Rabe goes there ... Regardie explains why downtown LA is exploding, but not in a good way ... Kevin goes to the narco-corrido opera ... Robert goes bowling ... and the Getty goes to Koreatown.
Atomic Age Covina Bowl to close, preservationsists very concerned
UPDATE 3/3/2017: We learned this week that the Covina Bowl - designed by Gordon Powers, profiled below - is scheduled to close later this month. When I asked the LA Conservancy's director of advocacy, Adrian Scott Fine, to rate how worried he is, he said it's a 10 out of 10. Fine told me the building is eligible for a place on the National Register of Historic Places, but that won't ensure it will survive. The Conservancy is working to find a solution that could allow some development on the property and keep the building from being demolished. Listen to the bonus audio for my whole conversation with Fine. -- John Rabe
Back when bowling was an institution, not just for birthday parties, Gordon Powers' architectural firm crisscrossed the nation building Atomic Age shrines to bowling. And don't call them bowling alleys, Powers says these are bowling centers, often with 40 or more lanes. Now 97 and retired, Powers lives in Garden Grove.
Powers says said bowling really took off with the invention of one machine: the automatic pinspotter. "It changed bowling because, up to that time, the pin boys either were high school kids sometimes, but mostly they were alcoholics." Not so family oriented, he says. "But as soon as they got the automatic pinspotter, all of that changed because you could bowl at any time of day or night and you didn't need any of these other people. So, bowling took off from there."
Powers, an Oregon Native, didn't get work as an architect until he was 32. Before that he was flying planes for the military. The firm he co-founded had a special connection to American Machine and Foundry -- better known as AMF -- one of the biggest names in bowling. Soon, Powers and his firm designed structures in Pennsylvania, Arizona and here in Southern California. And these aren't drab buildings in shopping parks: A-frames tower overhead, sparkling atom road signs light up the way, and Jetsons-esque marquees beckon families to spend their Friday nights inside.
At the Covina Bowl, you can see why some preservationists call it Powers' masterwork. There's the ancient ruin geometric cement work at the entrance, the sharp pointed roofline, the colorful glasswork in the Pyramid Room restaurant. The place has kept the diehard, early afternoon bowlers coming back for decades.
In the Fifties, Powers and his firm even worked with a group of investors lead by Walt Disney to build a huge bowling complex in Denver. The investors held all of their planning meetings at Chasen's in Beverly Hills and Powers was delighted that he was invited.
"All the great people were in this: Jack Benny and Bing Crosby and John Payne, a bunch of them. We built an 80-lane (center) and a full-sized Olympic swimming pool, under glass, in Denver. Walt wanted to put a wave machine in, but we couldn't figure out how to do it without it slopping over," Powers says.
Although Powers says he has never considered himself an avid bowler, he did pick up the pastime when he was younger. He figured it was required if he was going to be building so many bowling centers. In fact, Powers and his firm -- Powers, Daly and DeRosa -- built so many bowling centers that today it's difficult for Powers to keep tabs on them all.
These days Powers spends a lot of his time training Labradors. But at his home, there are still some reminders of his earlier life, when he was king of the bowling center. Like a 1958 issue of Life magazine with a full spread featuring Powers' Futurama and Willow Grove bowling centers.
The Getty explores the mystery of Rubens' Korean man
To most of us, there's nothing mysterious about the Peter Paul Rubens drawing "Man in Korean Costume." It looks like the title says it should look. A Korean-looking man wearing some sort of voluminous Oriental robe.
But if you know your history, you'd say, "Wait a minute! Korea was incredibly isolated in 1617, when Rubens sketched it. How did he know what a Korean man looked like!?"
This is the mystery explored in Looking East: Rubens's Encounter with Asia, at the Getty Center through June 9th, the Getty's first Korean-themed exhibit, and its first collaboration with LA's Korean-American community.
The exhibit includes the famous Rubens' drawing - famous even in Korea, where they have the same questions about it - plus other versions of the work, historic maps and books, and three beautifully preserved pieces of clothing, including the iconic Korean transparent hat - the Banggeon - and a Cheolik like the one in Rubens' drawing.
To find out more, I spoke with Getty curator Stephanie Schrader, who has her own theory about how Rubens came to draw "Man in Korean Costume," and Heeseon Choi, curator of the Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
Rabe does Kate Upton & Jake Davidson one better, asks 17-year old girl to prom, gets definite "maybe"
UPDATE 3/26/2013: According to the LA Times, supermodel Kate Upton has turned down Jake Davidson's invitation to the prom. We now return you to your regular programming.
By now you've heard how LA high schooler Jake Davidson got an "I'll check my schedule" from Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kate Upton when he asked her to his high school prom in a YouTube video. (Watch the video below; it's pretty cute.)
Since it's now okay for high school kids to ask out celebrities, it must be okay for celebrities, even D-list celebrities like me, to ask out high-schoolers, right? It didn't faze Dana Hills High School junior Gracie Roman, 17-year old daughter of KPCC editor Nick Roman.
(Gracie Roman. Photo courtesy Nick Roman.)
I got a definite maybe. And I learned a few things.
- We have to get to know each other first, and she's not against a double-date with Kate and Jake.
- As the boy, I have to pay for everything, from flowers to dinner to limo to 2 $ 75 prom tickets.
- I can wear my own tux, but have to get a tie that matches her dress.
- She has to be home by midnight. "Whatever my dad says goes."
Gracie's also a bit dubious about Kate's sincerity. But she might be willing to throw me over for a more appropriate date. Jake, are you listening?
By the way, I'm not an entirely unknown quantity among the Tiger Beat set. Here's my YouTube music video.
PHOTOS: Imagineer Bob Gurr imagined it, helped build Disneyland, King Kong, 'Jurassic Park'
Bob Gurr, named a Disney Legend in 2004, never let a thing like not knowing how to do something get in the way of doing things. As he describes is, working for Walt Disney sounds like an amusement park ride of challenges and optimism. And listening to him speak is to be inspired to get off your keister and dig into something you've never tried.
LA Magazine's Chris Nichols, a regular on KPCC's Take Two, hosted a Hollywood Heritage Museum ievent for the 82-year old Gurr, who sounds more like he's 22. Chris describes Gurr's resume:
Mr. Gurr began working on Disneyland the year before it opened. He imagineered the original Monorail, Autopia all the iconic ride vehicles for Disneyland and some of the other Disney parks. His memorable theme park and movie creations include Disney's animatronic Abraham Lincoln, Universal's King Kong, concepts for the Jurassic Park dinosaurs and robots for the 1998 production of Godzilla.
Gurr spoke for an hour at the Museum on March 13th, and took questions from the audience. Listen here for just a sample.
Camelia la Tejana: Long Beach Opera tells brings famous narcocorrido to life
Making its US debut in Long Beach this Sunday, March 24th, is an opera called Camelia La Tejana. Composed by Gabriela Ortiz and written by Ruben Ortiz-Torrez, her brother, it has all the making of a classic opera: love, death, music. But the opera's story has roots in contemporary life, as Off-Ramp producer Kevin Ferguson explains.
The idea for Camelia La Tejana started with a song from 1971 called "Contrabando y traición,or "Contraband and Betrayal." The traditional Corrido told the story of Camelia la Tejana: a drug smuggler from Texas who shoots her male partner and takes off with the money.
The corrido became one of the most popular songs of its day, inspired several movies, and launched the career of Los Tigres del Norte, the band that recorded it. Gabriela Ortiz, the opera's composer, remembers the first time she heard it. A Polish theater professor played during a class.
"He said this corrido is like a whole story. You could do a movie, you could do an opera from the corrido, because a corrido has all the archetypes of an opera," said Ortiz. "It's like a Carmen--a modern Mexican, Norteño Carmen."
Ortiz says she revisited the song when she began working on a project with her brother, artist Ruben Ortiz-Torres. To find story ideas, they looked in Alarma - a Mexican tabloid. "We found this article in the Alarma magazine, and we saw the picture of Camelia la Tejana," said Ortiz. "So we thought, oh, maybe she's from the corrido? Is she alive?"
They started investigating. They found another article, this one about a different Camelia. And another. And another. The person who wrote the song said she was fake, but all these other stories insisted she was out there.
The original story might've been like Carmen, but now the gray areas were taking over. An opera began to take shape, part documentary, part video... not about the song so much as the mythology behind Camelia. "This is what the opera is all about," said Ortiz. "About how this myth becomes real in the minds of Mexican people. And why she's so famous, and why many people think that she's alive.
At a rehearsal in Downtown Long Beach, you can see the story come to life. The music reaches across genres: classical opera, norteños, cumbia--you see television crews, dance parties, a shooting--all in the first 20 minutes.
Enivia Mendoza performs Camelia in the opera, she's fascinated by the character. "Camelia's a woman that constantly dominates," said Mendoza. "She likes to have control of men, control of narcotráficos. And that's a challenge. Because as a woman dominating the opposite sex--you need a lot of strength. I'm really happy with this role because aside from being seductive, she's strong and dominant at the same time. "
The Long Beach Opera presents Camelia la Tejana: Only the Truth, through Sunday March 30. For tickets information, go to the Long Beach Opera's website.
MOCA, AEG, LA Times ... Downtown LA is blowing up.
Jon Regardie is executive editor of the Los Angeles Downtown News
Tim Leiweke’s breakup with Phil Anchutz is big, but it’s just part of a bigger story: Downtown LA is exploding. When Anschutz Entertainment Group President and CEO Tim Leiweke abruptly left the mega-company this month, downtowners treated it as the biggest surprise since a gaggle of Greek soldiers hid in the belly of a wooden horse. It was understandable: Leiweke was a brilliant salesman and dealmaker who drove the creation of billions of dollars worth of Downtown projects, like Staples Center and L.A. Live. He was the public face of the company and also part of a perfect partnership with AEG’s media-averse owner Phil Anschutz. Like Tom Cruise’s Jerry Maguire and Renee Zellweger’s Dorothy, they completed each other—though whether Tim had Phil at “hello” is unknown.
But now it’s goodbye. And maybe not such a surprise. After all, a whopping seven high-profile Downtown institutions or offices are blowing up or melting down. Wherever you look, a community leader is enmeshed in a struggle for supremacy or even survival.
Up on Grand Ave, take MOCA, please. Downtown’s leading museum was imploding financially even before Jeffrey Deitch became director in 2010. Three of the five curators have left and, even more frightening, museum officials last year were considering an entire exhibit based on the art of disco. It just rejected a takeover offer from LACMA and said it would remain independent, but fundraising is anemic and its endowment is still $75 million too light.
Things are also unsettled for the Los Angeles Times, the community’s biggest media property. In 1995 BC—that stands for Before Craigslist—the paper made so much money reporters reportedly flew business class. Now, owner the Tribune Company has emerged from bankruptcy and the Times is on the market. Some say a team of Austin Beutner and Eli Broad could buy and save the paper. Others whisper that the GOP-funding Koch brothers are interested. It’s the best good vs. evil debate since Batman battled Bane.
Just around the corner from the Times is the Archdiocese, the most powerful and influential religious entity in Southern California. In February an unprecedented fracas erupted when Archbishop Jose Gomez stripped off Cardinal Roger Mahony’s epaulettes because he shuffled pedophile priests to unsuspecting parishes … which didn’t keep the Cardinal from flying to Rome for the papal conclave.
Back down the street to City Hall, where the mayor’s race runoff between Councilman Eric Garcetti and Controller Wendy Greuel is about to get super messy. During the primary Team Greuel proved they’re ready to bring a bazooka to a knife fight. If they follow the same tack—and everyone believes they will—then Garcetti’s squad will have to respond to the broadsides. Expect to see some of the ugliest tactics since Wile E. Coyote went after the Road Runner.
The Ninth District seat, where Jan Perry is termed out, is also in question. Former council aide Ana Cubas and State Sen. Curren Price are in the runoff, even though both of them just moved into the district a few months before the election. Now these two new residents are trying to convince longtime district inhabitants that they honestly, truly, deeply care about them.
Even the tallest building in the West is under pressure. Investors from Singapore bought the 72-story U.S. Bank Tower this month for about $37 million … as designs for the coming billion-dollar Wilshire Grand hotel replacement call for an uninhabited spire that will sneakily climb higher than the roof of U.S. Bank Tower. In the 1996 movie Independence Day, aliens blew up the landmark. The current situation isn’t quite as bad.
Desert Christ Park in Yucca Valley
If you're feeling contemplative, watch this movie about Desert Christ Park in Yucca Valley. Slow pans, intense but faded colors, snow-white statues, chips in the plaster, exposed rebar. A feeling of calm. Listen with the sound up or off. A lovely film from Christopher Lee.
From the Desert Christ Park website:
Desert Christ Park overlooks the high desert town of Yucca Valley in southern California. Here the visitor may find more than forty snow-white statues and images portraying scenes of Christ's life and teachings. Dedicated on Easter Sunday 1951, this park was the vision of Eddie Garver, known at the time as the Desert Parson. Through a series of events, the Desert Parson was introduced to artist-sculptor Frank Antone Martin, the creator of these remarkable works of steel-reinforced concrete, and together they began a journey that would span time and test, and produce one of California's most iconic and historical parks.
Thanks for the tip, Peter Moruzzi!