Villains, Charles, and Becoming L.A.

Check out Dimples O'Rawley. Even the grandkids get villainized.

Oh, man, so much good stuff is going on. Let’s dive in.

First, a quick update to my last post: After playing a couple of shows out on the East Coast, Vaud and the Villains are back in Southern California. They are playing Sept. 21 at Fais Do Do (in the West Adams district) and, if you’re the San Diego area, on Sept. 29 at a place called The Belly Up in Solana Beach.



“Jim, you keep gushing about these guys,” you say. “Are they really that good?”

Let me put to you this way: we’re seeing them on Sept. 21 for the third time in three months. Yeah, they are that good.

Speaking of the 21st, it kills me that this is going on the same night because I would really love to go: The Moon Festival is being held in Chinatown. Similar to the Summer Nights series, it features live bands, food trucks, dancing, cooking demonstrations, dragon dancers, and more. A band that I like, The Little Ones (unapologetically sunny pop rock), is scheduled to play. The festival runs from 5 to 11 p.m. and admission is free.

If you drive, there’s relatively cheap parking nearby. If you go Metro, the Chinatown station off the Gold Line drops you off about a block away from the festivities. If we didn’t have tix for Vaud and the Villains, we would be all over this one.

Speaking of Chinatown, “histo-tainer” Charles Phoenix will be conducting tours there on Oct. 6. You don’t know who Charles Phoenix is? Hold on a moment while I face palm and say “oh, dude…”

In addition to being a performer and an author, Charles also likes to experiment with food.

Let me back up a bit. One of our recent dates had us taking in the new “Becoming L.A.” exhibit at the Natural History Museum, seeing an IMAX film at the California Science Center, and then going back over to the museum to see Charles Phoenix’s slideshow: “Architecture in L.A.”

If you have seen a Charles Phoenix show or gone on one of his tours, you know how much fun he is. If you haven’t, in you’re in for a treat.

Charles is the king of retro California. Growing up in Ontario, he fell in love with all that is Southern California – theme parks, neon lighting, googie (space age themed) design, and 50s and 60s cars (his dad was a used car salesman). After stints as a fashion designer (he’s a grad of FIDM where Kim occasionally teaches) and as a classic car salesman, Charles started on the path of becoming an author and entertainer when he found a shoe box of slides of a road trip made in 1957. He’s been collecting slides ever since.

In his bio on his website, Charles calls his slide archive the “Slibrary” and employs a “Slibrarian.”

Now he does themed slideshow presentations. He recently did a retro Disneyland show in Anaheim and his annual Christmas slide show is not to be missed. He also does Disneyland-themed tours of downtown Los Angeles (also well worth the time and money).

His L.A. architecture show, which he is performing again in Pasadena on Nov. 24, features unappreciated and under-appreciated buildings and signs from the 50s and 60s. Here’s a description from his website: “With his trademark enthusiasm, gracious wit, and keen eye for odd-ball detail, Charles shares spectacular space-age drive-ins, coffee shops, bowling alleys, strip malls, shopping centers, extreme homes, dingbat apartments, fast food stands, theme parks and much more all in glorious color!!!”

That’s the show: amazing slides of a golden age in Southern California design accompanied by his witty banter.

The key word being “witty.” This isn’t snarky commentary. He makes fun of things, but it is done with love. He has a true appreciation for what he is showing you.

I found this great quote of his from a 2005 interview on NPR: "I want people to stop saying `Oh, that was so tacky or that was so ugly or whatever.' You know, it wasn't all tacky and ugly. It was amazing."

He is doing the architecture show on Nov. 24 at the Art Center College in Pasadena. Tickets are $25 and $30.

On Oct. 6, Charles is doing three one-hour tours of Chinatown. Here’s the description from his website. “Look through the layers of time at Chinatown’s recently restored vintage neon signage, colorful Chinese modern architecture, multi-generation family owned antique stores and curio shops, classic restaurants and more. You will never see Old Chinatown the same way again.”

Tickets are $39 each. A bit pricey, I know, but it is Charles and it is Chinatown.

Back to our date. Before I go any further, remember this: do not drive anywhere near Exposition Park when USC is playing a home game. We made the mistake on a previous family outing of going during a game and got stuck in a massive traffic jam. We kept seeing signs with progressively higher fees for parking, topping at $80 (that’s not a typo - $80). We finally broke free and headed downtown, parked next to the 7th and Metro station for $3, and took the Expo Line back. (The Natural History Museum will knock $1.25 off your admission free for riding Metro.

If you haven’t been to the museum or haven’t been recently, now is a good time to go. The museum has just gone through a major renovation and looks fabulous.

One of the new additions is the new permanent “Becoming L.A.” exhibit, which covers about 14,000 square feet of space. The exhibit chronicles the history of the city (yes, L.A. has history) from the first contact with the Spanish explorers through its development into the city we now love.

Nice tagline.

Kim is a teacher, so she gets into the museum for free. Because we arrived about an hour before closing, my ticket has half off - $6.

An hour is just about the right amount of time to see the L.A. exhibit. Its highlights include one of Charles Chapin’s “Little Tramp” costumes, a 1902 Tourist automobile, and one of Walt Disney’s early animation machines, with a handwritten set of instructions from the man himself. One room is filled with a scaled model of the city, circa 1930.

After seeing the exhibit, we went over to the nearby California Science Center to see one of their IMAX movies, Blue Planet. The movie is fantastic to look at. Be warned it does come with quite a bit of tree-hugging-save-our-planet narration (I’m a tree hugger, so I was okay with it). Tickets were $8.25. I can’t remember the cost of concession stand food, but I do remember it being quite reasonable.

If I were planning another date to Exposition Park, I would get timed tickets to see the space shuttle Endeavour over the Science Center (The center admission is free. Tickets for Endeavour are free, but there is a small fee for getting them over the Internet) and spend the first part of my day there. I would picnic at the tables just outside its backdoors and then head over to the Natural History Museum for the afternoon.

Parking at Exposition Park can be had for $8 or $10, depending on the lot. If you go Metro (always a favorite of ours), the park is an easy walk from the station.

Well, that’s it for now.