SiteDomain

Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Sherman Village, Hidden Woods and No Moor Cold Tofu!

By Linda Cardoso

If you live in the southeast section of the San Fernando Valley you may have a passing familiarity with our colorful neighborhood names. It’s possible that you have even made a few jokes about them. After all, there are no woods anywhere near Hidden Woods and if there was a meadow near what is now referred to as Colfax Meadows it is long gone. And where exactly is No Moor Cold Tofu?

Apparently it is no longer sufficient simply define your home’s location as being Sherman Oaks or Studio City. Library Square anyone? So what is behind this need for real estate micro-branding? Is there more to it than simply elevating a neighborhood by giving it a bit of panache?

When I moved to “Sherman Village” (a small triangle neighborhood between Sherman Oaks and Valley Village that runs north of Riverside bordered by Coldwater Canyon and the L.A. River) a few years ago I was struck by my sudden awareness of neighborhood in the truest sense.

When I walked my dog after work I found neighbors outside, often with a glass of wine, chatting with other neighbors. It was almost like a throwback to another time. It’s a neighborhood that Doris Day and Rock Hudson could have inhabited in their early 1960’s comedy films. It didn’t take long before I knew most of the people in my little Sherman Village neighborhood by name and found myself enjoying that sense of community that seemed to have all but disappeared in our modern world.

So in the final analysis these neighborhood micro-monikers do more than identify a geographical location. The names, sometimes straightforward like Tujunga Village and sometimes silly create a community, a village atmosphere, bestowing upon its residents a sense of belonging and an opportunity to be known – the same motivations that have given rise to social media networks like FaceBook, MySpace and Twitter. This is community – old school.

• Linda Cardoso
• Web Site
• " . $name . "

Posted by Linda Cardoso on September 8th, 2009

Please leave a comment.

Neighbors Band Together to Fight Crime In Our Community

By Deena Nisley

Neighbors are getting together in the Oakpointe community here in Sherman Oaks, to fight against crime. There have been  a couple of break-ins during August, so neighbors are asking neighbors to be on alert for and to report suspicious activity. This is most unusual for our community so it’s fabulous that we’re sticking together to defend our peace, tranquility, and property. Write to: The Oakpointe@aol.com if you have any questions, answers or suggestions!

• Deena Nissley
• Web Site
• " . $name . "

Posted by Deena Nissley on September 4th, 2009

Please leave a comment.

Mack Sennett, silent film producer and director

by Tina Stern

Did you know, Mack Sennett 0pened his new movie studio at the current Radford Studios location in Studio City?  It was renamed Republic Studios and specialized in B-movies, including many Westerns starring the likes of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and John Wayne, all of whom get their first breaks with Republic.

In the 1950s  many early television series were filmed on the lot including early episodes of Leave It To Beaver.  In 1963, CBS Television came into the picture, where it signed a lease with Republic to become the primary lessee of the studio lot, and almost immediately began to place their network-produced filmed shows such as the long running Gunsmoke and Rawhide in production there, and later, the classic comedy, Gilligan’s Island. The piece of land at the northwestern edge of the lot where the lagoon scenes were filmed for Gilligan’s Island were paved over in the mid-1990s to make room for a new parking structure. 

The studio lot was renamed the CBS Studio Center. CBS purchased the studio lot outright in April 1967, nearly 39 years to the day after it first opened. CBS invested money to build new soundstages, office buildings, and technical facilities. To make up for these investments, CBS began to rent out its studio lot for independent producers, and the newly-created MTM Enterprises (headed by actress Mary Tyler Moore and her then-husband, Grant Tinker) became the Studio Center’s primary tenant, beginning in 1971.

Moore’s television show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, began filming here in 1971, along with its spinoffs, Rhoda, Phyllis, and Lou Grant.

• Tina Stern
• Web Site
• " . $name . "

Posted by Tina Stern on September 4th, 2009

Please leave a comment.

by Cynthia Sparagna

COLFAX MEADOWS:  www.4324Beck.com Recent Trust Sale sold in multiple offers over asking price on Beck Avenue in the distinguished Colfax Meadows neighborhood in Studio City.  This distinctive pocket is nestled in a square between the borders of Moorpark Street to the North, Ventura Boulevard to the South, Tujunga Boulevard to the East and Colfax Avenue to the West. This unique area is revered by its East Coast feel with tree-lined streets and a warm mix of traditional and contemporary architecture.  Colfax Meadows boasts its location within the Carpenter Avenue Elementary School district which was founded in 1924 and has grown into a highly desired community school ranked among one of the top in the State.

• Cynthia Sparagna
• Web Site
• " . $name . "

Posted by Cynthia Sparagna on September 3rd, 2009

Please leave a comment.

Outdoors in Studio City

By Don Linden

Sometimes I am amazed at how many outdoor activities there are to enjoy in Studio City.  This past Saturday morning I took in a round of golf at the Weddington Golf & Tennis center.  The Weddington family has owned this 17-acre piece of prime real estate for over 100 years.  Originally it was a sheep farm, then in 1955, Hollywood actor, Joe Kirkwood Jr. and three other partners signed a 50-year lease for the property.

The facility includes, 16 lighted tennis courts, a 24 stall driving range, a nine-hole par three golf course, professional instructors, and coffee shop.  WG&T is a one-stop sports facility that you can play well into the night.

After my round of golf, I enjoyed lunch at the coffee shop located next to the driving range. Later in the day I embarked on a long hike through Fryman Canyon. Who needs a gym? Great exercise is available right outside your front door.

www.weddingtongolfandtennis.com

• Don Linden
• Web Site
• " . $name . "

Posted by Don Linden on August 21st, 2009

Please leave a comment.

JULIE & JULIA: “If no one’s in the kitchen, who’s to see?
By Roger Ewing

I put on my sunglasses and fake moustache, and walked quickly through the parking lot with my head down, thinking no one would recognize me when I went into the theatre. For two weeks my wife had been asking me to see the movie Julie & Julia with her and my 86-year-old mother-in-law. Not that I mind going out with the two of them, but being seen entering a theatre in my home town to see a movie about Julia Child and cooking was, well, somehow not very macho.

The Nora Ephron written and directed movie features Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams as Julie Powell. The film is actually two stories in one. It flashes back and forth between Julia, as she begins her cooking career in 1949 Paris, contrasting her life to Julie, a woman in 2002 Queens, New York who aspires to cook all 524 recipes from Child’s cookbook. Stanley Tucci, brilliantly plays Julia Child’s husband Paul Childs, opposite Streep.

Less than ten minutes in, I suddenly realized this film is the first major motion picture based on a blog. Off came the sunglasses and fake moustache; on went the light bulb inside my head, blogging is something I could wrap my brain around.

It turns out, the real life Julie Powell started to blog as a means of getting in touch with her inner desire to someday become a writer. Her life had led her to an unhappy place. She lived in an apartment above a pizza parlor and spent her days in a sad cubicle-job working for the city of New York. She was in desperate need of some self-realization. Blogging became Julie’s passport to a meaningful existence. Her goal was to cook all of Julia Child’s recipes inside one year and to blog about it each day. The project quickly became an obsession for her.

I checked out Julie’s original blog, The Julie/Julia Project. Not that impressive. No exotic links, no theme, other than her first person rambling about life and cooking. Which leads me to an important conclusion for my own blog, www.rogerewing.wordpress.com.

There is no need to be fancy in delivery, only a desperate requirement to connect to your readers on a level they understand and identify with.

Compelling content is a constant requirement for successful blogging. Julie’s blog is very conversational. It’s as if I am in her kitchen listening to her while she cooks. Her written words are merely the extrapolation of her thinking onto a computer screen. Why is this so readable and why is everyone so interested in what she is thinking on any given day?

On Friday, August 13, 2004 Julie writes, “Without you here (Julia Child), I would be a different person – a smaller, a sadder, a more frightened person.” There were 238 comments posted to this particular blog. That’s impressive. It is clear she is willing to expose her true feelings to the world and has no fear of transparency. This is an important point.

One must blog from their true heart, without fear. Be willing to commit to treating the world as a welcome friend.

Julie Powell’s blog became a memoir for “Everywoman”. Julie’s writing is simply a revealing expose of a year in the life of someone just like you or me. She writes about herself, a real person, whose life is filled with joy, sadness, fear, pain, exhilaration, passion, and every other emotion that makes the human condition so complicated and entertaining.

This is a wonderfully simple film that is filled with delights, as well as a realistic sampling of the kind of challenges we all face in our everyday lives. It is also a lesson on the strength of social media and the power of the written word. I highly recommend Julie & Julia.

See it, you’ll be better for it.

• Roger Ewing
• Web Site
• " . $name . "

Posted by Roger Ewing on August 21st, 2009

Please leave a comment.

Welcome to Ewing Sir. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

• Jeff Biebuyck
• Web Site
• " . $name . "

Posted by Jeff Biebuyck on August 18th, 2009

1 Comment »