The Voice of Los Feliz

It’s summer and there’s music in the air! A souvenir shot glass purchased at Albertsons depicting Los Feliz as … a beach community? This month’s show picks up where Episode 16 left off, with Phil hanging out at Alcove with Los Feliz Neighborhood Council District D representative Raina Pratto. They discuss the importance of the “hyper-local”, the importance of celebrating and fighting for joy, the...

Robert Frost made great hay out of two paths diverging in the woods. Of late, especially since my wife “rang the bell” on March 4th, I have been far more interested in the way paths converge, often when the traveler does not expect it. For those people who are unaware (and until the day in question, I was one of them), the end of daily radiation treatments for cancer patients is frequently commemo...

Spring has sprung and there is a definite buzz about Los Feliz … And brand new episode 16 of “The Voice of Los Feliz” is certainly no buzzkill! Cameron Watson is the brand new Artistic Director of the Skylight Theatre Company. Host Phil Leirness sits down with him inside the Skylight Theatre to discuss what the future holds for this local treasure and how it could become a truly integral part of t...

Welcome to our first episode of 2026 and our longest episode yet! Boasting interviews with four special guests discussing no fewer than three big community events, and full of comedy, music, vulnerability and good cheer, we trust that Episode 15 offers something for everyone … ( Laura Fuller and Phil Leirness both wear many hats, but for Porchfest L.A. they frequently found themselves wearing the...

The Los Feliz Improvement Association has been working for more than a century to build a better Los Feliz. One of the ways they did this in 2025 was by sponsoring a porch as part of Porchfest L.A., which took place the first weekend in November. Originally held in Ithaca, New York, in 2007, Porchfest music festivals began as a way for community members to put the spotlight on local musicians by p...

Welcome! This episode is coming your way the day after Christmas (Boxing Day!). HOWEVER, it was supposed to come your way the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday)! We won’t get into whose fault this one month delay is (spoiler: it IS host Phil Leirness’ fault). All we ask is that as you hit “play”, you close your eyes and pretend it’s the day after Thanksgiving! ( Photo by Fernando A. Funes ) Fer...

This is an essay I had hoped to finish in time for Halloween, as that seemed quite an appropriate release date given the topic. Nevertheless, finishing it tonight, the 24 th of November 2025, my final night of 56 seems even more appropriate. I have been considering the topic of fear and the difference between bravery and courage for most of the year. So, sharing what I have learned feels like an i...

Welcome! We hope you will join host Phil Leirness, announcer Marc Hershon and musical director Jon Lawlor for an epic and spooky good episode all about community building! ( Photo by Larry Underhill ) Siobhan Burke has a passion for building as both an architect and a designer, and she is devoted to her community, having served for several years on the neighborhood council. Phil interviews her abo...

(Lance Alspaugh and Lily Leirness at the Autry Museum of the American West prior to “Viva Los Feliz: Hidden Gems” on 31 July 2024; Photo by Larry Underhill) After the glorious blue sky and sunshine made yesterday feel more like a Sunday in spring than one in October, this Monday morning in Los Feliz felt positively gloomy. This was befitting the news that the great Lance Alspaugh, the longtime own...

This month’s episode offers up a lot of storytelling, multiple live events, improv comedy, music, heartfelt vulnerability and several beloved Los Feliz landmarks! The recent Los Feliz Writer’s Festival was a huge success. Phil interviews Steve Benaquist, the host of the festival’s “Voices of Los Feliz” event in the “rooftop studio” on Vermont. Then, Phil heads over to Little Dom’s to interview lif...

This month’s episode features local writers, a preview of the first ever Los Feliz Writers Festival and explores a mysterious “staircase to nowhere” as well as a breathtaking view of the Griffith Observatory where no such view should exist! D.W. Socha is a screenwriter who has recently published her first novel. She has also been a stalwart fixture of Los Feliz ever since heeding the clarion call...

During the 1976 film Murder by Death (a loving sendup of classic detective fiction whodunits scripted by Neil Simon), the character of Dick Charleston (played by David Niven) goes into the bathroom and when he comes out, he finds that the entire house has changed in very odd ways. This becomes a bit of a running gag, where people return to entirely different rooms than the ones they left moments p...

The action on this month’s epic episode surrounds two events: a Los Feliz Business Improvement District mixer (at Messhall Kitchen) and the opening of the 28th City of Los Angeles Independent Master Artist Project at the L.A. Municipal Art Gallery! ( photo by Larry Underhill) Local icon and current president of the Los Feliz Busineness Improvement District (aka the Los Feliz BID) Dora Herrera gets...

Can an essay save lives? If so, I hope this one does just that. In a previous essay entitled Fire Walk with Me , I wrote about the late, great Norman Lloyd, who died at 106 during the pandemic. It was at his memorial where I first met and spoke with longtime TCM host Ben Mankiewicz. A couple months back, Ben was the speaker at a Wednesday meeting of The Los Angeles Breakfast Club. At one point dur...

After a bit of a hiatus, we are back with an epic installment just in time to kick of summer in style! The festivities begin with a brief recap of this week’s “Viva Los Feliz: A More Perfect Union” . Then, Phil sits down with Neighborhood Council District B representative Olsen Ebright to get better acquainted, and to discuss community involvement, journalism and dating apps! Next up, Phil gets to...

If I have ever heard a sound worse than my cat howling for food in the pre-dawn hours while I was experiencing a madness-inducing degree of jet lag, I can’t recall it. Under normal circumstances, I would tell anyone who asked that my three least favorite sounds of my lifetime were my parents fighting, my cat coughing, and my wife crying in another room. Given the state I was in after returning fro...

The arts, culture, food and politics … There’s something for everyone in this month’s show! The festivities begin with part two of host Phil Leirness’ conversation with local icon Tony Fanara, the proprietor of Palermo Italian Restaurant on Vermont Avenue (Palermo celebrates its 50th Anniversary this year). Phil and Tony discuss the American Dream, Tony’s favorite foods, and Tony’s run for Governo...

March is here and there is a whole lot to celebrate in Los Feliz! The one and only Democracy of Ham an’ Eggs, The Los Angeles Breakfast Club turns 100 this month. Host Phil Leirness commemorates the milestone by heading over to Friendship Auditorium on Riverside Drive for chats with club technical director Eric Kurland (the founder and director of 3-D Space) and club President Mickey Corcoran. Phi...

From the death of “Mama Yuca’s” to the Southern California fires, the end of 2024 and the start of 2025 brought no shortage of sadness locally. The Voice of Los Feliz returns with this brand new episode to help get February off to a good start … (Socorro Herrera at “Viva Los Feliz: Hidden Gems”; photo by Larry Underhill) Join host Phil Leirness, announcer Marc Hershon, and musical director Jon Law...

What is the moratorium on wishing people a “Happy New Year”? Of course, in the wake of the past week in Los Angeles, anyone greeting their fellow Angelenos with a hearty, “Happy New Year!” would be rightly met with something less than amusement. Still, by January 5th, it already felt somewhat ridiculous to greet people that way. Sure, I was still writing “2003” on my checks, but what I started to...

A couple days before my wife, Lily, and I bid Los Angeles farewell for the duration of 2024, I visited my old stomping grounds of UCLA. Some part of me knew such a visit would be good for my soul. In fact, weeks prior, I had written the four letters (U-C-L-A) in red ink on our wall calendar. Never mind that we are more than thirty years since the onset of desktop computers becoming ubiquitous and...

Greetings from Modesto, California where later today I am picking up my sister’s cremated remains. This past week, I received a letter addressed to my sister. It began: Dear Leslie Denise Leirness, We have reviewed your eligibility for health coverage. Your Medi-Cal will end the last day of 12/2024 because: We received notification of the death of Leslie Denise Leirness. In other words, “Hi, becau...

Happy Holidays, everybody! ( photo courtesy of the Travel Town Museum Foundation ) On this month’s festive audio stocking stuffer, host Phil Leirness, aided by trusty announcer Marc Hershon and musical director Jon Lawlor, will take you to the House of Pies … (art work by Dean Haglund) Tiger Schenkman returns with an audio postcard all about the history and personal importance of the Los Feliz lan...

My sister died during the morning of Friday the 8th of November. She was in hospice. She stopped breathing. She slipped away peacefully. Since that time, I have been struggling. It is not my first trip round the dance floor with grief, however. In fact, with my mother dying this very month in 2019, and my father dying in June of 2020, grief has been positively dominating my dance card during much...

Recorded during the final days of October, this installment of The Voice of Los Feliz podcast is quite delayed due to the death of producer and host Phil Leirness’ sister, Leslie. The show must (eventually) go on, however, and so … Phil will take you to the Wells Fargo Theatre at The Autry Museum of the American West for several highlights from the recent “Viva Los Feliz: Haunted” show. (Phil Leir...