In the latest installment of his online series, unstoppable explorer/historian Tom Carroll of Tom Explores Los Angeles uses some wacky and fun 360-degree video tech to lay out his argument that the confluence of the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco—just east of where the southbound 5 Freeway merges onto the 110 into Downtown—is pretty much the birthplace of modern LA. Speaking from the concrete floor of the river, the host of the video series moves throughout the river bed and explains the importance of the location for Native Americans and the first Spanish explorers. (Viewers can follow him across the screen by grabbing the screen and dragging the view to the left or right.) Photos, samples of archival documents, and other multimedia are woven into the video with impact; video footage of the devastating 1938 flooding of the LA River remind why the thing was paved in the first place.
· Tom Wanders Around Los Angeles | 360 Video | The Confluence [Youtube]