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Podcasts Off-Ramp
Kings of Kitsch Nichols and Phoenix (mostly) manage not to talk over each other on the last Off-Ramp
Off-Ramp with John Rabe Hero Image
(
Dan Carino
)
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was originally written for and published on KPCC.org. Keep in mind that links and images may no longer work — and references may be outdated.

Jun 29, 2017
Listen 9:03
Kings of Kitsch Nichols and Phoenix (mostly) manage not to talk over each other on the last Off-Ramp
Nichols and Phoenix - they never use each others' first names - have made careers celebrating creations that in their own day and age were seen as expendable. Now, we see them as touchstones of our history.
L-R: Three Southern California retro fanatics, John Rabe, Chris Nichols, and Charles Phoenix
L-R: Three Southern California retro fanatics, John Rabe, Chris Nichols, and Charles Phoenix
(
John Rabe/KPCC
)

Nichols and Phoenix - they never use each others' first names - have made careers celebrating creations that in their own day and age were seen as expendable. Now, we see them as touchstones of our history.

Is it possible that the two titans of retro Southern California - Charles Phoenix and Charles Nichols - have never been on Off-Ramp at the same time? But maybe that brings up a larger question. Is it even possible for them to exist in the same place, at the same time, or would their meeting cause a cosmic singularity, an undarnable rending of the time-space continuum?

The answers are, stupidly, yes; and thankfully, yes.

Over the 11 years of Off-Ramp, "God Bless Americana" author Charles Phoenix and Los Angeles Magazine's Chris Nichols have played a large part in bringing interesting and endangered places to our listeners. From Pomona to Chatsworth to Bellflower to Anaheim, both men have made careers of highlighting and preserving things that in their day were seen as expendable, flavor-of-the-month, mass marketed creations. Like programmatic architecture (buildings that look like what they're selling or making, i.e. the Donut Hole in La Puente, the Idle Hour - a giant wine cask - in NoHo).

Yet, with hindsight, we've been able to see them as archetypal and important touchstones of our region.

For their final appearances on the show, they got in the Mercedes and shared their love of getting lost in Southern California.