2020 Epcot Flower & Garden Festival Minnie Ornament
We gave you a look at the full line of Festival merchandise earlier today, but we want to put a spotlight on what just might be the perfect accessory for your Flower and Garden adventures…
It’s the 2020 Epcot Flower and Garden Festival Flower Crown headband!
Flower and Garden Crown
Teal, pink, and yellow blossoms are joined by decorative bumblebees and ribbons for tying.
Original custom-designed furnishings, including a massive V’Soske rug, are included in the sale. | Photos by Lance Gerber, courtesy of Lindell Campbell and Nelda Linsk
Take a trip back to 1964!
Modernist architecture fans the world over know the name of Arthur Elrod thanks to the iconic Palm Springs residence he commissioned from John Lautner in 1965. But the celebrated interior designers’s legacy also lives on in another Palm Springs property, the 1962 showcase he dubbed the Escape House.
Located in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood, the Hollywood Regency-style residence has been owned by the same family since 1964. According to a December 2018 feature in Palm Springs Life, given that the property served as a calling card for his design business, Elrod only agreed to sell it to his friends Frances and Bill Hamlin on the condition that it be left just as it was when sold.
The Hamlin family stuck to their end of the bargain quite admirably, making only minor changes over the past half century. The home is now being offered for sale complete with its original ‘60s ultraglam furnishings still in place.
A custom-designed circular rug and dinette set in sunny yellow, a favored hue of Elrod, is complemented by a basket-weave room divider screen in the dining area.
Hidden behind an oversize set of Pullman doors at 350 West Via Lola, the 4,780-square-foot residence contains four bedrooms and four and a half baths.
Notable features include 14-foot ceilings, an atrium, bleached-chestnut walls, built-in vanities and bookshelves, textured room dividers, and custom-designed rugs, sofas, tables, light fixtures, and window treatments.
Sliding glass doors line a wall of the master bedroom, leading to the pool and covered patio.
Decked out in shades of gold and blue, the master bath and adjacent dressing room are the ne plus ultra in Palm Springs midcentury swank.Gold tiles match the wallpaper in one of the home’s four and a half bathrooms.
Sliding glass doors open to an expansive back yard with swimming pool, covered dining patio with original Italian chaise lounges, swaying palm trees, and manicured hedges.
A pair of vintage lanterns stand sentry outside the dramatically oversized Pullman doors. The brass handles were repurposed from an antique four-poster Moroccan bed.The .37-acre property comes with a swimming pool, shaded patios, and mountain views.
On a .37-acre lot, the time capsule trophy is listed with Nelda Linsk and Lindell Campbell of Keller Williams Luxury Homes at an asking price of $2.85 million.
This is my new cat who just wondered in and stayed, Tom Tom he is not very old and full of life and energy loves climbing trees no problem with the big ones but the little ones create a bit of a problem he falls off them but is giving up trying which was a pity because I would have got some very funny photos but he now knows his limitations.
And is now comfortable with the heights
But if he is like me the ground is always better
Checking to see what has changed
my very ugly little garden fellow had a new paint job looking much better now.
A game with the beer fairy
Well not for long
But walking along the fence is a bit dicy at the best of times
what the fuck am I looking at here. mac and cheese that has gummy worms in it?!
BOO to you—there are 999 snacks at Disney Springs, but there’s always room for more! Halloween is only a little over a week away and we’re celebrating with frightful eats at our three Disney Food Trucks. From October 25-31, 2019, you’ll find a few not-so-spooky goodies to indulge in.
Springs Street Tacos Food Truck
Dig into Chicken Adobo Nachos featuring blue corn tortilla chips with chicken adobo, toasted pumpkin seeds, dried cranberry, lime crema and a zesty pumpkin-cheese sauce.
Mac & Cheese Food Truck
Get cheesy with your favorite side tossed with robust pumpkin-cheese sauce, toasted pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, and gummy cranberry worms.
Cookie Dough and Everything Sweet Food Truck
It’s not scary—it’s sweet! Get your cameras ready for the “Instagrammable” Halloween Cookie Dough Waffle Taco filled with pumpkin spice and cold brew cookie dough topped with chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and a chocolate spider.
Know Before You Go: You’ll spot all three trucks at Disney Springs West Side located right across from Disney’s Candy Cauldron and check the website for operating times as they change daily.
Be sure to tag your photos with #DisneySprings on Twitter and Instagram—I’ll be on the lookout for them!
This little fellow was just over being a baby when he left Sydney they have grown so much.
Clemy is not as big but much wiser and grown up well sometimes.
Dad is just relaxing
They gathered firewood for the fire, little sticks are always needed.
Four chicken provide a lot of eggs.
Feeding the birds not shy at all and they ended up with half my sandwich
The devil just woke up
and popped out to say hello
Wearing sunglasses upside down a new fashion
or in the eye
or not at all
The pool was not ready for swimming and just a bit on the cold side yet
My grand daughter likes the camera well sometimes and she takes a good photo where her brother likes playing with cars more .
So we had a photo shoot the beer fairy got into a few photos
And one of my daughter
The other little house on my son farm
The second last day we played golf, well the fellows played golf we would be still there if I played, it is a long way between holes mainly pulled the golf buggy around but did stop to take some photos.
Birds feeding on the greens
And these three
and these too
A duck family
The beer fairy likes sand well he ended up in it a fair bit
So much study and concentration in hitting a ball.
Get to know one of the grooviest features of midcentury modern architecture
Before the proliferation of air conditioning, designers devised lots of clever ways to keep buildings cool: cupolas, external blinds and awnings, transom windows. But none were as useful and affordable—or had as much panache—as breeze blocks.
The name refers to a perforated concrete wall made up of individual blocks, each pierced with the same shape, most commonly a cross or circle. Mounted together, they form a striking pattern.
Breeze blocks caused a sensation in the 1950s and ’60s. In those two decades, Americans shunned classical designs in favor of simple lines and experimented with concrete and prefabricated building techniques. Breeze blocks were the perfect companion to modernist buildings. One of the hallmarks of the style—floor-to-ceiling glass windows and walls that blurred indoor and outdoor living—were terrible insulators. But a barrier of breeze blocks could be placed in front of the glass, filtering sun without hindering ventilation.
The blocks were cheap, and local manufacturers, who organized a big publicity blitz, created hundreds of patterns.
“Everybody could order a bunch of concrete blocks and use them,” says Alan Hess, a Southern California architectural historian. “It became a real way to popularize modern design.”
Images of breeze blocks in West Coast magazine articles and advertisementsultimately linked breeze blocks to California style, according to Chicago-based architectural historian Anthony Rubano.
They encircled swimming pools, wrapped around churches, and screened parking garages. They served as ornamentation on hotels and storefronts and bedecked the entryways of ordinary homes. On some buildings, the fences and grills were small and discreet; other times, they were mammoth in scale. They were perfectly suited to Southern California, the land of sunshine and the cradle of modern design. The fad ultimately fizzled out in the 1970s. But breeze blocks had staying power; many are still around today.
What do they do
Filter sunlight
Let breeze in
Create privacy
Also known as
Decorative blocks
Screen blocks
Vented blocks
Who created the breeze block?
The breeze block craze is deeply rooted in Southern California, but it was ignited half-way around the globe in 1954, when American architect Edward Durell Stone designed the new American Embassy in New Dehli. The embassy was a simple white box, but it was enclosed behind an ornate screen formed from hundreds of one-foot square cinderblocks. Each of the blocks was punctured with the same intricate pattern, and together they formed a concrete wall that looked like a delicate lace curtain. According to the New York Times, the embassy “became one of the best‐known pieces of American architecture of the decade.”
But the curtain wall wasn’t a totally original idea; think of the brise-soleil. For centuries, “screens of stone, wood, and clay shaded and ventilated buildings in arid regions.” As Ron and Barbara Marshall observe in Concrete Screen Block, the curtain wall outside the American Embassy closely resembled the cast concrete walls of Notre Dame du Raincy, built in the early 1920s. In that decade, Frank Lloyd Wright was also using textile concrete blocks to pioneer a new Southern California aesthetic. The difference? Wright’s blocks, while also decorative, were designed to bear weight.
Stone’s blocks were functional, but not structural. In 1956, he brought his decorative breeze blocks to Los Angeles—and the rest of the U.S.—with the Stuart Company headquarters in Pasadena. The company’s owner charged Stone with devising a “completely new building concept” that would be efficient but timeless, and make use of the Southern California climate. With smashing success, Stone and the landscape architect incorporated a large atrium, reflecting pools, courtyards—and a long, gauzy screen constructed from blocks hollowed out to create a circle motif, each embellished with one gold knob.
With the Stuart building, Rubano says Stone “cemented the image of the screen block into the minds of architects, builders, and homeowners.”
I think it serves not only to satisfy a wistful yearning on the part of everyone for pattern, warmth and interest, but also serves the desperately utilitarian purpose of keeping sun off glass and giving privacy.
—Edward Durell Stone
Alhambra City Hall
Alhambra
A dramatic screen of breeze blocks two stories tall wraps around Alhambra’s civic building. A 1958 write-up of architect William Allen’s plans in the Los Angeles Times says the screen would be “similar in appearance” to the American pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair, which was designed by none other than Edward Durell Stone, who pioneered breeze blocks.
Parker Hotel
Palm Springs
Palm Springs is the bastion of breeze blocks, and the Parker Hotel is its mecca. The giant, curving wall was built, unusually, two blocks deep, likely to stabilize it, say the Marshalls. Its sheer size makes it a popular photo backdrop. It’s not just its monumental size. The pattern, Vista Vue, “exudes that hip coolness that you want,” says Ron Marshall.
Seventh Day Adventist Church
Hollywood
One of the more peculiar buildings in Los Angeles, the violet church is separated from busy Hollywood Boulevard by a wall of breeze blocks in the Maltesepattern. The boat-like church was designed by Robert Burman, who, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy, was a “prolific producer of Modern ecclesiastical design in Southern California.”
Theme Building
LAX
The flamboyant architectural style known Googie symbolized the spirit and optimism of the Space Age, and is most famously executed in this spider-like structure that’s often mistaken for LAX’s control tower. Its steel and concrete legs protrude out over a low, circular wall of concrete bars punched with egg-shaped holes. Rubano says the screen closely resembles sculptor Erwin Hauer’s Design No. 5.
Saga Motor Hotel
Pasadena
Breeze blocks adorn dozens of motels across Los Angeles, from the Pink Motel in Sun Valley to the Hollywood Premiere Hotel to the Sea Sprite Motel in Hermosa Beach. But the Saga Motor Hotel is among the most elegant and understated. Architect Harold Zook cleverly used traditional cinderblocks to create vertical ribbons on the property’s exterior.
There is more and more buzz about this underage sex loving A- list actor being alive. I suppose the world's condemnation about his love of underage sex and the resulting loss of acting gigs might have caused him to fake his own death, but would he do that to his child?
I'm so sad about this. I went in to get a sandwich to find it had closed! Ugh, I was so hungry too.
The casual spot still has other locations around the city
Chef Suzanne Goin and restaurateur partner Caroline Styne have closed their restaurant The Larder at Burton Way, ending a more than five-year run for the business. The property, situated just off La Cienega near the Beverly Center, was an offshoot of the original Larder and Tavern in Brentwood.
The Burton Way location of the Larder announced that it would be closing at the end of last month via social media, saying:
We so appreciate the support of our loyal guests and our hard-working staff whose dedication and hospitality have made this restaurant such a special place.
The restaurant was first announced in 2012 but didn’t open until September of 2013, but reps for the restaurant group say that a terminating lease meant it was time to move on. The company still has another Larder offshoot in Beverly Hills on Maple Drive, and is otherwise busy winning James Beard Foundation Awards and running some of the most successful event food programming in greater Southern California.
As for what’s next at the busy intersection, a tipster says that signage is already up for a restaurant to be called Emilia; it comes “from the creator of Amici Brentwood,” per the signs. Eater reached out to Amici, but so far has not heard back.
The Larder at Burton Way. 8500 Burton Way, Los Angeles, CA.
Sometimes you just feel like using hot dogs to make a circle on the top of your dinner and then filling that circle with shredded cheese.
What? You don’t feel like that?
Well, never mind. Maybe that’s just me.
In any case, this is Frank-A-Roni Dinner!!
This fun ring recipe comes from Dollar Dinners Made Easy With Dairy Foods, which is a cute pamphlet that has a lot of “interesting” casserole recipes in it. I just picked this one straight off the bat because…well…ring of frankfurter slices.
I am sure you understand.
So, I have bronchitis. Again. I’m not sure what exactly the deal is, except that I can’t breathe very well. And I need to rest. But this time I prepared ahead and I had a good selection of easy recipes to pick from that needed only a minimal amount of effort.
But Tom wouldn’t let me do even that.
“Stop. Stop. What are you doing?”
“I’m going to the kitchen. I need to make the recipe test.”
“Is that the hot dog thing that you’ve been muttering about?”
“Maybe.”
He snatched the recipe card out of my hand. “You go sit on the couch. Alex and I have got this. Right, Alex?”
“Yes! I want to cut the hot dogs!”
So, I sat on the couch. And Alex cut hot dogs.
Overall, it was a pretty good deal. And TJ kept wandering into the kitchen because they were feeding him plain elbow mac, which he loves, so that was adorable.
It’s goooo!!! Cottage cheese goo.
They even let me put all the shredded cheese in the center, which was nice.
It was also a large amount of cheese.
Fresh from the oven.
See? Too much of a good thing!!! It wouldn’t scoop.
“You don’t have to eat that bite if you don’t want to.”
“Are you kidding me? It’s all melted cheese. Of course I want to.”
“Having trouble?”
“Mphhff.”
“Tastes like cottage cheese and hot dogs.”
“At least it’s hot.”
“Yeah, but that cheese should have really been stirred in.”
The Verdict: Funny
From The Tasting Notes –
As most of you have realized by now, the whole cup of cheese in the center was very dramatic and fun, but it didn’t really improve the flavor at all. The casserole would have been much better with that cup of cheese stirred in rather than in a big glob on the top. That being said, the casserole was very creamy and bland, pretty much just like if you stirred cottage cheese in with noodles and hot dogs. But the kids loved it, and Tom ate quite a bit, too. I ate half of my portion before I was overcome by dairy. In a side note, there were leftovers to this, so Tom sautéed another onion and added a can of condensed tomato soup and another cup of shredded cheese and stirred that all together with the leftovers and rebaked it. Which was so, so salty. But delicious in a trashy way.
Name:Jessica Yatrofsky, turtle Jerry Location: Carroll Gardens — Brooklyn, New York Size: 612 square feet Years lived in: 10 years, renting
A soft and feminine palette gives way to the peaceful airy atmosphere in Jessica Yatrofsky's Carroll Gardens home. Throughout the small but spacious apartment, artwork celebrating bodies is in every room. Simplicity peeks through with a playfulness in each curated corner. Her turtle Jerry sits in view of guests in the living room, along with an assortment of white stones and art books. What results is a space that feels calm, restorative, and sensual.
Every time we do one of these days, we pick a country using a random generator, and then we take the time to learn a little something about the country and it’s cuisine. One of my biggest surprises this time around was that a country called Montenegro exists!
Another fun fact: by at least one metric, Montenegro is the second most racist country in the world!
ur doing great sweetie
Many other metrics didn’t bother to include Montenegro in their reporting, so congrats Montenegro – you’re small and you may suck?
It turns out their cuisine is not too different from its surrounding areas, including a country we’ve already done. So we didn’t make those previous recipes, and we cannibalized the options for the other countries in this region.
This is Kacamak! It’s a polenta style grits n feta slop pile! And also a real palindrome!
Ya burl up some taters real nice, mash em up, throw in a handful of cornmeal, add oil and feta, and baby that’s it. They haven’t invented spices in the mountains yet.
Serve with a side of sautéed collard greens, which were fine. Never had them before. It was pretty much a more pleasant sautéed kale.
now! thats what i call ok
The flavors are pretty bland on the kacamak, and this is coming from a guy who is chowing a sleeve of saltines while he writes this.
This pairs really well with a chilled sparkling wine, like a 2019 Diet Mt. Dew.
The real winner was priganice, something borat says. It’s yeast donuts with a bit of apple inside, rolled in sugar.
im pleased to announce that donuts are good
All in all, as a country Montenegro doesn’t hold a candle to Flavor Country, but for a small nation of allegedly racist mountain people, its food is good enough. I give the country of Montenegro a 5/10.
Stalkers are common, but death threats are not. This A list mostly movie actress who is an Academy Award winner/nominee has received dozens of death threats prior to the launch of her new movie and she has a huge security team paid for by the movie studio.
She just can't help herself. I'm sure she will blame it on her team, but this singer/actress has been watching the numbers every day and her team had a press release ready to go the second the singer/actresses' film surpassed another. They still have a looooong way to go though if you account for inflation.
Lady GaGa in Star is Born passing Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard for biggest movie gross starring a singer.
I've heard that the Disneyland one will indeed have alcoholic beverages. Our long national nightmare is over.
We previously mentioned that when visiting Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, guests will be able to explore this entire new land with all of their senses. Visitors will be able to taste otherworldly flavors and enjoy the tantalizing scents of our many food and beverage locations. Among the newly revealed list of venues at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo.
A multi-purpose transport shuttle docked on top of the large hangar will beckon guests into this fast-casual restaurant, a designated location for traveling food shuttles. Chef Strono “Cookie” Tuggs is in much demand for his culinary skills, so he moves from site to site in a modified Sienar-Chall Utilipede-Transport that becomes a mobile kitchen and restaurant – like an intergalactic “food truck.” His travels across the galaxy allow him to fill his pantry with exotic ingredients he uses to make new and unusual dishes inspired by the fare he created during his time working for Maz Kanata in her castle on Takodana. Now, “Cookie” is proud to share his cuisine with visitors at Tuggs’ Grub, a “traveling diner for diners traveling.”
Cookie’s food shuttle, now docked on the roof of the hangar bay, has lowered a series of pods into the hangar, carrying precious cargo – Chef Tuggs’ finest ingredients gathered from across the galaxy. Situated inside Docking Bay 7, other pods from Black Spire Outpost provide other produce, provisions, and equipment for all incoming freighters to the hangar. Guests may choose to dine indoors in the hangar bay or outside in a shaded courtyard.
From the early days of the design of this new land, we partnered with the amazing team from Disney Parks Food and Beverage Concept Development to provide innovative and creative food and beverage offerings that enhance the immersive storytelling of the various dining establishments located in Black Spire Outpost. Throughout the outpost, guests will encounter familiar flavors but sometimes with unexpected and surprising colors and textures. The unique presentation takes Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo to the next galaxy.
Along with the Food and Beverage Concept Development team, we’ve selected just a few of our favorites to share with you today, including the Ithorian Garden Loaf, a plant-based “meatloaf” that comes served with roasted vegetable mash, seasonal vegetables, and mushroom sauce. Another hearty option is the Smoked Kaadu Ribs. These country sticky pork ribs come with a unique blueberry corn muffin and cabbage slaw. Writing this is making me hungry so I’m going to sign off now! Stay tuned to the Disney Parks Blog for a comprehensive food guide to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to be shared at a later date.
Until that time, what are you most looking forward to at Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo?
Since Tom has been under the weather lately, I decided it would be a good time to make him some tea.
No wait. I thought it would be a good time to make him some beef tea.
No, wait. I thought it would be a good time to make him some Cranberry Beef Tea!
“The men all like this one.”
This recipe comes from the Ocean Spray pamphlet, Mix Around With Cranberry Juice, published in 1960. It is also the pamphlet that contains this lovely picture:
I have to admit, though. That little tiger is pretty cute.
Now, this is only beef tea in a cheating sense. It’s like shortcut beef tea. If you are curious, you can check out this article about actual beef tea.
But I’m using beef bullion, because that is what the recipe called for.
It also did NOT call for real cranberries, it called for low calorie cranberry cocktail. Which was out at my store because everyone found out it was going to be cold and lost their minds. Seriously, whole shelves were cleared out in my grocery store. So I got the 100% juice and hoped for the best.
And it turned out, the best smelled pretty bad.
The recoil is real.
“Does it taste better than it smells?”
“Slightly. But it’s still not very good.”
And then this strange thing happened:
“I like it. It’s good.”
I set down my camera. “Really. Can you tell me why it’s good, please?”
“Because it’s sweet. It tastes like something yummy and sweet at the same time.”
Then she proceeded to drink the whole glass.
The Verdict: Baffling
From The Tasting Notes –
So, this basically tasted like a really sweet soup or stew. It was just…sweet beef. It wasn’t disgusting, but it wasn’t the best. Honestly, it was slightly gross. Tom took a couple of sips and declared himself healed so he wouldn’t have to drink any more. However, Alex loved it. Granted, she is our child, so her taste buds might be slightly screwy, but she normally does not like beef very much. She doesn’t eat hamburgers or steak, and will only eat ground beef when it’s covered with sauce, like spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes or tacos. So the fact that she drank all of this is huge for us. I am actually planning on giving her this next time she is sick. If you are an adult and you want to make this work, I would suggest making actual beef tea and using real cranberries, or at least unsweetened real cranberry juice if you use the shortcut method. I feel like the other fruit juices in the 100% juice I bought may have messed with the flavor. So overall, all men do not like this one, but your kid might.
This A list rapper/singer/winner/nominee who had a huge 2018 kind of surprised everyone when he said he only has sex in the dark and no woman was going to see him naked if he could help it.
In Glendale, where close to two-thirds of residents are renters, landlords will soon face new city requirements aimed at discouraging steep rent hikes.
After temporarily freezing rent increases above 5 percent in November, the Glendale City Council voted 3-0 to approve an ordinance Tuesday requiring most apartment owners to pay relocation assistance fees to tenants if they plan to raise rents more than 7 percent.
The policy, set to go into effect next month, is similar to rent control—but, unlike the city of Los Angeles’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance, it does not put a limit on how much landlords can raise rent.
“This is an attempt to be fair to everyone,” said Councilmember Paula Devine, arguing that the policy would provide tenants with more housing stability while ensuring landlords in the city would still profit from real estate investments.
Councilmembers argued that the relocation fees, which escalate depending on how long tenants have lived in a building, could deter landlords from hitting longtime residents with unaffordable rent increases.
In a tight housing market like Glendale, where census data show the vacancy rate is under 3 percent and more than half of tenants spend more than 35 percent of their income on rent, steep rent increases can serve as an informal kind of eviction.
Dozens of Glendale residents criticized the policy at Tuesday’s meeting—both landlords who argued it would hurt their business and renter advocates who said the measure did not go far enough in its limits on rent increases.
The new rules also require landlords to offer tenants 12-month leases, allowing renters to budget monthly housing costs far ahead of time.
Owners of buildings constructed after 1995 won’t have to pay relocation fees to tenants, but would still have to offer a year-long lease. Relocation fees will be lower for landlords who own smaller buildings with three or four units. Single-family homes, condos, and duplexes are exempt from the requirements.
Later this year, Glendale officials are set to consider an inclusionary housing policy that would require developers to include a small percentage of affordable units when building new housing.
For now, Councilmember Vrej Agajanian said the relocation fee system would be a good compromise between the interests of building owners and their tenants.
“Both sides are not happy, so maybe we are doing something right,” he said Thursday.
How a dusty road became the Sunset Strip—the most famous place in LA to misbehave
Capt. Clyde Plummer, head of the District Attorney’s vice detail, rounded-up his men. It was January 31, 1930, and they were headed to a notorious portion of Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, the winding thoroughfare long known as the “County Strip.” They were paying a visit to an address they already knew well: 8477 Sunset Boulevard, where a mansion zoned for residential use was operating as The Sphinx Club.
When no one answered their knocks, the lawmen kicked in the door. Inside, they found a crowded, sophisticated casino, complete with a roulette wheel and card games.
The patrons, numerous prominent Angelenos among them, were allowed to leave without being questioned.But, according to the Los Angeles Times,five men were arrested, including a man who gave his name as Frank Harris. He was actually George Goldie, a notorious gambler, who helped run the Strip for decades.
However bombastic, the raid proved futile. Within weeks the roadhouse was back in operation, and it would eventually become famous as The Clover Club.
Today, the County Strip is known as the legendary Sunset Strip. From the get-go, this 1.7-mile stretch of road has been a party mecca for celebrities and normal’s alike, who continue to make trouble—both good and bad—on one of LA’s most fabled streets.
The iconic thoroughfare began as a tiny, 600-foot dirt road near the old Plaza, according to Joe Kennelley and Ron Hankey, authors of Sunset Blvd: America’s Dream Street. As Los Angeles grew, so did it.
“By the late 1880s, this broad, dusty ribbon was being extended farther west to link up with wagon trails coming from nearby farms,” Amy Dawes writes in Sunset Blvd: Cruising the Heart of Los Angeles. “Sunset Boulevard was first recorded in city street department documents in 1888, and thereafter its growth was chronicled incrementally as it was graded, paved and pushed farther west.”
Dawes says the street was named by a city employee, who perhaps noticed the beauty of the setting sun as they traveled westward on the road.
As Sunset Boulevard was stretching slowly towards it, the area now known as West Hollywood was, like much of Los Angeles in its early days, pastoral farm land dotted by gracious rural homes like the Plummer Estate and Cielo Vista, the estate of Charles Harper, a prominent early Angeleno.
What would become the heart of the Sunset Strip was the 240-acre ranch of Belgian-born banker Victor Ponet, whose gracious home stood on what is now the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Sunset Plaza Drive, surrounded by “avocado groves and poinsettia fields.”
Ponet’s property became known as part of Sherman, though it was still owned by his family. In 1906, a new 140-acre residential development in Sherman called Hacienda Park was announced. To reach the new neighborhood, Sunset Boulevard was extended to Ponet’s land.
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Sunset Boulevard was extended west to “link up with wagon trails coming from nearby farms.” Pictured here is a casaba melon field near the corner of Sunset and Harper.
Since Sherman was an unincorporated town, it fell under the jurisdiction of the sheriff’s department of Los Angeles County. That meant oversight of the area was relatively lax. Soon rudimentary, low-lying speakeasies, along with LGBTQ-friendly clubs and informal casinos flourished on the unincorporated part of Sunset Boulevard.
Squished between “dry” Hollywood and the new movie-star haven of Beverly Hills, the “County Strip” became the main thoroughfare for filmmakers traveling from work to home and back again.
With the implementation of Prohibition in 1920, the Strip’s lawless allure only swelled, and while growth accelerated, the Strip retained a rural, makeshift feel.
Around 1924, Ponet’s son-in-law Francis Montgomery commissioned the Strip’s first significant commercial development—four Georgian Revival-style buildings, which he called Sunset Plaza. A year later, in 1925, Sherman, itching for the glamour and recognition of its famous neighbor, renamed itself West Hollywood.
“Like a healthy, outdoor child, Sherman has suddenly burst all her old dresses and thinks while she is getting a wardrobe, suitable for a fully-grown girl, she might as well discard plain ‘Mary’ and become up-to-date ‘Marie,’” the Los Angeles Timesjoked.
Its pretensions were boosted by movie stars including Wallace Reid, William S. Hart, Lon Chaney, and Alla Nazimova who had moved to palatial homes in the area.
The LIFE Images Collection/Getty
The Strip’s first significant commercial development was Sunset Plaza.
Sunset Plaza was soon occupied by real estate developers, insurance offices, and a gift shop owned by a Romanian art dealer named Michael Tocaxe. Its most famous tenant was the dimly lit Russian Eagle Café, a restaurant and reputed speakeasy at 8648 Sunset owned by General Theodore Lodijensky, a former Russian Imperial Army officer and movie bit player.
Called a “haunt of motion-picture stars” by the Los Angeles Times, the café was frequented by silent stars including Rudolph Valentino, John Barrymore, Alla Nazimova, and Ramon Novarro. According to Sheila Weller, author of Dancing at Ciro’s, it was rumored that opium was smoked in the exclusive back room.
The evening of June 7, 1928 was a typical star-studded night at the Russian Eagle. Boxer Jack Dempsey and his movie-star wife Estelle Taylor had just left. Though reports vary, it seems Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson’s husband Marquis de la Falaise, director Eddie Sutherland, actress Lili Damita, and movie-star Colleen Moore were all still on the premises when tenants noticed oil soaking through the ceiling.
Soon the smell of gas filled the Russian Eagle. A fire broke out. Its county address was this time a nuisance, as it took forever for the fire department to arrive. Chaplin and Sutherland, holding a hose, helped battle the blaze.
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Originally known as the La Boheme from 1929 to 1933, the Trocadero was opened by The Hollywood Reporter publish Billy Wilkerson in 1934.
Minutes later, with the blaze under control, Lodijensky and fire officials went to the basement to check the gas meter. They were met by a massive explosion that threw them to the ground and destroyed the Russian Eagle.
Gossip about who had started the fire spread swiftly thorough out LA’s café society. Lodijensky’s cousin told the Los Angeles Times he believed “the explosion was the work of rival restaurant owners or members of a liquor ring.”
But it was quickly determined Tocaxe, the Romanian gift shop owner with an imperfect grasp of the English language, was the main culprit. The public was titillated, and the Los Angeles Times reported on the arson trial daily.
When Tocaxe took the stand in his defense, he claimed the fire and subsequent explosion had been heaven sent. “It was an act of God,” he claimed according to the Los Angeles Times. “I frequently burned candles to the Virgin and through this form of worship the hanging on the wall caught fire and started the disaster.”
The jury was out for only 20 minutes before convicting Tocaxe of arson.
Another legendary speakeasy on the County Strip opened in 1927. The Café La Boheme at 8610 Sunset would become famous as a safe haven for both Hollywood demimonde and the LGBTQ community. The owner was a former Metropolitan Opera star named Joseph Borgia. According to the Los Angeles Times:
Taking the ideas he gathered at the numerous Latin Quarter cafes while in Paris, he turned in a great combination of them all with the completion of Café La Boheme. The interior of the café is strikingly Parisian with private dining-rooms that are dimly lighted, surrounding the main dance room. Open booths with old oak tables and benches are aptly located. The wall beams are hung low and olden chandeliers of wrought iron hang graciously from their supports.
A “celebrity wall” was quickly filled with signatures and sketches by Borgia’s famous patrons. The Los Angeles Times reported breathlessly on one movie-star rich night which included silent stars Fifi D’Orsay, Polly Mann, Charlie Farrell, and James Cagney. The Café was also a popular spot for dance fads, which were all the rage during prohibition.
“Our new cooling system will keep the most vigorous dancer cool,” Borgia told the Los Angeles Times in 1928. “At present time a ‘varsity drag contest’ is being conducted there under the direction of Bud Murray, stage Director of ‘Good News’ and one of the country’s leading exponents of the varsity drag.”
The Café La Boheme also featured another kind of drag. Female impersonators, including a drag Joan Crawford, performed frequently at the Café in “yards and yards of lace and feathers,” according to the city of West Hollywood’s commercial historic resources survey. It would be a forerunner of bars on the Strip that welcomed gay and lesbian patrons, who found it a more tolerant place to live openly.
Occasionally, the sheriff did come calling. The notorious residence at 8477 Sunset, known at different times as Sphinx Club, Hahn Club, Club Sokoloeff, and later the Clover Club would be raided for both liquor violations and gambling. (It was eventually torn down, and now the address holds a run-of-the-mill retail center that includes Pink Dot.) The Moscow Inn at 8353 Sunset was also raided often.
“In 1929, prominent local underworld figure Homer ‘Slim’ Gordon briefly operated a gambling club in the former home of the late actor Wallace Reid,” according to author J.H. Graham. “Les Bruneman managed a club at 8428 Sunset in 1930 at the time he was mixed up in the kidnapping of bookmaker Zeke Caress.”
Alongside the nightclubs and speakeasies, legitimate development began to flourish on the Strip in the late ’20s and early ’30s.
California State Library
Postcards of Chateau Marmont from around the time it opened in 1929.
On the eastern tip, the legendary Chateau Marmont opened in 1929. Originally a luxury apartment building, the French Norman castle was built by local attorney Fred Horowitz as an investment property.
Reviews were generally positive, like this one from the tabloid Saturday Night: “Los Angeles’s newest, finest and most exclusive apartment house… superbly situated, close enough to active businesses to be accessible and far enough away to insure quiet and privacy.” But many potential residents were initially turned off by the outrageous rents, which ran up to $750 per month.
Across the street was the decadent Garden of Allah, Alla Nazimova’s famous bohemian hotel which catered to writers like Dorothy Parker and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Movie agents and managers began to open offices along the strip, finding the location a convenient mid-point for them and their clients. (The hotel was later razed to build a bank.)
In 1929, silent movie stars and real estate mavens Constance and Norma Talmadge built the Norma Talmadge Building at 8720 Sunset. Their agent was one of the first to move in. The Leland Bryant-designed Argyle at 8358 Sunset, originally a luxury apartment building, opened a year later. The Montgomery brothers continued to expand the Sunset Plaza commercial district into the mid-1930s.
The repeal of prohibition in 1933 marked a turning point for the Strip. Speakeasies could now go “straight,” and real money could go into the nightspots that the area had become known for. But the real transformation would be brought about by a gambling addict, mob associate and crack journalist named Billy Wilkerson, publisher of the fabled TheHollywood Reporter.
According to author Shelia Weller, “Norma Shearer came up to him at a party and said, ‘Billy, it’s a pity there isn’t a good place we can go at night where we won’t be hounded by autograph seekers.’”
Wilkerson saw an opportunity. In 1934, he took over the building until recently occupied by the quirky Café La Boheme. In its place, he opened the glittering, Trocadero, a nightclub that would attract big stars, big money, and big-time mobsters.
We are off to visit the twins cousin and his parents.
Pretty flowers.
This is one great fire engine
Who wouldn't want one in their back yard.
I'm off and racing.
This is Molly a very old cat who has been missing for a day or two, she may not like all these people staying at her place but she must of decided that we were not so bad.
A nice sunny afternoon.
I'm still getting over all the flowers on the lawns everywhere around here.
The little old puppy who lives here too, answers to the name of poppy.
Molly again she needs a good brush but I don't think she would let you.
There is a local zoo I only took a few photos there, the twins running down the hill.
Have you noticed the sheer volume of celebrities working in this one genre of entertainment/place of employment who have had photos "hacked," that create tons of buzz. Not every leak, but the vast majority of them are just part of the whole package. Stories are created all the time for the genre, and this just adds to it. Have you noticed that no one has ever been arrested or charged for any of these leaks, which is different from other leaks of different celebrities.
This permanent A++ list singer got into an argument in the grocery store about 35 cents. It lasted about five minutes before the store backed down. I mean she goes there just about every day she is in town, so give her a break. She said the store changed containers to a heavier material so they could charge more for food to go that is sold by the pound.
Pasadena gets a worthy home for dumplings, handmade noodles, and fried rice at Dan
Dan, a modern Chinese eatery specializing in dumplings and noodles, opened last week in Pasadena next to the Sunlife Organics in The Commons on South Lake, recently adding dinner hours.
The modern, bright woods and modern furnishings of the interior at Danfeel right at home at The Commons’ collection of slick eateries, but it’s the food where the restaurant might make a serious mark on the SGV dining landscape.
Unlike the typical SGV-area Chinese restaurant where menus can span multiple pages and dozens of items, the menu at Dan is brief and focused. Owner James Kim is intent on playing some of Chinese cuisine’s greatest hits for his Pasadena audience, with an attention to detail that would do the dishes justice.
“One thing with Chinese restaurants: [The belief is] when you want one thing, you go to one restaurant, and if you want another thing, you go to another,” Kim said. “The goal [at Dan] is to bring everything under one roof.”
Traditionalists might cry foul at the notion that one place could possibly have good versions of everything it serves; the notion of “one place specializing in one dish” is a persistent narrative.
Kim is determined to break through those old assumptions with the requisite care and attention to detail, starting with the xiaolongbao. The miniature steamed soup dumplings are the subject of lively debates among Angelenos, and Kim isn’t afraid to step into the fray. Kim’s reference point isn’t the tried, true and fully-scaled version at Din Tai Fung, but a local favorite from the East Coast.
“I always thought xiaolongbao was something I wanted to do,” Kim said. “I always liked Joe’s Shanghai [in Flushing, New York] because it was fatty, comforting and really good.”
Euno LeeThe xiaolongbao at dan are larger and contain more soup than the ones at Din Tai Fung, resulting in a more comforting dish.
The distinction between Din Tai Fung and Joe’s xiaolongbao is in the details. Din Tai Fung’s xiaolongbao employ those incomparable dainty, delicate wrappers that are just thin enough that one can see the soup through the skin. Joe’s on the other hand is a bit bigger, more substantive and yet no less challenging to balance.
The xiaolongbao at Dan tends toward the latter, with warm soup on a pork and blue crab rendition bursting with savory porcine and sweet crab flavor. It’s all encapsulated in a substantive wrapper that’s basically the picture of perfect winter comfort food.
Kim is also rolling out handmade noodles in soups, and the oxtail noodle soup is a showstopper. The broth is reminiscent of Korean kkori-gomtang (an oxtail soup with a thin broth similar to sullungtang), and is skimmed of fat to let the clean, savory and gently iron-inflected taste of oxtail broth to really come through. The meltingly tender oxtail meat and springy handmade noodles are also worth a look.
Euno LeeDungeness crab fried rice at dan in Pasadena, CA.
Dan might stand for “dumplings and noodles,” but there’s another component to be considered seriously: the fried rice. Dungeness crab fried rice arrives generously peppered with bits of crab meat. But the overall effect is a clever play between the sweet-and-savory Dungeness crab and an airy fried rice that showcases the back-of-house’s considerable finesse. Despite the impeccable quality of most of the dishes, Kim is being careful to avoid being called “chef-driven.”
“My goal was to really provide good food that people could come in in a casual settings, that’s not chef-driven at all,” Kim said. “It’s the process that takes more time.”
And Kim is married to the process, testing new methods, constantly seeking feedback from diners, and paying close attention to the way the line moves back-of-house. One could argue that generating consistent food is more a matter of careful planning and process than it is vision and creativity. And though the belief is that the current plans at Dan will be in a perpetual state of improvement, the fruits of Kim’s process are more than prepared for their close-up.
Dan. 146 S. Lake Ave. Pasadena, CA 91101 Open Tuesday to Friday 5:30 to 9 p.m., weekends 12:00 to 9:00 p.m. Closed Mondays.
Euno LeeA training menu (prices subject to change) at dan in Pasadena, CA.
Apparently this A list athlete found out that his "teammate" was trying to make the girlfriend of the A lister one of his conquests. The guy just can't keep his hands off wives and girlfriends of other athletes.
"I bought something that looked gross and I am shocked to report that is was indeed gross."
Last night, after I successfully swiped the very last Butternut Squash Pizza Crust from my local Trader Joe's frozen aisle (a new offering!), the cashier checking me out asked, "Oooh what's this? Is butternut squash the next cauliflower?"
Well-versed in the store's cult-favorite frozen items, I did some amateur trend forecasting: "We'll only know for sure once they come out with Butternut Squash Gnocchi, right?"
I then proceeded to go home to crank up my oven to 45o degrees in attempts to see if the team behind all of TJ's sneaky, plant-based swaps is really on to something with this new item (it's $4.99, if you're wondering).
Original custom-designed furnishings, including a massive V’Soske rug, are included in the sale. | Photos by Lance Gerber, courtesy of /cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19403918/Dining_1.jpg)
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Don't toss away these classic dolls just yet.
It's the bestselling and highest-rated sponge on the whole site!
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