Los Angeles Plays Itself

[John Carvill]

Multiple resonances here, a great review, by a top-notch journalist,
of what sounds like a fascinating film. Can't believe it's 5 years
since this was published. And I still haven't seen the film. Or read
'City of Quartz' (although I have now started that one, thanks to
Heikki).

Very strongly recommended, many IV relevancies:

"A decade ago, Carl Franklin was preparing to film Walter Mosley's
Devil in a Blue Dress, an Easy Rawlins mystery set largely in the area
around Central Avenue in Watts, then the largest black neighbourhood
in Los Angeles. From the 1940s, when the movie unfolds, to the early
1960s, Central Avenue was the throbbing hub of the west coast's black
jazz scene, incubator of Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy and Ornette
Coleman, among others. Nightclubs and jazz dives stretched for blocks
at a time and a thriving nocturnal scene drew whites and blacks
together in the sort of racial harmony one doesn't often find in LA.
This all lasted until Chief Parker of the Los Angeles Police
Department, one of the primary villains in the city's postwar history,
saw fit to tackle the peril of "race mixing" by aggressively targeting
Central Avenue clubs until every last one was driven out of business.
Standing there today, you would have no idea that any of it had ever
existed...."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/dec/11/featuresreviews.guardianreview12