Recovering the Past: Mapping Los Angeles Landscape History
They are called the Chumash. The name refers to a group of related languages and dialects, but it has become the de facto title for the people who spoke them and who lived along the California coast from San...
18th Anual Topanga Film Festival
The theme of the 2023 Topanga Film Festival is “Unreel.” It’s a playful invitation to reflect on many aspects of filmmaking illusion, from cutting edge AI to more traditional forms of film magic. The 18th annual Topanga Film Festival...
THE COASTWATCHERS Chapter Thirteen
Jessie and I printed the The Malibu Coastwatcher the day after Kitty and her family were forced to leave for the internment camp. It wasn’t the same without our friend and our hearts weren’t in it. I carefully used...
Location is Everything
How the Santa Monica Mountains Helped Shape Film History A reader recently reached out for help finding the film location for an episode of the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, filmed in 1955. The location he sought turned out...
Location Location
The Santa Monica Mountains have been a destination for filmmakers and a location for filming for more than a hundred years, and movie history is an important part of the cultural heritage of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation...
Open Studios of Topanga
Topanga’s artists studio tour is back! We miss our Gallery but the newly organized Open Studios of Topanga won’t disappoint. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet and support local artists, explore their working spaces, and experience a one-of-kind journey...
Silent, Sleeky, Salamanders
“What kind of beast is your salamander?” asked the Prince. “It is hard to tell their kind, your Honor,” said Golg. “For they are too white-hot to look at. But they are most like small dragons. They speak to...
THE COASTWATCHERS
Chapter Twelve Spring was a gentle season that year, with just enough rain to keep the streams running and the hills green. There were no dramatic storms and the temperature never dropped below the sixties. Jessie taught Kitty and...
IMAGINE A WORLD…WITHOUT SMMNRA
The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is turning 45 on November 10, 2023. Almost all of the big western national parks were created from huge areas of undeveloped wilderness, but this living crazy-quilt of a park—spread across 153,250...
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