Author Archives: Nathan Marsak

Hey all! My pal Lisa Napoli published a nifty piece in LA Local this week, called “The four corners: How I watched downtown LA rise, fall and reinvent itself” (my apologies to Lisa for changing it to “Third and Figueroa” in my much-shortened blogpost title!) and if you haven’t seen it, check it out: TheContinue reading ““Third and Figueroa” by Lisa Napoli”

It’s 1973. You wake up and as you blink through the smog, what do you see? Vietnam slogging on, Johnson’s “Great Society” in complete collapse, and various countercultural crusades have dismantled the social scaffolding that once provided you with clear roles and status. What do you do? Succumb to enervation and aimlessness in a fractured,Continue reading “The OTHER Angels Flight”

I’ve been hearing for ten years that Loyola Marymount University was at work on a Chavez Ravine archive project, and last Thursday, the internet lit up with this press release. Lo and behold, it had been released to the public, and you may see it for yourself by clicking here. It is a fascinating collectionContinue reading “New Chavez Ravine Archive!”

The remains of Old Bunker Hill are few and far between. Yes, we have Bunker Hill captured in still images, and in cinema, but actual archaeological residua is scant. We have a house, of course, but attempts to analyze the greater Hill’s physical, material culture is generally limited to, for example, a retaining wall orContinue reading “First German Methodist, Bunker Hill”

The World Trade Center! Important! Incredible! And…doomed? Well, no, but…sort of? You know about the World Trade Center because you have undoubtedly been there to marvel at its wonders, but if you haven’t, you’ve at least seen it in the book Bunker Hill, Los Angeles… …and in the book Marsak’s Guide to Bunker Hill… …butContinue reading “The World Trade Center — in Peril?!”

Come on out Thursday the 23rd, 7pm, to hear me go on about our lost 19th century built environment, the world of Arnold Hylen, and what it took to republish his masterpiece, Los Angeles Before the Freeways.

Greetings fellow Hill fan! Bunker Hill fascinates us largely because of the way it responded to, and resisted, modernity. And a large part of modernity, in general, springs from speed. Transport. Modernity’s drive to systematically annihilate space and time, reorganizing human life via acceleration. Stuff like that. Thus a central part of the story ofContinue reading “Free Lecture! Bunker Hill vs. Modernity! April 19th”

Early 1980s, I’m about fourteen, and I saw Death Race 2000 on KHJ Channel 9. At which point, as you might imagine, I said holy crap, this is the greatest movie ever made. Of course it was heavily edited, but a buddy of mine with Showtime told me it was going to be on Showtime,Continue reading “Bunker Hill in “Death Race 2000””

Greetings fellow Hill enthusiast! Admit it, you wake every morn and muse “that Bunker Hill place sure is intriguing, but I wish someone would guide me through the area for hours on end discussing where this building stood, where they shot that noir picture, but that’s never going to happen, so I shall suffer inContinue reading “Bunker Hill TOUR — March 21st”

Let me be clear: I do not advise you watch Whore. If you have a shred of decency, be forewarned, this is a pathologically indecent film. But if you thrive on outré cinema, know that Whore is neither “so bad it’s good” like Showgirls, nor “unpleasantly unsettling yet fascinatingly, skillfully crafted” à la Happiness orContinue reading “Bunker Hill in Ken Russell’s “Whore””