Moved

We've moved to Los Feliz, the center of Los Angeles' film industry in the Silent Era. A typical street:

Charlie Chaplin lived about 2 o'clock in the direction this photograph faces several streets away, next door to Cecil B. DeMille. Walt Disney first drew Mickey Mouse in his uncle and aunt's house down the hill to the left and a bit over, in what is now a photocopy shop.

Realtors describe this area as 'New York walkable'. You can encounter sidewalk cafes, cinemas and theaters on an evening stroll. But I always think of Los Angeles as a series of villages dotted around the place and this is 1920s LA, conceived before cars took over. To the east (10 o'clock in this photograph) is Little Armenia and Thai Town. No wonder John Adams described Los Angeles as one of the most ethnically-diverse cities in the world.   

But we seem to have left behind the intense Hispanic-ness of the San Fernando Valley, the bilingual signage (if you don't take the bus and train). As a tribute to the Valley, I'll finish this blog with a photographic sequence. America's Religious Right considers Los Angeles "Sodom and Gomorrah". But I noticed a lot of Catholicism over there.

In the Valley, you could almost become an expert in images of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The patron saint of Mexico is everywhere

Even on supermarket shelves