October 19, 2011 – Divine

Today would have been the 66^th birthday of one America’s greatest actor’s, Baltimore’s Glenn Milstead, who most of us know as Divine.

I own and love most of Divine’s films, the ones by John Waters as well as Paul Bartel’s Lust in the Dust. I still have my original, the good one with photos, Odorama card from the original release of Polyester. I took friends visiting from Sweden to see that one and they still haven’t recovered. The day Hairspray opened in 1988, I left a post-it on my computer saying I was “running errands” and with a few other delinquent co-workers we took in a lunch and a matinee premier. It was all of a week later that we were shocked by Divine’s sudden death.

I love corrupting young minds with Divine. Don’t worry — I wouldn’t start with Pink Flamingoes. When my cousins were just 12 and 14 they came down from Washington. They are from a small town on the Columbia River just far enough from Portland to be close to Mortville. Ten minutes into Hairspray I had to pause it and explain the historical context. My cousins knew virtually nothing of the history of the civil rights movement. That says something about the quality of education in Clark County, Washington. Soon after that my 12 year old cousin Thad was suspended from school due to his “disruptive” hair. It was a bit of life imitating art up there (today he’s a former juvenile delinquent and punk rock star now – Divine would be proud). We finished off the weekend with Serial Mom and Pecker. Call me a bad influence. I should also mentioned that Divine was such a brilliant actor that the boys had no idea he was actually a man. I stopped the movie halfway through and told them.

One of the things that strikes me about the passing of time, is the way one can end up doing something in the present that would have been hard to imagine years before. 18 years after Divine’s passing I found myself at 7940 Hollywood Boulevard. A work colleague casually mentioned that he lived in Divine’s old apartment. As soon as I got down to Los Angeles I headed straight there.

The first thing that made me laugh and grab the camera was the sign in the courtyard reading Please Clean Up after Your Pet. The building was one of those groovy two-story, courtyard apartment buildings so typical of Los Angeles. It was about to be torn down to make way for something ugly and bigger. I knew I wanted something old from the apartment and I decided to take all the light switch plates. I had a stack of new ones to swap out – my work colleague was concerned about getting his deposit back – even though they were about to tear down the apartment building. He was probably right.

My intent is to use the switch plates for a Divine Light art project — I still have them and will one day get to that. On that morning, I got out my screwdriver and went to work taking the old switch plates and replacing them with new ones. It was going quickly until I got to the kitchen. I was by myself in the kitchen, and try as I might, the screws wouldn’t come loose in that last one. Finally I turned around and said aloud, “Okay Divine, you’ve looked at my ass long enough, let me get this done.” That was all it took and the screw came right out. And seriously, all the laughter Divine has brought me, I didn’t mind his ghost checking out my ass one bit.

August 28, 2011 - 701 S. Grammercy Drive

In a recent haul of postcards from a Cape Cod estate sale I came across this one sent in 1952. Flora and her husband were settling into a corner apartment with maid service at the Ancelle Apartment Hotel at 701 South Grammercy Drive in Los Angeles. They seemed happy enough, they wrote a card to friends back in Newton, Mass. to tell them: “Thought we would let you know that we were in Calif. It got to hot for us in Fla, sold our home and came here to be near our Daughter & Family, guess it is better for year round living. We will try it any way. Have a very pleasant apt and like it so far.” Curiosity had me searching the building online. The exterior has not changed much in 60 years. It’s in Koreatown now and like many urban neighborhoods this building has seen its ups and downs. The neighborhood has been gentrifying and there are scathing reviews online regarding the condition of the building. There is also a “boudoir” photography studio located somewhere in the building nowadays. I am not sure what Flora would think of that.

August 26, 2011 - Poolside in L.A.

Flipping through magazines, tearing them up and sitting by the side of the pool.

Below is a photo of the piece drying by the pool in the Southern California sun.

August 25, 2011 – Off to Los Angeles

One should not assume that my rendering of a freeway overpass is some snarky little dig at L.A. Yes, we could endlessly critique the car culture, but you have to admit, some of those overpasses are pretty impressive and they just demand to be painted. So it’s off to Los Angeles today for a little trip for some family time, some art time and undoubtedly some inspiration.

July 20, 2011 – Freeway

Back on this day in 1940 one of the most important changes in American history happened. The Arroyo Seco Parkway opened up. It’s better known as the Pasadena Freeway or The 110. The reason the Pasadena Freeway is significant is it was the first freeway in the United States. So much of what makes Los Angeles what it is and California and pretty much the rest of the United States is essentially the freeway. For better or worse.

Even though I have not owned a car since college, I have what could called be a love-hate relationship with freeways. They enable some sweet nectarines to get into my farmer’s market nice and quick and if I do want to go to L.A. I can get there in just over six hours. But freeways have disconnected us from one another. We’ve sprawled all our communities over the land and we’ve nearly ended the railways. Oh, to take a real high speed train to be in L.A. in about 3 hours or get back on an interurban street car and spend the day in Santa Cruz.

I wonder what the state of the freeway will be when we come up on the 100^th anniversary. Will the price of gas make freeway travel a rare luxury by 2040? Will there be more freeways or less?

San Francisco is the first American city to stop a planned freeway. My block, along with 10 others was to be demolished for a freeway that was planned to run through the Panhandle and then into Golden Gate Park. It’s hard to imagine that freeway. But it is even difficult to imagine the freeways we’ve already torn down. When I walk along the Embarcadero or through Hayes Valley, I have a hard time picturing the grim, elevated freeways that used to be there. I remember them but I could never imagine putting them back.