https://www.talesoftheamerican.com/ A documentary.
I attended a presentation of this film, made a few years ago, of excellent quality, at LAPL - Central. It was made by Stephen Seemayer and Pamela Wilson and they interviewed over 140 once-upon-a-time and current artist residents in the process. The history of the building, built in 1905, which had other names, was that it was the first hotel in the city of Los Angeles to welcome Negro guests - and was then called, interestingly enough, The Canadian. It then became a place where recent Japanese immigrants could live; some were put into camps after the United States entered World War II. Eventually artists, writers, and musicians moved in. The rent was low and the then-Arts District- was vibrant - lawless - but you had a chance of honing your craft and skill because it was affordable. Now the Los Angeles Arts District is becoming too expensive for someone who is, at best, up and coming.
Perhaps the American was the Los Angeles equivalent of New York's Chelsea Hotel?
I had never heard of it.
It was not my kind of place which is probably why I had not.
Affordable. That is the buzz word these days. The word Affordable should never be used to advertise rooms for rent or apartments for lease or townhomes for sale. It's a joke word.
I was thinking while viewing the Tales of the American documentary about my experiences being around people who were .... vexations to the spirit. As, apparently, some of the people who made this place - and the in-house Al's Bar - "home" were or would be to me.
I haven't lived a life free of such people. They are everywhere. I'm just getting better at discernment/avoidance.
Lately, and I'm not the only one saying this, it seems crazy-makers are everywhere, that one cannot find that hidey-hole where one can be alone, think, sleep enough - or work.
I think there is, overall, the wrong idea that artists of every sort need chaos, that creativity needs chaos.
Actually, what one needs to create first and foremost is the time, which usually means time off, being able to either not be concerned with affording time away from the usual pursuit of self-support, maybe because parents or partner take care of that or you inherit, or because it doesn't bother you too much to hear loud music through your floors every night or have to share a filthy bathtub and toilet with twenty other people.
I'm just the opposite. I like clean. I like quietude and privacy and knowing I'm safe without three bolts on a door.
C 2026 Christine Trzyna
