Los Angeles

#276- For Archive: www.oaklanddupree@substack.com

LA is burning and ain’t no thing in the world that I can do , to paraphrase John Lee Hooker ( The Motor City is Burning). Memories of LA enter my mind in this time of tragic disaster. I first ventured to the City of Angels in the autumn of 1965 when my Troy NY pal Randy “ Dice” Poulin and I hitchhiked cross country via Route 66 .I was the Dude back then, decades before Lebowski, as we had a youth gang of rude boys with handles beginning with D ( also Dutch and Duke) and the nicknames stuck. Dice had two aunts originally from Troy working in the script department of Warner Brothers TV “… from Hollywood the entertainment capital of the World ! ” We stayed with the sisters in their bungalow home, and explored LA. I was fascinated by the palm trees everywhere and open air burger stands on every other corner and the dry warm climate. We dug the scene on Sunset Strip, so much youthful rock and roll energy. A cop gave me a ticket for jaywalking across the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, which I never dealt with ,as I hitched back across the USA a couple weeks later, once more via Route 66. I had my first taste of So Cal and Hollywood and it was mostly positive but I was compelled to finish my senior year of high school. I moved to Moraga California in the East Bay in August ‘66 to live with my family. The next time I went to LA was in Summer of ‘68, when my late partner Herbie Herbert and I, band co-managers, packed up the Frumious Bandersnatch vintage panel truck and drove to the Kaleidoscope in Hollywood for a gig opening for The Byrds and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, who ironically had a big hit at the time entitled Fire “ … I am the count of hellfire and I bring you fire…you’re gonna burn…” sang/ spoke that English prick, Brown. He was a real asshole who mocked our group from the stage… The Kaleidoscope venue had a storied tinsel town history. Originally it was the Earl Carroll Theater, then the Moulin Rouge, a post WWII era nightspot of the ‘50’s dubbed “ Showplace of the World” , then it became the Hullabaloo filming the musical TV shows of the early 60’s with Go Go girls galore. Nowadays it is the home of Nickelodeon Network. It recently got a garish paintjob and was used as a set for Quentin Tarantino’s movie Once Upon A Time In Hollywood…The Kaleidoscope was run and booked by Skip Taylor who also managed Canned Heat Blues Band. We had befriended Canned Heat after gigging with them in Golden Gate Park, and lead singer Bob “The Bear” Hite and bassist Larry “The Mole “ Taylor introduced me to their manager Skip. I bugged Taylor for months until he relented and booked us into the Kaleidoscope… I was a persistent 20 year old band manager ! heh heh heh heh heh . The venue was unique in that it had a mechanical circle in the stage which rotated. It was cut into a three way pie chart with three bands equipment set up in a triangle in the center. The crew just rotated the stage for each band’s set. I remember cruising Hollywood as Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive blasted out on the radio airwaves.

Today is January 13th and the heartbreaking disaster in So Cal is beginning to sink in. 60 Minutes last night did a piece with Bill Whitaker interviewing African Americans in Altadena, including one poor fellow who lost everything , his house, his block, his neighborhood and tragically his sister next door perished. He couldn’t keep his tears from falling just like us viewers. We focus a little on the bizarre weather patterns in California where we in Nor Cal get soaked with rain and 400 some miles away they get nothing but drought. LA is a tinderbox now with insane winds whipping the wildfires in apocalyptical fury. So fucking beyond sad. Los Angeles will never be the same again.

After, 10 or 11 years of working in SF and the Bay Area as a constant theater actor with occasional movie and TV jobs, I decided, as a middle aged thespian, to try Hollywood so I moved there in 1996, West Hollywood to be precise, a very progressive municipality within Los Angeles. Worked in The Big Lebowski as a bowler and stand in for the late Jon Polito and had a featured role in an Indy film Circles which never got released. In that one I had a scene with Gianni Russo ( Carlo in The Godfather) I auditioned for scores of commercials, sent out by my agent Richie Reiner, Carl’s nephew and Rob’ cousin. Humor runs in that family as Richie was a wildly funny guy. My day job for four years was as a driver and beer and soda and snacks buyer for Greenblatt’s Jewish Deli and Wine Shop on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood , a very busy joint, and that’s where I really experienced LA and show business people and just everyday Angelinos who are quite friendly, by and large. I learned all the shortcuts and backroads in the Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills before GPS and smart phones were invented. Once I was called on to deliver a van load of fine wines to Warner Brother Records exec Mo Ostin’s house in Pacific Palisades where he was throwing a party for Barbra Streisand. Mo’s hilltop home had a fabulous panoramic view of Los Angeles , Malibu , and the Pacific Ocean. I assume that neighborhood was consumed in the fire. Nine months of the year , on my days off I made my way to Malibu’s Zuma Beach to boogie board and body surf. I would buy a five pound bag of carrots at Ralph’s and big bag of pretzels and feed horses on the drive through Decker Canyon Road out of Thousand Oaks to come out at PCH near Trancas Market across from Zuma. I had a couple horses and a funny burro who’d recognize my car and lope over to the fence to munch carrots out of my hand. The pretzels were for the gulls on Zuma who did aerial flying acrobatics to nail them as I tossed. After an afternoon in the water, I would have a hearty appetite and stop by Neptune’s Net at the Ventura County line or Malibu Seafood on a hill overlooking the Pacific, or sometimes Gladstone’s 4 Fish in Santa Monica. It was a sprawling beachfront place with a barrel of salted peanuts to grab a handful and leave the shells on the floor. They had wonderful hot fresh baked sourdough loaves which I enjoyed when homesick for SF. I would guess that much of that area is now destroyed by fire… Also so many sober friends in LA , especially my late mentor, Andrew McCullough, a former TV director ( Omnibus -shot live in NYC, Donna Reed Show, The Thin Man, 77 Sunset Strip, Leave It to Beaver etc.) who was instrumental in guiding me to permanent sobriety. My heart is with Angelinos now.

Picayune Pickins: Our incoming President, Felonious Bunk, is hurling out the absurdities en masse e.g. annexing Canada, buying Greenland, and taking back the Panama Canal by force. This putz is a comedy writers’ golden gift. His clown car of cabinet picks is a laff riot !… the unqualified, seasoned with lunacy. Oh well, The Dude Abides… Indian gaming lawyers are suing California cardrooms , which in turn fund entire municipal budgets from taxation. The tribes want the degenerate gamblers playing blackjack and Pai Gow in their casinos… Joe Biden making last minute Presidential moves like outlawing oil drilling off American coasts and pardoning a bunch of folks Bravo!… Panic In Boozeville ! Medical experts claim, with good reason, that alcohol in any amount is poison and carcinogenic and the alcoholic beverage industry is reeling , their brands plummeting in the stock market. They’ll survive. I don’t think guys and dolls will pick each other up with “mocktails”… Barbara Lee, longtime Congresswoman is running for Mayor of Oakland , a monumental challenge as Oaktown is hurting from crime , shuttering businesses, police shortages, and the defection of three big professional sports teams. If Lee wins she’ll have her work cut out for her, big time. By rights, Lee should have been appointed by Guv Slickback to fill the late Di Fi’s US Senate term, but she got jobbed in a backroom deal to anoint Shifty Schiff.

New Year Chilly Viewing: Greyhound ( 2020) I’ll watch anything with Tom Hanks. This one is about a US Navy escort destroyer commanded by Hanks, accompanying a big supply convoy across the Atlantic in early 1942. The convoy has to go from protected US air support , steam through the “Black Pit” of the Atlantic Ocean to reach British air cover. They are in a running cat and mouse battle with German U-boats all the way. It’s WWII naval action, with a blonde babe that Hanks character is courting thrown in at the beginning of the picture for color or a token gesture of female inclusion. Not for everyone ,but I love seagoing battle movies... Blow Out (1981) A Quentin Tarantino favorite starring John Travolta as a Philly movie sound man who accidentally records a political assassination. Brian De Palma directs this winner that holds up well after 44 years. John Lithgow is the villain and Nancy Allen is the ditzy babe who brightens the picture…The Grateful Dead Movie ( 1977) This film is almost as good as a conversation with Jerry Garcia , which I was fortunate to have had more than a few. Before the Dead’s hiatus from ‘74 to ‘76, a film crew recorded several nights of Grateful Dead shows at Winterland Arena at Post and Steiner San Francisco. The film begins with a trippy animation segment that I never tire of, segueing into Winterland from above the stage and a rousing version of US Blues with band swinging like mad. Jer ( editorial director) spent two years editing this movie and his laissez faire sense of humor is evident as he includes fan conversations, the road crew, assembling the “ Wall Of Sound” amplifier and PA system, and long looks at the Deadheads ecstatically dancing, grooving and singing along. Garcia, who put his heart and musical soul into these performances, left this rich snapshot of the Grateful Dead in their youthful prime… Don’t Look Back (1967) A Bob Dylan documentary of his touring Britain with his friends and manager Albert Grossman and Joan Baez in tow. Dylan’s live performances are excellent and well captured. He has a temper tantrum after someone defenestrated a glass from his suite during an after-party, which was not flattering. Also Zimmy engages in a pointless semantics argument with a Time Magazine guy. It shows Grossman’s shrewd negotiation tactics as well. We first watched this movie , sitting on the floor of the Carousel Ballroom ( Fillmore West ) on Thanksgiving night 1968. Bill Graham had treated SF Bands to a nice traditional Thanksgiving meal, then with a projector, a film print and a screen showed Don’t Look Back for his guests. Very cool !…Streamers: Shrinking (2024) Netflix comedy series with Harrison Ford about psychiatrists, grieving processes, and sex. Streamed the first season and part of the second and have gotten quite a few laughs, which are worth their weight in gold these days…American Primeval (2025) An 1857 Western with evil Mormons, bad Paiutes and good Shoshones and plenty of murders and treachery fueled by greed and lust for land., plus wilderness survival. It’s almost as if Jim Thompson and Cormac McCarthy got together in the afterlife to create a gruesome ,yet somewhat fascinating tale …sort of related to The Revenant with Jim Bridger as a character. Peter Berg directs the limited series… Slow Horses (Seasons 2, 3, and 4) I binged all 24 episodes of this fab Brit MI-5 thriller with dark comic flourishes and have no regrets . total enjoyment and satisfaction. A series this good is kind of rare now , despite the glut of “ content”

Songs of the Day :

The Motor City Is Burning- John Lee Hooker

LA Woman- The Doors

It’s All Over Now , Baby Blue -Bob Dylan

Ball Of Fire - Ernest Ranglin

From A Dark Place- Johnny A

Low Rider -Ross Valory

(all on YouTube)