Walk in Glassell Park #1 • 2012
“But the air also floats with the sweetness of sugar from Peking Noodle Factory's fortune cookies, in production since 1924, and La Morenita Bakery's pan dulce, since 1953. An occasional touch of artificially-scented Cranberry, Sandalwood Peach, Pacific Ocean, and Holiday Pine wafts up the street, courtesy of Modern Candles, Celestial Science, and the Southern California Candle Company, a trio of candle factories currently housed in an industrial building on San Fernando. That afternoon breeze happens almost daily around 2 p.m., and in my mind I attribute it to the combination of the river, hills, and valley - but that's all conjecture and romantic thinking.”
Fictionally titled as a mythic Rancho Glassell to convey the overlap between two eras of land-remaking, this audio-visual narrative essay was written in 2012 about walking, observation, sound, and neighbors in Glassell Park in collaboration with media studio Form Follows Function for KCET Departures. As of 2023, while much of the built environment history remains, many of the people, sounds, scents and businesses of the neighborhood are no longer present, including La Morenita Bakery, the candle factories, and many of my neighbors.
Sounds recorded on walks in Glassell Park over a period of two weeks, including excerpts from a song written by my former neighbor, Choka, on a 12 string bandurria.
