Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2018 i Journal of Alta California

We are dedicated to demystification, to self-teaching, and to encouraging people to think for themselves. Thus our Motto: ‘access to tools and ideas’ ... We recommend rather than attack ... We change with the times that we help change ... We update ourselves continually ... We are deliberately eclectic. — Statement of purpose, CoEvolution Quarterly, 1974 When I read Stewart Brand’s mission statement for his historic quarterly, I thought we might do well to imitate his example. They say journalism is the rough draft of history. I guess our Journal is the second draft, or the first revision. We examine events after some of the dust has settled, when we can reflect on impacts and sift for meaning. We are not big believers in the old media model, in which…

1 Godzilla #3: Godzilla attacks the Golden Gate Bridge, which is defended by S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Champions of Los Angeles. 2 Uncanny X-Men #525: The X-Men confront a pack of Nimrod Sentinels in Chinatown. 3 Wolverine Vol. 4 #3: Wolverine’s body is possessed by demons, so Mystique and the Ghost Riders bring his body to Grace Cathedral to perform an exorcism. 4 Eternals Vol. 3 #7: The Dreaming Celestial — a giant robot whose main function is to send a signal to the Horde when a planet is ready to be “harvested” — stands dormant in Golden Gate Park. 5 Dark Avengers/ Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1: A riot breaks out between Humanity Now! demonstrators and mutants at the Embarcadero. 6 Secret Invasion: X-Men #1-#4: The Skrulls’ invasion of Earth targets…

Legendary journalist Hunter S. Thompson was known for many things: a propensity for absorbing illegal substances, a love of guns, hanging out with the Hell’s Angels and, ultimately, having his ashes blasted toward space in a rocket. Who would hire someone like that to be the caretaker of an oceanfront estate in Big Sur? Therein lies a tale worthy of Thompson’s beloved New Journalism. The property that Thompson oversaw in the early 1960s eventually became the Esalen Institute, the legendary retreat that is associated with a mellow vibe and was the birthplace of the Human Potential Movement, pulling together many of the threads that formed the 1960s counterculture. The summer-fall program for the New Age retreat center came to include such luminaries as Ken Kesey, Fritz Perls and Alan Watts.…

Ronni Chasen had driven home from Hollywood film premieres late at night dozens of times. The high-powered publicist enthusiastically pushed her big studio clients on Oscar voters for years — and she was great at it. Producers of movies such as “Driving Miss Daisy” and “The Hurt Locker” counted on Chasen’s aggressive confidence and impressive Rolodex to score those coveted gold statuettes. But unlike all those other apres-premiere trips, when Chasen drove through Beverly Hills around midnight following a November 16, 2010, premiere for the Cher film “Burlesque,” she never made it home. As she made a left turn at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Whittier Drive, Chasen was shot to death. Seven years later, despite the suicide of a suspect and a closed case for the Beverly Hills…

JAMES BEARD Famed chef sometimes called the father of American gourmet cooking: “James Beard was just an amazing character, and I had the great good luck to be at many banquet tables at Cecilia Chiang’s restaurant seated next to him. He just knew about everything. Everything.” Beard inadvertently lent a hand when Waters was invited to New York to cook alongside a group of other star chefs. “I thought I’d bring my lettuce salad and make a vinaigrette. Marion Cunningham helped me find a bowl at James Beard’s house, one of his big salad bowls. I proudly went to this event. … I looked around and saw what all the rest of the chefs brought, and I was so embarrassed. I can’t tell you. It was excruciating to stand there…

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Tiki bars have popped up all over California over the past few years. Here’s a sampling of some of the best places to get a sweet cocktail and soak up some Polynesian atmosphere. CLASSIC TIKI JOINTS Trader Vic’s Emeryville tradervicsemeryville.com The Tonga Room at the Fairmount Hotel San Francisco tongaroom.com TIKI BARS: THE NEW GENERATION Smuggler’s Cove San Francisco smugglerscovesf.com Pagan Idol San Francisco paganidol.com Pacific Seas Los Angeles cliftonsla.com/pacific-seas Tiki-Ti Los Angeles tiki-ti.com Tonga Hut North Hollywood and Palm Springs tongahut.com Bootlegger Tiki Palm Springs www.bootleggertiki.com False Idol San Diego falseidoltiki.com The Grass Skirt San Diego thegrassskirt.com The Jungle Bird Sacramento thejunglebird.com…

Leonard Bernstein was the quintessential East Coast American musician. Harvard-trained. Darling of Broadway. The New York Philharmonic’s most iconic music director. His music defined the 20th century. Born in Massachusetts during the final months of World War I, he died in New York City in 1990. Bernstein would have turned 100 this coming Aug. 25. To celebrate, performing arts organizations around the world will give thousands of performances of Bernstein’s music this season. Among those performances, more than 100 take place in California. According to the official “Leonard Bernstein at 100” website, that’s more than the number of performances of his works this season in New York and Massachusetts combined. So why is California just about the best place to experience the composer-conductor’s centenary? One reason is that two of…

Few people have written as evocatively about California’s natural beauty as Scottish-born naturalist and Sierra Club founder John Muir. His letters describing his travels in the state’s wilderness are rich with colorful descriptions, especially his writings about Yosemite Valley. After taking President Theodore Roosevelt on a camping trip to Yosemite in 1903, he convinced Roosevelt to designate Yosemite as a national park. TO HIS FRIEND JEANNE C. CARR, JULY 26, 1868 Fate and flowers have carried me to California, and I have reveled and luxuriated amid its plants and mountains nearly four months. I am well again, I came to life in the cool winds and crystal waters of the mountains, and, were it not for a thought now and then of loneliness and isolation, the pleasure of my existence…

Gavin Newsom remains the front-runner in the field for the 2018 gubernatorial election, and other candidates are starting to slip behind as Newsom tightens his grip on the race. The withdrawal of former L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti removes a major potential challenger to Newsom and enhances Antonio Villaraigosa’s hopes of making the top-two runoff. LT. GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM Odds: 3-2 (Previously: 3-2) ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA Odds: 4-1 (Previously: 3-1) STATE TREASURER JOHN CHIANG Odds: 5-2 (Previously 5-2) DELAINE EASTIN Odds: 9-1 (Previously 7-1) TOM STEYER Odds 10-1 (Previously 8-1) JOHN COX Odds 1,000-1 (Previously 1,000-1) ASSEMBLYMAN TRAVIS ALLEN Odds 1,000-1 (Previously 1,000-1) L.A. MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI Scratched…

Meet me at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, That shabby nightclub on its foggy pier. Let’s aim for the summer of ’71, When all our friends were young and immortal. I’ll pick up the cover charge, find us a table, And order a round of their watery drinks. Let’s savor the smoke of that sinister century, Perfume of tobacco in the tangy salt air. The crowd will be quiet — only ghosts at the bar — So you, old friend, won’t feel out of place. You need a night out from that dim subdivision. Tell Mr. Bones you’ll be back before dawn. The club has booked the best talent in Tartarus. Gerry, Cannonball, Hampton, and Stan, With Chet and Art, those gorgeous greenhorns — The swinging-masters of our West Coast…

The 400 members of the San Francisco Social Register set would not have all fit in the late (and still, lamented) Trader Vic’s. Yet for decades (1951-1994), the former parking garage on Cosmo Place that restaurateur Victor Bergeron (aka Trader Vic) transformed into a teak-and-thatch-walled high temple of tiki was one of the most coveted tables in town. “Going to Trader Vic’s before or after the opera was a big night,” recalls philanthropist Ann Getty. “We’d celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and debutante parties there,” remembers San Francisco Protocol Chief Charlotte Mailliard Shultz. “Trader Vic’s felt like our private club,” Its three dining rooms were adorned with fishing nets, bamboo, native masks and palm fronds, complementing the Polynesian-inspired menu and umbrella-festooned cocktails. But the ne plus ultra for boldfaced diners was a…

The first time I visited San Francisco’s Good Vibrations sex toy store, in search of the perfect bachelorette-party gift, I walked in naively thinking that I could buy a pair of fuzzy handcuffs and some naughtily shaped cookie cutters and be on my way. But I ended up staying for a lot longer, out of pure fascination. I’d been to other sex-toy stores before, but I’d always felt like I was one of the products on display. As a woman trying to shop in the sort of place that sold mostly nudie magazines, straight-porn DVDs and blow-up dolls, I had often gotten the sensation that the male customers (there were rarely any women) were checking me out for my price tag. Here’s the thing about being a woman shopping at…

Phil Bronstein, the former executive editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, is executive chair of the board for the Center for Investigative Reporting. Jennifer Ouellette is a science writer and author of four popular science books, most recently “Me Myself, and Why: Searching for the Science of Self.” She lives in Los Angeles. Michael Bauer is the restaurant critic and editor at large at the San Francisco Chronicle. Previously he worked at the Dallas Times Herald and the Kansas City Star. Allison Bruns is a freelance illustrator. Rooted in a lifelong fascination with music and literature, her work includes a diverse cast of characters, each with their own story to share.…

In the VIP backroom of Tosca Cafe, San Francisco’s timeless bohemian hangout, Bruce Springsteen and Sean Penn were playing a manly game of pool. The cranky proprietress, Jeannette Ether-edge, bodyguarded the door. Metallica’s Lars Ulrich slouched in, grieving over a crumbling marriage. I’d seen this kind of overheated fiesta at Tosca before, but on this night in 2004 there was also a quiet presence. Practically hidden in the choking pall of tobacco and celebrity, a young woman was perched on a bar stool watching the game, waiting, calculating. She was almost sedate, nursing a glass of wine and smoking cigarettes while others rubbernecked The Boss and the mercurial Penn. The quiet observer was Kamala Harris, the woman whom many now think is an odds-on favorite to be President of the…

Alice Waters is a pioneer of American cuisine. For nearly half a century, her restaurant Chez Panisse has been one of the most celebrated in the world. Waters elevated simple cooking to an art. She can all but claim credit for inventing the high-end, farm-to-table “slow-food” dining that has become known as “California cuisine.” Located in a converted arts and crafts house in Berkeley, Chez Panisse is famed for its locally sourced, organically grown food, presented in a set menu reflecting what’s in season and served in a cozy, romantic setting that echoes the best countryside French restaurants. In her new memoir, “Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook,” Waters talks about the early days of Chez Panisse and her embrace of the 1970s Berkeley counterculture that…

As I sat at a window table in the bar at Trader Vic’s in Emeryville, watching the sun set on the Bay, sipping a mai tai made from the original 1944 recipe developed by the restaurant’s founder, Vic “The Trader” Bergeron, I felt like I finally understood what I had been told: Tiki is about more than the drinks. Absent essential decorative elements — including special mugs and bowls, wood carvings, bamboo, tapa cloth, nautical elements like puffer fish and glass buoys and, of course, tiki carvings — a tiki bar would be just, well, a bar. “To those that are into tiki and have been for a while, drinks are a sideshow,” says Humuhumu Trott, tiki historian and owner of tiki bar database Critiki.com. “It’s fantastic fun, and the…

Seminal California architect Gin Wong spent so long designing our idea of the future that it eventually became the past, but his buildings are all the better for it. Wong, who died September 1 at the age of 94, brought to post-war California a miraculous revelation of how clear-eyed and uncomplicated design could be. At the time, his best buildings — including the iconic Transamerica Pyramid and the spidery Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport — evoked ideas of a far-off world of tomorrow. Now Wong’s buildings preserve the essence of the 20th century. Far from being dated, many seem almost primed to pass into the mists of legend, like modern great pyramids. Born in Guangzhou, China, in 1922, Wong emigrated to the United States when he was nine.…