HOME: Stories From L.A.

Goodbye (for now)

Bill Barol — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 21:41:50 +0000

HOME is going on an indefinite hiatus.

Episode 26: Going Tiny

Bill Barol — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 00:05:43 +0000

HGTV and glossy magazines have sparked a boomlet of interest in tiny homes, but they’ve also made them look fun, cute and easy. The realities of a tiny lifestyle can be more daunting. Municipalities often don’t know what to make of tiny houses,

Episode 25: Lost Heroes and Miniature Histories

Bill Barol — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 02:52:52 +0000

“The best historians in L.A. are storytellers. They’re gangsters in east L.A., they’re ex-cons, they’re guys who worked in their garage their whole life, they’re guys who’ve worked at one business for forty years,

Episode 24: Life, Death, Ego and Eternity

Bill Barol — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 04:49:30 +0000

The original Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in the hills above Glendale, may be best known outside California for inspiring the sledgehammer satire of the 1965 cult comedy “The Loved One.” For tourists and curiosity-seekers,

Episode 23: The Last House On Mulholland

Bill Barol — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 15:12:40 +0000

How will we live in 20 years? Or 50? Or 100? A one-of-a-kind, only-in-LA plot at the very end of Mulholland Highway inspired some of the world’s best designers to think hard about the home of the future, in Los Angeles and beyond.

Update: Season 5 starts July 5

Bill Barol — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 13:45:44 +0000

Update: Season 5 starts July 5

Update: The Future of HOME

Bill Barol — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 20:13:13 +0000

Join me, won’t you, as I peel back the curtain on this podcast and kick around some thoughts about its future. (TL;DR: I’m slowing the production cycle a bit to make the project sustainable over the long haul. New season is coming this spring. Also, if you’re a social media wizard and would like to help me flack this thing, drop me a note. ) MUSIC: * “Tiptoe Through The Tubas,” by Sam Fonteyn * “Alien Village and Flute Solo,” by Podington Bear * “The Spy Set – Closing 2,” by R. Sharples * “Requiem For an Elevator,” by Steve Combs * “Jackie,” by Podington Bear Photo: Cape Town, January 2017

Update: New Season Coming

Bill Barol — Wed, 14 Dec 2016 23:35:43 +0000

HOME is going on a between-seasons hiatus, but will return in the New Year. Sköl!

Episode 22: Kodachrome, Pt. 2

Bill Barol — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 01:50:34 +0000

Who were we? How did we live, and what did it look like? The vast archive of castoff slides captures, in vivid colors, images of the American family at midcentury. But the stories that go with the pictures are most often lost, and we’re left to create our own, and reflect on millions of conscious decisions to untie the knot of memory. (Click slides to embiggen) MUSIC by Podington Bear: * “Motivate” * “Poise” * “Wilt” * “Aria Area” * “Arp Arc” * “Gymnopedie 2” Thanks once again to Charles Phoenix.

Episode 21: Kodachrome, Pt. 1

Bill Barol — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 02:05:56 +0000

Color slides were once the state of the art in family photography — vibrant, immersive, ubiquitous. So ubiquitous, in fact, that millions, maybe billions of them survive. This week it’s a conversation with midcentury pop culture expert Charles Phoenix: What can we learn from the vast shadow world of orphaned slides about the way we used to live in our homes?

Music:

“Leaves In The Pool,” by Podington Bear
“Diamond Bossa Nova,” by Francesco de Masi
“Clog Dance,” by Dick Walter
“Spills,” by Blue Dot Sessions
“Kingbeat 9,” by Podington Bear

Thanks to Charles Phoenix, whose “Disneyland’ Tour of Downtown Los Angeles returns on November 27. Tickets are also on sale for his Retro Holiday Slide Show in Brea, CA December 17 and 18.

Read Richard Baguley’s essay on Kodachrome color slide film at Medium. There’s also this lovely video by Deborah Acosta at The New York Times.

Episode 20: Everything Must Go

Bill Barol — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 00:01:07 +0000

Some stories don’t end when you think they do. Some stories just pause. And then they sneak back around and whap you across the back of your unsuspecting head. So here’s one I didn’t expect to revisit, although maybe I should have: Part 2 of Episode 7, “Unmaking A Home.” Music: * “Driftwood,” by Podington Bear * “Trailing Comma,” by Blue Dot Sessions * “Something In The Distance,” by Scott Holmes * “Empires,” by Scott Holmes * “Bless,” by Podington Bear * “Busy Life,” by King Palmer * “Hard Won,” by Podington Bear * “By Grace,” by Podington Bear Special thanks to Ellen Barol, Peter Clark and Jennifer Cecil.

Episode 19: Almost Utopia

Bill Barol — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 21:57:19 +0000

What happens to a utopia that never got off the ground? Bits and pieces of one, an experiment in postwar living for the masses, are hiding in plain sight in the hills above Sunset Boulevard. Architect and author Cory Buckner talks about Crestwood Hills, a Modernist vision for a cooperative future that never quite arrived. MUSIC: * “Melange,” by Podington Bear * “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive,” by Johnny Mercer * “Bargains Galore,” by Stuart/Crombie/Dennis Barry * “Solan,” by Podington Bear * “Pink Gradient,” by Podington Bear Thanks to Cory Buckner, whose excellent book on Crestwood Hills is available here. Video: The Siegel family moves into their brand-new Crestwood Hills home in 1950. Groundbreaking, October 1947 (Courtesy Cory Buckner) Buckner House (formerly MHA site office): Photo by John Dooley

Episode 18: Cooking With Mihrette

Bill Barol — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 02:59:27 +0000

What happens when you bring a kid from the other side of the world into your home forever? How does it change what home means to her? And to you? This week it’s the story of one mom, the daughter she chose, and the way they keep Ethiopia alive in the home that’s now theirs. PROGRAM NOTE: This is the last episode of Season 3. See you back here in October for Season 4. Subscribe to the newsletter for updates and between-seasons bonus content. Music by Podington Bear: * “Poppyseed” * “Pink Gradient” * “Airlift” * “Windy” http://www.homestoriesla.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/IMG_4932.TRIM_.m4v

Episode 17: Dancers In The House

Bill Barol — Wed, 17 Aug 2016 02:29:59 +0000

A roving. shifting company of dance and performance artists is nudging its audiences to think about home differently — by bringing one-off, site-specific performances to houses, live-work spaces and tiny apartments all over the Los Angeles area. Meet homeLA. Music by Podington Bear: * “Tuxes” * “Happy Transit” * “Osprey” * “By Grace” At top: Flora Wiegman, Swimming Laps, at the home of Chloë Flores and Tim Lefevre in Mount Washington. Performed by Flora Wiegman Here’s a gallery of photographs from past homeLA performances. All photos by Andrew Mandinach for homeLA. For more information about the Rose Hills performance on September 24, visit homeLA.

Episode 16: TV Dreamland

Bill Barol — Wed, 03 Aug 2016 00:11:03 +0000

When TV producer Phil Savenick started collecting vintage TVs and TV memorabilia, he didn’t anticipate that he’d end up with what he now calls a “dreamland of televisions” in the living room of his West Los Angeles home — or that he’d end up helping the family of the man who invented TV heal some old wounds. See more of Phil’s TV Dreamland here. You can learn more about Philo T. Farnsworth here. I also recommend Jeff Kisseloff’s excellent oral history of the early days of television, “The Box.” Music by Podington Bear: * “Puzzler” * “QuasarGroove” * “Towl” * “Hard Won” * “Crow” * “Wellness” Thanks to Phil Savenick and Janis Hirsch.

Episode 15: Belushi, Bette and Beverly Hills

Bill Barol — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 04:13:21 +0000

The process by which one place stops being home and another starts — it’s a mysterious thing. It happens, most often, when we’re not paying attention. And sometimes, as it did for comedy writer and transplanted East Coaster Janis Hirsch, it happens in stages. First she started to feel at home in Los Angeles; but it was only later, after a series of addresses and a run-in or two with Bette Davis, that she landed in the exact place that would be, finally, her home. HOME is a member of the Boing Boing Podcast Network. NEW: The HOME mailing list is live. Sign up now for instant-ish notifications of new episodes, behind-the-scenes information about the show and bonus content. It’s free and ad-free, and we promise we’ll never ever ever sell your address or otherwise use your information to annoy you. Music: * “Domestic Fun (a),” by Ernest Tomlinson * “Prismatone,” by Podington Bear * “Wook,” by Podington Bear * “Star Prizes (a),” by Tony Kinsey * “Lena Sequence,” by Roberto Prgiado * “Jackie,” by Podington Bear * “Fashion on Parade,” by Ronald Hanmer * “Playmate,” by Podington Bear Thanks to Janis Hirsch and Larry Shulman.

Episode 14: Rose, Mercedes and The Days Of The Dead

Bill Barol — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 02:15:00 +0000

Actress/writer/artist Rose Portillo lives in the house she was born into, in the Silver Lake section of Los Angeles. It’s the annual scene of her legendary Day Of the Dead parties, and it was the setting for her family’s story of ascension, assimilation and culture clash — as well as the long, wary dance of accommodation, spanning life and death, that Rose has performed with the formidable spirit of her grandmother, Mercedes Mendoza Portillo. Music: * “Los Chucos Suaves,” by Lalo Guerrero Y Sus Cinco Lobos * “Pachuco Boogie,” by Cuartato Don Ramon Sr. * “Solido “Joaquín,” by Dacita & her Orchestra * “Ay Jalisco,” by Jorge Negrete * “Chicano Boogie,” by Cuartato De Ramon Martinez * “Chicas Patas Boogie,” by Lalo Guerrero Y Sus Cinco Lobos * “El Bracero Y La Pachuca,” by Dueto Taxco Con Mariachi Caporales Del Norte * “Los Blues,” by Don Tosti Y Su Trio Altar photo from Day Of The Dead 2009 (upper left) courtesy of CJ Gronner. Thanks to Rose Portillo, Roger Bowers and Mark B. Perry. To learn more about Young Theaterworks, go here.

Episode 13: A Pod To Call Your Own

Bill Barol — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 18:16:35 +0000

Not a hotel, not a dorm, not quite a hostel, open by design and communitarian in spirit — Los Angeles-based PodShare is something else. And, potentially, something bigger: An affordable way to foster community in a city that’s increasingly stratified by class. This week, to start Season 3, it’s the story of one young entrepreneur […]

Updates: New Season June 22, and Opening It Up To The Room

Bill Barol — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 23:33:13 +0000

Here’s an audio update on the upcoming season. In extra bonus content — and let me stress that this is 100% free of cost to you, the home audience — I beg for your help! (That is, if you’re a social media or business development ninja.) Music: “Frosted Glass,” by Podington Bear

Episode 12: Home With A Side of Fries

Bill Barol — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 00:29:40 +0000

It looks like a Hopper painting plunked incongruously down on a busy commercial street in West Los Angeles — The Apple Pan, home to freshly-baked pies and what hamburger aficionado George Motz says may be the best burger in America. But the affection Angelenos have for The Apple Pan only starts with the food. It’s […]