california times - october 2011
DESCRIPTION
A magazine covering history, pop culture, events, news, nostalgia and articles about California, past and presentTRANSCRIPT
Table of Contents
Editor’s Page
California Noir: Raymond Chandler’s L. A. – The Dark Side
Octobermania: Oktoberfest & Car Shows & More
Remember When…
October…
Cover photograph, Frank Winterbourne, San Juan Capistrano Mission, 1949
Page 1
Editor’s Page
Welcome to the first edition of a new monthly online magazine called California Times. I am a
California native son of a California Native son. In fact, on my mother’s side, we can claim
generations of native sons and daughters going back to 1769 when our ancestor, Jose Antonio
Yorba, came up with Portola and Father Junipero Serra to found the missions and presidios.
My father’s parents came to California in 1912 in an open-top Model T touring car when
Route 66 was but a dream. I am invested –- I am committed – to California and all that it
means and can mean, from past to future.
There are those media critics who say that the magazine is dead. But, rather, I think it is
merely in metamorphosis – changing its distribution to fit into the Internet age.
This magazine is a mixed-blend of history, pop culture, nostalgia, news, and event calendar.
It will inform you what’s going on where – whether you’re a foodie tourist of harvest and
produce festivals. a beer afficianado, a follower of surf festivals and car shows, a re-enactor
or just interested in history events, or a Native America pow-wow attender. If we think it’s
fun or interesting, you’ll find it in our monthly calendar section.
Our feature articles may range from California Noir to the Art & Crafts scene, from Hollywood
nostalgia to how gas stations evolved from the old stagecoach stops, from the best places to spot
classic cars to “the best eats in town”. We’ll be a guide, a story-teller, and a friend to remind
you of the great glories, the tragedies, the humor and the triumphs that make our great state
what it is.
Despite the grumbles, the occasional mutter, the traffic and the crush of populace, California
is a wonderful place to live and enjoy life. Help us commemorate and celebrate our delightful
“California Times”.
William S Dean
Editor-Publisher
Page 2
California Noir
RAYMOND CHANDLER’S L. A. – THE DARK SIDE WITH
A DASH OF HOPE
"The lights of the city were an endlessly glittering sheet. Neon signs glowed and flashed. The languid ray of a searchlight prodded about among high faint clouds.”
“Dead men are heavier than broken hearts” reads the memorial stone marking the final resting place of Raymond Chandler. Ironically,
perhaps, the world-famous noir writer of shattered dreams and cynical
anti-heroes is buried at New Hope Cemetery in San Diego.
Fellow author S.J. Perleman called Chandler "the major social
historian of Los Angeles” and maybe he was for that shadowed
growing metropolis that was Los Angeles in the 1930s through the
the 1950s, but what about now? Certainly, some of the same human
characters are roaming the mean streets. Heart-wounded veteran
soldiers searching for meaning and jobs. Women cynical about that
crazy mixed-up thing called love. Thugs and gangsters hiding in
the shadowlands and tough cops who don’t play by the rules, along
with corrupt politicians and greed-inspired “big shots” in tailored
suits. It seems that Raymond Chandler’s archetypes never left L.A.
They just changed clothes and bought new technological toys.
Chandler called California “the department store state”. By that,
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I think he meant everything was on display and everything was for
sale. That was his cynical side, but he could also wax lyrical and
poetic.
In “The Big Sleep”, he writes ““It was about eleven o'clock in the
morning, mid-October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard
wet rain in the clearness of the foothills.”
Chandler’s city could be one of fallen angels, naïve, yet dangerous
and corrupted. It was “rich and vigorous and full of pride, a city
lost and beaten and full of emptiness."
Chandler’s enduring quality was his gift for metaphor. Everything
reminded him of something else; something very human and fragile.
"My theory,” Chandler once wrote, “was that readers just thought
That they cared about nothing but the action; that really although
they didn't know it, they cared very little about the action.
The thing they really cared about, and that I cared about, was the
creation of emotion through dialogue and description."
Those emotions, those dialogues still play out across Los Angeles
where the dawn and noon and the twilight tint our shadow-world with
the kiss of sunlight and hope.
Like Raymond Chandler, Los Angeles could be summed up, as he once
wrote, “I never looked back, although I had a good many uneasy
periods looking forward.”
Cissy Pascal Chandler; the Chandler headstone at New Hope cemetery, San Diego
Next month - California Noir: Dashiel Hammett’s San Francisco – Out of the Fog
Page 4
OCTOBERMANIA:
Oktoberfest
The Oktoberfest celebration began with a royal marriage. Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig (later
Mad King Ludwig) married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on October 12, 1810.,
and the great party began. It’s been going on ever since. During September and October,
Bavarians and everyone else with a thirst for beer and polka gather to celebrate the glory of beer
suds.
Where to get your brew on:
Alpine Village, Torrance, weekends through October 23
The Phoenix Club, Anaheim, weekends through October 30
Modesto Octoberfest, John Thurman Field, Modesto, October 7
California Beer Festival, Claremont, October 8
Oktoberfest, Petalauma, October 8
3rd
Annual Los Angeles Beer Week, A 14 Day Celebration of Beer Culture in Los Angeles
And Orange Counties, October 10-23 website: http://www.labeerweek.com/
Beer & Wine Festival, Yuba City, October 15
Santa Barbara Beer Festival, Santa Barbara, October 15
Fall Bay Area Craft Beer Festival, Martinez, October 22
Los Osos Oktoberfest, Los Osos, October 30
Page 5
Car Shows
10th Annual NSRA Golden State Street Rod Nationals, Sacramento, October 7-9
"Cruise for the Cure" Car Show, Barstow, October 8
"Hot Rod Gathering" Runway Drags, Eagle Field, Fairbaugh, October 8
Del Mar Concours D'Elegance, Del Mar, October 16
Long Beach - Hi-Performance Swap Meet & Car Show, Long Beach, October 9
20th NHRA Hot Rod Reunion, Bakersfield, October 21-23
25th Annual Concours D'Elegance, Santa Barbara, October 29-30
Mustang Madness Car Show, Costa Mesa, October 30
Page 6
Veggie Lovin’ ’
October 7-9, California Avocado Festival, Carpenteria
October 8-9, Los Banos Tomato Festival, Los Banos
October 8, Point Arena Hemp Hops & Harvest Festival, Point Arena
Gathering of the Tribes
October 7-9, 2011 Redding Rancheria's Stillwater Pow Wow & Hand Game Tournament
Redding, CA
October 15, 2011 Auburn Big-Time Pow Wow http://www.sierranativealliance.org/
October 27 thru October 30, 2011 26th Annual California Indian Conference, held in
Chico at California State University
Surf’s Up!
October 13-16 4th Annual California Surf Festival, Oceanside
Page 7
REMEMBER WHEN…
October 1981 – Twenty Years Ago
October 1 - The first cellular telephone system is inaugurated. Nordic Mobile Telephone
(Nordisk MobilTelephoni), NMT, set up the network in Sweden.
October 6 - Egypt's President Anwar Sadat is assassinated at Nasr City while watching
the annual Armed Forces Day parade.
October 9 - American rock musician Prince performs before the largest crowd of his career,
an opening acts for the Rolling Stones' tour at Los Angeles Coliseum. He is booed off
the stage by an impatient crowd.
October 13 - Hosni Mubarak, the former Vice-President under Sadat is confirmed as President
of Egypt
October 15 - "The Wave" is first led by “Krazy” George Henderson in Oakland, during
the 7th inning stretch of a game between the Oakland A's and the New York Yankees.
October 22 - US national debt tops $1 trillion
October 26 - Iron Maiden plays its first show with Bruce Dickinson as the new lead singer in
Bologna, Italy.
October 28 - The Los Angeles Dodgers win the 1981 World Series over the New York Yankees.
- The heavy metal band Metallica is formed
ON THE CHARTS - MUSIC
"Endless Love" by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie
"Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" by Christopher Cross
"Start Me Up" by The Rolling Stones
"For Your Eyes Only" by Sheena Easton
"Step By Step" by Eddie Rabbitt
"Private Eyes" by Hall & Oates
"Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" by Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty/Heartbreakers
"Who's Crying Now" by Journey
Page 8
October 1991 – Ten Years Ago
Completely MAD, the official history of MAD magazine, written by Maria Reidelbach, hits
bookstores and becomes an immediate best-seller.
X-Men: Legacy Issue #1
Tomb of Dracula Issue #1
Clive Barker's Book of the Damned: A Hellraiser Companion Issue #1
October 6 - Elizabeth Taylor weds for 8th time (Larry Fortensky)
October 11 – Comedian Redd Foxx dies
October 23 - "Les Miserables," opens at Mogador Theatre, Paris
October 24 – Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry dies
Page 9
"There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant
an effect on the feelings, as now in October."
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
The scene above, photographed in the Owens Valley near June Lake, belies the calumny always
spread by non-Californians that we here in the Golden State have no seasons, particularly no
colorful changing of the leaves in Autumn. Our forests, our parks, and the stately shade tree in
many yards and apartment complexes – everywhere you look past the concrete and pavement
the brilliant hues of Fall adorn our trees.
October is a month of orange. Halloween pumpkins, squashes, and tree leaves combine with the
color of the Autumn sky at sunset to remind us where we are – between Summer and Winter.
October is a harvest month. A time to reflect back on the wild heat of Summer and to start taking
out the warming clothes for Winter’s chill.
“I have been younger in October than in all the months of spring” writes W. S. Merwin in The
Love of October.
"Listen! the wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,
We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!"
- Humbert Wolfe
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