Take a step into our wayback machine as we celebrate the analog age on this week's Throwback Show! From typewriters to roller skates to '70s tunes, some beloved relics from a bygone era are still very much alive here in the Golden State. So pop your Izod collar, crack open a Tab and enjoy. Subscribe to The California Report Magazine podcast while you're at it.
How an Old-School L.A. Video Store Thrives in a Netflix World
We go back to a time when people headed to the local video store to rent a copy of their favorite movie on VHS. Then DVDs took over. Now streaming platforms are the new normal, and video stores are relics of the past. Marisol Medina-Cadena discovered one of those relics still thriving in a Los Angeles suburb.
You Can Find California’s Last Roller Rink Organist at the Moonlight Rollerway, in Glendale
After dark, along the endless industrial stretch of San Fernando Road in Glendale, pretty much all you’ll hear is traffic. But on Tuesday nights, the sound of the Hammond organ fills a roller rink and spills out into the parking lot. The Moonlight Rollerway is home to a man who calls himself the ‘Fabulous Dominic.’ He’s 85, and as reporter Peter Gilstrap tells us, he’s California’s last organist who plays live at a roller skating rink.
San Francisco’s Typewriter Poet Brings Art Back to Analog
At the San Francisco Zoo, along with the screeching chimps and squawking birds, there’s another, more unusual sound. Poet Silvi Alcivar clacks away at the keys on her red Royal manual typewriter. She types out original, one-of-a-kind poems on the spot.
Crystal Visions and a Sprinkle of Gold Dust: Fleetwood Macrame Brings '70s Rock to the Bay Area
A lot of us feel attached to music from the 1970s. There’s something about those sun-drenched harmonies that evoke memories of cruising down the California coast with music blasting through the radio. Songs by Fleetwood Mac were on heavy rotation back then. And the thing is, they still are, in car commercials and grocery stores. And a new generation has claimed the band’s music as their own. Fleetwood Mac has seen a 58% uptick in listening among millennials on Spotify. Which may explain why a Bay Area-based tribute band has become so popular. We sent The California Report Magazine’s intern and resident fangirl Asal Ehsanipour to learn more about why this music still resonates.
What Ferris Bueller and Other '80s Movies Got Wrong About Mental Health
People who came of age in the 1980s have a special spot in their hearts for teen cult classics like “Ferris Bueller's Day Off.” We remember it as a fun movie about a kid cutting school, but when re-watching it 30 years later, it raises some interesting questions about mental health. The California Report's Health Correspondent April Dembosky found that out when she watched the movie with a couple teenagers, and their dad.