INTRODUCTION

Normally for my LA and OC neighborhood blogs, I spend a day (two in the case of Highland Park) exploring and seeing as much as I can and then write about it. For El Sereno, however, I had two whole weeks to explore.

I was house-sitting for a couple, staying in their 1959 mid-century home and taking care of a dog and two cats. Before this excursion I was fairly unfamiliar with El Sereno, having once visited the couple I was house-sitting for, twice visited musician Johann Bogeli (Moving Units), passed through on my bike, eaten at King Torta a few times, and just once purposelessly peregrinating (during which time I came across the Mazatlan).

The first night I spent in El Sereno, one of my hosts and I attended a mescal party in Eagle Rock. Aterward, joined by the other host, we all relaxed in their yard, absorbing the sounds of banda music and partying taking place nearby.

After my hosts embarked on their road trip I would almost always be accompanied in my rambles by their trusty dog, Dooley. I’m not sure if people were especially friendly because I was walking a dog and not just a suspicious guy walking around taking pictures or if people in El Sereno are just generally amongst the city’s most friendly. Whatever the reason, the average day involved so many exchanges of “good morning,” “buenos dias” and hand-waves with complete strangers (and one unintelligible between Dooley and a woman that seemed to have something to do with her ankle monitor and maybe a lighter). As a result, El Sereno has for me deposed Compton as the friendliest community to strangers. (For those wondering, Laurel Canyon and Cambodia Town seemed the coldest).
 

"Rally at Dandelion Hill" by Charles Wysocki, 2001

I really didn’t know what to blog about today. No milestones, holidays, events, birthdays, &c interested me so I meditated for a few seconds and thought “Root Beer.” It is, after all (to paraphrase the Fresh Prince) “just a little somethin' to break the monotony of all that heated political rhetoric that has gotten to be a little bit out of control.”

From a young age I loved root beer and at some point when I must’ve been about nine or ten, I started collecting root beer cans from as many makers as I could find. I specifically remember A & W, Barq’s, Best Choice, Dad’s, Fargo, Faygo, Hires, Hy-Vee, IBC, and Schnuck’s were represented, although there were others. Most were represented by both diet and regular options. Root beer almost never has caffeine -- in fact, it more often contains natural mellowing agents.

I also had the video game Root Beer Tapper for ColecoVision, adapted from the arcade came, Tapper, in which the player was originally a bartender sliding dizzying numbers drinks at demanding patrons. For much of my time in California I rode a root beer brown ’72 Raleigh Sprite 27 (until I put it to pasture). Because of its  paint job, I named it "Root Beer." Since I'm an adult, I rarely drink soda anymore, although when I do, it's occasionally root beer.

Back in June I hipped readers to the fact that one of the greatest TV shows of all time, Get A Life, is finally getting a proper DVD release after previously only being afforded two four-episode volumes from Rhino Home Video. Well, another great, mostly-forgotten, cult show has recently been announced, and that's In Search Of..., which is scheduled to be released on 23 October by VEI (Visual Entertainment Inc).

In Search of... was a quasi-documentary TV series that ran in syndication from September, 1976 through March, 1982. It focused on the paranormal; ufological, supernatural, and cryptozoological subject matter -- but it also included episodes about real missing persons, historical events, cults, &c.

Each episode included the disclaimer,“This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily the only ones, to the mysteries we will examine." Nonetheless, the "possible explanations" were often pretty absurd, which for me is part of the fun. In the 1990s, paranormal TV shows were often hosted like news shows, which is also fun.



Anyway, before In Search Of… launched as a TV series, there were three hour-long, made-for-TV specials; In Search of Ancient Astronauts (1973) and In Search of Ancient Mysteries, and The Outer Space Connection (both 1975). They were narrated by Rod Serling who was a logical choice for a narrator, having famously created and hosted the macabre anthology series The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery.

As regular readers of my blog (if there is such a thing) probably know, I’m a bit of a radio junkie – spending many hours every day listening to Old Time Radio dramas, public radio, AM radio and podcasts. Therefore it shouldn’t come as a surprise that 20 August is a pretty big deal to me because it was on this day, back in 1920, that the first radio station began regular broadcasting. Back then, 8MK (now WWJ) began operation in Detroit, Michigan and in doing so it became (by my definition) the first real radio station -- regularly and ultimately continuously broadcasting news, religious and sports programing.



BIRTH OF RADIO
 

The idea of using radio waves to transmit information was first proposed by Serbian-American inventor and geek god, Nikola Tesla, in 1892. He applied for the first radio patents in 1897. Tesla’s main rival, Thomas Edison, backed Guglielmo Marconi, who in 1901 conducted the first successful transatlantic experimental radio communications. As a result, Tesla’s patent was reversed, thus depriving him of royalty payments. On Christmas Eve of 1906, Reginald Fessenden reportedly (accessible documentation is questionable) broadcast the first radio program, consisting of some violin playing and passages from the Bible and thus invented AM radio. Shortly after, in 1907, Marconi went on to establish the first transatlantic radio service between Clifden, Ireland and Glace Bay, Canada.