TOOBLIVION Anaheims Center Street Alexander Elliott Miller

>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=-4pKHOujgvc

http://www.alexanderemiller.com • Alexander Elliott Miller, guitar electronics • Rychard Cooper, audio video • To….Oblivion is a collection of pieces for solo electric guitar, sound effects and video, each inspired by a historic or lost landmarks around Los Angeles of some societal or personal significance to me. • In the mid-20th Century, Anaheim's Center Street was a vibrant, typical American main street; a strip lined with hotels, department stores, cafes, theaters, any number of small businesses and the site of several annual parades. By the 1970's, however, business had dried up, and the area succumbed to significant urban blight. • With much of the town falling into disrepair, the city initiated what it called Project Alpha: the complete demolition of a 200 acre section in the heart of the city for redevelopment. Beginning in 1978, most of Anaheim's historic core was entirely destroyed, buildings torn down, streets erased and remapped. Making matters worse, the city had begun demolitions before contracts from redevelopers had been secured. Shortly after all the buildings were gone, the money dried up, and much of the heart of old Anaheim remained empty dirt lots for the better part of the 1980's. • Many of Anaheim's well known present day businesses and attractions, such as DisneyLand, Angels Stadium, the Convention Center and Honda Center, are actually miles south of the original site of the city. But the traditional downtown area is now slowly bouncing back. Precious few remaining historic buildings have found reuse (with the Anaheim Packing House being a recent and notable example), but overall, the downtown district appears to have fully transformed, with much of the actual site of the original Center Street now a strip mall and parking lot. • I have lived on a sliver of what remains of Anaheim's Center Street since 2012. While this neighborhood was at first something of a mystery to me, my work on this project has given me a richer understanding of the changes that my neighborhood has experienced over the years, and that so many neighborhoods around LA are continuing to experience today.

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