by Kim Cooper | Feb 1, 2021 | The Esotouric Blog
Yesterday we lost Big John, our dear friend who was the most extraordinary portal to the weird, creative, anything-goes Los Angeles that used to be. John was a master craftsman, a builder of car washes, a teetotaler nightclub owner, designer of crooked gambling...
by Kim Cooper | Jan 20, 2021 | The Esotouric Blog
(photo by architectural historian Michael R. Corbett, from SAFER’s appeal) Update after the hearing: read all about it here. In November 2018, the FBI raided the City Hall offices of Councilmember Jose Huizar. He has been charged with 34 counts of racketeering,...
by Kim Cooper | Dec 30, 2020 | The Esotouric Blog
A disturbing rumor is circulating on social media that El Pino Famoso—the towering Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii) at Folsom and Indiana on the East Los Angeles / Los Angeles border that was prominently featured in the film Blood In Blood Out—has been deliberately...
by Kim Cooper | Dec 17, 2020 | The Esotouric Blog
It’s the last night of Hannukah 2020. Having been frozen out of the plum D.C. gig that is his birthright, the mayor of Los Angeles is contemplating suicide. He sneaks away from his LAPD guard and goes to the remains of the iconic Sixth Street Bridge, now a...
by Kim Cooper | Nov 23, 2020 | The Esotouric Blog
In the late 1920s, as Los Angeles was becoming one of the world centers for tire manufacturing, architects Aleck Curlett and Claud Beelman were hired to design a sprawling Renaissance Revival factory complex for Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in South Gate. The...
