City of Angels 2019-20

In the past week, a recurring topic of discussion has been palm trees and their connection to Los Angeles. Despite being a foreign plant, palm trees have quickly emerged as a major staple for the city of Los Angeles, but only one (the Washingtonia filifera (California fan palm)) is native to Los Angeles. The stereotypical palm tree of Los Angeles is actually the Mexican fan palm. Palm trees began their LA story when the Franciscans missionaries used them purely for ornamental purposes, most likely a reference to the tree’s biblical connections. Later, at the turn-of-the-century, palm trees became part of the popular garden trend. However, palm trees provide little shade and no fruit, leaving them to once again be used for ornamental purposes. Although they are a pretty sight to see driving down Sunset Boulevard, palm trees have no other purpose than to look simply pretty. Buzzworm, however, thinks differently when he discusses palm trees in-depth and expresses his disappointment in pe...

For the past week, we have spent a large portion of our in-class discussions talking about the displacement of communities and how these ethnic/racial groups have been forced into minuscule parts of major cities. You all know the rabbit analogy. The readings about the Plaza show that minority communities are pushed into small sectors of cities by groups in power. In these small communities, their culture flourishes in both positive and negative ways. Although people are able to practice their way of life in these places, they don’t necessarily get treated as equals by the rest of the city. Many times, these communities are treated like zoo animals or spectacles, only amplifying the issue of alienation, cultural appropriation, and racism. For example, Olvera Street is wonderful in that it allows for people of Latinamerican decent to enjoy the “staples” of their culture of origin. Are the things showcased on Olvera Street really the “staples” of Latinamerican culture, though? Also, isn’...

This past week, through Deverell’s Whitewashed Adobe, we have been delving deep into the raging violence brought to by America’s expansion and the subjugation of the Mexican-Americans by the Anglo-Americans. More specifically, we discussed how the Anglo-Americans quickly outnumbered and schlepped the Mexican population into one deeply diminished cultural space. The line between Mexico and America remained blurry with faint distinctions of what is “ours” versus what is “theirs.” The Anglo-Americans wished to transform Los Angeles from an agrarian, Spanish-speaking town to an industrialized, predominantly White city.  In this first chapter, we also read about Mr. and Mrs. Los Angeles, an “ideal” 1920s couple, who thinks about California’s past through the midst of romance and loves to go to Olvera Street “for the hilarities of Cinco de Mayo.” I suppose I am wondering when their views shift from anti-Mexican to admiringly viewing the “ancient era of Mexican California shimmering ...

Last Friday, our class followed our deep reading of Mike Davis’s City of Quartz with the staple Noir masterpiece, Double Indemnity. I remember studying Noir during my freshman year in the Film History and Application class, and frankly, I just remember being disturbed and upset by the archetypal characterization of women in these films. The women were evil masters of manipulation who used sexual prowess and mind control in order to seduce and control the protagonist male in the film, often for a monetary or capital gain. This inherently negative representation of women is a huge part of every Noir film, but after watching Double Indemnity for the second time, I started to more deeply understand the roles of women in these Noir films; the women truly represent the essence of Noir as a complex metaphor for Los Angeles. Women in Noir films, specifically in Double Indemnity , turn out to be the brilliant, complex, artistic --and incredibly offensive-- metaphor for an idea Mike Davis ...

Anais Singh City of Angels F/G Period October 12, 2019 Cultural Division in Los Angeles Something we've discussed in class is the diversity of cultures within Los Angeles, but also the obvious divide and separation of these cultures. We all know that Olvera Street is home to Mexican culture in LA, Chinatown is Chinese, and Little Tokyo is Japanese. But there are also so many other communities that are not nearly as well known, such as Little Bangladesh in Central Los Angeles, Artesia, near Cerritos, and Little Armenia which is located in East Hollywood. Many who visit places such as Olvera Street do it to learn about and appreciate other cultures, yet seem to leave many others out. A topic we touched on in class is if it is the responsibility of these Angelenos to go out of their way and learn about each culture possible or pick and choose what they would like to do. Do you think that if one decides to visit one community and learn about that one culture, th...

Last week, we were tasked with taking a photo which embodied the idea of " noir . Armed with only our prior knowledge of the word, we produced a collection of black and white pictures, filled with shadows and drama–– a purely cinematic interpretation of the idea. In the past few days, we have learned much more about noir: what it represented, the movement it created, and its close knit relationship with the city of Los Angeles. After reading Mike Davis’s City of Quartz , I am now more curious than ever about the rise of and subsequent “yuppification” (as Mike Davis describes it) of noir as a cultural and artistic movement in Los Angeles.  I am most fascinated by the limits of noir and how the genre ended up contradicting itself. Although the concept of noir seemed promising when it first appeared, it quickly popularized and spun out of control. The purpose of noir originally was to cast a light on the city and discover the shadows it hid. Noir brought the previous boost...

At the beginning of the school year, we were asked to set goals for the class and ourselves. One goal I set for myself was to learn something unique about Los Angeles every day; something that is true of LA, and not true of anywhere else in the world. We have asked questions and searched for answers in books, podcasts, cultural sites, and each other. It is the distinct character of Los Angeles that makes our city so exciting. These traits and how they shape LA fascinate me most. We recently spent time talking about Los Angeles and its environment. We read about various topographic features, natural resources, and our tumultuous geology. When giving her presentation to the class, Ms. Dunham informed us about tectonic plates and the role they play in LA’s landscape. One thing that struck me during her presentation was that a portion of Southern California (LA’s portion) is on a different tectonic plate than the rest of the continental United States. Los Angeles...

Last week, I visited Minnesota for the first time. Having never been anywhere in the Midwest, I was excited to see a different part of the country. However, as soon as I stepped off the airplane, it was very clear that there were a few things that I take for granted living in Los Angeles. As an Asian American in LA—Pasadena specifically—I cannot say that I’ve had the same experiences that many minorities in the LA area have had. It’s easy for me to forget that I’m considered a minority in most of the places I frequent (which may be a product of the model minority myth, but that’s another topic for discussion). Even so, the racial diversity, or lack thereof, was shocking. It caused me to think a lot about population size and the demographics of a population related to the geographic area. Hennepin County, where Minneapolis is located, has nowhere near the population of LA County (Hennepin comes in at around 1.3 million versus LA’s 10.1 million). So with the environmental challenges tha...