Upcoming LAVA events

Here are some brief highlights from LAVA's calendar – visit http://lavatransforms.org for full details and new additions. We hope you can join us for some of these Visionary-hosted events. If you can make just one each month, make it our Sunday Salon from noon to 2pm (next Salon: October 31). This is a regularly scheduled lunchtime gathering held on the last Sunday of each month at Clifton's Cafeteria, and it's where the LAVA will really start flowing, as we get to know each other better over confetti-flecked jello and other delights.

Event: LAVA's Sunday Salon
start time: Sun, 10/31/2010 - 12:00pm - 2:00pm
On the last Sunday of each month, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather on the third floor of the historic Clifton's Cafeteria in Downtown Los Angeles (noon-2pm), for a loosely structured conversational Salon featuring short presentations and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. If you're interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community. We also recommend the shortbread.

Special program at the October 31 Salon: LAVA Visionaries will host curated conversations and presentations at tables around the room. More details will be posted closer to Salon-time.
Presentations include:

• A presentation of two recent publications from the ghoulish consortium The Ghost Hunters of Urban L.A. aka GHOULA (including LAVA Visionaries Richard Carradine and Lisa Mouse), Disneyland After Dark: A Haunted Guide to the Happiest Place on Earth and GHOULA Comix #1. Comic artists will be on hand to sign their work, and Lisa Mouse will be giving away free copies of her banned Death Duck drawing that was censored after the first printing of Disneyland After Dark.

• A table discussion hosted by Visionary Joe Oesterle, author of the just-released Weird Hollywood and the classic Weird California. The multi-talented Joe is a former Senior Editor of National Lampoon, a visual artist, musician and curator of the strange and marvelous. At the Sunday Salon, he'll be sharing some stories that were too peculiar to include in Weird Hollywood, reflecting on the nature of eccentricity as a way of life, and signing copies of his new book.

• Mesmerelda, the Skid Row misfortune teller, will musically recount the lurid highlights of an unforgettable and—to some— unbelievable life. Tales of malevolent candy-givers and La Llorona’s terrorizing walk down Winston Street will be punctuated with glimpses into a foreboding future. Mesmerelda will also tell us where that ghoulish guzzler goes after she plies for drinks at the King Edward Saloon! Mesmie will be accompanied by renegade ex-members of Clowns and Fetuses, an L.A. improvisational ensemble, including Visionary Fortunato du Cressy.

• And more Halloween goodness from GHOULA: Visionary Lisa Mouse and colleagues will present the group's first science project, a collaboration with filmmaker Anthony Deptula inspired by famed magician Harry Houdini's experiments in communication beyond the grave. With SEE YOU IN 100 YEARS, you can participate in an attempt to recreate the Houdini Experiment using an Internet Time Capsule. Is there an after life? Harry Houdini had the same question. He even had a secret pass code with his beloved wife. A message sent from beyond to say "I'm here." In the spirit of Houdini, GHOULA will pay homage to this experiment in a grand scale by creating a modern time capsule, documenting participants, digitally recording their secret pass codes, and then archiving the time capsule for one hundred years. Detailed instructions will be left in the hands of a respected institution. At the end of the hundred years a non-affiliated caretaker of the project will be selected to devise a team of mediums, psychics, and scientists to reach out to the time capsule participants (that's YOU!).

Clifton's Cafeteria is at 648 South Broadway, near the corner of 7th Street. There are numerous paid parking lots nearby, and the closest Metro station is Pershing Square. Clifton's is online at http://www.cliftonscafeteria.com



Event: Esotouric's Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles: In A Lonely Place Bus Tour
start time: Sat, 11/06/2010 - 12:00pm - 4:00pm
Bungalows. Crime. Hollywood. Blondes. Vets. Smog. Death.
This was Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles, which resonated from deft and melancholy fits of his writer’s bow.

Join us as we go down the mean streets that shaped his fiction, and that in turn shaped his hard-boiled times, in a four hour tour of downtown, Hollywood and surrounding environs: The Los Angeles Athletic Club, Musso & Frank, the Hotel Van Nuys, Paramount Studio’s gates, and much, much more, including a Chandler-themed gelato stop at East Hollywood cult favorite Scoops.

Through published work, private correspondence, screenplays and film adaptations, we trace Chandler’s search for meaning and his anti-hero Philip Marlowe’s struggle to not be pigeonholed or give anything less than all he has, which lead them both down the rabbit hole of isolation, depression, and drink.

Los Angeles Athletic Club
431 West 7th StreetLos Angeles 90014 Phone:
Event: The Science and Art of Forensic Investigations: Criminalistics from Test Tube to Testimony
start time: Sun, 11/07/2010 - 1:00pm - 4:00pm
This event has now sold out. If you'd like to be on the waiting list and be contacted when another crime lab tour and lecture are scheduled, email Kim through the contact link above. To get announcements of other interesting upcoming events from Visionary Angelenoes you can subscribe to the LAVA mailing list, or sign up for Esotouric's mailing list for offbeat Los Angeles tours.

Visionary Professor Donald Johnson, in association with LAVA and Esotouric, invites you to participate in a special three-hour event at LA’s regional crime laboratory, on the campus of Cal State LA. Space is very limited and pre-reservation required for this unprecedented opportunity to tour the crime lab, learn from working forensic investigators and educators, and discover the real art and science of crime scene investigation.

Cost: $35 per person. To reserve your spot, and for payment instructions, contact Kim through the contact link above. We will need your full name, email address and the name(s) of anyone whose ticket you wish to purchase. If your friends wish to buy their own tickets, they should reserve individually. Please note that space is extremely limited for this special event.

"The Science and Art of Forensic Investigations: Criminalistics from Test Tube to Testimony" provides an insider’s view of the scientific investigation of crime, as Criminalistics faculty and graduate students share their knowledge and insight on the theory and practice of forensic science in our criminal justice system. Attendees will also tour Cal State LA’s state-of the-art teaching and research facilities at the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center.

The afternoon begins with an introduction to the field of Criminalistics and the use of physical evidence in criminal investigations, hosted by Professors Donald Johnson and Katherine Roberts, followed by an overview of the academic and research programs in Criminalistics at Cal State LA.
Then, attendees will be provided with additional insight on forensic methods during breakout sessions on Crime Scene Investigation, Forensic Chemistry, and Forensic Biology. The CSI session, hosted by Donald Johnson and Katherine Scriven, highlights tools used by forensic specialists in the field and emerging technologies in CSI. The Forensic Chemistry session, hosted by Katherine Roberts and Isaac Cheney, surveys methods used for the analysis of trace evidence and controlled substances, and current research will be presented on the development of methods to detect narcotic-tampering by health professionals. The Forensic Biology session, hosted by Kristin Honig and Stacy Wilkinson, highlights body fluid and DNA analysis, with a presentation on current research on methods to improve the recovery of semen in rape cases.
The afternoon concludes with a true life investigation overview regarding the murder of a family in Los Angeles County and opportunities to ask questions. By the program's conclusion, attendees will have a basic understanding of the strengths and limitations of forensic methods used in criminal investigations, and a fresh perspective on the real art and science that takes place behind the scenes and the headlines.

A portion of the proceeds from this event supports the research of Criminalistics graduate students at Cal State Los Angeles.

The Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center (Cal State L.A.)
1800 Paseo Rancho CastillaLos Angeles 90032 Phone:
Event: Esotouric's Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles
start time: Sat, 11/13/2010 - 12:00pm - 4:00pm
This tour focuses on Bukowski’s great passions: writing, screwing and Los Angeles. We’ll take in the canonical locations of his life and myth: the Postal Annex Terminal where he gathered the material for “Post Office,” the De Longpre apartment where he briefly experimented with marriage and fatherhood, one of his favorite bars and liquor stores, and many other spots. Along the way, we’ll explore the people and ideas that made up the warp and weft of Buk’s rich inner life. This Esotouric bus adventure is hosted by Richard Schave, one of the organizers behind the successful campaign to name Charles Bukowski's East Hollywood bungalow a Cultural-Historic Landmark.

"Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's LA" spans Bukowski's personal city, from Skid Row to once-genteel Crown Hill, to Bukowski's favorite East Hollywood liquor store, the Pink Elephant.

Philippe's
1001 N Alameda St.Los Angeles 90013


Event: Maja's Magic School: Eros & Magic; Sway & the Beloved
start time: Sun, 11/14/2010 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Maja D'Aoust, the White Witch of Los Angeles, hosts a new metaphysical lecture series held on the second Sunday of each month in the historic Annie Besant Lodge in Beachwood Canyon. Maja is the librarian at Manly P. Hall's Philosophical Research Society, where she lectured for four years, the co-author of "The Secret Source: The Law of Attraction is One Of Seven Hermetic Laws, Here are the Other Six" and hostess of the Maja's Mysteries series of Esotouric bus adventures. The theme of tonight's lecture is: Eros & Magic; Sway & the Beloved.

Annie Besant Lodge
2560 N. Beachwood Drive
Los Angeles 90068


Event: Esotouric's Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
start time: Sat, 11/20/2010 - 12:00pm - 4:00pm
A criminal and gastronomical excursion into the San Gabriel Valley, Blood & Dumplings rolls through Alhambra, Temple City, Monterey Park, Rosemead and El Monte, revealing dozens of weird, forgotten crimes and oddities from the valley's past. Highlights include the mysterious Man from Mars Bandit, the lesbian couple whose bickering over spending cash resulted in one pumping the other full of downers until she died, the young bride who spent her wedding day buried under her parents' house, the battling neo-Nazis of El Monte, Phil Spector's spooky castle and the little bar where James Ellroy's murdered mother Jean had her last drink. The tour includes a selection of dumplings from one of the San Gabriel Valley's best Chinese restaurants.(Vegetarian passengers, please let us know your food preference several days before we depart.)

Lincoln Heights/Cypress Gold Line Station
370 West Avenue 26
Los Angeles 90031
Phone: 323-223-2767


Event: Maja's Magic School: The Magic of Numbers; Math of God
start time: Sun, 12/12/2010 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Maja D'Aoust, the White Witch of Los Angeles, hosts a new metaphysical lecture series held on the second Sunday of each month in the historic Annie Besant Lodge in Beachwood Canyon. Maja is the librarian at Manly P. Hall's Philosophical Research Society, where she lectured for four years, the co-author of "The Secret Source: The Law of Attraction is One Of Seven Hermetic Laws, Here are the Other Six" and hostess of the Maja's Mysteries series of Esotouric bus adventures. The theme of tonight's lecture is: The Magic of Numbers; Math of God.

Annie Besant Lodge
2560 N. Beachwood Drive
Los Angeles 90068 Phone: