Tanja M. Laden

Akio Hizume

The Fibonacci Sequence and the Skincare Mogul With a Secret Fetish for Japanese Bamboo Basketry

Tanja M. Laden
Driving along Miracle Mile in the heart of Museum Row, it's easy to miss Akio Hizume's bamboo Fibonacci Tunnel on the patio of the Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM). But if you stop to take a look, you can actually become physically immersed inside the architecturally inspired tunnel itself. You may even wander into the museum as well, where a related exhibit, "Bamboo," chronicles the rapidly changing dynamics of Japanese bamboo basketry....
A group of hippies draping their bodies in the ground in the shape of the peace sign

Cold War Hippies Weren't As Different As You'd Think

Tanja M. Laden
On the surface, what characterizes the counterculture in Communist countries is not the same in the U.S. But throughout the 20th century and especially during the Cold War, political posters and salvaged scrapbooks have been subtly sending silent signals that many people have secretly shared western freedom-based ideologies from beyond the Iron Curtain. We just haven't been able to see examples of any of it before now, but the Wende Museum of the Cold War is changing that with two new exhibitions: Promote, Tolerate, Ban: Art and Culture in Cold War Hungary and Socialist Flower Power: Soviet Hippie Culture....
Credit: Charlie Le Mindu/Please Do Not Enter

Meet the Family of Monsters Squatting Inside the NoMAD

Tanja M. Laden
The "family of monsters," as their creator calls them, belong to L.A.-based French artist Charlie Le Mindu, a onetime hairdresser turned visual artist whose main medium, unsurprisingly, is hair. He even has a term for his unique brand of artistry: "haute coiffure." A selection of his work, both old and new, is on view in Charlie Le Mindu: Noir at /THE LAB/ by the French-owned concept store Please Do Not Enter inside the NoMAD....
Credit: Tanja M. Laden

Best Little History Museum in the Valley

Tanja M. Laden
You don't need to be a relic of the San Fernando Valley to appreciate the Valley Relics Museum, but it helps. Founded by SFV native Tommy Gelinas, this lovingly curated reservoir of ephemera features a collection belonging to Bob and Julie Ream, longtime Valley residents who worked in the two......
Credit: Tanja M. Laden

Best Home of Horror

Tanja M. Laden
You know that stretch of Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank that's super hipster now? Well, back when Sue and Del Howison first opened Dark Delicacies in 1994, it wasn't. Not only has the specialty shop become a landmark destination for horror lovers but it's helped transform its neighborhood into a thriving......
Credit: Danny Liao

Best Model Railroaders

Tanja M. Laden
Not long after the end of the second World War, a group of 16 model-railroad lovers began laying miniature tracks in a converted building adjacent to a city park in Glendale. The tiny railroad was so extensive and detailed, it prompted USC cinema students to capture it in a film......
Credit: Courtesy Psychic School

Best Psychic School

Tanja M. Laden
Trust your instinct. Pay attention to your gut feelings. Listen to that little voice inside. Let your conscience be your guide. You may be asking yourself, "How?" and the answer is simple: Trust your intuition. If only it were that easy to do. Luckily, the Southern California Psychic Institute can......
Credit: Tanja Laden

Best Independent Bookstore

Tanja M. Laden
Originally a planned community built in the 1920s, Leimert Park has since become the epicenter of African-American culture in Los Angeles. It's also home to a beloved independent bookstore that's been around since the late 1980s, owned and operated by James Fugate and Thomas Hamilton. Eso Won Bookstore occupied four......
Credit: Courtesy Esotouric

Best Podcast About L.A. History

Tanja M. Laden
Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are the masterminds behind the Los Angeles Visionaries Association (LAVA), an informal collective of locals who are passionate about the city. The husband-and-wife team also run Esotouric, a delightfully outré tour company that's cruising into its 10th anniversary this year. As if all that weren't......