Gentle reader...

Folks on our tours sometimes start telling us about something they think we'd enjoy, then stop themselves and say "of course, you probably already know all about this."

It's true that we've visited more historic attractions than most Angelenos, and are always seeking to expand our knowledge of the region and its cultural gems. But we're the first to admit that we don't know everything, and are ever eager to be surprised with a bold new discovery.

And so it was a few nights back, when we found ourselves in the circular sitting room of the Frederick Hastings Rindge House, for the birthday celebration of Harold Greenberg, who rescued the King of Malibu's abandoned mansion from squalor, restored and put it on the National Register. The party was delightful, filled with smart folks enjoying the beautiful surroundings, including a grand fireplace inscribed with the inspiring motto California Shall Remain Ours as Long as the Stars Remain.

And Harold's birthday cake was just such a bold discovery. If your family has recent Ukrainian roots, then you already know about Kiev Cake, but it was wonderfully new to us. With thick slabs of crisp meringue surrounding moist layers of nuts, spongecake, buttercream and chocolate, it was as pretty as it was delicious, and before we had a chance to take a photo, every slice was gone.

Curious about what we imagined must be an ancient recipe created to please the Czars, we soon learned that Kiev Cake was in fact the happy accident of a careless baker at the Karl Marx Confectionery Factory in 1956. And today, you can find a delicious version of this mid-century confection at the Armenian bakery Karina's Cake House in Glendale. 

No, we don't know everything that's wonderful in Southern California, but we'd certainly like to. And you can be sure as we make new discoveries that we'll continue to share them with you!

Newly posted to our tour calendar are April excursions Echo Park Book of the Dead, The Real Black Dahlia, Charles Bukowski and Raymond Chandler. Also just announced are the February (Poem Noir) and March (Parker Center) LAVA Sunday Salons and walks, both free with RSVP.

We're off the bus this Saturday, but you'll find us in the teaching crime lab at Cal State Los Angeles on Sunday for an illustrated lecture on the massive Hollywood Fire Devil arson investigation, by lead investigator Ed Nordskog. Join us, do!

RECENTLY TOURED

Did you know...? The Bradbury Building has feet!

COMING SOON
 

FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR AT CAL STATE LOS ANGELES - SUN. 1/22... Professor Donald Johnson hosts arson investigator Ed Nordskog's presentation, The Hollywood Fire Devil. In this recently adjudicated case, you'll follow along in real time as the largest coordinated arson investigation in history pits a multi-agency team against a bold and increasingly dangerous perpetrator who is terrorizing Los Angeles. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research. (Buy tickets here.)

THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN - SAT. 1/28... This is not a tour about beautiful buildings--although beautiful buildings will be all around you. This is not a tour about brilliant architects--although we will gaze upon their works and marvel. The Lowdown on Downtown is a tour about urban redevelopment, public policy, protest, power and the police. It is a revealing history of how the New Downtown became an "overnight sensation" after decades of quiet work behind the scenes by public agencies and private developers. Come discover the real Los Angeles, the city even natives don't know. Update: our visit to the Dutch Chocolate Shop is once again confirmed, and we will tour another seldom-seen Batchelder interior as well. (Buy tickets here.)

THE LAVA SUNDAY SALON & BROADWAY ON MY MIND WALKING TOUR - SUN. 1/29... Our free cultural lecture series recently relaunched on the basement level of Grand Central Market. Starting in January, the Sunday Salon is combined with a walking tour. Join architectural historian Nathan Marsak on a time travel trip to the lost world of Richardsonian Romanesque Downtown L.A. architecture. Free, reservation required.

SOUTH LOS ANGELES ROAD TRIP: HOT RODS, ADOBES, GOOGIE & EARLY MODERNISM - SUN. 2/5... This rare Sunday tour in our California Culture series rolls through Vernon, Bell Gardens, Santa Fe Springs and Downey, and the past two centuries, exploring some of L.A.'s most seldom-seen and compelling structures. Turning the West Side-centric notion of an L.A. architecture tour on its head, the bus goes into areas not traditionally associated with the important, beautiful or significant, raising issues of preservation, adaptive reuse, hot rod kar kulture and the evolution of the city. (Buy tickets here.)

TWO DAYS IN SOUTH LA: THE 1974 SLA SHOOTOUT - SAT. 2/11... On this Special Event tour celebrating our 10th anniversary as a tour company, we join forces with author Brad Schreiber (Revolution's End) to tour the locations where the radical Symbionese Liberation Army's political kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst came to a fiery end. Sorry, no discounts accepted on this Special Event tour. Almost sold out! (Learn more and buy your tickets here.)

BOYLE HEIGHTS & MONTEREY PARK: THE HIDDEN HISTORIES OF L.A.'S MELTING POTS - SAT. 2/18... Come on a century's social history tour through the transformation of neighborhoods, punctuated with immersive stops to sample the varied cultures that make our changing city so beguiling. Voter registration, citizenship classes, Chicano Moratorium, walkouts, blow-outs, anti-Semitism, adult education, racial covenants, boycotts, The City Beautiful, Exclusion Acts and Immigration Acts, property values, xenophobia, and delicious dumplings--all are themes which will be addressed on this lively excursion. This whirlwind social history tour will include: The Vladeck Center, Hollenbeck Park, Evergreen Cemetery, The Venice Room, El Encanto & Cascades Park, Divine's Furniture and Wing Hop Fung. (Buy tickets here.)

WEIRD WEST ADAMS - SAT. 2/25... On this guided tour through the Beverly Hills of the early 20th Century, Crime Bus passengers thrill as Jazz Age bootleggers run amok, marvel at the Krazy Kafitz family's litany of murder-suicides, attempted husband slayings, Byzantine estate battles and mad bombings, visit the shortest street in Los Angeles (15' long Powers Place, with its magnificent views of the mansions of Alvarado Terrace), discover which fabulous mansion was once transformed into a functioning whiskey factory using every room in the house, and stroll the haunted paths of Rosedale Cemetery, site of notable burials (May K. Rindge, the mother of Malibu) and odd graveside crimes. Featured players include the most famous dwarf in Hollywood, mass suicide ringleader Reverend Jim Jones, wacky millionaires who can't control their automobiles, human mole bank robbers, comically inept fumigators, kids trapped in tar pits, and dozens of other unusual and fascinating denizens of early Los Angeles. (Buy tickets here.)

Additional upcoming tours: Eastside Babylon (3/11), Pasadena Confidential (3/18), Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (3/25), Echo Park Book of the Dead (4/1), Special Event: Palos Verdes Ancient & Modern (4/8), The Real Black Dahlia (4/15), Charles Bukowski's L.A. (4/22), Raymond Chandler's L.A. (4/29) and Special Event: Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits’ L.A. (6/3).