Across the Pond

April is home tour month (May too). In the past few weeks invitations to events of the kind have been piling up on my desk. This being L.A. I feel I should add we're talking neighborhoods here. This is about family homes, some larger, some smaller. It is not about stars' mansions. One of the first neighborhoods in L.A. to put on the big showing was Bungalow Heaven in Pasadena  which is getting ready for its 22nd annual home tour on Sunday. Bungalow Heaven was Pasadena's first Landmark District. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 900 or so houses in the 16 block area were built at the beginning of the 20th century in the style of the American Arts and Crafts movement. They are treasures. Their owners know this and treat them accordingly. On Sunday, eight houses will be open to the public; 900 visitors are expected - many of which come every year and from as far away as Arizona. Proceeds from the tour go towards grants for home restorat...

How long does it take for a newcomer to feel at home in L.A.? A year? A decade? A lifetime? Answers to this question were floated at a panel discussion on angeleno identity this week in Pasadena (Angelino, Angeleno, Angeleño: Who Are We?) I liked moderator  Leslie Berestein Rojas' take on the subject: you become an Angeleno when you have "that Zen moment on the freeway", when you see the traffic, sit back, and relax thinking all is well. I remember my first visit to L.A., in 1998, the sense of bewilderment, distrust. This place lacked a center; it pulled in too many directions: Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, L.A. downtown. Each part of Los Angeles that I got to experience as a tourist had its own character, its own identity. As a whole the city was so different from what I was used to from Europe that I felt uncomfortable. When we moved here in 1999 I made a conscious effort to take Los Angeles for what it is, a hodgepodge city, patchwork, a place with more...

Finally. California's new governor, Jerry Brown, was expected to proclaim today that the drought which has officially plagued the Golden State since 2009 is over. This winter brought precipitation by the tub full: record breaking rain fall in December, plenty more rain in March, 50 feet of snow in parts of the High Sierra. Bottom line we got about 50 percent more precipitation than in an average year. Looking out a restaurant window in Mammoth on March 18 This is great news of course - though we in L.A. should never see ourselves as off the hook. Southern California is a desert. The water that we use here always comes from somewhere else, be it the Colorado River or the High Sierra, and if the drought had an up-side it was that many of us became aware of this. Angelenos aren't - and probably never will be - saints when it comes to environmentalism but as I have said before, we try and there is one L.A. characteristic that works in our favor whenever change is needed: we...

What is an Angeleno today? I just found the announcement for a panel discussion that is right up my alley: Angelino, Angeleno, Angeleño: Who are we? The event will be hosted by KPCC's "Multi-American" blogger Leslie Berenstein Rojas. Her guests on the panel are D.J. Waldie (author and KCET “Departures” blogger) and Dr. Eric Avila (Professor, Urban and Cultural History at UCLA). If you live in the area come and join me! Tuesday, March 29, 2011 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. at The Crawford Family Forum 474 South Raymond Avenue Pasadena, CA 91105

Does anything bring out the truth about people more than a crisis? Images and reports from the earth quake, tsunami, and radioactivity stricken Japan show a stoicism in those affected that is rare. When I first came to live in L.A. in 1999 the comparatively light Northridge earthquake of 1994 which registered as a 6.7 was still fresh in people's minds. It was then that I learned how Californians deal with the constant threat of a major shaker: they accept that the big one is getting ready to rock us and prepare for it. Schools drill children on earth quake safety, residents keep earth quake kits in their garages and cars. Such preparation is sensible and it calms the nerves. It makes us feel we have control over what will happen. It takes some fear out of life. Does preparation ensure that we Californians will respond as stoically as the Japanese when our time comes? No. The culture on this side of the Pacific is different. We see it every year when the wildfires burn out ...

When it comes to environmentalism we Angelenos are not exactly known to be heavily invested. Quite the opposite. L.A. is synonymous with cars and freeways and too many miles driven - and that's just one aspect. The other day I was leafing through this month's issue of Whole Living magazine  when a reader's suggestion caught my eye: Etienne L. is telling us that he has started to collect "all the dregs" in his family of four's water glasses "to take care of the house plants". Etienne simply empties "the last drips into a pitcher instead of pouring them down the drain". He thereby saves "enough water for (his) indoor plants and potted herb garden". Now that's what I call commitment. Dregs for plants. Etienne is from San Francisco of course (Oakland, to be precise). We in L.A. could never pull that one off - but it's not like we don't try to be green. At least some of us. Take an enterprise called Arroyo Food Co-op i...

They say there are no seasons in L.A... (See my earlier post Fall in December  for more on this.) Well, it's spring. The orange tree in our back yard is showing off blossoms and fruit at the same time, and nights are filled with the heavy, sweet fragrance of citrus trees. The other day I found some snowdrops in our front yard. Bright green and robust they have popped up out of nowhere, made their way through a thick layer of mulch. One of the previous house owners must have planted them years ago.