Amy Heckerling helps us celebrate the 20th birthday of "Clueless," Molly Knight gets the bakcstory on the Dodgers sale, and we dig Glendale's historic Rockhaven Sanitarium.
Doyle estate wins again — against 'Mr Holmes' — despite SCOTUS ruling in SoCal case
Back in November, Off-Ramp interviewed local author Leslie Klinger about his victory in the US Supreme Court against the estate of Conan Doyle.
Klinger co-edited "In the Company of Sherlock Holmes," a new series of short stories about the detective, and was then sued by the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. The estate claimed the new stories used copyrighted details of the Doyle stories.
In the Klinger case, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that said, "it appears that the Doyle estate is concerned not with specific alterations in the depiction of Holmes or Watson ... but with any such story that is published without payment to the estate of a licensing fee." As Klinger put it, that lower court ruling said the estate was "basically extortionist."
At the time, Klinger expressed hope that creative artists would be able to stand up to the estate's future efforts "to threaten creators."
"On the film industry side," he said, "It's been the practice for motion picture producers to just pay the estate, because it's fast and relatively inexpensive, compared to going to court."
The next test was when the estate sued Mitch Cullin, who wrote the book "Mr Holmes," starring Ian McKellen, is based on, claiming he used elements of the original Doyle stories that were protected by copyright, including the fact that Holmes retired to the countryside in his old age.
In online remarks ... the writer called it “an extortion attempt pure and simple, brought on by the desire to make money once the film version of the book came to their attention.”
— Santa Fe New Mexican, 7/17/2015
But, as the newspaper reported, the Doyle estate has again reached an undisclosed settlement, and you're able to see "Mr Holmes" in your local theater.
The website I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere is tracking the Doyle estate's various efforts, under the #FreeSherlock hashtag.
Jeffrey Vallance channels famous dead artists for ‘The Medium is the Message’
Art prankster Jeffrey Vallance’s new show “The Medium is the Message” opens at downtown L.A.'s CB1 Gallery on July 25. A mix of large prints and small objects, Vallance says the inspiration for the show came from a séance he held in London a few years ago.
For the séance, Vallance hired five psychics to channel famous dead artists — Frida Kahlo, Leonardo DaVinci, Marcel Duchamp, Vincent Van Gogh, and Jackson Pollock. A Fortean at heart, Vallance doesn't necessarily believe in a contactable spirit realm, but just wanted to observe the phenomena — and make some art.
John Rabe interviewed Vallance at the gallery to talk about “The Medium is the Message” and why it’s good not to take contemporary art too seriously.
Tell us more about the prints inspired by the séance.
"This was kind of a funny program because it wasn’t very spooky, I didn’t want it to be that way. I set the thing up as kind of an academic panel. So I had the channeled artists sitting in chairs so you could ask them questions. I didn’t know what they were going to say, so I asked them questions like, 'Is there art in the afterlife?' The funny thing is, like, they were pretty right on. They were saying that, like, they can look into the minds of some of the artists and sometimes all they can see is dollar signs. Well, it kind of made sense.”
(A "Spirit Photo" of Jeffrey Vallance, by Jeffrey Vallance)
... and then, in the tradition of Victorian Spirit photography, you made these prints.
“Yeah, as I was listening to the spirits talk, I was trying to imagine what it would look like if you could see them in the spirit. Obviously we were just seeing the psychics that were channeling them. But I was trying to imagine what it would look like if you could get a photograph of them at that time. So I was looking at the spirit photos from the turn of the century. And if you look at those they look very fake. They have superimposed imagery and certain photo tricks that look to our eye very naive and I sort of like that. So I try to do things that look like the spirit photos, but they’re all digital.”
I checked with one of your friends from 30, 40 years ago — Michael Uhlenkott — and I said ‘Does Jeffrey actually believe in séances?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know.’
"I would say I’m a Fortean, which is one of the followers of Charles Fort. Basically, I observe; I don’t judge. So I don’t believe but also I don’t disbelieve as well. So I’m kind of neutral. I just want to bring these events about and see how they go and how I can learn from them. But I wouldn’t say I’m, like, a follower of spiritualism and that whole thing."
Did it change your mind about anything?
“I don’t think so. But it just made me realize that the world is a lot weirder than I would have thought."
There’s a table full of smaller items here, including a little plywood box, the Kahlo Spirit Crystal... What’s this?
“Frida, when she was channeled, she was talking a lot about the afterlife. And she sort of saw the afterlife as sort of being this huge kind of shattered crystal that went into all these rainbows and these colors. And then she said something like, ‘And that is art.’ So I thought, okay, that is art. So I will make that, I’ll make the Frida Kahlo Spirit Crystal.”
(Kahlo Spirit Crystal, by Jeffrey Vallance)
I want you to tell the outlet cover story, going back to your first show at LACMA.
"That was in 1977 and I was a student. I wanted to have an art show and I couldn’t wait, I couldn’t wait until I graduated. So I was looking around and I went to LACMA one day and I noticed that under the paintings along these walls they had the wall sockets. And I took note of that and I thought, oh, I can buy the same exact outlet covers... So I did that. I bought the same kind of outlet covers. And then I painted these dopey little scenes on it that made no sense really. And then I went back to LACMA and I was dressed in, like, a janitor’s outfit. I had, like, a name tag and a tool box. And walked in and unscrewed their wall sockets and put mine on with these little scenes on it. And no one said anything because it looked like I was doing my job, in a way. And then for years, every time LACMA would have a show, I would have a show at the same time. I would send out invitations, but in my show you would just look a little lower."
On Saturday, Aug. 8, at 8pm, Vallance will hold a séance at the gallery in which psychic Joseph Ross will channel dead art critics. According to gallerist Clyde Beswick, "a telepathic call will be sent out to art critics in the afterlife willing to speak out about Vallance’s artwork. And heaven only knows who might manifest!"
"Jeffrey Vallance: The Medium is the Message" and "Emily Davis Adams: Painting of Levitated Mass" are on view from July 25 through Sept. 5 at CB1 Gallery, 1923 S. Santa Fe Ave. 90021. Meet the artists at a reception Saturday, July 25, 3 - 6pm.
By women, for women: History and California's drought collide at Rockhaven Sanitarium
Behind the stone wall of the old Rockhaven Sanitarium in Montrose, engineer David Gould shows off one of the Crescenta Valley Water District’s latest projects: A well that will pull water from under an out-of-use women’s mental health facility that was opened in the 1920s.
(The water well on the old Rockhaven Sanitarium site)
"It goes down 385 feet into the ground and produces groundwater from our local Verdugo basin," Gould explains.
As part of a joint project with the City of Glendale, the Crescenta Valley Water District plans to tap an estimated 450 gallons of water per minute, which would supply about 1,200 homes a year.
The water is high in nitrates, so it will have to be treated at a nearby facility, and that requires the construction of an underground pipeline. In the past, water agencies might not have bothered to take such steps, but California's drought is changing that.
"Prior to the year 2000, there hadn’t been a well drilled in the Crescenta Valley since 1954," says Gould. "We are turning over rocks."
Gould says the plan is to have the Rockhaven well online and providing local water by the middle of October.
"We’re not taking imported water from the Colorado River or the state project, which is up in the Sacramento area," he says.
The project is getting assistance in the form of Prop 84 California drought relief funds. "Seventy-five percent of the cost of this project, or about $900,000, is being paid for by the state," he says.
So why aren’t more wells like this springing up? It’s because even though the water may be under ground, you need some space above ground in order to build the well.
"We’ve known that the water is here for a long time," Gould says. "The complications that come up is finding land. The Crescenta Valley is 99 percent built out."
Which makes the 3.5-acre Rockhaven Sanitarium site, purchased by the City of Glendale in 2008, more than just a patch of land with some historic buildings on it.
"This provided an opportunity for us, because this Rockhaven site has been kept in the state it’s had since 1929," Gould says.
So what happens to the sanitarium?
The group Friends of Rockhaven wants to see the site in Montrose preserved.
Built in the 1920s by Agnes Richards, Rockhaven was one of many facilities that sprouted up in the Crescenta Valley in order to provide a place of healing.
Being an abandoned sanitarium, the place now has its share of ghost stories, says docent Phaedra Walton. But Rockhaven wasn't exactly Arkham Asylum, either. Friends of Rockhaven founding member Joanna Linkchorst says if there are spirits haunting the buildings that were home to patients for so many years, they’re most likely happy ones.
(Rockhaven Sanitarium founder Agnes Richards)
"[Richards] was absolutely appalled at the treatment of mental patients at the time," Linkchorst says.
After serving with the Red Cross during WWI, Richards ended up at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino. But she didn’t stay.
"The pictures of Patton State Hospital — it’s this big gothic-like castle and it would be incredibly intimidating to be in there, and Agnes decided that something needed to be different," says Linkchorst.
Instead of gothic dormitories, Richards built stand-alone cottages with names like The Willows and The Pines, while towering oak trees and meticulously landscaped rose gardens made Rockhaven a place where patients wanted to venture outdoors.
Linkchorst points to a statue that sits in the middle of the Rockhaven property that’s become a mascot for the place.
('The Lady of Rockhaven' Credit: Maya Sugarman/KPCC)
"This is a lady that we call The Lady of Rockhaven. It was a Gladding McBean statue that was designed in 1921 and named simply reclining nude," Linkchorst says. "The way that she’s drinking in the sun and looking up and that beautiful faint smile gives you the feeling that you feel here: this is a place to relax and breathe and recover and become yourself again."
The groundbreaking style of care and beautiful surroundings at Rockhaven attracted Hollywood types too. Billie Burke — who played Glinda the Good Witch in "The Wizard of Oz" — was once a resident. So was Clark Gable’s first wife, Josephine Dillon. And then there was Gladys — Marilyn Monroe’s mom.
"Gladys felt the need to wander. She is our most infamous resident. And there were a couple of times that she attempted to escape," Linkchorst says. "She managed to get out a couple of times. One of them, she tied her bedsheets together and made a dramatic escape through a tiny window in her closet."
(The closet window through which Gladys escaped Rockhaven. Credit: Maya Sugarman/KPCC)
But most Rockhaven patients were in no hurry to leave. Some women stayed until their deaths, leaving behind their most treasured belongings. On the second floor of The Willows cottage, Linkchorst reveals some of the forgotten items she’s hoping to archive: souvenir photos, fur coats, hatboxes full of cards.
(A Paris Inn souvenir card left behind by a former Rockhaven resident. Credit: Maya Sugarman/KPCC)
"Agnes came from a background of running statewide insane asylums that are kind of the true atrocious sort of places that you see like in American Horror Story," says Emily Lanigan, who is also with the Friends of Rockhaven. "And so she really worked to created a place of serenity, of beautiful surroundings, where women were treated with dignity."
But Lanigan thinks Rockhaven should be remembered not just for its serenity but for its pioneering founder.
"This was a woman-run facility. It was run by women, it was for women. And this was in 1923," says Lanigan. "And this was a time when a woman-owned business in general was kind of a rarity. But especially a woman-owned medical facility. A health facility? A mental health facility? That was unheard of."
It’s not clear yet what the City of Glendale will do with the sanitarium land. But Linkchorst hopes Rockhaven will one day be reopened as a respite for all.
"The Friends of Rockhaven are working with the city and we are hoping one day to be able to open this up to the public as a historic park," Linkchorst says. "We hope to be able to have a museum for the Crescenta Valley in here. And just park space where people can come and rest and recover just as they have been able for almost a century."
A rare North Korean in Los Angeles says she just wants to blend in
The United States is home to more Korean migrants than any other country. According to the Migration Policy Institute, 1.1m live in the U.S., followed by Japan (699,000), and China (222,000). Some 226,000 have settled in the L.A. area. Most came from South Korea, but there's also a small but growing number who defected from North Korea in the last 10 years — people like "Elise Park," who doesn't usually tell people she's from North Korea.
Like many of the few hundred North Korean immigrants living in the U.S., Park hides in plain sight within the larger Korean-American community. Park, who asked us to use a pseudonym to protect her two brothers who still live in the North, says she doesn't want to stick out — and that Korean-Americans make false assumptions, asking too many inappropriate questions about her personal life.
She says people ask, “'How did you come? How did you get enough money to be here?’ I think, why are you so curious? You don’t ask others, just people from North Korea. I just want to be treated like everyone else.”
Park left North Korea in 2004 because she lost hope for building a life there — her family background prevented her from attending the best schools or getting a good job. She lived in the northernmost province of the country, making it easier to cross the Tumen River into China. Then she went to South Korea, then L.A.
While in South Korea, she got interested in real estate and realized she needed to learn English. So she worked three jobs, saved enough money and got help from church pastors to come to the U.S. in 2011. Park now attends a local community college and says she prefers it here.
“This is a land of immigrants,” she says. “At work, this person is a Mexican immigrant, this person is an Italian immigrant. That’s what’s comfortable for me.”
Officially, there are fewer than 200 North Korean refugees who’ve come directly from China. But many more come as South Korean citizens after resettling in the South. They’re often referred as “double defectors,” because they left both countries. These North Koreans often leave the South because of the discrimination and disrespect they experience: They’re accused of being spies — and they earn less than their Southern counterparts.
(Pastor Young Gu Kim at his church in Torrance. Credit: Kyung Jin Lee)
Pastor Young Gu Kim runs "North Koreans in America," a grassroots support group based in L.A.’s Koreatown. He says all North Koreans need a lot of support once they get here.
“The hard thing is that those who left North Korea… they wander in China for three to four years. Those who are lucky meet missionaries right away, but the rest are sold to Chinese people. Those years in China were really difficult. So that’s how they have diseases and trauma," Kim says.
Kim started working with North Koreans around 15 years ago. Like many South Korean Christians aiding Northerners, his work with defectors is a way to fulfill a larger dream of starting a church in the North. He spends his days driving people to and from appointments. He translates for them, helping them find jobs and enroll kids in school. He recently started a tutoring class every Saturday for kids of North Korean immigrants in Fullerton.
Kim says it’s important to build an infrastructure of support for young people, since their parents don’t know the language or culture here. Whether you’re a kid or an adult, he says there’s a lot of differences and misunderstandings between Korean immigrants from the North and South. And they need to be seen as different cultures now, since North and South Korea have been divided for more than 60 years.
“They don’t trust anyone,” Kim says. “And they don’t say thank you. Even if they do something wrong, they don’t say sorry. Because if they said it in North Korea, they were already dead. If I do something wrong, I have to grab someone and have them take the blame for them, to survive.”
Pastor Kim calls it a "small reunification" of North and South right here in the U.S. But, “Becoming one family does not mean living together and taking responsibility for them. It’s about making a phone call, showing interest — like during holidays, sharing a turkey. It’s not that hard.”
But Elise Park is more interested in getting her degree than "reuniting" immigrants from North and South. After dinner, Park sits down to do her homework. She stays up until 3 a.m. to complete her oceanography assignment — the technical jargon is tough to understand. But she’s working hard to become an international real estate appraiser and dreams of returning to North Korea one day.
“My brothers are there,” she says. “Also, there’s no real estate in North Korea. They don’t know the concept. I want people to know how the world works.”
Pastor Kim says North Koreans are like onions — if you keep peeling, there are more layers to discover of their history, culture and politics.
But most North Korean immigrants want the same thing as the rest of us: to fit in.
Note: We've corrected the lead paragraph to reflect that there are more migrant Koreans in the United States - not Southern California - than anywhere outside Korea.
How Guggenheim turned the Dodgers into 'The Best Team Money Can Buy'
"The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse" is author Molly Knight's chronicle of how far down Frank McCourt dragged the Dodgers, and how far up the new owners want to take it.
John Rabe met with Knight at Dodger Stadium to talk about the book — as they watched the Phillies pummel the Dodgers from seats on the first base line.
Interview Highlights
Can you imagine, if Frank McCourt (Dodgers owner from 2004-2012) managed to make it through bankruptcy and still owned the Dodgers, what Dodger Stadium would be like today?
"Well, it would be a pretty depressing place. He would still be in litigation with his wife, because she would be appealing to get what she felt was rightfully hers, the team would probably have a payroll like the Mets, we wouldn't be looking at these beautiful scoreboards with high definition color, our feet would be sticking to the ground from the beer and the gum. I'm going to be able to find my car later and not worry about what happens in dark parking lots."
How did the Guggenheim group manage to win the secret auction [for ownership of the Dodgers]?
"Frank [McCourt], in his infinite shadiness, decided, instead of having the auction, he was going to terrify the bidders the night before and sort of meet with them separately, and figure out what their bid was going to be. And he met with [hedge fund billionaire] Steve Cohen, and according to other people who saw the piece of paper with the offer Cohen made, Cohen offered Frank $2 billion for the Dodgers. Frank then went to the Guggenheim group and slid that piece of paper across the table to Mark Walter and said, 'Can you meet this?' And [Walter] said 'I can, but I'm going to make you an offer, and if I make you this offer, that's it, we have a deal, there is no auction tomorrow.' And Frank said 'OK.'"
The Guggenheim group had a ton of money, but their president, the guy they hired to run the Dodgers, Stan Kasten, is known for wanting to have a clean slate.
“He hates paying players. He hates it. It’s almost like he feels it’s coming from his own wallet. He just feels like, as soon as you give them that big money, nothing but problems. They get hurt, they lose motivation. Your team is hurt because of it.”
But Mark Walter, the owner, wanted to make sure that the fans came back. The fans that had left in droves because Frank McCourt was such a jerk.
“And [Walter] didn’t want to have a rebuilding era like the Cubs are coming out of, like the Mets are hoping to come out of. No, no, that wasn’t acceptable. They wanted to win immediately. Or at the very least they wanted to have superstars who would draw fans and who would light up their television network. It’s sort of the reason why the team was worth $2 billion. And to their credit, they’re trying to rebuild the major league team and the minor league system at the same time. And they’re spending through the nose to do that, but they’re backing it up.”
One of the key examples of the rebuilding is how you start your book, when you met Clayton Kershaw at his house in Texas.
"That was the most fortuitous day of my life. Clayton is a very private person, it took years to build his trust. He's a great, great man, he's just very protective of his private life, which I can understand, being the best pitcher on the planet. I landed in Dallas and I saw that there were contract extension rumors, and I texted him like, 'Uh, are we still on?' and he was like 'Yeah!' I got to his house the next day at 3 o'clock on the dot, and his agent called at, I believe, 3:06 or 3:05 to tell him that his deal was done, and it was just me and him alone in his house, just sitting there. I believe I was definitely more freaked out than he was."
How big was this deal?
"$215 million for seven years, the largest contract for a pitcher in major league history and the largest average annual contract for a professional athlete in U.S. history."
And you offered him the chance to cut the interview short and deal with this stuff. And he said, no, he was going to do the interview. What did that tell you about his character?
“So, Clayton’s phone is going off like crazy, vibrating the hell out of the table. I turned my recorder off because I was getting nervous that he was missing a text message from his mother, from his wife, from his best friend. And he’s like, ‘Oh, no, let’s just knock out this interview right now.' He is a person who has this insane ability to be focused and be present where he is.”
'Clueless' director Amy Heckerling on the teen classic's 20th birthday
"Clueless" was more than the source for "as if" and "whatever." It was more than a movie about L.A. — "Everywhere in L.A takes 20 minutes." It was more than the precursor to "Legally Blonde," with its pretty, somewhat ditzy, but highly intelligent blonde heroine.
It was, in fact, a rare accurate movie about teenagers and their world. On the whole, they're good kids who try to get along with each other, and the adults in their lives try to do the same. For my money, that's why we're still watching it, and quoting it, 20 years later.
"Clueless" was released July 19, 1995. It starred Alicia Silverstone, the late Brittany Murphy and Stacey Dash — along with Jeremy Sisto, Wallace Shawn and the star of this weekend's "Ant-Man," Paul Rudd.
"Clueless" was written and directed by Amy Heckerling, who had previously directed "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and the first two "Look Who's Talking" movies. She based it on Jane Austen's "Emma," which coincidentally marks its 200th anniversary this year. I reached her in New York for an in-depth conversation.
How she got involved in making "Clueless":
I was involved because I thought of it. So, I liked me for it, so I said, "How 'bout you do it?" I wanted to do a project with a character that would be incredibly happy. That always kind of confused me that people were very positive and happy. I don't know how people could be positive. For the most part, I don't know what it is that makes people think that everything will go their way, or that things will work out right.
"Emma," the movie's template, and Jane Austen:
She's obviously got an incredibly huge heart, but there's also like a wicked little funny way of mocking people that's just great. I just gave ["Emma"] to my mother, and she read just a few pages and was hooked. There's absolutely nothing that's dated about it.
The roots of her dialogue in "Clueless:"
Your handicaps in life are what you work out in what you're doing. I'm not a great speaker. I'm very insecure about even doing something like this, and from the time I was a kid, girls and boys would be in groups and they'd be talking to each other, and I just was going, "How the hell do they know what to say to each other? What are they talking about? And how do they know which words to be using?" But I've been scribbling down slang since I could write, taking down little snippets of what people are saying.
(Dash and Silverstone in 2012)
Unlike a lot of teen movies, these kids aren't jerks:
They're not jerks, and a lot of times in youth-oriented movies, grown-ups are all caricatures. That's not the world I want to live in. I like the idea that there's a very intelligent teacher like Wally Shawn, and he does care about them. I created a happy world that I'd like to live in.
Good news for fans: a jukebox musical version of "Clueless" is in the works. Heckerling wrote the book, Kristin Hanggi ("Rock of Ages") is directing and the Dodgers group ("Urinetown," "Tommy") is producing. Also, Laemmle's Music Hall 3 is showing the original "Clueless" Thursday night at 7:30 p.m.
Song of the week: 'Them Changes' by Thundercat
Off-Ramp's song of the week is “Them Changes” by Los Angeles bassist Stephen Bruner, better known as Thundercat. “Them Changes” is off Thundercat’s album “The Beyond/Where the Giants Roam,” which was released this June on Brainfeeder Records. "Them Changes" features musicians Flying Lotus and LA-based jazz sax player Kamasi Washington. Thundercat will play LA’s Shrine Expo Hall on August 8.
Neighbors of San Pedro's Sunken City fight to turn fallen town into city park
More than 80 years ago, a neighborhood in San Pedro started falling toward the sea, and Sunken City was born. Today, the 6-acre slide area is full of broken road and street art. An 8-foot fence went up in the ‘80s, but it hasn’t kept people out. Neighbors say it’s drawing the right and wrong kind of people, including a lot of late-night partiers. Now, they want Sunken City to return to the people of San Pedro as a well-regulated city park.
One of those neighbors is Graham Robertson, who built his ocean-view house at the very edge of Sunken City. “I’ve been in many times,” Robertson said. “I think just about everyone who lives around here has been in.”
(Archive photo: 'Two hundred tons of earth at Point Fermin are shown ready to topple into the sea at San Pedro. It is part of the 6-acre area atop the 90-foot bluff that started to slip toward the sea in 1939 (sic). The heavy weekend rains loosened the big chunk and it is liable to become an avalanche at any moment. The site is commonly known as the "Sunken City." Photo dated: February 17, 1941.' LA Public Library/Herald-Examiner Collection)
Robertson, who taught high school physics and engineering before retiring a few years ago, closely studied Sunken City when he moved to the area. He had to know if he was building a house on shaky ground. He wasn't, but he learned the story of Sunken City goes back a lot longer than you might think.
“There was a volcano in Palos Verdes about 10 million years ago, and it blew ash everywhere,” Robertson said. The ash that landed underneath where Sunken City is now was deep and thick – and subject to change. It seems that, when they built a hotel, beach bungalows, and Red Car tracks here in the early 1900s, land developers didn’t know this.
But they found out in 1929. That’s when the land started to move – slowly, but surely – toward the ocean. There was enough time to move out and demolish most of the buildings and homes, but by the early '30s, the road, rails, and foundations had all dropped 80 to 90 feet closer to sea level.
“The road was so well built that you can still see it. You can still see the curb, the sidewalks, and the street trees are still here. And, where the concrete blocks are, they’re protecting the soft rock underneath – just like the Grand Canyon has the cap rock — so wherever the pieces of road are, they’re higher,” Robertson said.
Today, despite the fence, Sunken City has become one of L.A.'s top spots for street art, with tags seen on remnants of road, palm trees, and the cliff face. Robertson and his fellow neighbors of Sunken City say they don’t mind the street art, as long as it remains in Sunken City. What they do mind is late-night bonfires and parties that disturb this otherwise tranquil neighborhood.
“What our group wants is for Sunken City to become a part of Point Fermin Park, administered by Recreation and Parks,” Robertson said. He and his group of 18 neighbors, called the Sunken City Watch, have confronted the coastal commission, filled city council meetings and circulated petitions to make the park legally open during the day and closed – with enforcement – at night. In May, Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino, who represents San Pedro, asked city attorneys to consider Robertson and his neighbors’ request to open Sunken City.
The way Sunken City is now, the neighbors argue, is anything but closed. “They pretend they can keep teenagers out, and all it does is keep older people out. The kids are there just — in fact now that we’re on social media, there are more kids than there ever have been,” Robertson said.
One older person who could not be kept out and recently entered Sunken City through a hole in the fence was Mike Watt, punk-rock bassist and founding member of the Minutemen. Watt still lives in San Pedro and still visits Sunken City, just as he did growing up in the '60s and '70s. Then, there was no fence and fewer people.
“It was like — this is where the squares ain’t. No square Johns,” Watt said. “Before we got to the concert to see The Blue Oyster Cult at the Long Beach arena. This was our piece of Pedro that we kind of owned.”
Sunken City made enough of an impression for Watt to write about it in “O’er the town of Pedro,” a song performed by fIREHOSE.
It’s inspired many others, too, including hundreds of street artists, selfie-takers and now, community activists, fighting to bring back Sunken City.
Undertaking LA: A new funeral home for people who want to hold a funeral at home
Death and dying happened in the home for hundreds of years of American history. In the 20th century, the rise of the medical and funeral industries have taken dying and the dead body behind closed doors to be handled by “professionals.” — Undertaking LA
If you're a fan of Caitlin Doughty's Off-Ramp commentaries on death, you might have been wondering why she's been silent for a few months. Doughty, who gained fame blogging at The Order of the Good Death and then with the bestselling memoir, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory," has been working on opening a funeral home. Or rather, her idea of a funeral home, called Undertaking L.A.
For instance, Undertaking L.A. has a one-room office, unlike the sombre, stately funeral homes we're used to. "It's not like that, mostly because our funerals are going to take place in the family's home, so we don't need a big funeral home." The state requires an office (with a door), so they have one in a medical building on Santa Monica Boulevard where it intersects with the 101 Freeway.
The Order of the Good Death, which Doughty founded, is about getting us more comfortable with the idea of death — something our ancestors were accustomed to and dealt with in a healthier way — and as The Order puts it, "accepting that death itself is natural, but the death anxiety and terror of modern culture are not."
(A home funeral, America, 19th century. Credit: The Order of the Good Death)
To that end, so to speak, Undertaking L.A. will help you plan and hold a funeral at your loved one's home. It will connect you with a co-op crematory or a burial ground near Joshua Tree if you want to be buried un-embalmed.
They'll show you how to wash the body, if you want, and show you that there is no law that you must use a standard funeral home. "That's definitely the first thing all of my friends say when I tell them I'm doing this," says Undertaking L.A. mortician Amber Carvaly. "Oh, I didn't even know that you could! Is that legal? That doesn't seem legal."
Carvaly was an apprentice embalmer at Forest Lawn, but she says it wasn't for her because she's a "big picture" person. "I liked being there from the beginning to the end." She remembers a case where she helped a man take care of his wife's funeral, "making sure that his wife was set up in the way that he wanted, that she had her favorite scarf. I had tied it on her head and made a beautiful bow. I liked being there all the way." And she wished she could have been there for the actual funeral.
While the two say the process of setting up Undertaking L.A. was extremely difficult (logistically, not financially), they were surprised by help they received along the way. "Because we are a non-traditional model of funeral home," Doughty says. "I was expecting the cemetery and funeral board and the local and state agencies to be slightly more unwilling to help us. Everybody's been very helpful. They seem to want us to succeed."
For much more of our conversation, listen to the audio at the top of the page.