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I've been in Los Angeles the last couple of weeks on my annual jaunt out west and every visit reaffirms just how fucking bizarre this city is. I'm not even talking about the Hollywood Babylon of it all, or the cults, or the content houses or the general patina of decay that lays over the entire county-- no, I'm more focused on Culver City. For all intents and purposes CC is like any other Los Angeles enclave. Strip malls, movie studios, Coffee Beans. But CC is also home to some of the weirdest and most wonderful institutions LA has to offer, and that I believe are extremely representative of the best parts of the city (and frankly, America!): The Museum of Jurassic Technology and The Center For Land Use Interpretation. Both deserve their own recommendation but today we'll speak only to the latter. CLUI as a physical space is a small, unassuming room off Venice Blvd. nestled between the even weirder Museum of Jurassic Technology and around the corner from the Hare Krishna cafe. It's an organization that primarily exists online-- the website boasts amazing digital archives of the CLUI newsletter and various photo collections labeled things like "Rules" and "Utility Sheds" composed of photos taken by CLUI members of those very things across the country. They host art shows and information shows about how land is being used, controlled and engaged with in America and it's always informative and always very moving. For any America-heads (not in a scary way) or land art-heads or urban planning-heads-- CLUI is a must. In addition to the actual work of the organization being impressive, it's also so wonderful and rare that something so ephemeral and cerebral can survive anymore. It feels distinctly LA to me-- there's more space and preservation and appreciation of obsessive weirdos and their hobbies here than any other major American city. And that's something to be extremely in awe of.
Mar 27, 2025
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Intents and purposes > intense and purposes
CC is fun, yeah 🌻 Appreciate the rec
@1STRAWBERRYSECRET hahah the trials of typing one of these on my gd phone….i do prefer that autocorrect tho
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