On 7:20am on Monday, September 11, 2023, KIIS FM listeners driving into work heard Ryan Seacrest interview some random dude with a weird name about three LA landmarks that everyone needs to see. SPOILER ALERT: I was that random dude with a weird name. Honestly I have no idea how Seacrest’s team found me. Maybe he’s a big John Lautner fan like me, or a secret admirer of Pasadena bungalow courts (who isn’t, right?). Or perhaps my gay donut video convinced him of my worth. However he found me, I’m endlessly grateful for this opportunity to talk about LA history to such a huge audience.

Here’s the full interview!

A note – this was taped in advance, and they edited out some segments where I talked about the important Native American history connected to Mission San Gabriel Arcángel and Vasquez Rocks.

Curious about the landmarks I talked about on air? Here are links to my Etan Does LA posts about each of them. Go visit them all – get out there Los Angeles, your city’s history is waiting for ya!

Lummis House

The Lummis House (aka El Alisal, or “The Sycamore”) in Highland Park is a playful castle-like structure of stone, cement and telephone poles, hand-built by one of the most colorful figures in LA history, Charles Lummis. You can appreciate it for its architectural uniqueness, or as a 3D manifestation of Lummis’s philosophy.

READ (SYCA)MORE

Mission San Gabriel Arcángel

This is the grandaddy of LA historic sites. Legend has it that the 44 “pobladores” set out from here the day they founded LA in 1781. For three years, it was closed to visitors due to the pandemic and a devastating arson. On July 1, 2023, the Mission reopened, with a reimagined museum that tells the Mission’s complex story of deracination and development.

SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT…

Vasquez Rocks (Agua Dulce)

Visit the Vasquez Rocks for a lil’ slice of Mars less than an hour out of LA. These heaving piles of sandstone jut out at impossible angles, yielding an alien landscape that’s backdropped westerns, horror flicks and sci-fi epics since the 1920s. The Rocks’ history also includes the indigenous Tataviam, Spanish missionaries and a Mexican bandit that gave the Vasquez Rocks their name.

GET YOUR ROCKS OFF

Here’s a playlist of 25 music videos shot at Vasquez Rocks! BTS, Radiohead, Rihanna, Lindsey Stirling, Tom Petty… SO MANY.

Thanks to Ryan Seacrest for pronouncing my name right, to Rubi Gonzales for reaching out and setting up the interview, and to the whole On Air with Ryan Seacrest team for letting me yak about historic landmarks.