Interview With A Superb Haunted House Decorator (Video!)

Chagora

If you're like me, the phrase "campaign donors" evokes images of a distant race of beings living in an alternate universe of $1,000-per-plate dinners, formalwear, and filthy backdoor influence.

Obama's highly Internet-connected campaign dented that image to a certain degree; he was fond of making reference to a kindly little old lady who sent him three dollars.

Granada Hills resident Tom Crowl wants to take the power of small donations even further: down to the 25-cent level. The theory is that when every citizen's resources are pooled, every citizen can have an impact -- no matter what their income level. Tom writes:

"The Chagora financial function is designed as one tool, I believe an essential one for addressing a problem in influence capability. It's a way to make giving them a piece of your mind an every day experience. Frequency of participation is essential to being part of a community!
But, more importantly, it's a part of a broader framework to address changes in approach necessary for civilization health and survival."

One can hardly help but be drawn in by Crowl's almost loopy passion for the concept, illustrated in a series of circumlocutory yet compelling YouTube videos. Here is one of the most succinct:



Read more at Tom's blog, or at his website, Chagora.com.








And speaking of microdonations, every time you click on one of the "Ads By Google" links, it helps keep this blog going. Thanks.

Master of Pirates

Mike Spasoff is a tireless servant to this community -- at least for a few months out of the year -- and that's good enough for me. It's also more than good enough for the 600 trick-or-treaters he delights and terrifies with the elaborate, Disney-rivaling, pirate-themed yard display at his house on San Fernando Mission Boulevard (near Shoshone).

When I was a kid, I used to always wish someone in the neighborhood would do something beyond carving a pumpkin. Fortunately, kids in Mike's neighborhood will never have to cope with that same unfulfilled sense of longing that I always had.


What makes you want to invest the time, money, and resources into such an elaborate production?

I can remember the magic of walking the streets of our neighborhood each Halloween and the excitement of finding a house that did something more than just a jack-o-lantern or a cardboard skeleton. My parents and I always made a special effort to do something extra but it wasn't until we moved to our current home on San Fernando Mission that we took it to the next level.

Our first Halloween in our new house I carved the pumpkins, put out some gravestones and cobwebs and sat down to watch some scary movies waiting for the trick-or-treaters to arrive. Hours went by and we didn't get a single ring of the doorbell or knock at the door. It was so disappointing. San Fernando Mission may be a busy street without any sidewalks, but we were living in Granada Hills, "The Valley's Most Neighborly Town." Zero kids? Really? What could be more neighborly than trick-or-treating?

That was when I vowed to make our house a Halloween destination. I figured if we put enough "over the top" decorations up, kids would demand to be taken to the Halloween house. Each year I start planning in January or February on how to improve on the last year, and each year a few more kids arrive. Last year our count was around 600 and I expect this year to top that.


Did you do this sort of thing as a kid?

When I was in elementary school mostly it was just a pumpkin, a few cobwebs, some spooky lights and maybe a spooky mix tape. As I got older I would spend more time decorating. Still, it didn't become the production you see now until I was in my final years of college.


What do you most enjoy about your Halloween experience?

Last year some grandparents brought their grandkids to trick-or-treat; they lived around the corner and told us that since we've been doing this the kids all want to trick-or-treat with Grandma and Grandpa so they can go to the Halloween House. That's what it's all about. Simply put, it is the people that make it magical. The planning, building and decorating are fun, but without the people who come on Halloween it wouldn't be worth it.


What do you least enjoy?

The aftermath is always a chore, cleaning up the candy wrappers, putting away the decorations. I expend so much energy the night of Halloween, saying hello, handing out glow-sticks and candy that the next day all I want to do is sleep. I get lots of help for the night of Halloween but cleaning up is usually something my parents and I do by ourselves over a couple of weeks. We're lucky if we can get it all put away by Thanksgiving.


What crowd control measures do you need for 600 kids? How do you manage?

Planning, and having lots of "hands on deck" make it possible. And I thank the Halloween spirits that all 600 kids don't show up at the same time!

My college degree is in Design from UCLA and one of my classes was on attraction design. The whole class went to Disneyland, not to ride the rides (we did anyway) but to study what architectural, visual, and auditory systems they put in place to move people through as efficiently as they do. In my own small way I've taken some of those lessons and applied them here.

I make sure there is one clear entrance, and I use music and lighting to draw the kids down the correct path to the candy and glow-sticks. The glow-sticks serve two purposes: they are a cool and unusual treat at Halloween, but they also mean that we can tell at-a-glance if a kid has already been given their treats.

Finally, having a half-dozen or so friends and family members around to engage and guide the kids helps keep everything flowing.


How long have you been doing this? Is it just you, or do you have help?

We've been doing it since 1997 but it took a few years for people to start noticing, 2000 was the big year we started getting crowds, and the number of kids has climbed steadily since then.

Technically this is my parent's house, and I've been living here so I can save up to buy my own place. Actually, I just closed escrow on my own house on Oct 22, just six doors down the street. But even after I finish moving to my new place we'll keep doing halloween at my parents house.

The work typically breaks down like this: All three of us plan for the year around February, I figure out the build schedule and what we'll need and all three of us pick the projects we like the most. We start building stuff in the summer (July or August) and putting things up late in September. The day of Halloween we invite friends and family to come help with crowd control and handing out candy.


Do you have any funny stories to share about this undertaking?

A few years back we picked up a doormat that screams when you step on it. My parents and I are always hiding it in new places to surprise each other. So far, the winner is my dad who, snuck it into the bathroom one year. We were lucky we didn't have an accident.

You can imagine that the amount of planning that goes into this is rather extreme. If we don't get started building the latest additions in August we end up burning the midnight oil to catch up the weeks before the big day. I'm the keeper of the schedule for myself and my parents and I've been compared to a drill sergeant when something is behind schedule. This has lead my parents to call themselves my "staff." I think next year I'm going to get them T-shirts.

The Federated Team Is At It Again

If you grew up in L.A. in the eighties, you remember the brilliant, frenetic, and loopy commercials for The Federated Group, starring Shadoe Stevens as "Fred Rated," the sometime-puppet spokesman for the electronics chain where thousands bought their first Betamax machines. But what you may not know is that Chuck Cirino, video mastermind behind the productions, lives right here in the GH.

The Chuck and Shadoe have teamed up again to do a new commercial, this one for the "Standing Power Chair," and the result has echoes of the original oddball lunacy of the Federated commercials while still maintaining the dignity of the product and its intended users. An email fowarded to me from Shadoe Stevens says:

It was a crew of two...my long time friend Chuck Cirino (who used to do the Federated Commercials with me)...and me. We're a great team. I think this product will change lives. The website will be going up in the next few days and next week we're going to start trying to get the head of the company on talk shows and news programs. He's got MS and is almost completely paralyzed but he's unstoppable...a total inspiration. He said this chair saved his life and wants to make it available to others suffering from the same issues he's had to face....infections, bed sores, bad circulation, collapsed lungs, being at the mercy of others to change any position, and always looking up at the world. He now travels, goes on cruises, goes to rock concerts, and has a real life in the real world. He brought me in to create the branding and marketing. This is an astonishing product and a good reminder of how grateful we should all be...moment by moment.

Shadoe Stevens

Enjoy the video.

The Windy City

Harvard researchers have theorized that China could meet all of its energy needs by wind power alone, and on a windy day like today, I wonder if Granada Hills could do that too.

Even Jay Leno has a wind turbine at his place -- but of course Jay Leno makes a lot more money than you do.



Sadly, home wind turbines are cost-prohibitive for most individuals -- the cheapest ones start at $6,000 installed. Of course these less expensive turbines put out less power, and so they take longer to really amount to enough savings on electricity bills to offset their costs.

I love the idea of people taking matters into their own hands and pursuing their own ideals, but I would love it even more if I could get a big fat subsidy to offset the cost of one of these babies.

A Reader's Account Of The Vaccine Clinic

Reader Sue DeVandry submitted the following account of her experience with the H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine Clinic yesterday at Granada Recreation Center.


I arrived at the Granada Hills Rec Center as a GHNNC volunteer this morning at 7:45 am. I was surprised to see so many people already in line, some arriving as early as 6:00 am. The doors were supposed to open at 9:00 am. Unfortunately, while the nurses, doctors, shots and nasal sprays were there, the consent forms for the vaccines were not and thus the 1-1/2 hour wait before getting started. I found myself walking up and down the line of people answering questions about the vaccines and making sure everyone had the proper forms filled out. That line kept getting longer and longer as more people showed up to get the "free" H1N1 Swine Flu vaccinations.

The H1N1 "Swine Flu" vaccine cames two ways. You had your choice between the "live, attenuated nasal spray also known as LAIV" or the "inactivated flu shot".

The 2009 H1N1 LAIV does not contain thimerosal or other preservatives. It is licensed for people from ages 2 through 49 years of age, who are not pregnant and do not have certain health conditions such as asthma, anemia, diabetes, heart, lung, kidney or liver disease. The vaccine virus is attenuated (weakened) so it will not cause illness. The line for the nasal spray vaccine seemed a lot shorter than the line for the regular H1N1 shot.

Yes, the wait was a long one...but most of the people I spoke to were very patient and understanding and just appreciated the opportunity to receive the "free" H1N1 vaccine.

If you missed the opportunity to get your H1N1 shot or spray today, they will be available tomorrow at the Granada Hills Rec Center from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Bureacracy Inaction

Pardon my French, but quel clusterfuck!

The line for H1N1 vaccines, as of 10:30 a.m., stretched from the Recreation Center all the way out to Petit and all the way down to Germain. And not one person had yet received a vaccine, despite a posted opening time of 9:00 a.m.

When I asked a police officer how long the wait was expected to be, he said "No idea. They're waiting for a paper that everyone has to sign. They haven't even started yet. But once they get started it should go fast."

Oopsie, forgot those pesky consent forms. Well, it's not like the Health Department could be expected to know how to do this sort of thing....





UPDATE: by 1:00 p.m., the line had shrunk, stretching only as far as the outer edge of the parking lot, and officials were passing out yellow forms. The wait was reported to be approximately an hour and a half, but priority would be given to pregnant women or people who couldn't stand for long periods of time. Anyway, it's a nice day to spend an hour or so in the park.

The Swine Flu Vaccine And Children

Just a reminder that today and tomorrow, H1N1 vaccines will be available at the Granada Hills Recreation Center from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

For parents who are still on the fence about the risks and benefits of the vaccine, I recommend reading "Swine Flu And Children" from Babble.com. The most salient quote:

"For parents who are still concerned about the potential risk of Guillain-Barre Syndrome, it may be helpful to consider that more children have already died since August 30th of this year from the swine flu than those who died from GBS during the vaccination period in 1976 (Approximately 500 people contracted GBS and twenty-five died)."

Belly Dance Swap Meet On Sunday

On Sunday from 12:30-5:30, check out the "Perfumes of Araby Swap Meet" at Granada Pavilion.

This twice-yearly event is billed as "a lively day of shopping, swapping, and dancing," and it's only two bucks to get in.

Belly dancers: God bless 'em. They're doing the lord's work.













Granada Pavilion is at San Fernando Mission and Balboa, behind Trader Joe's.

And The Prize For Best Ice Cream-Related Choreography Goes To...

Congratulations to Gotta Dance Studio, who created the best ice-cream-themed video in the nation for the Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream & Cake Dance Contest. Baskin-Robbins Facebook page says,

"This video was submitted in tribute to Steve Gebelein, co-owner of Gotta Dance Studio, who passed away in February 2009. More than 60 students participated in an on-stage performance to raise money for Cindy, Steve’s wife and co-owner, along with their six children. The students will use the prize money to repair the studio’s leaking roof. Alli Bivins, a teacher at Gotta Dance Studio, said the best reward was having all the kids get together to film the video and enjoy Baskin-Robbins ice cream cakes."

Cute dancing plus thematically appropriate music plus clever product placement plus worthy cause equals ding ding ding: WINNER!

I watched the other two runner up videos, and honestly, they don't even come close to our home town heroes. Nice work, kids!

Vote for me in this contest!

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Swine Flu! Get Yer Swine Flu!

... vaccinations, that is.

Saturday and Sunday, October 24 & 25
Granada Hills Recreation Center
16730 Chatsworth St.
Clinic hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.














I'd use this opportunity to tell you all about my views on the anti-vax movement, but you'll be a lot more entertained if you read this month's superb WIRED cover story by Amy Wallace, or you can just watch this clip from The Daily Show instead (Go to 4:09 if you're pressed for time):

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Doubt Break '09
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

The Coppertone Pumpkin

Near Woodley and Chatsworth

GHNNC's New HQ

When the Granada Hills South Neighborhood Council needs a place to meet, they've got plenty of options -- G.H. Baptist, or the Rec Center, to name a couple. But the North Neighborhood Council -- which, like the South, is required to meet within its boundaries -- doesn't have as many choices, since the North Council's territory is in the predominantly residential part of town.

GHNNC board meetings were being held in member's homes for a while, until somebody -- likely with an axe to grind -- squealed. Seems that most people's homes don't have ADA-compliant bathrooms for council members to use, and that's a no-no (never mind that none of the council members are disabled; rules are rules!).

Church meeting rooms were considered, but the suggestion made some concerned about separation of church and state squeamish. So the council went about finding a suitable headquarters, and found one in the Albertson's shopping center at San Fernando Mission and Woodley, which lies just at the edge of the North/South border. When Property owner Rickey Gelb gave the council a break on the rent, that sealed the deal.


The headquarters on Open House night:














Greig Smith was there only in spirit -- and in calligraphy!














Council Chair Leon Marzillier dances a celebratory jig.


















Council Chair Leon Marzillier, Property Owner Rickey Gelb, and Greig Smith's Chief of Staff Mitch Englunder.




















CORRECTION, 8/20/09: Councilman Smith did attend after all. He arrived after many people, myself included, had already left. Pictures here. Thanks, anonymous commenter!




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Repeat After Me: There's No Such Thing As Random Candy Poisoners

There has never been even one verified case of random Halloween candy poisoning in the United States, EVER.

Yet this urban legend persists. A week ago, at Tulsa Elementary School, an LAPD officer stood up in front of the entire student body and warned them not about pedestrian hazards (the number one threat to children on Halloween), but about "bad guys" who might give out tainted treats.

So much for community policing.

Instead of encouraging people to -- gulp -- cooperate with and get to know their neighbors, this officer spread misinformation to about six hundred kids who now believe that their neighbors are likely to poison them, you know, just for kicks.

People, please: the "Halloween Sadist" who randomly poisons children belongs in the same category as Chupacabra, The Loch Ness Monster, or CHUDs.

Of course, if you believe in Chupacabra, The Loch Ness Monster, or CHUDs (or even "Faeries"), I can't help you, so you might as well spend Hallowe'en cowering in the darkness clutching your garlic, a cross, and a can of CHUD-Away, praying that the boogeyman doesn't boogie down your door. Meanwhile, I'll be busy meeting and greeting my neighbors in this wonderful town I call home.








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Accepting Nominations For King Or Queen Of Halloween

Who's got the best Halloween decorations in Granada Hills?

Does someone in your neighborhood excel at scaring the pants off of the neighborhood kids? Know of anybody with especially gorgeous or elaborate decorations?

Send me tips, tweets, and pix, and I'll post a roundup of the nominees here before the 31st!














San Fernando Mission Blvd. near Shoshone

Kogi Is Coming -- STAY HOME!

Maybe I'm fickle, but I think the romance is over between Mr. Kogi and me. I mean, he never returns my calls -- even when I give him tons of free advertising!

So tonight, even though the Kogi truck will be in Granada Hills once again at that unreasonable 10:30p.m. time slot, my recommendation is that you stay home, enjoying the pitter-patter sound of rain on your roof, with a cup of hot cocoa, a Duraflame, and this recipe for making your own Kogi-style tacos at home from ChannelIPA.com. Stay dry, and enjoy!

Fall Ball

John Daly's team won just their last game, and they won big. Really slaughtered the other team. But John wasn't happy.

"For me -- especially with kids who are eight, nine, ten -- I feel like it's about learning the game, and learning how to play the right way, as opposed to winning. But not everybody feels the same way."

As an assistant coach for Granada Hills Little League, John wasn't calling the shots, so he just watched as his kids stampeded another team of younger players.

"If I were in charge, I probably would have stopped running around the bases as much, stealing bases against the other team. I would have put some of my less talented and less experienced players from the infield on the bases or let somebody else pitch, to not only give the other team a chance to get back in the game, but to allow the kids that are on my team to learn different positions and get new opportunities."

Come springtime, Little League will get more competitive, but for now, John feels that it's just about developing skills and enjoying the game.

"Right now we're just the green team. That's what Fall is -- there's no team names per se. In the spring they'll have a legit name, and then at the end of the season the team that wins the championship within the division goes into the tournament of champions, and they play the best teams from all of the surrounding Little Leagues, so that's where it starts to get serious -- there's a division champion, a district champion, a state champion. Then there's the majors, and that's where you see the Little League World Series.

"But Fall is the he secondary season. A lot of kids go off to play other sports -- football, soccer -- but some kids want to stick with baseball. In Fall, there's no tournaments, no championship, or anything like that. So winning doesn't mean anything. It's nice to win, I think the kids like to win, but I think that if the kids are not learning baseball, and instead are learning to take advantage of the other kids who are not as skilled, I don't see how that benefits either side."

Why can't Fall last forever?

We Don't Want Your Kind In Our Town...

A story in today's Ventura County Star includes a telling anecdote about a woman who ran a tattoo shop in Granada Hills, but says she was driven out after four years by the neighborhood council (it doesn't say which one -- North or South) because it was believed that her clientele were "a bad crowd." According to the article, the neighborhood council keeps "a list of businesses" they don't allow.

So the owner of The Tattoo Room picked up and left Granada Hills for the more liberal and tolerant environs of... wait for it... Simi Valley. After the relocation, her business is now flourishing.

This story left me with many questions. If tattoo shops aren't allowed in Granada Hills, then why do we still have one? And since when did Simi Valley become more liberal than us?

Photos Of The New Aikido Dojo And Yoga Studio, Near Trader Joe's And The Tender Glow.

This week, Wayne Addelstein of the North Valley Chamber of Commerce, along with John Bwarie from Councilman Greig Smith's office were on hand to cut the ribbon at North Valley Aikikai, a nonprofit martial arts studio that Lee Lavi Ramirez also plans to make into a center of service to the community. (Disclosure: she's also a family friend.)

Lee teaches the Japanese martial art of Aikido, which differs from many martial arts in that it is noncompetitive -- there is no "winning" and "losing" -- and nonaggressive -- Aikido techniques focus not on how to initiate an attack, but how to respond to one. The dojo also offers classes in yoga, stretching, and Zen meditation.

"In this neighborhood there are Karate studios, and there are a lot of things, but there's no one center that offers self-development type stuff like we have. The whole family can be here: kids can take Aikido, parents can come for classes or special events. My goal is to create a source of innovation for this community, to create a group that changes their surroundings."

Members of the nonprofit perform volunteer work, such as teaching Aikido to a group of blind adults at Junior Blind of America. "Of course instruction is a little bit different, but we just teach them the art," Lee says. "They have some strengths that none of my sighted students have -- they learn certain techniques much faster than sighted students."

Lee also plans to create a "Teen Power Group." The teens, Lee says, "Decide what kind of things they want to do to make their environment better, and then we support them.

"My dream vision would be to have a strong group of adults, seniors and kids, and even if they are not practicing Aikido, they're part of a family, they're involved in this community, and just making it better."

For god's sake, don't run with those things.

But wot if someone comes at you wif a pointed stick?

Send More Kogi

Tonight in Granada Hills: More Kogi Korean tacos of love. And sliders, and burritos, and desserts!

Kogi's Verde truck will once again come to the great white north, bringing their special Korean-Meximelts from 10:30p.m. to-1:00 a.m. They'll be parked on Chatsworth, just East of Zelzah, on the south side of the street -- but they'll be easy to spot, because of the long line.

Here's my super-secret Kogi tip: to minimize your wait time, you've either got to get in line a half hour early, or one hour late, because everyone seems to get in line at 10:30, and if you do the same, you'll wind up standing around for an hour. Get there at 11:30, and you'll only be in line for about 20 or 30 minutes. Less standing, more eating!

Become A Fan On Facebook

Now there's another way to keep in touch with all things Granada Hills. Click the "Become A Fan On Facebook" link in the box at right! That way you can send me news tips, and I can see all of your shining faces. You can't hide in a town this small, anyway.

Today Is International Walk To School Day

Today is International Walk To School Day!

I'm thrilled that there's an event that celebrates and encourages the simple act of walking to school, but dismayed that we even need such a thing. I wish we were still in the days in which walking to school was an unremarkable act.

Unfortunately, we are currently in an age of media-stoked paranoia, and even in towns with crime rates as low as Granada Hills', we still have parents who believe that it is "too dangerous" to allow their children to walk anywhere. People, it's not like we live in Kuwait.

Of course, this belief creates a self-fulfilling prophecy; because more people believe walking is dangerous, they drive their children to school, creating greater traffic around schools, making conditions more dangerous.

Here's hoping the next generation will embrace walking; it's healthy, it's green, it fosters independence, and children who've had some moderate exercise in the morning come to school wide awake and ready to learn -- it's a fact!

Happy walking.





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Molly!!!

Molly Ringwald is in Granada Hills RIGHT NOW.

Her series, "The Secret Life Of The American Teenager" is shooting at Kennedy High School this week.

It's a closed set, so since I couldn't get photos, this painting of Molly by artist Dave MacDowell will have to do.

The Granada Hills Street Faire: Taste For Yourself

No comprehensive coverage, no pithy commentary, no insightful analysis, no penetrating, in-depth interview could ever even come close to capturing the spirit, the essence, and the zeitgeist of the Granada Hills Street Faire as simply and elegantly as this footage does.

So rather than summarizing the event with words, I offer instead this video of a guy boogieing down to the infectious, can't-make-your-feet-sit-still sounds of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb."

Like the sign says: Taste for yourself.








I'm led to wonder: is this person simply uncoordinated, or is he just introducing us all to a completely new and heretofore unseen paradigm of coordination, one that we mere mortals don't yet understand?

Granada Hills, we finally have our own Technoviking.





Big thanks to nitrous-hoarding Granada Hills South Neighborhood Council member Jerry Askew for this mind-blowing footage.

Granada Hills Library Events for October: Planets, Potato Peels, Patriots, and Pseudoscience!

• Oct 13 - NASA Scientist Speaker Dr. Muthu Jeganathan
  6:30 PM
  NASA Scientist, Dr. Muthu Jeganathan, discusses his research on searching for extra-solar planets with slides, NASA's newly-launched Kepler satellite and projects helping to improve Earth's environment.


• Oct 21 - Book Club
  1:30 PM
  Librarian led discussion of MaryAnn Shaffer's Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society.


• Oct 22 - Book Club
  6:15 PM
  CSUN's Professor Sefton leads a discussion of His Excellency: George Washington written by Joseph Ellis


• Oct 28 - Ghost Hunting
  6:30 PM
  Southern California Paranormal Research Society presents "Investigating Haunted Places". Learn how a team of investigators use their talents and scientific equipment to collect data on haunted sites and basic ghost hunting.

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Come By And Say Hello...

Out with the old...

And in with the new!

You know you want one!



Stop by the Granada Hills Street Fair on Saturday, and tell 'em the Granada Hills Street Fairy sent you!

Plain Folks In A Celebrity House

“Neutra's redirection of modernism constituted not a lyrical regression to sentimentality but a deliberate advance of architectural theory and technique to engage the unconscious mind, fueled by the ideas of psychoanalysis that were being rapidly disseminated at the time. In Neutra's responses to a vivid range of issues, from psychoanalysis proper to the popular psychology of tele-evangelical prayer… (is) a radical reconstitution of the architectural discipline.”

from Form Follows Libido:
Architecture and Richard Neutra in a Psychoanalytic Culture by
Sylvia Lavin(MIT Press, 2005)

Yep, did you hear that? Neutra's architecture represents an engagement of the unconscious mind and a radical reconstitution of the architectural discipline.

But what if you just need a place to live?

"We moved here because our daughter wanted a horse," explain Gage and Juanita Wilson, current residents of a home designed by the famed architect known as The Logar House. At the time they moved in, there was plenty of room for a horse, as at the time Granada Hills had nothing resembling the densely developed neighborhood it is today.

When they decided to purchase the house, The Wilsons knew nothing about Neutra, but over the years they gleaned more and more information about the significance and history of their home. And what a history it is. The couple for whom Neutra built the house, Logars, were vegetarian homeschoolers, which isn't all that uncommon today, but was downright freaky back in the 1950s. Mr. Logar, owner of a health food store, had Neutra install a double-wide refrigerator in his home to accommodate all of his fresh food. When Juanita Wilson moved in, she says at first she was afraid to look in the huge refrigerator, for fear that it might contain a body.

To add another layer of odd, Neutra was a believer in the orgone box, a new-agey device made of layers of natural materials that supposedly collected “orgone energy” (“orgone” = orgasm + ozone). The theory was that users would sit inside this specially constructed box and soak up this energy through their genitals, which would then be redistributed throughout their entire bodies during orgasm, thus curing all of their ailments (I swear, I'm not making this up). Neutra integrated this belief system into his architecture, and designed his houses to be promoters of well-being, giant orgone boxes in residence form.

Perhaps it works. Gage Wilson, though wheelchair bound for decades, "always has a smile on his face," observes Julia Jones, the couple’s real estate agent, who is helping the Wilsons sell their home so that they can move closer to their daughter.

The house is a true beauty, with gorgeous original cabinetry built in everywhere, striking wood ceilings, and vast uninterrupted stretches of glass walls encircling it entirely, creating a spectacular flow from indoors to out. Author Sylvia Lavin wordily explains:

"In the Logar house… landscape and transparency work together to produce what Neutra described as a "visually blended" sense of atmospheric continuity that ranged from the beginning of the path to the house all the way into and through the house out to the lawn behind. While there was no logic of appearance that connected the interior to the setting, either of contrast or of mimetic continuity, there was a coordinated and coherent system of responses provoked by both the architecture and the landscape."


The house, as arranged by the Wilsons, bears little resemblance to the museum-like temples to midcentury modern style one typically sees in magazines like Metropolitan Home or Atomic Ranch, inhabited mostly by hairdressers and fashion designers. Gage and Juanita, as the sign on their front door attests, are plain folks. The house is uncluttered, and unshowy; after all, someone’s grandma lives there.

Not only do the Wilsons, who have been married for 49 years, reside in a historic house, but they have a fascinating history of their own. Juanita's family has lived in Los Angeles for five generations – the Olivas Adobe factors into her family tree -- and Gage is a living font of Granada Hills history who has been living here since the town was little more than lemon groves. Gage moved to Granada Hills on August 6, 1930 at the age of 3. Gage’s mother was the first president of the Granada Hills Women's club, and his father owned the land at what is now the corner of San Fernando Mission and Woodley since before it even was a corner -- it was just a grove and a modest house. The family leased part of their land to Vons, which operated a store there for years before moving down the street to their current San Fernando Mission and Balboa location; the site is still a store: it's currently Albertson's. Gage later moved to his own house on San Fernando Mission Boulevard, and then to the Logar house. “We moved in on Sept 25, 1969,” he says, flaunting his elephant-like memory for dates.

The Logar House created quite a buzz when it was recently put on the market, with excited chatter on architecture enthusiast sites such as Curbed L.A. and a host of others. Over the years, invitations to use the house for film shoots, and communications from scholars were commonplace. Recently, an architecture student from Japan contacted the Wilsons, asking if he could visit their house. The Wilsons take the attention in stride – it’s nothing new for them, all of this fascination with their famous home. They simply keep living their peaceful life, just plain folks in a celebrity house.










The home is listed with Realtor Julia Jones, Coldwell Banker Greater Valleys, Granada Hills. Lic. No. 00384425 Ms. Jones may be reached at 818-360-5413 or at julia.jones@yahoo.com.








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