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Los Angeles

The King Eddy Saloon and the Issue of Authenticity

January 11, 2013

  The King Eddy Saloon, Los Angeles   The following guest post by Aaron Gilbreath (@AaronGilbreath) is part of our online companion to our Winter 2013 issue on Classic Hollywood. (Click here for an overview.) ——— At dinner in [...]

Leaving Los Angeles

There’s some paradox, some string theory, maybe, whereby if Los Angeles disappeared into the ocean, New York would also grudgingly cease to exist. They are each other’s negative image, linked by mutual loathing. I grew up in Long Island, came of age in Manhattan, and though I couldn’t tell you when the brainwashing started, when this seed was planted, at some point I knew it as sure as I knew my own name.

The Malin House (Chemosphere), built in 1961. (Ken Hively. © 2011. Los Angeles Times. Used with permission.)

If You Were Cool, Rich, or Bad Enough to Live Here, You’d Be Home

When I first moved to Los Angeles, I found myself energized by the city’s aesthetic extremes and, upon watching Brian de Palma’s Body Double, quickly sought out John Lautner’s Chemosphere house, arguably the film’s most pivotal character: an octagonal pod-like home with a 360° view, thrust above the hills on a single pole plunged deep into a steep, sloping lot. 

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