Dateline>City of AngelsFreelance writer Michael Imlay blogs from/about his native Los Angeles on people, culture, history, landmarks, tourism, ghosts, legends and the offbeat. Links to his professional writing services.Friday Flix: The Legacy of Biddy Mason- August 29, 2008 In light of the historic events shaping the national political scene both yesterday and today, I thought it appropriate to choose a video that illustrates how far we&8217;ve come over the last century and a half. A remarkable figure in Angeleno history, Biddy Mason helped break barriers for African Americans as well as women in ...http://mimlay.com/blog/2008/08/29/friday-flix-the-legacy-of-biddy-mason/ Pop Quiz: Mission San Gabriel of the Earthquakes- August 28, 2008 Today&8217;s pop quiz is dedicated to Mission San Gabriel, which celebrates its 237th annual fiesta tomorrow through Sunday. Founded Sept. 8, 1771, it was fourth in California&8217;s chain of 21 missions, and among the most prosperous. It can also be called L.A.&8217;s Mother Church, since the pobladores set out from here to found the City ...http://mimlay.com/blog/2008/08/28/pop-quiz-mission-san-gabriel-of-the-earthquakes/ More BlogoBuzz: Deconstructing Sunset Junction- August 25, 2008 Militant Angeleno &8220;sort of&8221; covers this weekend&8217;s Sunset Junction Street Fair, an event your humble blogger also stopped going to about two years ago. There&8217;s little I can add to the Militant&8217;s post &8212; his observations are dead-on. Sunset Junction used to be a fun event with an edge: An unpretentious celebration in which rag-tag bohemians, ...http://mimlay.com/blog/2008/08/25/blogobuzz-part-2-deconstructing-sunset-junction/ BlogoBuzz: A Streetcar Wed Desire- August 25, 2008 L.A. Metblogger Jason Burns has the perfect recommendation for the new downtown streetcars proposed by the Bringing Back Broadway initiative: Make them vintage, la San Francisco&8217;s famous trolleys and cable cars. Burns makes an eloquent case for such vehicles in his full post, a snippet of which reads: While the very notion of a new streetcar ...http://mimlay.com/blog/2008/08/25/blogobuzz-a-streetcar-wed-desire/ Rudy Valentinos Cryptic DeLongpre Park Memorial- August 23, 2008 Hollywood is known for countless oddball pairings: Laurel and Hardy. Spanky and Alfalfa. Sonny and Cher. But in my mind one of the oddest has to be Rudy Valentino and DeLongpre Park. There is no historical connection between the two. Yet here in the pocket park commemorating the famous floral artist Paul DeLongpre, you&8217;ll find not ...http://mimlay.com/blog/2008/08/23/rudy-valentinos-cryptic-delongpre-park-memorial/ Did Uncle Walt Leave Mickey in the Public Domain- August 23, 2008 They say turnabout is fair play&8230; Having argued for years that their company has legally appropriated characters in the public domain for its cartoons (i.e., Bambi and Peter Pan), Disney officials may soon be in the uncomfortable position of fending off challenges to their own copyright on none other than The Mouse himself. According to an extensive ...http://mimlay.com/blog/2008/08/22/did-uncle-walt-leave-mickey-in-the-public-domain/ Surprise! Bigfoot Discovery Just One Big Scam- August 20, 2008 You&8217;d think Sasquatch investigator Tom Biscardi would&8217;ve seen this one coming. Certainly the warning signs were all there. First, the two men who claimed to have discovered the over-seven-foot carcass in northern Georgia this past July couldn&8217;t stick to a coherent story as to how they bagged it in the wilds, dragged it out, and iced ...http://mimlay.com/blog/2008/08/19/surprise-bigfoot-discovery-one-big-hoax/ Flashback: The Great Griffith Park Fire of 1933- August 19, 2008 As this past weekend has again reminded us, fires have long been the scourge of Griffith Park. Devastating as the 2007-2008 fire seasons have been, however, the worst disaster in the park&8217;s history remains the Great Fire of 1933, seen in this vintage AP photo sent by a Dateline&62;City of Angels reader. Like the recent spate ...http://mimlay.com/blog/2008/08/19/flashback-the-great-griffith-park-fire-of-1933/ |