How LAX killed Surfridge ... Painter Phil Stein, Siqueiros assistant & friend ... Laurie Rubin dreams & sings in color ... commentators Brody & Rosenfeld ... Tattoo U?
Surfridge: LA's forgotten ghost town
In the 1970's, when author Denise Hamilton was going to Loyola Marymount, she'd drive along the coast on Vista Del Mar, sandwiched between LAX and Dockweiler Beach. To her right was the Pacific Ocean, but to her left "was this abandoned-post apocalyptic suburb where there were no houses." Hamilton said. "It was imprinted in my mind as this ghost town right at the fringe of the continent."
The haunting image of a fenced-off territory, filled with cracked sidewalks, empty roads and busted streetlights stuck with Hamilton, and in 2011, she set the climax of her book, Damage Control, in Surfridge.
We were on Sandpiper Lane now. This was a neighborhood with street grids and lights and fire hydrants, but no houses or people, just cracked concrete foundations where homes had once stood. "What is this place?" I said. A jet went by, rattling the windows of Anabelle's Jetta. The streetlights still stood, their lamp glass busted, watching over the empty streets. The whole development was fenced off by rusting barbed wire and signs that said, "No Trespassing, Danger, Do Not Enter." "Isn't it cool," said Anabelle. "It's like a doomed forgotten city, right in the middle of L.A."
Surfridge began in the 1920's, when Fritz Burns, a young realtor from Minneapolis, developed the land into a neighborhood for the wealthy. Cecil B. DeMille and Carmen Miranda owned homes in Surfridge. But as the city began to prosper, so did the airport across the street. As LAX grew closer to Surfridge, noise from the jets rattled the windows of the homes. In the sixties and early seventies, the airport purchased all the houses there, began clearing them off the land, and fenced off the deserted town.
A neighborhood local named David Dukesherer wants to rescue Surfridge from oblivion. Dukesherer says he's "appalled by the lack of knowledge that locals had of our town." Dukesherer lives in Westchester, has written nine books on LAX and the surrounding neighborhoods, and has been collecting newspaper articles and vintage maps of Surfridge for fifteen years.
He was in high school in the seventies as his neighbors and classmates were losing their homes as LAX expanded. Dukesherer remembers his mother getting the neighbors together and saying, "We have to fight this initiative." He says people would meet in town halls, church halls and living rooms and say, "We don't want to see our street be wiped off the face of the map."
Dukesherer grew up in Playa del Rey, just three miles from Surfridge. He and his friends would hang out on the sandy beach in front of the opulent neighborhood. "This is where we came to surf. This was our backyard."
Dukesherer wants people to drive around and see the streets, lampposts and location to understand what it once was and to keep the town from being forgotten. "It's something you have to see." He gives free tours and seminars for anyone interested in Surfridge. "It was one of the most exclusive millionaire's enclaves anywhere! And it's gone."
Why do people ask blind opera singer Laurie Rubin, "Do you dream in color?"
UPDATE: Mezzo soprano Laurie Rubin is back in town for a concert November 6th, and she has a new book called Do You Dream in Color? Insights from a Girl without Sight.
People are weird. Believe it or not, the thing people fixate on when they see Laurie Rubin is that she's blind ... even when they've heard her sing, even when they've seen her in "Sex and the City" evening wear.
Rubin is out with a new album, "Do You Dream in Color," and has two upcoming performances in Los Angeles. Once you hear her sing, you'll forget she's blind:
Rubin was born blind and raised in Los Angeles, but now lives near Honolulu with her partner Jenny. She's been singing since she was a little girl, and was inspired to sing opera after going to a performance of Phantom.
Rubin is a mezzo-soprano, what she describes as "the sopranos with the balls." Her voice has a little more bass than a regular soprano, and fewer roles in the repertoire. But, Rubin says, if mezzos get short-shrift where opera roles are concerned, they do get to sing gender-bending "pants" roles, of young characters who are often, as it happens, in love with the sopranos. Rubin has performed at Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center, has duetted with Frederica Von Stade, and sung lead roles, including Cinderella in Rossini's "La Cenerentola" and Karen in Beeferman's "The Rat Land."
The heart of her new album is the title track, a new composition by Bruce Adolphe, with words by Rubin, who says "Do you dream in color?" is often one of the first things people ask her. The song tells of her encounters with various people: a curious little girl who tells her "red is the color of fire trucks," a condescending man who sees things only in black and white, a jewelry store owner honestly delighted by the way she picks out a necklace.
The album also includes pieces by Gabriel Faure, including a version of "Clair de Lune" you might not have heard, and Joaquin Rodrigo, who Rubin discovered was also blind after years of listening to his work.
Concerts: March 8th, part of USC's Visions and Voices series; and March 10th, at Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue in Encino. Check Web Resources below for tickets to either concert.
(A tip of the hat to Off-Ramp contributor Hank Rosenfeld for turning us on to Rubin.)
'Endeavour: The California Story' accompanies shuttle at Science Center
The space shuttle Endeavour went on display at the California Science Center this week. Accompanying it is another exhibit, complete with real artifacts that explain how astronauts get their electricity, prepare food, and use the bathroom in space.
One of the first things you’ll see when you visit “Endeavour: The California Story,” is a set of tires used for a shuttle landing.
"These tires are from Endeavour's last mission," said California Science Center President Jeff Rudolph when we previewed the exhibit last week. "You can see the wear on the rear tires in particular. They were used for just one landing, so you can see the forces involved."
The exhibit also features Endeavour’s three fuel cells, a specially-designed shuttle toilet and the galley. It also aims to explain how the shuttle program - and Endeavour in particular- has its historical roots right here in Southern California.
For instance, there’s a real launch control center, donated by Rocketdyne.
"This command center was used on every space shuttle launch in Canoga Park at Rocketdyne's facility," Rudolph said. "They built the main engine and monitored its performance before and during each flight. Their job was done eight-and-a-half minutes into the flight. It's one of those stories most people don't know."
The last highlight of the exhibit is a pair of mechanical flight simulators, a big hit for 5th graders from the Science's Center on-site elementary school. They holler as the engines roar, count down to liftoff, and then sit back and watch as the motion simulated video takes them on a mission to fix the Hubble telescope in outer space.
"It's like you're actually an astronaut," said Fernando Calderon. "It actually felt like I was in outer space."
"Endeavour: The California Story" and the main exhibit featuring the space shuttle itself is now open to the public. You can get reserve tickets for available time slots at the Science Center’s box office or at www.californiasciencecenter.org.
You can see all of our Endeavour coverage at www.kpcc.org/shuttle.
Jahsan Lambey's neck tattoo doesn't reflect his soft spoken demeanor
The first thing you notice about 18-year-old Jahsan Lambey is his neck tattoo. It's done in thick black ink and it sits right in the center of his neck. Jahsan spent $60 on the tattoo and he says that's a small price to pay for art.
"My body is my canvas, I like drawing. I drew the neck tattoo out for the tattoo artist to do it, so it's just cool to me to see that I can look at it every day," he says.
Jahsan's mom says her son may have only paid $60 for the tattoo, but in many ways it may cost him a lot more. Jahsan works in an auto shop now, but his mom worries about his future job prospects, among other things.
KPCC contributor Tanya Jo Miller reports on the pros and cons of Lambey's tattoos in the first of an upcoming series on recent graduates from Crenshsaw High School in South LA.
Daniel Day-Lewis and the battle of portraying Lincoln
Everyone in this country has carried his face in their pockets — on the penny and the five-dollar bill — but Lincoln served so long ago, we don't know what he really was like.
Just how difficult is it to get Lincoln right on film? How close does Daniel Day-Lewis get in this latest addition to the portrayals of Lincoln?
Read more at the Patt Morrison blog
Guests
Harold Holzer, content consultant on "Lincoln," and author of ‘’Emancipating Lincoln”
Ronald C. White Jr., Lincoln biographer, author of "Lincoln’s Greatest Speech’’