(counting crows, “daylight fading”, off Recovering the Satellites)
I, Jillian, owe you, my readers, one entry on My Trip On The Crime Bus This Last Saturday, because it was Interesting. And Historical. And I went into parts of L.A. that I hadn’t set foot in before. Specifically, South Central. The usual white bourgeousie paranoia that triggered white flight out of central Los Angeles has kept me out of that part of the city before.
I always describe living here as being like living in a house where you keep finding new rooms, and every time I go into a new part of the city, I’m in a slightly dreamlike state. I see the same mountains, I can even see the skyscrapers of downtown and the Hollywood sign from some parts, but it isn’t at an angle I’ve seen those familiar sights from before.
Inspired by the history of the Crime Bus, I talked to my mother on Sunday and wrote down the complete list of where she lived in L.A. growing up, from when her parents came here in 1945 to when she moved to San Francisco 1963. It fits in very neatly with every pattern I’ve traced of in-city migration and population shifts, as part of my research over the last couple years. I’m working on shifting my research on What Went Wrong In Los Angeles to dovetail with my own family history – ie. Jews within Los Angeles within the context of White Flight – but that’s a lot of reading and researching from now, and I’m mired in Southern California, an Island on the Land (Carey McWilliams’ 1940 history of Los Angeles and area) right now.
And finally, I have put up some new photo sets on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jilliant/
Specifically, a Labour Day walk (2005) with nafspeak and cracksmurf, and last year’s Roadtrip through Arizona and Vegas. I was totally fascinated with how barren the Southwest was, especially since I’m from the forest of the Northwest. I was fascinated, for the same reason, with the Great American Desert of the High Plains in West Texas, when I first saw that area, too.
Crime Bus entry coming this week. More roadtrips to the desert coming as soon as possible. Much to write about, so little time!
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