From the category archives:

Odds and Ends

Memory Lane: 1950s Los Angeles

Automobiles with fins cruising broad boulevards and open freeways; street cars and paper boys; well-dressed people lining up to dine at the Pantry; industry and commerce — these are just a few of the sights recorded in this nostalgic view of 1950s Los Angeles. If you grew up Angeleno during that era, enjoy the trip [...]

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Photo Op: Colma Monuments

On my recent holiday jaunt to San Francisco, I was fortunate enough to visit the nearby city of Colma. Founded in 1924 and billed as the “City of Souls,” Colma has a unique history — it’s basically San Francisco’s necropolis, boasting 16 crowded cemeteries within its approximately 2-square-mile jurisdiction.
In 1900, San Francisco outlawed burials within [...]

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Those Devilish Santa Ana Winds

Whether summery hot or wintry tepid like the ones shown above that are currently ravaging Pasadena and the Greater Los Angeles area, Southern California’s fiendish Santa Ana winds are the stuff of legends.
In his story Red Wind, Raymond Chandler described them as “those hot dry [winds] that come down through the mountain [...]

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An Out-of-This-World Moonsuit

The year was 1960 when NASA development engineer Allyn B. “Hap” Hazard donned his stellar design creation to take a runway strut around Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
According to the Kevitivity blog, where I stumbled across this vintage photo, the goofy suit was the inspiration for Mattel’s Major Matt Mason, the action figure for Space [...]

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Weekend Matinee: Vervet Monkeys With a Drinking Problem

Just for comic relief from this blog’s recent spate of death-related posts, here’s a video of a lively bunch of Caribbean Vervet Monkeys who really enjoy an afternoon of cocktails on the beach.

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BlogoBuzz: Statuary With Style and Flair

Inspired by Griffith Park’s oddly dressed bear statue, the gang at Curbed LA have taken it upon themselves to outfit other local statuary in the latest styles. Click on over and decide if their fashion sense merits a big thumbs up, or a surprise visit from Stacy and Clinton of TLC’s What Not to Wear.

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Moon to Glow Yuletide Red This Monday Night

While it won’t compare much with the Star of Bethlehem some 2000 years ago, the heavens are nonetheless aligning to deliver us Left Coasters our own special astronomical phenomenon just in time for Christmas.
According to a NASA alert, a holiday lunar eclipse will begin Monday, Dec. 20 at 10:33 p.m. PST, taking a “dark-red bite” [...]

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Sorry, These AREN’T the 12 Days of Christmas

Everyone has a pet holiday peeve. Mine is the ongoing misconception that the song The Twelve Days of Christmas is a countdown to December 25.
Gritting my teeth in L.A. freeway traffic this morning, I heard this popular mistake repeated again and again by local radio ads, newspeople, and rock stations announcing the start of their [...]

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Speaking of the Lincolns…

Call me a sucker for GEICO commercials. As a MarCom professional myself, I not only admire the auto insurer’s inventiveness, but also have to confess to a tinge of jealousy at all the fun the company’s creatives must be having behind the scenes. After all, who wouldn’t want to work for a corporation with a [...]

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SoCal Kitsch: Pink Panther Muffler Man

Muffler sculptures are a staple of auto garages everywhere, but thanks to our Car Culture, they’re especially ubiquitous here in Southern California.
As an art form, more often than not they lack imagination, frequently resembling uninspired robots or clunky mechanical aliens. When you come across one that’s truly whimsical — like this Pink Panther near the [...]

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Metropolis: A Must-See for Cinema Buffs!

Seeking 2 hours and 45 minutes of golden silence on the silver screen? You can’t do any better than Fritz Lang’s historic 1927 film masterpiece Metropolis, now playing on the Laemmle’s Theatre circuit.
Set in the 21st Century, the silent classic envisions a futuristic world in which a seductive female android goads subterranean proletariat workers to [...]

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Back in the Saddle Again

I swear this blog has more lives than a danged alley cat.
Yes, since Dateline>City of Angels was launched a few years back, it’s suffered more B-Western-style cliff hangers than any self-respectin’ blog deserves. In fact, when we last left our plucky Web journal, it was finally starting to hit its stride once more after a [...]

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Aliens Implicated in Mysterious Cattle Slaughter

While the rest of us were carving up our turkeys for the holiday, it appears someone — or something — in southern Colorado was engaging in an otherworldly animal carving ritual of their own.
According to this Associated Press story, “a creepy string of calf mutilations” has left local ranchers and sheriff’s officials “mystified:”
“Four calves were [...]

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Dateline>City of Angels will resume regular posting after the holiday weekend. In the meantime, enjoy this Gloria Gaynor parody, courtesy USA Green Card Center.

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Saturday Matinee: Bigfoot Roams Elysian Park!

A purported sighting of the elusive Sasquatch along the trails of Los Angeles’ oldest city park near Dodger Stadium. Obviously this little clip is intended as a spoof, but even if it weren’t, there’s a glaring flaw in the video that should raise astute Angeleno eyebrows.
Can you guess what it is? Here’s a clue: Look [...]

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Old News: L.A.’s Dangerous Streets Revisited

A week ago this blog brought you the news that L.A.’s streets have been ranked the nation’s third most deadly to pedestrians. But have our streets always been so mean?
Obviously, such statistics weren’t kept 117 years ago, but this April 21, 1892, Los Angeles Times “City Brief” may offer a clue:
“People should be careful about [...]

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Everything Comes Up Roses With Capt. Sully

If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s for Tournament of Roses officials to bring a trademark “rosy optimism” to each New Year’s celebration.
For a year overshadowed by malaise like 2010 promises to be, could they have done any better to lift our spirits than naming Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger as the parade’s Grand [...]

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Yes, Mr. DeMille, We’re Ready for Our Closeup!

Like Sunset Boulevard’s fictional movie fatale Norma Desmond, I hate the word “comeback,” so let’s take her cue and call this blog’s resurrection a “return.”
After a catastrophic attempt to update WordPress over a month ago, your humble blogger was left scrambling to recover hundreds of former posts and photos and redesign Dateline>City of Angels from [...]

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Pardon Our Dust

If you’re reading this, you likely reached Dateline>City of Angels either through a back door or some search engine, and are now wondering why it appears so … incomplete.
Answer: We’re still under construction — or rather, “re-construction” — after a nasty blog crash several weeks ago. That reconstruction has meant changing locations to a new [...]

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Where Were You When the Eagle Landed?

I count myself fortunate to have been a young witness to one of humankind’s proudest achievements. Forty years ago I, like millions the world over, gazed in awe as the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle touched down at Tranquility Base.
A boy of seven, I was gathered with my brothers in our family living room along [...]

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