First Things First

The cool weather now behind us, the days of summer beckon.  No more school, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks!  This month I've updated quite a few things on the site.  First, Art Deco LA is open for business in 17.  The first installments to Art Deco LA include the Pan-Pacific Auditorium and the Wilshire May Company store.  More additions will come in the coming months.  Second, I've added two pictures to the Color section of Vista Drive.  Coming soon a new addition called American bliss, which will be a page devoted to my opinions on a variety of subjects.  Watch for that in the coming months.  For now, enjoy the update.

Afterthoughts : Cardboard Playhouse

Growing up my family didn't have that much money.  I had very few toys.  I loved the few toys that I had because they were all I had.  I really didn't know that we didn't much because I had all I needed.  Also, I found pleasure in the simple things in life.  In my apartment building there weren't too many places where I could just go and play without running into some of the other tenants.  My room was the place I went to for sanctuary, but often it wasn't enough.  When a tenant would move out the manager of the building would have the apartment cleaned.  I loved walking through the empty apartments.  I imagined that the empty apartment was my place.  I would take some of my favorite Hot Wheels and race them all around the empty apartment.  That pleasure didn't last for long because soon a new tenant would move in.  As some of the appliances in the apartments were old the manager would use a tenant moving out as an excuse to replace the stove, and or the refrigerator, with a newer model.  The boxes that the stoves and refrigerators would come in would be thrown away in the trash bin.  I would often play by the trash bin, and whenever I saw a stove box I would grab it and take it to my front door.  I would then go to the kitchen and get a razor blade, without anyone looking, and a black sharpie.  I would then run outside and draw a doorway and a window on one side of the box.  I was also careful to include a doorbell and a doorknob, drawn of course, on the cardboard.  Following that I would take the razor and cut out the door and the window, and voilà... instant cardboard playhouse.  Once I adorned the outside of the house with a drawn in gable I would move in.  Inside I would draw a TV in one wall and a couch on the other.  Sometimes I would add a desk and a stereo.  The couch and the TV were often enough.  Sometimes I would make the window a picture window, other times I would make it a porthole.  I would sit for hours in my cardboard playhouse, playing with my Hot Wheels or my Legos.  My Mother and my Grandmother would visit me and yell out from the front door that lunch was ready.  Even on a hot day in the middle of the summer I loved sitting in my cardboard playhouse.  When my playhouse got too run down from being outside all day and night my mother would throw it out.  I would then wait and hope for another tenant to move out so I could get a new playhouse.  Refrigerator boxes made for the worst cardboard playhouses.  The first playhouse I made out of a refrigerator box was just not right.  The ceiling was too high.  I never made another playhouse out of a refrigerator box again.  I loved those cardboard playhouses.  That was the most fun I ever had.

Man About Town : Hurray for Hollywood

Hollywood blvd. has been a mecca for people since the advent of the movie industry.  From the 1920s on, Hollywood Blvd. became synonymous with glamour and fame.  However, by the 1970s the boulevard was better known for its collection of shops selling cheap Hollywood trinkets.  You were more likely to run into a three-card monte dealer than a movie star.

Today there is a renaissance happening along the famed boulevard with the opening of several multi-million dollar theaters, and shops.  The latest of these buildings sits on, and is named for, the corners of Hollywood and Highland.  Formally the site of parking lot, and an old office building, the corner now sports a mega complex complete with shops, restaurants, movie theaters and the new home of the Oscars, the Kodak theater.  On the concourse leading up to the entrance of the Kodak theater there are shops flanked by the names of each and every Best Picture winner in Oscar history.  Babylon court is the main area of the complex.  On the side facing away from Hollywood Blvd. is the imposing arc (pictured left) designed to look like a set piece from the 1916 D.W. Griffith film, Intolerance.  It offers a direct view of the Hollywood sign high above on the Hollywood hills.  But, the new Hollywood and Highland complex isn't the only thing to check out on Hollywood Blvd. nowadays.  The El Capitan theater is a Disney owned movie theater where you can see the latest Disney movie in an old fashioned movie palace.  Another of the great movie palaces stands right across the street from El Capitan.  It's the famous Grauman's Chinese theater, which is famous for the forecourt of movie star footprints, as much as for its Chinese inspired art-deco facade.  Just a couple of blocks east the formally rundown Egyptian theater has also been completely renovated.  However, you won't find the latest Hollywood release playing there.  What you will find is an eclectic mix of classic and indie films.  Hollywood Blvd. might not be as glamorous as it once was, but it's sure to surprise all those people who used to know it for the bums and the grifters.  You won't find many of those on the boulevard nowadays.

Etcetera : Speaking of Playhouses

As you may have read earlier on the page, growing up I used to make playhouses out of thrown out appliance boxes.  If I were born rich I would have asked my mother to buy me a playhouse like the ones I've seen on a site named La Petite Maison.  There are some really cool playhouses on this site.  Some of them better than my real house.