Los Angeles Archives, III

In my previous post about the Los Angeles City Archives, I described an "organized room" and a "disorganized room." But that's not accurate. The organized room looks meticulous and tidy, yet it holds vast mysteries. And the disorganized room you see here, the vault, is very much in order in many ways. Yet there's work to be done.

Archivist Michael Holland cannot shelve, check and itemize every day. There are documents to be delivered, boxes to be retrieved, city officials to be informed. The job is immense.

I'd love to give Michael a staff to go through it all. But there's something beautiful about these old books as they are. In a way, I hope there will always be mysteries in the archives.

Then again, organization has its beauties, too.

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You can visit the Los Angeles Archives, too. (You even can see some records online.) If you want a tour, just call for an appointment. If you want to see a specific document, you need to call ahead for that, too, so the document can be found and retrieved for you.

Michael can often be heard on KPCC's Off Ramp with John Rabe, Saturdays 12-1pm and Sundays 6-7pm. Thanks to Anne Louise Bannon for setting up the tour and coming with me.

Los Angeles Archives, I

In another life, a dream life, I was an archivist. I worked among the dusty files, cataloged and notated maps, learned to preserve the oldest books. I researched the answers to obscure questions. I found letters that had been lost and forgotten, and brought them back to life. I was a curator of the arcane.

This is the life of Los Angeles Archivist Michael Holland, who gave me a tour of the City Archives the other day. First, he showed me this room:

 

Neither words nor photographs can do justice to this space. I gasped quite a bit before pulling myself together to photograph Michael in the presence of 290,000 boxes of files. The shelves on the left securely hold box after box, from floor to ceiling. The shelves on the right are a vestige of those that were used before the Northridge Earthquake of 1994. To say the least, the quake showed the necessity for change.

The contents of boxes are known by the department that generated them, and not necessarily by Michael and his staff. Each box can be located by a bar code.

I love looking down this dark hallway of shelves. A mystery could happen there. An electric current runs through the line on the floor to guide the fork lifts. And a fork lift can raise a person to the highest shelves.

Michael told me many stories. My favorite: through a complicated bureaucratic process, some files become obsolete and are eventually slated for destruction. It's a cycle. Since the Northridge quake, some of those that were set to be destroyed remain undiscovered. They're still in the archives, possibly mis-marked or not marked at all. An intern is working to find them. A quarter of a million boxes is, after all, a lot to go through, and our Archivist does what he can with a small budget. Other things are of more immediate concern.

This is the original deed to Griffith Park. The original.

You can visit the Los Angeles Archives, too. (You even can see some records online.) If you want a tour, just call for an appointment. If you want to see a specific document, you need to call ahead for that, too, so the document can be found and retrieved for you.

Michael can often be heard on KPCC's Off Ramp with John Rabe, Saturdays 12-1pm and Sundays 6-7pm. Thanks to Anne Louise Bannon for setting up the tour and coming with me. There's another room and I took a lot of pictures so there'll be more in a few days.

Let's Hang Out This Fall

this chess set-up is no longer in the Lower Arroyo

Do you mind if I share some calendar information? I'd love to see you, so please come out.

October
Script Kitchen starts up again this fall. Instructors Tara Samuel and John Sandel (you might know him) lead you through the process of building your story into a viable film script. I highly recommend this class for any writer/storyteller. I never would have been able to write a novel without John's teaching.

October 5
The annual Friends of the Duarte Library Festival of Authors is a low-key, fun book festival in Duarte. I'll be sharing a table with Margaret Finnegan. Margaret and I are going to read your Tarot cards at the festival! I don't know how to read Tarot cards, but I have a deck so why should that stop me?

Other local authors at Duarte will include Anne Louise Bannon and Kerry Reis. Lots and lots of authors will be there, local and otherwise, and there will be panels and bookshops (like Vroman's) in the park.

October 12
When you sign up for Free Book Friday you can win free books, like my novel, Camelot & Vine. I know, I know, October 12th is a Saturday. I'm not sure how they work it but I'd suggest you sign up before then. The date is subject to change, and I'll notify you if it's not going to happen the week of the 12th.

October 18-20
Anime Fusion. What's an author doing at an anime convention? you ask. Well, besides writing Camelot & Vine I voiced a popular anime character, Ryoko the space pirate, in an anime series called "Tenchi Muyo!". "Tenchi" has become a classic, and I love going to conventions and meeting people who love the show.

November 7
Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeeshop is having a party sort of evening. I'll be there from 7:00-8:45pm signing books, meeting people and reading from Camelot & Vine. More details to come on what looks like a fun time in this gorgeous store.

There's more in the new year, with a reading at San Marino's Crowell Public Library January 13, a chat with members of Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeeshop's Brown Bags and Books reading group February 5th, and GATOcon, an anime convention in Kingsville, TX February 22nd & 23rd.

Then maybe your book group, your con, your something-or-other. You never know 'til you ask.

By the way, books make fine holiday gifts!

Live Blogging 2

See below: I'm live blogging (when I'm not schmoozing) from the Pasadena Museum of History, where we're celebrating Pasadena's 127th birthday.

Star sighting! I got to meet Congresswoman Judy Chu. She's fab. Left to right: Anne Louise Bannon, Congresswoman Chu, Rachael Faught, me. Roberta Martinez.

Real Irish

apple blossom on the tree in my back yard

Next Friday, for the first time in quite a while, I'll be performing live!

It's not like a Madonna concert exactly. (Actually I don't know that. I've never been to a Madonna concert.) Friday, March 9th, I'll be joining Anne Louise Bannon at Webster's Fine Stationers for "Real Irish," an early lead-in to St. Patrick's Day. (I wanted to call it "Lorica and Scot go to Ireland," but I was outvoted.)

Anne is a renaissance woman, a freelance writer and a wine afficionado. I even buy my handmade soap from her. Plus it turns out she holds a Master's degree in oral interpretation (even more obscure than my Bachelor's in Rhetoric). My qualifications are almost as good: I like to drink wine and I like to talk (okay, I've also had a 30-year acting career and I'm actually paid to talk), so we make a good pair. Anne is even of Irish descent, which makes her green-wearin' legit. (She's Real Irish.)

I'll just admit it right now: I'm a Scot. The family claims Welsh descent as well. None of this qualifies as Irish. (I am Not Real Irish.)

Anne and I figured a wine tasting and some Celtic and Irish literature would make a fun late afternoon/early evening. Starting at 4:30, come to Webster's and have some wine. At 5:30, once your edges are soft, Anne and I will read to you for a little while. In fact, in fewer than 30 minutes, we will run you through a simplified gamut of the entire history of Irish literature. As if that were possible.

Come on by. We'll get you all Irished before you head down the hill for Art Night Pasadena.

Real Irish

Friday, March 9th

4:30 wine tasting

5:30 readings

Webster's Fine Stationers

2450 N. Lake Avenue,

Altadena, CA 91101

(626) 797-1135

Altadena Urban Farmers Market

If the photo looks a bit homey it's because the Altadena Urban Farmers Market takes place at someone's house.

Granted, it's a big house, but it is indeed private property. If you're local you're likely familiar with the Zane Grey Estate, owned by Steven Rudicel and Gloria Putnam, a young Altadena couple. I can't claim to know them but this past Sunday I stood in the goat pen (beyond the grape vines out back) and introduced myself to Steven, just to have a chance to tell him "thank you." I'm awed at how these two regularly open up their historic home to their community.

John and I thought we might pop up to the market and buy some soap from Anne Louise Bannon (because her hand-made soap is superior to every other soap we've ever used), then pop back home. But just because we don't know Rudicel and Putnam doesn't mean we didn't know about half the people at the market, and that included patrons and vendors. Besides Anne and her wine-making husband Michael Holland, we stopped to talk politics with this one, hiking trails with that one, etc. Our neighbor from across the street was there with her daughter. Michael Coppess from East of Allen stopped to chat. Our friend the Apron Strings Baker was there! She who makes the cookies for A Penny for Your Thoughts, the coolest coffee-shop-within-a-gift-shop in Pasadena, was selling challah and cookies at the market! She sold out, of course, as did Anne. You want the good stuff, you get there early. These folks make and grow things at home. It's small business at its loving best.

Read Felicia Friesema's LA Weekly article to learn more about this unique event. Felicia herself gave me this giant, delicious mulberry when I saw her at the market. You meet the most fascinating people there.

The Altadena Urban Farmers Market is more than a market. It's a community bonding event. Yet it's possible John and I attended the final one. Let's hope there'll be another market in June.

Webster's Fine Networking

Anton Anderson emcees as Lori Webster looks on. Fluorescents be damned, I like the shot anyway.

Like a lot of people, I've been looking to spruce up my online social networking skills for the sake of my business. I'm okay at blogging, but I've got a few things to learn about Facebook and my LinkedIn page is neglected. (I'm so pathetic at Twitter I'm not at liberty to discuss it here.)

Lately I've been speaking to groups about blogging. The first thing I tell them is that blogging is networking. The second thing I tell them is that networking is giving. Networking used to conjure up depressing pictures of dreary social functions where you'd pass out your business card in hopes of getting work. It felt like begging and I was lousy at it. But that's an old idea. Now, networking is about service--finding out what your network needs and filling that need, knowing the returns will come. Giver is a much more powerful position than Beggar.

Last Friday night, Webster's Fine Stationers in Altadena showed us how it's done. WFS, owned by Scott and Lori Webster, hosted a well-attended Social Media Meet and Greet event, free and open to the public. The audience comprised upwards of 50 local entrepreneurs of all stripes and levels of networking knowledge. Everyone was eager to learn and share.

Anton Anderson of Productivity Consulting emceed and Hilary Cable of Business.com Answers led the evening with an informative talk about using Facebook for your business. (She cleared up some Facebook mysteries, which until Friday I would have told you was impossible to do.) I spoke briefly about blogging, and Deb Halberstadt of HalfCity Productions guided us through the uses of LinkedIn.

Then we got to eat! courtesy of Amy's Patio Cafe. And there was wine tasting! provided by Anne Louise Bannon and Michael Holland of OddBallGrape.com. And there was much offline networking, quite social, provided by a lively and interesting crowd.

It would be nice if you clicked all the links, though I know you won't. Still, it gives you a visual idea of how many people and businesses contributed to the evening.

I'd like to see Webster's Fine Stationers do this type of event again, perhaps with even more community input. At a time when so many of us need to stay on top of these changing networking platforms, WFS provided a forum, a gathering place, a community service. Lori, Scott and their great staff filled the needs of their network, and I know the returns will come rushing back to them.