strawberry gazette, issue 4

8/9/2019 Strawberry Gazette, Issue 4

1/12

ITS NOT JUST THEWATER! LAND, LOSANGELES, AND THE

OWENS VALLEYBY CHRIS LANGLEY

In the early twentieth century,

agents for the City of Los Ange-

les began surreptitiously buy-

ing property in the Owens Valley.

The plan was to capture control

of specific parcels of land that

would lead to the city controlling

the water of the valley. The trium-

virate of Lippincott, Eaton, and

Mulholland were frozen in time

together in a famous photograph

that appeared in the Los Angeles

Times on August 6, 1906, looking

more like engineers than land

bandits. In part, appealing to the

greed of the valleys farmers and

ranchers, they basically secured

the water rights to the Owens Val-

ley. In a few years, work would

begin on the L. A. Aqueduct, which

would take the Owens River to the

young city to secure its explosive

growth.

The economic and social rela-

tions between the city and the val-

ley have shaped the land of the

Owens Valley. These relations are

reflected today in the allotment

of space, business, and the aes-

thetics of the landscape in which

the lives of local residents are

embedded. It also left the Los

Angeles Department of Water

and Power (LADWP) landlords of

Continued on page 11

BY TERENCE LYONS

Every Sunday afternoon for more

than two years, a handful of veter-

ans have gathered at the intersec-

tion of Wilshire and San Vicente

Boulevards, just outside a corner

of the West Los Angeles VA prop-

erty. Calling themselves the Old

Veterans Guard, they are vigor-

ously protesting the abuse and

misuse of this sacred land that

was deeded 122 years ago for vet-erans use only, says Robert Rose-

brock, a leader of the group, who

objects to certain non-veteran

uses on the property.

The basic 1888 deed by which the

owners of Rancho San Vicente y

Santa Monica transferred 300 acres

to the National Home for Disabled

Volunteer Soldiers simply specified

that it was land on which to locate,

establish, construct, and perma-

nently maintain such branch [West

of the Rocky Mountains] of said

National Home Over the years

since then, the VA property has

grown (as with the nineteenth cen-

tury grant of 200 acres from a man

who had pledged a cash donation he

was later unable to pay) and shrunk

(as in the cases of the twentieth

century takings for the San Diego

FreewayInterstate 405and the

Westwood Federal Building).

Also over the years since 1888, the

VA property has been put to uses

for the benefit of the public gener-

ally, as well as veterans in particu-

larin 1904 it became a stop on

a 100-mile daylong streetcar out-

ing for tourists, and in 1911 sev-

eral thousand civilians joined twothousand vets to watch hair-rais-

ing aerial stunts over the prop-

erty. Most recently, the VA property

in March of this year joined in the

new Stadium to the Sea route

of the Los Angeles Marathon, as

thousands of runners struggled

up Bonsall Avenue in the make-or-

break last uphill segment of the

race before coasting down San

Vicente Boulevard to the finish

line in Santa Monica.

But today, the VA land is also used

for longer-term, non-veterans-

related purposes, from vehicle

parking for offsite enterprises to

a mineral rights agreement con-

trolled by the Department of theInterior. Two of those uses involve

VA agreements with Brentwood

School and the Veterans Park

Conservancy.

Brentwood School

The VA provides twenty-two acres

in the northwest corner of the

property to the private Brentwood

School under a sharing agree-

ment, on which land the school

has constructed a modern athletic

complex, which includes playing

fields, tennis courts, a track, and

an aquatic center. The ten-year

agreement begun in 2000 (cur-

rently at $375,000 per year) is now

up for a ten-year renewal option,

and Head of School Michael Pratt

told The Strawberry Gazette when

we spoke in May that the school

had submitted for VA approval its

election to proceed with the option.

The agreement provides that the

VA shall have the right to sched-

ule uses of the Athletic Complex or

portions thereof at mutually con-

venient times, and Pratt told the

Gazette that the school has offered

the VA the use of its track, for exam-

ple, when it is not required by the

school. Moreover, the school hashosted the Golden Age Olympics, a

national athletic event for veterans,

and supported the building of the

VA Fisher House and offered tuto-

rial services for the veterans chil-

dren staying there.

Continued on page 2

* * * * Serving the 300,000 veterans living in greater Los Angeles * * * *

Strawberry GazetteVOLUME I LAND USE ISSUE 4 JUNE, 2010

The Future ofVeterans Land

The veterans home and hospital areas are both located west of Interstate 405. The LOS ANGELES CEMETERY

between Sepulveda Boulevard and Veterans Avenue contains the remains of some 85,000 veterans and family

members from the MEXICAN WAR to the present. The Wilshire FEDERAL BUILDING lies east of the Interstate.

Cinny Kennard (CK): Were talk-

ing now with Matt Coolidge, the

founder and director of the Center

for Land Use Interpretation of Los

Angeles. You are a leading expert

on how property is used in the

United States. From what youve

seen here today, what about Straw-

berry Flagand how this property is

being used now?

Matt Coolidge (MC): Im still get-

ting my mind around it. Frankly,

this is the first time Ive been this

deep into the VA here in L.A., and

so just initially, as a project to

draw people to this place, for me

its already achieved something.

I guess in a way the people who

are here, whoever they are, are

sort of filling in kind of a crack

thats forming in the VA, a social

kind of crack in the frozen sort of

politics of this place. I guess all

of us, for better or worse, are like

little droplets of water, freezing

and expanding in the crack as we

come in to find out what this place

is, what it means, what it could be,

what it isnt, what it should be. I

guess its still an open question

but the question I think has been,

for me, raised, which is a question

I never thought to even ask.

CK: This is over 300 acres if you

calculate the land across Wilshire

Boulevard in Los Angeles, and

then you come across Wilshire to

this quad, where we are, between

Building 205, 208, 209. Whats

your thought of the whole notion

that these two buildings are aban-

doned? This one is partially used.

Many other buildings around

this campus are abandoned over

the course of years. As a land use

expert, do you see a gold mine

here? Do you see old buildings

that just need to be knocked

down: lets start over? Im putting

you on the spot I realize because

youve just been here a little bit.

Continued on page 11

An Interview with Matt Coolidge,

Founder and Director of the Center for

Land Use Interpretation of Los Angeles


2/12

THE FUTURE OF VETERANSLAND CONTINUED...

Pratt also spoke of a senior-level

ethics course he taught in which

he took students to the VA and

met with World War II prisoner of

war veterans as part of the classs

study of just war theory. This sort

of healthy interaction between

the VA and the outside commu-

nity incidental to property use

seems to benefit everyone. The

Brentwood School agreement also

provides that the school shall

make every effort to increase pub-

lic awareness of the [VAs] role in

making the premises available

to the school, although Pratt

could not say what had been done

in that regard except that it is widely known in the community

that Brentwood School does not

own the land.

Veterans Park Conservancy

Another VA sharing agreement

is with the Veterans Park Conser-

vancy, a Brentwood-based nonprofit

group that has been recognized by

the Los Angeles County Board of

Supervisors for its work since 1986

in, among other things, dedicat-

ing the Veterans Parkway portion

of Wilshire Boulevard as it passes

through the VA, and restoring the

Bob Hope Veterans Chapel on the

cemetery grounds.

The 2007 twenty-year sharing

agreement (with a mutual option

provision for another ten years)

concerns the sixteen acres behind

the fence at Wilshire and San

Vicente Boulevards, in front of

which Rosebrock and his group

conduct their protests. The agree

ment provides for the develop-

ment of a park to be used for

benefit of veterans and the gen-

eral public, and this seems to be

the focus of the protests, notwith-

standing that VA Network Direc-

tor Ronald B. Norby told a forumof Westside leaders in September

2009 that the VA intended no use

of the campus not related to veter-

ans, and that the land would be

used exclusively at all times for

service and care of veterans.

TheGazette spoke with Sue Young,

executive director of the Conser-

vancy, who said that the purpose

of the park was to honor, heal,

educate, and unite. Although she

said that the Conservancy was

not ready to talk about the park

because it was not there yet, she

did say that it foresaw a gazebo/

bandstand, the restoration of a

rose garden and fountains behind

Building 220, and the return of

birds to the area.

Whether the 1888 deed requires

the property to be used only for

veteransand whether isolating

veterans from the community is

even a good ideaare questions

that beg to be addressed in a com-

prehensive way.

The Master Plan

From 2004 through 2007, the

VA undertook the Capital Asset

Realignment for Enhanced Ser-

vices (CARES) study on the national

level. In a September 2007 news

release, the VA said that facilitymodernizations along with the

agreement with the Veterans Park

Conservancy to designate 16 acres

of land for the Veterans Memo-

rial Park, the Fisher House, and

the buildings designated for tran-

sitional housing for the homeless

[Buildings 205, 208, and 209] repre-

sent a major portion of the Master

Plan for the VA campus.

In September 2009, Norby told the

forum of Westside leaders that the

VA was pulling together a master

plan for the property, of which a

preliminary draft was then com-

plete, but he did not give a timeta-

ble for the plans completion.

Such a plan would not only be use-

ful, but the process of developing

the planespecially if it included

input from all those with a stake

in the property, especially veter-

answould be a valuable tool for

determining the proper and most

beneficial uses to be made of this

wonderful property.

TheGazette received no response to

requests to interview Norby for this

article, and we were among those

barred from a May 18 invitation-only VA Quarterly Stakeholders

Meeting that may have addressed

the state of a master plan (as prior

such meetings have done).

Land use is a subject of enormous

importance, not only at the VA, but

in the community at large. And it

is a subject that is most profit-

ably addressed in frank and open

forums rather than street-corner

protests or closed-door meetings.

BY TERENCE LYONS

The local winners of the 2010 Vet-

erans Creative Arts Festival are now

being judged at the national level ofcompetition for a trip to La Crosse,

Wisconsin, in October, and partici-

pation in a stage show (in the per-

formance categories) and arts show

(in the visual arts categories) that

will celebrate the national winners.

The local competition in the annual

festival was held in Building 500 on

March 11 and was open to all vet-

erans who receive services at the

West Los Angeles VA. The veterans

response to the call for entries was

enthusiastic, said Erin Rule, rec-

reation therapist at the Domicili-

ary, who organized the local event.

Besides viewing the many works of

art and the crafts on display, those

who attended the March 11 festival

competition were treated to more

than two hours of musical perfor-

mances and dramatic readings.

Recreational therapist Bruce Gar-

rett introduced dozens of acts,

ranging from Yolanda Harriss dra-

matic and thoughtful recitation of

A Veterans Dream to Philip Scotts

entertaining and humorous Did

You Know God Was Black to the

Men of Faith groups rousing vocal

finale.

The competition was organized in

many categories. Local winners in

the various visual arts categories

had their works photographed, andthe photos were sent in for national

judging. Videos of the local win-

ners in the performance categories

were forwarded for the national

selections.

The winners of the local West Los

Angeles Creative Arts Festival in the

musical performance categories

were as follows: Troy Newsome in

pop solo for Purple Rain; Stanley

Salce in Broadway solo for Some-

where Over the Rainbow; Wood-

stock in folk solo for It Aint Me

Babe; Ray Rodgers in religious solo

for Walk with Me; and Men of

Faith in religious group for Jesus,

He Will Fix It. Rodgers has been

a contributing writer to The Straw-

berry Gazette.

In the spoken performance cat-

egories, the winners were as

follows: Yolanda Harris in inter-

pretive performance for A Vet-

erans Dream; Napoleon Jackson

in dramatic prose for A Touch of

the Masters Hand; Willie Smith

in inspirational poetry for The

Lord Jesus Christ; Ethan Lucas in

other poetry for Born Alive, Die

Cold and New Life; and Mark

Balmforth in humorous short story

for The Rainmaker.

In the visual arts categories, the winners included the following:

Lance Scott in acrylic painting for

Little Girl; Phyllis Miller in oil paint-

ing forMans Eternal; Charles Beatie

in sculpture for The Clown; Arturo

Pea and Lance Scott tied in mono-

chrome drawing for Peas eagle

entitled Freedom and Scotts other

Little Girl; Haven Robinson in both

colored drawing and pottery for

Blue Heaven Cathedraland Com-

munion, respectively; Eric Kaylor

in color photography for Nature vs.

Man; and Pea also in mixed media

fine art for The Lord Is My Shepherd.

Pea has been a contributing car-

toonist to The Strawberry Gazette.

Also winning in visual arts were

the following: Bernard Johnson in

glazed ceramics for Vase; Kenny

Ondo in painted ceramics for

Ondos Piece; Julia Garrett in col-

lage for Surroundings Around Barack

Obama; Jake Stephens in bead-

work for his untitled beaded work;

Ronte Foster in applied art for The

Queen Bee; Nicole Ortiz in leather

kit for Starry Moccasins; Glen Ayala

in wood-building kit for Birds Para-

dise; and Gerald Procella in plastic

model kit for his Harley model.

2

Creative Arts WinnersCompete at National Level

I dont feel we did wrong in taking this g reat country

away from them. There were great numbers of

people who needed new land, and the Indians were

selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.

John Wayne

Tip the world over on its side and everything loose

will land in Los Angeles.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Under the direction of print studio manager Rich Nielsen the veterans print studio produced this etching for a

mulberry/strawberry limited edition of veterans preserves in honor of Zev Yaroslavskys visit to Strawberry Flag.

Zev Yaroslavsky is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, representing the western part of

Los Angeles County and a constituency of two million people.

Paul Crowley recording the Tin Mans voice in the filmSilver and Water

that aims to reconnect Los Angeles with the source of its water.


3/12

Thoughts about Living

Monuments, Private and Public

BY JANET OWEN DRIGGS

Unknown Day, 1875

J. C. Gobrecht, writing in Ohio

The maimed and crippled sol-

dieris no longer without a local

habitation and a nameThe

ample provision which a humane

and generous government has

made for his present and future

earthly comfort, is to him of far

more importance than the inscrip-

tion of his name upon the lofti-

est memorial pile.The Soldiers

Home is a living monument; oneupon which the war-worn veteran

may gaze with pleasurable emo-

tion as he proudly contemplates it

and exclaims I live in the hearts of

my countrymen!

April 28, 2010

Parker Road, Hastings, UK

Closing up our parents house, my

sister and I gather objects that

briefly anchor passing time: a small

brass lion, a measuring cup, two

pairs of plastic baby shoes. These

tangible things assure us that the

past really happened. They let us

ponder it in ways we cannot if all we

have is fleeting memory. They repre-

sent memories our parents chose to

keep, and those that we take home

will shape the memories that our

descendents have of these beloved

people.

April 29 + 30, 2010

University of the Arts, L ondon, UK

Attending Afterlives of Monuments

symposium on key markers in

the colonial and post-colonial his-

tories and spaces of South Asia.1

Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Stu-

dio are reinventing the monument

with such works as theAnabolic

Monument and Strawberry Flag.

Im here because I want to better

understand how scholars are think-

ing about the subject and tell them

about this work.

Wondering what the word afterlife

means in relation to a monument,

I listen to Dr. Clare Harris discuss

Tibets Potala Palace. Once home

to the Dalai Lama, since his 1959

flight from Tibet, the Chinese gov-

ernment has turned Potala into a

museum. Although this act seemsto evidence regard for a subject

culture, it also drains power from

indigenous opposition by position-

ing its culture as a relic. As novelist

and critic Raymond Williams wrote,

A culture can never be reduced to

its artifacts while it is being lived.2

If a monument allows its visitors

to reclaim the past, then Potala is

a kind of organized forgetting. Im

reminded of Pierre Noras asser-

tion of the terrorism of histori-

cized memory and his distinction:

Memory is life, borne by living

societies... Historyis the recon-

struction, always problematic and

incomplete, of what is no longer.3

Curator Sona Datta then presents

Durga: creating an image of the god-

dess. At the British Museum, it

enacted an annual Hindu tradition

of sculpting Durga from mud and

straw. Because generations of Hin-

dus define themselves in relation to

their past in this way, the festival is

offered as an example of intangi-

ble cultural heritage, a living mon-

ument.4 (Thinking of Nora, isnt a

festival in a museum rendered life-

less, or at least zombie?)

This is what the conference means

by afterlife: revivification after

death. Perhaps it occurs through

the monuments instrumentaliza-

tion as a tool of power, or perhaps

via ritualized enactment, but this

notion of afterlife always supposes

that the tangible object of a monu-

ment, with apologies to Dickens, is

as dead as a coffin-nail.5

May 6, 2010

Santa Fe Art Colony, Los Angeles

Unpacking. Here is Dads campaign

poster and the bonnet Mum knit-ted from a dolls pattern. Here is

the dye-stained measuring cup. For

the rest of my life I will be creating a

reconstruction problematic and

incomplete, of what is no longer.6

Wanting to inspire my son with

his grandfathers courage and his

grandmothers sense of fun, I will

undoubtedly exaggerate.

May 7, 2010

Anabolic Monument(Lauren Bon,

2006ongoing), Los Angeles

State Historic Park, USA

Standing in the middle of the Ana-

bolic Monuments circle of corn

bales. Suggesting a different defi-

nition of afterlife, they are made

from corn stover that was grown

by the artists Not A Cornfield

(20052006). A regular site of cere-

mony and ritual, the rotting bales

host plants that attract insects,

which appeal to small birds and

rodents, which in turn draw larger

avian hunters; and so the cycles of

life go on.

Because monuments are intended

to keep the values of a culture

conspicuous to posterity, they

Continued on page 4

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity

belonging to us. When we see land as a community

to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love

and respect.

Aldo Leopold

Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes.

Bertolt Brecht3

The Anabolic Monument as an artwork redefines monumentality as a working process rather than a commemo-

rative one. It replaces the Neo-Classical monuments herculean effort to erect a permanent form with the

herculean effort to support life, which will always seek to rebuild itself and create form around that process.

June 20 American Legion Post#322 is having a Fine Art

& Garage Sale in Building 500 starting at 9am.

BY TERENCE LYONS

The 396-bed Veterans Home of

California West Los Angeles will

be dedicated with all appropriate

pageantry on June 14, Flag Day, on

the grounds of the West L.A. VA.

The 10:00 a.m. public ceremonies

and ribbon-cutting will include

the U.S. Marine Corps march-

ing band from Miramar, the New

Directions choir, and a flyover

of vintage World War II aircraft,according to Jeanne Bonfilio of

the California Department of Vet-

erans Af fairs (CalVet).

CalVet will operate the facility,

which will be its sixth Veterans

Home in the state, on 17 acres of

VA campus land deeded to the

State of California for the pur-

pose, said Louis Koff, administra-

tor of the new home. The VA will

provide the veteran residents with

medical care, medical supplies,

laundry and food services, and

prescription medications.

Three levels of care will be pro-

vided. The 84-bed Residential

Care Facility for the Elderly (age

62, or younger if disabled) will

begin accepting patients this

summer. Sometime next year, the

252-bed Skilled Nursing Facility,

and a 60-bed Alzheimers/demen-

tia (or memory care) unit will

open. Admission to the veteranshome is a state (rather than fed-

eral) decision, said Koff, and 117

applications had been received

by CalVet as of mid May, when

The Strawberry Gazette toured the

building with him.

The $187 million project (financed

by federal as well as state money)

has been under construction on

the VA north campus since

July 2007, when Governor Arnold

Schwarzenegger called veter-

ans the true action heroes at

the groundbreaking. At the time

of the Gazettes tour, the build-

ing had been cleared by the fire

marshal, and the building inspec-

tors were in the process of finish-

ing their business. Koff said that

he then expected the licensing

authorities from the Department

of Social Services (for residential

care) and the Department of Pub-

lic Health (for nursing care) to

conduct their examinations.

A wing that will be part of the

Residential Care Facility for the

Elderly was virtually complete

at the time of our tour, although

not all of the furniture had been

moved in. Both the rooms and the

common areas are light and airy,

with large windows, views of the

landscaped grounds, wide halls,

and outdoor patios off the lobbies

and dining areas. There are no

dark hallways or cramped envi-ronments that people sometimes

associate with nursing or retire-

ment homes.

The rooms we saw were built in

suites, with two individual bed-

rooms, a closet, and a bathroom

opening off a large foyer. The foyer

was big enough to contribute to

the roomy feel of the place, but

not large enough to be anything

morea resident would have to

do all his living in the bedroom.

Each bedroom featured a hand-

some wall of built-in drawers and

shelving that will include a flat-

screen TV.

The beds are new hospital beds

certainly more expensive than

conventional bedsand surely

practical in case a resident

becomes ill or otherwise requires

more intensive medical attention.

But the appearance of the hos-

pital bed, especially when com-bined with the fact that the foyer/

bedroom doorways have cur-

tains rather than doors, create an

atmosphere that almost screams

hospital rather than home. Per-

haps the addition of an uphol-

stered chair and a bedside table,

which had not yet been delivered

to the rooms, will soften this.

CalVet currently operates five Vet-

erans Homes of California from

Napa County to San Diego County,

and is now working with contrac-

tors to build two more in Fresno

and Redding. Its mission is to

promote and deliver the benefits

provided by the grateful State of

California to its deserving Veter-

ans and their familieswith a

vision for Californias veterans to

live the highest quality of life with

dignity and honor.

For more information, please visit

www.calvet.ca.gov.

California State

Home for Veteransto Open June 14

The $187 million project (financed by federal as well as state

money) has been under construction on the VA north campus

since July 2007, when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called

veterans the true action heroes at the groundbreaking.


4/12


5/12

5

Aerial View of Westwood circa 1972 with the Veterans Administration marked.

Some people talk of morality, and some of religion,

but give me a little snug property.

Maria Edgeworth

They made us many promises, more than I can

remember, but they kept only one; they promised to

take our land, and they did.

Red Cloud


6/12

STR

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METABOLIC STU

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7/12


8/12

In spite of the centuries that sepa-

rate the people in Wild River(set in

the 1930s) andAvatar(set in 2156),

we still relate to the characters as

real. Yet Hollywood stars dressed

in Appalachian garb are as far

from real people as the stretched,

lanky Navi tribespeople are from

us moviegoers. But neither Kazan

nor Cameron is taking primary

aim at the development of their

characters: what is being altered

in both films is t he land itself.

A half century ago, reshaping

landscapes with large civic and

industrial processes was common

and omnipresent; fifty years later,

that shaping of space is making

continued life on earth a question,

and that question is of course en-

meshed inextricably with cultural

practice in our moment. Land use

is indeed a storyif not the story

of our time. Avatar is a palpable

and believable artwork that tells

this story well, and does it with

such subtlety that the audience of-

ten doesnt even feel its presence.

8I think nobody owns the land until their dead are

in it.

Joan Didion

Maka le wakan the land is sacred. These words

are at the core of our being. The land is our mother,

the rivers our blood. Take away our land and we

die. That is, the Indian in us dies. Wed become just

suntanned white men, the jetsam and floatsam of

your great melting pot.

Mary Brave Bird

BY LAURA SANDERSON HEALY

The Veterans Garden at the VA

used to be worked by veterans

who had come through rehabili-

tation programs and who tilled

the land, growing crops and flow-

ers for the VA to sell to restaurants

and florists. That program has

ceased, and the land that the gar-

dens occupied will now be man-

aged in conjunction with the VA by

the Claremont, Californiabased

Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gar-

den, the largest garden in the state

solely dedicated to Californias

native plants.

Rancho Santa Ana was foundedin 1927 by Susanna Bixby Bryant, a

daughter of one of Californias pio-

neer families, who dedicated 200

acres of her ranch (in what is now

Orange Countys Yorba Linda) to

grow and study native California

flora in perpetuity. We consider

her quite visionary, said the gar-

dens executive director, Patrick

Larkin, recently, because she was

upset that native plants were dis-

appearing because of development,

and she wanted to do something.

Trustees decided it was in the gar-

dens best interests to move in the

1950s to Claremont and be associ-

ated with Pomona Colleges under-

graduate programs; Claremont

Graduate University now has mas-

ters and doctoral studies in system-

atic and evolutionary botany. By

growing California native plants on

the gardens eighty-six acres, we

are trying to encourage their use,

and are also conserving the rareand threatened plants, said Larkin

as he sat at a booth representing

the garden at the Westwood Farm-

ers Market on the old Veterans Gar-

den site. With the water crisis and

everything else in California, the

ones that are adapted to Southern

California are perfectly good in the

landscape, use two-thirds less water

than their exotic relatives, and

theyve adapted to living in a Medi-

terranean climate, which is what we

are in here in Southern California

we are not in a desert. They will go

dormant during the summer, and

many of them will actually drop

their leaves [then] rather than dur-

ing the winter months. Some of our

natives will actually die during the

summer months if you water them;

thats how well adapted they are to

the conditions here.

Theres any number of challenges

that we encounter in terms of try-ing to convince people to use the

plants and to adopt them more

readily in the landscape, Larkin

said. One is this whole percep-

tion of what a California native

plant is, and the misconception of

what a native iseveryone thinks

they are the brown things on the

hillside that burn. They dont real-

ize that native plants come in all

sorts of beautiful colors and are

just as worthy for use in the land-

scape as non-natives. We even

have a native rose.

Larkin said the garden has been

working out an agreement with

the VA to co-manage the old Vet-

erans Garden area for a very

long time, though they have been

present at the property since Jan-

uary of this year. They are cur-

rently looking for a manager,

Larkin said, and promised they

were going to be working with

the Veterans Administration totrain veterans on the propagation,

care, and maintenance of Califor-

nia native plants to basically cre-

ate this workforce who can help

get these plants in wider use and

really help with Californias water

situationjust train them so they

can go out, whether its indepen-

dently or working with somebody

else. The garden is always get-

ting calls, he said, from contrac-

tors and land owners wanting to

hire someone who actually care

for this stuff, but they didnt know

where to find anyone, because

nobody knows how to do it. There

just arent the professionals out

there, people in the field, who are

used to working with t hese plants.

When a homeowner is looking to

transform their landscape, if the

person on the other end of the line

doesnt know about these plants,

they are not going to be able to tell

them about them. There are very

few schools that are actually deal-

ing with these plants. I am most

excited about getting a workforceout there that can help proselytize

about these plants.

The garden is working on land-

scaping plans for the entire Veter-

ans Garden property, but Larkin

says there are a couple of theories

on how those will manifest them-

selves. Hopefully we will have

pretty pictures and everything

sometime soon, he said. We

want to make a garden-esque dis-

play space to show people how a

landscape can be converted into

something much more water effi-

cient so people can look at it and

think, Oh, I can do that in my

own yard. We wont be using all of

the property immediately, but as

interest and business grows, and

we are working on getting con-

tracts, well keep progressing back

into the propertyit is phenome-

nal back there.

Larkin said he believed the adja-cent neighborhood to be poten-

tially receptive. I think this is

a great location; weve got folks

who are very interested in doing

the right thing, looking for native

California plants and things that

are water efficient, he said. You

cant find these plants in just any

old garden center or nursery out

there. And we hope it helps raise

the visibility of the VA and also

some of the work that we are doing

with California natives. The gar-

den uses volunteers to make flo-

ral ar rangements using the plants,

and by looking at them initially

you would never guess that there

was anything different about

them, he noted.

And the vets? We will be working

with the Compensated Work Ther-

apy veterans, as far as the training

program is concerned, and will

certainly continue to have the

Integrated Therapy veterans who

are still working here watering

and pruning. Whereas the gateto the Veterans Garden has only

been open for the Farmers Market

on Thursdays, they plan to keep it

open during the week. We will be

here five days a week, said Larkin.

We want it to be a place where, in

addition to whatever sales might

be going on, folks will come down

just to get away from it all.

THE FUTURE OF VETERANS GARDENS

One thousand cots were made by veteran volunteers for Tax Day High Tea

Six theme, Beds on Heads.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 5 PMLaunch of Strawberry Gazette Issue

Five at the DWP IOU Garden,Lone Pine, CA.

You cant find these plants in just any old garden center or nursery out there. And we

hope it helps raise the visibility of the VA and also some of the work that we are doing

with California natives.

STRAWBERRY SUNDAYS

Beginning June 6 and

running throughout the

summer, Strawberry Flag

will be the place to be

for live music and perfor-

mance at 5pm at the blue

section of the flag. Bring

a picnic, a friend or come

and just relax to the talent

of veterans.

BY LAUREN BON

Many have declared that Avatar,

written and directed by James

Cameron, is a dumb filmthat

it has no story but has great visu-

als. I disagree. Avatar has the

story of our timethe inability

to resolve land use disputes, and

how that shapes our environment

and lives. Pandora, Avatars cin-

ematic location meaning hav-

ing gold everywhere in ancient

Greek, is like Los Angeles, where

mining metal (silver) and turning

it into the silver screen created the

material that built the Hollywood

film industry. That was done at

the cost of the Owens River Valley

ecosystem. A much earlier film,

Wild River(1960), takes aim at the

South and Southerners affected

by the Tennessee Valley Author-

ity in the early 1930s, and how the

redirection of the wild Tennessee

River changes forever the life of

the people there.

Both directors Elia Kazan and

James Cameron distract the viewer

with a romance that shares impor-

tance with the social and economic

upheaval that unquestionably is

closest to the heart of both mov-

ies. The land use corporations in

both films are the perpetrators of

decisions that change forever the

culture of place and its rootedness

in nature.

In Avatar, fictional ore called

unobtanium is mined at the cost

of the Navi primordial landscape

in which knowledge flows neu-

rally through all living things. In

Wild River, the decision to flood

the island to direct the river to

electricity-generating plants and

to provide flood control comes up

against a powerful exponent of

basic human rights and American

values in the form of a matriarch

who has always lived and worked

the land in question. The bad

guys in both films are the expo-

nents of changethe conquista-

dores of other timeswho form

romantic relationships with the

locals.

Two Land Use Films, Fifty Years Apart:Avatarand Wild River

NEW DIRECTIONSCHOIR MAKESIT BIG!BY KELLI QUINONES

New Directions Choir appeared

on Americas Got Talenton June

1, 2010. Choir Director and U.S.

Marine Corps veteran George Hill

told the judges and audiences that

the purpose of the choir singing

was to let people know, all of the

other veterans, and especially the

active duty armed forces, that its

okay for a warrior to seek help.

One of the veterans in the choir,

Carlton Griffin, told the judges

that he had been homeless formore than 25 years. He walked 28

miles to New Directions and got

my life together. Both Hill and

Griffin credited New Directions

Choir with keeping them alive.

The choir consists of ten veterans,

all of whom had once been home-

less. The choirs rendition of Old

Man River earned them a spot

in the next level of competition,

and judge Piers Morgans praise:

[This performance] was one of the

most powerful, emotional, and

inspiring things weve ever seen

onAmericas Got Talent.


9/12


10/12


11/12

MATT COOLIDGE CONTINUED...

MC: Well, a gold mine is one

land use here that I would have

doubts aboutyoud have more

luck with that in northern Nevada

and places like that! But, seriously,

first and foremost, this place

does belong to the federal govern-

ment and the veterans, and this is

their place. Whether theyve been

using it to the utmost of its capac-

ity and abilities is a question, and

a question we have some role in

getting involved in as people who

pay taxes to the federal govern-

ment. I wouldnt want to see pri-

vate enterprise come streaming

in here because I think that would

dislodge the role this place should

serve, and could serve, perhaps,

more efficiently for its constitu-

ency: the veterans. Its their place,

its their decision. I dont know. I

wouldnt want to presume what

should go on here. Its not really

my place in that way. In a dense

urban environment, to have this

kind of scale of disuse is unusual,

at least in a place like thisthe

west side of Los Angeles. In some

ways I find that really refresh-

ing. It gives you a sense of space,

of landscape, of aspiration and

imagination, even a sense of hope,

of possibility. People come here

and sort of fantasize about what

could go on in all this underuti-

lized space, and that in itself is a

great exercise and is a refreshing

proposition in this overbuilt city.

CK:I dont think weve ever thought

of it that way. Thats really interest-

ing. It is extraordinary that were

sitting at the corner of San Vicente

Boulevard and Wilshire Boule-

vard in the heart of Westside Los

Angeles, a very affluent area, and it

hasnt succumbed to huge sprawl-

ing development.

MC: Abandoned and under-pro-

grammed space is a resource too. It

stimulates discussion and brings

energy. Energy often flows into

where it seems to be lacking. This

relative void in the urban fabric

enables things like this, the cre-

ative investigative project Straw-

berry Flag, to occur. This project

has been attracted to this place for

many reasons, clearly, but couldnt

really occur if this underutilized

space didnt exist.

CK: What can a sculpture like

Strawberry Flag do for this space?

For this land?

MC: It can energize it, fragment

it, shake it up, turn it upside down,

contrast it, or just go splat. I think

it has done all those things, for

some people, already. Like I say, it

has brought people herewho

knows who?to see and consider

this remarkable overlooked place.

The Flag project has made many

of us wonder many things. I imag-

ine its causing a lot of people to

scratch their heads: thats a good

start. Its bringing people from dis-

parate points of view together to

talk, which is always a good thing.

What the full range of its effects are

have yet to be seen, and could take

years, and be impossible to really

track, as it will merge with the rest

of the sites evolving dialog with the

public and itself over time. TheFlag

project has irrevocably occurred,

and it is a point of dialog that I

doubt anybody could have seen

coming. This kind of perspectival

diversity is critical to broadminded

thinking. We are certainly outside

the usual boxes here!

CK:Matt Coolidge, thanks so much

for joining us on Strawberry Flag

Radio.

MC:Sure. My pleasure.

ITS NOT JUST THE WATER...CONTINUED...

nearly 240,000 acres of land. This

ownership of land has had effects

on the valley in some drastic ways

that are often overlooked in dis-

cussions about the water being

sent south.

Postmodern insights about our

lives focus on space more than

time, and using this perspective

helps us better understand the

relationships between the Owens

Valley and Los Angeles, and the

identity of each.

Reading the arguments of Edward

Soja and Fredrick Jameson led Jea-

nette Malkin in her book MemoryTheater and Postmodern Drama

to write that it has now become

a commonplace to speak of mod-

ernism as privileging time, while

postmodernism privileges space.

In 1986s Of Other Spaces, philoso-

pher Michel Foucault stated, The

present epoch will perhaps be

above all the epoch of space. We

are in the epoch of simultaneity:

we are in the epoch of juxtaposi-

tion, the epoch of the near and

far, of the side by side, of the dis-

persed. We are at a moment, I

believe, when our experience of

the world is less that of a long life

developing through time than that

of a network that connects points

and intersects with its own skein.

Rather than study the history

of the water wars, Los Angeles

domination of the Owens Valley

farmers, and the incessant litiga-

tion, the land in the valley and in

the city seen together is enlight-

ening. In his treatise Postmod-

ern Geographies: The Reassertion

of Space in Critical Social Theory,

Edward W. Soja explores the chal-

lenges of examining space and

place occurring simultaneously

with a language that is linearand sequential. We must simply

at this point accept those imita-

tions, although some artists and

writers are exploring overcoming

these limitations of language in

their work. It does suggest that art-

ists like Lauren Bon, focusing on

11California is home to the oldest, largest and tallest

living things. The bristlecone pines of the eastern

Sierras are 4,600 years old, General Sherman

Tree in Sequoia National Park is t he largest and

California coastal redwoods are the tallest.

California Facts, State Geography

Land area: 155,973 sq mi. (403,970 sq km)

Water area: 7,734 sq mi

Coastline: 840 mi

Highest point: Mt. Whitney 14,494 ft

Lowest point: Death Valley 282 ft below sea level

Geographic center of state: In Madera Co., 35 mi. NE

of Madera

July 3, 69pm

Independence Eve Electric

Parade atStrawberry Flag.

Bring your own marching

band and declare your

independenceno musical

instruments required. BBQ and

dancing and a special visit

from the Strawberry Queen.

site-specific installation and per-

formance (as happened recently

during Pipeline: A Three Day

Shoot Out) open up new doorways

through work that brings a new

postmodern understanding to our

examination of land, Los Angeles,

and the Owens Valley.

Near the end of his book, Soja,

who was located at UCLA, makes

a very important discovery about

Los Angeles. In a chapter enti-

tled Taking Los Angeles Apart:

Towards a Postmodern Geog-

raphy, he writes, What is this

place? Even knowing where to

focus, to find a starting point, is

not easy, for, perhaps more than

any other place, Los Angeles is

everywhere. It is global in the full-est sense of the word. Nowhere

is this more evident than in its

cultural projection and ideologi-

cal reach, its almost ubiquitous

screening of itself as a rectangular

dream machine for the world. Los

Angeles broadcasts its self-imag-

ery so widely that probably more

people have seen this placeor

at least fragments of itthan any

other on the planet. As a result, the

seers of Los Angeles have become

countless, even more so as the pro-

gressive Globalization of its urban

political economy flows along sim-

ilar channels, making Los Ange-

les perhaps the epitomizing world

city, une ville devenue monde.

Many local residents feel they

know L.A. First, as you look about

Lone Pine, and southern Inyo, not

to mention all of the Owens Val-

ley, it is silently there in the land it

owns and controls. Here we take

the LADWP for granted, but when

I used the term yesterday, some

folks from Tecopa and the Ama-

rgosa Valley (still in the county)

had no idea at first what I was

referencing.

The electricity (power) divisionof the Lone Pine offices is begin-

ning to dominate the south end

of Lone Pine, with large ware-

houses, equipment, and the many

white trucks and vehicles seen all

about the land. Turn on the televi-

sion and watch the news, the cop

shows, and most other episodic

programs; they were shot in L.A. If

our flat-screen TVs are windows

on the neighborhood (like our real

windows), then we are neighbors

to this digital L.A. place. Again,

much attention is paid to the eco-

nomic benefits of having Holly-

wood come to our streets and hills

and mountain roads to film com-

mercials, feature films, or televi-

sion. The images we carry of the

Old West, the new or old Middle

East, Afghanistan, India, or even

China are all composed of our land

by Hollywood technicians. Land

and landscapes, owned by L.A. or

the People of the United States

(the Bureau of Land Management

and the U.S. Forest Service) are

manipulated by Hollywood to tellstories. I havent seen many critics

actually argue this fact, but place

and space in our films is much

more important than the actual

use or misuse of history in these

products of Los Angeles city.

Ironically, much of the land

owned by L.A. is leased out to

ranchers, a shadow of the mythi-

cal screen cowboy. They become

beholden to the city, so when once

they captured the Alabama Gates

in November 1924 to protest L.A.

land policies (read: water policies),

Tom Mix sent in the mariachis he

was using to filmRiders of the Pur-

ple Sage to entertain these rebels.

When I wrote under a pen name

about the victory of local groups

after several years of litigation

forcing L.A. to return the water to

the lower Owens River, a promi-

nent rancher castigated me in a

letter for defaming L.A. Beholden

for the use of LADWP land and

water, he was forced or felt right

in championing his landlords,

regardless of the negative environ-

mental effect they have had on the

land.

The relationship of Los Angeles,the Owens Valley, and the land

owned by the city is a very complex

and at times ambiguous matter.

Regardless of historical process,

at the same time today, the land

is torn in conflict, but the claim

to good stewardship is embraced

by both sides and used to benefit

each side in negotiation and sub-

tle power politics.

In part two of this series, we will

look at anecdotal evidence to see

facets of this complex land use

and misuse, and the complex

social and economic issues that

swirl around the LADWP-owned

land in the Owens Valley.

June 19, 711pm

Save the Historic Spring

Street Bridge and Cele-brate Dorians Bons 18th

Birthday at The Metabolic

Studio, 1745 North Spring

Street, Open mic.

Gyblet adopts a strawberry and celebrates his 2nd birthday atStrawberry

Flag.

Calliopes routine rounds at the quad 205,208 and 209.


12/12

Mrs. Pam Murphy receives Purple Heart pin from VA lead volunteer Julie Stranges, NYSSCAR State Presidents

Project, in honor of her husband Audie Murphy.

12

The Metabolic biodiesel trolly running between the VA and LACMA all

summer long.

gambling, bad investments, and

yes, other women. Even with the

adultery and desertion at the end,

he always remained my hero, Pam

told me.

She went from a comfortable ranch-

style home in Van Nuys where she

raised two sons to a small apart-

ment taking a clerks job at the

nearby VA to support herself and

start paying off her faded movie

star husbands debts.

At first, no one knew who she was.

Soon, though, word spread through

the VA that the nice woman with

the clipboard was Audie Murphys

widow. It was like saying Patton had

just walked in the front door. Men

with tears in their eyes walked upto her and gave her a hug. Thank

you, they said, over and over.

The first couple of years, I think the

hugs were more for Audies mem-

ory as a war hero. The last 30 years,

they were for Pam.

She hated the spotlight. One year

I asked her to be the focus of a Vet-

erans Day column for all the work

she had done. Pam just shook her

head no.

Honor them, not me, she said,

pointing to a group of veterans

down the hallway. Theyre the

ones who deserve it.

The vets disagreed. Mrs. Murphy

deserved the accolades, they said.

Incredibly, in 2002, Pams job was

going to be eliminated in budget

cuts. She was considered excess

staff.

I dont think helping cut down on

veterans complaints and show-

ing them the respect they deserve,should be considered excess staff,

she told me. Neither did the veter-

ans. They went ballistic, holding

a rally for her outside the VA gates.

Pretty soon, word came down from

the top of the VA. Pam Murphy

was no longer considered excess

staff. She remained working full

time at the VA until 2007 when

she was 87.

The last time she was here was a

couple of years ago for the con-

ference we had for homeless

veterans, said Becky James, coor-

dinator of the VAs Veterans His-

tory Project. Pam wanted to see if

there was anything she could do

to help some more of her boys.

Pam Murphy, VA Hero, Dies at 90

THESTRAWBERRY GAZETTE

Produced in conjunction withStrawberry

Flagand the Metabolic Studio, Los

Angeles. The Metabolic Studio is a direct

charitable activity of the Annenberg

Foundation.

Veterans correspondent: Terence Lyons

Contributers: Lauren Bon, Matt Coolidge,

Paul Crowley, Janet Owen Driggs, Laura

Sanderson Healy, Chris Langley, Rich Nielsen,

Gabriella Salomon, Sharon Sekhon, Chris

Tallon, Kelli Quinones

Gazette Manager: Kelli Quinones

Photographer: Joshua White

Designer: Brian Roettinger

Gopher Plan: Lauren Bon

Edition of 2000

Strawberry Flag

Teas

MonFri, 3PM

Boot Camp

Tu, 12PM

Jam Sessions

Wed, 14PM

Print Studio

Workshops

Thurs, 5:307:30PM

Brentwood Theatre

No performances for

March 2010

Barber of Dreamers

Open daily,

9AM7PM

Parrot Sanctuary

Thurs, 7AM-dusk

Vets Garden

Thurs, 7AM-dusk

Japanese Garden,

Golf Course

Closed

Raw Food Lunch

Tu, 1PM

Landscape

Painting Class

Sat, 15PM

Strawberry

Sundays

Sun, 57PM

!

METABOLIC S

TUD

IO

STR

AWB

ERRYFLA

G

HOURS OF OPERATIONANNOUNCEMENTSAPRIL CROSSWORD PUZZLE ANSWERS

Land really is the best art.

Andy Warhol

This land is your land and this land is my land, sure,

but the world is run by those that never listen to

music anyway.

Bob Dylan

DENNIS MCCARTHY

DAILY NEWS OF LOS ANGELES

After Audie died, they all became

her boys. Every last one of them.

Any soldier or Marine who walked

into the Sepulveda VA hospital

and care center in the last 35 years

got the VIP treatment from Pam

Murphy.

The widow of Audie Murphythe

most decorated soldier in World

War IIwould walk the hallways

with her clipboard in hand making

sure her boys got to see a special-

ist or doctorSTAT. If they didnt,

watch out.

Her boys werent Medal of Honor

recipients or movie stars like Audie,

but that didnt matter to Pam. Theyhad served their country. That was

good enough for her. She never

called a veteran by his first name. It

was always Mister. Respect came

with the job.

Nobody could cut through VA red

tape faster than Mrs. Murphy, said

veteran Stephen Sherman, speak-

ing for thousands of veterans she

befriended over the years. Many

times I watched her march a vet-

eran who had been waiting more

than an hour right into the doctors

office. She was even reprimanded

a few times, but it didnt matter to

Mrs. Murphy. Only her boys mat-

tered. She was our angel.

[In April], Sepulveda VAs angel for

the last 35 years died peacefully in

her sleep at age 90.

She was in bed watching the Laker

game, took one last breath, and

that was it, said Diane Ruiz, who

also worked at the VA and cared for

Pam in the last years of her life in

her Canoga Park apartment. It wasthe same apartment Pam moved

into soon after Audie died in a

plane crash on Memorial Day week-

end in 1971.

Audie Murphy died broke, squan-

dering millions of dollars on

Ray Rodgers and Sheila Lowe were

married on May 15.

On the Third of July, to celebrate Inde-

pendence Day,Strawberry Flagwill be

throwing a huge event with food and

a parade. Everyone is invited!

June 14 marks the ribbon-cutting cere-

mony at the West Los Angeles State

Veterans Home at 10:00AM.

Wadsworth Theatre is hosting The Songs

of Our Lives, Volume III, which will

benefit the Fulfillment Fund on June 14.

ACROSS

1. Bankruptcy

5. Bull

6. Rev

7. Pyramidschem e

11. Heartofgold

12. Stampact

16. Return

17. Wallstreet

20. Fifteenth

23. Credit

25. Offshore

26. Switzerland

28. Penny

29. Cash

30. Golddigger

32. Pay

33. Pealty

35. Count

38. Treasure

39. Receipt

42. Banca

46. IOU

47. Green

48. Dollar

49. Duty

51. Evade

53. Trust

54. Net

DOWN

2. The Color of

Money

3. Gross

4. APR

5. Bills

8. Accountants

9. Euro

10. Taxes

13. Millions

14. Deductible

15. Bear

18. Interest

19. Extensions

21. Refunds

22. Tarp

24. Taxman

27. Li ability

31. Deposit

34. Shelter

36. Tyranny

37. Capital

40. Capone

41. Money

43. Audit

44. File

45. Cost

50. Buck

52. Debt

Shuttle from LACMA to

VAWLA in connection with

Lauren Bons Bldg: 209Garden Folly (Indexical ofStrawberry Flag)

Bldg: 209 Garden Folly (Indexical

of Strawberry Flag) is a sculpture

by Lauren Bon that will be at

LACMA as part of the exhibition

EatLACMA, June 27Nov 11, 2010.

The sculpture is constructed

from salvaged building parts

and includes the strawberries

from the intensive care unit at

Strawberry Flag.

Strawberry Flag is a revisionist

view of the American flag as a self-

sustaining system that has been at

the VA for a year.

The Metabolic Studio will run a

free shuttle between LACMA to

the VAWLA on weekends from

Strawberry Flag starting at 2pm

and running through 6pm. The

Metabolic Studio and the veterans

with whom we work have organized

an historic tour that will operate

throughout the summer along the

historic Wilshire corridor.

The shuttle will be coordinated

with live music at the blue section

of the flag each Sunday through the

summer months.

strawberry gazette, issue 4

Documents