Culver City History in the Spotlight

Culver City History in the Spotlight

KCET’s Social Focus section recently produced a piece entitled Culver City: From Barley Fields to the Heart of Screenland.
The in-depth article by Nathan Masters opens with the following sentence:

When the Expo Line's Culver City station opens June 20, history will come full circle. Founded at the junction of three streetcar lines, the Westside community of Culver City has been without passenger rail service since 1953.

The piece is also accompanied by some wonderful old photos of Culver City, from a variety of sources including the Los Angeles Public Library and the USC libraries' LA as Subject.
Local Culver City historian Julie Lugo Cerra told Patch she was surprised and delighted to see KCET’s coverage of the history of Culver City, but said she wished LA as Subject had approached the Culver City Historical Society, because there were some inaccuracies in the piece.
“The Culver City Historical Society participates in the [LA as Subject] Archive Fair,” Lugo Cerra said. “I just wished they would have checked in [with us] so some of the errors could have been avoided."
Lugo Cerra also noted that Metro officials recently used the Culver City Historical Society's resources. Metro is putting together some historical information to accompany the opening of the Culver City Expo Line station on June 20.
Click here to read the full KCET story on the history of Culver City.
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Bare as You Dare: Get Ready for L.A.'s World Naked Bike Ride

Bare as You Dare: Get Ready for L.A.'s World Naked Bike Ride



Angelenos, it's time to take it off and take off on your two wheeler: The World Naked Bike Ride is back in L.A. on June 16, 2012.

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Christian, Married Actor Hits On Model Who Live-Tweets Everything

Christian, Married Actor Hits On Model Who Live-Tweets Everything



Model Melissa Stetten makes a regular habit of tweeting about the hilarious pick-up lines dudes try on her. So when the man in the seat next to her started his routine, she started live-tweeting the entire encounter.

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7 Great Hollywood Commencement Speeches to the Class of 2012

7 Great Hollywood Commencement Speeches to the Class of 2012



From Andy Samberg to Robert De Niro and from Peter Dinklage to Steve Carell here are seven of the best Hollywood commencement speeches to the class of 2012.

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Classic TV Batman Merchandise Headed Back to Store Shelves

Classic TV Batman Merchandise Headed Back to Store Shelves



Warner Bros. Consumer Products announced that for the first time in decades a full range of merchandise based on the campy sixties classic will be available for fans.

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George Takei Relates His Family's Humiliating Internment Camp Experience

Video: George Takei Relates His Family's Humiliating Internment Camp Experience



It took 40 years, but this week the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to rescind a 1942 order that supported the internment of Japanese Americans. The resolution said it was difficult "if not impossible to distinguish between loyal and disloyal Japanese aliens."

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Google Maps Is About To Get Even More Awesome

Google Maps Is About To Get Even More Awesome

Next week, Apple is widely expected to drop Google as the maps provider for the iPhone and iPad. Google has provided Apple's mobile mapping system since the release of the first iPhone, but the companies aren't friends anymore. Over the last few years, Apple has purchased three mapping startups, and it has reportedly been combining their technology into a maps application that, in the words of one Apple insider who spoke to All Things D, "will blow your head off."

Google Reveals an Image-Capturing Street View Backpack and New 3-D Maps

Google Reveals an Image-Capturing Street View Backpack and New 3-D Maps

Google's Maps team introduced three new technologies on Wednesday -- advanced 3D models of entire cities, right down down to trees in front of buildings in Google Earth; a new Android-controlled Street View Trekker backpack for capturing images where bikes, cars and planes can't go; and the ability to save offline maps in the Android Maps app.

Ray Bradbury, Venice OG

RIP Ray Bradbury, Venice OG

Ray Bradbury, recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, died yesterday at the age of 91 after a long illness in Los Angeles.

Bradbury, best known as the author of “The Martian Chronicles” and “Fahrenheit 451” (as well as 27 novels and more than 600 short stories) lived and wrote for many of his formative years here in Venice Beach.

Ray Bradbury in 2009, picture by Caleb Sconosciuto

Bradbury moved to 670 South Venice in 1942 when his parents rented a house next door to the brick electrical power house building that belonged to the utility company Bradbury’s father worked for. It was in the garage of 670, where Bradbury had set up a writing table in his early 20′s, that most of the stories that became The Martian Chronicles were written as well as the short story “The Fog Horn”.
“Every noon for several years I swam in the ocean,” Bradbury told Preservation magazine, “and then when I came out, I was refreshed and went and wrote in my garage-office.”

In 1947, Bradbury and his new bride Marguerite Bradbury moved From 670 South Venice to 33 South Venice. The couple remained married for 57 years, until Maggie’s death in 2003.

The Bradbury family moved to a larger home in Mandeville Canyon to raise their four daughters, but Venice was always dear to Bradbury’s heart and he continued to write about it. Bradbury’s 1985 novel “Death is a Lonely Business” uses old Venice as a backdrop for much of the action.

In his later years Bradbury was instrumental in helping preservationists restore the colonnades of Venice, allowing the Venice Historical Society to use his name in the “Ray Bradbury Adopt-a-Colonnade Restoration Project“. The project helped restore some 27 columns at the expense of $2,500 each.
Unfortunately, preservationists were unable to save the 750-square-foot craftsman style bungalow at 670 South Venice and garage that Bradbury wrote in, which was razed in order to build the new “east wing” brick gallery building for L&M Arts. 33 South Venice still stands today, with the addition of a 2nd story.
RIP Ray Bradbury, Venice OG

A Colorful History

A Colorful History

Streets around the world will be decked in rainbows this week as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community celebrates LGBT Pride Month. Why is gay pride represented by rainbows?

FINALLY: Free Wi-Fi at LAX Starting This Summer

FINALLY: Free Wi-Fi at LAX Starting This Summer



Frequent flyers, your days of grumbling over the lack of free Wi-Fi at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) will soon come to an end. America's third busiest airport has announced that it will offer free Wi-Fi service beginning as soon as this summer. Praise technology!

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Get Ready for Obamajam on Wednesday

Get Ready for Obamajam on Wednesday

President Barack Obama will make another fundraising trip to the Los Angeles area Wednesday afternoon, with traffic expected to affect Beverly Hills, Westwood and possibly other parts of the Westside.
The president is scheduled to attend a fundraiser at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel Wednesday evening.
The White House and Secret Service never confirm motorcade routes, but in recent months the president has helicoptered from LAX to the Veterans Administration Medical Center grounds, and then used Sunset Boulevard east over the 405 Freeway and across Westwood, Holmby Hills and Beverly Hills.
The White House has been using rolling street closures for presidential visits. Obama's overnight plans and departure time have not been released.
This report was compiled with information from City News Service.
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Rugrats

Rugrats



For most of the history of television, the barrier to syndication—and to profitability—has been 100 episodes. The shows that have made it to that mark are an unusual group. Many were big hits. Some found small cult audiences. Still others just hung on as best they could and never posted numbers quite low enough to be canceled. In 100 Episodes, we examine shows that made it to that number, considering both how they advanced or reflected the medium and what contributed to their popularity.
Original programming for cable has revolutionized television as a medium, but until very recently, cable wasn’t the place a scripted series went to get to 100 episodes. HBO’s stalwarts—The Sopranos, Sex In The City, and The Larry Sanders Show—all topped out under that mark, and the few series that have made it there tend to be similar to network shows ...

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Paul Simon: Graceland: 25th Anniversary Edition

Paul Simon: Graceland: 25th Anniversary Edition



After splitting from Art Garfunkel in 1970, Paul Simon thrived as a solo artist throughout the early ’70s, peaking with the Grammy-winning 1975 LP Still Crazy After All These Years and the 1977 compilation Greatest Hits, Etc. But after Still Crazy, Simon had difficulty coming up with enough material for a new album, and then he got distracted, making the flop 1980 movie One Trick Pony and its sketchy soundtrack. Simon followed that up by reuniting with Garfunkel for a massive concert in Central Park and a world tour, but the duo squabbled, and sessions for a new Simon & Garfunkel album were scrapped, with the material reworked into Simon’s poor-selling (albeit very good) 1983 LP Hearts And Bones.
So it’s fair to say that by the time Simon began recording his 1986 album Graceland, he was in a slump. At the time, few would’ve expected that Simon ...

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Mr. Trololo Dies

Eduard Khil dies at 77: 'Mr. Trololo' meme hit late in his career


Khil, a baritone who was popular in the 1960s and '70s in what was then the Soviet Union, received a number of awards during his career, including the People’s Artist of Russia honor, but it wasn’t until a 1976 TV performance surfaced online in late 2009 and hit big in early 2010 that he enjoyed international fame.

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Ang Lee's 'Life of Pi' to Premiere Uncut 3D Scenes in Theaters

 Lee's 'Life of Pi' to Premiere Uncut 3D Scenes in Theaters

Ahead of the film's November release, Fox will unveil new segments with screenings of "Prometheus," "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" and "Ice Age: Continental Drift."

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Random Venice Beach Picture of The Week 6-3-12

I think someone outdid us, Helen...


Random Venice Beach Picture of The Week 6-3-12

Wonder if it floats? – Boise

Click on the image to see it “real” size!

Interactive Map: The Los Angeles Tech Startup Community

Interactive Map: The Los Angeles Tech Startup Community



Created to "connect and promote the Los Angeles tech startup community," says the website, the map is categorized by startups, accelerators, incubators, coworking and investors, each identified by unique icons. With one click, the name of the company, its physical address, a link to the company website and a short description of its role in the startup community are all at users' fingertips.

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Katee Sackhoff talks 'Longmire'

Katee Sackhoff talks 'Longmire'

''Galactica'' alum sees a common thread between old sci-fi series and new Western debuting tonight

What It Feels Like for a Virgin

What It Feels Like for a Virgin

“Let MTV come along on your journey … as you try to lose your virginity!” said an early-May casting call for a new show the network was planning, called My First... . The posting reassured would-be reality-TV stars that My First would document their efforts to lose “it,” but “NOT the act itself,” and asked applicants 18 and over to “be as detailed as possible” about why they were ready to have sex for the first time.