Download or read book The Dreamt Land written by Mark Arax and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2019-05-21 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil—the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers—the nut king, grape king and citrus queen—tell their story here for the first time. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it.

Download or read book Where the Money Is written by William J. Rehder and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2004 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a fast-paced, hard-edged style that reads like a novel, FBI special agent Rehder chronicles the lives and crimes of bank robbers in today's Los Angeles who are as colorful and exciting as the legends of long ago.

Download or read book Ghosts of Gold Mountain written by Gordon H. Chang and published by Mariner Books. This book was released on 2019 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Guangdong -- Gold Mountain -- Central Pacific -- Foothills -- The High Sierra -- The Summit -- The Strike -- Truckee -- The Golden Spike -- Beyond Promontory.

Download or read book Cerro Gordo written by Cecile Page Vargo and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: High in the Inyo Mountains, between Owens Valley and Death Valley National Park, lies the ghost town of Cerro Gordo. Discovered in 1865, this silver town boomed to a population of 3,000 people in the hands of savvy entrepreneurs during the 1870s. As the silver played out and the town faded, a few hung on to the dream. By the early 1900s, Louis D. Gordon wandered up the Yellow Grade Road where freight wagons once traversed with silver and supplies and took a closer look at the zinc ore that had been tossed aside by early miners. The Fat Hill lived again, primarily as a small company town. By the last quarter of the 20th century, Jody Stewart and Mike Patterson found themselves owners of the rough and tumble camp that helped Los Angeles turn into a thriving metropolis because of silver and commercial trade. Cerro Gordo found new life, second to Bodie, as California's best-preserved ghost town.

Download or read book Santa Monica written by Paula A. Scott and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An icon of Southern California and one of America's most imaginative and vibrant cities--the fitting destination at the end of Route 66--Santa Monica lies on the brink of the West and is known throughout the nation for its beaches and its Hollywood A-list locals With a foundation built by the Gabrielino Indians and molded by Spanish and Mexican land grants, railroad battles, and a constant influx of settlers, Santa Monica became an oceanside haven for actors and airplane companies, road races and ranchers.

Download or read book The City Beneath written by Susan A. Phillips and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping history of Los Angeles told through the lens of the many marginalized groups—from hobos to taggers—that have used the city’s walls as a channel for communication Graffiti written in storm drain tunnels, on neighborhood walls, and under bridges tells an underground and, until now, untold history of Los Angeles. Drawing on extensive research within the city’s urban landscape, Susan A. Phillips traces the hidden language of marginalized groups over the past century—from the early twentieth-century markings of hobos, soldiers, and Japanese internees to the later inscriptions of surfers, cholos, and punks. Whether describing daredevil kids, bored workers, or clandestine lovers, Phillips profiles the experiences of people who remain underrepresented in conventional histories, revealing the powerful role of graffiti as a venue for cultural expression. Graffiti aficionados might be surprised to learn that the earliest documented graffiti bubble letters appear not in 1970s New York but in 1920s Los Angeles. Or that the negative letterforms first carved at the turn of the century are still spray painted on walls today. With discussions of characters like Leon Ray Livingston (a.k.a. “A-No. 1”), credited with consolidating the entire system of hobo communication in the 1910s, and Kathy Zuckerman, better known as the surf icon “Gidget,” this lavishly illustrated book tells stories of small moments that collectively build into broad statements about power, memory, landscape, and history itself.

Download or read book Assembling California written by John McPhee and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2010-04-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At various times in a span of fifteen years, John McPhee made geological field surveys in the company of Eldridge Moores, a tectonicist at the University of California at Davis. The result of these trips is Assembling California, a cross-section in human and geologic time, from Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada through the golden foothills of the Mother Lode and across the Great Central Valley to the wine country of the Coast Ranges, the rock of San Francisco, and the San Andreas family of faults. The two disparate time scales occasionally intersect—in the gold disruptions of the nineteenth century no less than in the earthquakes of the twentieth—and always with relevance to a newly understood geologic history in which half a dozen large and separate pieces of country are seen to have drifted in from far and near to coalesce as California. McPhee and Moores also journeyed to remote mountains of Arizona and to Cyprus and northern Greece, where rock of the deep-ocean floor has been transported into continental settings, as it has in California. Global in scope and a delight to read, Assembling California is a sweeping narrative of maps in motion, of evolving and dissolving lands.

Download or read book The Sylmar Tunnel Disaster written by Janette Zavattero and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Hollywood Cinema and the Real Los Angeles written by Mark Shiel and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2013-02-15 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hollywood cinema and Los Angeles cannot be understood apart. Hollywood Cinema and the Real Los Angeles traces the interaction of the real city, its movie business, and filmed image, focusing on the crucial period from the construction of the first studios in the 1910s to the decline of the studio system fifty years later. As Los Angeles gradually became one of the ten largest cities in the world, the film industry made key contributions to its rapid growth and frequent crises in economic, social, political and cultural life. Whether filmmakers engaged with the real city on location or recreated it on a studio set, Los Angeles shaped the films that were made there and circulated influentially worldwide. The book pays particular attention to early cinema, slapstick comedy, movies about the movies and film noir, which are each explored in new ways, with an emphasis on urban and architectural space and its representation, as well as filmmaking style and technique. Including many previously unpublished photographs and new historical evidence, Hollywood Cinema and the Real Los Angeles gives us a never-before-seen view of the City of Angels.

Download or read book Freewaytopia How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles written by Paul Haddad and published by Santa Monica Press. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Freewaytopia: How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles explores how social, economic, political, and cultural demands created the web of expressways whose very form—futuristic, majestic, and progressive—perfectly exemplifies the City of Angels. From the Arroyo Seco, which began construction during the Great Depression, to the Simi Valley and Century Freeways, which were completed in 1993, author Paul Haddad provides an entertaining and engaging history of the 527 miles of road that comprise the Los Angeles freeway system. Each of Los Angeles’s twelve freeways receives its own chapter, and these are supplemented by “Off-Ramps”—sidebars that dish out pithy factoids about Botts’ Dots, SigAlerts, and all matter of freeway lexicon, such as why Southern Californians are the only people in the country who place the word “the” in front of their interstates, as in “the 5,” or “the 101.” Freewaytopia also explores those routes that never saw the light of day. Imagine superhighways burrowing through Laurel Canyon, tunneling under the Hollywood Sign, or spanning the waters of Santa Monica Bay. With a few more legislative strokes of the pen, you wouldn’t have to imagine them—they’d already exist. Haddad notably gives voice to those individuals whose lives were inextricably connected—for better or worse—to the city’s freeways: The hundreds of thousands of mostly minority and lower-class residents who protested against their displacement as a result of eminent domain. Women engineers who excelled in a man’s field. Elected officials who helped further freeways . . . or stop them dead in their tracks. And he pays tribute to the corps of civic and state highway employees whose collective vision, expertise, and dedication created not just the most famous freeway network in the world, but feats of engineering that, at their best, achieve architectural poetry. Finally, let’s not forget the beauty queens—no freeway in Los Angeles ever opened without their royal presence.

Download or read book Hometown Santa Monica written by and published by Prospect Park Publishing. This book was released on 2007-11 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A witty, honest, and savvy guide to Santa Monica, Venice, and environs: where to eat, shop, learn, discover and explore.

Download or read book The Mole People written by Jennifer Toth and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 1995-10-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the thousands of people who live in the subway, railroad, and sewage tunnels of New York City.

Download or read book Water Power written by and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 928 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Welcome to the United States of Anxiety written by Jen Lancaster and published by Little A. This book was released on 2020-10 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestselling author Jen Lancaster is here to help you chill the hell out. When did USA become shorthand for the United States of Anxiety? From the moment Americans wake up, we're bombarded with all-new terrifying news about crime, the environment, politics, and stroke-inducing foods we've been enjoying for years. We're judged by social media's faceless masses, pressured into maintaining a Pinterest-perfect home, and expected to base our self-worth on retweets, faves, likes, and followers. Our collective FOMO, and the disparity between the ideal and reality, is leading us to spend more and feel worse. No wonder we're getting twitchy. Save for an Independence Day-style alien invasion, how do we begin to escape from the stressors that make up our days? Jen Lancaster is here to take a hard look at our elevating anxieties, and with self-deprecating wit and levelheaded wisdom, she charts a path out of the quagmire that keeps us frightened of the future and ashamed of our imperfectly perfect human lives. Take a deep breath, and her advice, and you just might get through a holiday dinner without wanting to disown your uncle.

Download or read book Wallbangin written by Susan A. Phillips and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1999-07-15 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Wallbangin'" offers an unprecedented, in-depth look at the phenomenon of graffiti as it is embodied in the neighborhoods of one of its epicenters, Los Angeles. 13 color plates. 104 halftones.

Download or read book Beneath the Neon written by Matthew O'Brien and published by Huntington Press Inc. This book was released on 2007-03-07 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas chronicles O’Brien’s adventures in subterranean Las Vegas. He follows the footsteps of a psycho killer. He braces against a raging flood. He parties with naked crackheads. He learns how to make meth, that art is most beautiful where it’s least expected, that in many ways, he prefers underground Las Vegas to aboveground Las Vegas, and that there are no pots of gold under the neon rainbow.

Download or read book Hollywood Escapes written by Harry Medved and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LET THE MOVIES BE YOUR GUIDE! * Hike THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE Trail! * Behold the KILL BILL Chapel! * Enter THE DOORS Indian Caves! * Swim at BEACH BLANKET BINGO's Malibu! * Escape to SOME LIKE IT HOT's Resort! * Raft the STAGECOACH River! * Explore HIGH PLAIN DRIFTER's Ghostly Lake! * Trek to the LOST HORIZON Waterfall! * Discover the STAR WARS Sand Dunes! Here is the first comprehensive guide to Southern California's outdoor filming locations taking you to more than 50 of the Golden State's most cinematic beaches, mountains, deserts, lakes, hot springs and waterfalls. Illustrated with over 100 scenic photos and 20 easy-to-read maps, Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer's Guide to Exploring Southern California's Great Outdours not only takes you to movie history's most memorable destinations, but also recommends places to dine and lodge along the way, from mountain hideaways to beach side resorts. Written by inveterate movie buffs and outdoors enthusiasts Harry Medved and Bruce Akiyama, these two native Southern Californians have interviewed dozens of actors, filmmakers, location scouts and rangers to help you explore Hollywood's most spectacular scenery.