I only made it to LA a few times but they were good times. many of my friends ended up there. I performed at the '84 Olympics with Rhys Chatham and hung out and played a few other gigs with friends. I even went to Disneyland with Karen Haglof, if you know her, guitarist with Band of Susans. I went back a couple of times and sat in with people. It was always a mixture of cool and yet uninviting to me. I've been thinking of going out to offer some help in the aftermath of the fires.
I do remember Karen Haglof, Bill. Sounds like a wonderful time - wondering if they'll still do the Olympics there...is it next year? PS Happy Birthday! Take care, hope you're keeping well this winter.
Our last trip West was in 2019 and after spending the morning at the amazing Getty Museum, we visited with an old college friend who was living in the Palisades. Really wish I had paid closer attention to all I saw that afternoon, heartbreaking to know it’s gone in that form forever. 💔
I envy that trip to the Getty, it always has seemed too big a time commitment which now just feels foolish. Hoping some rain will come (not too much) and help ease things for everyone in L.A. I hope your friend's okay.
Enjoyed your "litany." It is interesting how we can form attachments to places we've never actually lived. The loss of landmark houses and business buildings and sites for films we know, well, that's something that we all lose, a kind of several-steps-removed loss, a cultural loss. This post reminds me of how hard you've worked, too!
Thank you Scott, and I appreciate your comment about my hard work! Sometimes I wonder what exactly I was doing/did it all add up? For sure I got better and more comfortable at performing, on stage might be the place I feel the most like myself. Not sure if that's healthy! Anyways, also wanted to say sorry to jump on your Slits comment, I just always think of them as the core three. It was such a cool pic you posted, I loved that band!
My first trip to LA was also in '79. January. Nobody wanted to go so I went myself. Loved seeing snow on the mountains. Dragged Lori there 6 months later to see the Groovies at the Whisky and she loved it so much she didn't want to go up to frisco at all. We stayed at the Tropicana till she saw roaches and then we went out to Santa Monica. Was the Hollywood Blvd bookstore Larry Edmunds? For a while I would go down to LA every year...Hollywood (I don't drive) and Disneyland. Even Knotts (for the chicken dinner). Loved the Hotel Roosevelt (when it was still haunted and affordable) and the Beverly Garland. As someone once said, I LOVE LA.
Knotts Berry Farm! That was another place I saw in maybe Tiger Beat or one of those mags and thought how fantastic. Yes, the Hollywood Roosevelt! It was so special, the atmosphere, and amazingly affordable. I'm so glad you prove one can love BOTH SF and LA Don.
Thank you for sharing. I remember some of those places and you describe it, as you do, bringing it to life. I've been there, twice. This is heartbreaking. Thank you, L.A. Love you.
it's devastating. so many memories. i keep realizing that, after lives (mostly) saved, all of the cool buildings, gear and stuff lost forever. then, i start thinking about master tapes and more stuff and the mind just boggles. at least, most we know are safe. hopefully, xxxcm
Thank you for this moving meditation. I love LA (especially from afar) and I love your writing—so humble and clear and rhythmic. Today will be a big day for many Angelinos. Sending all of us hope to carry on.
Thank you for this. I love Los Angeles--or, to your point, I love my hallucination of the hallucination that is Los Angeles--and those last three sentences made me tear up. Very glad your daughter is safe.
Thank you for putting that perfectly Carlene - it's not quite real and I've loved keeping it that way. This too real tragedy makes me realize what a big space it takes up in my imagination.
Lovely piece Amy. Always enjoyed all my visits to LA but this is devastating. One of the composers and publishers I worked with for years has lost everything - home, recording studio including a collection of vintage Steinway pianos in the Pallisades fire.
Lovely So Cal lore. As a now priced-out of No Cal former U.C.-Berkeley student and alt (weekly) press wannabe salaried (never2be) newshound my visits to L.A. basin (and still reading novelists who can capture its mystique, like Oregon-based Jon Raymond in Free Bird on the corruption and rot inside L.A.'s municipal utilities like the Water Dept) and writing free lance reviews of live shows, more than a few at McCabe's back room cabaret where I still binge via U. of Tube links to clips of live shows by the dead & gone faves like J.J. Cale and his very live wife and song-making partner Christine Lakeland) your Musical Memoirs ring more than a few mystical bells.
I've loved your recordings since Diary of A Mod Housewife and your punkier stuff on that Chicago indie label along with short-lived Koch distribution platform keeping some indie stuff in circulation longer. When I lived in No Cal among my favorite writers (of poetry, novels & a genre he invented himself which I call Musical Memoirs - different in the way his had interpenetration between the personal life lived and the soundtrack music that accompanied eras of his life) was now lamentably deceased Al Young, who was well-supported teaching gypsy adjunct at U.C.-Berkeley and Stanford.
Your piece here lamenting L.A.'s Pacific Palisades fantasy coastal cliffside tableaux turned to ash like some biblical retribution for overstaying the American Dream puts me in mind of dear Al Young's Musical Memoirs. You can pick em up in used paperback shops for pennies as they were indie published outta Berkeley with Ishmael Reed's wild ride social satires on their own publishing imprint:
Thank you Mitch - I love some L.A. writers too, James M. Cain prob competing with Eve Babitz as my faves. I'll look into Al Young's! Take care and think I may have to look up one of those JJ Cale live sets now.
These are amazing Amy - it makes me feel good to know what I wrote was any help. You made the leap, how wonderful to have had that experience. That's so cool you worked with Justin, and incredible about your great great grandfather - after years visiting Eagle Rock I FINALLY saw the rock the last time when staying at the Wild Honey loft! Take care and hope you have a good 2025 x
I only made it to LA a few times but they were good times. many of my friends ended up there. I performed at the '84 Olympics with Rhys Chatham and hung out and played a few other gigs with friends. I even went to Disneyland with Karen Haglof, if you know her, guitarist with Band of Susans. I went back a couple of times and sat in with people. It was always a mixture of cool and yet uninviting to me. I've been thinking of going out to offer some help in the aftermath of the fires.
I do remember Karen Haglof, Bill. Sounds like a wonderful time - wondering if they'll still do the Olympics there...is it next year? PS Happy Birthday! Take care, hope you're keeping well this winter.
Much better than mine!
Oh no, I need to read yours Eline! You're a fantastic writer.
I’m ha ha ha-ing over here in my cold house.
Our last trip West was in 2019 and after spending the morning at the amazing Getty Museum, we visited with an old college friend who was living in the Palisades. Really wish I had paid closer attention to all I saw that afternoon, heartbreaking to know it’s gone in that form forever. 💔
I envy that trip to the Getty, it always has seemed too big a time commitment which now just feels foolish. Hoping some rain will come (not too much) and help ease things for everyone in L.A. I hope your friend's okay.
Hi Amy, nice to stumble on you here.
I’ll check in on you. Find me at The Conceptual Artist’s Cookbook. Cheers
Thank you Craig, I will!
Enjoyed your "litany." It is interesting how we can form attachments to places we've never actually lived. The loss of landmark houses and business buildings and sites for films we know, well, that's something that we all lose, a kind of several-steps-removed loss, a cultural loss. This post reminds me of how hard you've worked, too!
Thank you Scott, and I appreciate your comment about my hard work! Sometimes I wonder what exactly I was doing/did it all add up? For sure I got better and more comfortable at performing, on stage might be the place I feel the most like myself. Not sure if that's healthy! Anyways, also wanted to say sorry to jump on your Slits comment, I just always think of them as the core three. It was such a cool pic you posted, I loved that band!
My first trip to LA was also in '79. January. Nobody wanted to go so I went myself. Loved seeing snow on the mountains. Dragged Lori there 6 months later to see the Groovies at the Whisky and she loved it so much she didn't want to go up to frisco at all. We stayed at the Tropicana till she saw roaches and then we went out to Santa Monica. Was the Hollywood Blvd bookstore Larry Edmunds? For a while I would go down to LA every year...Hollywood (I don't drive) and Disneyland. Even Knotts (for the chicken dinner). Loved the Hotel Roosevelt (when it was still haunted and affordable) and the Beverly Garland. As someone once said, I LOVE LA.
Knotts Berry Farm! That was another place I saw in maybe Tiger Beat or one of those mags and thought how fantastic. Yes, the Hollywood Roosevelt! It was so special, the atmosphere, and amazingly affordable. I'm so glad you prove one can love BOTH SF and LA Don.
Thank you for sharing. I remember some of those places and you describe it, as you do, bringing it to life. I've been there, twice. This is heartbreaking. Thank you, L.A. Love you.
Thank you Angie. I left out SO much. I wish the best for this amazing place!
it's devastating. so many memories. i keep realizing that, after lives (mostly) saved, all of the cool buildings, gear and stuff lost forever. then, i start thinking about master tapes and more stuff and the mind just boggles. at least, most we know are safe. hopefully, xxxcm
So much lost, it hurts even from this far away -all the more reason to shout, as Randy Newman says: "We love it!"
Thank you for this moving meditation. I love LA (especially from afar) and I love your writing—so humble and clear and rhythmic. Today will be a big day for many Angelinos. Sending all of us hope to carry on.
Thank you Sandra!
Thank you for this. I love Los Angeles--or, to your point, I love my hallucination of the hallucination that is Los Angeles--and those last three sentences made me tear up. Very glad your daughter is safe.
Thank you for putting that perfectly Carlene - it's not quite real and I've loved keeping it that way. This too real tragedy makes me realize what a big space it takes up in my imagination.
I have too many things to say about how I've loved keeping it not quite real! Exactly. And Eve Babitz: love her.
Lovely piece Amy. Always enjoyed all my visits to LA but this is devastating. One of the composers and publishers I worked with for years has lost everything - home, recording studio including a collection of vintage Steinway pianos in the Pallisades fire.
Oh George, that is heartbreaking. It is overwhelming the list of folks who lost everything in Palisades and Eaton fires...
Lovely So Cal lore. As a now priced-out of No Cal former U.C.-Berkeley student and alt (weekly) press wannabe salaried (never2be) newshound my visits to L.A. basin (and still reading novelists who can capture its mystique, like Oregon-based Jon Raymond in Free Bird on the corruption and rot inside L.A.'s municipal utilities like the Water Dept) and writing free lance reviews of live shows, more than a few at McCabe's back room cabaret where I still binge via U. of Tube links to clips of live shows by the dead & gone faves like J.J. Cale and his very live wife and song-making partner Christine Lakeland) your Musical Memoirs ring more than a few mystical bells.
I've loved your recordings since Diary of A Mod Housewife and your punkier stuff on that Chicago indie label along with short-lived Koch distribution platform keeping some indie stuff in circulation longer. When I lived in No Cal among my favorite writers (of poetry, novels & a genre he invented himself which I call Musical Memoirs - different in the way his had interpenetration between the personal life lived and the soundtrack music that accompanied eras of his life) was now lamentably deceased Al Young, who was well-supported teaching gypsy adjunct at U.C.-Berkeley and Stanford.
Your piece here lamenting L.A.'s Pacific Palisades fantasy coastal cliffside tableaux turned to ash like some biblical retribution for overstaying the American Dream puts me in mind of dear Al Young's Musical Memoirs. You can pick em up in used paperback shops for pennies as they were indie published outta Berkeley with Ishmael Reed's wild ride social satires on their own publishing imprint:
https://neglectedbooks.com/?p=205
Keep on doing, Amy & band!
Health and balance especially to your next gen daughter....
Tio Mitchito
Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters, PsalmSong Chasers
Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of Atonement Seekers)
Media Discussion List\Looksee
Thank you Mitch - I love some L.A. writers too, James M. Cain prob competing with Eve Babitz as my faves. I'll look into Al Young's! Take care and think I may have to look up one of those JJ Cale live sets now.
These are amazing Amy - it makes me feel good to know what I wrote was any help. You made the leap, how wonderful to have had that experience. That's so cool you worked with Justin, and incredible about your great great grandfather - after years visiting Eagle Rock I FINALLY saw the rock the last time when staying at the Wild Honey loft! Take care and hope you have a good 2025 x