.
In no sphere does a buyer who insists on cheap & nasty get anything else. Admit.
-- Nancy Mitford to Evelyn Waugh, 21 August 1946
Cost Rite (Vallejo, California): photo by michaelj1998, 13 June 2014
Dino's (Westminster, California): photo by michaelj1998, 5 July 2014
Mattress (Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, California): photo by michaelj1998, 19 June 2014
Super Farms (Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, California): photo by michaelj1998, 2 June 2014
Leche (Los Angeles, California): photo by michaelj1998, 2 June 2014
Jukebox Repair (Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, California): photo by michaelj1998, 23 June 2014
Dog and Cat (Los Angeles, California): photo by michaelj1998, 30 May 2014
Wurlitzer (Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, California): photo by michaelj1998, 23 June 2014
Oaxaca (Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, California): photo by michaelj1998, 5 May 2014
Eternal (Berkeley, California): photo by michaelj1998, 27 June 2014
Sidewalk-to-sky: urban decay... loss... inability-to-function. And the sadness, oh, of jukebox repair: you could see that line of work cracking apart with the coming of the first boom box.
ReplyDeleteAnd all we have left in the echoing noise chamber is the brutal, continuous sunshine, Cost Rite and the green dog and cat hospital. But hey, at six bits it's going to be hard to beat that topping on the Medium Cheese from Dino's Pizzeria on Wheels in Westminster.
ReplyDelete("All right Sonny, and tell you what -- when you get done with that slice, wanna see Big Ben?")
Thanks, Tom. I've been wondering where I could get my jukebox repaired.
ReplyDeleteTerry, You've come to the right virtual town. There's a guy who'll take care of you without costing you an arm and a leg. Repairs, refurbishing, or just lifestyle advice -- he's the Man.
ReplyDeleteJukebox Marty
I see he's got a refurbished Wurlitzer 2710 right up there at the top of his offerings today.
And of course, any time you want to feel the glow of a true Jukebox Springtime, there's that Wurlitzer outlet store just up Pico.
Funny thing, one of those lost messengers from the memory department just showed up with a picture of the way these same LA streets looked 62 years ago, when I dwelt for a short while on Pico. It looked different. Duh. Now every urban area in California looks like this. You don't even have to leave the domicile to see it. I can look out the window and clamp my failing glims on another interchangeable section of the ugliest slice of paradise on the planet. But I can't hear the jukeboxes, don't even know if they're still there -- everything drowned out by the inexorably trending traffic noise.
ReplyDeleteTom, Great series on The Blight. My favorite is the now defunct loan shark tank—third photo from the bottom. Cash Overnight, Pay Back Over Time. From the look of things, a lot of people couldn’t come up with the payback. Some graffiti artist has even tagged the sign.
ReplyDeleteI could also use a good juke box repairman. When I was a tiny tot, we had one in our living room, which I can only ever remember playing one song. Sure, I can listen to it on the internet, but it just isn't the same. (Because the song, the venue and I have all changed? Paging Heraclitus).
ReplyDeleteHazen, yes, and that cropped banner logo on the also now abandoned concrete building at right of the frame -- "AFRICA" -- has the ironic effect of simulating a tag for this desolate picture from the wasteland.
ReplyDeleteNora, you're right, even the You Tube version which presents the old Victrola of the guy who made the video doesn't quite do justice to the product placement genius of the 1940s. I remember hearing that song in the late Forties and thinking, What a coincidence, his girlfriend (so round, so firm, so fully packed) has many of the same great qualities to be found in Camels, Luckies, Coke, Pepsodent and Packards. But then the question the song DIDN'T ask: what do all those products have in common, and how do they add up to a description of someone's girlfriend?
(Hidden persuasion seemed so much more poetic before one figured out what it was...)