After a long, nasty saga that would be best told in the writer’s expletive-ridden prose, Charles Bukowski’s former Hollywood residence was named a cultural landmark in February. Last week I went by the apartment complex to snap some pictures for an essay and was surprised to see that crews were already at work renovating the property. The owner—a woman who wanted to demolish the structures then tried to fight the landmark status on the grounds that Bukowski was a Nazi—is no doubt following the advice of one member of the LA Cultural Heritage Commission: “If it were my building I would market it as the ‘Bukowski Court’ and double the rent. I’m sure Bukowski would have hated that, but hey, it’s Hollywood.”

I was content taking some shots from the sidewalk but when I happened to get the foreman’s attention (by waving frantically) I suddenly realized I had to get inside one of those units. I was pleading my case when a truck pulled up behind me and the foreman nodded towards it, saying I should probably talk to those people, since that was the owner and her brother. I turned around and was looking at the woman who called Charles Bukowski “Hitler number two.”

She didn’t even make eye contact with me, but her brother was nice enough. As soon as I had the word “I’majournalist” out of my mouth, he waved me inside the unit closest to the street.

What can I tell you about this forthcoming rental at Bukowski Court? Small, about 700 square feet, one bedroom. The light fixture in the living room looks new but is a pretty good art deco knockoff. Not a whole lot of light overall; it’s mostly northern exposure and there’s only a handful of very narrow windows. The floors, however, appeared to be original and I think it’s safe to say you’re getting a new stove and toilet.

A hallway off the corner of the living room goes left to the bedroom, straight across to the bathroom and right to the kitchen. When it came to where the magic happened, it was unlikely that it was happening on anything larger than a full-sized bed. A few built-ins; small closet. The bathroom was so stuffed full of building materials I couldn’t really see inside, but most likely no original tile. The kitchen was completely gutted, no counters or anything. But as I walked back towards the front door, I was way more interested in something I noticed outside.

I remembered a piece about the preservation battle written by Mike Schulte in the Architect’s Newspaper that included Bukowski’s poem The New Place:

I type at a window that faces the street
on ground level and
if I fall out
the worst that can happen is a dirty shirt
under a tiny banana tree

Which, according to this photo, is still quite small.

Books enter my life at a staggering rate and they’re not always so easy to pawn off on unassuming dinner guests. (I try to slip them into people’s purses, but sometimes? They notice.) So I was jazzed to get this notice for an Art Book Swap taking place at LACMA next Saturday. No strings attached; you bring some books, you take home some books, all unwanted books go to a good cause. If you get dizzy reading at a 45-degree angle, as I do, here’s all the information:

Art Book Swap Los Angeles
LACMA (aim for the 202 streetlamps)
Saturday, May 3
12-5pm

Thanks to Kristi Gushiken at Beautiful/Decay

It’s been a weird few days here in Gelatobabyland. On the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake, I’m sitting here in San Francisco hearing about a 5.2 earthquake in St. Louis this morning from my family and friends. A last-minute quickie trip for work ended up being just the creative shake up I needed, but I’m heading back home to some sad news in LA. And for some reason this week I’m having a few more than the usual amount of groundbreaking epiphanies about the future.

So by request, a reminder that tomorrow will bring a little more sunshine, the company of good friends, or—at the very least—a Saturday.

When I saw the video of TED prize winner Dave Eggers talking about his new non-profit Once Upon a School at this year’s conference, I was riveted, excited, inspired. But then moped around the house for the rest of the day because when it comes to volunteering, I truly suck. Sure, I’ve done my share of fundraising and event planning for non-profits during my six years in LA, but I’ve never gotten involved at a personal, one-on-one level. As lame as this is going to sound, I wanted to find the right volunteer opportunity.

But then I was invited by Keren Taylor to speak this Saturday at an event for WriteGirl, the non-profit that finds professional women writers to mentor teenage girls in creative writing. Funny how things work: It seems that the right volunteer opportunity has found me.

In addition to their mentoring program, WriteGirl holds monthly seminars for the girls to sharpen their writing skills. This week they’re focusing on journalism, so the superb Patt Morrison will be addressing the group at 12:35pm, followed by a panel on blogging and ethics (that’s me!) at 2:15pm. Afterwards the girls will practice writing essays and blog entries, and I’m 100% committed to leaving that event as a mentor to one of them.

You can read a lot more about WriteGirl’s mission, including lots of articles about what they’ve done. If you’d like to get involved (or if you know a high school girl who loves to write) you can come to the event Saturday (12-4, all information here) and see what it’s all about. Maybe the right volunteer opportunity just found you, too.

Update: Thanks to everyone for the encouragement, but unfortunately I can’t speak at the WriteGirl event tomorrow. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go and check it out, though! And I’m still getting involved, promise.

Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House (right) goes on the block at Christie’s on May 13, so Frances chats with a bunch of experts who answer the question: Is it architecture or art? It’s the first time a residence has been offered in a fine art sale like this and it could go for as much as $25 million.

Can’t swing the $25 mil? You can get in on the action by ordering a pair of J.Crew chinos or perhaps some 7 for all Mankind jeans, where the house was featured prominently in promotional pieces this spring. What a coincidence!

Then Frances talks to Disney Imagineer Kim Irvine (you’d think they’d make her change her name to Anaheim) about the changes to It’s a Small World at Disneyland. You probably heard that the ride originally closed for renovations because the boats needed to be widened to accommodate, um, larger passengers, something I can vouch for since our boat got totally stuck last summer somewhere between Canada and the Eskimos. They came over the speaker and told us to to lean to the right.

But you might not know that drastic artistic changes are also planned for the ride. According to blog chatter Disney characters will be incorporated, and in the ultimate offense, the Papua New Guinea rainforest will be cut down to make way for something called Up With America. The ride was created by one of my heroes, artist Mary Blair, and her family has issued a statement asking Disney not to alter her work. But Irvine, who apprenticed with Blair, defends Disney’s decisions to change the ride and assures us we shan’t be disappointed. We can judge for ourselves when it re-opens later this year.

Finally, the favorite building of the show is the residence of architect Ray Kappe, who is also the designer of the pre-fabulous LivingHomes prototype in Santa Monica. You can take a tour of the Kappe residence with a scruffy David Duchovny in this clip from the Showtime show Californication, where the house does some beautiful acting.

Update: Reader Steve says that’s a Kappe but that’s not the Kappe and he’s right. Although I saw the item on SCI-Arc’s website that said it was the Kappe residence (and you’d think they would know), it’s actually the Benton House, according to Curbed LA.