{"id":34576,"date":"2011-11-14T10:42:40","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T17:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alleewillis.com\/blog\/?p=34576"},"modified":"2011-11-14T10:44:37","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T17:44:37","slug":"allee-willis-kitsch-o-the-day-my-sunday-drive-with-charles-phoenix-in-and-around-inglewood-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/allee-willis-kitsch-o-the-day-my-sunday-drive-with-charles-phoenix-in-and-around-inglewood-ca\/","title":{"rendered":"Allee Willis’ Kitsch O’ The Day – My Sunday Drive With Charles Phoenix – In and Around Inglewood, CA."},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n

If you’ve got the good taste to be a regular reader of my blog, you know how much I enjoy my Sunday drives with Charles Phoenix<\/a>. \u00a0As much of a kitsch enthusiast and expert as myself, our trips occur at a higher level than just sightseeing. They’re fact-packed, full of junk and ethnic food, and meeting the people who create the great kitsch the first place. A couple of Sundays ago we headed down LaBrea towards LAX. I always love taking that route because we get to pass this building.\u00a0Too far for me to go to get my clothes cleaned but I can never get enough of the color scheme or the atomically-poked cement blocks.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

A couple miles down, after you swing right on Stocker heading toward La Tiera, we reach our first destination, the legendary Pann’s<\/a>, coffeeshop extraordinaire that has blessedly escaped the dreaded wrecking ball that all too frequently swings around LA.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

You can tell from the sign that this place is the real deal. At night, everything white lights up turquoise.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

This has to be one of the longest continuous lunch counters left in LA. You can’t see a bunch of it in this photo but it’s that great tufted white leather that makes eating a cheeseburger while parked upon it even more pleasurable.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

All of the light fixtures are original. The overhang isn’t bad either.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

These long slim tube lights are directly across from the counter.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

And these sconces pepper the rock walls.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

I’m not going to say much more about Pann’s now as it deserves its own post. But I will say that we were there the day before Halloween\u00a0and I always love a pumpkin whose features aren’t carved but drawn on.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Should you go to Pann’s, get the fried chicken.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

And definitely top it off with this:<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

Upon exiting any restaurant it’s lipstick reload time. I also take any opportunity to get my 1950’s pizza purse into as many photos as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Continuing on, Charles and I were too stuffed to partake of the treasures inside Randy’s.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

So we headed down Crenshaw past this excellent 60’s building:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

A closer look at the details:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

This building a little east of Crenshaw isn’t bad either. \u00a0Don’t miss the plaster boot kickin it on the facade.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

After 63 years, Sparkling Cleaners finally closed. \u00a0The sign has been picked dry…<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

…but the structure with that great rounded overhang and freestanding letters is still intact.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Churches aren’t supposed to discriminate:<\/p>\n\"\"\n

Speaking of churches, one of the grandaddies in LA is the Academy, on Crenshaw and Manchester:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Designed in 1939 \u00a0by\u00a0S. Charles Lee, this is as original and beautiful today as the day it opened.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Original details like these still exist:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

And that’s just outside. Taking photos inside is discouraged but I snuck this shot. The beauty outside is even more magnified inside.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Don’t start me on how much I want to do a show here.\u00a0It’s purple, it’s Deco and it’s beyond soulful, the makings of a perfect stage for a future Soup to Nuts<\/a> extravaganza.<\/p>\n

For one last thrill-seek of the day Charles and I were tempted to hit this little honey parked right outside the church:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

But no Randy’s meant that stomach contents had been held to the waterline. So we just headed back down Crenshaw and called it a (very good) day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’ve got the good taste to be a regular reader of my blog, you know how much I enjoy my Sunday drives with Charles Phoenix. \u00a0As much of a kitsch enthusiast and expert as myself, our trips occur at a higher level than just sightseeing. They’re fact-packed, full of junk and ethnic food, and … read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[243,165,87,193,57,911,999,261],"tags":[2944,2945,61,2931,3232,3245,2929,2930],"class_list":["post-34576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-food","category-kitsch","category-kitsch-o-the-day","category-los-angeles","category-place","category-sign","category-travel","tag-academy-cathedral","tag-academy-theater","tag-allee-willis","tag-inglewood","tag-kitsch","tag-kitsch-o-the-day","tag-panns-la","tag-panns-los-angeles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}