Trending Topics
Halloween History 
For many years, the Malibu Feed Bin heralded the arrival of Halloween with a display of pumpkins for sale. This year, the corner of Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway hosts only a utilitarian assortment of trailers used...
Spanish Style: Hidden History in Plain Sight 
It’s everywhere: historic hilltop mansions from the 1920s and 30s with red-tile roofs and wrought iron fixtures and entire housing tracts from the eighties and nineties that echo those elements in mass production. Real Estate offers are replete with...
Migrating Insects 
Fly, white butterflies, out to sea, Frail pale wings for the winds to try, Small white wings that we scarce can see Fly. Some fly light as a laugh of glee, Some fly soft as a low long sigh:...
Maikura, A Village by the Sea 
It was called “Maikura,” and it was home to as many as 500 people. It had a marketplace, shops, an inn, restaurants, a church, and even a Japanese garden with a bridge and a pool and a miniature forest...
Books & Such

MAPS 

In his fascinating book, All Mapped Out (2024), King’s College London Lecturer Mike Duggan argues that maps and our varied uses of them go well beyond the simplicity found in the OED definition of map: “a drawing or other...
Editorial

Wild Wild Roses 

Roses thrive in Topanga gardens, where the heirloom varieties share space with newer garden varieties in almost every color and shape, delighting the senses with beautiful blossoms and divine fragrance. The Santa Monica Mountains are also home to a...
Books & Such

Al Pacino 

Al Pacino’s portrayal of Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972) made the actor one of the most recognizable characters in American popular culture. He was 32 years old and I was 12. More than a half-century later, Pacino published...