Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > Los Angeles
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 11-22-2007, 05:23 PM
 
38 posts, read 147,835 times
Reputation: 46

Advertisements

I would like to start a bookclub.I am no Oprah but I know many of you are literate so I invite you to join.anyone interested in joining the california book club. This is a book club dedicated only to learning about our state. Book selections our only about California. The first book of the club until January(1-30-2008 )will be what is wrong with california by jack cashill. Post your thoughts on the book here if you have read it. ( I just got it and I am reading it now)

Amazon.com: What's the Matter with California?: Cultural Rumbles from the Golden State and Why the Rest of Us Should Be Shaking: Books: Jack Cashill
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 11-22-2007, 05:39 PM
 
1,398 posts, read 6,592,446 times
Reputation: 1838
"Mexifornia" by Victor Hansen. Before you all put up your dukes, know that his position is that illegal immigration is terrible for Americans and illegals alike, and he clearly is empathetic to both. It is non-hysterical, clear-headed, non-polemic and analytical. He merely explains, in his overview as lifelong Californian university professor from the Central Valley, why non-assimilating, illegal immigration is wrong.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-22-2007, 10:17 PM
 
Location: Earth
17,440 posts, read 28,481,476 times
Reputation: 7472
Quote:
Originally Posted by fastfilm View Post
"Mexifornia" by Victor Hansen. Before you all put up your dukes, know that his position is that illegal immigration is terrible for Americans and illegals alike, and he clearly is empathetic to both. It is non-hysterical, clear-headed, non-polemic and analytical. He merely explains, in his overview as lifelong Californian university professor from the Central Valley, why non-assimilating, illegal immigration is wrong.
Hansen is too right wing for my taste but he is one of the more moderate anti-immigration types, as he does admit that Latinos are an integral part of California and favors assimilation. I thought it was interesting how he described four possible options for the current immigration crisis (the status quo, which is amongst the four, is the one he prefers the least - the others being a Libertarian one with open borders but no social programs or social services, a view similar to that held by the late Norman Mailer of tight border security and a clampdown on illegal immigration combined with socialist economic programs, and his preferred solution, which is a clampdown combined with assimilationism and free market economic policies.)

The book that I would suggest is Nathanael West's "The Day Of The Locust". The greatest L.A. novel ever written, and one essential to an understanding of the city. Note that the attitudes towards the Midwesterners and Okies in the 30s were very similar to those towards Latinos today (or back then...) Just change a few details, a few neighborhoods, etc. and the book still has relevance. (Without giving too much away, let's say the ending anticipates a certain event that happened in the early '90s quite eerily....) There's something about L.A. which just breeds apocalyptic scenarios and "The Day Of The Locust" is a great example of such.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-23-2007, 12:22 AM
 
Location: Earth
17,440 posts, read 28,481,476 times
Reputation: 7472
Quote:
Originally Posted by LAAngel2008 View Post
I would like to start a bookclub.I am no Oprah but I know many of you are literate so I invite you to join.anyone interested in joining the california book club. This is a book club dedicated only to learning about our state. Book selections our only about California. The first book of the club until January(1-30-2008 )will be what is wrong with california by jack cashill. Post your thoughts on the book here if you have read it. ( I just got it and I am reading it now)

Amazon.com: What's the Matter with California?: Cultural Rumbles from the Golden State and Why the Rest of Us Should Be Shaking: Books: Jack Cashill
I haven't read Cashill's book but from how the book is described on the site he seems like a sort of mirror image of Mike Davis: someone whose political agenda biases their work. (The Hanson book Fastfilm mentioned, despite its inflammatory title, is actually a good example of the author's biases for the most part NOT polluting the book ; "Mexifornia" is actually reasoned and unbiased, and until the last chapter takes a pretty moderate stance, emphasizing that one can oppose illegal immigration while accepting Latinos as an integral part of the state's cultural fabric.)

The most unbiased writer on California's history is Kevin Starr, and I'd recommend that everyone read his works. He doesn't have the leftist bias that Davis has or the right wing bias that Cahill appears to have. He understands the state quite well, and his book about California in the 90s (I think the title is "Dreams on the Edge") is on my list of books to read. (I highly recommend his book "California: A History", which covers the state from the founding of the missions to Schwarzenegger). I'd also like to read LA Times columnist Gregory Rodriguez' recent history of Mexican-Americans ; apparently it punctures many of the "Aztlan" myths which greatly offended the woman who reviewed it in the Times (she objected to Rodriguez stressing assimilation as a part of the Chicano experience and Rodriguez' claiming that what Aztlanists said about Mexican-Americans was eerily similar to what white bigots were saying albeit with a different intent).
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-23-2007, 08:09 AM
 
Location: Las Flores, Orange County, CA
26,338 posts, read 93,466,069 times
Reputation: 17827
Angle of Attack

Amazon.com: Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon: Books: Mike Gray
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-23-2007, 09:01 AM
 
1,398 posts, read 6,592,446 times
Reputation: 1838
For a bit of whimsy, I treasure my rare copy of Richard Meltzer's Guide to the Ugliest Buildings in Los Angeles published in 1980 by Illuminati Press. Self-explanatory, this tome features his well-known Gonzoid musing on the titular topic, with examples like "Santa's Misery Box" or "Doody-Colored Eclectotrash" or whatnot. The era was that of the cheesiest insta-condo construction, and I'm sure every local here can name their private favorites.

Meltzer is a Yale graduate, ex-teacher, and was a New York-based rock writer for Creem, Crawdaddy, Rolling Stone etc. who moved here in the 1970's for a few decades. He once dove headfirst through a glass door at a party of mine, and posed for my cover photo for "Saturday Night Pogo," the first recorded compilation of L.A. punk bands, Rhino Media's third ever release. Like most intelligentsia (albeit a loud and onetime Hunter S. Thompson version of it), he tired of L.A. and now resides in Portland OR, bless him.

Last edited by fastfilm; 11-23-2007 at 09:52 AM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-23-2007, 10:06 AM
 
Location: Earth
17,440 posts, read 28,481,476 times
Reputation: 7472
Default Richard Meltzer

fastfilm, how do you feel about Meltzer's articles in which he stated that native Californian non-Latino whites were screwing up LA more than illegals or any other group? He made no secret of his contempt for that group. I remember an article he wrote for the Reader in which his venom towards L.A.'s "white" population matched that of any Aztlanists.

Meltzer is a New Yorker, and came out to L.A. strictly for business reasons. Like many New Yorkers, he made no secret of his hatred for L.A. He mercilessly attacked L.A. throughout his writing career.

He went to Portland not only because of its high quality of life but because of it being cheaper as well. Also, the few things he did like here (i.e. those things which were most New York-like) mostly disappeared for a variety of reasons, mostly because of gentrification. I'm sure he ******* about Portland despite its high quality of life. And he has bitched about how Giuliani wound up changing NYC. (He's not the only New Yorker who preferred the old more chaotic, dangerous, and idiosyncratic city.)

East Coasters or foreigners bashing California isn't anything new. It's been going on ever since Kipling at least.

There's plenty of intelligentsia still here, you just won't find them living in your neighborhood.

Last edited by majoun; 11-23-2007 at 10:37 AM..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-23-2007, 10:39 PM
 
1,398 posts, read 6,592,446 times
Reputation: 1838
Meltzer's schtick is rant, and it's hardly unpredictable that you would find one of his rants diametrically opposed to something I wrote, or something you wrote, or something anyone wrote. He's a wildly creative guy for a self-styled schlub. I'm glad he didn't burn out like Lester Bangs (his closest literary comparison. Young'uns will note that Philip Seymour Hoffman portrayed Bangs in the film "Almost Famous" with much affection, but not physical verisimilitude. Bangs looked more like the late comedian Andy Kaufman.)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-23-2007, 11:25 PM
 
1,398 posts, read 6,592,446 times
Reputation: 1838
New books on topic: Hollywood Shack Job by Harney Kubernik.
Amazon.com: Hollywood Shack Job: Rock Music in Film and on Your Screen (Counterculture): Books: Harvey Kubernik

Kubernik is an A-list insider among musicians, belying his journalist credentials, and wrote this just published but definitive "how did this happen, what was the behind the scenes story" tome on pop music and film, from the 1950's to now.

Can anyone tell that I mainly read non-fiction? Exception would be humor offering A Year in Van Nuys by my neighbor Sandra Tsing Loh. Styled after its Proustian predecessor, of course.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-24-2007, 10:47 AM
 
Location: Las Flores, Orange County, CA
26,338 posts, read 93,466,069 times
Reputation: 17827
A few more I've read, excellent true stories with LA cityscape:

Amazon.com: Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder: Books: John Gilmore

Bookreporter.com - THE FIRE LOVER: A True Story by Joseph Wambaugh

Amazon.com: Murderer with a Badge: The Secret Life of a Rogue Cop (True Crime): Books: Edward Humes

Amazon.com: Inside the Crips: Life Inside L.A.'s Most Notorious Gang: Books: Colton Simpson,Ann Pearlman,Ice T

Amazon.com: Cop : A True Story: Books: Michael Middleton,Michael L. Middleton

Amazon.com: The Dark Side of the Force: A True Story of Corruption and Murder in the Lapd: Books: Jan Golab


Amazon.com: The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez: Books: Philip Carlo

Amazon.com: The Hillside Stranglers: Books: Darcy O'Brien
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > California > Los Angeles

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top