 1/30 Salon submission of  building permits for development on the Majestic Blvd. Western Extension on the cityscape, a number of projects have been completed. They include: Chuck Kelley's proposal for a radio station atop a 12-story building (Radio KCFK, flagship of Kelley Broadcasting); Ian Whitcomb's proposal for the world headquarters of I.T.W. Industries; and Jim Trombetta's suggestion of billboards announcing the release of the debut album by hip-hop artist Sir Reptitious. Also completed: Alexis Animation Studios. Cranes and crayons will be out in force this weekend as well; we still have 14 or 15 projects to complete by the June LAVA Salon. Will keep everyone posted.

Thanks to all Visionaries and fellow travelers who participated in Sunday's Salon. It was great to present the Majestic Blvd. cityscape scroll, and especially gratifying that so many folks took us up on our invitation to fill out 'building permits' for what they'd like to see drawn on the imminent Majestic Blvd. Western Extension project. About 20 permits have been submitted, and we'll soon be sketching out sites and putting pen and crayon to paper. I expected Visionaries to be creative, but I was surprised by the diversity of suggestions put forth.

Among the best: a radio station (with a 12-story antenna) and an offshore pirate radio station... a cannabis club-pizza parlor...riding stables... harbor or  port... an organization to help the homeless...offices of the Consulate General of Smokesylvania (from Count Smokula)... a live 'steam club' (not the shvitzing kind; Majestic's already got one)... a red-light district and "fun center"... a verison of Bunker Hill's famous Sunshine Apartments... a factory manufacturing records... a cemetery... a prison... Johnny Hallyday Convalescent Home..."Ciro's type night club"... Edith Massey's thrift shop...

Have been promised a few more permits, to be submitted by e-mail. Once we get rolling, I'll keep Visionaries updated on the progress of this project. Getting all this construction onto the new strip of real estate suggests I'll be throwing all previous zoning regulations out the window. A cannabis-pizza parlor adjacent to the Smokesylvania Consulate? Why not?

WHAT: Visionary Gene Sculatti exhibits his scrolls at the LAVA Sunday Salon, March 28, 1pm at Clifton's Cafeteria. More info.

I've never engaged in this kind of thing before: publicly promoting these scrolls or "cityscapes" as Kim calls them. But here's the deal: On and off since I was 9 or so (I'm now 63), I have done pen-and-crayon (with some watercolor) drawings of imaginary cities, mostly informed by the way L.A., S.F. and California appear to a largely untrained illustrator.

They're full of streets and buildings, people, freeways and beaches, power plants and broad, palm-lined arterials. They're mostly drawn on white shelf-lining paper, and the longest one (1960-62) is 60 yards long. Because they were drawn over many years, they in effect comprise a rough chronological snapshot of what (mostly) Cali has looked like to me: sprawling suburban tracts announced by "Vets No Down!" billboards (60s), the mansard-roofs of fast-food franchises (70s), theater and concert venues whose marquees hype long gone films and idealized pop-music bills.

Somehow, though, it is, like the weekly radio show I do, all sort of contemporaneous, the accretion of architecture, signage and sensibility all meant to bear the time signature of the eternal Now, which, I suppose, is a key part of the California Dream that informed my growing up and lifelong residence here. I started the latest cityscape, "Majestic Blvd.," in February 2006 when I lost my last real job. It's just under 60 feet now and growing. I will also bring and show one scroll of earlier vintage.

To borrow a phrase from Michael Jackson, L.A. tends to always “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin.’” Not as in fights & feuds, but as in flashpoints & geneses. Was reminded of this with all the Olympics coverage of snow-boarding, a sport clearly spun from So-Cal skateboarding, itself an adaptation of California-popularized surfing—each one an under-the-radar activity that later wowed the world. This week I also watched the just-out DVD of The T.A.M.I Show, the 1964 Santa Monica Civic concert (Chuck Berry, Rolling Stones, James Brown, Supremes, etc.), whose frontispiece has Jan & Dean skateboarding from Hollywood to the Civic. Stop-frame and squint and you’ve got vanished history at hand. Last night it was The Real Beach Boy, a sad and touching BBC documentary on Dennis Wilson. In Hawthorne, bandmate David Marks walks the camera past a plaque commemorating the group (another auspicious startup), then gestures to the two-story berm and onramp behind it: “This wall of dirt here was where the Wilsons’ house was… and mine was right over there, where that dirt is.” Now I’m wondering if the dozen under-construction, city-block-size apartment complexes changing the face of H’wood and the Wilshire Corridor will turn into the tenements of 2040, warrens for poor, newly arrived Angelenos, thence to be ’dozed and carted off in time for another cycle to start. If you love the town, catch it while you can.

Gene Sculatti’s occasional column about Cali-bashing, ‘They Hate L.A.,’ appears at www.sofein.com .