The last days of May here in Southern California, from 2015 to 2020, from the archives –
Dancers in the Dark (35 images): A low-light late-spring day in Los Angeles – the sun came out in late afternoon, for a few minutes, before the gloom off the Pacific rolled back in. But in the egrets were dancing in the odd darkness down at the Bellona Lagoon by the airport. The ducks watched from the lawn and, on the other side of the sand dunes, the gulls were napping on the empty beach. There was one surfer, and the airliners roared on out, headed elsewhere. ~ Tuesday, May 26, 2015
The Weight of the Past (44 images): Tourists in the middle of Hollywood probably shouldn’t look up. The Chinese Theater, the El Capitan, the old bank, the Roosevelt Hotel – the dramatic architecture of the past is intimidating now. There are ghosts. This will scare the kids. Don’t look at the details. They’re frightening. ~ Thursday, May 28, 2015
Mystery Skies (25 images): An odd day in late May here in Hollywood – dark mysterious clouds all day that seemed even more mysterious over the Griffith Observatory, where that famous James Dean movie opens and closes. ~ Wednesday, May 25, 2016
A Hollywood Afternoon (30 images): Just another Friday afternoon on Hollywood Boulevard, where American popular culture implodes – Friday, May 27, 2016
Memory Day (30 images): Memorial Day at the local prop shop out here in Hollywood – it’s all memories, of something or other. ~ Monday, May 30, 2016
The Saint on the Cliff (30 images): Palisades Park on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica – where Saint Monica hangs out – Friday, May 26, 2017
California Avenue (35 images): California Avenue at Fourth Street in Santa Monica – Art Deco meets Big Glass – the past and the present side by side – Friday, May 26, 2017
Dark Village Streets (40 images): The village is Los Feliz – just east of Hollywood, hidden below Griffith Park – where the young Hollywood stars hang out. It’s hip. It’s also a dark place, at least on a day of low clouds and no sun at all. ~ Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Remembering (35 images): Memorial Day 2018 – Los Angeles – 88,000 military graves – Veterans Avenue at Wilshire Boulevard – Monday, May 28, 2018
Walking Backwards (40 images): Tall palm trees – mysterious skies – early twentieth-century California Craftsman bungalows – Sunset Square – this was Hollywood after the orange groves and before the silent movies. ~ Thursday, May 31, 2018
Nap Time (35 images): The ducks and geese at Echo Park Lake took the afternoon off. They decided to nap next to the lotus blossoms, the right thing to do on a fine May afternoon. ~ Friday, May 24, 2019
Up Top (45 images): After a weekend of rain the storms were gone, leaving Los Angeles and Hollywood washed clean, with the last of the clouds slowly drifting out to sea. That’s the kind of day to drive over to the Griffith Observatory – the one that’s in all the movies – and catch the transition, from up top, over Hollywood and over Los Angeles. The transition back to brutal sunshine is always spooky. ~ Monday, May 27, 2019
Blue Terra Cotta (40 images): It was time for another visit – the place is addictive – the Wiltern Theater and Pellissier Building, 3780 Wilshire Boulevard at Western Avenue – Stiles O. Clements and G. Albert Lansburgh, 1931 – shabby now, but still evocative of Los Angeles long ago, the lost city that once was. ~ Thursday, May 30, 2019
Hollywood Heroics (40 images): Memorial Day in Hollywood – the heroic Yucca-Vine Tower, 1928, by the architectural firm of Gogerty and Weyl – 6305-09 Yucca Street at Vine – now the main campus of the AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts, the American Musical and Dramatic Academy – and the old Knickerbocker Hotel on Ivar – every Halloween Houdini’s widow held a séance on the roof, to chat with her late husband once again, but he never showed up – and new golden doors of the very old Avalon Theater on Vine – and the mysterious back wall of the Equitable Building at Hollywood and Vine – facing the now lonely jazz people on the south wall of the Capitol Records building. There’s no one around. ~ Monday, May 25, 2020
Ghost Faces (35 images): Dennis Hopper used to live in Venice Beach. Jim Morrison used to live in Venice Beach. Venice Beach used to be cool. Now it’s just these ghost faces on Main Street near the traffic circle at Windward. The past is heavy here. ~ Thursday, May 28, 2020
Big Dogs and a Flamingo (30 images): This is Main Street at Horizon Avenue in Venice Beach, two surreal painted houses with giant dogs – doghouses, actually – and that liquor store on the corner with its giant flamingo, and much more. Don’t stand on this corner too long. It’s too easy to get lost in another world. It might be hard to get back. ~ Thursday, May 28, 2020
Just Above Sunset 