In praise of Disney Hall

If you only see Los Angeles magazine on the newstand, this month the cover is on fall travel. Subscribers, however, are getting a gorgeous Dan Winters photograph of Disney Hall on the cover, and there are more stunning images inside (for all readers). OK, now I'm excited. We'll be making the trip downtown to see it any day now, which is a confession that I haven't been invited to any of the coveted early showings. (Though I am sneaking off later today for a sneak peak at the new Design House, a redo of the old Mary Pickford mansion in Fremont Place. Not the same thing.)

The magazine's take is splashed across the cover: "Bravo!" There's a nice profile of Frank Gehry by Dave Gardetta with a marvelous lead anecdote about Gehry getting the icy treatment from Dorothy Chandler's crowd at a dinner in 1974 -- and yes, he connects the dots to the irony that Gehry's exuberant hall is replacing Buffy's stuffy pavilion. There's also an architectural review by Greg Goldin, who warns it is an unfinished symphony but likes what he hears:

Los Angeles finally has its signature Frank O. Gehry. It was worth the wait.

The October issue weighs in at a hefty 292 pages, with a huge bolt of ad specials in the center of the book. Almost lost in there is a profile of Magic Johnson the AIDS survivor, businessman and civic player, by Jesse Katz. There's also a remembrance of Tammi Gower, the late founder of the Derby in Los Feliz, by Mark Ehrman. And lots of other good stuff -- no they didn't tell me to say that. Regrettably not a word of it is online, and it won't be for ten days or so. Newsstand sales are everything and the publisher, Alan Klein, figures a little exclusivity sells magazines.