All the Saints of Los Angeles - J. Michael Walker

                                          
THEY float above us -- Santa Monica, St. Andrews, San Julian, Santa Fe, Saint Albans -- not the  saints themselves -- but their names.  A spirit roll call,  if you will, that un-scrolls across so many of the city street signs de-marking the criss-cross roads we traverse daily in our attempt to get from here to there and back again --  if lucky, unharmed.

Not so long ago, poet and visual artist, J. Michael Walker embarked on an ambitious project to weave together the city's history through the story of its "Saint" streets -- from wide, screaming boulevards to the afterthoughts of hidden cul-de-sacs -- 103 in all. "It was an exercise in storytelling," he says, "It was a challenge to come at this city's story in so many different ways."  The story bloomed -- in painting poetry and prose -- much of it informed by a reporter's-style technique, which required him to dig deep: interviewing, researching, reporting -- and simply hanging out.  

It was a way of understanding the city itself as well as explaining it to others, says Walker. All the Saints of the City of Angels, became a book and an extensive exhibit that was on display at the Gene Autry Museum in Griffith Park. But really, says Walker, the project lives on in his mind as a "loopy valentine to this amazing city of lost angels and sometimes saints."

Walker will be speaking to the class this week about this project and other projects in which L.A. has either been the muse or the subject over the last few years. Please take a look at his website to get a feel of the work and the artist's intentions.

(image: santa rosa de lima, by j. michael walker, via jmichaelwalker.com)

The Militant Angeleno

TROLLING around the web, I noted an item that L.A. Observed posted last week via a site called, "Militant Angeleno" about the changing appearnece of street signs in L.A.

We Angelenos notice such things. We endure so much change that, well, it makes us a little more than prickly about the things we expect will remain fixed and constant:

The things that identify us, quite literally our markers.

Road signs.

The M.A. begins his post, thusly:

Have you noticed the new Los Angeles City street signs lately? The Militant has!

You can find them along the 1st Street corridor in Downtown Los Angeles, in the Civic Center and Little Tokyo areas. The aluminum signs are slightly larger than the current city street signage and have "wings" on the top and bottom, displaying the City Seal on the top wing and the block number and direction on the bottom wing.

These signs aren't all that new; they were first spotted in June of 2009, like the Main Street sign pictured above left. You would have expected The Militant to do a post on the signs back then, but he was too lazy-ass to do it. wasn't sure whether it was some sort of "pilot project" (as the City is prone to doing) or whether this particular signage style was supposed to be unique to the Civic Center. Some more information was needed.

This week, though, The Militant noticed more of these signs popping up - this time outside the Civic Center, like this sign on 1st and Alameda.

When he first saw the signs nearly two years ago, he thought they were kind of strange, mainly because of their UFO/Chevrolet logo shape, but admittedly, they have grown on him. They're large, and have larger lettering, which means they are more visible to motorists and pedestrians (and cyclists, too, of course) alike. Second, they are the first Los Angeles street signage to acknowledge the City of Los Angeles outright. Very important in this region of nearly 90 suburbs, satellite cities and unincorporated areas, of which street signage is the one of two tell-tale ways to know exactly which city you are in (calling 9-1-1 and seeing which police department shows up is the other, but The Militant doesn't recommend you do that...).

It's a great post which goes on the outline the history of the street signs here -- eras, shapes, colors. Finishing that post, I found myself skimming through other posts and appreciating not just prism but the voice: passionate, humorous, specific and informed by fact and history.

Check it out.

-- L.G.

(image "shotgun-style street sign," credit: keith justin gallagher via flickr creative commons)

Road Work: The Changing Face of the City

IT'S become a familiar sight for all of us: Unending road work and unforeseen lane closures on the freeways or major surface streets we require daily to take us from one post in our lives to another.

It's frustrating, to put it mildly.

I was off to meeting the other night and, of course, even by scheduling a little extra time all parties were a bit late. But surprisingly, we all arrived about the same amount of time late -- a first. And a typical L.A. qualification. What did it? The 405, as usual, was a mess. One-mile-per hour for long, long stretches. I'm so used to traversing the 405 at night that I hadn't really noticed the work that has been done on the "retaining wall" -- on the northbound side just beyond Westwood. I was struck by the materials they have used. Rather than a cinderblock eyesore made pretty by some sort of standard-issue ice-plant, these walls are made to look as if this behemoth of multilane road was simply cut out of the earth's core. I didn't have my camera at the ready to shoot but the walls looked something very much like this:




Seeing it just made me think what sort of story will be carved out of this new wrinkle in the city's physical profile, what myth will grow up around this fast-road that pushes along side the old Sepulveda Pass--some history someone will invent based on what they may perceive to be something old, some antique stretch of road.

-- L.G.

top photo: the 405 @ venice, targophoto, via flickr creative commons

"Wrinkles in the City"

THOSE of you tuned in might have taken in by the huge photos pasted on buildings all around Los Angeles they are part "Wrinkles In The City". A project of French artist JR.

Phantom Galleries LA, a local outfit, invited a few downtown-L.A. arts district types to the T.E.D. talks. Here's a little video taste from a local artist I know:



-- L.G.
video by qathryn brehm

Banksy Writes L.A.

BANKSY, the British street artist, is at it again back in L.A. This popped up this week along a wall in Silver Lake.



And he's left his mark all over, criss-crossing the city -- Westwood, the Sunset Strip -- Seems there might be some larger message from him to us.

-- L.G.