L.A. Day/L.A. Night – Aerial Photographs of Los Angeles

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I had an opportunity to preview a very special photography book at Photo LA several months back called “L.A. Day/L.A. Night,” by photographer Michael Light. As familiar as I am with the landscape and built environment of the greater LA region, this unique collection of black and white aerial photos exposed the city in a new light, both dreamlike and ethereal, that I found truly captivating. Indeed, I was so drawn to these images that I put the book on my short list of “birthday gifts for myself”.

Los Angeles Public Library Virtual Resources – History at your Fingertips

The Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) is an incredible resource for anyone interested in southern California history. Like most people, however, I don’t have the time to visit the library in person whenever I want or need to research a particular topic or find that amazing historic photo of some person, place or event.
To help address this problem, the library has made a concerted effort to make its vast collections more readily available to the public through an ambitious digitalization project. It has also put portions of select library exhibitions online for those who were unable to see them when originally on display.

Los Angeles History and Holiday Gifts All Under One Roof

This Saturday, The Studio for Southern California History is hosting a holiday book boutique and bake sale “featuring recent and memorable work related to Los Angeles history—from children’s books to advanced scholarship.” A number of local poets, historians, and children’s literature authors plan to attend this event and sign their books, such as Martin Cox and Gordon Ghareeb (Hollywood to Honolulu, The Story of the Los Angeles Steamship Company), William David Estrada (The Los Angeles Plaza: Sacred and Contested Space) and Olga Garcia Echeverria (Falling Angeles: Cuentos y Poemas), among others. For a complete list of participants, please check out this event flyer.

L.A. Requiem Book Review

I recently finished reading L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais, the eighth book in his Elvis Cole crime novel series. The title caught my eye as I browsed a local bookstore looking for something to read on my summer vacation. Based on the jacket copy and critical praise found on the first few pages, it sounded like a good read, particularly since I always enjoy stories set in LA. Little did I know I had stumbled upon an extraordinary crime novel and a book that many consider to be one of Robert Crais’s finest works.