Featured image credit: Maarten Heerlien The next time you visit the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, keep in mind that some of those taxidermied animals behind the glass are over a century old. That’s right, the museum’s nature dioramas just turned a century old. And to commemorate the milestone, the museum re-opened a dormant […]
Featured image credit: RoboLights Facebook Page Christmas in Palm Springs is a special time where time-honored tradition intersects with yuletide camp in a distinctly sweet seasonal cocktail you won’t find anywhere else. But for many longtime residents of the Coachella Valley, it’s not quite Christmas without Robolights. If you’re asking ‘What’s Robolights?”, there’s no way […]
Photo credit: SkyPark at Santa’s Village Christmas comes but once a year (to the disappointment of many children and relief of many bank accounts)… but there is one remote corner of the Los Angeles-adjacent Skyforest where that’s not quite true. Since the early 1950s, Angelenos have recognized that Christmas is a daily event at Santa’s […]
Featured image credit: Codera23 Perched inconspicuously atop the 36-acre hilltop of Barnsdall Art Park, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House is a zenith of Los Angeles architecture. Wright designed the home at the behest of oil heiress Aline Barnsdall with construction beginning in 1921. Following a tense couple of years of design and construction, Barnsdall expressed […]
Featured image credit: ZR1748 Southern California is spoiled by its automotive museums. We of course have the Miracle Mile’s Petersen Automotive Museum. Then there’s the Mullen in Oxnard. But one that enthusiasts frequently overlook (likely because of its out-of-the-way Sylmar location) is the Nethercutt Collection and Museum, a breathtaking collection of classic, antique automobiles with […]
Featured image credit: Hermann Luyken Cirque du Soleil has become such a fixture of the Las Vegas experience that it’s hard to recall that the first permanent venture was a major risk. Up until then, the expectations of Las Vegas nightlife were drastically different. While most will agree that Siegfried and Roy did the heavy […]
Featured image credit: Jessie Eastland What is it about the isolation of the desert that drives people to search with such determination for profound, meaningful communication? It’s the conditions that birthed the Mojave Phone Booth: a remote payphone that inspired togetherness amongst lonely people at the end of the 1990s. And the Amargosa Opera House: […]
Featured image credit: Visitor7 We often talk about the history of Los Angeles on this blog, but today we’re going back to the very beginning. Sort of. Indigenous people lived in the area we call Los Angeles for centuries before the city’s first stone was laid. But if you ask locals to take you to […]
Featured image credit: Russ Allison Loar The Queen Mary has quite the reputation. No, we don’t mean a disgraced monarch. We’re talking about the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary permanently moored in the Port of Long Beach. You know, the allegedly haunted Queen Mary? She ferried the world’s ultra-wealthy across the globe’s blue highway for […]
Featured image credit: Jim Heimman from his book California Crazy & Beyond – Roadside Vernacular Architecture It’s understated to be sure, but there’s something special about the autumn in Southern California. You wouldn’t think our arid, sunny, and often sweltering atmosphere would be particularly welcoming of cinnamon and spice. And, sure, you won’t find many […]
