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  Featured image credit: Jessie Eastland What is it about the isolation of the desert that drives people to search with such determination for profound, meaningful communication? It’s the conditions that birthed the Mojave Phone Booth : a remote payphone that inspired togetherness amongst lonely people at the end of the 1990s. And the Amargosa Opera House : a Death Valley venue that had to paint its audience before finding a real one. It’s the same spirit at the center of today’s subject: The Integratron. This looming acoustic masterpiece stands in the remote arid landscape of Landers near Joshua Tree. The Integratron was allegedly built under the specific instructions of a benign extraterrestrial presence. So much for moving to the desert to get away from it all! In the Welcoming Shadow of Giant Rock Photo credit: Ralph Megna George Van Tassel arrived in the Mojave Desert looking to the sky. After all, it had been his bread and butter up until this point in his

  Featured image credit: Hermann Luyken Cirque du Soleil has become such a fixture of the Las Vegas experience that it’s hard to recall that the first permanent venture was a major risk. Up until then, the expectations of Las Vegas nightlife were drastically different. While most will agree that Siegfried and Roy did the heavy lifting of the Vegas entertainment revolution, Cirque du Soleil provided more than its fair share of clown soldiers. Today, revelers can choose between six Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil residencies. But that’s soon to be five. Here’s how they stack up… Mad Apple Location: New York-New York Hotel and Casino Active Since: 2022 Photo credit: Cirque du Soleil Mad Apple is the freshest of Vegas’s Cirque du Soleil residencies. And with that novelty comes a purposeful refusal of Cirque du Soleil traditions. Pancake-faced acrobats are replaced by jersey-wearing basketball players. World music is drowned out by contemporary pop hits. Wild-

  In our line of service, we meet people every day chasing their dreams of homeownership. And often, those dreams aren’t very exacting. A surprising amount of people are in the market for four walls and a roof… anything else is icing on the cake. And there’s nothing wrong with that! But Glendale’s historic Harris House, which just hit the market, is a home for the discerning dreamers. Its gabled roof is held aloft by possibility and history; a home that considers tomorrow through the lens of countless yesterdays. Not quite Victorian, not quite Craftsman, it’s a quixotic structure too grandly unique to belong to any one time. In short, it’s a home for someone who doesn’t see a place but an entity; a being with brick bones and redwood blood that’s held true despite the world changing around it; a sanctuary unbowed by the ages.    The Feminine History of the Historic Harris House Built in 1902, the Harris House is one of the oldest homes in Glendale, even pre-dat

  All images: Kellogg Doolittle Residence On the edge of Joshua Tree National Park stands a 10-acre lot of land with one of the most fascinating examples of Organic Architecture ever built. It may look like some stately take on a Flintstones home or the futuristic remains of a mechanical mammoth from afar. But it’s a finetuned architectural orchestration handmade to blend with its arid environs. Behind its guarded exterior lies an intricate work of art decades in the making. Today, we brave the desert heat for a closer look at the famed Kellogg Doolittle House.  The Perfect Storm for an Icon of Organic Architecture The Kellogg Doolittle House wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the open minds (and bank accounts) of Bev and Jay Doolittle. An artist renowned for her intricate paintings of the wilds of the western United States, Bev Doolittle held an intimate reverence for the creative process. She knew that she didn’t want to live in a cookie-cutter home. But beyo

  Featured image credit: Visitor7 We often talk about the history of Los Angeles on this blog, but today we’re going back to the very beginning. Sort of. Indigenous people lived in the area we call Los Angeles for centuries before the city’s first stone was laid. But if you ask locals to take you to the beginning, most will guide you to a vibrant pocket at the border of Downtown LA called Olvera Street. You may have also heard of this storied pedestrian street under its Spanish name, Calle Olvera . Here you’ll find some of the oldest surviving buildings in the city, along with plenty of kiosks, shops, and restaurants with a decided focus on Mexican culture. Or at least a tourist-approved facsimile of it, depending on who you ask. But the true story of Olvera Street (not to mention El Pueblo de Los Ángeles ) began about a block northwest of its current placement.    The Spanish Settlers That (Sort of) Started It All Under a decree of King Carlos III of Spain

  Featured image credit: Warner Bros. At the end of August, our sister site covered the residential sale of the home memorably used in the 1982 horror classic Poltergeist . At the time, we assumed it was simply a residential transaction. But new information reveals that the Poltergeist house was actually purchased as an investment property with the idea of marketing it as a themed short-term rental. And though it’s still got a long road of renovation ahead of it, it’s already shaping up to be a sound investment. How to Sell a “Haunted” House   The Mandela Effect may leave you swearing that Steven Spielberg helmed 1982’s Poltergeist . However, the Jaws director was only responsible for the film’s story and co-authoring its screenplay. Director Tobe Hooper ( The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ) took on directing duties for the film about a suburban family plagued by apparitions from the netherworld. And everything in the film leads back to the house itself.