May 2018 Photography
The latest galleries at the sister site Just Above Sunset Photography –
Walking Backwards: 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
Retro Pop Art: Andy Warhol is dead – no more soup cans – and the sixties are over. No, they’re not. Pop Art lives on, slightly modified. It’s in the streets of Los Angeles now – for now. In a week or two it will be something else. ~ Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Remembering: Memorial Day 2018 – Los Angeles – 88,000 military graves – Veterans Avenue at Wilshire Boulevard – Monday, May 28, 2018
Late May Close-Ups: May is ending. These Hollywood characters in the garden are ready for their close-ups. ~ Saturday, May 26, 2018
Scum and Villainy: Memorial Day weekend – there’s a new bar on Hollywood Boulevard – the Scum and Villainy Cantina. There’s something in the air. Many see scum and villainy everywhere. They’re probably right. It’s not just Hollywood. ~ Friday, May 25, 2018
Forsaken: A forsaken stretch of Sunset Boulevard at the edge of Hollywood – the hot and intense glamour was never real. In the end, the sexiness was seedy. There’s only emptiness – but a stunning emptiness. ~ Thursday, May 24, 2018
Americana: Screaming Eagle – Pico Boulevard at Crest Drive – West Los Angeles – Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Morning Lotus: Early morning in Echo Park – the quiet time before the rest of Los Angeles wakes up – there are the Lotus beds, and the waterfowl, not a bit concerned with the traffic picking up out on Sunset Boulevard. The sun will blast the clouds away in a few hours. Los Angeles will wake up. That’s a shame. ~ Tuesday, May 22, 2018
The Dark Side: A night of mist and light rain will do it. This is Melrose Avenue on a dark and mysterious morning. This is the dark side of Hollywood. ~ Monday, May 21, 2018
A Bit Understated: There’s no need to be flashy, even in Hollywood. This garden proves that. ~ Saturday, May 19, 2018
Subtle May Gray: May Gray – Ocean Park – low-altitude stratus clouds form over the cold water of the California Current, and the even colder Catalina eddy, and spread overnight into the coastal regions, and all day it’s overcast skies and sometimes fog – but never rain. The sun may or may not come out in late afternoon, for a moment. This goes on all month and then it’s more of the same – June Gloom – but it’s all quite photogenic. ~ Friday, May 18, 2018
Heaven or Hell: “Where are you going, heaven or hell?” A breezy weekday afternoon on Hollywood Boulevard – the Jesus People were there with their signs, asking that question, again. The tourists ignore them. They knew where they were going. This is Hollywood. This is both heaven and hell. ~ Thursday, May 17, 2018
The Proper Trees: The tree-lined street is North Orange Grove Avenue just off Sunset Boulevard. Hollywood needs tree-lined streets. John Carpenter’s 1978 horror movie “Halloween” was filmed on this block. Annie (Nancy Kyes) is babysitting at 1537 North Orange Grove Avenue. Her friend Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) is babysitting across the street at 1530 North Orange Grove Avenue. Bad things happen. The houses are still there. The trees are still there. They were and still are the proper trees. ~ Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Real Worlds: Okay, it’s not the real world – Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, the new white Broad Museum, Frank Gehry’s iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall, and across the street, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art with its pyramid skylights. This all seems unreal, but it’s real enough. ~ Monday, May 14, 2018
The Shining City: The Shining City is Los Angeles on a breezy spring afternoon. ~ Monday, May 14, 2018
Glowing in the Dark: Don’t visit Los Angeles in May. It’s the marine layer. The sun doesn’t come out until late afternoon, for a few minutes, and then the low dark clouds roll in off the Pacific again. Visit Los Angeles in May. The gardens glow in the dark. ~ Saturday, May 12, 2018
Hollywood Exercise: Hollywood before Pilates and CrossFit and all the rest was a different place – the Hollywood Athletic Club from the early thirties – actually a social club for the stars at the time – and the massive YMCA from the late twenties – surrounded by a bit of Spanish Revival and a bit of Art Deco. The day was dark. The past has gone dark. ~ Friday, May 11, 2018
Wigged Out: The middle of Hollywood on a dark afternoon can wig you out. ~ Friday, May 11, 2018
Dark and Light: The past was dark – the past was bright – side by side on Waring Avenue between Las Palmas and Cherokee, not far from Paramount Pictures Studios, two apartment buildings from the thirties – a menacing dark brick Georgian edifice and a bright white Spanish Mission Revival complex. One is despair. The other is serene. One can still live in one, or the other. ~ Thursday, May 10, 2018
Playing in the Streets: Los Angeles is a visual feast. Melrose Avenue is a visual feast. Melrose Avenue is a visual playground. Come out and play. ~ Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Dancing Walls: A new ballerina from Anthony Lister – the famous Australian-born street artist – Brisbane by way of the Queensland College of Art – then New York and now Los Angeles – and this might be a tribute to Misty Copeland – the young black kid from San Pedro, down by the harbor. She’s now the biggest ballet star in the world – or this might be just another ballerina. All of the walls down there – La Brea south of Wilshire – dance in their own way. ~ Monday, May 7, 2018
Cinco de Mayo: Cinco de Mayo here Los Angeles – everyone is partying – but the real celebration is in the local gardens. ~ Saturday, May 5, 2018
Bookish: There’s a good bookstore on Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz Village, just east of Hollywood, nestled under Griffith Park – but that makes sense. Raymond Chandler lived here for a time, and so did Will and Ariel Durant, and so did Howard Hughes and Shepard Fairey, oddly enough. So did Marilyn Monroe – she attended kindergarten at Dorris Place Elementary School – and Mickey Mouse was “born” in Los Feliz. Walt Disney drew his version of him in the garage of his uncle’s house on Kingswell Avenue, just off Vermont. Los Feliz Village is full of celebrities now, but it’s still a quiet bookish place. ~ Friday, May 4, 2018
Distilled Venice: Venice Beach stripped down to the essentials – starting at the basketball courts where they filmed “White Men Can’t Jump” – and white men still can’t jump. But that doesn’t matter. Venice Beach is about other things. ~ Thursday, May 3, 2018
Getting Around Venice: The bicycles and shoes of Venice Beach – and more – there are lots of ways to get around down at Venice Beach. ~ Thursday, May 3, 2018
A Rock Walk: Acculturation – learning to fit in – is hard. It’s even harder in Hollywood. There’s Hollywood’s Rock Walk on Sunset Boulevard at Vista Street, in the middle of Guitar Row, with all the shops where everyone in the music industry out here gets their gear. It’s the center of Hollywood’s rock culture. It’s also a different world. Walk around. But don’t even try to fit in. ~ Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Dark Too: May in Los Angeles opened with dark skies all day and sputters of light rain – no sun – not the way the month should begin. A parking lot down on Melrose Avenue – it was appropriately dark too. ~ Tuesday, May 1, 2018
Just Above Sunset 