Cooking with Gas.....again.

The 1964 Rheem Monterey Wedgewood is fixed and back in production. It really only needed a much delayed service maintenance. In March of 1996 I bought this from a girl who was vacating the apartment I would soon be moving into and setting up shop in for the next 10 years. Her name I still remember was Janet Blazer and she was relocating to Disney Florida. I asked how much....she said $100, I said how about 90 ? She looked at me with a puzzled looked on her face and I am sure thought to herself "really, this moron is negotiating over 10 dollars over a stove that he doesn't have to move and is in turn key condition ?" She agreed to the 90 and I indeed felt like a moron. I have held on to it for almost 20 years and taken it with me to three places I've called home. I even had to wrestle it away from a girlfriend I briefly lived with who thought she had the right to keep it.  Dedicated to Janet Blazer....wherever you are.

The Taco Stand - San Pueblo, California 1971.

I was taking improv classes at the Acme Comedy Theater in Hollywood during the mid-1990s. I thought I was pretty good at it and one day for no particular reason at all, I just quit. One of my instructors was a beautiful redhead female about my age or a little older, named Audrey R. She was from the Midwest somewhere, if memory serves me right , Wisconsin, possibly Racine.

During one of the breaks, we started chatting about the early 1970's television show,  The Partridge Family and watching it as we both grew up in different parts of the country. The Partridge family, with matriarch Shirley Jones, lived in the fictional town of San Pueblo California. Keith (David Cassidy) and Laurie (Susan Dey) would often hang out or meet up with dates at “The Taco Stand”. This is where all the cool kids hung out in the show. It was basically a mission style Taco Bell place with laminated tables serving up ground beef, cheese, beans in a hard shell or a tortilla to beautiful surfer type kids.

Living in Southern California during the time of the show, I knew what a taco was. I ate them at places like Pup n' Taco, Taco Bell and at places like the Grand Central Market….way back then.

Audrey confessed to me that as a teenager living in Wisconsin, she did not know what a Taco was. This delicacy had not reached that part of the country in 1971. During episodes, where Laurie or Keith or even Danny (Bonaduce) would go to the “Taco Stand”, Audrey imagined it was an Opium Den where these cool hippie singing kids would go. They would be served strange food and the ground beef and beans would be the “host” for the drug. I will never forget how she made these hip gyrations and snapped her fingers in an ode to “70’s cool” as she was describing this. I thought it was so funny and I will never forget her for this moment of extreme laughter. Today she is still an active actor in the city, I looked her up, but she would not remember me from a plate of “Re-fried Beans”.

Dedicated to Audrey. I ordered up a bean and cheese burrito today for lunch at the El Cielito Taco Stand at Olvera Street Los Angeles and thought of you.

A memory of Baker Street on Bates Ave, 1978.

Certain songs just grab me, shackle me, force my eyelids open with those Clockwork Orange type prongs and project me into a tiny nostalgia theater were I am forced to watch an event of the past, some bad, some indifferent and some nice to remember. Songs that were not necessarily in my listening genre, such as Baker Street By Gerry Rafferty, are one of the nice ones to remember. Baker Street came out sometime in the winter of 1978 while the Hillside Stranglers were still at large. But that is not the memory I recall from the song. From that metaphorical little theater where I am the sole patron, I sit and watch the past, devoid of any movie theater popcorn. I see myself standing on the top of the front staircase of our tiny Spanish abode on Bates Ave in the 90027 and call out to my sister as she is revving up her blue 1970 Toyota Corona. “Wait for me!“ In the mornings, her and I would pile in and then pick up Anita O. in Silverlake. They would drop me off on Sunset and Highland to continue my public transportation travels to Norte Dame HS in the Valley, while they would continue on to UCLA. Inevitably, sometime during that short 15 minute drive, Baker Street would come on the radio and its haunting saxophone solo would engulf the small cab of her rickety little Japanese import. On the weekends my sister held at part time job at the old Sears on Pico and Robertson. Sometime during her morning shuffle of getting ready for work, Baker Street would hit the airwaves from a radio in the house. She would hurry out the door, down the long staircase to that blue Toyota parked on the street. The haunting saxophone solo would be playing in my head as I would look out the front window and watch that blue car disappear onto Fountain Ave in the overcast morning backdrop. I would spend the rest of the morning watching American Bandstand and Soul Train and then stare at my face in the bathroom, asking what the hell is happening to me. My sister met her now husband of 32 years at that Sears around this time, she graduated from UCLA in 1981 and they married in 1983. Today both her oldest son and his wife graduated with an MBA from the University of NY in Prague where they now live. My sister and her husband attended the graduation and I am sure both proud parents were exactly that, proud. From my  apartment in the city of Alhambra, California, thousands of miles away, I sit alone but also stand proud. I close my eyes and listen to Baker Street which takes me back to the Bates Ave of 1978 and think about my wonderful sister and all her accomplishments. The enchanting little melody to Baker Street and the sax solo playing in my head while I enjoy a nice cold brew in celebration. I think to myself, when will I ever see them again. Sears on Pico and Robertson was demolished years ago, that 1970 Toyota Corona has probably seen many incarnations as sheet metal, Gerry Rafferty and the Sax player, Rapheal Ravenscroft both passed away a few years ago, while the staircase to that tiny little Spanish home on Bates Ave still stands firm, defiant from the wrecking ball.

A very Heavy Metal Christmas in the "90027"

Found photos of a Heavy Metal teenage drummer circa 1977.

When my family lived on Bates Ave in Los Angeles there was a row of bungalows behind our house that sat on a steep incline overlooking our driveway and King Junior High. These tiny 1926 Spanish bungalows would attract actors, musicians, artists and revolutionaries back in the 1970s and 1980s and probably still do today. One of the residents of these bungalows was Rick, an actor who once spent a Christmas Eve with my family as he had nowhere else to go. We welcomed him into our home and he sang "Silent Night" with us at Midnight. He was a casual pot smoker who would sometimes sing “Home Grown’s alright with me, Home Grown’s alright with me, just put it in the grown and let it be”. A couple of years ago I ran into him at Druckers' Jewellery Shop on Vermont. I had not seen him since the late 1970's but I immediately recognized him. I asked him if he remembered that "song" and he belted out the lyrics without missing a beat, but could vaguely remember me and my family. Another memorable resident was a quiet female impersonator that would take the bus from Silverlake to Studio City to perform at the now defunct Queen Mary Cabaret on Ventura Blvd. I once found myself riding on the 81 Ventura bus as he sat across from me. He was very pleasant and chatted with me briefly about the neighborhood and the noise from the Junior High School that kept him awake while he was trying to sleep during the day and then quickly exited the bus on Whitsett Ave in front of the Cabaret. The most famous resident from these bungalows was rumored to be one of the Black Eyed Peas in the early 1990s who was also a John Marshall HS alumni. However, the coolest person that lived here was a Jewish musician from New York named Stuart. He lived there around 1977 or 1978 and his drum set took up his entire living room. He was in his mid-twenties and could pound the skins like John Bonham and Keith Moon combined. Despite our age difference, we became fast friends and he would often talk shop with me about the music business such as his ambitions to be a music producer one day. He lived there a very short time, probably less than a year and he got along well with my parents despite my sister having a wicked crush on him. When he moved out, it was around Christmas time and he left us with a few gifts. Most notably a faux rock garden with a water pump that he had in his front yard. My mother went on to use this rock garden in her Christmas Nativity scene for the next 25 years (don’t ask !). The rock garden still exists today and it sits lonely in retirement in my garage without a Nativity scene to compliment anymore. He also left me two giant posters. One was of an early pre-Tawny Kitaen version of David Coverdale’s Whitesnake and the other was a giant Led Zeppelin poster that hung in my room for years. I still have that Zep poster rolled up and sitting in storage. The corners are dog-eared and are loaded with masking tape residue but it still has its Rock N’ Roll mojo. I unrolled it a few years ago and recalled Stuart rocking on the drums in the back of our house from one of those tiny bungalows on Bates Ave in Silverlake. Wherever you are Stuart, “It's been a long time since I rock-and-rolled, It's been a long time since I did the Stroll, Ooh, let me get it back, let me get it back, let me get it back……”

(A note on these snapshots. These photos are not of the actual Stuart. I came across them one day while shopping on-line for old photos. It features a heavy metal teenage drummer with the exact Led Zeppelin poster that Stuart gave me and for kickers its during Christmas time ! Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised and bought them both)

Greetings from Eagle Rock

Eagle Rock 1924. From an old photo album of vacation photos.

Eagle Rock is a wonderful old neighborhood located along the northern boundaries of Los Angeles and adjacent to its more famous and iconic neighbor, Pasadena. With its postcard picturesque hillsides, vintage craftsman homes and the towering palm trees that line Route 66, it is no wonder that Eagle Rock has been used for numerous television and film locations. Marty McFly from the Back to the Future films would have been a natural speeding down Colorado Blvd in the time ticking DeLorean while Kevin Arnold and Winnie from the television show, The Wonder Years would have been right at home sharing that first kiss behind the Richard Neutra designed gymnasium at the Eagle Rock Recreation Center. Neither one of these pop culture masterpieces were filmed here so there goes my career as a film location scout.

Due to its affordability and close proximity to all things Los Angeles, many blue collar families throughout the decades have purchased their first home here in this community. Many of them have stayed and it is not uncommon to see old timers living in the same house for 30 plus years, raising a family, patronizing places such as the now defunct Eagle Theater, The All Star Bowling Lanes, Ernie's Tacos, Casa Bianca Pizzeria, The Italian Bakery and eventually going through empty nest syndrome during the golden years of retirement. Despite plummeting prices today, homes here are still out of reach for many Angelenos, but Eagle Rock gets many visitors due to its nice selection of eateries, shops and recreational activities. The annual Eagle Rock Music Festival in October, a free single day event that features local live music acts, vendors and food trucks galore attracts thousands of people each year and has helped put Eagle Rock back on the cool bohemian neighborhood map.

One thing is for sure, long before the 134 Freeway, The Eagle Rock Plaza and the old establishments that have stood the test of time and the new ones that have come and gone, the almighty Eagle with its outstretched wings etched in stone on the towering iconic rock has flown high and proud above this great old neighborhood, possibly uttering the words, “There Goes The Neighborhood” with each new wave of gentrification.

Downtown Los Angeles Theaters - My First Trip to the Movies.

The Pantages Theater on Hill Street and 7th in Los Angeles as it appeared in the photo album of a German man who spent June 15, 1927 walking around downtown with his brownie camera documenting the urban landscape. The movie on the marquee is the 1927 silent comedy, “Is Zat So”.

On a Summer Saturday afternoon in 1972 a bridal shower hosted by my mother was about to take place at our Spanish apartment on Kenmore Avenue in Los Angeles. Men were not allowed to be present at this sacred female ritual so my father and I had to find somewhere to go for a few hours. One by one as the middle-aged woman arrived at our front door, they waved goodbye to their male counterparts who sped away in their cars seeking out some kind of diversion for a few hours. Perhaps a walk around MacArthur Park to feed the ducks, or maybe a drink at one of the bars that lined 8th street or perhaps the topless joint on Beverly Blvd and Virgil. My Father twirled the keys to his Chevy Nova in one hand grabbed a potato chip from the spread on the dinning room table with the other, dipped it into the silver dish hosting the chip dip and whisked me away out the back door to where the Nova was parked.

We headed down Vermont Ave, made a left on Wilshire and passed Lafayette and MacArthur Parks along the way. There were teenagers playing basketball on the courts at Lafayette Park and ducks out on the MacArthur Park Lake that day while the corner of Alvarado and Wilshire was busy with weekend shoppers and shifty characters just hanging about. We headed into downtown and ultimately arrived at the historic but dilapidated Los Angeles Theater on Broadway (est. 1931).

My Dad parked the car on Broadway, paid for two tickets, a popcorn and a couple of sodas and we proceeded to enter a smokey theater with sticky floors and a massive set of curtains, for what would be the first movie I ever saw on the big screen, "Death Wish" with Charles Bronson. Of course I do realize that today a movie about a violent vigilante on the prowl in the big city would be an unorthodox choice for a nine year old especially in the highly microscopic parental world of today, but it was being with my father, just us guys, watching Charles Bronson blow away the bad guys as he lured them through the streets of 1970’s New York that made it an experience to remember. One of father and son bonding at the movies with good guys and bad guys fighting it out on celluloid. We could have gone to see something like "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" but that was not for us, not for these two cool cats, not on this day, it had to be Charles Bronson in "Death Wish" or nothing at all.

At the end of the movie, Charles Bronson is finally caught by the sniffling detective played by Vincent Gardenia. While being transported by the detective to another city, the infamous vigilante points his hand in the shape of a gun towards a group of thugs and pretends to shoot them as the credits begin to roll. My father and I left the theater, returned home to some left over cake from the bridal shower and I was none the worst for my first experience at a movie theater. I think I turned out pretty good so far 39 years later, it's all in the parenting they say. My father fell asleep in the easy chair later on that night watching the news and I retired to my room to write down what I am writing now. Better late than never.

Mick Jagger turns 68 today.

1983 newspaper clipping of Mick's 40th birthday, recently uncovered in one of my books.

Mick Jagger turns 68 today. In 1983 Mick turned 40 and had always vowed that he would never sing "Satisfaction"past his four decade mark, but today he continues to belt out "Satisfaction" to sold out stadium crowds and father children with 22 year old Brazilian supermodels. Ahh....the power of Rock N' Roll. On that day in 1983 I clipped out his birthday announcement from the newspaper and stuck it in a book where I recently uncovered it. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICK.