Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
19
baptize a N ative Californian. The most
notable contents of the mission 's museum
are N ative American paintings depicting
the S tations of the C ross, done on sail-
cloth, with colors made fr
om cr ushed
desert flower petals.
4
L.A. IN POPULAR CULTURE:
BOOKS & AUTOS
LOS ANGELES ON THE
PAGE
NONFICTION
In vivid detail, E dward
Jay E pstein's
The B ig P icture: The N ew
Logic of M oney and P ower in H ollywood
(Random House, 2005) delv es deep into
the modern moviemaking machine with a
behind-the-scenes glimpse into the “ sex-
opoly”: the six mega-media companies
that control motion picture entertainment
(it's a r eal myth-buster). Love 'em or hate
'em, the saga of the L.A. Lakers makes for
good reading in
The Last Season: A Team In
Search of I ts Soul
by Lakers coach P hil
Jackson (Penguin Press, 2004). I t's a pr o-
athlete opera of rape charges, spoiled
FICTION
Since the topic is almost
always better than the mo vie, try a few of
these no vels that hav e been adapted into
successful films: J ames Ellroy's epic crime
novel
L.A. Confidential
(Mysterious Press,
1990), Joan Didion's profoundly disturb-
ing
Play I t as I t Lays
(F arrar, S traus and
Giroux, 1990), J oseph Wambaugh's grip-
ping LAPD chronicles such as
The Onion
Field
(Dell, 1974), John Gregory Dunne's
cynical and har d-boiled
True Confessions
(Bookthrift Co., 1977), Elmore Leonard's
Hollywood-based bestseller
Get S horty
(HarperTorch, 2002), and M ichael Tol-
kin's absorbing mystery/thriller
The Player
(Grove Press, 1997). And, of course, any-
thing by Raymond Chandler:
Farewell My
Lovely, The B ig S leep, The Long G oodbye,
The Lady in the Lake,
2
superstars, team meltdo wns, and public
feuds. Former Crips gang member Sanyika
Shakur documents his life of violence,
drugs, and redemption growing up in the
streets of S outh Central L.A. in
Monster:
Autobiography of an L.A. G ang M ember
(Penguin Books, 1998).
L.A. E xposed:
Strange M yths and C urious Legends in the
City of A ngels
by Paul Young (St. Martin's
Press, 2002) is a compelling compendium
of dispelled myths, v erified rumors, crime
lore, conspiracy legends, tall tales, blatant
lies, political scandal, and v arious other
fascinating accounts of past and pr esent
Los Angeles. E qually titillating is M att
Maranian and Anthony Lo vett's
L.A.
Bizarro: The Insiders Guide to the O bscure,
the Absurd and the P erverse in Los A ngeles
(St. Martin's Griffin, 1997), 192 pages of
murder sites, sex shops, curiosity shops,
dive bars, and v arious other S outhern
California scurrility.
and
The P ostman
Always Rings Twice.
FROM HORSELESS
CARRIAGES TO HOT RODS
The S outhern California lifestyle is so
closely tied to the automobile that it has
given rise to a whole subcultur e of the car .
Since its intr oduction to the infant city it
would gr ow up with, the automobile has
become a pop phenomenon all its o wn,
inextricably intertwined with the personal-
ity of L.A.—and the identities of its r
esi-
dents. Although the first “horseless
carriages” emerged fr om the M idwest, it 's
been Hollywood's influence that has defined
the entire nation's passion for the car.
During the early 1920s, movie comedi-
ans Laur el and H ardy and the K eystone
Cops began to blend their brand of physi-
cal humor with the popular Ford Model T.
