Birds of Paradise: Palisades Park, Santa Monica

One of the unique features of Los Angeles is the incredible variety of plants and flowers found here, the vast majority of which have been imported from other places in the world.

The South African "Bird of Paradise" is a great example of a flowering import that thrives along much of coastal Southern California. The Bird of Paradise is the official flower of the City of Los Angeles (yes, L.A. has an official flower).

Saturday, January 2nd - while much of the country was still enjoying their "white Christmas" - I took some time to walk around Palisades Park, a long, narrow park on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.


The Latin name for these plants is trelitzia reginae, the common name: Bird of Paradise, or Crane Flower. They bloom year round, including the winter months. Here's some more info from the good people at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strelitzia_reginae

These flowers are a reminder to me of the words St. Paul, a leader in the early Church. Almost two thousand years ago he appealed to those outside of the faith: "We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn . . . to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and sea and everything in them . . . He has not left Himself with testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their season; He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." (Acts 14:15, 17)

Joy. A friend on the East Coast recently challenged a group of us to think about making more of joy based appeal when communicating our faith with others.

A common argument against Christianity is summarized in the simple "what about suffering?" In other words, if God exists, why is there suffering?

Perhaps a more difficult question - at least philosophically - is "what about beauty?" If God doesn't exist, how do we account for the beauty we see around us?


St. Paul's appeal was based on joy: from the beauty we see around us, the rain, the crops, the food we have. The Creation itself points to a Creator. Of course, this was and is just a starting point to understanding and embracing the gospel.

With Easter coming up in just eight days (Sunday April 4) I wonder what it would take for the traditional Easter Lily to be replaced with the Bird of Paradise as the flower of choice for Easter.

More so than even Christmas, it is - or should be - the ultimate joy filled holiday.

Additional reviews on Palisades Park can be found here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/palisades-park-santa-monica

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Funkytown Bus (South Santa Monica)

Driving in Santa Monica along Lincoln Blvd, just south of Pico, I rolled past this bus.

I have no idea what the story is behind it, but it's definitely colorful - and adds to the overall ambiance of south Santa Monica/Ocean Park community.

How come I never see a "church bus" that looks like this?

Best Pictures: my favorite L.A. themed films, Part II

In honor of tomorrow's Academy Awards, I came up with a list of my top ten favorite films that take place here in Los Angeles. Here's Part II:

6. Stand and Deliver is based on the true story of Garfield High School math teacher Jaime Escalante. A great, inspiring film.

I was paying my way through graduate school working a substitute school teacher (just a few miles from Garfield High) when the film came out in 1988 - so I particularly enjoyed it then, as now.


7. A similar film is the 2006 Akeelah and the Bee. Looking elsewhere on the web for more information, this film is either "completely fictional or "based on a true story" - I'm not sure which.

While it may have some unavoidable clichés, it's an inspirational, highly recommended film. Plus, a major scene was filmed on my in-laws street (they live near USC) which was fun to see. If you've got kids, this is the one film on the list you want to put on your queue.

8. After seeing the film Friends with Money (2006), living here in Los Angeles my wife and I often refer to having "Friends with Money moments."

The film follows four women here on the westside of Los Angeles - where people with money are surrounded by people who wish they had money.

It's the Los Angeles that the rest of the world both loves and hates.

Although it's just a drama, for us it was like watching a documentary. Want to know what it's like to live in Los Angeles? I suggest watching Friends with Money. Rated R for language, some sexual content, and brief drug use.


9, If you want to know what it was like to live in Los Angeles 30-40 years ago, Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001) is a good place to start. The only true documentary on this list, this film follows the Zephyr surf and skateboard team that emerged out of south Santa Monica in the late 1960's and 1970's (this film is not to be confused with the 2005 drama Lords of Dogtown).

The footage of the Zephyr team surfing in the wreckage of the old POP amusement pier is incredible, as is watching how a group of local teenagers redefined skateboarding, giving birth to the entire "extreme sports" movement.

I've checked this film out a half a dozen times from our local L.A. public library - I guess I should just buy it!

10. No list of movies that take place in Los Angeles would be complete without including Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner. The film, which takes place in 2019, is a dark vision of a futuristic and very dysfunctional Los Angeles. According to an article on wikipedia:

Blade Runner continues to reflect modern trends and concerns, and an increasing number consider it one of the greatest science fiction films of all time. The film was selected for preservation in the in the United States National Film Registry in 1993 and is frequently used in university courses. In 2007, it was named the 2nd most visually influential film of all time (the first being Star Wars) by the Visual Effects Society.

As a Christian, I've also watched Blade Runner (especially the opening scenes) and asked myself: "what would it mean to live out my faith in that kind of environment? What will it mean to live as a Christian in the future? What does it mean to live as a Christian today?"

Getting back to the Academy Awards tomorrow night, as we don't have don't have network or cable TV, I'll be playing board games with my kids instead. For everyone else, enjoyed watching.

Here's hoping Up or The Blind Side do well.

Neither of which - surprise - take place in Los Angeles.

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Best Pictures: my favorite L.A. themed films, Part I

latimesblogs.latimes.com/ files/2009/02/

I thought it'd be appropriate to celebrate tomorrow's Academy Awards (which I'm not planning on watching) by listing my top ten favorite films that actually take place in Los Angeles:

1. Topping the list is Crash (2006). There's a good reason why it won Best Picture. It's a powerful, moving film dealing with the racial and cultural animosities in modern Los Angeles. Rated R for language, sexual content and some violence.


2. A similar film is the 1991 film Grand Canyon, starring Danny Glover and Steve Martin, which also deals with the racial and ethnic divides here in Los Angeles. Both Crash and Grand Canyon could really take place in any major American city.

As a Christian, I wish that more Christian movies (yes, this is really a genre) dealt with issues like this, rather than the usual sentimental fluff.

Both Crash and Grand Canyon are great films, despite the fact that they seem to have more questions than answers.


3. The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, chronicles the life of a young Howard Hughes from the 1920's to the 1950's, much of which took place here in Los Angeles. This including a Hollywood Premier in the late 1920's, Hughes crashing a plane in a residential neighborhood in Beverly Hills, and the flight of the famed "Spruce Goose" in Long Beach in the 1940's.


4. The Rocketeer also has a couple of scenes featuring Howard Hughes, but that's where the similarity ends. The Rocketeer is pure fantasy - and one of the few films on the list I'd even consider appropriate for kids. This 1991 period adventure film from the folks over at Disney is rated PG for mild violence. And great soundtrack, too.

5. Even less appropriate for kids - and what I would not consider a family film - is the 1988 Touchstone (a division of Disney) production Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

I kind of have a love/hate relationship with Roger Rabbit. The visuals are incredible, winning three Academy Awards. I really enjoyed the setting: Hollywood 1947, involving the "Big Red Cars" of the Pacific Electric, Los Angeles' old mass transit system.

On the other hand, the language, sexuality, and honestly creepy violence do not make it appropriate for kids. If you think that all animated or Disney films are family friendly, think again.

More films in Part II

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Leaving A Mark at the La Brea Tar Pits

Last Fall, I spent a couple of hours walking along Wilshire Blvd. through Beverly Hills and the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles.

Smack dab in the middle of Los Angeles - located on our city's busiest street - is the La Brea Tar Pits.

The La Brea Tar Pits has the distinction of being the largest deposit of Ice Age fossils in the entire world.

It would be easy to spend a couple hours walking around outside the outdoor excavation sites as well as the adjacent Page Museum. If you've never been there, it's worth visiting. Here's a link: www.tarpits.org.

But as I was just passing through, for me it was a matter of just taking a couple extra minutes to snap some photos.

The large fiberglass mammoths (including one pictured above literally floating on the top of the largest tar pit) gives an idea of the kind of animals that existed in this area in pre-history Los Angeles - as well as the rest of North America. Really amazing. And right in the heart of the city.

One of the many urban problems here in Los Angeles is vandalism from graffiti, commonly known as "tagging." Millions of dollars are spent every year dealing with graffiti - which, unfortunately, only seems to get worse.

So while I'm no friend of the urban decay arising from taggers (more on that in a future post), I found something unique about tar from the La Brea Tar Pits being used by passer-byers to write their names or initials at a small observation platform right off Wilshire Blvd.

So what am I saying? That graffiti from spray paint, pens, or knives (etching on glass) is bad, but graffiti from tar on the wall next to the tar pits is fine?

As that doesn't make any sense, how about: graffiti limited to a 4 foot x 20 foot wall = fine. Everything else = bad.

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Matt Logue's Empty L.A.

A couple of months back, the L.A. Times did a story on photographer Matt Logue's book "Empty L.A."

Logue's book is a series of photographs of normally busy spots around Los Angeles, but with (thanks to some amazing "Photoshop" editing) people and vehicles removed from sight.

The above photo of the San Diego Freeway at Sunset Blvd - normally packed at all hours of the day - looks surreal. And very eerie.

I was most impressed with the empty freeway shots. This is the Golden State Freeway (Interstate 5, or "the 5") looking south towards downtown.


There are also numerous street shots. I can't pinpoint this intersection - the neighborhood reminds me of the area around the Beverly Center. Emptier than Christmas morning . . . I'm not sure why he missed the three parked cars on the right. But, otherwise, nothing on the streets.

Below is another shot of the San Diego Freeway (the 405) past LAX, looking south towards the 105 Freeway. Looks like a river of concrete. A very lonely river of concrete.

"How desolate lies the city once so full of people" wrote the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah (Lamentations 1:1).

While I found Logue's photographs creative, they were also disturbing. OK, disturbing might be too strong of a word. Unsettling. There was something unsettling about them.

It's people, not buildings or roads, that give cities life.

"This is is what the LORD says - he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited." Isaiah 45:18.

An empty city, a really empty city, is a dead city. It's stuff of apocalyptic science fiction movies. Remember I Am Legend (2007)? The Will Smith film is a remake of both The Last Man on Earth (1964) and The Omega Man (1971). But even these "empty earth" films had someone. Otherwise there wouldn't have been much of a movie, would there? Even the animated Wall-E had a lone mechanical character on earth.

I'm sure every Angeleno (myself included) stuck in traffic has dreamed of an emptier city, or at least fewer cars on the road.

Instead of an emptier city, I wonder if L.A. would be better off with more people?

Not more cars. More people.

Cities like New York, London, Paris, Tokyo seem to function better with more people, not less.

Perhaps Matt Logue's next project might be showing us what Los Angeles would look like with twice as many people. Now that would be interesting.

Information on the book is available on his website: www.emptyla.com

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The West & Westerns: an afternoon at the Autry National Center

The Autry National Center, located here in Los Angeles in Griffith Park across the street from the L.A. Zoo, is an internationally recognized museum and study center focusing on the exclusively on American West. It's one of the largest such museums in the world.

Yes, it does rain in California. It was a perfect afternoon to take my kids and their three cousins to explore the Autry.


I liked the question posed at the entrance: "Is the West a place or a way of thinking?"


Inside, the center of the museum has a huge three paneled mural covering the history of the West. The first panel covers the native peoples, the Spanish explorers and missionaries, and contact with Anglo-Americans.

The next - and largest panel - covers the period from the California Gold Rush to the closing in the frontier around 1890.

The third panel covers the perception of the West, from early painters and photographers to Hollywood's various versions of "the Western."

So the museum covers both the actual history of the West and how it's been portrayed over the past 100+ years.


Currently the museum has a extensive (and I found beautiful) collection of contemporary artwork on the West.


Cameras - unfortunately - we not allowed anywhere inside the gallery. I took this from the lobby looking in with a zoom lens. That's OK, right?

I can honestly say it was worth going to the Autry just to see these paintings. I've take my kids to art museums before, and they're usually bored after 5 minutes. They really like the artwork on display at the Autry, especially as the style emphasized realism. In several cases the paintings looked like photographs - which my kids loved.

Elsewhere in the museum was other artwork, equally as impressive (and where it was OK to take photographs). This reminded me of a scene from "The Last of the Mohicans."


Lots of landscapes, animals, scenes native peoples (American Indians). My apologizes for not getting the names of the artists or the paintings . . . but I had five kids in tow. As I said, the artwork alone was worth the visit.


Of course, my kids had to see the "Family Discovery Center" downstairs. The Autry - including the staff - is very accommodating to both children and parents. The family area has a special focus on the immigrant experience of a Chinese-American family.


There were costumes the kids could dress up in.


And a 1940's style Chinese restaurant to play in. They LOVED this place. There's a kitchen and tables and chairs - they call it Sigh-Fong's (from the book "Cricket in Times Square").


No trip to the Autry is complete without a visit to the Western jail. Nearby they have some of the actual firearms used in the actual "Gunfight at the OK Corral" and the sketch that Wyatt Earp made of the event.

There is also an extensive section devoted to Hollywood's depiction of the West through movies and television. Very appropriate as the museum is located just a few miles from Universal, Paramount, Disney and Warner Brothers Studios.

I could have spent hours here, but being there with five kids ages 7-11, that'll have to wait for another day. And I'll hold off on more serious reflection and commentary on "The West and Westerns" until then.

As the Gene Autry, the singing cowboy use to say "happy trails to you . . .until we meet again."

Here's their website with more information: www.theautry.org

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Super Bowl Sunday at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook

Super Bowl Sunday I took my family over to the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook here in Los Angeles. The Baldwin Hills are a distinctive outcropping of hills several hundred feet high south of the 10 (Santa Monica) Freeway, and east of the 405 (San Diego) Freeway.


The Scenic Overlook is a newly opened 50 acre park located in the heart of urban Los Angeles and is part of of the California State Park system. The entrance is located on West Jefferson Blvd.


There are trails leading to the top, but we opted for the stairs that go straight up the side of the hill.


The stairs are fairly steep and are a good little work out. Here's some on-line reviews from yelp.com: http://www.yelp.com/biz/baldwin-hills-scenic-overlook-culver-city


Almost to the top - we could see people at the overlook.


As it was Super Bowl Sunday, I was surprised how many people were out and about doing other want things. This group is enjoying the view, with downtown Los Angeles in the background. If you to enjoy the view without the hike, you can drive to the top (parking = $6).


It had rained the day before, so I was really hoping that there would be snow on the San Gabriel Mountains behind the Hollywood Hills. For whatever reason, that was not the case. Still, a pretty amazing view, including the Hollywood Sign.


The Scenic Overlook is one of the best - perhaps THE best - view in Los Angeles. Unlike the overlooks at the Griffith Observatory or the Getty Center, the Baldwin Hills Overlook faces north, with sweeping views of downtown, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood, Santa Monica and the Pacific Ocean. All framed by the Santa Monica and San Gabriel Mountains.


My daughter trying out the camera she got for Christmas.

Looking out over Los Angeles with my family, I'm reminded of the question posed in Jonah 4:11 - "should I not be concerned about that great city?"

I appreciate and am deeply challenged by what New York City based pastor and New York Times bestselling author Tim Keller has shared on this passage. I found it worth listening to: http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/sermonlist/11

My son taking a photo of the city, with downtown L.A. in the background.

Baldwin Hills is also the name of a television show on BET (Black Entertainment Network). Baldwin Hills has been referred to as "Black Beverly Hills" due to the large concentration of African American professionals and celebrities who've lived in the community.

Heading back down towards our car.

Two unique aspects to Los Angeles are the weather and the topography:

Mediterranean climate is only found in four other places on earth: the Mediterranean basin (hence, the name), western and south Australia, southwestern South Africa, and part of central Chile. Mediterranean climate means mild winters and warm, dry summer. No complaints here: it's pretty ideal.

In terms of topography, metro Los Angeles has six major mountain ranges: the Santa Susannas, the San Garbriels, the San Bernardinos, the Santa Anas, the Palos Verdes, and the Santa Monica Mountains. In addition, there are numerous smaller features like Baldwin Hills. FYI, the "Hollywood Hills" are really just part of the Santa Monica Mountains.

The kids had a "good attitude" marching up and down the stairs, so we stopped off in Culver City at a 7/11 for a little treat.

Some things (a trip to 7/11) are definitely not unique to Los Angeles.

Here's the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook website with more information: http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=22790

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