Voyager's laserdisc L.A. Journal has 25,200 pristine, still views of Los Angeles (past and present), as well as a 14-minute hypersonic drag race through the collective unconscious of this most elusive of American cities.
Are you a browser or a sprinter? Sprinters can blow through these still frames with all the vertiginous glee of the time traveler in George Pal's movie version of The Time Machine . Browsers needn't worry, however. The disc is laid out in 19 major sections, with 57 subsections, each of which you can access using your laser player's "chapter skip" and "step" controls. Highlights include a tour of Watts Towers, Michael Dare's manipulated Polaroid portrait collection, the Gay Pride parade, and a warehouse wall turning from blank gray to a piece of high graffiti art. You can also see archival film clips of, among other things, the old trolley system and an ostrich farm.
Not only can you look at L.A. Journal in different ways, but you can listen to any of three audio tracks at the same time. Track one features an original music piece from Southern California's electronic composer-whiz, Carl Stone. His music matches the headlong rush of the faster-than-fast visual mode, like a demon-possessed carousel organ. The second track consists of spoken-word pieces by Angelenos such as Wanda Coleman, Marisela Norte, Tommy Swerdlow, Harvey Kubernik, and Pleasant Gehman. Track three is a collection of archival music recordings of LA music from 1904-1937; there are songs of the Cahuilla Indians, and turn-of-the-century Hispanic tunes, as well as a couple of jazz tunes, one of which is by a band with the ultra-cool name of Spike's Seven Pods of Pepper Orchestra.
L.A. Journal is not a definitive look at Los Angeles (the producers knew that was impossible). Instead, using a technique they call "animated photojournalism," the Voyager crew has captured a moment in time, a portrait of 1990s LA that shows the city chaotic, hyperbolic, baked in desert sun, and as fascinating as ever.
L.A. Journal, Vol. 1 : US$24.95. The Voyager Company: (800) 446 2001, +1 (212) 431 5199.
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