Electric Los Angeles

In A Bronx Tale the young protagonist Cologono, or 'C' as the Mafia kingpin Sunny dubs him, says he reaps the benefit of getting two educations - one in the classroom and with his parents, the other with Sunny and his crew. While I can't quite compare to C in his, well, Italian-ness, I dig what he says about the dual education. Arguably everyone leads a 'double life' - it's healthy to have multiple interests.

I split time between my life in school, and my life in the music industry/business/scene. Since arriving in LA mid-2007 I've been to every electronic show, party, club and event possible. The business aspect of the music industry became a passion my sophomore year, and since then I've tried to engage every internship, collaboration, project and endeavor with ultimate zeal.

The following are, in my mind, the most influential record labels in the LA electronic music scene at the moment: Mad Decent, SMOG LA, Dim Mak and Proximal Records.

-- Ryan Cavalier
image via headzwillrollnyc.com

When Devoid of Direction, Observe

I have been observing elementary school teachers for the past few weeks, a part of the curriculum for my Education 401 class - Elementary/Adolescent Psychology in Education. I had a bit of an experience when I first departed my home not far from Loyola's campus. I was headed for Kentwood Elementary, a school I had passed many times before en route to a friend's house, along a drunken stroll, - point being I had an image of what the school looked like in my head. Kentwood Koalas was painted on the schoolyard wall - how could I forget the image of a koala?

I was walking along West 77th, headed toward the Vons at Kentwood and 80th, and ran into what I thought was Kentwood - but turned out to be Cowan Elementary. They were the Tigers; I began feeling foolish. I kept walking and came across another elementary school. As I was shielded by the elderly crossing guard I caught a glance of a girl's sweatshirt - Orville Wright it read. At this point I was walking along Emerson wishing I had taken my bicycle or had enough back pocket to own a car. I began thinking about how many families must live in Westchester. There are at least four Elementary schools in the Kentwood/Westchester area - counting Loyola Village, plus nearby Paseo Del dey Rey and Grand View Boulevard Elementary. It's no wonder LAUSD scores so low on the charts; there are too many kids!

-- Ryan Cavalier
(image: kentwood logo via facebook)

Arteries of Memory: Old Lady Regis, A Poem to Be Spoken

My poetry is almost always meant to be spoken. If you read this, do so out loud.

Arteries of Memory

In the coastal fog-mist, which,

Scratching chest along the ground,

Having rose up above the hill, sits, now stuck and confound

To a gridded square block where within the bounds of

Manchester, Sepulveda and Lincoln I found

Myself, or a piece of what I am.

The sleepy old lady, with wrinkled, shaking hands,

Who smoothed the pavement, such a since-eruption, bumpy land,

Though passing in silence, as mostly I’d do,

Now, Old Lady Regis,

I volley a tribute to you.

When wanting a playground to roam uncontained,

You brought me Cavalier poetry, Johnson, Herrick, Faine,

And when words could not settle my hunger,

You brought me and taught me how life quickly can blunder,

If, I like your houses, would fall quickly in line,

Ignoring the beat-engendered Angels’ pantomime,

Then I too would transform from quartz to lime,

Stoned by my own false sense of incline. Rather,

I should self-style my shutters, spatter my door-handle with ambivalence,

For drawing definition from small points of difference,

Can bring the self out, but shut out others’ sense of self,

Old Lady, Regis, you taught me that integrity does not melt,

That waves of airy froth, and gold-hilted corner stones,

Over time recede, and bend, chip, decay and mold,

Back into themselves, but the self can only grow,

And so after photosynthesizing in your character-nursery I know

Just who I am on the basis of who I am not,

By means of interpretation, interaction, and battles fought,

Regis, Old Lady, though you brought me to my knees,

Blood spattered,

Face tattered,

Ready at once to leave,

The faults were my own,

Your experience real and telling,

Sleepy towns, like you,

My lady,

Afford contemplative places of dwelling.

For what more could I ask?

--Ryan Cavalier

The Way I See It...

I often tell my friends that I won't live in a house as nice as the one I do now until I'm 35. My backyard has a great view - stretching from sleepy Marina Del Rey on up the coast to Malibu, inland to Century City, traversing upward to reach the Hollywood sign, and eventually ending with downtown's iconic skyline. In my parents home, when I was growing up in Marin County, where views come standard, I became spoiled, and developed a condition not conducive to living in much of Los Angeles - the "i need a view" condition.

With graduation a handful of days away I am consumed in thought - where to live being the most prominent question. I am concerned - where can I live in LA, affordably, with a view? Will I have to submit to the drudgery of boxed-in apartment living downtown? ... (which I'm coming to understand is no cheap reality at nearly $1000/month). Will I ever shed this 'view complex'?

-- Ryan Cavalier

Photo Cred: Dr. Mills LMU

Zip Zip. Cars, Clothing, and Angeleno Attitude

OVER the course of the last semester I have been working for an electronic music company downtown. My Tuesday/Thursday mornings all look the same - rent a Zip Car from LMU's campus, drive the 405 to the 10, exit 5th street, left on Bixel, Right on 5th, reach the garage, punch the code, enter, complete various tasks for 4 hours, exit the garage, right on 5th, left on Lucas, jump on the 10, crawl down the 405, exit at Howard Hughes and return the car to LMU's bluff-top campus. The only thing that varies from week to week is the type of car in which I make the journey (which is dependent on which cars have yet to be reserved; random chance). I have noticed that Angelenos don't take too kindly to someone driving what they see as a 'rental car' traversing the winding 10; they don't want to read "wheels when you want them" (Zipcar's slogan) while tightening their grip around the steering wheel-shredding 405. When I drive a car with more advertising, I get more honks, more middle fingers, and feel the need to blend in. Oppositely, when I rent the cars with fewer advertisements I in fact feel that I have acquired some sort of agency -- that I can now drive like all other Angelenos, as a direct result of NOT having the Zipcar slogan slapped onto my back bumper. I feel priveleged, lucky, that I get to travel the LA freeways in an fleet of data-collecting motorized boxes! I can literally change cars like many do clothes, giving me the opportunity to not only try on different personalities and characteristics - but also gauge how others react to me...Zip Zip.

Photo: ZipCar Logo

-- Ryan Cavalier

Voice -- Chavez Ravine - Eviction Day

Residents Evicted From Chavez Ravine
~ An Exercise In Voice ~


This photograph tells me it takes a lot of men to tear a woman from her home. It tells me that history is often diluted by the way people see it – in heaps of black and white; never relevant. This photograph tells me that some police listen, some silence, and a good reporter stands back and lets news happen before them. This photograph tells me that the good guys are white, the bad people not, and the Angeleno sky blue all the while. This photograph tells me to listen to histories that have come to pass, like the beachgoer remembers the tide by its massive coastal wavelength. This photograph explains why the Dodgers suck, and its because their franchise grew on a now splintered staircase, a once hardwood deck, and a junkyard of broken memories. This picture evokes a sense of social justice from somewhere within me, something that perhaps has for too long been dormant, suppressed by the desire to reach, and reach, and attain. This photograph tells me that people leave their homes kicking and screaming. This photograph tells me to look for the subtle, to elaborate on the nearly invisible, and create a set of circumstances on which a reader might hang his hat. This photograph tells me to Google search it’s name, print it out in color, and re-analyze. This photograph speaks to me in so many different ways, it challenges me to tap life from the still like a fish from the pond, like yolk from the membrane; to anticipate where the subjects will be in .01 seconds, to literally predict the future and be content with being incorrect. This photograph tells me that an illegitimate voice would misrepresent these people who remain frozen in time like Dr. Evil. It tells me that depth is not 3-dimensional, not necessarily associated with the amount of ‘craze’ in an image, but with the amount of perspective one can inject into an image. It tells me there is something to tell, and tell I shall, until I shall not.

-- Mr_Cavalier

CHAVEZ RAVINE

The first thing that comes to mind is image. From the beginning, Los Angeles has been all about its image and how it is portrayed in order to bring new residents and get more revenue. The poor and close-knit community of the Chavez Ravine did not fit this image, and being that it was in close proximity to downtown Los Angeles, which was supposed to be the center of all that was great in the city, it was not acceptable. Instead, a brand new housing project plan was developed and the families of Chavez Ravine were sent eviction notices. When the housing project was axed and the Los Angeles Dodgers bought the land, a small number of residents were still there because they refused to take the cash payments and leave. This particular photo is of Aurora Vargas, forcibly taken from her home by the LAPD. Other photos from that day show her children sobbing while she is being dragged out.

At what price did Los Angeles become Los Angeles? The Dodger Stadium was another greedy ploy to bring tourists and make money but the question is why here and couldn’t they have found another piece of land in the rapidly growing city? Unfortunately, once they found an excuse to get rid of this ugly “shantytown,” they couldn’t have done it sooner. The importance of forcing the city to be this shiny, movie-like dream world full of perfect people while shoving the lesser immigrants into a corner seems unreal. Sure, they gave the families money and offered them first choice in a housing project that never happened. But they never acknowledged the people or the area as a community of generations of family and friends that was above all, their home.

The way these people were treated reflects the fact that they were never cared about by city officials or boosters or politicians. They needed a way to get them out and that was all. In a city booming with business and people, it seemed as though all anyone cared about was cashing in on the gold that was Los Angeles. These families had been living in the city for generations and they grew up in it, but in the end the city outgrew them. They were pushed aside to neighborhoods where officials believed they would fit in more, away from downtown and the beloved Dodgers stadium.


The irony of it all is that the stadium is now a staple of Los Angeles and everyone loves the Dodgers, the all-American baseball team. While there is nothing wrong with this, it is saddening to know the history of how the stadium came to be. After years of building a city on the basis of perfection, it is still not perfect today. There are beautiful areas of Los Angeles as well as completely ugly and ruined areas. Not only do “white Protestants” live here, but all kinds of cultures, races and ethnicities. That is one of the most unique things about this city, its diversity, and the undeniable fact that people have never stopped living here because of it.


The city has not decreased in population or size since it’s beginning; rather it has increased and gotten better. Los Angeles has had a bumpy history and those who took part it in were probably not proud of all the things they did to get it here. Yet, I think it is safe to say that it’s a better place today because everyone is still here, bad areas and all. The corporate giants and corrupt city officials couldn’t completely kick people out even if they did force them out of their homes. While different types of people live in certain areas and their respective neighborhoods, they are all part of the same city.
--Claire Ensey

(photo via alef.net)

Coachella, The Mecca of Motion

Los Angeles sits just westward of the site of an epic desert music festival, The Coachella Music Festival in Indio, CA. I recall this past year, my first year in attendance, which was an experience I will never forget - but for reasons other than the painfully obvious. My life goal is to seek out and obtain perspective, culture, and knowledge. The festival was packed with culture as much as it was with feet, hats, water bottles, and soundwaves - there was as much to learn from the groves of Palm trees as there is on an international vacation. In an effort to recreate the environment, the culture, I completed an exercise in voice:

"There’s a culture here” I thought to myself as I continually split and re-split the waves of people, marching in the masses, from area to area. Something happens, a collision of sorts; the muffled sound of live music in the distance bleeds into the under toned shuffles of sun-warmed feet on the grassy desert carpet – all the while curiously bringing to light the untold excitement tucked away behind pleasure-creased faces which hide deep behind the funniest brim I’ve ever seen. The air, the desert air, in all its aridity, has gained some substance, and now cradles, albeit suspends, the life of the festival.

There were faces, oh too many faces to forget. Seventy thousand noses ran into seventy thousand upper lips, although I only saw fifty thousand smiles flashing about. Thirty thousand water bottles means 3,000 free waters, 20 of which I am personally responsible for picking up. Who needed to buy a shirt with some iconic rock legend’s face when I have 70,000 strangers playing facial-chess with my memory bank? Faces - the kind which popped out at you when you’re not looking, the face which scares you away from becoming a pill addict, the face which has you asking why meth-heads like Muse. There was no distinct face of Coachella, too many faces I would say, all of whom, at one moment or another, found their place, found their stage, in what seemed to be the Mecca of motion." - From Ryan Cavalier's "Mecca of Motion"

-- Ryan Cavalier

Photo: "Signposts in Indio" by Ryan Cavalier

Inventing LA: A Film Review

THE film "Inventing LA" provides an in-depth analysis of how one man began the Los Angeles Times, a newspaper which he used to push his own political and economic agendas, which ultimately played a major role in determining how Los Angeles came to be spatially, economically, and socially. The analyzes the grit and determination of Harrison Gray Otis, his successor Harry Chandler, and their ruthless attack on whatever posed a threat to their voice, their power, their catalyst, the Los Angeles Times. I highly recommend this documentary to anyone interested in the development of Los Angeles, Southern California real estate and an iconic Los Angeles.

-- Ryan Cavalier

Photo: Harrison Gray Otis

Credit: California State Military Department

Iconic Los Angeles and The Perpetual Issue of Warmth

"Iconic Los Angeles"

There is a great deal of California in what I consider to be Angelino, and vice versa. If California and Los Angeles were individual tapestries, they would sample from the same material – but ultimately hold their individual integrities and aesthetics. It is in this way that I have come to analyze Los Angeles – in light of its role in defining California, yet not ignorant to California’s suckling from the sun-tanned teat of all things Angelino.

We live in a city of colors, a city of scents, of dollars, of determination – a city where sunsets succeed hour-deficient days, a city whose citizens are cultured on consumerism and dance in the sun-casted shadows of swaying frivolities. Los Angeles has so many hues, scents and textures that choosing one would demean, and overall minimize the vast depth and breadth the city, and region have to offer. I will delve into one such medium I feel is iconically ‘Los Angeles’, and ascertain why they are so.

Upon reaching the final two weeks of my six-month stay in London, England this past year I very much longed for California. In an effort to block out the freezing weather, the brevity of sunlight on whited winter days, and ultimately to prepare myself for the Angelino life I so clearly envisioned. More tangible than anything else in this vision was the notion of warmth. This sense of warmth I so specifically remember, and quite literally felt on my skin, was a placeholder for all the times I myself had melted under the overpowering warmth of the sun – and done nothing but feel its presence upon my skin, and repeat.

I want to specify the type of warmth I’m talking about – because there are varying types transcending different and specific sensations. Being from the north of California, albeit a place of temperate weather and kind temperament, warmth is often categorized by the lack of fog, or is defined by what is expected but either does not arrive or is fended off. Warmth is refreshing, warmth is relaxing and it is a privilege.

Angelinos expect their warmth; they want to be able to control it with their own fingers, to succumb to its increasing comfort like an adjustable shower handle. I too came to desire a dial which could control the warmth, to reject the world’s realistic weather patterns, burn away valleys of fog, melt frozen street grout, and idealize the elements. This warmth is so iconically Los Angeles because Angelinos live in an unrealistic climate, especially when compared to the rest of the world.

This commitment-cancelling warmth which I tie so intimately to Los Angeles is so because I clearly see the following: as was discussed in previous articles, the Los Angeles area is one in which the people battle against the landscape and elements (in an uphill manner) to preserve their highly coveted way of life. Just as Angelinos defy logic by settling (in the masses) in an area with an inadequate water supply, with desert conditions, perched next to the ocean – which to has rapidly become overcrowded, sprawled and polluted so as to further my claim –they now perpetuate this notion of ridiculousness by continuing to live here, in an area deficient in life’s bare necessities, but abundant in pleasurable pursuits – such as exercising one’s will in order to attain that sense of warmth. I too am ridiculous, sun-seeking, and excited to stay in this topographical who-done-it for as long as necessary. The question remains: what will we, and the next generation need to do in order to preserve this stellar mental placidity?

-- Ryan Cavalier