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        Featured image credit: CAL FIRE_Official We are in the midst of the most destructive series of Los Angeles fires in the city’s history. And there are no words to summarize the fear, horror, and grief associated with this tragedy so we won’t insult you by trying. But what we can do is try to answer some of the most common questions you’re likely having during this unprecedented city crisis.  Stay Aware with a Disaster Response App Photo credit: Watch Duty One of the most important precautions we can take is maintaining awareness of the situation as it develops. And it’s developing quickly. We recommend downloading one of the numerous apps designed to track the spread of the fire. These apps take care of our number one priority, personal safety, by keeping us updated with the latest evacuation warnings and orders.  If you don’t already have a favorite selected, we recommend the WatchDuty app . With impressively quick upda...

  A certain segment of media and American culture have callously dismissed the wildfire disaster gripping Los Angeles as a “rich person problem.” We won’t waste space dignifying that assessment with a nuanced retort other than to emphasize that 25 lives have been lost so far, and the fires weren’t checking bank account balances. At the time of writing, over 12,000 structures have been decimated across 60 square miles of the county, forcing over 180,000 residents to evacuate. Altadena’s historic Black community, comprised primarily of working-class citizens who spent decades cultivating a seemingly impenetrable sense of community, is among the hardest hit. And the future of that community is horrifyingly uncertain.  The Catalyst for Altadena’s Strong Black Community   Prior to the wildfires, Altadena stood as one of the Civil Rights Movement’s most resounding success stories. Initially, discriminatory housing practices (called “redlining”) held Al...

  Six years ago, developers slated the Morrison Hotel for redevelopment into a 444 unit hotel. Instead it will now be an affordable housing project; the latest example of adaptive reuse in LA’s downtown area. Made legendary through its association to classic rock band The Doors, Morrison Hotel speaks to a rising trend of hospitality structures reimagined as low-income housing.  Update – December 2024: Here we are a year later and things have literally changed overnight with the former site of the Morrison Hotel going up in flames on the morning of December 26, 2024, leaving behind a charred husk. More than 100 firefighters battled the blaze for just short of two hours before containing the threat. As luck would have it, the Los Angeles Fire Department had frequently used the building for training exercises, granting them a rare familiarity that added efficiency to their efforts. However, due to the structural instability of the property, firefighters w...

  Featured image credit: Palm Springs Film Festival The Annual Palm Springs International Film Awards are upon us. And though it’s likely too late for you to pull strings to get into this star-studded affair, we have the big winners compiled for the night right here. The awards ceremony takes place on Friday, January 3 at the Palm Springs Convention Center, kicking off 2025 with some star power. Curious about who’s walking home with an award? Your wish is our command… Vanguard Award Honoree – Emilia Pérez (film) Studio: Netflix Director: Jacques Audiard Starring: Karla Sofia Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Edgar Ramírez   Netflix’s Emilia Pérez encapsulates so much vision into a single film that nothing less than the Vanguard Award would do. This award honors the cast and director alike and no movie brought out a cohesive ensemble quite like Emilia Pérez . It follows a cartel boss’s intricate plan to fake her own death in an a...

  Featured image credit: The Balloon Museum Official Site It’s still unacceptable to jump into a ball pit as an adult. Or, as the Chuck E. Cheese manager put it, “I don’t get paid enough to deal with this.” Fortunately, you may have your chance to plunge into a vat of balloons… at least until March 16. The Balloon Museum is in town, and let’s just say, it’s safe to go in with inflated expectations. What, you think a writer who jumps into ball pits is above an opening paragraph pun?  Anticipating the Pop Photo credit: The Balloon Museum Facebook By the time the touring Balloon Museum opened the doors of its Los Angeles iteration, entitled “Let’s Fly”, at the end of October, it had already won accolades and hosted 4.4 million guests across the world. Perhaps more impressive to the average Angeleno, it had also featured in an episode of Emily in Paris ’s third season. Today, it’s sprawling across (and a bit outside of) the voluminous Ace Mission Studios...

  Featured image credit: ISKCON Los Angeles When it comes to world-class museums, we have an embarrassment of riches in the Greater Los Angeles area. But some of the best museums in Los Angeles are the obscured diamonds only talked about in the inner circles of LA’s bohemian underground. We’ve discussed some of them on the JohnHart blog recently, like the Nethercutt Collection and Museum and the Museun of Jurassic Technology. Well, get ready to add another to the list because just a few hundred feet from the Museum of Jurassic Technology stands an attraction regarded as legendary by those in the know. It tells a sacred, transcendent tale across 11 dazzlingly psychedelic displays. It’s all a part of the experience the Diorama Museum of Bhagavad-gita offers.  Save the Drama for Your Diorama Photo credit: Public Domain In the 1930s, spiritual master Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati began to employ dioramas as a method of communicating his spiritual teachings. T...