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Title: California Babylon by Kristan Lawson, Anneli Rufus ISBN: 0-312-26385-6 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.86 (7 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: That happened there???
Comment: When I picked this book up, it was the uncorrected pre-press edition. It had a few errors in direction (East was West and North was South) and content, but I still find it rather informative.
If you are a California native or new to the Golden State I strongly recommend it for an idea of what fame, fortune and failures can plague the Left Coast. While some information was interesting and thought provoking, other items were rather banal and uninspired. Maybe this was corrected in the later printing, but it still makes me wonder about the veracity that the facts were checked.
Nevertheless a great book for those interested in the underbelly of California pop culture.
Rating: 5
Summary: This Is Definitely A Guilty Little Pleasure
Comment: If you want to travel all over California and take in all the bizarre (aka definitely not mainstream) tourist sites along the way, buy this book! It provided me with all sorts of information. Imagine my shock when I found out that the site of the Heaven's Gate last supper was the Marie Calender's I frequent when I am in Carlsbad. Really, this book is a lot of fun. Provides a lot of trivia and gives books like LA Bizzaro and San Francisco Bizzaro a run for the $$$$ and also flip flops all over the state in search for crime scenes and other oddities.
Even if you don't use it as a tour guide and/or never step foot in California, this book will entertain and provide more than a few chuckles.
Rating: 5
Summary: This Is The Ultimate Guide For Visiting Famous Sites
Comment: I've actually been into this sort of thing for years, visiting any local sites associated with the more sensational stories of the San Francisco Bay Area, and there simply isn't a better general guide to cover the many other California stories that are even further away.
I say general because I like to read about many other incidents, even those that are no more than bizarre accidents or forgotten front page stories from the Victorian era. I will determine where those occurred too, and newspapers often publish addresses.
The Southern California people with this book will be green with envy that I have easy access to places they don't, and I feel the same way about their area. I'll just have to wait until I get a chance to visit the Southern parts of this state again.
Among the sites I have gone to here in San Francisco are Jimmy Stewart's Apartment from the 1958 thriller Vertigo, and the apartment house where the Symbionese Liberation Army brainwashed Patty Hearst in the closet in 1974. I had already read Patty's own riveting account of the kidnapping, so that particular site made an even more ominous impression.
The Vertigo site has very relaxed vibes, and the SLA site really unsettling vibes. I even looked into the hallway of the latter and noticed a creepy gun sight like design in the old colored windows. Anyone would notice those while going up the stairs, and that's all the more interesting because the SLA practiced with pellet guns in the bathroom during the three months they were there.
One of the things I like about seeing all these places is that they give a local resident a kind of frame of reference about the neighborhoods. Even most cab drivers won't know the city like those who have this little encyclopedia as they travel around.
I never really paid much attention to some areas before, like the ones associated with rock n roll history in the Haight Ashbury and elsewhere, but now when I hear people talking about many legendary names I have visual references to real places and it's something we can both talk about.
If you'd like to chat about this hobby, send me an e-mail. I'm working on an 1895 San Francisco history book that will also have a generous list of places to visit at the end, and I'll let my fellow time trippers know if the project is ever completed.
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Title: L.A. Exposed : Strange Myths and Curious Legends in the City of Angels by Paul Young ISBN: 0312206461 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: 03 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Hollywood Book of Death : The Bizarre, Often Sordid, Passings of More than 125 American Movie and TV Idols by James Robert Parish ISBN: 0809222272 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books Pub. Date: 29 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Hollywood Remains to Be Seen: A Guide to the Movie Stars' Final Homes by Mark J. Masek ISBN: 1581822456 Publisher: Cumberland House Pub. Date: 05 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Lost Hollywood by David Wallace ISBN: 0312261950 Publisher: LA Weekly Books Pub. Date: 07 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Hollywood Haunted: A Ghostly Tour of Filmland by Laurie Jacobson, Mark Wanamaker, Marc Wanamaker ISBN: 1883318122 Publisher: Angel City Pr Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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