Day 33: Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood

I really cranked today to finish up the L.A. stuff. I can't believe what I accomplished in the past few days. The rest of the trip will seem laid-back after this. No more mega cities with zillions of stops per hour. It may be less exciting, but I won't miss the traffic. I really have to really trim things from my itinerary now. Only about ten days left and about half that time will be spent on the interstates hauling it back to New York.

The dogs were prisoners most of the day as Mama was an absolute maniac and there were few places to cut them loose. Poor Nik and Grem were driven crazy by the smells and sights of the ocean as we drove up Pacific Coast Highway from Malibu to Oxnard. I will make it up to them tomorrow somehow.

Just another Streamline Moderne building on the Miracle Mile:



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And just another gorgeous apartment building in Hollywood:



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Perhaps the most famous of all story book houses (the Spadena House in Beverly Hills):



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A mid-century detail that's probably not long for this world. This was originally a waterfall with multi-colored glass pieces. It was originally a bank, now a church, and there is talk of demo-ing the place for something bigger & better.



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I haven't seen these bushes in a couple decades. At least I know what this one is! Bottle brush, for obvious reasons:



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There's really not much weird about "Hollyweird" anymore -- but at least I found this place on Melrose (technically in L.A.). The Max Azria clothes store features an art installation of tree branches shaped to look like curly hair:





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Here's a pair of nice rusty signs in Beverlywood:



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I love all the product paintings in L.A. I don't remember them back home.



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And lastly, I have to include a Sunset Blvd. billboard. This one's pretty sexist but I do love the giant bra add-ons anyway:

Days 31 & 32: The Valley, Downtown, Hollywood

I think I set my own new personal record in the past two days, taking more than 400 photos for the website. I took Saturday night off from Flickr/the blog to visit an aunt and her husband that I hadn't seen in over 20 years. Then, I was too wiped out from insane amounts of city driving and getting stuff up at Flickr last night to put together anything coherent here. So, well rested!, let me get this thing done while the sun is making its way up high enough to not make orange-y photos.

The dogs have been making do with abandoned lots as there haven't been any dog parks in the heart of the city and I haven't wanted to sacrifice valuable shooting time trekking back and forth to Laurel Canyon. As soon as we finish L.A. County (today I hope!), I promise them some good long running.

I've got tons of blog-worthy photos -- where to begin? How about some buildings? One of the things I research and seek out on my roadtrips is storybook homes. You know, the Hansel & Gretel-y buildings with curvy roofs and details meant to make them look old. There's a great book about them here:
http://www.amazon.com/Storybook-Style-Americas-Whimsical-Twenties/dp/0670893854/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

and there are tons of them in L.A. that I'm not going to get to on this trip. I'm resisting starting a new section at my website. I've got all the topics I can handle already. So I don't really know what will become of these photos. Here are a couple from a neat little courtyard in/near Glendale:





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Another thing I seek out to shoot are Egyptian Revival buildings. So far I've resisted creating a section at my website for them, too. Their photos are just sitting on my hard drive for now. Here's an example of an apartment building in Hollywood:





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Here's another striking building from Hollywood. I know I have a little info in my notes somewhere but don't have the time to dig it up right now. Maybe someone else can help me identify this house while I'm off shooting:





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Here's a beautiful old building -- but what's with the shrubs?



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And here are a couple modern buildings. Actually, I'm not sure of the age on this one. It appears to be contemporary but it could be "tarted up" midcentury:



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And this one is much more impressive in person. Yes, that's no optical illusion -- the painted sides of the buildings are really shaped that way.




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Here are a couple more flowering trees that I can't identify:



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The flowers on this beauty have yellow centers:



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I've seen this in a few cities on my trip: groups of novices on Segways. I remember seeing a group of senior citizens on them in -- was it Tucson? How come you never seen experienced, fast-moving people on them? Actually, I did see a police force on them -- was it in San Diego?



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Gremlin finds L.A. endlessly fascinating. The rest of the gang waits for her to bark at the "important stuff" and then get up to check things out.



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A pit stop in downtown L.A. -- the place was actually called Famima which I found appropriate since I was famished. I believe they are a Japanese company expanding to the U.S. (http://www.famima-usa.com/) so they have lots of interesting Japanese items. I had to sample some of the ice creams. Sorry, in my haste to photo and get back to the van before getting a ticket, the upper right item is upside down.



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The root beer was nothing special and I didn't care too much for the eggy things. I had hoped they would have yellow yolks. But they were just vanilla ice cream in a kind of chewy coating. The other goodie was better: like vanilla ice cream in a waffle cone -- only shaped differently:



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I miss seeing these newsstands in Hollywood. In NYC, we just have the little street corner kiosks. But these are much more impressive -- some of the ones in downtown Hollywood are what seems like a block long. Do they exist anywhere outside of L.A.?



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This cute guy, in Glendale I think, was on the roof of an Italian restaurant:



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I wash shooting an old Mobil gas station (the super rare drum type) and the owner had a lot of these vehicles around. He serenaded me with some kind of crazy political, religious, incoherent song as I took my photos:



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I went to shoot another old gas station and a wall made of bottles (which I never did find) in/near Echo Park. There were scary, I mean SCARY, steep hills that had me peeing my pants. I'm glad Sparkle had her brakes done recently. I recommend avoiding Baxter Street at all costs. It might not look so bad in this photo (sorry about the buggy windshield) but really, it was really a white-knuckler.



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Lots of incredible painted wall murals in L.A. -- here are a couple examples:





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OK, so these guys are not "high art" but I still liked them:



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Time for some signs -- far from original condition:









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I'm not sure how old this cute guy in L.A. is. He's at a comic book store:



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And lastly, this impressive sign in the making. I thought they only used vinyl computer-generated signs on big buildings like this now. But from the scaffolding and paint-by-numbers style markings on the wall, it appears they are painting the whole thing:

Day 30: The Valley

I was all over the Valley today, desperately trying to finish that section out. Still a couple hours left for tomorrow though. And then finally onto the meatier parts of L.A. which will take me considerable time: Downtown & south of there, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Westchester. Then I'll do what I can further north for a couple days. But it's now official: no chance for northern CA and I'll have to prioritize the stuff for the long haul home.

I took the dogs to the Laurel Canyon Dog Park today. Huge amount of space for running. Although there is no swimming, this was certainly one of the nicer & biggest parks I've seen. I read that there are often celebrities there with their dogs -- but I didn't notice anybody. Not that I would as I really don't go to movies or watch dramas on TV.

I'm going to keep it short tonight as I'm really beat from staying up extra late last night catching up from my night off. I may get together with some long-lost relatives tomorrow night which might make for a Flickr & Blog-less evening.

On with the photos! This department store had some interesting Mayan and/or Aztec decorations:






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Later in the day, I encountered another interesting building with Mayan and geometric patterns:





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This amusing sign with a giant paper airplane is located near the Van Nuys Airport:



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This midcentury Wells Fargo Bank office tower is giant compared to its surrounding buildings. It's nothing that special otherwise except that there is a huge faded mural on this one side:



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An lastly, an old school stamp shop might just be a personal turn-on. I used to make and sell rubber stamps with a girlfriend for about three years. We had a little business called Detailed Rubber Stamps and did wholesale and retail. I worked my butt off in a dark basement making the stamps in a vulcanizer and cutting/sanding the wooden mounts. Since we were into producing offbeat stuff rather than teddy bears, we barely broke even. Most stamps these days are made cheaply out of photopolymer (plastic) rather than rubber. Stores like this are definitely a vanishing breed:

Days 28 & 29: Commerce, the Beach, the Valley

I had a nice visit last night with a college friend that I haven't seen in over ten years. So now, trying to catch up, I've put a mess of photos over at Flickr and it's time to double-up here. Last I posted, I had taken a tumble and luckily did not break the camera. I, on the other hand, have been hobbling around ever since.

I took the dogs to the Culver City Dog Park yesterday:
http://www.culvercitydogpark.org/main/001_home.cfm

and to the Westminster Off-Leash Dog Park today:
http://www.venicedogpark.org/

Not as much fun as the beach but they're still geting good running in. They've also had non-doggie park romps as well. But I think they're really getting the hang of this lifestyle. They have started not getting up each time I open the car door to take a picture. They're all pretty sleep deprived at this point.

So let's get to the pictures. Forgive me for not including cities for most of these. I do have them buried in my notes somewhere if you want to know where they are. Let's start with some signs. Here's a neat plastic globe:


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I assume this is the Sacramento State Capitol Building on this sign -- although they are all pretty generic aren't they? And why bring it up in Los Angeles?



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A couple Mexican sterotype signs;





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This sweet one is over the entrance to a bar called "The Joker":



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I love this building-as-sign. Pretty nice artwork, no?



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Here's a nice little neon detail on an otherwise now plastic sign:



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There are lots of these hamburger stands around L.A. with busy signage:



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Here are a couple mid-century details from two different buildings:





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Another mystifying shrub -- this one with giant drooping trumpet flowers. Anybody know what this one is called?



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It was kind of depressing to see all the changes and new development in my beloved Santa Monica & Venice. Here's an example of what's happened to Zucky's -- a coffee shop that had been in Santa Monica forever. Now a bank but they incorporated the pylon sign and stonework as a tribute. It's almost more painful to me -- kind of like a taxidermied animal:



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There really is a car culture in Los Angeles. They drive FAST here. In fact, I witnessed a hit-and-run accident today on the Pacific Coast Highway. It seems 3/4 of the cars on the road were built for speed. In Calabasas, it seemed you could buy any high-priced sports car you might dream of owning. Here's a photo from the Lamborghini lot:



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Here's an interesting building that I went to see though it doesn't fit within the confines of my website. The Samitaur ("Stealth") Building is from 1993. There is another building next door (my 3rd photo here, the window shot) that is still under construction (same architect I think). Here's some more about the Samitaur Building:
http://www.architectureweek.com/2000/1011/design_1-1.html







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Lastly for the night, here's an eye-catching display in Venice: