December 2017 Photography
Terror Junior: Just another afternoon in the neighborhood – “Terror Jr.” will be playing at the Roxy tonight, and the exterior of the Roxy is covered in death images – and HBO has those terrifying new building-wraps across the street. All the promotion graphics on the Sunset Strip are full of fear and terror. Something is up, or it’s just another afternoon in the neighborhood. ~ Friday, December 1, 2017
In the Pink: This is December in Hollywood, in the neighborhood gardens. Everything is just fine here. It’s better than fine. ~ Saturday, December 2, 2017
The Street on Drugs: Don’t do drugs. Drugs distort reality. Drugs cause paranoia. Paranoia leads to the madness of conspiracy theory – or, alternatively, to a pleasant detached mellowness. That can go either way – but drugs always lead to strange and fascinating street art. ~ Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Beach City Christmas: Christmas in Santa Monica, the Southern California city filled with wealthy socially-conscious smug “woke” liberals, above the wide Pacific, is always a bit whimsical. Christmas is not a religious holiday here – it’s intentionally more inclusive. And of course the weather is always all wrong for Christmas – sunny and warm. This is a beach city. This is their version of Christmas. ~ Wednesday, December 6, 2017
The Light Today: The Santa Ana winds howling – fires all around – dry as a bone – the faint smell of smoke in the air – but the light at Hollywood and Vine is wonderful – and a bit spooky. ~ Thursday, December 7, 2017
Pacific Smoke: Massive fires everywhere – the worst fires in years – smoke on the water – Santa Monica Bay – Friday, December 8, 2017
December Ornamentation: Forget the Christmas trees all over the place. The real ornamentation is in the December Los Angeles gardens. ~ Saturday, December 9, 2017
Pop Surrealism: The painted white palm trees are all that’s left of a bit of conceptual art from Vincent Lamouroux, the French artist who painted the old Sunset Pacific Motel on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake, and all the trees and bushes around it, a blank dead white back in 2015 – to disrupt the vibrant “commercial landscape” that surrounds it. He did that. That was surreal. But vibrant colors persist, just up the street at the La Luz de Jesus Gallery – the birthplace of pop surrealism – and at Wacko, the attached pop-culture toy shop. Surrealism doesn’t have to be blank. This whole neighborhood is surreal anyway. Even the skies are surreal. ~ Monday, December 11, 2017
The Play of Light: The exterior walls of Paramount Pictures and Raleigh Studios down on Melrose Avenue in the long December light with its deep shadows – this play of light creates a better and more dramatic show than any of the usual desperate movies they’re churning out behind these walls. This light is mesmerizing. ~ Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Not Someplace Else: “I just don’t want to be here anymore.” Sometimes it’s like that out here. The streets turn ominous. ~ Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Winter Walls: Bright winter light on the odd mixture of walls south of Hollywood at La Brea and Melrose – Los Angeles architecture, enhanced – Thursday, December 14, 2017
Winter Pines: Olive Hill – Hollywood in December – the other Hollywood – Hollywood without the people – Friday, December 15, 2017
Sweet Sixteen: No garden should look this good on December 16, but this is Los Angeles. This is Hollywood, Saturday, December 16, 2017.
Harper Avenue Winter: The winter light in the Harper Avenue Historic District, West Hollywood, Monday, December 18, 2017
Women Rise: The culture suddenly changed. The “Silence Breakers” were named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year – those women finally told their stories of sexual assault and harassment. Men who should have lost their jobs for that did lose their jobs for that, finally. Everything is different now, and suddenly the street art is different too. Women rise, finally. This is Melrose Avenue, in this new world. ~ Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Shadow Play: A bright winter day in Los Angeles – the play of light and shadow at Wilshire and Fairfax, Museum Row, will do just fine. ~ Thursday, December 21, 2017
Severe Sunshine: The streets of Hollywood in late December – Hollywood and Vine – the sun and sky and shadows are oddly aggressive. This is high drama. The story being told is unclear. ~ Friday, December 22, 2017
The Darkest Day: That which glows in Los Angeles gardens, one day after the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year, and on the eve of the Christmas Eve. ~ Saturday, December 23, 2017
Insidious Intent: “Streets that follow like a tedious argument of insidious intent to lead you to an overwhelming question… Oh, do not ask, ‘What is it?’ Let us go and make our visit.” – T. S. Eliot was onto something. Some streets are bit scary. This is Santa Monica Boulevard down at the Troubadour – the famous rock club – where now everything seems menacing, where those blue metal hounds now forever chase that blue metal hare, under the eyes of that giant tiger. Let us go and make our visit. ~ Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Downtown Deco: The Eastern Columbia Building – now the Eastern Columbia Lofts – designed by Claud Beelman – South Broadway at Ninth in the Broadway Theater District downtown – opened on September 12, 1930 as the new headquarters for the Eastern Outfitting Company and the Columbia Outfitting Company, a chain of stores founded by Adolph Sieroty. At the time of construction, the City of Los Angeles enforced a height limit of 150 feet, but the decorative clock tower was granted an exemption – and then the stores failed and the building fell into disrepair. On June 23, 2005, the clock tower was reactivated and the KOR Group then completed their two-year eighty-million-dollar renovation of the building – now 147 work-live condominiums – but this is still considered the greatest surviving example of Art Deco architecture in the city. In context, there is a wall of spooky old windows across the street, and a big white restoration in progress next door – but this is still the Queen of the City. ~ Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Old Theater Arts: In the Broadway Theater District of downtown Los Angeles, three theaters from the early twenties – the Orpheum, the Tower Theater, and the Rialto. The past was glorious. ~ Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Weird Fire: “Weird Fire” – that’s what the neon sign in the window says, at the shop on Melrose Avenue where one buys neon signs. But that’s Melrose Avenue at the end of the year. The whole place is lit with a weird fire. ~ Thursday, December 28, 2017
Ending in Malibu: The last Friday of the year in Malibu – Pacific Coast Highway at Big Rock Road – the best way to end a difficult year – the sun on the water makes everything else bearable. ~ Friday, December 29, 2017
Last Light: The last light of 2017 in a Los Angeles garden, Saturday, December 30, 2017
Just Above Sunset 