UNREMARKABLE POSTCARD SERIES, No. 189.
Malibu, Calif. 1960s.

Pick a book... any book...

What a blast. Great weather, great turnout for this year's LA Times Festival of Books. Thank you to all followers who came by to rap with this LA Dork! 🙏

Buddy of mine in San Francisco boarding BART or whatever sent me this. Note the baseball cap and blue decor of this fare-dodger.

So it's not enough to hate on Dodger fans up there. We're also criminals.🤨

Good catch. I didn't see that initially!

End of Bundy in Santa Monica Mountains is all I know.

Anyone attending the LA Times Festival of Books this weekend (Apr. 18-19) at USC? Great fun, and this will be my second visit selling my books.

If you're there on Sunday (12 pm-5pm), I'll be at Booth 166 (Gold) in the Black Rose publishing booth. C'mon by and say hi!

It's 17301 Oxnard St., still there!

Encino Velodrome, est. 1961, hosted the Olympic Trials in '68 but is graded subpar for Olympic events. Still, great memories seeing my cousins win bicycling championships there in the '70s. Dirt parking lot, rickety bleachers, nearby LA River for troublemaking was a teen's dream.

In Feb. 1978, rains caused a landslide at Verdugo Hills Cemetery, unearthing 100+ caskets. Some broke open, flooding Tujunga with corpses, one lodged into the entrance of a Von's.

Spielberg later shot "E.T." here, then created the story for 1982's "Poltergeist"... just sayin'!

Built in 1965, the John Ferraro (DWP) Building is one of those LA buildings that still excites my imagination (and director Nolan's in "Inception"). Its floating fountains & cantilevered floors look different by the hour, from an era when DTLA civic projects could still inspire.

They have informed much of my research.

In 1972, city planners' vision "by 1990" included a people mover that would extend from Union Station to DTLA to South Park & keep going south to the Coliseum.

Only a few elevated pedways got built, but the rapid transit lines foretold the A, B and D light rail lines of today.

In 1932, Tujunga was the last sizable territory (8.7 square miles) to merge with LA, but only after voting to reject annexation in 1930 and 1931. Even in '32, some Tujungians sued, claiming voting "irregularities."

That & other dramas, part of my next book event this Sat., 1 pm.

Ooo, I hadn't thought of that. Oh well. They do have the pavilion for shade in afternoons, and we got tix for the afternoon, so think we'll be OK.

Yeah, it's a bit of a leap of faith. I have no idea what the world will be like in 2 years.

They def. were not.

I feel like my college-age kids would enjoy, and I got to experience '84, so I got 4 tix for the whole fam. Justifying the cost as similar to the price of a roundtrip ticket for one to London, or whatever.

I was there for '84 too, track and field.

So my 48 hr. ticket window just closed. Deets:
-Gymnastics all sold out
-Most womens sports 50%+ cheaper vs. mens
-Higher-capacity venues = greater availability
-Cheaper tix gone; had to settle for mid-tier
-Spent $785 total on 4 tix (qualifying events in basketball & equestrian)

When I die and go to movie heaven, the entry will resemble Arclight Hollywood's erstwhile lobby with time for a dry martini in the upstairs lounge before the show and all the caramel corn/popcorn I can eat without gaining a pound (a la Defending Your life).

Yowza!!

Is it a ghost snake?

Nah, just 5-foot (!!)-long shedded snake skin I came across along the LA River in Glendale. Snake probably slithered out of the brush at North Atwater Park.

Something this size, maybe a gopher or rattlesnake? (Rattlesnakes don't shed their rattles.)

Chatsworth Reservoir was a main water source for the Valley from 1920-1950. After the 1971 Sylmar Quake, the dam was considered not up to snuff & it was drained, leaving behind a small lake, part of an enclosed ecological preserve.

It's open once a year by DWP: on Earth Day.

The National Women's Football League (full-tackle rules) ran from 1974 to 1988. The L.A. Dandelions, a founding team, played 'til '78 with home games often in Long Beach.

Though players were barely paid, the WNBA and other women's pro sports often cite the NWFL as a trailblazer.

Brent’s Deli Northridge.

Matzo chicken noodle soup with bagel crisps. Package of their rye bread to go.

With each closing of iconic LA eateries, I'm doubling down on the ones I love.

1969 vs. 2026 photos show how vital it was that beloved Franklin Canyon was saved from development & a proposed highway thru it (its longer, lower reservoir, upper left, is now covered).

Meanwhile, the canyon to the right was illegally bulldozed for today's Beverly Park estates.

GEO-QUIZ answer: Cabrillo Beach Pier (and seawall).

One nice thing about the pier, which faces inland... no fishing license required. This gentleman reeled in a halibut just as I passed by (released in short order, with birds at the ready for their own claim).

GEO-QUIZ: Where in LA is LA Dork today?

But of course... early James L. Brooks!