Gary Leonard
March 28, 2020Anybody who has been to almost any political, civic, charitable, or fundraising event in Downtown Los Angeles has probably had their picture taken by Gary Leonard. He’s Los Angeles’ unofficial civic photographer.
So, why interview a photographer – an artist of a fundamentally visual medium – on a podcast? Because I knew that Gary had a story – a story that hardly anybody knows. Because, before he was LA’s unofficial civic photographer, he was LA’s unofficial … underground music scene photographer. And he has been collecting LA “ephemera”, as he calls it: Concert tickets. Bobble heads. Photos. Convention passes. Almost anything you can think of. And he’s been collecting it for decades.
This interview goes around in circles and loops around and back again … but it’s quite a ride. If anybody has lived 2 or 3 or 4 lives, it’s Gary.
Tom Gilmore
March 20, 2020Downtown LA is now undoubtedly a “24/7” community. With nearly 80,000 residents and many of the City’s most famous and respected bars and restaurants, it’s no surprise that Downtown was named the “Best Downtown in America” just a few years ago by GQ Magazine.
It’s easy to take that for granted, but it didn’t happen automatically. It took a bit of vision and a lot of hard work by a few intrepid pioneers along the way. But perhaps none of those pioneers were as influential, or necessary, as Tom Gilmore. Because without people – without actual residents – then Downtown is just a destination. But it’s not a home. It’s not a community. But the fact that it IS a home to so many people – with all the vitality and life that comes with that – is due, in no small part, to Tom.
Hear how Tom made it to Los Angeles in the first place. How a job at a nursery began is unlikely journey to where he is now. And how he looked at a dilapidated building on what was then Skid Row and thought “people would live here”.
The story of Downtown is, in many ways, the story of Tom Gilmore. Let’s hear it together.
Cedd Moses
March 13, 2020Cedd Moses’ business card reads “The Proprietor”, but it could just as easily read “The Creator”, at least when it comes to Downtown Los Angeles. His initial vision of 10 bars in Downtown seemed downright crazy, back when “nightlife” in Downtown consisted of hotel lobbies and seedy dives. But he did it, including helping launch what became the “Best Bar in America” (2012) with the Varnish. Now, with 26 bars (and counting) in 3 cities (and counting), his new goal? 100.
If you’ve had a drink at Seven Grand, Broadway Bar, Golden Gopher, Arts District Brewing Company, Imperial Western in Union Station, the Varnish, Casey’s, or even Cole’s French Dip, then you’ve experienced Cedd’s magic touch. Hear how he parlayed a high school gift for betting on horses to a lucrative career in investment banking to the unlikely pivot towards opening his first bar on the Westside to, eventually, pushing all his chips in on DTLA. How he turned a drug den into the Golden Gopher, how he created the now iconic Seven Grand … and, most importantly, how he transformed nightlife in not just Downtown, but all of Los Angeles.
Brought to you live from, where else? Seven Grand.