There is a great film by Tom Andersen called "LA Plays Itself" - which is all about LA locations in films and cross-overs between location and city. Really a great documentary. Molly
molly hankwitz - she/her http://bivoulab.org On Wed, Aug 12, 2020 at 3:09 AM Geert Lovink <[email protected]> wrote: > “People with brains went to New York and people with faces came West.” > Though she is one of the city’s most fervent defenders, Eve Babitz captures > a prevalent sort of sentiment about her native Los Angeles. As we see in > films like *Mullholland Drive *and *Under the Silver Lake*, the cultural > identity of Los Angeles has been largely dominated by Hollywood and the > glamourous and sinister entertainment industry—superficial, fickle, and > ruthless. > > Even during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the city faced critiques from the > storied, East Coast bastions of art and thought as being vapid and lacking > in cultural merit. With such a reputation to overcome, how has Los Angeles, > over the course of the last century, become one of the world’s major > cities—with unparalleled cultural, economic, and technological reach? > > In *CITY AT THE EDGE OF FOREVER: Los Angeles Reimagined *UCLA professor > and critic *Peter Lunenfeld* reconstructs the portrait of the city > through unlikely associations, forgotten histories, and strange > connections. In this LA, rocket science connects the occult teachings of > Aleister Crowley, Robert Heinlein’s *Stranger in a Strange Land*, and > Scientology; rock ‘n roll legends like Jim Morrison, Crosby, Stills & Nash, > and Frank Zappa are inextricably linked with the aerospace industry and the > military industrial complex; and, perhaps Walt Disney and Hugh Hefner > weren’t so different after all. > > Lunenfeld illustrates Los Angeles’s importance as an influential hub of > design and modernism through the comparison of two husband and wife > teams—historians Will and Ariel Durant and designer-architects Charles and > Ray Eames. Joan Didion and local LA celebrity Angelyne are connected by way > of the iconic Corvette Stingray—a car designed by Larry Shinoda, a Japanese > American who was interned along with his family during World War II. The > city’s development into a thriving locale for gastronomy dovetails with the > arrival and popularity of Bruce Lee and martial arts. > > Each chapter of *CITY AT THE EDGE OF FOREVER *reveals a new and unusual > dimension to the history and development of the city. It is a wholly > original and engaging account of the unique spirit and bustling landscape > of modern Los Angeles. > > *Peter Lunenfeld* is vice chair of UCLA's Design Media Arts department, > and a faculty member in the Urban and Digital Humanities programs. He has > published award-winning essays and several books with the MIT Press about > the ways in which art, design, and technology intertwine, including *The > Secret War Between Downloading and Uploading: Tales of the Computer as > Culture Machine*. His historical and theoretical writings have been > translated into more than a dozen languages. He has lived in Southern > California for the last three decades. > > “Immersive cultural history…Richly detailed and evocatively written this > highly original account unearths L.A. stories ‘more complex [and] > contradictory... than anything that ever made it to the screen.’Readers > will be spellbound.”*—**Publishers Weekly **(Starred Review)* > > > “A kaleidoscopic view of Los Angeles that looks beyond stereotypes… > [Lunenfeld] makes a strong case for the city’s exceptionalism.”*—**Kirkus > Reviews* > > “Here is a title to be added to the list of great meditations on Los > Angeles. *City at the Edge of Forever* is a book about southern > California but it is also a book about all of us, about how fringes become > mainstream, how politics morphs into culture, and how culture mutates > uncontrollably under the American sun.”—*Thomas Frank**, author of **What’s > the Matter with Kansas?* > > > *CITY AT THE EDGE OF FOREVER* *Los Angeles Reimagined* *By Peter > Lunenfeld *Viking | On Sale: August 11, 2020 | Hardcover | ISBN: > 9780525561934 | Price: $28.00 > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
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