Featured image credit: Rennett Stowe Sometimes, Los Angeles can feel like its own planet. The uncompromising culture of the people, the constant barrage of entertainment options, the otherworldly sunsets. It all contributes to this insular essence. Love it or loathe it, that LA flavor is unmistakable. And you’d imagine that the further you traveled from […]
Seth Styles
End Summer on the Right Foot (or Wheel) with Glendora’s Flashback Classic Car Show
To paraphrase the legendary Ronnie Hudson “Glendora knows how to party.” And if you don’t believe us, you need only keep your calendar open on Saturday, August 17 for the most hotly-anticipated annual summer event to cruise its way into the Glendora Village: the Flashback Classic Car Show; now in its 36th year! Touted as […]
Inside the Museum of Jurassic Technology – LA’s Oddest Collection of Curiosities
Featured image credit: Tore Danielsson It’s almost become a mantra amongst those in the know: “The less you know about the Museum of Jurassic Technology going into it, the better.” So, there’s your warning. If the name alone has already sold you, turn back now, buy your tickets, and enjoy. Need a bit more information? […]
Fair Oaks Pharmacy Offers a Taste of Nostalgia Served with a Smile
They don’t make them like they used to. It’s a phrase used often enough that it’s become a saying. But in Los Angeles, you can’t say it about milkshakes, malts, sodas, and… well, medications, oddly enough. At least not while Fair Oaks Pharmacy is still opening its doors to the South Pasadena community. Its neon […]
Absorption Rate Analysis – June 2024: Early Summer Slipping Toward the Buyer’s Favor
We’ve seen the summer favor buyers before, but not quite like in June this year. The last time we even got close to a near-universal absorption rate drop like we saw last month was in July 2023. Back then, 10 of our 12 neighborhoods dropped closer to the buyer’s favor. But in June 2024, only […]
Restaurant Junk Fees May Be Back on the Menu After All
Back in May, we published a blog about the forthcoming death of restaurant service fees. But it looks like we spoke… err, wrote too soon. Normally, we’d just update the original blog to reflect this, but since lawmakers are pushing through a complete “about face” at the 11th hour, we felt this deserved its own […]
One of the Most Treacherous Death Valley Hikes Leads to a Downed CIA Plane
Featured image credit: Dr. Paul Koudounaris For being a literal wasteland, the deserts of California have a lot of unusual sites in them. We’ve covered a few of them on this very blog. Remember the rust-colored steel sculptures of Galleta Meadows in Anza Borrego? What about the Invisible House and the Mirage House? Or the […]
The Oldest McDonald’s in the World is Also the Last Of Its Kind
Featured image credit: Bryan Hong In-N-Out Burger has become so synonymous with California’s fast food culture that it’s hard to remember we launched the mother of all fast food chains. That’s right. The first-ever McDonald’s restaurant started right in the city of San Bernardino. But this isn’t a blog about the first McDonald’s. It’s about […]
The Mojave Phone Booth: The Remote Desert Payphone That Rang for No One and Everyone
Featured image credit: Mwf95 Decades before 2019’s “raid” on Area 51, 2017’s Fyre Festival, 2015’s dress color debate, and let’s not forget this magic moment, one of the first internet phenomena caught the world’s attention with a resounding ring. It posed the question: “If a phone rings in the desert and no one is around […]
California Cult “Mankind United” Promised Utopia… But Took More Than It Gave
In 1934, a strange publication started making the rounds in esoteric circles, casting beams of hope across Great Depression-era California where there had only been shadow. It was called (deep breath) Mankind United: A Challenge to “Mad Ambition” and “The Money-Changers” Accompanied by an Invitation to the World’s “Sane” Men and Women. Try fitting that […]