March 2019 Photography
March Madness: Things are getting out of hand. This is what Los Angeles gardens look like at the end of March. ~ Saturday, March 30, 2019
A Painted Lady: The old Art Deco office building on North La Brea changed hands again. Now it’s turquoise and hot pink. The workers painting the thing say they think it’s going to be a museum – but they’re not sure. They’re just painting the old lady – but she will be fine right there, across the street from Pink’s – the famous hot dog stand where Hollywood celebrities drop by all the time. That’s always been a colorful corner. ~ Friday, March 29, 2019
The Weekday Beach: This is simply California, the north end of Manhattan Beach in the middle of the week when everyone else is at work. This is what they’re missing. ~ Thursday, March 28, 2019
Beach Eclectic: Anything goes on the Strand. These are the last houses on the Strand at the north end of Manhattan Beach. Those who live here all have different ideas on how best to live facing the wide ocean. Some choose irony. Some choose geometry. ~ Thursday, March 28, 2019
A Stir of Echoes: This is Echo Park. “A Stir of Echoes” is that 1958 novel by Richard Matheson, about a guy suddenly hearing the private thoughts of the people around him and learning what he never wanted to know, and then he gets messages from the dead. He’s overwhelmed. He goes mad. Kevin Bacon plays that guy in the 1999 film – and sometimes Echo Park is like that book and that movie. ~ Tuesday, March 26, 2019
That Kid: The kid with the camera is back. This is Mr. Brainwash again – the French-born, Los Angeles-based street artist Thierry Guetta. He’s from Garges-lès-Gonesse – a suburb just north of Paris. But he’s ours now. And this kid with the camera is his signature image, his icon. That’s because there’s so much to see out here in Los Angeles. ~ Monday, March 25, 2019
Glowing: Spring in Los Angeles can be a bit dark. The days are overcast – the marine layer just won’t lift – but that’s okay. The gardens glow in the dark. ~ Saturday, March 23, 2019
Off the Boulevard: There are strange things in the small streets and dark alleys just off Hollywood Boulevard, where the tourists never go. That’s for the best. This isn’t for them. ~ Friday, March 22, 2019
Down Topanga: Topanga Canyon – spring rain – the drive from the Inn of the Seventh Ray – up top – down and down and down to Pacific Coast Highway – Malibu and Catalina in the distance. ~ Thursday, March 21, 2019
The Vernal Equinox: This was the day winter ended and spring began, at 2:58 PM here in Los Angeles. The skies were unsettled – storm clouds out east at dawn and dramatic backlit clouds all day down on the Sunset Strip, reflected in the glass at the Directors Guild of America building at Hayworth. So, this is spring now. ~ Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Fogged In: The sun never came out. The lagoon not far from the big hanger in Culver City where Howard Hughes built the Spruce Goose – his giant seaplane that flew once in 1947 and that was that. The hanger is gone. These guys are still around. And no one misses the sun. ~ Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Gender Issues: All women are warriors. Courage knows no gender. Sometimes she’s always right. Something is up. The street art is finally about women. ~ Monday, March 18, 2019
Back At It: The months of rain are over. The endless sunshine is back. Endless summer is back. And the local gardens are back, in full force. California is California again. ~ Saturday, March 16, 2019
Amazing Stories: The walls tell stories, which are mostly mysteries. The fresh paint is a promo for a new ironic superhero comedy – SHAZAM! The dramatic hand-painted images here may outlast that movie. And there’s that odd fence with the mysterious geometric figures. That must mean something. The giant black-and-white roses must mean something too. There are amazing stories here. There must be. There must be. ~ Friday, March 15, 2019
The Life of Trees: The world is a mess. Getting old is a drag. Taxes are due soon. There are too many tourists in Hollywood. Why is the car making that noise? But there are the trees. Drive over to Griffith Park and point the Nikon at the trees. There, that’s better. Trees are good. ~ Thursday, March 14, 2019
Marble Halls: White marble government halls are meant to intimidate the government’s citizens. They do – the federal court house at Main and Temple in Los Angeles, and Los Angeles City Hall next door. ~ Monday, March 11, 2019
The Extended Family: Los Angeles City Hall East – the newer annex downtown – and its two 1971 Millard Sheets murals “The Family of Man” – because this is Los Angeles – Monday, March 11, 2019
The Psychedelic Nickelodeon: Triforium, a sixty-foot high, sixty-ton concrete sculpture, mounted with Venetian glass prisms, light bulbs, and an internal carillon, at the Los Angeles Mall Civic Center complex, was a mistake. The mall’s architect, Robert Stockwell, commissioned artist Joseph Young to create the sculpture, and it was installed in 1975. Young’s original plans called for a kinetic sculpture, which would use motion sensors and a computer controlled system to detect and translate the motions of passersby into patterns of light and sound displayed by the Venetian glass prisms and carillon. Young predicted that his public artwork would eventually become known as “the Rosetta Stone of art and technology” – and it didn’t work very well. And people hated it. They called it the Psychedelic Nickelodeon and Three Wishbones in Search of a Turkey, but it was too expensive to fix and too expensive to tear down. It just sat there for years. And it’s still there, along with that totem pole and that pagoda. That’s Los Angeles. ~ Monday, March 11, 2019
Subtle Pleasures: Rain and then more rain – this is the wettest winter in Los Angeles in decades. But that’s fine. Now the local gardens are subtle, not garish. Los Angeles is not a subtle place, but at the moment it is. ~ Saturday, March 9, 2019
High Seas: Cold steady gale-force winds straight down from the Gulf of Alaska ripping across Santa Monica Bay – small craft warning – riptide warning – no one in the water – this is spring in Los Angeles. ~ Friday, March 8, 2019
Visiting the Gulls: Hitchcock was wrong. Gulls are good. They bring calm. Visit them more often. ~ Friday, March 8, 2019
Take the Stairs: There are new stairs in the neighborhood. They lead to the sky. They lead to many odd places. They lead to mystery. ~ Thursday, March 7, 2019
A Garden Party: That time Alexander Calder met Henry Moore in a Los Angeles garden and a bunch of their friends dropped by – the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Monday, March 4, 2019
Art Light: Winter sunshine at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Rodin figures seem a bit uncomfortable. ~ Monday, March 4, 2019
Out of the Past: A slow steady rain all day – the streets flooded and all the gardens bedraggled – so no new Los Angeles roses for Saturday, March 2, 2019 – just these memories from the archives –
Among the Dead: Marilyn Monroe is here – the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary – a small hidden cemetery full of the most famous of dead celebrities, tucked away among the skyscrapers along the Wilshire corridor in Westwood, just south of the giant UCLA campus. Few know that this is here but everyone seems to be here – even Frank Zappa – even if his grave as unmarked, as he asked. Others had a bit of fun. But the place is a bit spooky. Those skyscrapers stand like giant tombstones and the skies are odd. This is what it feels like to be among the dead. ~ Friday, March 1, 2019
Just Above Sunset 