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An inconvenient truth at the on-pause Mark Taper Forum
“How did you go bankrupt?” Hemingway wrote that — although the quote is sometimes attributed to Fitzgerald — the answer was: “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Theaters fail the same way. As reported in the Los Angeles Times (6/20/23) and elsewhere, the Mark Taper Forum is “pausing” production due to financial difficulties. The Taper’s executives […]

‘Chateaux in the sky’ part 2: Gramercy, St. Andrews and Manhattan
‘The Places’ take center stage It must have been quite a shocking sight in the late 1920s as a swell of development erupted in “The Places” along Gramercy, St. Andrews and Manhattan between Third Street and Olympic Boulevard. Like a giant monopoly board, multistory apartment buildings sprouted up amidst a flat landscape of vacant lots, […]

Larchmont boys’ volleyball places second at FIYA championship
This was the first year Larchmont Charter fielded a boys’ 7th and 8th grade volleyball team, and what an unexpected and astounding season the Timberwolves had. For most of the boys, this was their first time playing volleyball. Just three had competed before, and one, Ian Yoo, broke his arm at the season’s start and […]

Yo ho ho! A salty nautical tale of rum, fathom and Mayday
As the sun finally graces us with its presence, I dream of being on a boat. I’ll settle for any kind of vessel, really: a catamaran tour through Channel Islands National Park, a ferry to Catalina or a kayak riding the current through the remarkably lush natural habitat of the Los Angeles River. With a […]

Chateaux in the sky: Amazing apartments of Greater Wilshire
I always have to laugh a little when I hear pro-development YIMBYs refer to the neighborhoods of Greater Wilshire as “segregationist,” a term that in their parlance refers to anti-density or anti-apartment buildings, as if Hancock Park, Windsor Square, etc. were strictly single-family zones. Any resident who travels the paths of our bucolic communities knows, […]