Photo Essay: A Long-Neglected Playhouse for Variety Acts Gets Some Much-Needed Attention from the Art World

Back in 2012, I didn't have the lay of the land in Los Angeles yet—so, I just tried to take every opportunity to go anywhere that seemed cool, even if I'd never heard of it before. 

That's how I ended up at Variety Arts Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, thanks to a haunted house/immersive theater show for Halloween by horror movie producer Jason Blum called Blumhouse of Horrors. 

I remember being led through an auditorium with seats—at one point, through one of those squeeze tubes that make it feel like you're traveling through a birth canal. And I remember someone in costume—maybe an usher? or a bellhop?—taking a group of us up the elevator to an upper level that felt more like a hotel than a theater.

But it was so long ago—and I only have one photo of the night, taken outside with a scare actor (jump to the photo ↓)—that I barely can recall any real details.

 

The Variety Arts Theatre has been open to the public very rarely since then, including for the Delusion haunt in Fall 2025—but it's had construction fencing up out front for years. Thankfully, that finally came down, and the theater doors swung open once again. 

Photo Essay: A Tour of The Jonathan Club for the Common People

The Jonathan Club always seemed like one of those LA places I'd never get into—so unlikely, in fact, that I never tried and never even added it to my bucket list.

But then the Los Angeles Conservancy hosted public tours at the end of January—and finally, my ship came in.

Photo Essay: The Reopened Vista Theatre, In Its Tarantino Era

If I hadn't let the geography of my new job determine where I'd live when I moved to LA back in 2011, I would've made the neighborhood of Los Feliz my home. 

Of course, its walkability and nightlife offerings would've made it an easy transition for an incoming New Yorker. And it sits nestled in the cradle of Griffith Park, a vast urban wilderness that I'd been long fascinated with before making the big move. 

Los Feliz also has a long history with the movies.

Los Feliz was really Hollywood before Hollywood was Hollywood—and the junction of Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood Boulevard, and Hillhurst Avenue was a giant backlot for monumental productions like the Babylon set from D.W. Griffith's problematic feature film Intolerance.

circa 2015 

That's the same intersection where the Vista Theatre was built, opening in October 1923 as Bard’s Hollywood Theatre. It got the name "Vista," a 1985 Los Angeles Times article says, when Fox West Coast took over in 1927.

Photo Essay: The Peabody, A Grand Hotel of Marching Ducks and Memphis Royalty

When we were planning our Memphis trip months ahead of when we'd actually travel for my birthday, our hotel options always boiled down to one clear choice: The Peabody. 

 

I'd heard of it from a friend who'd stayed there several years ago for a work conference, and who'd been delighted by the daily duck parade. That was enough to seal the deal for me. 

 

But then I also realized that it also fit the theme of my destination birthday celebration—that is, Elvis, whose manager Colonel Parker closed a record deal for the rising star with RCA Victor right there in the lobby in 1955. (The budding performer had previously visited the Peabody to attend his senior prom there.)

Photo Essay: John Lautner's Salkin House Emerges From the Lost and Found [Updated]

[Last updated 1/24/25 8:45 PM PT—Made some corrections based on an email from the real estate agent behind the 2014 sale—Steven Gutierrez-Kovner, who also grew up in the home—and a photo received from a friend who visited the home during its pre-2014 ownership.]

Back in October, I heard about an opportunity to visit a "Lost Lautner"—that is, a house designed by architect John Lautner that was missing from the official record of his works. 

circa April 2009, via Google Street View

It was the Salkin House, located on Avon Terrace and tucked into the crook of the neck of upper Elysian Park. Completed in 1948, somehow it had disappeared from public memory for decades—until it was "discovered" again in 2014, when it hit the market for the first time basically ever, confirming the rumors of its existence to be true. 

 

circa March 2018, via Google Street View

Fashion designer Trina Turk and her (now late) husband Jonathan Skow purchased it for $1.2 million (with the adjacent lot, $1.5 million) and embarked on a preservation-minded restoration. They secured its designation as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2016.

Photo Essay: Paying My Respects with a Final Meal at Saugus Cafe [Updated—Reopened Under New Management]

[Last updated 1/20/26 10:52 PM PT—After being closed for just two weeks, The Original Saugus Cafe reopened as Saugus Restaurant under new management. A report on the reopening has been added to the bottom of this post.]

[Updated 1/10/26 12:54 PM PT to add clarification of some details revealed in an LAist article and The Santa Clarita Valley Signal.]

"While the future plans for the building are currently unknown, we want to share that Saugus Cafe will officially close its doors on January 4, 2026."

 

That was the message posted on the front door and at the cash register at the oldest restaurant in Los Angeles County when I went for (perhaps) a final meal on the second day of 2026.

Photo Essay: Starting Over at the Rose Parade (In the Rain)

Sometimes I like to not have a plan for New Year's Day, and just see when I wake up and decide on the spur of the moment if I want to go to the Rose Parade. I'll drive over there, snag a last-minute parking spot, and find somewhere to stand. 

But when I did that last year, I didn't love the position I got—too crowded, too many trees in the way, too tired to stand the whole time. And given the fact that I didn't love my view the year before that (with seats facing the back of the floats), last February I decided to finally spring for official Rose Parade grandstand seats. 

I spent a long time researching the different areas, looking for one without tall buildings casting shadows or trees, light poles, or street signs to obstruct the view. I got front row grandstand, far enough down the parade route so I wouldn't have to get there super early, and where I would more likely be able to find free parking at the last minute. 

I was going to start 2026 off right!

 

But 2026 had other plans for me. 

Year In Review: 2025 Updates to Past Posts

Los Angeles has been through a lot in the time that I've lived here. It took a big hit during the pandemic, and the homelessness crisis just keeps getting worse and worse. 

But nothing in my tenure here has compared to January 2025, when the entire city seemed to be surrounded by fire—and two communities were flattened in the blink of an eye. 

I can't even speak to what so many people went through, losing their homes and possessions and all sense of safety. I can only document a little bit of it, and help preserve the memory of some of our public places with the photos I've taken and the stories I've written. 

The more time that passes, the more it feels that I have a certain duty to share these stories and spread the word about places in danger of being lost, and places that have been spared and saved (including those from the Eaton and Palisades fires and the Sunset Fire at Runyon Canyon).

Because for as much as we mourn and grieve, we must also pay attention, intervene, and celebrate.

We couldn't manage to hold onto Pacific Dining Car. Or David Lynch. But the building that once housed Corky's returned to its former Googie glory. The Crystal Cave in Sequoia National Park finally reopened. And The Los Angeles Breakfast Club turned 100.

While those all got their own new blog posts, here are the updates I made to older posts in 2025:

 

Top Posts of 2025

Boy, it's been a rough year. Between writing my first book, struggling to manage my celiac disease, and losing my sense of smell and trying to conquer long Covid—all with no health insurance—it's been a lot. 

I tend to thrive in chaos, but at some point I just shut down. And that's what happened after I finished writing my manuscript (while I was sick with Covid, might I add). I just couldn't do anything else.

I've slowly tried to put my apartment back together after two years of neglect. I cleaned under the bed (where my cat hides and sometimes pukes) for the first time in I don't know how long. I still have to change my windshield wipers and put a cover on my car backseat and figure out why my turntable doesn't work and sand down my built-in cutting board. 

Oh and now that I'm 50, I've got to get a pneumonia vaccine and a mammogram. And a follow-up colonoscopy. 

And a permanent job that provides benefits.

With all of this going on, I've managed to blog a little this year—much less than I'd like, and much less than what I have to blog about. Funnily enough, this year also brought some of the highest traffic I've ever had—and, for the first time, to posts that aren't solely about Southern California. 

It's nice to see my Nevada and Northern California posts getting some well-deserved attention!

In case you missed any of them, here are my top posts of 2025—featuring a little architecture, a lot of adventure, and a bit of personal sadness, too.

1. Photo Essay: Wallace Neff's Once-Affordable Bubble House Hits An Inflated Real Estate Market

 

Photo Essay: The Wizard of Oz Gets Weird at the Sphere Vegas

Speaking of The Wizard of Oz, the classic movie offered the perfect opportunity to return to the Sphere in Las Vegas. 

Because after dozens of times seeing it on television and home video (and most recently catching it on the big screen in 3D at Gardena Cinema), why not also experience it on the world's largest spherical structure with the world's largest screen?

It seemed like the perfect thing to do on Thanksgiving night—though not a holiday movie per se, but associated with the holidays after decades of TV broadcasts around the end of the year.