50 Years Of Beatles History In Los Angeles

After attending the enjoyable salute to the Beatles this past weekend at the Hollywood Bowl that celebrated the 50th anniversary of their first ever concert in Los Angeles (where superstar musicians recreated the exact set list from August 23rd, 1964), I loved reading this Curbed L.A. story about just how much time the group as a whole, and as individuals, spent in Los Angeles in their lifetimes. The article did a really nice job of "mapping out" the history of the Fab Four in L.A. Here are some of the highlights of the article:

Of course, you have to start at the Bowl concert, which was right at the height of Beatlemania. As you can see from the flyer above, this was their only Los Angeles appearance and the tickets went for a whopping $3 - $7! Bob Eubanks, famed for The Newlywed Game but then a 26-year-old KRLA DJ and proprietor of the Cinnamon Cinder nightclubs at the time, mortgaged his house for $25,000 to pay for the concert, and attendees include Lauren Bacall and Louella Parsons among the screaming teens.

When the boys were in town to play a repeat performance at the Hollywood Bowl exactly one year later in August 1965, they had the chance to visit their idol, Elvis Presley. Band members have said through the years the meeting was a bit awkward, but they managed to joke around a little, have a jam session, and John and Elvis even talked about Peter Sellers and their favorite scenes from Seller's hit Stanley Kubrick film,  Dr. Strangelove.

George Harrison rented the above house in 1967; while waiting for friends to show up on a foggy night. He killed time by using the rental home's Hammond organ to write Magical Mystery Tour's "Blue Jay Way" with its haunting "There's a fog upon LA..." lyrics.

The picture above, known as the last picture of Paul McCartney and John Lennon ever taken together, was snapped at the Santa Monica beach house built by MGM chief Louis B. Mayer (and later owned by actor Peter Lawford, and said to have hosted JFK/Marilyn Monroe trysts) that Lennon rented with girlfriend May Pang during his year-and-a-half-long "Lost Weekend" in the mid-1970's. He hosted legendary late-night parties there attended by the likes of Keith Moon, Ringo Starr and Elton John after nights spent on the Sunset Strip.

Anyway, I really got a kick out of the Curbed L.A. article especially since it brought back many memories of the Beatles concerted I attended just 5 days after the Bowl concert back at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens, New York. Let me know your memories of Beatles shows you might have attended or if you were there any of the 3 nights last weekend and what you thought!

The Grand Central Market Renaissance Is Thriving

Downtown L.A.'s Grand Central Market, which has been operating continuously for the past 97 years, has been through many transformations over the last century. After opening to much fanfare in 1917, the market was a booming social hub from the 1920's through the 1960's but, like much of Downtown, it suffered from the suburban sprawl that made the Downtown area less than a desirable location. For much of the past few decades the market has served primarily as a discount center, offering produce, dry goods and prepared meals to a largely working-class clientele.

These days, however, Grand Central Market is riding the wave of revitalization that has seen much of Downtown Los Angeles turn into one of the hottest spots in America. National media has been breathlessly reporting on this unlikely turn of events with the Downtown area for a few years now, with the Wall Street Journal recently spotlighting how people such as TV producer Burt Sugarman and his wife, former "Entertainment Tonight" host Mary Hart, have given up their lush Beverly Hills digs and moved to an area once better known for urban blight. Now comes word this week that, after naming Downtown restaurant Alma the best new restaurant in America in 2013, Bon Appétit has named Grand Central Market as one of its Hot 10 — the best new restaurants of 2014.

“What in the world is a 97-year-old food court doing on this list?” asks Bon Appétit restaurant editor Andrew Knowlton. “Let me explain. Over the past year, Grand Central Market, much like the rest of downtown L.A., has seen a remarkable renaissance". Indeed, and GCM has seen ITS renaissance include an exceptional variety of new food vendors as well as quality cooking by some of California's best and trendiest eateries, while also retaining classic stalls such as China Cafe, in operation since the 1940's and famous for its wonton soup. You'll also find a butcher shop specializing in organic grass-fed meats (Belcampo Meat Company), Chile Secos, a Latin grocery selection of imported moles, dried beans, rice, nuts, grains, and other specialty products, and DTLA Cheese, Downtown's first full-service cheesemonger, among the many offerings.

If you have not been to the Market in awhile, it is definitely a "must do" weekend stop for any Angeleno looking for a great way to spend the day shopping and eating. I would love to hear about what your favorite vendors are and what you think of the amazing turnaround the market has seen!

It's Going To Be A Great Weekend For Free Events In Los Angeles

Looks like there are a lot of interesting and varied events going on this weekend and the great thing is that many of them are free. In that vein, I thought I would spotlight a few that look like the best bets, including a couple I might like to attend (if I get a spare second during this super busy period for me!). ALL of the events below are free.

If you are into classic theater, there are two Shakespeare festivals and a reading of Anton Chekhov's masterwork, The Seagull, being staged this weekend. The first Shakespeare outing is being held in San Pedro when the Shakespeare by the Sea series ends its Summer run on Saturday with a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Bard's play where the impish Puck makes mischief with fairy royalty and human lovers alike, leading them on a merry midsummer night chase.

If you are not ready to hike down to San Pedro but still want to get your Shakespeare fix, Griffith Park hosts its own Summer Shakespeare series. This weekend will have The Taming of the Shrew performed Saturday night and Twelfth Night performed on Sunday night. The plays are staged by the Independent Shakespeare Company, a group founded in 1998 by actors sharing a passion for classical works who "focus on stripping back the conventions of contemporary theater and discovering efficient, entertaining ways to bring great works to a modern audience". 

Chekov's The Seagull is being staged by the Downtown Repertory Theater Company at the Historic Pico House in the Olvera Street section Downtown. The 1895 play explores the tensions between mothers, sons, lovers, friends and servants and its story centers around a famous actress, Irina Arkadina, who is obsessed with a callous lover, dismissive of her frustrated son and suspicious of an admiring young woman.

If fitness is your thing, the Santa Monica Pier and the Ferrigno family fitness dynasty present Hey There Muscles - Lean Fitness by FerrignoFIT, a six-week fitness and wellness program at the Pier on Saturdays at 9 a.m. This Saturday is the last class of the Summer and is focused on creating lean muscle and healthy living and eating habits, taught by the original Hulk himself, Lou Ferrigno. 

There is also the Bombay Jam Fitness Class at Blanks Studios in Sherman Oaks Saturday that incorporates cardio and toning routines into a total body workout with routines set to custom music mixes created by Bombay's hottest DJs (the music is a blend of Bollywood and mainstream Top 40 tracks). The cardio routines incorporate basic, easy to follow dance fitness moves with Bollywood flare, and the toning segment focuses on sculpting long, lean muscle in the hour-long class where you can burn up to 800 calories!

And finally, if you just want to have a few drinks, listen to great music and sample some of the area's best food trucks, Timbuk2, the makers of those super-cool backpacks that are in vogue with everyone from bicyclists to farmers market shoppers to beach-goers, are opening up their new store in Venice with a 2-day grand-opening celebration Saturday and Sunday featuring local craft beer, complimentary photobooth pics, live music and surprise giveaways and discounts.

Hard to believe all of this stuff is free but it is, so if you go to any of these events please let me know on my Facebook page how they were. Maybe I'll see you at the free Roberta Flack concert at Burton Chace Park Saturday night!

Local Beekeepers Working To Keep Honeybee Population From Collapse

The Argonaut, the Westside beach communities local weekly paper, had a great article this past week about local beekeepers that had me wondering how many people are aware of the massive bee die-off over the last decade and how it is affecting crops around the globe. Starting in the Fall of 2006, beekeepers in the United States began reporting losses of 30% to 90% of their hives. While colony losses are not unexpected, especially over the winter, the magnitude of recent losses has been unusually high. Honeybees pollinate $30 billion worth of crops in the U.S., including the nearly $4 billion California almond crop now blooming in the Central Valley that depends on 1.4 million of the rented hives to grow the nuts. Honey bees pollinate roughly 1/3 of the food Americans consume, and we also eat over 400 million pounds of honey in America each year.

Colony Collapse Disorder is the name given to the mysterious condition decimating the honey bee population that is being blamed on everything from using a combination of certain pesticides to global warming to trucking hives of stressed out bees all over the place to pollinate. The Argonaut reports that the sudden and rapid decline of the bee population has gotten the attention of President Barack Obama, who had two hives installed at the White House garden this summer — making him the nation’s most high-profile urban beekeeper. In June, the President created a Pollinator Task Force to establish a federal strategy aimed at promoting the health of honeybees and other pollinators. The issue is serious enough that the task force issued a statement explaining that Honeybee pollination alone adds more than $15 billion in value to agricultural crops each year in the United States and the recent severe yearly declines have created concern that bee colony losses could reach a point from which the commercial pollination industry would not be able to adequately recover.

To that end, beekeepers have, for the past several years, celebrated National Honeybee Day to educate people about honeybees and promote efforts to keep them from extinction. This year’s National Honeybee Day is Saturday, Aug. 16, and the nonprofit L.A. beekeeper group Honey Love is marking the occasion with a party on Venice Beach. The event takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with a group photo of participants at noon, near the lifeguard tower off Market Street near the Venice Skatepark. See you there?

Nation-wide Public Art Show On Display With The ART EVERYWHERE Event

An historic nation-wide public art initiative kicked off in New York City’s Times Square this past weekend and it is an incredibly amazing event. Billed as “the largest outdoor art show ever conceived”, the Art Everywhere project is a public celebration of great American art exhibited on thousands of "out of home" (OOH) advertising displays across America. Over 50,000 images will be presented on billboards, bus shelters, subway posters, special digital displays, outside walls of office buildings and much more. As a major art fan, this is very exciting news to me!

Five of America’s leading art museums--LACMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art--offered up hundreds of their collections' standout works that represent American history and culture, and a voting pool of more than 180,000 people from across the country selected the top 58 pieces. A few artists were so popular that voters picked multiple examples of their work including 19th century landscape painter Winslow Homer’s The Cotton Pickers, Breezing Up (A Fair Wind) and The Water Fan and Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks and Early Sunday Morning. Expect to see Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol, Grant Wood's American Gothic and what is considered Gilbert Stuart's greatest of his many portraits of George Washington among the selected works.

Dallas Museum of Art Director Max Anderson says, “Most Americans aren’t taught about American art in school, and this project is intended to put discussion about art back in the classroom—and at the dinner table, water cooler, and car pool.” So, keep your eyes open everywhere you look now through August 31st (when the event ends) since you just may see your favorite piece of art--or find a new one--on a Metro train, hanging on the wall of a Starbucks or perched on a billboard along the freeway. If you do spot a piece that makes you think or laugh or is in an unusual place, please snap a pic and send it to me and I'll publish it on my Facebook page.

Notorious Spelling Estate Known As 'The Manor' On The Market Yet Again

Depending on your point of view, it is either one of the grandest or one of the tackiest mansions in Los Angeles. But no matter what your thoughts about the home itself are, there is no doubt that The Manor, the 56,500-square-foot behemoth (about 1,500 square feet bigger than the White House) with 14 bedrooms and 27 bathrooms in Holmby Hills, has provided the real estate world in Los Angeles plenty of drama since it was built in 1991. The home is back in the spotlight this week as its current owner, 25 year-old British heiress Petra Ecclestone (who bought the home in 2011 for $85 million), is showing the house privately at an asking price of $150 million.

Built for super-producer Aaron Spelling and his wife Candy, the house became a source of amusement for Angelenos as it became famous for its THREE gift wrapping rooms, doll museum, and guest rooms bigger than most 2 bedroom apartments. At the time of its construction, the project spawned a controversy over its massive size and ostentatious architecture, with the L.A. Times asking, "What's bigger than a football field, smaller than Hearst Castle, has a bowling alley and an entire floor of closets, and is making some people very annoyed? Aaron and Candy Spelling's mansion in Holmby Hills". It is worth mentioning here that the property also contains 16 carports.

Aaron Spelling died in 2006, and two years later Candy listed the 123-room (!) home for $150 million but had no takers at that price. It finally sold to Eccleson (who now goes by her married name, Petra Stunt) in 2011. She completely overhauled the house, bringing in dark velvet, crystals, a custom coat of arms created by her decorator, and a Marc Quinn sculpture of twin Pamela Andersons in bikinis. There is also a nightclub in the basement, a giant fish tank filled with rare puffer fish, and a spa with a massage parlor, three hair stations, and two mani-pedi chairs (in the room that used to house Spelling's infamous doll collection). So, it seems, Petra has her own "unique" design and decorating tastes as well. 

Curbed LA reports that Petra may be willing to negotiate as long as the price stays above the $102 million price that Fleur De Lys, the L.A. mansion that set the record for highest home sale ever in Los Angeles county, sold for in March.

L.A.'s Quirky Victorian Village

If you blink while passing you'll miss it, but just before the Avenue 43 exit on the Arroyo Seco Parkway amidst the working-class homes and small businesses of Montecito Heights sits a small,  picturesque Victorian village. A restored collection of nineteenth-century houses, a huge Carpenter Gothic church, a red trolley car and a shingled yellow train depot make up the Heritage Square Museum, a "living history museum" that has been quietly working to preserve L.A.'s Victorian architectural history. More impressive is that they have been doing so without the assistance of big donors or crowds for more than 40 years.

Established in 1969 by the Cultural Heritage Board, The Heritage Square Museum was a response to the rapidly increasing demolition of Los Angeles's historic landmarks and neighborhoods. The five-member panel was given the authority to designate Historic-Cultural Monuments in the city of Los Angeles and it was among the first of its kind in the country, predating New York's Landmarks Preservation Law by three years. Most of the buildings sprung up during the first L.A. land boom of the 1880s, and some of these structures stood nearly alone in neighborhoods like Bunker Hill (which had been razed to make way for modern developments). Others no longer fit in with their neighborhoods, like the train depot that sat condemned behind a furniture store in Palms. Over the past four decades, Heritage Square Museum has acquired and begun the restoration on eight historically significant buildings along acres of period appropriate landscaped grounds.

As the pictures below show, the village is fascinating glimpse into the past. A perfect example is the beautifully restored Hale House, built in 1887 at the base of Mount Washington by real estate developer George Morgan. The multi-colored, turreted, upper-middle class house  is a mixture of the Queen Anne and Eastlake styles of architecture and definitely lives up to what the L.A. Times called "'picturesque eclectic" from the "age of exuberance". Another standout is the 1876 William Hayes Perry residence (also known as Mount Pleasant House), considered by many to be the first proper "mansion" built in Los Angeles. 

Perhaps the oddest building is the 1893 Longfellow-Hastings Octagon House, one of the two examples of this strange, fad architecture left in the state. Conceived in the 1840s by amateur architect and scientific quack , Orson S. Fowler, the octagon house plan enjoyed a brief heyday in the East and Midwest in the years before the Civil War. These eight-sided houses, featuring flat roofs and wraparound verandas and were believed to be healthful and cost efficient, letting in more natural light and cheaper to construct and heat. Their popularity had died out by the 1860's so the end-of-century construction date of the one in Heritage Village is an anomaly.