We called ourselves the Vidiots. We were not paparazzi since we had little interest in videotaping celebrities. Nor were we nightcrawlers, those gothic ambulance chasers who taped police shootings to sell to the evening news. We saw ourselves as documentarians wanting to capture the essence of our beloved Los Angeles.
We relished taping locations from classic movies. We recorded inside the Bradbury Building featured in Bladerunner. We shot at the Alto Nido Apartments where William Holden’s character lived in Sunset Boulevard. We taped in dark alleys, on rooftops, inside abandoned buildings, on the sides of freeways. Once, while driving through…
Our ice cream man’s name was Mac. He was a stocky ex-marine with a spiky crew cut and aviator sunglasses that hid his eyes. His truck had a Nixon for President sticker on the back bumper and the music box played “Hail to the Chief.” Mac was surly and impatient and hated kids. But his ice cream selection was top notch. He had bomb pops, big sticks, fudgesicles, drumsticks and ice cream sandwiches.
I usually bought a Klondike Bar and a pack of Topps baseball cards. I also loved Wacky Packs, the goofy parodies of brand names such as Quacker…
When I was a boy, our family had three robust lemon trees in the backyard. The lemons were large and ugly with rough bumpy rind resembling an old man’s face. The flesh was mild, not too tart and not too sweet. My siblings and I decided to set up a lemonade stand. My little sister made the lemonade while my brother and I dragged a poker table and a piano bench to the sidewalk in front of the house. I scrawled a primitive sign reading “Lemonade 5 Cents.” …
When people think of the music of Peter Gabriel, they often visualize the “Sledgehammer” music video or the scene in Say Anything when John Cusack plays “In Your Eyes” on a boom box. These two songs are among Gabriel’s biggest commercial hits but the true gems are found deeper in his catalogue.
Peter Gabriel wrote his first song “Sammy the Slug” at age twelve. His father was an electrical engineer, his mother a musician. He was raised on a farm in Coxhill, England and attended a conservative boys school outside London. …
On January 20th, while Joe Biden was sworn in as president, I received the Pfizer vaccine shot #1. Like many, I was on the fence. I didn’t believe the conspiracies about cancer cells or mind control chips in the vaccine. But I was unsure about the efficacy against new COVID strains. I didn’t like the idea of injecting an unknown substance into my body.
I was given an early vaccine opportunity because I teach art classes to senior citizens. The process took place at a Calabasas senior home. I learned that 20 percent of the facility’s employees refused the vaccine…
We are living through an unprecedented time. 400,000 Americans are dead from Covid, more than 11 million are unemployed, businesses are failing, people are struggling to pay bills and everyone feels some level of anxiety. The vaccine offered a moment of hope but almost half the population is afraid to be vaccinated. It can feel as if the world is coming to an end.
As scary as things appear, we don’t have to reside in fear. There are simple things we can do to mitigate anxiety.
Practice Gratitude: My grandma lived through the 1918 Pandemic and the Depression. She often…
Twelve marijuana dispensaries exist within a four-mile radius of my Los Angeles home. The stores are quirky and reek of weed-inspired names like The Coughy Shop, Gram Central Station, The Green Mile, Herbal Outfitters, Higher Path, Hollyweed, Pipe Dreams, The Growcery, The Pottery and Uncle Herb’s. Los Angeles has nearly 200 licensed marijuana dispensaries and more than 900 licensed sellers. At a fee of $4,233 per license, that’s quite a haul for the city.
In the 2020 election, four new states legalized marijuana. This brought the total number of weed-legal states to 15. Weed has never been easier and cheaper…
The streak began on an ominous note. It was November 5, 1971 and Coach Bill Sharman approached Elgin Baylor with an ultimatum. The Los Angeles Lakers were 6–3 but Sharman was disappointed in the team’s play. He wanted a fast-break style and Baylor was slowing down the offense.
Sharman told Baylor, “Elgin, I feel terrible, but I know you have a bad leg… so I thought I’d bring you in as a substitute.” Baylor replied, “I don’t want to be a substitute and I’m still injured so it’s best that I retire.” …
Yes, he was this scary in person. I worked with Jack Palance in 1992 on the television series Legends of the West. He was intimidating. His height, his sharp cheekbones, his intense silence — all added to an aura of quiet menace. When I gained the courage to speak with him I learned his silence was merely shyness. He told me about his fondness for watercolor painting, his love of poetry, his huge cattle ranch in Bakersfield. He shared concerns over his son Cody who was battling drug addiction (Cody worked as a stuntman on the show.) …
The Scream is fading. Edvard Munch’s 1893 painting depicting a shrieking, agonized face is slowly losing it’s vibrancy. Yellows are fading to white and tiny pieces of paint are flaking away. A similar thing is happening with Van Gogh’s Field of Irises Near Arles. The once vivid chrome yellow has faded to a dullish brown. Another Van Gogh piece, The Bedroom, originally featured soft purple walls. The red pigment has broken down and the walls are now blue.
Van Gogh and Munch lived during a time of revolutionary change in the art world. Progress in the chemical industry introduced pre-made…
Loren Kantor
Loren is a writer and woodcut artist based in Los Angeles. He teaches printmaking and creative writing to kids and adults.
