#esotouricroadtrip — Public Fediverse posts

Westlake pro tip: You can't go wrong with a taco stand watched over by a shrine to the Virgin. #esotouricroadtrip

Creeping up an alley to check on a termite infested city landmark (sigh), we met an SRO kitty cat who is keeping an eye on his domain. Kitty says "brick is better!" #esotouricroadtrip

Digging the shadows on a Watts Tower tour. It's like a spider's web that never blows away--deceptively delicate, too. #esotouricroadtrip

Before the Jolly Motel at 8811 S. Central advertised a thrilling time with that alluring arrow, this was Central Pottery, offering Bauer and other lush glazed essentials for those setting up house. #signgeeks #signswitharrows #esotouricroadtrip

Incandescent arrow signs are hard to resist, so don't. On old Route 66, Glendora. #signgeeks #esotouricroadtrip

Adorable backlit plastic ghost sign opposite Wyvernwood on Olympic in Boyle Heights. This Zig Zag Moderne roadhouse was Club Chapala, and before that The Rumpus Room. This is a very old form of signage meant to convey info sans written language. #signgeeks #esotouricroadtrip

It only took ten years, but Jose Huizar's crooked gentrification of the Broadway independent business district has reached its climax: the long vacant quinceanera shop is now a XXX fetish and smoke shop! Has there ever been such a thing on this block before? #esotouricroadtrip

Albert H. Crocker's Depression era motorcycle shop (L.A.'s official Indian distributors) gave way to Robert H. Maloney's AAA Electric Motor Service Co. by 1952. This legacy business at 1346 Venice has a mighty sweet sign! #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks

The Victoria Theatre at 2570 W. Pico is one of the first cinema houses in Los Angeles, opened in 1914! Its 1970s event hall remodel appears in Rudy Ray Moore's wild "Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil's Son In Law." https://youtu.be/1SzAZR-7WyY?si=wv1NNz0CuNUR17t5&t=2798
#esotouricroadtrip #thenandnow #signgeeks

Up in the clouds, karma and consciousness. Down on the streets, echo chambers. A lot of good came out of the Capitol tower and the Vedanta Temple. Where do you belong? #esotouricroadtrip

Eternal love howls at the moon in the Hollywood Hills. #esotouricroadtrip #Halloween2023

Up in the Hollywood Dell, the fall sun glints through functional arrowslits, from which cranky castle dwellers can defend against invasion from the street. #esotouricroadtrip

On Temple Hill Drive, between the ashrams, the path to a wee 1920s Hollywood fairy castle is a funky patchwork of stones and field tile, with a shattered Warren Kimble bunny in the middle. #esotouricroadtrip #storybookstyle

We love to meet friends in the shade of the Bo Tree at the Vedanta Society, and after all the rain this year, these delicate newborn leaves are uncoiling from vines that nearly reach the ground. The gate that says OM is also new. #esotouricroadtrip

Just off Whittier Boulevard, a mural promotes the healing power of traditional herbal remedies and honors Ruben Salazar and the martyrs of August 29, 1970.

Herbs of Mexico is an East L.A. legacy business, established 1961. #esotouricroadtrip #streetart #EastLA

Death and donuts on Whittier Boulevard, spied from Ruben Salazar Park on the Eastside Babylon crime bus tour. #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks #EastLA

"Play it, Sam." Casablanca Market on the East Los Angeles / Boyle Heights border, captured by us on Saturday's Eastside Babylon crime bus tour, and by John Humble on a signage safari in Summer 1986. A year before that, locals caught Richard Ramirez! #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks

On the Eastside Babylon tour, we took a coffee and cookie break at Salazar Park, and a few of our gentle riders detoured to get a spooky snack from the eye-catching Elotes el Chucky truck. #esotouricroadtrip #streetfood

Spied from the window of the Eastside Babylon crime bus: when the flower man of Calvary Cemetery brings out his marigolds, you know the spirits are near. #esotouricroadtrip #eastLA

Our Eastside Babylon crime bus route takes us by some handsome vintage signage, both neon and backlit plastic. #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks

The partial eclipse cast strange dappled reflections across George Wyman's Bradbury Building. #esotouricroadtrip #DTLA

As we departed on the Eastside Babylon crime bus tour, the (visible) ghosts of Grand Central Market wished us safe, weird travels. #esotouricroadtrip #DTLA

Just off Beverly Boulevard in beautiful downtown Montebello, a pair of topiary stags have been locked in mortal combat for many years. Neither one will ever back down, neither one will win. #esotouricroadtrip #ipulledoverforthis

Exclusive video for our supporting newsletter subscribers: Esotouric visits Alhambra's famed Troll / Bridge House and shares a daffy discovery! https://esotouric.substack.com/troll

#esotouricroadtrip

On the way to John Waters' Walk of Fame star ceremony, we spotted the Teen Challenge van in the wild and wondered if they still sing "The Addicts March." What a perfect sign on outsider's day in Los Angeles! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DHS3QcMQQM #esotouricroadtrip

On the last stop on Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice, the Hotel Barclay (1896), Joan Renner conjures up the spirit of her titian-tressed friend Betty Rowland, who famously danced next door at the Follies--and once took this tour! #esotouricroadtrip

The only way to get this shot of the Edward Hotel, where Skid Row Housing Trust's redevelopment pyramid scheme collapsed, is to pull up on it with a group in a tour bus--so we did! National Register eligible homes they tried to demolish. https://esotouric.com/skidrowhousingtrust #esotouricroadtrip

On the Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice tour, we spied this sign on the Hotel Cecil's side door reminding tenants that their side hustle walking true crime tourists through the supposedly haunted halls is verboten. #esotouricroadtrip #DTLA

On the Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice tour, Richard helps folks off the bus at the Hotel Cecil, still emblazoned with the sad cover-up for the illegal Postmates billboard. Can the iconic historic sign return? We believe so! #esotouricroadtrip #DTLA
https://esotouric.com/hotelcecil/

On the Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour, Joan Renner spun a wild tale of kidnapped taxi dancers, hijacked hearses and a most unlikely criminal mastermind. Wanna see that DANCING GIRLS sign all lit up? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acU1qeL5u5c&t=1050s
#esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks #DTLA

Has the lighthouse keeper at Crossroads of the World gone missing? Bummed to see tagging on this this National Register landmark, which has always been so well maintained. #esotouricroadtrip

L.A. Noir on the Raymond Chandler tour: the politically connected Crossroads Hollywood developer hired Curren Price's "wife" to displace 83 families from historic RSO housing, and when some fought to stay, illegally started demolishing the corner coffee shop. #esotouricroadtrip

Spied from the window of the Raymond Chandler tour bus: Dr. John McKenna's Ambassador Dog & Cat Hospital (est. 1927). Wonder if Ray and Cissy's fluffy pal Taki ever rode in the pet taxi that picked up ailing patients? #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks

On the Raymond Chandler tour, we stopped at the Barclay Hotel, where Philip Marlowe found the man in a toupée dead of an icepick wound in "The Little Sister." It was a BYOB (bring your own bishop) kind of day. https://esotouric.com/hotelbarclay/ #esotouricroadtrip

Tour guest shadow play with Alexis Smith's terrazzo tribute to Raymond Chandler's wordplay in MacArthur Park. "I thought he was as crazy as a pair of waltzing mice, but I liked him." #esotouricroadtrip

Years from now, Onni Group claims they'll build a tower next to Philip Marlowe's office. Because they don't care about Los Angeles except as a cash register, a beautiful building is empty and blighted with illegal ads and a key Hollywood corner is lifeless. #esotouricroadtrip

RIP to the most beautiful house in Victor Heights, 900 N. White Knoll, cleared for a duplex that's not yet permitted. The demo notice has served its purpose, so we took it away as a bitter souvenir of demolition by neglect, then intent. #esotouricroadtrip

New on the Los Angeles Bungalow Court Housing map: a new type! This 12-cottage "house court" (H. Genser, 1924) takes up half a dead end alley at 6th near Soto in Boyle Heights, with residents parking on their door steps. http://www.esotouric.com/bungalowcourt #esotouricroadtrip

A striking detail on the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Los Angeles Branch (Parkinson and Parkinson, 1929). What do you imagine it sounded like? #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks #artdeco

A shocking sight at Crenshaw and Jefferson, where the exuberant roof wings and glittering Dalle de verre stained glass keyholes of West Angeles COGIC are falling fast for another massive CIM Group mixed user. We wish we could save the pretty windows! #esotouricroadtrip

We changed up the route a bit for Saturday's Alvarado Terrace & South Bonnie Brae Tract walk, to see some wonderful survivors on the 1100 block of South Lake. The eternal flame finial atop this 1911 pink palazzo was a treat to discover! #esotouricroadtrip

At the center of Rockhaven, the cottage style women's sanitarium in Glendale, is this mottled sun worshipper perched in her dry birdbath. The original was sculpted by Carlos Tagliabue for Gladding, McBean in 1926. Will she be restored for her centennial? #esotouricroadtrip

On the John Fante tour at Pershing Square, Miki Jackson shared memories of the park's key place as a gay and counterculture zone at a time when homosexuality was still criminalized. And Gordon Pattison remembered it as the communal garden of Bunker Hill-ites. #esotouricroadtrip

The tragedy of speculative development: 1111 W. Sunset's owner spent a fortune to upzone the MWD parcel--not to build promised towers, but to flip it with entitlements. Now, across the street, the lovely 900 White Knoll has a demo permit. It is a moral crime. #esotouricroadtrip

We dream of the day that LA's Viking District gets a smorgasbord restaurant. Until that time, IHOP has lingonberry crepes. #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks

Peekaboo pretty Crestwood Tower Apartments (1931), soon to be hidden behind an 8-story mixed use Target store and apartment complex. The palms are perplexed. #esotouricroadtrip

There ought to be a prize for a hundred years of nobody ever coming home careless and knocking that odd driveway overhang over. #esotouricroadtrip

This porch fit for the angels is just one of the early Los Angeles treasures you'll spy on the Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue Time Time Travel Trip. Next tour date March 25. https://esotouric.com/event/angelino-heights-spring-2023/
#esotouricroadtrip

Metro destroys. Two blocks from the Leimert Park K-Line Station, SoLa Impact is demolishing a handsome 100 year old block. Affordable projects can preserve and build above historic landmarks, honoring the past, conserving carbon. Do better! #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks

Programmatic opportunity calls! The 1969 Tugboat Annie's ship / Sushi Maru (930 E Foothill, Claremont) is seeking a new captain. (Or at least she still was a month ago, when we shot these pics.) What would you do if she were yours? #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks

A few of the hundreds of RVs in unincorporated Harbor Gateway, close to the oil refinery that makes this area unsafe for human habitation. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of affordable units are vacant or illegal Airbnbs. Bad leadership, greed got us here. #esotouricroadtrip

It's clear from the rubber left on the road that the giant Dale's Donuts sign sends an irresistible message: "Do a donut right now!" Would you? #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks #programmatic

The rains have brought up what looks like a crop of wild cardoons underneath the Stilt House in East Los Angeles. Will some enterprising neighbor blanch and feast on them? https://www.hobbyfarms.com/growing-cardoons/ #esotouricroadtrip

Seeing double in East Los Angeles. #esotouricroadtrip

Blink and you'll miss this tiny motion picture palace facade applied to a 1910 duplex on Soto in Boyle Heights. The work doesn't appear in the permits on file, but it's beautiful and the statute of limitations must have passed decades back. #esotouricroadtrip

Fans of the ZigZag Moderne Wilshire Professional Building have tracked its neglect for years. But now that Jamison is developing in back, the landmark is rotting at warp speed, with collapsing terrazzo sidewalks and vandals tagging inside and out. Save me! #esotouricroadtrip

We're pretty sure a neon sign can is not supposed to be flopping around in the wind like the "J" on Johnie's Coffee Shop was today! This googie landmark is so painfully neglected and we hate to see it this way. We also crossed the road, just in case! #esotouricroadtrip #signgeeks

Wild dappled sky frames the emptied out apartment house behind the Sunset Junction 99 Cents Only Store. Looks like work has started after years boarded up. #esotouricroadtrip #goldenhour

Pershing Square is odder than usual, with a holiday theme on display. We might have put the tree somewhere other than between two citrus spheres... #esotouricroadtrip #donteattheyellowsnow

Checking in on the ancient Moreton Bay Fig moved off old Bunker Hill to the front of Angelus Plaza retirement apartments opposite Grand Central Market. Ground cover was stealing its water, but now it's all cleared there is lots of new growth and MANY FIGS! #esotouricroadtrip