November 2017 Photography
At the Empathy Center: At the PETA Empathy Center on Sunset Boulevard at the edge of Echo Park, and there will be art. ~ Thursday, November 30, 2017
Difficult Times: The streets out here on day 313 of the Trump presidency – there’s deep unhappiness in the air, unhappiness with everything. ~ Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Christmas in Hollywood: Hollywood isn’t the place for Christmas – too much sun – too many palm trees – but Hollywood does its best. The Scientologists set up their annual “Winter Wonderland” with the usual big tree and all the fake snow, but no Jesus of course. The city wraps the lamp posts in secular but seasonal ribbons and bows. And the Jesus People march around urging everyone to repent – not likely in Hollywood. Coptic Christians can always drop by the old Grauman’s Egyptian Theater. This is an approximation of Christmas. ~ Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Wilshire Courtyard: Wilshire Courtyard – 5700 Wilshire Boulevard – 1987, building architect McLarand Vasquez – the offices of E! Entertainment, Daily Variety, Initiative Media, 20th Century Fox Television Animation, Spelling Entertainment, the Los Angeles Business Journal, EMI (Virgin Records, Capital Records), the Oprah Winfrey Network, and so on and so forth. It’s just another office park, but there’s no such thing here in Hollywood. Everything is “dramatic” out here, even the office buildings. And it’s across the street from a union hall – the big white SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) skyscraper – and next door to the curious Los Angeles Crafts and Folk Art Museum. It’s all dramatic out here. ~ Monday, November 27, 2017
Abundance: A Los Angeles garden – Thanksgiving weekend – everything in abundance – as it should be. ~ Saturday, November 25, 2017
Somewhere Cool: Ninety-five in Hollywood, twenty-three degrees above normal – a new record high for the day before Thanksgiving – so it was off to Echo Park Lake. It’s always cool there, very cool. ~ Wednesday, November 22, 2017
November Zen: At Melrose and Crescent Heights, a Buddha and an angry black man, the walls of dead comics at the Improv, a giant threatening Marilyn Monore – and the blank pink and blue and Art Deco walls under mysterious skies. It’s a bit of Hollywood November Zen. ~ Monday, November 20, 2017
Autumn Roses: In the public gardens in Beverly Hills, the formal roses for the season – and a bit more – Saturday, November 18, 2017
Mulholland Drive November: No one knew what to make of David Lunch’s 2001 movie “Mulholland Drive” – one critic called it “offense against narrative order, an intoxicating liberation from sense, with moments of feeling all the more powerful for seeming to emerge from the murky night world of the unconscious.” The actual Mulholland Drive, high above Hollywood, is like that in November. ~ Friday, November 17, 2017
Lighting Beverly Hills: A bandstand in the middle of Rodeo Drive – setting up for the big event – the night they turn on all the Christmas lights on Rodeo Drive, perhaps the most exclusive and expensive street of shops in the world. The theme this year is “Bold Holiday” – whatever that means. Christmas is a bit odd out here. But forget the Christmas lights. The natural light is more fascinating. ~ Thursday, November 16, 2017
Hidden on Sunset: The obscure blocks of Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, between the massive Church of the Blessed Sacrament and the once-famous Hollywood Athletic Club, now vacant – where one finds all sorts of curious details – the old wrought iron and the new glass towers – and the street art around the Sound Factory, the recording studio that gave the nation Prince and the Beach Boys and all the rest. The neighborhood is anchored by the Crossroads of the World, the whimsical shopping center from the thirties. There are a lot of curious things hidden here. ~ Wednesday, November 15, 2017
A Bit Retro: This end of Los Angeles looking a bit retro – at La Brea and First, a chopped and channeled shiny black retro gangster low-rider parked amid the Art Deco buildings from the late twenties, just down the street from Nick Metropolis’ outdoor prop shop with its collection of debris from the past – and there’s appropriate street art too. ~ Tuesday, November 14, 2017
The Monday Reset: Another Monday on Melrose Avenue – time for the usual Monday Reset – fresh paint – Monday, November 13, 2017
Bee Country: It may be early November, with winter on the way, elsewhere, but here in Los Angeles it’s a garden full of bees. ~ Saturday, November 11, 2017
The Decorative Arts: Wilshire Boulevard at Robertson in Beverly Hills – a visual feast – an unsettling visual feast – Friday, November 10, 2017
Beverly Hills Glass: The future is here. It’s a bit off-putting. This is the west end of Beverly Hills – big glass medical offices and banks – an intimidating place. ~ Friday, November 10, 2017
Unsettling Skies: Los Angeles can be a bit unsettling. The early November skies over the Sunset Strip are unsettling. The light here can be strange. ~ Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Complicated Metal: New at the Beverly Hills Municipal Courthouse on Burton Way – “World on Its Hind Legs” – William Kentridge (1955 -) – the South African artist from Johannesburg who also studied mime and theater in Paris in the eighties. It’s complicated, and it’s next to the very orange “Sisyphus, 1985” – Alexander Liberman (1912-1999) – one of his scaled compositions constructed from discarded tank drums, boiler heads, giant pipes, and steel beams. That’s been there on Burton Way for a few years. It’s also complicated – but things are always complicated at the courthouse. ~ Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Local Saturated Color: There are no glorious fall colors in Los Angeles. The leaves don’t change. Palm trees don’t have leaves. The glorious fall colors are on the local walls. ~ Monday, November 6, 2017
Thirty-Five November: Thirty-five ways of looking at a Los Angeles garden as November begins – Saturday, November 4, 2017
Hollywood Illusions: Illusionists under glass at Hollywood Boulevard and Hudson – next door to The Escape Hotel – next door to Frieda at the tattoo shop – across the street from Hollywood Toy and Costume with its big spider. Hollywood is an illusion. ~ Friday, November 3, 2017
Hollywood Blues: Friday afternoon on Hollywood Boulevard – the blues are good. They make the place. ~ Friday, November 3, 2017
Low Tide: November out here at the end of America – Venice Beach – low tide – low clouds – Thursday, November 2, 2017
Korean Skies: The first day of November in the heart of Los Angeles’ Koreatown – the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue – Los Angeles looks quite Asian here – and what isn’t yet Asian in the neighborhood looks menacing and mysterious. It’s the November skies. ~ Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Just Above Sunset 