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Colin Marshall

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Colin Marshall is an essayist, broadcaster, and speaker on cities and culture. He's currently based in Seoul and at work on the book "A Los Angeles Primer: Mastering the Stateless City."

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scientology pacific area command base
Known casually as "Big Blue," this Scientology building on Fountain Avenue looks every inch like the grand, private fortresses of old Los Angeles.
Andersen Get Out | Photos courtesy of The Visible Press
“Slow Writing: Thom Andersen on Cinema” is the very first collection of essays published in Thom Andersen's long career of teaching, programming, and filmmaking. Its pieces span more than half a century.
City Hall after dark
For 36 years, just one structure loomed especially large over Los Angeles' undisturbed horizontality: City Hall.
Los Angeles Central Library
L.A.'s historic 1926 downtown library has survived calls for its demolition – and a still-unsolved case of arson.
Biltmore Hotel (thumbnail)
The Biltmore was meant to confer "real-city" status on Los Angeles when it opened in 1923.
Angelus Temple
The phenomenon of the megachurch began in no less coastal and cosmopolitan a city than Los Angeles.
johnny cash hollywood
Johnny Cash's little-known time in Los Angeles saw his rise into popular culture, his years of drug-addled chaos, and his professional rebirth.
Hitchcock riding to work from his Bel Air home in 1961
"The Master of Suspense" called L.A. home for 41 years. Why did his films never reveal his adopted city?
Undated color postcard of the Ambassador Hotel
The bullet fired by Sirhan Sirhan in 1968 ultimately killed not just Robert F. Kennedy but also L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel itself.
Braly Block (header)
Upon its completion in 1904, the Braly Block was hailed as L.A.'s first skyscraper.
The Bradbury Building in film: "The Artist" (left), "Blade Runner" (top-right), and "500 Days of Summer" (bottom-right)
Like many long-lived screen icons, the Bradbury Building has endured almost as many years of irrelevance and dissolution as it has enjoyed years of celebration.
speed 1994
"Speed" is the standout Los Angeles action movie, one that makes fuller use of the city's distinctive size, shape, and built environment than any other.
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