About 2 miles into the park... things start to get strange. A forbidding padlocked wrought-iron gate, surrounded by a low lying stone wall sits nestled on the edge of the trail.... Strange rusted debris starts to appear on the side of the paths. What looks like an old water filtration system, broken pieces of farm equipment, half buried sinks, strange concrete slabs with graffiti . A lovely little steam appears and makes delightful background noises, lizards and birds scatter about your feet. And then you see it. A burned-out overgrown concrete building completely covered with graffiti. Cartoon of Hitler? Check. Declaration of undying teenage love? Check.... The bunker of the building is exposed and filled with trash; a metal cage sits menacingly in the corner, and outside a series of stone steps wind up to what seems to have once been a sustenance garden. The steps then continue all the way to the top of the canyon (3,000 steps in all) and ghosts of America Nazis patrolling the wilds fill your head. Baby, we aren't at the Grove anymore... We are at the Los Angeles Nazi Compound! Well, it's actually
the ruins of a small community built by Nazi sympathizers, in
the hills outside of greater Los Angeles.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Mar 19, 2012 -
50 comments
Plenty of people collect
Disneyana, the toys, books, animation cels, and theme-park souvenirs. Then there are those fans who collect information and details on the Disney parks themselves,
collecting official park maps or
drawing up their own ride blueprints,
assembling the design history behind the attractions, and even
collecting vintage tickets and
ticket books.
Yesterland (previously:
1,
2,
3) is an ever-growing collection of Disneyland history, and has
an updated collection of links to similar fan sites and Imagineering blogs, which is a whole collection of rabbit holes of nostalgia and behind-the-scense information. So grab a
riding crop and
pretend like it's the 60s all over again!
posted by filthy light thief
on Mar 15, 2012 -
9 comments
Last August (2009), the "ephemeral artists" of
Nothing Happened Here staged a
mobile public reading event,
meandering around the town of San Luis Obispo, CA with
The Reading Chair, and a group of folks reading
a variety of stories, poems and tales. The group has planned
Typing in Public to take place tomorrow (May 15, 2010), in the same little town. The event is primarily focused on
people writing on typewriters around town, but people can also share comments via
Twitter,
Flickr, or texting the event coordinators. To spark some inspiration, the group has received submissions from a variety of people, including
Gerald Casale for
Devo,
Paul Frommer writing in
Na'vi (with translation to English),
Dr. James J. Duderstadt, President Emeritus, University Professor of Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, writing on
the library as the poster child of the it revolution, and plenty more.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on May 14, 2010 -
8 comments
