Boyle Heights bus adventure January 20, 2011

Esotouric's new Boyle Heights bus tour reveals the secret history of an incredible neighborhood

WHAT: Esotouric's 5-tour February architecture and urbanism series, REYNER BANHAM LOVES L.A., continues with ROUTE 66 (2/19, 11am-3pm) and the debut of BOYLE HEIGHTS (2/20, 11am-3pm)
WHERE/WHEN: ROUTE 66 departs 11am from Cafe Metropol, Downtown; BOYLE HEIGHTS departs 11am from Clifton's Cafeteria, Downtown
WEEKEND TOUR PACKAGES: Enjoy two days of architectural Los Angeles bus tourism, and save $30 with a weekend pass, details at the link below:
http://esotouric.com/bustourpackages
COST: $58/person, or just $45 with a weekend pass
INFO: http://www.esotouric.com, 323-223-2767
LOS ANGELES- On February 20, urban explorers are invited to join guest-host Sean Carrillo, NYC-based filmmaker and Boyle Heights native, and Esotouric's Richard Schave for a four-hour bus adventure through L.A.'s fascinating and poorly understood Eastside. Follow Sean on a voyage back to the old neighborhood, to find out if you really can't go home again, and what happens when you try.

The curious can preview the Boyle Heights tour in a series of short video interviews featuring DAVID KIPEN (formerly Director of Literature for the NEA and now proprietor of Boyle Heights bookshop/lending library Libros Schmibros), CSU History professor MARK WILD, and RICHARD MEYER (the son of the U.S. attorney who investigated the Ruben Salazar killing). The three videos are online at http://www.youtube.com/esotouric and embedded in the tour description page at http://www.esotouric.com/boyleheights

ABOUT THE REYNER BANHAM LOVES L.A. TOUR SERIES:
Esotouric's February architecture and urbanism tour series includes THE NEW CHINATOWNS (Saturday, February 5), SOUTH LA (Sunday, February 6), ROUTE 66 (Saturday, February 19), the debut of BOYLE HEIGHTS (Sunday, February 20) and THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN (Saturday, February 26), with $30 off discount tickets for weekend packages on February 5/6 and February 19/20. Inspired by the British architectural critic Reyner Banham, who host Richard Schave studied under at UC Santa Cruz, the REYNER BANHAM LOVES LOS ANGELES series offers a fresh way of looking at the urban web of history, mass transit, migration and mystery that somehow holds L.A. together.

ABOUT THE BOYLE HEIGHTS TOUR:
Sean Carrillo and Richard Schave's new tour rolls down Whittier Boulevard, the Chicano Sunset Strip, where hustlers once roamed the sidewalks to the beat of Thee Midnighters blaring from hundreds of tricked-out rides, to the history-drenched intersection of Brooklyn (aka Cesar Chavez) & Soto, which has been spilling out of its top and up over its jeans for generations. This eternal community hot spot teems with the ghosts of Wobblies, Brown Berets, celebrated muralists, political activists and a pre-teen Mickey Cohen shaking down customers to buy his newspapers, and it's just one of the powerful sites on this tour of a neighborhood whose legends are too often oral, and whose heroes slip too easily into obscurity. Esotouric is pulling out the memory maps to spread tales that deserve a wider audience.

Over the decades the place has changed a lot, so the tour tackles the elusive question: What's the measure of a neighborhood? In 1947, deli man Ben Canter declared it was pickled beef, bragging that his Boyle Heights restaurant produced 7,000 pounds of pastrami monthly (while his upstart cousin on Fairfax moved scarcely half that). Masa is now the index for the community, and steamy tamales are comfort food for a whole new generation of Eastsiders.

Moratorium, blowouts, Ruben Salazar, Aida Handler (suspended from Roosevelt High in 1931 for "un-American" activities), Msgr. Ramon Garcia, All Nations Cultural Center, schmaltz (chicken fat) and schmeck (heroin), knishes to menudo, shortdogs of T-bird wine and the bottle of Manischewitz mama kept for company, from the sacred and the sacrilegious everything is fair game and given in the spirit of "con safos" (that means with respect, ese).

It's a journey from innocence to experience, with a focus on the ever-evolving quest for authenticity, and a myriad of political upheavals and social changes which have played out over the generations. It's the Eastside as you've never seen it before, and a very special Esotouric bus adventure recommended for anyone with a passion for Los Angeles, and a thirst for the unheard stories of the city.

The tour begins with special guest Michael Risner, who will give a show and tell presentation on the archives of a local Boyle Heights-based Japanese-American photographer which he accidentally rescued from Craigslist and certain destruction. There are well over 100,000 individual photographs in this rescued archive, with images from weddings to funerals, baby portraits to community events. Risner will explain his plans for preserving and displaying the archive while showing off some highlights from the collection. To learn more about Michael's discovery, see the links below for an L.A. Weekly feature and video from his recent presentation at LAVA's Sunday Salon.

http://www.laweekly.com/2010-09-30/columns/rescuing-a-legacy/
http://lavatransforms.org/itotushy

These Esotouric bus adventures provide fresh ways of seeing the Southland and mingling with fascinating fellow travelers, and are a must for urban explorers, architecture buffs and anyone who enjoys turning over rocks to reveal the secrets beneath.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sat Jan 22 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's So. Cal. Nightmare
Sun Jan 30 - LAVA's Sunday Salon at Clifton's Cafeteria (free, info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Jan 30 - The Science and Art of Forensic Investigations: Criminalistics from Test Tube to Testimony (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Feb 5 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: The New Chinatowns (weekend package available)
Sun Feb 6 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: South LA (weekend package available)
Sun Feb 13 - The Science and Art of Forensic Investigations: Criminalistics from Test Tube to Testimony (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Feb 19 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66 (weekend package available)
Sat Feb 20 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Boyle Heights (debut, weekend package available)
Sat Feb 26 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown-The Secret History of Los Angeles
Sat March 5 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat March 12 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour (weekend package available)
Sun March 13 - Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour (weekend package available)
Sat March 19 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour

Esotouric's Richard Schave, Kim Cooper and Joan Renner are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org

For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com

Official Website: http://www.esotouric.com