Dia De Los Muertos 2010: The Militant Visits The Dead

Today, as you may or may not know, is Dia De Los Muertos. The Militant has written about people, places and events in Los Angeles, so the Militant figured he'd commemorate the day by visiting the dead.

The Militant was near the Westside on Monday, and happened upon a memorial park by the west end of the Baldwin Hills in Culver City. It was Holy Cross Cemetery, a 71-year old, 200-acre memorial park with sweeping vistas of the South Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

After some Militant research, he discovered that there are quite a few well known Angelenos who have made this their final resting place.

Upon entering the grounds and driving up the hill where a replica of Michelangelo's Pieta sculpture stands, and right under a tree to the right of it, the Militant spotted the headstone of a very beloved figure in Los Angeles sports and one of the greatest play-by-play announcers who have ever lived:
Yes, the great Chick Hearn lies here.

Up the road towards the north, not far from the front entrance of the cemetery's main chapel/mausoleum, lies another legendary Los Angeles sports figure, a man who helped expand professional sports to the West:
Former Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, the man who brought a bunch of bums from Brooklyn and painted an entire city blue make his eternal home base here (The Militant won't say whether he heard the sound of somebody turning over underground in light of what has happened over the past year, or the horrific, unspeakable event that was to occur on Monday night). Being the great blue-bleeding Dodger fan that the Militant is, he can't thank Mr. O'Malley enough for his favorite team. But the Militant is also forever grateful for Mr. O'Malley's pioneering vision and initiative in making professional sports not only possible in this City, but in the entire western United States.

Another pioneer, this time in the world of motion pictures rests several yards to the east:
Though his epitaph reads, "Beloved King of Comedy," for the Militant, and this entire motion picture industry, he is known for so much more. Nearly a hundred years ago, he founded the Keystone Pictures Co. studios in Edendale (now part of Echo Park), which was the first motion picture sound stage in the world and the genesis of the film industry in Los Angeles.

Speaking of movies, Holy Cross is also the final resting place of countless legends of the silver screen. Located in the Grotto area (just a few yards south of Chick Hearn's grave, towards the entrance) are the gravesites of:
Actor and crooner Bing Crosby; and just a few yards north, on the right side of the Grotto near the curb:
Legendary actress Rita Hayworth.

More contemporary Hollywood figures spend their final repose here, including John Candy and Ricardo Montalban, though the Militant had a hard time trying to locate their gravesites.

Being this the time of the year that it is, there were many of the living making visits to their own stars in their lives here, leaving flowers, mementos or just spending a quiet moment with their loved ones.

One section of the cemetery was somewhat more decorated than the rest of the grounds, with many families standing over headstones, praying or paying respects. A look at the birth and death dates of the stones indicated that those buried in this section were mostly young children, who, for whatever reason, never had a chance to even enjoy a fraction of the lives that we have enjoyed. The Militant felt a little guilty being here, not knowing anyone buried here very closely (most of the Militant's own beloved who passed are buried in an unspecified land far, far away).

Whether or not you observe religious or cultural traditions, the Militant hopes that all of you living Angels in this City just take even a moment to remember your own beloved ones who are now no more in this life. However big or small, their legacy lives on as long as they are remembered.

Playing The Angel (City): 'Los Angeles Plays Itself' Screening At The Aero

Gotta love social networking.

If it weren't for finding out on his Twitter or Facebook (forgot which one), the Militant would have totally slept on this one. One of his friends/followees posted Saturday about attending the sold-out screening of the 2003 documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself, screening this weekend at the American Cinematheque's Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.

So the Militant looked into it to add to his Sunday activities. 7:30 p.m. screening? The Militant was so there. Besides, it was a perfect way to celebrate Los Angeles' birthday weekend, since he was to lazy to wake up Saturday morning and go to the El Pueblo festivities.

He also bought his $10 movie ticket online via Fandango.com, which was not only totally convenient, but their $1 add-on service fee was way more reasonable than that of, oh, say, larger, more oppressive online ticket monopolies.

The Militant got in line, which went around the corner, and just his luck; right as his place in line entered the building, they announced that, for those who hadn't purchased via Fandango, the show was sold out! He even had a little difficulty finding a seat!

The film, of course, is Thom Andersen's (no, not that one) documentary (or video essay, as the filmmaker touts it) on the depiction of the Los Angeles metropolitan area in motion pictures, over the course of nearly eight decades. The film is, by no means, comprehensive of course, which is just as well given its two-and-a-half-hour-plus running time. But for someone as militantly Angeleno as, well, the Militant Angeleno, every minute of the film is captivating, revealing and fascinating.

There are no interviews; every scene is comprised of scenes of other films, always credited onscreen by title and year. Though the narration is written by, and from the point of view of, the Chicago-born, Brentwood/Westside-raised filmmaker, it's voiced by the droll and sometimes monotone Encke King, which is actually sometimes put to good effect, especially during scenes of humorous commentary, like this sequence that connects architecturally-significant residences with onscreen antagonists:

The film also makes some astute observations on not only the urban (or non-urban) landscape of Los Angeles, but other issues such as history, transportation, depiction of law enforcement (the commentary on the LAPD's well-known motto is pure gold) and to the Militant's sheer delight, how motion pictures have oft-reduced "Los Angeles" to a two-letter acronym.

Of course, there were a couple of points the Militant could nitpick on, such as Andersen's commentary on the bus system that would make any yellow-shirted pseudo-Marxist jizz in their pants. And the ending of the film, which finally addresses the depiction (and non-depiction) of blacks, Latinos and Native Americans in 'Hollywood,' seemed a little too rushed, with an ending too abrupt (not to mention the fact that other ethnic groups prominent in our city got absolutely no mention). And lastly, how could they do an entire section on the LAPD without a single clip from the 1988 movie Colors?

Following Sunday night's screening, the filmmaker was present for some Q and A, of which roughly half of the capacity crowd stayed for. The Militant was able to ask Andersen a question, of which he answered (of course the Militant won't reveal which one...).

The Militant wondered what kind of crowd he was with, since it takes a certain kind of person who'd wanna sit through a nearly 3-hour documentary about Los Angeles. The crowd, as expected, was predominantly white, over-40 and upscale in nature, though there were bits of every other demographic mixed in. Some of the people who asked questions identified themselves as transplants, some living here as recently as four months, another a woman originally from the Bay Area who grew up among Los Angeles-hate, yet found her self enamored with all things So Cal. A couple also identified themselves as locals.

Like this great City itself, there were a multitude of perspectives that attracted the crowd to this screening. Some came to seek validation ("Those who walk, or ride the bus, are the ones who truly know the city" - Yessss!), some came to learn, some came to learn even more. All of which are a great thing.

There are future plans for a DVD-version of this documentary, along with a supplementary book by Andersen covering post-2003 films such as Crash. But next time this thing screens locally, run, don't walk, to wherever it's screening.

Los Angeles Plays Itself is 100% Militant-approved. You. Must. Watch. It.

L.A. Live, Wired For 'Iron Man 2'

The Militant realizes full well that today is Earth Day, and while everyone is expecting an ecologically-themed post, the Militant asks, rhetorically, "Why only for today?" Earth Day should be every day. He recycles, rides his bike and hops on the train pretty much every day anyway, so it should be no big deal...

The Militant was walking down Figueroa today with an unspecified relative to visit L.A. Live when all of a sudden a U.F.O. (Unspecified Flying Object) shoots across Fig.

Okay, relax, the space aliens weren't turning Earth Day into Independence Day or anything. The object was being suspended by a cable that stretched from the roof of the Holiday Inn all the way to the Nokia Theatre. Whatever could this be?

Upon closer inspection, the Militant and his unspecified relative approach L.A. Live's "canyon" walkway and witness a crew busy putting up scaffolding, an archway and spotlights. What is up? Some red carpet event?

After doing some intense Militant research (okay, so the Militant just went up and asked), the activity was the construction of a movie set, and the floating object was a test weight, made up mostly of sandbags, in lieu of a camera, which would swoop down L.A. Live's canyon to capture
the scene.

"So what's the movie called?" The Militant asked.

"Rasputin," said the crewmember. "Or...Iron Man 2."

Further Militant research turns up nothing for a movie in production named "Rasputin" but there is confirmation that the production codename for Iron Man 2 is indeed "Rasputin."

So all you Tony Stark fanboys and fangirls, L.A. Live is the place to be tonight!

When Los Angeles Comes To Hollywood

For the rest of the world (or, more accurately, those who live outside of the state of California), somehow believe Hollywood is larger than Los Angeles, or worse, don't know where Los Angeles is, but they can point to where Hollywood is on a globe. It has, after all, a 200-foot long sign plopped on a hillside. So naturally, for them, it's inconceivable to think that Hollywood is merely a community that's a subset of Los Angeles (Of course, there are two "Hollywoods," but that's a topic for another (rather lengthy and didactic) post...).

As the Militant biked through Hollywood on Friday night after having dinner with a group of operatives, he suddenly found this (pictured above) perched atop a building on Vine Street - an advertisement for an upcoming Sony Pictures flick starring Samuel L. Jackson, called Lakeview Terrace (the tag line: "What could be safer than living next to a cop?" Oooh, let the Militant guess...a 'bad cop' movie? How original...).

Certainly bad cops aren't strangers to the LVT, as this guy can surely attest. But rest-assured, northeastern SFV residents, the movie is just fiction, since everybody knows LAPD officers don't even live within Los Angeles City limits (OH SNAP!).

But lest you think the Militant has a huge amount of disdain for the LAPD, he actually respects them very much, knows a few officers by name (in a good way, that is), and never had a bad experience with any member of this City's police force (in contrast, those suburban cops, they can be real a-holes, though...).

But this post wasn't meant to be about the police (no, not that one), so end this tangent we will. What do the people in the actual Lakeview Terrace think of the film? Will they want to see it? Will they want to avoid seeing it? Or will they just order it off of Netflix? The Militant thinks it's rather peculiar to have movies named after actual communities in Los Angeles. Besides Lakeview Terrace, there's South Central, Echo Park, Encino Man (a stretch, but it counts...), and the most famous film named after a Los Angeles community - Chinatown. Did the Militant miss any?

...And...cut!