Bunker Hill in “Death Race 2000”
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,…
Bunker Hill TOUR — March 21st
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 in…
Bunker Hill in Ken Russell’s “Whore”
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 or…
New Book on Early L.A. Architects!
Since you’ve read Bunker Hill, Los Angeles and Los Angeles Before the Freeways, you are aware that early Los Angeles was shaped by an impressive array of top-shelf architects, most of whom have receded into obscurity. Antonio Gonzalez, a distinguished librarian and devoted chronicler of early Los Angeles, seeks to deepen your understanding of this…
Chavez Ravine in John Laslett’s “Shameful Victory”
Greetings, faithful Bunker Hill blog reader! Having perused my posts here, you know I criticize incompetent “journalists” who befoul the mainstream press, and routinely malign those propaganda-pushing “historians” who infect the internet with their mortifying twaddle. But then I’m sure you roll your eyes and say “well, Nathan, anyone can deride AI, or pick on…
The First Microwave Tower, 1962-1967
For reasons now lost to me — I spend way too much time falling down internet rabbit holes — I came across the 1964 Loyola High School yearbook, on classmates.com. Their theme that year was “Communication” and as such begins with this sterling image: Which is, of course, the tower atop the Bell Telephone building…
Let’s Ask ChatGPT Some Stuff!
The other day I did a post about Artificial Intelligence. In the comments on the accompanying Instagram post, CC DeVere of Frenchtown Confidential hipped me to this commiserating post of hers, wherein she’d asked ChatGPT about French influence in early Los Angeles, and was rewarded with a bunch of nonsense. Apparently that sort of thing…
Incredible Oviatt Talk!
James Oviatt lived on Bunker Hill, before he became the greatest haberdasher in Los Angeles history, and before he built Los Angeles’s greatest building. I talk about him at length here, but, in a nutshell: Even if James Oviatt wasn’t a Bunker Hill boy, you’d still really, really want to go to the Oviatt Building…
Bunker Hill, AI, and the End of Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to make us smarter — which we know to be true, because when I asked an AI chatbot if that were true, it said yes. I’m glad that in the future we’ll all have 200 IQ and shall live in peace and harmony, our giant AI-augmented intellects having solved all…
Bunker Hill in “Official Detective”
The other day my buddy Bryan Moore (whose aunt you’ll remember from this post) sent me a link to a 1957 episode of Official Detective called “Pork Pie Hat.” Hey, he said, sure looks like Bunker Hill to me, but I’ll leave that up to your expert eye. Holy-freakin’ heck. It isn’t every day something…
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Bunker Hill, Los Angeles 