Humans and Wildlife in Beachwood Canyon: An Update

A Coyote at Dusk in Hollywoodland/Hope Anderson Productions

One of the problems of living in a virtual nature preserve is the us-against-them mentality of some of the inhabitants–and I’m not talking about coyotes. Rather, it’s the human residents of Beachwood who regard themselves as combatants, either against wildlife or each other.

In the years I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve been accused of being anti-wildlife–by a neighbor whose illegal feeding of birds (to say nothing of raccoons and coyotes) brought a dawn patrol of crows to my roof each morning–and now anti-dog. Someone who calls herself Doggie mama takes issue with a post I wrote about a coyote jumping my fence and clearing the property of tree rats. https://underthehollywoodsign.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/wild-kingdom-an-unexpected-symbiosis-in-beachwood-canyon/ She is further enraged by my quoting someone who called small pets lost to coyotes “nature’s nachos.”

Nature’s nachos? You guys realize that your convenient rat hunting solution up the hill means dog hunting season down the hill as soon as the rat population decreases? They come down every winter, but this year is worse than ever… a pack is hunting at 8pm tonight, and we’ve seen them around 11pm for the past two months… not safe for walking two 10-lb puppies at 8p and 11p… But thanks for calling my beloved pups a snack for these creatures that seem to be saving you a few bucks in exterminator expenses.

Despite the implications, my “convenient rat-hunting solution” was not instigated by me, nor did I start or condone the hunting of dogs by coyotes. And even if the coyotes of Beachwood Canyon somehow have learned to read, I can’t imagine their regarding this blog as an inducement to go after little dogs. Beyond these problems of logic are two larger questions: why do people who object to the presence of predatory wildlife–not only coyotes but hawks, owls and other raptors–choose to live in their habitat? And why do they walk their small dogs at night, usually on expandable leashes that allow the dogs to move ahead of them, seemingly untethered?

There’s no reason not to have a dog in Beachwood: I moved here with a beloved 95-pounder that throughout her life ruled over the neighborhood coyotes, all of which were tiny by comparison, and terrified of her. Even so, I rarely walked my dog after dusk in order to minimize the chance of meeting a coyote. In contrast, Doggie mama asserts her right to walk her ten-pound dogs at night. In a canyon where coyotes live, this is nothing short of a provocation, and provocations have their consequences.

Speaking of coyotes, I keep seeing the one photographed above. It resembles a mangy little sheep and looks nothing like any other coyote I’ve ever seen. Theories?

Death of a Cinematic Genius: Nagisa Oshima, 1932-2013

Nagisa Oshima in the 1960s

It was with shock and more than a little sadness that I read of Nagisa Oshima’s death today. Though he forever will be associated with the youthful themes of the Japanese New Wave, he was 80 and apparently had been in poor health since a stroke suffered in 1996.

Oshima’s films were featured in a major retrospective at the American Cinematheque in 2009, about which I wrote this piece:

https://underthehollywoodsign.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/nagisa-oshima-and-japan-in-the-sixties/

During his fiery career, Oshima broke cultural and censorship barriers in Japan and abroad. The product of an affluent and aristocratic Kyoto family, he studied law and had every reason to protect the status quo, both politically and artistically. Yet he was heavily influenced by the Japanese student protests of the 1960s, and by leftist politics in general. As a filmmaker, he claimed, “My hatred for Japanese cinema includes absolutely all of it.” He meant it. Oshima had no use for the poetic films of Yasujiro Ozu (on which he got his start as an assistant). He also claimed the goal of his films was “to force the Japanese to look in the mirror.”

There are no equivalents to Oshima among younger Japanese filmmakers: there don’t have to be. In challenging censorship, artistic mores and the very basis of filmmaking, he blazed a trail that made their path smoother, though probably less memorable. RIP.

A link to the New York Times obituary: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/movies/nagisa-oshima-iconoclastic-filmmaker-dies-at-80.html?hp&_r=0

Visiting Tommy Dangcil

Tommy Dangcil/Hope Anderson Productions

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting a fellow historian of Hollywood, Tommy Dangcil. He has published several books on his superb collection of old Los Angeles postcards, some of which I’ve used (with attribution, if not permission) in Under the Hollywood Sign. Tommy discovered my blog, liked it and recently emailed me about getting together.

His vast collection includes many well-known images and many more I had never seen before. Series of postcards depict the long-gone Hollywood mansions of Silent and Early Talkie movie stars, Hollywood streets (including such fascinating subsets as Hollywood Boulevard at Christmastime and the defunct Hollywood Flower Parade), the Krotona Colony and Hollywood churches. His knowledge of Hollywood history is encyclopedic, encompassing not only the development of the movie industry but the lives of its denizens over the past century. Dangcil, who was born and raised in Hollywood and attended Hollywood High, says he first became interested in Hollywood history by watching old movies on television. After graduating from college, he became a lighting technician and has spent over twenty years making movies including, “The Master,” “The Bourne Legacy” and “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Another book is in the works; in the meantime, Tommy has graciously allowed me to reproduce some of his images in my blog. As the first rule of historical documentaries is no words without pictures, I’m grateful in advance for these artifacts of Old Hollywood.

Books by Tommy Dangcil:

Hollywood 1900-1950 in Vintage Postcards, Arcadia, 2002

Hollywood Studios, Arcadia, 2007