Los Angeles Visionaries Association

April is National Poetry Month!

Of course, Whisky & Poetry Salon is celebrating in style with "guerilla fighter of poets" Brendan Constantine.

On April 18th, Literary Libations and Johnnie "theScot" Mundell will ply you with whisky for your words (and $25)

Bring a poem, original or not, to the 1920's-era B. Black Penthouse in Downtown Los Angeles.

Read in a candlelit circle of fellow aficionados; get a flight of fine, single malt whiskys for your words.

Your National Poetry Pride will grow with every sip.

A criminal and gastronomical excursion into the San Gabriel Valley, Blood & Dumplings rolls through Alhambra, Temple City, Monterey Park, Rosemead and El Monte, revealing dozens of weird, forgotten crimes and oddities from the valley's past.

Highlights include the mysterious Man from Mars Bandit, the lesbian couple whose bickering over spending cash resulted in one pumping the other full of downers until she died, the young bride who spent her wedding day buried under her parents' house, the battling neo-Nazis of El Monte, Phil Spector's spooky castle and the little bar where James Ellroy's murdered mother Jean had her last drink.

The tour includes a selection of dumplings from one of the San Gabriel Valley's best Chinese restaurants.(Vegetarian passengers, please let us know your food preference several days before we depart.) If using a gift certificate, please note that this tour has an additional $5 dumpling fee, payable in cash or check at the bus door.

Passenger Feedback

"I've taken the famous 'Ghostly New Orleans' and 'Mysteries of Venice, Italy' tours and also enthusiastically enjoyed London's 'Jack the Ripper of Whitehall' tour, and I assure you none surpasses Richard Schave and Kim Cooper's Esotouric "Blood & Dumplings" bus excursion into the bizarrely memorable but rarely-visited regions of East Los Angeles. As humorous and constantly entertaining as it is thoroughly researched, this lovingly crafted 4-hour tour is essential for any tourist or long-term denizen who wishes to comprehend the many fascinating characters and their dark, odd-ball deeds which have contributed to Los Angeles' nutty history. Very comfortable, carefully prepared, weirdly funny, and unforgettable." (F.A.)

On February 21, 1925, The New Yorker published its first issue.

We think that’s the perfect excuse for a Whisky & Poetry Salon.

On February 21, 2013, Literary Libations and Johnnie “The Scot” Mundell will ply you with whisky in exchange for your words (plus $25)

Bring a poem — it doesn’t have to be yours — to B. Black Penthouse in Downtown L.A.

Read it in a candlelit circle of fellow aficionados.

Get a flight of fine single malt whiskies in return.

We can’t think of a better way to celebrate literary history.

WHISKY & POETRY SALON – Thurs, Feb 21; 7 pm (doors open); 7:30 start – 10pm; $25 + a poem – B. Black Penthouse, 546 South Los Angeles St, DTLA 90013

Event is capped at 30.  Final event details will only be sent to ticket holders. 

THE BAHOOKA JUST ANNOUNCED ON ITS FACEBOOK PAGE THAT IT WILL NOT OPEN ON WHAT WAS TO BE ITS LAST NIGHT IN BUSINESS. THE EVENT IS CANCELLED.

LAVA is heartbroken to learn that Bahooka, the renowned tiki destination in Rosemead, will close its doors on March 10th, after 46 years in business. For all the generations of families who have celebrated countless milestones here, for all of those who consider themselves a part of the extended Bahooka family, and in honor of LAVA's Visionary of the Year 2013 Dwain Carlo Crum who loves the place but is unable to pay a final visit due to his round-the-world travels, you are encouraged to attend a closing party on the last night of business.

Whisky Ambassador Johnnie theScot Mundell will guide us through a flight of excellent single malt whiskies.  “Guerilla fighter of poets” Brendan Constantine and wild girl of words Adrian Wyatt will share their work.

The price of admission?  $25 and a poem. It doesn’t have to be your own poem and you don’t have to read it… but you have to bring it and someone will share it.

Attendance at the Whisky & Poetry Salon will be capped at 30 and is filling up fast so reserve now.  Don't say we didn't warn you....

Registration for this event is closed.

All seats for this event have now been reserved. There is limited SRO space available for anyone who is eager to attend and doesn't mind standing or sitting on the floor. If you are eager, please use the contact link to request a spot on the SRO list.

ABOUT THIS EVENT:

WHAT: The LAVA Salon presents "Jim Tully: A Hobo in Hollywood," featuring Mark Dawidziak & Paul Bauer.
WHERE: The Larry Edmunds Bookshop, 6644 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90028.
WHEN: Monday, October 15, 2012 from 6:30-9pm.
COST: Free admittance and light snacks and beverages, but space is extremely limited and reservations are required. See above paragraph for directions on how to register.
FOR MORE INFO ABOUT THE EVENT: Send an email through the LAVA contact page or call Kim Cooper or Richard Schave at 213-373-1947.  Subscribe to the LAVA newsletter to stay informed about future literary Salons

OTHER TULLY EVENTS: Laughter in Hell screening at the American Cinematheque (October 10); Bonnie Cashin Lecture at UCLA Special Collections (October 11); Jim Tully's Hollywood walking tour (October 14).

ABOUT JIM TULLY: The son of an Irish ditch-digger, Ohio-born Jim Tully (1886-1947) hit the road in 1901, spending most of his teenage years in the company of hoboes. While chasing his dream of becoming a writer, Tully rode the rails and worked as a tree surgeon, boxer, and newspaper reporter. All the while, he was crafting his memories into a dark and original chronicle of the American underclass. When he began to set his experiences onto paper in a style that was Hard Boiled before the genre existed, he became a literary sensation.

Read the Jim Tully ‘One Sheet’

At October’s Salon, Jim Tully’s biographers Mark Dawidziak and Paul Bauer will seek to answer the fundamental question: “Why isn’t Jim Tully still a household name?” Tully exploded onto the scene with a stream of critically acclaimed novels, among them Beggars of Life (1924), Circus Parade (1927), Shanty Irish (1928), Shadows of Men (1930) and Blood on the Moon (1931). Yet the books were out-of-print for decades, their author forgotten.

To answer this question, Mark Dawidziak and Paul Bauer must look to the Hollywood of 1912, to the sleepy little suburb that Tully found and watched grow up around him, as he built his incongruous twin careers as motion picture publicist and independent writer. From his piercing insights into and deep ambivalence toward his longtime employer, Charlie Chaplin, to anecdotes of great friendships with W. C. Fields, Jack Dempsey, Damon Runyon, Lon Chaney, Frank Capra, and Erich von Stroheim, Tully exhibited a lust for life which was only surpassed by his devotion to his craft. By 1930 Tully was a major American author, and had launched a parallel career as a successful journalist. Both his novels and journalistic exposés shook the country and his peer group in Hollywood.

But Tully’s novel Ladies In The Parlor (1935), was declared obscene and most copies destroyed, and Chaplin successfully prevented Tully’s publisher from releasing a biography of the actor. By the mid-1940s, crippling physical ailments and family heartbreak left the writer on the ropes. With his death in 1947, his name quietly slipped from the front ranks of American Letters and into obscurity.

Since 2009, Kent State University Press has been rectifying this long neglect with a series of Tully reprints. And in 2011, it published Mark Dawidziak and Paul Bauer’s definitive biography, Jim Tully: American Writer, Irish Rover, Hollywood Brawler, drawing on new information found in the Tully papers at UCLA Special Collections.

The time is ripe for a revival of interest in this fascinating American character, and we invite you to play a part in it at the October Salon.

Paul Bauer cowrote Frazier Robinson’s autobiography, Catching Dreams: My Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues. And, with Mark Dawidziak, he is the coauthor of Jim Tully: American Writer, Irish Rover, Hollywood Brawler. He is a used and rare bookseller and lives in Kent, Ohio.

Mark Dawidziak has been the television critic at the Cleveland Plain Dealer since 1999. A theater, film and television reviewer for more than thirty years, his many nonfiction books include The Barter Theatre Story: Love Made Visible, The Columbo Phile: A Casebook, Mark My Words: Mark Twain on Writing, The Night Stalker Companion, Horton Foote’s The Shape of the River: The Lost Teleplay About Mark Twain, The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dracula and, most recently, with Paul J. Bauer, Jim Tully: American Writer, Irish Rover, Hollywood Brawler.

Also appearing at the Salon is Howard Prouty (Acquisitions Archivist at The Academy Foundation/Margaret Herrick Library and proprietor of ReadInk) presenting on a famous Los Angeles book seller, the latest in his ongoing Salon series. This time, this takes the form of a conversation between Howard Prouty and Aaron Epstein, son of Louis Epstein, founder of Pickwick Books.

It's time for the 10th annual gathering of the Robert Benchley Society. This national group holds its annual Robert Benchley Awards dinner in a new city each year. This year's gathering is in Los Angeles, home to Mr. Benchley and Mrs. Dorothy Parker from the thirties through the fifties. This year the Society will gather for various activities the weekend of October 12th, including an Awards dinner hosted by "LAUGH IN" star, Arte  Johnson, at a private club in Santa Monica on Saturday, October 13th.  Evening dress or 20s-30s attire required at the Awards dinner. Must purchase ticket in advance. 

LAVA Visionary Joe Oesterle, author of the Weird Hollywood book will be a special guest at Dearly Departed Tours' First Annual Dearly Departed Weekend. Joe will be there on the evening of Saturday, Oct 6th. Click the link to get your tickets, and check out this very WEIRD event. It's going to be a lot of fun.

About Saturday's events: Death Hags will gather in Los Angeles to meet new friends, tour amazing places, and hear fascinating people speak about horrible things. In one day you can tour a disaster scene AND rub shoulders with the Los Angeles County Coroner. On Saturday morning we'll depart Los Angeles by coach for a day trip. The first stop will be in Santa Clarita for the site of the St. Francis Dam disaster. Just before midnight on March 12, 1928, this newly constructed dam designed by William Mulholland burst, creating a 140 ft wave of over 40 billion gallons of water that killed over 450 people. There we'll examine the ruins that still exist. Then we'll motor on down to Pasadena for an exploration of the Arroyo Seco Bridge - better known to our crowd as The Suicide Bridge. An expert on hand will share some of the colorful tales of this majestic / tragic landmark. Back to Hollywood to primp and preen for The Main Event - Saturday Night Cocktails (of course) and a buffet dinner in the Mountain View Mausoleum. Hosted by Scott Michaels, guest presenter is Hollywood Remains to be Seen and e-book pioneer, author Mark Masek. The main speaker of the evening will be Craig Harvey, Chief Coroner Investigator & Chief of Operations Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. There will be several pleasant surprises throughout both evenings. There will be a silent auction and a raffle, both to benefit a grave marker for a yet undetermined notable Hollywood individual. Raffle items and the grave marker recipient to be announced.

To sign up for this free event: First register as a user on this site, and then return to this page. Refresh the page and the signup tab will appear just to the left, above this paragraph. Click "signup" and reserve your spot. No plus-ones; each guest must register individually.

ABOUT THIS EVENT:

LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association is pleased to announce a free roof-top screening of a newly-discovered circa 1949 short color film of Main Street and other downtown Los Angeles locations, the Union Rescue Mission-produced Of Scrap & Steel. The screening is in conjunction with a new series of downtown stories on the In SRO Land time travel blog, featuring material from the Union Rescue Mission Archives. 

ABOUT THE FILM: In mid-1948 the Board of Directors of the Union Rescue Mission approved the expenditure of $5,000 to make the 30-minute film Of Scrap & Steel which portrays the redemption and good works of Arthur Hawkins, an alcoholic executive who ended up on the streets of Los Angeles and whose life was saved when he turned to the URM for help. Porter Hall (Arthur Hawkins) is one of only two actors in a film otherwise populated by real Los Angeles characters. (You may recall Hall's performance as the pesky guy on the train in Double Indemnity.) 

Of Scrap & Steel  was only shown in screenings organized by the URM or related organizations, and would have been completely lost if Liz Mooradian, URM historian, had not saved a deteriorating 16mm print and had it transferred to video before it was too late. Of Scrap & Steel is just one of the remarkable artifacts discovered in the Union Rescue Mission archives and explored in the In SRO Land blog.

This entertaining and powerful short film is a compelling snapshot of life on Skid Row (Main Street) circa 1949, and a fascinating document of the important work that the URM continues to do with the most needy in the community. Although downtown Los Angeles features in numerous noir films, it is extremely rare to see color images of eastern downtown, and rarer still to see full-color live-action footage of the vibrant street scene that included rescue missions, pawn shops, amusement parlors, bars, restaurants and the ever-patrolling paddy wagon in search of drunkards to haul away to jail or County work crews.

This free rooftop screening is jointly organized by LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association, the In SRO Land time travel blog and the Union Rescue Mission. Seating will be provided, and attendees are encouraged to dress warmly for the cool night air. 

Gourmet box dinners: “Meals with a purpose” will be available for purchase ($7, cash only), with a choice of sandwich (vegetarian, roast beef or chicken), cookie, fruit, chips and beverage. 100% of proceeds from your meal donation goes to the URM, and the proceeds from each dinner will feed two other people.

This screening is held in conjunction with the Skid Row Walking Tour, a separate free event beginning two hours before the screening. Separate registration for each event is required if you wish to attend both the screening and walking tour.

Nearest Metro station is Little Tokyo.

Limited free parking is available at the URM’s underground parking lot. Just tell the attendant you are there for the film. Please carpool: if each guest arrives with one other person in their car, there should be enough parking for all. Those arriving later will have to leave their keys with the parking attendant. Should the URM lot fill up, there is also off-site, paid parking available at Joe's parking lot at the SW corner of 2nd & San Pedro (MAP). A free shuttle will run between Joe's parking lot and the Union Rescue Mission before and after the event. 

Schedule

6pm Doors open (reserved guests check in at the main entrance and are sent up to the roof)

7pm-8pm Box dinners available for purchase, guests can watch the sunset (7:45pm)

8pm

• Introduction to the URM by Rev. Andy Bales, CEO
• Historians Nathan Marsak & Richard Schave introduce the film in the context of the neighborhood's history, and their work on the In SRO Land time travel blog.

8:30pm Film screening

9pm Q & A

9:30pm Event ends

A criminal and gastronomical excursion into the San Gabriel Valley, Blood & Dumplings rolls through Alhambra, Temple City, Monterey Park, Rosemead and El Monte, revealing dozens of weird, forgotten crimes and oddities from the valley's past.

Highlights include the mysterious Man from Mars Bandit, the lesbian couple whose bickering over spending cash resulted in one pumping the other full of downers until she died, the young bride who spent her wedding day buried under her parents' house, the battling neo-Nazis of El Monte, Phil Spector's spooky castle and the little bar where James Ellroy's murdered mother Jean had her last drink.

The tour includes a selection of dumplings from one of the San Gabriel Valley's best Chinese restaurants.(Vegetarian passengers, please let us know your food preference several days before we depart.) If using a gift certificate, please note that this tour has an additional $5 dumpling fee, payable in cash or check at the bus door.

Passenger Feedback

"I've taken the famous 'Ghostly New Orleans' and 'Mysteries of Venice, Italy' tours and also enthusiastically enjoyed London's 'Jack the Ripper of Whitehall' tour, and I assure you none surpasses Richard Schave and Kim Cooper's Esotouric "Blood & Dumplings" bus excursion into the bizarrely memorable but rarely-visited regions of East Los Angeles. As humorous and constantly entertaining as it is thoroughly researched, this lovingly crafted 4-hour tour is essential for any tourist or long-term denizen who wishes to comprehend the many fascinating characters and their dark, odd-ball deeds which have contributed to Los Angeles' nutty history. Very comfortable, carefully prepared, weirdly funny, and unforgettable." (F.A.)