High on Sunset
Topic: Oddities
At a head shop on Sunset Boulevard, on Guitar Row, next to Mesa/Boogie (the "Home of Tone"), Thursday, September 7, the afternoon before the full moon was to rise - neon, sunshine, reflections - the sixties lives on… 
Madness above…
And this was parked just down the street, or maybe it wasn't -
Don't worry, an angel watches over it all (Project Angel Food - 7574 Sunset Boulevard).
Hollywood Twilight
Topic: Historic Hollywood
This is a bit of delving into the past, cleaning up photos taken with the old Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) - before the Nikon. These are from September 2004, documenting how Hollywood has faded.
The pastel globe at the old RKO Hollywood Studios, 780 Gower Avenue, at Melrose, now owned by CBS Paramount Television. The Fred Astaire - Ginger Rodgers movies were filmed here, including "Flying Down to Rio." RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) Pictures was formed in October 1928 as a combination of the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) theater chains, Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) studio, and RCA Photophone, the new sound-on-film division of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). First under the majority ownership of RCA, in later years it was taken over by maverick industrialist Howard Hughes and finally by the General Tire and Rubber Company. The original RKO Pictures ceased production in 1957 and was out of business as of 1960. There's a complete corporate history here. It's wild. But the glory days are long gone. 
In Hollywood,
the Hollywood Tower apartments on Franklin Avenue -
The plaque by the front door reads: HOLLYWOOD TOWER. 1929. SOPHISTICATED LIVING FOR FILM LUMINARIES DURING THE "GOLDEN AGE" OF HOLLYWOOD. PLACED ON THE REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES BY THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR.
No one remembers who actually lived here. They remember the classic episode from the Twilight Zone concerning the building, and what Disney
did with that -
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, more commonly known as Tower of Terror, is a simulated freefall thrill ride at Disney-MGM Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Florida and at Disney's California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California. It is based upon the television show The Twilight Zone. The Disney-MGM Studios ride opened in 1994 and the California Adventure version in 2004.
As part of the "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" celebration, another Tower of Terror attraction will open at Tokyo DisneySea in Japan (2006), and later at Walt Disney Studios in France (2008). The Tokyo DisneySea version of Tower of Terror will not have a Twilight Zone theme.
The ride is themed to resemble the fictional Hollywood Tower Hotel. The storyline of the ride is that on October 31, 1939, the hotel was struck by lightning, transporting an elevator car full of passengers to the Twilight Zone. The exterior of the ride resembles an old hotel with a blackened scorch mark across the front of the façade where the lightning destroyed part of the building.
No blackened scorch mark across the front of the façade of the original. It's not very scary. Apartments are available. October 31st, Halloween, isn't that far off. Maybe there'll be storms and lightning this year. You never know.
Words
Topic: Oddities
On a lamppost, Melrose Avenue, 18 August 2006 - 
Faded Stars
Topic: Historic Hollywood
There will be more photography late Monday evening or Tuesday. The Labor Day weekend calls for a trip south, down San Diego way, to join the family for some relaxing - away from the computer and all that. It's a small vacation, but it will do.
The from-the-ground-up redesign of the weekly magazine-style Just Above Sunset was exhausting. But that is done, and the new issue has been posted. Time to relax.
As a parting shot, or shots, detail of one of the Hollywood murals - Delores Del Rio on a wall on Hudson at Hollywood Boulevard, still dancing with Fred Astaire (you no doubt remember the movie). 
Across the street? Get your Star Burgers.
Reference shot - the Delores Del Rio mural on Hudson at Hollywood Boulevard -
Natural Abstracts
The wall of a tattoo parlor on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard - these needed no fancy processing. They're just abstracts. They tell no story. But they are reasonably strong compositions.
This was Friday, September 1 - 1:30 in the afternoon, shooting straight up into a cloudless sky on an excruciatingly sunny day. 
