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HGTV and glossy magazines have sparked a boomlet of interest in tiny homes, but they’ve also made them look fun, cute and easy. The realities of a tiny lifestyle can be more daunting. Municipalities often don’t know what to make of tiny houses, and living in one legally is, in many places, challenging. There’s a lack of infrastructure for people who want to build them. And although they’re in many ways an imaginative solution to some of the most vexing urban housing issues, they don’t yet have a high profile in cities. Is there a place for tiny homes in Los Angeles? One woman thinks so, and has founded a collective of like-minded people to make it happen.

Learn more about LATCH Collective here, here and here.

Music:

• “Animal Fair,” by Trevor Thornton
• “Vinyl Baile,” by Podington Bear
• “Lleb,” by Podington Bear
• “Proliferate,” by Podington Bear

Top: Photo by Ben Chun: Creative Commons

Photo of Tessa Baker courtesy of LATCH Collective

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“The best historians in L.A. are storytellers. They’re gangsters in east L.A., they’re ex-cons, they’re guys who worked in their garage their whole life, they’re guys who’ve worked at one business for forty years, people who’ve lived on one street for forty years… “

“All Night Menu” started with a question: What is a well-known photograph of William Faulkner not telling us about his time in Hollywood? Since then writer Sam Sweet has spent four years prowling LA for its most closely-held stories. The result is a lovingly-produced, meticulously-researched and gorgeously-written three volumes of the city’s secret history.

Top: Photo of the Maravilla handball court by Sam Sweet. Read Sam’s remarkable story on the Maravilla court in its entirety here. 

Music:

• “Tangle,” by Blue Dot Sessions
• “Sprout,” by Podington Bear
• “All The Ways,” by Podington Bear
• “Morning Mist,” by Podington Bear
• “Peas Corps,” by Podington Bear
• “Prelude No. 2,” by Chris Zabriskie
• “Life In A Moment,” by Scott Holmes

Audio assistance for the episode was provided by Sameer Sengupta.

Summer 1942: William Faulkner at the Highland Hotel, 1922 Highland

Thanks to Sam Sweet, whose non-fiction novel “Hadley Lee Lightcap” will be published in September by All Night Menu Books. You can order the three volumes of “All Night Menu” published so far direct from Sam, or if you’re in Los Angeles, find them at Skylight Books and South Willard.