March 20th. 4:00 pm. Top Gun Pilot Mark 'Chuck' Marchione

Saturday, March 20th, 2010 (4:00 PM)
Top Gun Pilot Mark "Chuck" Marchione

Mark "Chuck" Marchione is a former Navy Top Gun pilot. He is the author of West of the Rock, which gives us a rare, illuminating look into the elite world of Navy pilots. In a series of powerful and often harrowing narratives, the author presents their life trajectories, from looking up in awe at the power and glory of warplanes, facing the ordeals of even routine landings at night on a pitching carrier deck, interacting with the comparatively unremarkable world of civilians, and reaching the point where they no longer have the edge needed to be fighter pilots.
For all the camaraderie, mastery of technique, and daily contests with fear, fighter pilots must also contend with the strains on family life during long deployments, the erosion of the motivations they need to face danger, the mounting death toll of friends, and diminishing faith in the nations mission and its seemingly endless confrontations around the world. Here is the strength of West of the Rock vividly describing, as only a former fighter pilot could, the rise and fall of the beliefs upon which modern warriors rely.

Hollywood vs. The Supreme Court

Join us Saturday February 13th. at 4:00 pm as we welcome Justice Eileen C. Moore as she reads and discusses her book; "Race Results, Hollywood vs. The Supreme Court"

The United States Supreme Court is widely considered a highly conservative institution. Hollywood is overwhelmingly perceived as liberal. Over the past 100 years, America's highest court and America's film industry have both played major roles in shaping American values. Critics have often accused the Supreme Court of accommodating racism in cases involving discrimination against African Americans. While accusations have also been launched against movies for reinforcing racial stereotypes and aggravating racial tensions, Hollywood has been defended, vigorously, for tackling difficult topics and championing the oppressed.

Eileen C. Moore was intrigued by how black Americans fared before the highest court in the land, from the early 1900s until very recently, compared to how they were treated in the movies. So, she set out to weigh the evidence. She delivers her verdict in Race Results: Hollywood vs. the Supreme Court, Ten Decades of Racial Decisions and Film. "After the first few decades of the twentieth century," Moore attests, "the United States Supreme Court was consistently more progressive than Hollywood in its treatment of African Americans."

Rainy Day recommendations

Here are a few rainy day book recommendations; Anne Tyler's Noah's Compass, J.M. Coetzee's Summertime, Elizabeth Kostova's The Swan Thieves, and for whimsy, The Babycakes Cookbook, they just opened around the corner from the store on 6th. and Main..

New Website and our January Newsletter

We've revamped our website with the help of Mike Smith, an amazing web designer. We also have updated our Newsletter with our 2010 updates, check it out. http://www.metropolisbooksla.com/images/jannewsletter.pdf

Happy Holidays-Holiday Hours

Happy Holidays from Metropolis Books, we will be open today Christmas Eve until 4:00 pm, but closed December 25th. thru December 28th. We will reopen the 29th. and 30th. regular hours from 11-6 and close New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. We will reopen January 2nd. from 11-6:00 pm.

Thank you for making 2009 a banner year for us!!!

500 Days of Summer and Metropolis Books

I must admit I loved that movie, and well the product placement of our sign in one of the sequences. Hmmm, I think I was suppose to take our sign in while the film shoot was going on, I sort of forgot.

Downtown LA's Dynamic Decade

We are lucky enough to be part of it!! Reprint from the Downtown News, written by Jon Regardie


Detailing the most Important Projects of the last decade.

When Tom Gilmore announced plans to turn a trio of buildings not far from Skid Row into market-rate apartments, many were skeptical. “To those who say it is not a great neighborhood,” said Gilmore at the time, “we just bought the neighborhood.” The 70-unit San Fernando Building came online in fall 2000, followed the next year by the 104-apartment Hellman Building and the 56-residence Continental Building. The corner of Fourth and Main streets has since become the epicenter of street life in the district, as businesses including Pete’s Café, Metropolis Books, Banquette, the OBD Market and Old Bank DVD have followed.Impact: At $33 million and 230 units, the Old Bank District was smaller in scale and budget than many later projects in Downtown. Yet none was more influential or precedent setting. Gilmore was the first developer to test the city’s new Adaptive Reuse Ordinance, which made it easier and less expensive to turn dead office structures into housing. He somehow secured the money, and as construction crews worked, other developers waited to see if the buildings could be transformed and if people would move in; many feared it would be an expensive flop. Instead, Gilmore found a sizeable market of people ready to embrace urban living, and in the wake of his success, developers flocked to the area, buying up nearly every old building available (and crazily ratcheting up the price of once un-sellable structures) and turning them into housing. The Old Bank District may have lacked the gloss of Disney Hall and the glitz of L.A. Live, but it opened doors no other project in Downtown did — without the Old Bank District, Downtown would not have seen the residential revolution of the past decade.