Cool L.A. Tours

Remember Mr. Blackwell? He did those worst dressed lists after the Oscars.

Wayfarers Chapel has got to be the coolest Lloyd Wright designed Swedenborgian church in Southern California.

Well, the strip club is now a COVID-19 testing place. Sign of the times.

Twilight trip to the Watts Towers a few years back. Hope the restoration is done soon!

I’m 100% biased but the best stuff on Route 66 is in California.

We here at Cool L.A. Tours love buildings that are shaped like things. This is a smog check place shaped like a rocket ship. I’m for sure going beee next time.

First meal of the year! I love the pizza at Lamonicas and the fact that the restaurant is themed makes it even better. I’m trying to post at least once a day this year which means in 2021 I’ll visit close to 400 cool places.

Nine of my favorites places I visited this year. This was a hard year for a lot of people for a lot of reasons, but a great time for solo exploring.

The ultra Jetsonian Chemosphere and bonus Futura house.

The last location (that I can find) of Jim Dandy’s Fried Chicken. You don’t see that brown/yellow/orange color combo on signs too much these days. The chicken is good and they make these fried dough powdered sugar things which are exceptional.

Richard Nixon's first law office, Uptown Whittier, CA.

Photos from December of last year. I really miss Pacific Dining Car, one of my favorite train themed LA eateries.

Mo's Place, long rumored to be the inspiration for The Simpsons' Moe's Tavern.

What's your favorite McDonald's? Mine is the Fake TV McDonald's in the City of Industry. This location is not open to the public and is used exclusively for filming television commercials.

The grave of Eddie Cochran, one of the original rock and rollers from Southern California. Eddie was the pioneer of many recording and guitar techniques, including stringing the G on his guitar with a B string to get a more biting sound when he soloed.

Valley Center Studios aka Dunder Mifflin. The people who work here get grumpy when you take pictures, just like the real Office!

Thinking about a day trip? The Carpinteria Tar Pits are a series of natural asphalt lakes situated in the southern part of Santa Barbara County in southern California. The Carpinteria Tar Pits were known to the local Native American Chumash people, who mined the asphalt and used it as a sealant for waterproofing their tomols (plank-built boats) and other purposes. The area was named "La Carpinteria" (the carpentry) by a Spanish expedition under explorer Gaspar de Portolà, whi...ch arrived in the area on August 17, 1769. Starting around 1915, the tar pits were mined and the asphalt was used for building a coastal highway. In 1933, the area was designated a state beach and in 1941 it was formally opened to the public. The tar pits have trapped and preserved hundreds of Pleistocene Age birds and animals. Some findings are on display at the Carpinteria Valley Museum of History, but no paleontological studies have been conducted because the tar pits were used as a local rubbish dump.

Krishna Venta was the leader of a California religious group in the 1940s and 1950s known as Fountain of the World cult in Simi Valley, California. The Fountain was marginally controversial because one of the requirements for membership was that one donate all worldly assets to the group prior to joining. Venta prophesied an imminent cataclysm, with the Master’s projected flock of 144,000 guaranteed to be saved, and to build a new world once the dust and blood had settled, a ...version well adapted to the Cold-War climate of the times. Venta was killed in Chatsworth, California on December 10, 1958 in a suicide bombing instigated by two disgruntled former followers who had accused Venta of being a fraud who mishandled cult funds and had been intimate with their wives. The two ex-cultists were linked to the blast by bizarre tape recordings in which they vowed "to bring Krishna to justice". It is also purported that in 1968, ten years after Krishna Venta was assassinated, another Jesus-claimant by the name of Charles Manson and his coterie resided for several months at the Fountain of the World. He was eventually booted from the commune, and moved his group to nearby Spahn Movie Ranch. Sun Myung Moon and his followers also took up residence with the Fountain of the World community for several months in 1968.

Anyone remember Carlsons in Santa Monica? Never shopped there but they had these local commercials featuring this stern, humorless pitchman I always liked. It closed a while back. Photo circa 2015.

Me in front of Larry David's TV house. Happy 20th Anniversary to Curb Your Enthusiasm. The Curb Tour runs daily.

Spotted this tribute to Eddie near his home yesterday while driving through the canyon.

Beverly Hills property formerly owned by Donald Trump. Located across the street from the Beverly Hills Hotel, the site was considered for a hotel project that was never built. The property quietly sold for $13.5 million in an off-market sale to the corporate entity Hillcrest Asia Limited in 2019.

My first sandwich from Carla Cafe. You have to follow them on IG then they announce what sandwich they’re doing and you DM them and order. Kind of like a scavenger hunt mixed with a kick ass sandwich.