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Photo Essays

Pasadena’s Windy Malady Lingers On

Life in Angel City

The aftermath of Wednesday night’s Santa Anas lingers on in Pasadena, which was hit hard by the blusters. This morning I came across the above scene at the intersection of Foothill Blvd. and Altadena Drive: Cleanup from a triple-car collision caused in part by a pair of non-functioning signals that were both snapped in two [...]

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Detail Shot: If Gates Could Talk…

Life in Angel City

The entry gate of an old Hollywood estate near Runyon Canyon. When practicing my photography, I try to look for subjects that suggest a story. Somehow these rustic doors caught my imagination: How long have they stood? Which historic names, if any, have passed through them? What momentous events have they witnessed over time? Who [...]

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An Out-of-This-World Moonsuit

Odds and Ends

The year was 1960 when NASA development engineer Allyn B. “Hap” Hazard donned his stellar design creation to take a runway strut around Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
According to the Kevitivity blog, where I stumbled across this vintage photo, the goofy suit was the inspiration for Mattel’s Major Matt Mason, the action figure for Space [...]

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Grave Controversy Continues at La Plaza

Cryptic L.A.

Novena candles glow gently in the courtyard of Los Angeles’ Old Plaza Church. They seem a fitting enough symbol, given news a little over a week ago that construction crews working on a new LA Plaza de Cultura y Arte recently unearthed numerous remains of our city’s founding families.
The ensuing chaos has become a slapstick [...]

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The Lights Are On in Hastings Ranch!

Life in Angel City

Well, sort of… With the rain pouring and the troubled economy encouraging drastic energy conservation, the annual Upper Hastings Ranch Light Up seems more of a hit-or-miss event this year.
Driving through the soggy Pasadena enclave during a 10 p.m. deluge, I saw plenty of houses wired up with lights and displays, but few were actually [...]

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Detail Shot: Million Dollar Bison

Angeleno Sights

A close-up of the many bison and gargoyle reliefs adorning the old Metropolitan Water District (MWD) headquarters at 307 S. Broadway, Los Angeles. Designed by architect Albert C. Martin and dating to 1917, the MWD tower was part of the Million Dollar Theater complex, which also housed Edison Co. offices. The fanciful sculptures are the [...]

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Time Warp: Hollywoodland’s Immortal Gates

Angeleno Sights

Brand spanking new 87 years ago, the Hollywoodland real estate development welcomes a handful of vintage automobiles through its Beachwood Canyon gates in this 1923 Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) digital archives photo. Likely carrying property buyers, the cars are parked outside the new neighborhood’s sales headquarters.
Although not visible, the world-famous “Hollywoodland” Sign loomed over [...]

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SoCal Kitsch: Pink Panther Muffler Man

Odds and Ends

Muffler sculptures are a staple of auto garages everywhere, but thanks to our Car Culture, they’re especially ubiquitous here in Southern California.
As an art form, more often than not they lack imagination, frequently resembling uninspired robots or clunky mechanical aliens. When you come across one that’s truly whimsical — like this Pink Panther near the [...]

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Then and Now: Temple City’s Lost Theater

Angeleno Sights

Opened circa 1940 and named for land developer and Temple City founder Walter P. Temple, this proud single-screen theater once stood on the corner of Rosemead and Las Tunas Blvds. Seating 750, it was designed by S. Charles Lee, a prolific Southern California architect with more than 70 movie houses to his credit, almost all [...]

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That’s Our Lady: Needing a Hand in Echo Park

Angeleno Sights

Though locals call her “Our Lady of the Lake,” this WPA-commissioned statue overlooking Echo Park Lake was actually entitled Nuestra Reina de Los Angeles (Our Queen of the Angels) when designed in 1934 by Ada Mae Sharpless.
In this Art Deco depiction, our city’s patroness stands atop a pedestal featuring iconic reliefs of the harbor, City [...]

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What a Difference a Doggie Year Makes

Life in Angel City

Back in August this blog introduced Diablo, “my cute little puppy from hell.”
Mischievous and troublesome from the moment he arrived home, the black-and-tan Dobie was a replacement for my irreplaceable red Doberman, Ramses, who died much too young this past summer. (To this day, I still miss him.)
“Little Diablo” hailed from a European sire who [...]

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Winter Wonderland, SoCal-Style

Life in Angel City

The return of these tumbleweed snowmen to Stadium Way can only mean one thing: It’s officially Christmas time in the City of Angels.
It’s amusing how ingrained the concept of a White Christmas is in our pop culture. Even here, at the edge of the Mojave Desert, these are the lengths we’ll go to in “recreating” [...]

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A Tale of Two City Murals

Life in Angel City

It’s either the best of wall art or it’s the worst of wall art, depending upon your perspective. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But if you ever needed a demonstration of the self-evident principle that murals mirror the life and cultural assumptions of their respective communities, this is it.
This first [...]

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L.A. in Quotes: An Ironic Reflection on the River

Angeleno Sights

“The Los Angeles River was a beautiful, limpid little stream with willows on its banks….it was so attractive to me that it at once became something about which my whole scheme of life was woven. I loved it so much.” — William Mulholland, 1855-1935.
You have to admit there’s a certain irony to this quote. Thanks [...]

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Detail Shot: Frogtown Garden Gate

Life in Angel City

A colorful gate to a community garden catches the morning sun in the Elysian Valley’s Frogtown neighborhood. Just a block or two from the river, this is one of the nicest community gardens I’ve ever stumbled across. Everything is very neatly arranged and tidy, with a well-maintained brick path leading past a variety of fruit [...]

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Blightseeing: Down by the L.A. Riverside

Life in Angel City

Ride along the Glendale Narrows Bike Path to its southern terminus, and you’ll find these colorful, life-size scribblings “decorating” a Golden State Freeway overpass of the L.A. River.
Similar graffiti graces another bridge approach just beyond the bikeway (left).
So how should we label these taggings? Guerilla art or urban blight?
To me, graffiti is like a paisley [...]

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That’s Our Lady at 6th and Union Drive

Angeleno Sights

Time now for the second installment in this blog’s occasional That’s Our Lady photo series, bringing you random depictions of Our Lady of the Angels from throughout the region.
Yes, I know that technically this colorful mural at 6th and Union Drive represents Our Lady of Guadalupe, but I don’t mind stretching the series definition to [...]

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L.A. in Quotes: Wigging Out to the Hollywood Plastics

Life in Angel City

“I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They’re beautiful. Everybody’s plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.”
– Andy Warhol (1928-1987).
Thanks to out-of-town guests, I’ve been spending a lot of time around Tinseltown lately. For some reason this dingy wig shop along Hollywood Blvd. struck me as the perfect illustration for Warhol’s quote. [...]

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Driveby Shot: Hollywood’s Celebrity Pawnbrokers

Life in Angel City

I don’t know why this pawn shop’s tagline amuses me, but it does. Guess everyone’s falling on hard times nowadays, including our Movieland elite.
Located at the corner of Melrose and Cahuenga, Brothers Collateral is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week for all your celebrity liquidation and/or collectible shopping needs.
According to a [...]

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Driveby Shot: Crossroads of the World

Angeleno Sights

Now an office building, Sunset Blvd.’s Crossroads of the World opened in 1936 as L.A.’s first themed shopping mall. (Many believe it’s America’s first such mall as well.)
The shipshape design was the brainchild of Robert V. Derrah, well known for his Streamline Moderne Coca Cola building across town on Central Avenue.
Here at Crossroads, a twirling [...]

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