Is Amboy, California Worth the Detour? Inside the Googie Ghost Town That Refused to Stay Dead

Featured image credit: Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / “Amboy (California, USA) — 2012 — 4” / CC BY-SA 4.0 About 200 miles east of Los Angeles and 100 miles northeast of Palm Springs sits a remote Mojave Desert town that exists out of logic and reason. It was built near a dead volcano, along a highway (that died), with a gas station […]

The Mid-Century Fairytale of LA’s Case Study Houses

Featured image credit: mbtrama It’s not often that we get to witness experiments in architecture while they’re in motion. Yet, that’s exactly the experience case study houses offer. Arts & Architecture magazine challenged notable architects to create affordable homes to address the U.S.’s residential housing boom. With World War II finally coming to an end, […]

The Last Chuck E. Cheese Animatronic Band in the World is Playing a Northridge Residency

Featured image credit: Ben Schumin What a year for legendary bands. New wave icons Devo retired from live performance. Rock gods Kiss called it a day. And now Munch’s Make Believe Band is packing it all in… with one notable exception. Wait, you don’t remember Munch’s Make Believe Band? Surely you’ve had the singular experience […]

Modernism Week Palm Springs Celebrates 20th Anniversary with Magic Line-Up

It seems there isn’t a second that passes in the Coachella Valley when Mid-Century designs aren’t celebrated in some way. Yet, Palm Springs still devotes a “week” to Mid-Century Modern styles. That “week” lasts 10 days this year, but it still doesn’t seem like enough time to pack in every event, tour, lecture, and party. […]

The Diorama Museum of Bhagavad-gita is One of the Best Museums in Los Angeles… if You’re Seeking Enlightenment

Featured image credit: ISKCON Los Angeles When it comes to world-class museums, we have an embarrassment of riches in the Greater Los Angeles area. But some of the best museums in Los Angeles are the obscured diamonds only talked about in the inner circles of LA’s bohemian underground. We’ve discussed some of them on the […]

Since 1958, the Capitol Records Building Christmas Tree Has Dazzled LA Every Year. Well, Except One.

Featured image credit: Amé Kali LA’s transition into a winter wonderland is subtle when compared to a lot of other U.S. cities. Maybe it’s all that year-round California sunshine. Sure, we have the annual Hollywood Christmas Parade, falling on the first Sunday after Thanksgiving since 1928. Then there’s the more recent tradition of the Pershing […]

Mt. Baldy is LA’s Most Infamous Mountain… and the 3rd Most Deadly in the Country

Featured image credit: Eric T. Gunther Jagged, snow-ravaged peaks scrape frosty clouds; a steel gray contrast overpowering blue skies. Blankets of deceptively powdery snow, punctuated by puma prints, blanket thick, unyielding slabs of ice. Silence is broken by the cascading rustle of falling ice shards and frozen boulders gaining shudder-inducing inertia. No, we’re not in […]