LA is a desert. Can't tell you when we last saw this sort of weather.
But it is nice for a change.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Rain
LA is a desert. Can't tell you when we last saw this sort of weather.
But it is nice for a change.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Cafe Society
It's probably better known for freeways and fast food, but LA has pockets of street society. Los Feliz is touted as 'walkable'.
Early on a Sunday morning, sidewalk seating awaits customers...
Early on a Sunday morning, sidewalk seating awaits customers...
Sunday, February 9, 2014
A walk round the block
Within five minutes of our place here in Los Feliz is the John Sowden House. Built in 1926 by Frank Lloyd Wright's eldest son, Lloyd, it was used as 'Ava Gardner's house' in the Scorsese film, The Aviator. In the 1940s it was owned by Dr Charles Hodel who, according to one theory (well, that of his son who wrote a book about it) was the Black Dahlia's murderer.
Such is the storied landscape we live in now. The streets and houses have film references. A walk within coo-ee of home is a film buff's adventure.
Turning left into North Kingsley you come across this apartment block which is supposed to be where Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) lives in Double Indemnity.
Such is the storied landscape we live in now. The streets and houses have film references. A walk within coo-ee of home is a film buff's adventure.
Turning left into North Kingsley you come across this apartment block which is supposed to be where Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) lives in Double Indemnity.
'Drop me at the corner of Franklin and Vermont', says Lola Dietrichson
to Neff. And we got excited because that's where we catch the 181. But
in fact, the corner she got dropped off at is Hollywood and Western,
also a stone's throw away.
And then, for something completely different, there's this.
In Australia you're not often reminded of the Dakotas.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Simply look
I often shake my head when I realize how much there is to know in the world. On the weekend at the Autry Museum I saw these books in the giftshop - Blackfoot War Art, there was also Playing Cards of the Navajo...Is there no end to topics?
I remember someone once telling me that it's a 'sin' to be bored. Strong words, but I suspect you have to self-centredly work at it.
I remember someone once telling me that it's a 'sin' to be bored. Strong words, but I suspect you have to self-centredly work at it.
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Metro monologues (although trying to be a conversation)
A conversation overheard on one of the LA Metro Local Lines:
A: ...Oh those motherf$@#$kers are crazy man. They fight. They can't, they can't take their liquor.
B: Anyway, he's getting out tomorrow
A:. They just FIGHT.
B. Fifteen years. That's too long. He's been -
A. I think, I think. They shouldn't drink.
B. Institutionalised.
A. For me? Oh man. 'Hospitalisation'. I took acid.
B. They say -
A. It's got you for life.
B. More women incarcerated in California than men.
A. You can't never get that out of your system. You take a drink, smoke some dope. Wham!
B. Often for drugs.
A. Speed, that's okay. Oh man.
Am I imagining it, or can I see where David Mamet's type of dialogue comes from?
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
The ghosts in these streets
For some reason I find myself thinking about Charlie Chaplin a lot these days. We watched City Lights the other night and I loved its humour, Chaplin's romantic score, and its simple means of creating poignancy. But most of all I loved its backdrop of old LA.
That's one of the treats of living here. The East has a different history - the emergence from Europe, a political history. But here it's the thrill of knowing every so often that you're standing where Chaplin positioned his camera in 1931, walking past the steps that Laurel and Hardy tried to take the piano up in 1932, meeting a guy who lived in the apartment around the corner on North Kingsley where Walter Neff (Fred McMurray) supposedly lived in Double Indemnity.
It's not always an immediate awareness of the ghosts. I passed this building on Wilshire Boulevard a number of times before learning that street level is where the millionaire is supposed to live in City Lights.
That's one of the treats of living here. The East has a different history - the emergence from Europe, a political history. But here it's the thrill of knowing every so often that you're standing where Chaplin positioned his camera in 1931, walking past the steps that Laurel and Hardy tried to take the piano up in 1932, meeting a guy who lived in the apartment around the corner on North Kingsley where Walter Neff (Fred McMurray) supposedly lived in Double Indemnity.
It's not always an immediate awareness of the ghosts. I passed this building on Wilshire Boulevard a number of times before learning that street level is where the millionaire is supposed to live in City Lights.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Sidewalk Scene
As I was walking along one of LA's narrow sidewalks the other day I could hear the conversation of the two guys ambling ahead of me.
"He shot me in the stomach and I flew back 20 feet. So I turned around. I aimed at both his shoulders. I tried to blow out his pelvis and I aimed at his pecker. This is lying down, you know."
Aware that I was fast coming up behind them they stood aside to let me pass, and I heard the bigger guy go on: "I got both his shoulders. I got an inch above his pelvis and half an inch above his pecker."
By then I'd steamed out of earshot.
But what got me, I have to say, is once more that strange American conjunction of violence and courtesy. It does my head in.
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Aware that I was fast coming up behind them they stood aside to let me pass, and I heard the bigger guy go on: "I got both his shoulders. I got an inch above his pelvis and half an inch above his pecker."
By then I'd steamed out of earshot.
But what got me, I have to say, is once more that strange American conjunction of violence and courtesy. It does my head in.
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