Although the earliest office parks first appeared in the 1950s, their golden age was the 1980s, when they sprang up like boxy, shiny, fairy rings in the liminal spaces between cities and suburbs; drawn beyond the edges of cities by baby boomers who’d discovered in fleeing to the suburbs, they’d created for themselves a fresh hell in … Continue reading Office Park Life — Visiting Park DTLA
Contemplations of those shiny suburban monoliths designed to suppress distractions… and collect souls. If there’s a business park/office park you’d like to see explored and written about, please let me know in the comments. Visiting Park DTLA
INTRODUCTION The other day, I explored Elysian Park, because it was leading in the California Fool’s Gold neighborhood poll. When I created that poll, I hadn’t yet created Southland Parks. While Elysian Park is sometimes described as a neighborhood (e.g. the Los Angeles Times’ Mapping Los Angeles and Wikipedia) and there are a few homes … Continue reading Southland Parks — Visiting Elysian Park
Neighborhoods often take their names from significant features within them, which in Los Angeles are often major street intersections and parks. Neighborhoods named after intersections include Vermont-Slauson, Broadway-Manchester, Central-Alameda, and Adams-Normandie. Neighborhoods named after parks include South Park, Alondra Park, Cypress Park, and, of course, MacArthur Park. MacArthur Park, however, was for half a century … Continue reading Southland Parks — Visiting MacArthur Park
This edition of California Fool’s Gold, currently in its ninth year, is about Hancock Park, an affluent, quiet, and mostly residential neighborhood in Midtown Los Angeles that was mostly developed in the 1920s. On this exploration, I was accompanied by Hancock Park resident, Gonzi, and (at the very beginning) the good folks of Walking LA. INTRODUCTION TO HANCOCK … Continue reading California Fool’s Gold — Exploring Hancock Park
Parks comprise more than 14% of Los Angeles’s landscape and the city is home to hundreds of these cherished public spaces. From the largest park within any American city (Topanga State Park) to the smallest pocket parks and parklets, I hope to showcase them one park at a time, in the series Southland Parks. ***** Ascot Hills … Continue reading Southland Parks — Visiting Ascot Hills Park
BREADBASKETS AND HEAD GASKETS — GLASSELL PARK This entry of California Fool’s Gold is about the Los Angeles neighborhood of Glassell Park, a working class neighborhood in Northeast Los Angeles. Glassell Park’s neighbors are the neighborhoods of Eagle Rock to the east, Mount Washington to the southeast, Cypress Park to the south, Elysian Valley to the … Continue reading California Fool’s Gold — Exploring Glassell Park
Today is the birthday of English poet and Dandy, John Gray. As a writer, Gray is best-known for Silverpoints,The Long Road, and Park: A Fantastic Story. Though celebrated in his day, today he is perhaps best known for being the rumored inspiration for Oscar Wilde’s fictional character and literature’s most famous Decadent and Dandy, Dorian Gray. … Continue reading Happy birthday, John Gray – the real life Dorian Gray
Amongst the many resources available pertaining to Los Angeles are websites, blogs, podcasts, and other online-only resources. I read many of them regularly, some too much, and almost all of them occasionally. For my own use and for the use of others (especially explorers and adventurers) I’ve here compiled what I hope is as conclusive a … Continue reading Los Angeles Webography; or, Los Angeles Websites and Blogs
The following entry originally appeared on the Amoeblog This is my last dispatch for the Amoeblog. I started blogging for Amoeblog on 26 July 2007. In that time I created a few series for the Amoeblog: One Album Wonders (profiles of bands which only released one album), Brightwell’s Top 10 (my favorite tracks from the … Continue reading Marking the end of an Eight Year Venture, or, My Final Post
Eric Brightwell 