{"id":36111,"date":"2012-02-28T10:41:43","date_gmt":"2012-02-28T17:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alleewillis.com\/blog\/?p=36111"},"modified":"2012-02-28T10:48:56","modified_gmt":"2012-02-28T17:48:56","slug":"allee-willis%e2%80%99-kitsch-o%e2%80%99-the-day-%e2%80%93-my-sunday-drive-with-charles-phoenix-cruising-van-nuys-in-search-of-beeps-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/allee-willis%e2%80%99-kitsch-o%e2%80%99-the-day-%e2%80%93-my-sunday-drive-with-charles-phoenix-cruising-van-nuys-in-search-of-beeps-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Allee Willis\u2019 Kitsch O\u2019 The Day \u2013 My Sunday Drive With Charles Phoenix: Cruising Van Nuys Blvd. In Search Of Beeps- Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Bright and early the Sunday before last, my #1 day-trip accompanist, Charles Phoenix<\/a>, and myself tooled down Van Nuys Blvd. looking for a 1950’s diner we heard about called Beeps. For neither of us to know about a place of this nature that’s remained authentic is unheard of. In order to get to it we drove down the main drag of the Valley, Van Nuys Blvd.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

No question Van Nuys is pumped full of Arbys, KFC’s and McDonald’s, but thankfully there are quite a few vintage buildings left as well as some newer cheese palaces that make our hit list.\u00a0We hit the boulevard at Magnolia because there was no way I was going to miss one of my favorite rooflines in the city:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

The vintage streetlights look so happy with their taller brother palms:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Tall palms accompany many of the vintage buildings on Van Nuys Blvd.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Although mostly 1960’s and later, older Deco gems pop up too…:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

…as well as Deco wannabes, in this case vintage 1975:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

There are many great murals along the way, like this one under an overpass,..:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

…and this one on a dying building where it’s nice to see life…:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

….and this one where it’s nice to get money.:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

There’s also a lot of art like this lining the boulevard:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Then there’s buildings like this that are art itself:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

And then there’s a type of ‘artful’ building way down at the other end of the tip, like this superstore that looms like a Mayan ruin:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n<\/a><\/a>\"\"<\/a>\n

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

Though not quite as towering as that ‘ancient’ Mayan statue. this is even more impressive to kitsch seekers such as Charles and myself:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

A chicken dressed as a cowboy standing on top of a building is one thing. But a store name on top of a building that can only be seen from one side of the street and only in full from a fairly far distance doesn’t seem like the most effective signage. Especially with an \u2018I\u2019 that looks like a ‘T’ and an ‘S’ that’s hidden by a tree:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

The color palette on these two buildings is pretty great:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

You probably think it’s the pink building with the 70’s supergraphic relief that I like most.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

But it’s the ancient Greek ruin next to it that makes my kitsch heart spin like a drunken roulette wheel:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Ancient Athens is also alive in this statuesque motel sign down the street:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

This building may not have Greek columns but that fake wall is pretty classic:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

I love round buildings when they come with a matching car:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

That scalloped fence would make a nice companion piece to this rooftop:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Normally I would be pointing out the features on the 1950’s motel in back of me but all I can see is the crazy position my lips are in, as if someone Photoshopped them on:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Let’s pull in tight on that:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

I’m assuming there are a fair share of lips in weird positions at The Godfather Gentleman’s Club too, just down the street.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

And finally, there it was, Beeps, the 50’s diner neither of us knew about until hanging a left off of Van Nuys at Sherman Way and spotting this pulsating pillar of pinkness:<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

Double cheeseburger, fries and kitschtastic interiors coming up tomorrow. See you then!<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. Bright and early the Sunday before last, my #1 day-trip accompanist, Charles Phoenix, and myself tooled down Van Nuys Blvd. looking for a 1950’s diner we heard about called Beeps. For neither of us to know about a place of this nature that’s remained authentic is unheard of. In order to get to it … 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":[243,165,87,193,249,911,281,261],"tags":[2798,2797,3078,61,3077,1349,3232,3245,3076,3075],"class_list":["post-36111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-food","category-kitsch","category-kitsch-o-the-day","category-people","category-place","category-transportation","category-travel","tag-50s-architecture","tag-60s-architecture","tag-70s-architecture","tag-allee-willis","tag-beeps","tag-charles-phoenix","tag-kitsch","tag-kitsch-o-the-day","tag-van-nuys","tag-van-nuys-blvd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36111","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=36111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}