ExplosivePR - press release

Downtown L.A. Art Walk 11/12 – John Fante and Gay LA Salons, historic theater and neighborhood walking tours

kim — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:52:47 -0500

For immediate release

3 November 2009

Downtown L.A. Art Walk 11/12 – John Fante and Gay LA Salons, historic theater and neighborhood walking tours

WHAT: Downtown L.A. Art Walk, the hottest grassroots cultural event in Southern California
WHEN: Every second Thursday. November Art Walk is November 12.
WHERE: Downtown Los Angeles, 5th & Main and surrounding area.
COST: The Art Walk is always free, including Walking Tours, Spring Arcade performances and Salons.
INFO: http://www.downtownartwalk.com or (213) 784-2598.

LOS ANGELES- The Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk, held on the second Thursday of the month year round, is one of the great success stories of the neighborhood's revival. Launched in September 2004 by a small group of true believers in what was then the western edge of Skid Row, the event now draws upwards of 10,000 art enthusiasts, and includes live music, a thriving bar and restaurant scene, literary events, impromptu performances, and of course art on view in dozens of galleries.

On November 12, 2009, Art Walk hosts its second-to-last event of the year, with the cooler temperatures encouraging visitors to bundle up and spend more time exploring the 40 toasty galleries that dot the Art Walk map. It's a great time to come downtown and see what all the buzz is about, take a walking tour or sit in on a cultural Salon gathering.

For the November 12 Art Walk, there are a number of special events in the works, including numerous free guided walking tours (reservations required), two conversational salons at Clifton's Cafeteria (Stephen Cooper on downtown novelist JOHN FANTE; and Tom De Simone and Melissa Lopez leading a discussion on LAVENDER L.A., the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history of the neighborhood), and experimental performances in the SPRING ARCADE building (a passage leading from Broadway to Spring, between 5th and 6th Streets).

Please note: the free HIPPODROME shuttle is no longer running at the Art Walk, due to the withdrawal of funding from the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council. Stay tuned for revived shuttle news in 2010.

BASIC INFORMATION: To make the most of your visit, your first stop should be the Art Walk website: http://www.downtownartwalk.com

First click on the MAP link and print out a guide to gallery hours and locations (updated map goes online several days before the event).

Next click on WALKING TOURS and sign up to explore the Art Walk, for free, with expert tour guides like ANNE BLOCK (Take My Mother Please), JAVIER CABRAL (Teenage Glutster blogger leading a food truck tasting tour), CRIMEBO THE CLOWN (recently Grand Marshall of Costa Mesa's Halloween hearse parade), JEREMY KASTEN (horror film director whose spooky Eastern Columbia loft was featured in the L.A.Times), DR. BORIS MAYZELS (Downtown's favorite chiropractor), ED ROSENTHAL (Downtown's original poet/broker) and RICHARD SCHAVE (Esotouric/ Art Walk Director). And representatives of the LOS ANGELES HISTORIC THEATRE FOUNDATION offer guided tours through the Broadway Theater district and inside the celebrated Morosco/Globe Theater. Space is very limited on walking tours, and reservations for each guest are required.

Finally, come to the Art Walk and explore the dozens of independent art spaces packed with original, affordable work. There's sure to be something to suit every taste and pocketbook, and memorable adventures to be had along the way.

SELECTED GALLERY EXHIBITS on view during the November 12 Art Walk include:

At CREWEST (110 Winston St. LA, CA 90013, 818-235-4598, www.crewest.com) it's the 6th annual Dia De Los Muertos Celebration "Top of the Dome IV" featuring ceramic skulls designed by Gregg Stone and transformed by the imaginations of today's hottest tattoo artists, painters, sculptors, graffiti artists, muralists, and designers. At THE LANDING PARTY (749 S. Broadway, LA, CA 90014 - "thru the blue door and up," 323-363-2323, www.davidthomaspaintings.com) see recent and early abstractions by David Thomas, the ex-construction worker who was discovered by LACMA Curator of Contemporary Art Howard Fox in 2007, and who uses concrete tools to produce entirely new abstract art born on a jobsite. At NORTBERTELLEN GALLERY (215 W. 6th Street, Suite 110, LA, CA 90014, 818-662-5041, www.norbertellengallery.com) it's "Fantastika, Futura, Groteska," a celebration of fantasy, sci-fi and horror from featured artist Erik Jerumanis. At SARA PALACIOS GALLERY (112 W. 9th Street, Ste. 1109, LA, CA, 90015) see photographer Carol Cirillo Stanley's exploration of the conflicts that exist in "Reality vs. Perfection."

SALONS AT CLIFTON'S CAFETERIA: Come sit in on one or two cultural conversations. Info http://www.downtownartwalk.com/salon

SALON #1 (5:30pm-7:00pm): Biographer and professor STEPHEN COOPER invites you to join him in a freewheeling conversation about the quintessential L.A. author, JOHN FANTE, soon be honored with the designation of a square in his honor outside the Central Library. Fante's 1939 novel "Ask the Dust" remains the most passionate love letter ever addressed to the City of the Angels. Although Fante spent most of his career scripting Hollywood movies that he hated, he has been called the father of the Los Angeles novel and the patron saint of L.A. writers. What would his fictional alter-ego, the inimitable Arturo Bandini, say about that? Come with your own questions and see where they lead.
SALON #2 (5:30pm-7:00pm): Cultural activists Tom De Simone and Melissa Lopez host LAVENDER LOS ANGELES, a discussion about the emergence of L.A.'s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community circa 1950. As the end of America's frontier, the city attracted all walks of life seeking freedom and reinvention. Come explore such questions as: How did the modern movement form in LA? What are some of the highlights of this history? Why did it happen here? Where is this history recorded? Learn how the "LAvender Los Angeles" exhibit (on display Nov. 8 - 20 at 114 W. 5th Street) was produced, and share your LA LGBT history.

NEW ON THE WEB: The Art Walk is now collecting listings of non-commercial HAPPENINGS taking place during the event. To check out community HAPPENINGS, visit http://downtownartwalk.com/happeningslist . For more info and to submit your event for consideration, visit http://www.downtownartwalk.com/happeningsubmit

And keep an eye peeled for the OFFICIAL ART WALK BLOG team, who will be out on the streets interviewing Art Walkers for the new blog THE LIVING MUSEUM – look sharp and maybe you'll be featured on the blog next month. http://www.downtownartwalk.com/blog

Journalists on assignment are encouraged to come Downtown and learn all about the Art Walk on the public walking tours on November 12 (please reserve a space like regular folks, and contact us if the tour you want is already full), or to schedule a private tour with Art Walk Director Richard Schave on another date. Contact Kim at downtownartwalkATgmailDOTcom or call (213) 784-2598 for more info.

November 7 – A Citywide Celebration of Los Angeles Writer Charles Bukowski

kim — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:03:10 -0500

For immediate release

November 3, 2009

November 7 – A Citywide Celebration of Los Angeles Writer Charles Bukowski

WHAT: Esotouric's "Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A." bus tour
WHEN: Saturday November 7, 12pm-4pm, departs from Philippe The Original, 1001 N Alameda, Downtown LA
COST: $58/person, includes coffee and donuts served at Bukowski's favorite Pink Elephant Liquor Store.
OTHER BUKOWSKI HAPPENINGS: At 7pm also on November 7, Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena presents "An Evening with Bukowski’s Friends" (free)
MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767 (Esotouric) and http://www.vromansbookstore.com/bukowski or call 626-449-5320 (Vroman's)

LOS ANGELES- November 7 is shaping up to be Bukowski Day in L.A. – come be part of some or all of it, with Esotouric and Vroman's Bookstore.

At noon, Esotouric, the company whose offbeat bus tours expose LA's secret history, rolls out its popular and occasional Charles Bukowski bus tour, HAUNTS OF A DIRTY OLD MAN. The tour departs from Philippe The Original, the legendary downtown sandwich shop where postal worker Bukowski often ate while employed across the street at the brutal Terminal Annex sorting facility.

"Girls Gone Wild Magazine" says that Esotouric's Charles Bukowski tour is "the polar opposite of those double-decker tourist traps that schlep rubes past Tom Cruise's house and the Hollywood sign." And Forth Magazine's Marco Mannone raves about an experience "filled with so much wit and insight into not only Bukowski, but lost parts of Los Angeles."

HAUNTS OF A DIRTY OLD MAN spans Bukowski's personal city, from the Skid Row bars where he tuned his young writer's ear to the voices of old rummies to the once-genteel Crown Hill apartments where he fought with his first love Jane, favorite bars and liquor stores, "Barfly" locations to the downtown library, where he discovered his "God," novelist John Fante. German born, Bukowski spent most of his life in L.A., working for the US Postal Service, as "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" columnist for the underground press and writing the screenplay for the autobiographical "Barfly." The city and its characters are everywhere in the work, so this tour celebrates the artist within his city with visits to places that were important to him and to his work. The tour includes a stop at Pink Elephant Liquor in East Hollywood for complementary coffee and donuts, though many riders also pick up a little something stronger for the road.

The tour is hosted by Richard Schave, one of the forces behind the recent successful campaign to have Bukowski's one-time bungalow on De Longpre Avenue in East Hollywood declared an historic-cultural monument. Esotouric has made its name with true crime bus tours (Black Dahlia, Pasadena Confidential) and explorations of literary LA (Raymond Chandler, John Fante, James M. Cain). Now they turn their creative attentions to Bukowski, the prolific poet, novelist and screenwriter whose rough-hewn tales of boozing, wild women and rotten jobs never obscure the deep vein of sweetness and hope that runs through all his work.

The Bukowski bus tour concludes at 4pm in Downtown Los Angeles, leaving plenty of time to regroup by 7pm at the venerable Pasadena bookstore Vroman's as it offers a free event AN EVENING WITH BUKOWSKI'S FRIENDS, a rare opportunity to hear from the writer's close associates and loved ones as they read his work and share rare photos. At this celebration of the life and work of Charles Bukowski. Sue Hodson, curator of literary manuscripts at the Huntington and lead archivist of Bukowski's writings, will present a slide presentation of Bukowski's life through photos. She will be joined by the writer's widow Linda Lee Bukowski, poet SA Griffin (reading from a new Bukowski book, "The Continual Condition"), and John Dullaghan, director of the acclaimed documentary film "Bukowski: Born Into This."

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule
Sat Nov 7 - Charles Bukowski's LA
Thurs Nov 12 – Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat Nov 14 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat December 5 – Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown
Thurs Dec 10 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat December 12 – Blood & Dumplings
Sat January 9 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Thurs Jan 14 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat January 16 - Wild Wild West Side
Sat January 30 - East Side Babylon crime bus tour
Sun Feb 7 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South LA
Thurs Feb 11 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat Feb 13 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66
Sat Feb 20 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The New Chinatowns
Sat Feb 27 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown-The Secret History of LA
Sat March 6 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Thurs March 11 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat March 13 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles

For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com

Tour host Richard Schave is available for interviews. Journalists and photographers on assignment can often be accommodated on Esotouric bus tours. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

Explore L.A.'s oddball criminal history on the Blood & Dumplings bus tour

kim — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:23:56 -0500

For immediate release

November 2, 2009

Explore L.A.'s oddball criminal history on the Blood & Dumplings bus tour

WHAT: Esotouric's Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour of the San Gabriel Valley
WHEN: Saturday, December 12, 2009, 12pm-4pm
WHERE: Tour departs from Lincoln Heights/Cypress Gold Line Metro station, 370 W. Ave 26, LA, CA 90031
COST: $63, includes dumplings (vegetarian options available on request)
DISCOUNT TICKETS: The new 6-Pack (single user) and 12-Pack (multi-user) tickets make Esotouric's tours much more affordable. Details at http://www.esotouric.com/6pack
INFO: http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767

LOS ANGELES- On Saturday, December 12, the eclectic bus adventure company Esotouric presents its most bizarre true crime and cultural history tour, BLOOD & DUMPLINGS. The tour celebrates a surprising side of Los Angeles history not found in tour books.

Starting from the premise that the secret heart of Southern California's weirdo pop culture beats strongest in the Eastern San Gabriel Valley, the tour introduces passengers to such fascinating local characters as the costumed Man from Mars Bandit, eccentric record producer and ladykiller Phil Spector, lion farmers Charles and Muriel Gay, and DIY filmmaking icon Timothy Carey, whose notorious "The World's Greatest Sinner" was shot on location in 1960s El Monte.

Heading due East out of downtown, the tour explores several historic communities that reflect the growth and eccentricity that are hallmarks of 20th century Los Angeles. Crime Bus passengers will discover notorious, strange, fascinating and forgotten tales from the past hundred years, each told at the scene of the crime. They'll thrill to the freakish case of the Man from Mars Bandit who stalked area supermarkets for months in 1951 before meeting his match in a police sharpshooter, shock to discover the deadly infighting among El Monte's hippie-era American Nazi Party members, mourn the Case of the Buried Bride dragged beneath her home on her wedding day by her secret lover, gnash teeth at the famous lion farm (home to every MGM lion) that served lion meat BBQ on special occasions, and view scenes of notorious cases including Phil Spector's spooky hilltop castle and James Ellroy's slain mother Geneva (the true-life inspiration for his Black Dahlia novel).

And since no visit to the San Gabriel Valley is complete without a delicious Chinese meal, the Crime Bus will stop at 101 Noodle Express (one of L.A. Weekly critic Jonathan Gold's picks for 99 L.A. restaurants not to be missed) to pick up a dumpling feast, which will be enjoyed picnic-style at Monster Park, a remarkable sea-themed folk art environment recently saved from demolition. There passengers can enjoy their snack in the mouth of a concrete whale, or under a grinning octopus, then pose for photos with the creatures.

All this, plus wild shootouts, dope-dealing druggists, missing Salvador Dali paintings and the original "little girl down a well" 1940s television sensation. Don't miss the Crime Bus tour that guide Kim Cooper calls "My personal favorite of all our tours, packed with more offbeat history, horror, roadside architecture and fabulous Route 66 vistas than any other."

For more info on Esotouric, visit
http://www.esotouric.com

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and event schedule
Sat Nov 7 - Charles Bukowski's LA
Thurs Nov 12 – Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat Nov 14 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat December 5 – Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown
Thurs Dec 10 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat December 12 – Blood & Dumplings
Sat January 9 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Thurs Jan 14 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat January 16 - Wild Wild West Side
Sat January 30 - East Side Babylon crime bus tour
Sun Feb 7 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South LA
Thurs Feb 11 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat Feb 13 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66
Sat Feb 20 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The New Chinatowns
Sat Feb 27 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown-The Secret History of LA
Sat March 6 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Thurs March 11 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat March 13 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles

Tour hosts Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are available for interviews. Members of the press on assignment are always welcome on the bus, space permitting. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

Esotouric's Pasadena Confidential Crime Bus Tour Explores the Crown City's Dark Side

kim — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:00:35 -0400

For immediate release

October 30, 2009

Esotouric's Pasadena Confidential Crime Bus Tour Explores the Crown City's Dark Side

WHAT: Esotouric presents the Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour with Crimebo the Clown
WHEN: Saturday December 5 8, 12pm-4pm
COST: $58, which includes coffee and cookies
WHERE: Departs from Fair Oaks and Arlington Street, South Pasadena.

LOS ANGELES- On December 5, Esotouric, the eclectic bus adventure company whose offbeat tours expose L.A.'s secret history, offers its popular, occasional Pasadena Confidential tour, a true crime bus adventure delving deep into the weird and horrible past of one of L.A.'s most exclusive suburbs.

Tour guide Kim Cooper says, "I believe every neighborhood gets the crimes it deserves, and Pasadena's dark side is suitably rife with rocket scientists driven mad by their work, wealthy eccentrics spoiling their pet chimps and bears, seemingly respectable families misbehaving behind tall hedges and a general air of genteel psychic decay."

Making a special appearance on this tour: fresh from his star turn as co-Grand Marshall with Dr. Demento at the O.C. Marketplace Halloween Hearse Show, it's Crimebo the Crime Clown capering as only Crimebo can.

Crime fiends will enjoy a four-hour guided luxury bus tour to the darkest recesses of Pasadena history, with vintage photos and film clips show to set the scene. From celebrated cases like the RFK assassination, "Eraserhead" star Jack Nance's strange end, black magician/rocket scientist Jack Parsons' death-by-misadventure and the 1926 Rose Parade grand stand collapse, to fascinating obscurities, the tour's multitude of murders, arsons, kidnappings, robberies, suicides, auto wrecks and oddball happenings provide an alternate history of Pasadena that's as fascinating as it is creepy.

Crime Bus passengers will tour the old Millionaire's Row on Orange Grove, boggle at the shocking Sphinx Murder on the steps of the downtown Masonic Hall, thrill to the misadventures of one very poorly-behaved (but beautifully dressed!) chimpanzee and discover why people named Judd should think twice before moving to Pasadena. They'll also enjoy the offbeat charms of Crimebo the Crime Clown as he leads passengers out onto Suicide Bridge for a personal look down into the gorge that tempted dozens of tormented souls to their demise.

Riders on this eye-opening, funny and informative tour will forever see Pasadena in a new light. It is highly recommended for natives and newcomers alike, crime and history buffs and anyone who likes to seek out the unexpected.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and event schedule
Sat Oct 31 – Maja's Mysteries spiritual L.A. tour (debut)
Sun Nov 1 – East Side Babylon crime bus tour (debut)
Sat Nov 7 - Charles Bukowski's LA
Thurs Nov 12 – Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat Nov 14 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat December 5 – Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown
Thurs Dec 10 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat December 12 – Blood & Dumplings
Sat January 9 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Thurs Jan 14 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat January 16 - Wild Wild West Side
Sat January 30 - East Side Babylon crime bus tour
Sun Feb 7 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South LA
Thurs Feb 11 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat Feb 13 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66
Sat Feb 20 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The New Chinatowns
Sat Feb 27 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown-The Secret History of LA
Sat March 6 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Thurs March 11 - Downtown LA Art Walk w/ FREE Salons & walking tours
Sat March 13 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles

For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com

Tour hosts Kim Cooper, Richard Schave and Crimebo the Clown are available for interviews. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOYcom, 323-223-2767.

Alliance Repertory Presents Eight World Premieres

kim — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:33:52 -0400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Bryan Kopta
(818) 769-7678
bryan.koptaATgmailDOTcom
www.alliancerepertory.org

Alliance Repertory Presents Eight World Premieres

Los Angeles, CA, October 22, 2009 -- For two decades, the Alliance Repertory Company has been producing original, cutting-edge theatre in Los Angeles. On Saturday, October 31, 2009, the Company triumphantly re-emerges with its world-premiere slate of one-act plays entitled "Eight."

First up are four one-acts by award-winning New York playwright Adam Kraar, whose plays include "Storm In The Iron Box" (National Play Award runner-up), "The Lost Cities of Asher" (Finalist, 2005 O'Neill Playwrights Conference); and "Freedom High" (winner of the Handel Playwright Fellowship). Kraar describes his four one-acts as "comedies about people whose outsize passions don't fit into the odd environments in which they find themselves."

On November 7, the Alliance will present the second set of four, by Chicago-based playwright Michael Bassett. Bassett is a recipient of Scotland's prestigious Hawthorndon Fellowship. His dark comedies-—featuring a man in a coma, pets, coffee, and guns—focus on life, death and of course, love.

True to its name, Alliance Rep will present "Eight" in repertory, starting November 13th -- alternating nights every weekend - through December 20th. "We have a strong company of actors and directors, and I wanted to get as many of us on stage and involved as possible -- not to mention, we have been given an abundance of wonderful new material," says Artistic Director, Royana Black.

Following the opening of "Eight," on October 31st, the Alliance will host a Halloween party. The company will honor its alumni and founders at its new home in the NoHo Arts District, with a red carpet benefit, on November 7th.
For additional information, please contact Producing Director, Bryan Kopta at (818)-769-7678 or visit www.alliancerepertory.org.

ABOUT ALLIANCE REPERTORY COMPANY – The Alliance Repertory Company is a 501(c)(3) non-profit volunteer theater company, founded in 1986. It is composed of thirty theater artists. The company is funded primarily through membership dues, ticket sales, donations, and fundraising events. The company is located at 4930 Lankershim Boulevard, in North Hollywood, CA.

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New Ideas Need Old Buildings: Downtown L.A. Art Walk announces its fresh direction

kim — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:17:39 -0400

For immediate release

19 October 2009

New Ideas Need Old Buildings: Downtown L.A. Art Walk announces its fresh direction

INFO: http://www.downtownartwalk.com/mission or (213) 784-2598.

LOS ANGELES- The Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk, held on the second Thursday of the month year round, is the great success stories of the neighborhood's revival. Launched in 2004 by a small group of true believers in what was then the western edge of Skid Row, the event now draws upwards of 10,000 art enthusiasts, and includes live music, a thriving bar and restaurant scene, literary events, impromptu performances, and of course art on view in dozens of galleries.

Five years on, the Art Walk has become a non-profit organization with a board of directors, led by independent social historian Richard Schave (Esotouric, 1947project, On Bunker Hill), dedicated to making Downtown Los Angeles even more of a cultural destination for great art, good company and exciting urban experiences.

So what's next for the Art Walk? While the question has been hotly debated in the local press and blogging community, the Art Walk's volunteer management team has been burning the midnight oil crafting their Mission and Case Statements, the formal documents which spell out the role the organization plans to take in the Downtown community, and the specific programs and policies Art Walk will enact over the next few years—ideas that are in clean sync with the Obama administration's urban revitalization policies for the National Endowment for the Arts.

At the core of the Art Walk board's vision is a promise to harness Art Walk's extraordinary once-a-month momentum to craft long-term policies for economic stabilization, job creation and the promotion of positive public space, all while preserving the dynamic balance of local history and culture.

Art Walk Director Richard Schave formed his ideas for the non-profit's Mission and Case Statement while adapting his wife Kim Cooper's blog on the social and criminal history of Bunker Hill into a bus and walking tour about L.A.'s shameful legacy of failed public space Downtown. Richard has applied the concepts explored in his tour ("The Lowdown on Downtown-The Secret History of L.A.") to the Art Walk's future, providing a means by which the city's streets and byways can be transformed into spaces which inspire lingering, encourage interactivity and provide streams of financial support to the creative producers who take risks bringing art to the people. Schave believes L.A.'s history of failed public space contains all the lessons needed for creating successful public space that improves the lives of residents beyond measure. On his free monthly walking tours of Art Walk, Richard explains how by understanding the mistakes made by city planners in the past, L.A.'s future can be much brighter.

Art Walk's unprecedented popularity demands new policies addressing growth and scalability--including improved maps and handouts, social media tools and transportation options to keep visitors from clumping at core intersections and help them find the art and events that most interest them. In addition to launching its own original arts and culture programming, the Art Walk has mounted a coordinated campaign to increase the visibility for the many cultural programs already participating in Art Walk, attract new creative blood, and help Art Walk visitors better understand what's available to them as they navigate Art Walk's large and confusing footprint, which spreads far beyond 5th & Main Streets and throughout Downtown. Part of this campaign is helping to move performing artists into the transitional spaces between populated zones, thus activating dark sections of the Art Walk route and making visitors feel more safe and engaged while providing venues to host a greater number of independent artists.

Art Walk's new official programs include The Living Museum blog celebrating the fascinating people whose presence defines the event. Hugely popular free walking tours are hosted by extraordinary characters whose personal passions for and knowledge of Downtown Los Angeles are shared freely with hundreds of monthyl visitors in tours reflecting their unique expertise. Guides include Mike the PoeT, Crimebo the Clown, poet-broker Ed Rosenthal, Art Walk Director Richard Schave, professional tour guide Anne Block, locals Boris Mayzels and Jeremy Kasten, representatives of the L.A. Historic Theatre Foundation, and food blogger Javier Cabral in a curated guide to the mobile food truck phenomenon.

Art Walk also hosts a series of provocative conversational Salons on aspects of literature, spirituality, history and culture, and has been working with independent curators to transform the landmark Spring Arcade Building into a locus for experimental music, performance and live art projections. Coming soon: an ambitious program of lectures on Downtown's social history and creative responses to urbanism worldwide.

The Art Walk is also dedicated to providing ways for Downtown's art galleries to connect with the thousands of people who visit the Art Walk website to plan their monthly experience. Any time an individual gallery page is updated, it automatically sends information to Art Walk's popular Twitter feed. Promoters of free Happenings have been invited to post announcements on Art Walk's newly redesigned website. And that new website, built on the open source content management system Drupal for optimal machine readability, is now the #1 hit, worldwide, for "Art Walk" in Google searches.

Coming soon: a mobile phone app to enable Art Walk visitors to connect with their friends and favorite artists, and a monthly event wrap up survey on Facebook, Friday Findings, in which visitors are polled on what galleries, happenings and experiences they found most exciting – sure to be a powerful marketing tool for any artist or art space that makes an impression.

Although developed independently, the Art Walk's new direction has much in common with the vision recently shared by Rocco Landesman, the incoming chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, with the New York Times. Landesman believes artists are the necessary catalyst for revitalizing historic Downtowns—something Art Walk has demonstrated since 2004, and states clearly in its Case Statment. Landesman promises financial assistance for artists seeking to settle in Downtown areas, pointing out that "when you bring artists into a town, it changes the character, attracts economic development, makes it more attractive to live in and renews the economics of that town. There are ways to draw artists into the center of things that will attract other people." Art Walk management intends to draw on the resources of the Federal Government, through Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs), to help make Downtown L.A, more affordable to the artists who are the prime movers in urban revitalization, and help spread the Art Walk energy out over the rest of the month and all of the city.

For more on the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk's new Mission and Case Statements, or to download them in PDF format, visit http://www.downtownartwalk.com/mission

Journalists are encouraged to learn all about the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk on the free monthly public walking tours or to schedule a private tour or interview with DLAAW Director Richard Schave. Contact Kim at downtownartwalkATgmailDOTcom, (213) 784-2598.

Downtown LA Writer John Fante to be Honored with a Square outside the Main Library

kim — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:00:23 -0400

For immediate release

October 14, 2009

Downtown LA Writer John Fante to be Honored with a Square outside the Main Library

LOS ANGELES- Yesterday in City Hall, Los Angeles City Councilmember Jan Perry put forward, and Jose Huizar seconded, a proposal to name the corner of Fifth and Grand, outside the Central Library, JOHN FANTE SQUARE -- an overdue and fitting honor for a great writer who for too long has been more famous in his father's native Italy than in his own adopted home of Los Angeles. The request now goes to the Public Works Committee for final approval. Soon, Fante lovers can hope to see official city signs designating JOHN FANTE SQUARE erected at the base of the writer's former home on Bunker Hill.

John Fante (1909-1983) was Charles Bukowski's favorite writer, his "Ask the Dust" was the book Robert Towne wanted to film after "Chinatown" (it finally was made in 2006 starring Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek, and Donald Sutherland) and he is honored with an annual festival in Italy—but in 21st Century Los Angeles, his name often gets a shrug. That's too bad, because Fante might be the funniest, most heartwarming, honest and appealing writer to ever take this city as his subject.

Colorado-born, first generation Italian-American John Fante arrived in Los Angeles at the start of the depression, and found a room on Bunker Hill, the now-lost Victorian neighborhood above Downtown where he met and mingled with the fascinating characters who would come to inhabit his fiction. Desperately poor, the young writer would walk down Grand Avenue from his apartment in the Alta Vista (called the Alta Loma in "Ask the Dust") to the newly built Central Library (1926), where at no cost he fed his passion for poetry and the novels of Knut Hamsun. For this reason alone, it would be fitting that corner of Fifth and Grand be designated John Fante Square.

But the Central Library would go on to play a still greater role in Fante's literary legacy. First, in the 1940s, a young Charles Bukowski found "Ask the Dust" on the shelf in the main reading room and was transported. In Fante, Bukowski found a naturalistic, self-deprecating Los Angeles voice that inspired him to become a writer, and to listen to the voices of the ordinary people in the bars and on the streets. Many years later, Bukowski would mention the great John Fante (he called him "my god") to his publisher John Martin, who was unable to locate Fante's out-of-print books. So Bukowski went back to the Central Library, took "Ask the Dust" off the shelf, and photocopied it for John Martin. Martin promptly bought the rights and the Black Sparrow Press edition fanned the embers of Fante's small fame until it burst into renewed flames in the 1980s.

Now almost all of John Fante's novels and short stories are back in print and selling steadily in Europe and America. "Ask the Dust" was finally filmed, with Bunker Hill built as a set in South Africa. He was the subject of Stephen Cooper's acclaimed biography, an annual John Fante literary festival is held in his father's hometown of Torricella Peligna (Italy), the bus adventure company Esotouric dedicated a tour to following in his footsteps, and on the occasion of the writer's centennial in Spring 2009, UCLA Special Collections obtained his papers.

And with the naming of a prominent Los Angeles intersection in his honor, John Fante joins the august company of the city's most celebrated scribes, including Raymond Chandler (whose Square is at Cahuenga and Hollywood) and Billy Wilder (whose Square is at Sunset and La Brea).

The Fante Square nomination was initially proposed by Richard Schave and Kim Cooper -- creators of the Esotouric bus adventure John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill and the time travel blog OnBunkerHill.org and hosts of Fante's recent 100th birthday celebration at the King Edward Saloon -- at the request of the Fante family. The nomination follows on the couple's history of local arts and culture preservation work, including the declaration of Charles Bukowski's East Hollywood bungalow as an Historic Cultural Monument, and the Save LAPL campaign which preserved 1.6 million dollars from the city library's book buying budget. The Fante Square nomination received the support of the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Arts Committee, before going to Councilwoman Perry for presentation in Council chambers.

John Fante's children and Esotouric's Richard Schave are available for interviews. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

Black Dahlia bus tour gets into the heads of the lonely girls of WW2 L.A.

kim — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:05:17 -0400

For immediate release

October 13, 2009

Black Dahlia bus tour gets into the heads of the lonely girls of WW2 L.A.

WHAT: Esotouric's Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour
WHEN: Saturday November 14, 12pm-4pm
WHERE: Departing from The Millennium Biltmore Hotel, 5th & Olive, L.A.
FYI: Despite the myths, the Biltmore was the actually second-to-last place Beth Short was seen alive; this tour goes to the real last spot as well.
COST: $58/person (15% off for KCRW or KPCC members)
INFO: http://www.esotouric.com, 323-223-2767

LOS ANGELES- On November 14, the eclectic bus adventure company Esotouric offers its most popular true crime tour, THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA.

Since January 1947, this one iconic murder mystery has lingered unsolved at the forefront of the American imagination, with dozens of books, films and websites dedicated to solving the slaying of Beth Short, the Massachusetts girl who came to Hollywood hoping to make it, and ended up cut in two in a vacant lot. Suspects in the Black Dahlia murder have included L.A. Times publisher Norman Chandler and Orson Welles, crazed lesbians, twisted drifters and more than one writer's father, but still the mystery abides.

The Real Black Dahlia tour dedicates itself to revealing who victim Elizabeth Short really was by exploring her life in Los Angeles from mid 1946 to her January 1947 murder through examination of the police investigation and news coverage. The various theories are up for discussion during the onboard Q&A sections, and the hosts share their idea of who the killer might have been, but the focus is firmly on the 22-year-old woman whose death continues to fascinate. Along the way, passengers will explore the social history of postwar Los Angeles and its lively downtown scene and learn the role the city played in Short's mysterious death.

The tour begins at the Biltmore Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, where Beth Short went after checking her bags at the Greyhound Terminal. Passengers will tour the beautifully restored hotel before heading south, to the low rent Olive Street bar where she met her murderer. The Downtown portion of the tour includes the Examiner newspaper offices, where the crime became myth as pioneering female City Editor Aggie Underwood spun the case for weeks, and the Figueroa Hotel, where Short stayed in happier times.

The bus then heads west towards Leimert Park and the formerly vacant lot where Short's bisected body was discovered on January 15, 1947. Also in this neighborhood, passengers visit the site of another unsolved 1947 kidnap-murder and the home of Dr. Walter Bayley, who has emerged in recent years as the most compelling suspect, with his personal ties to Beth Short's family and the crime scene, and the surgical skill needed to bisect the body. The tour includes a cop-approved snack stop for Krispy Kreme donuts near the body dump site.

And in keeping with the tour's original, and decidedly feminine spin, passengers will be treated a special presentation from cosmetics historian Joan Renner exploring Beth Short's unusual proto-goth make up, so different from the popular girl next store look of 1947, and a key to understanding her psychology.

Passengers on this eye-opening and informative tour will leave with a new understanding of the Black Dahlia case and what it was like to be a single woman in 1940s Los Angeles. It is highly recommended for natives and newcomers, crime and history buffs and anyone who likes to seek out the unexpected.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and event schedule
Sat Oct 24– Raymond Chandler's L.A.
Sat Oct 31 – Maja's Mysteries spiritual L.A. tour (debut)
Sun Nov 1 – East Side Babylon crime bus tour (debut)
Sat Nov 7 - Charles Bukowski's LA
Thurs Nov 12 - Art Walk w/ FREE Hippodrome shuttle, Salons & walking tours
Sat Nov 14 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat December 5 – Pasadena Confidential
Thurs Dec 10 - Art Walk w/ FREE Hippodrome shuttle, Salons & walking tours
Sat December 12 – Blood & Dumplings

For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com

For more on the Dr. Walter Bayley theory, visit Larry Harnisch's "Heaven is Here" website http://www.lmharnisch.com/

Tour hosts Kim Cooper, Richard Schave and Joan Renner are available for interviews, and journalists on assignment can often be accommodated on the Esotouric bus. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.

ALLIANCE REPERTORY COMPANY HAS A NEW HOME

kim — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:04:21 -0400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: Bryan Kopta
(818) 769-7678
bryan.koptaATgmailDOTcom
www.alliancerepertory.org

ALLIANCE REPERTORY COMPANY HAS A NEW HOME

Los Angeles, CA, October 7, 2009 - After two years of producing nomadically, the award-winning, twenty-three year-old Alliance Repertory Company has taken up residence in the NoHo Arts District. Currently called Andrew Benne Studio, the new location at 4930 Lankershim Boulevard is a fitting one.

"There's a fateful connection with the Andrew Benne Studio," says the company's artistic director, Royana Black. "Andrew Benne was a student of Edward Kaye Martin, the original founder of Alliance Repertory." After 21 years in Burbank, Alliance Repertory is excited to be in the heart of the revitalized NoHo Arts District. "The energy here is very different from that in Burbank. This area is evolving into its own creative scene. We're glad to be a part of it," says Chairman, Darrell Bryan.
The Alliance will be producing at least three premiere plays per season in the intimate, 35-seat space.

The first production, the West Coast premiere of eight one-act plays, fittingly titled, "eight," will open October 31, 2009 (followed by a huge Halloween party at the theatre), and run through December 20. In addition, look for Thursday's "Five for $5," an ongoing series devoted to new fiction by playwrights, as well as poetry, music, and stand-up, debuting later this year. In its two decades of producing compelling theater, the Alliance has won numerous awards from LA Weekly, the ADA, Drama-Logue, Ovations, and the Valley Theatre League.

In their new home, the company plans to continue their run of success. For additional information, please contact Producing Director, Bryan Kopta at (818)-769-7678 or visit www.alliancerepertory.org

L.A. Literary Lion Charles Bukowski Roars with a Bus Tour and Art Walk Talk

kim — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:30:49 -0400

For immediate release

October 6, 2009

L.A. Literary Lion Charles Bukowski Roars with a Bus Tour and Art Walk Talk

WHAT: Esotouric's "Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A." bus tour
WHEN: Saturday November 7, 12pm-4pm, departs from Philippe The Original, 1001 N Alameda, Downtown LA
COST: $58/person, includes coffee and donuts served at Bukowski's favorite Pink Elephant Liquor Store.
OTHER BUKOWSKI HAPPENINGS: Thursday, October 8, at the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk, journalist Marco Mannone hosts a conversational Salon on Bukowski in the 21st Century (5:30pm-7ish, Clifton's Cafeteria, Broadway at 7th, free),
MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com and http://www.downtownartwalk.com/salon or call 323-223-2767

LOS ANGELES- On November 7, Esotouric, the company whose offbeat bus tours expose LA's secret history, rolls out its popular and occasional Charles Bukowski bus tour, HAUNTS OF A DIRTY OLD MAN. The tour departs from Philippe The Original, the legendary downtown sandwich shop where postal worker Bukowski often ate while employed across the street at the brutal Terminal Annex sorting facility.

Girls Gone Wild Magazine says the Bukowski tour is "the polar opposite of those double-decker tourist traps that schlep rubes past Tom Cruise's house and the Hollywood sign." And Forth Magazine's Marco Mannone raves about an experience "filled with so much wit and insight into not only Bukowski, but lost parts of Los Angeles."

In his capacity as the newly named Director of the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk, tour houst Richard Schave has invited journalist Marco Mannone to lead a Salon discussion on Bukowski in the 21st Century as part of the October 8 Art Walk. The Salon is a series of free programs at the historic Clifton's Cafeteria on Broadway at 7th, a lifelong favorite dining destination for Bukowski, who celebrated the restaurants in one of his late, biographical poems. The Salon offers an opportunity for culturally curious Angelenos to come together and explore ideas in a convivial atmosphere, scheduled early on Art Walk evenings to leave plenty of time for self-guided post-Salon exploration. Marco Mannone's free Art Walk Bukowski Salon runs from 5:30pm-7ish, overlapping with Maja D'Aoust's Salon on Prestidigitation and Metaphysics (5pm-6:30pm).

Esotouric has made its name with true crime bus tours (Black Dahlia, Pasadena Confidential) and explorations of literary LA (Raymond Chandler, John Fante, James M. Cain). Now they turn their creative attentions to Bukowski, the prolific poet, novelist and screenwriter whose rough-hewn tales of boozing, wild women and rotten jobs never obscure the deep vein of sweetness and hope that runs through all his work.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule
Thurs Oct 8- Art Walk w/ FREE Hippodrome shuttle, Salons & walking tours
Sat Oct 10 - Wild Wild West Side
Sat Oct 17 – Raymond Chandler's Bay City
Sat Oct 24– Raymond Chandler's L.A.
Sat Oct 31 – Maja's Mysteries spiritual L.A. tour (debut)
Sun Nov 1 – East Side Babylon crime bus tour (debut)
Sat Nov 7 - Charles Bukowski's LA
Thurs Nov 12 - Art Walk w/ FREE Hippodrome shuttle, Salons & walking tours
Sat Nov 14 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat December 5 – Pasadena Confidential
Thurs Dec 10 - Art Walk w/ FREE Hippodrome shuttle, Salons & walking tours
Sat December 12 – Blood & Dumplings