Just Above Sunset Photography

Saturday, 25 March 2006

Georgia O'Keeffe
Topic: Light and Shadow

Georgia O'Keeffe

South African calla lily, Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, UCLA campus, Westwood, California

Were those paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe provocative in some Freudian way? If a cigar is only a cigar, then a calla lily is only a calla lily.

See Georgia O'Keefe and the Calla Lily in American Art, 1860-1940, Barbara Buhler Lynes, Yale University Press (October 1, 2002) ISBN: 0300097387 -

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the exotic South African calla lily was introduced in the United States, and it began to appear as a subject in American art. The flower became even more popular with artists after Freud provided a sexual interpretation of its form that added new levels of meaning to depictions of it. The calla lily soon became a recurring motif in works by important painters and photographers, particularly Georgia O'Keeffe, who depicted the flower so many times and in such provocative ways that by the early 1930s she became known as "the lady of the lilies."

See the images from the National Gallery of Art here, or those from the O'Keeffe museum in Santa Fe here.

Let's see.

Specimens at the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden on the UCLA campus, photographed Friday, March 24, 2006. Note, Georgia O'Keeffe was married to the photographer Alfred Stieglitz.

South African calla lily, Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, UCLA campus, Westwood, California

Also in the manner of Georgia O'Keeffe...

Specimen in the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, UCLA campus, Westwood, California

Posted by Alan at 1:13 PM PST | Post Comment | Permalink
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Updated: Saturday, 25 March 2006 1:17 PM PST

Friday, 24 March 2006

The Capitol Records Building
Topic: Historic Hollywood

The Capitol Records Building

Coming in this Sunday's Just Above Sunset, photos and discussion of the Capitol Records Building, a local landmark - thirteen stories, designed by Welton Becket, the world's first circular office building, still home to a few recording studios. The tall spike on top makes it look like a stack of vinyl 45's on a turntable. Maybe that was the idea, maybe not. It was built in 1956 just north of the intersection of Hollywood and Vine - the consolidated West Coast operations of Capitol Records. The blinking light on the very top spells out the word "Hollywood" in Morse code. The Beatles recorded some stuff here, but really it's Frank Sinatra's place. The basement studio is where he recorded all those albums with Nelson Riddle.

EMI owns it now. Capitol Records is no more. EMI has about three hundred people in there, but it's dead. They want to sell the builidng so some developer can turn it into condos. The mayor of Los Angeles is making a fuss - keep it a working studio and industry place - Hollywood should be more than a theme park with expensive housing. EMI is not impressed. They're losing money.

This is how it looked, Thursday, March 23, 2006, just after noon.

A minor note - a major studio was across the street doing a shoot. Many trailers for the stars, and trucks full of fancy equipment. And the catering services had their rigs there, and they were cooking up some stuff that smelled wonderful, Thai barbeque and all that. Chatted with the security folks. No free lunch. Drat.

The Sinatra Society of America had this in a nearby alley, Frank Sinatra keeping a perpetual eye on the Capitol Records Building.

Frank Sinatra mural, Hollywood and Vine (alley behind the boulevard), Los Angeles, California

Frank Sinatra mural, Hollywood and Vine (alley behind the boulevard), Los Angeles, California

Posted by Alan at 10:10 PM PST | Post Comment | Permalink
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Updated: Friday, 24 March 2006 10:14 PM PST

Thursday, 23 March 2006

Raymond Chandler Square
Topic: Historic Hollywood

Raymond Chandler Square

As mentioned in passing elsewhere, Raymond Chandler (1888-1959) was the creator of the cynical and wry private investigator Phillip Marlow, with his office high over Hollywood Boulevard and all that. His first Marlow novel was The Big Sleep (1939), but most folks remember the Howard Hawks movie (1946) with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, with its screenplay by Chandler and William Faulkner, and scenes at a gambling joint "up in Laurel Canyon."

Laurel Canyon is the view from the living room here, and down the street we have Raymond Chandler Square - Hollywood at Cahuenga - with the "Cahuenga Building" where Marlow had his office (actually the Pacific Security Bank building).

This is it, Thursday, March 23, 2006. The sign telling you where you are was gone for months, but it's back, something to do with the LAPD setting up video cameras to keep an eye on the street.

The shot was taken standing on the "Walk of Fame" with its stars in the sidewalk, and specifically the Claude Rains star. You remember him as the cynical French fellow in Casablanca, where Bogart was cynical in a different way.

The "Cahuenga Building" where Marlow had his office (actually the Pacific Security Bank building) these days.

The 'Cahuenga Building' where Phillip Marlow had his office (actually the Pacific Security Bank building) - Hollywood Boulevard at Cahuenga Boulevard, Los Angeles, California

The 'Cahuenga Building' where Phillip Marlow had his office (actually the Pacific Security Bank building) - Hollywood Boulevard at Cahuenga Boulevard, Los Angeles, California

The scene on Hollywood Boulevard, these days, just to the right of the front door of the "Cahuenga Building" where Phillip Marlow had his office.

The scene on Hollywood Boulevard, a few feet west of Cahuenga Boulevard

The spot to take pictures.

Claude Rains' star on Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood Boulevard at Cahuenga Boulevard, Los Angeles, California

Posted by Alan at 6:41 PM PST | Post Comment | Permalink
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Updated: Thursday, 23 March 2006 6:52 PM PST

Wednesday, 22 March 2006

Big Chair: The Pacific Design Center
Topic: Color Studies

Big Chair: The Pacific Design Center

Yesterday's photos of the Pacific Design Center down on Melrose Avenue may have left the wrong impression. Basically the place is filled with furniture stores - custom, exclusive stores with one-of-a-kind items, many of which will sent you back tens of thousands of dollars a pop - but furniture stores nonetheless. That's why they have this big chair out front.

The Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, California, architect Cesar Pelli

But it's just California, palm trees and all.

The Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, California, architect Cesar Pelli

And it is very blue.

The Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, California, architect Cesar Pelli

Posted by Alan at 3:12 PM PST | Post Comment | Permalink
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Updated: Wednesday, 22 March 2006 3:18 PM PST

Tuesday, 21 March 2006

Color Studies: The Pacific Design Center
Topic: Color Studies

Color Studies: The Pacific Design Center

From Frommers -

The bold architecture and overwhelming scale of the Pacific Design Center, designed by Argentinean architect Cesar Pelli, aroused controversy when it was erected in 1975. Sheathed in gently curving cobalt-blue glass, the seven-story building houses more than 750,000 square feet of wholesale interior-design showrooms and is known to locals as "the Blue Whale." When the property for the design center was acquired in the 1970s, almost all of the small businesses that lined this stretch of Melrose Avenue were demolished. Only Hugo's Plating, which still stands in front of the center, successfully resisted the wrecking ball. In 1988, a second boxlike structure, dressed in equally dramatic Kelly green, was added to the design center and surrounded by a protected outdoor plaza.

A page at Pacific Design Center website mentions the pedestrian bridge, design by Gruen Associates - opened in March 1991 to connect the sixth floors of each center. The site plan calls for a third phase, Center Red, consisting of 400,000 square-feet, but there's no construction date yet.

The blue and green buildings are at 8687 Melrose Avenue, down in West Hollywood. A short drive for some color studies. All photos Tuesday, March 21, 2006, late afternoon.

The Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, California, architect Cesar Pelli

Posted by Alan at 6:00 PM PST | Post Comment | Permalink
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Updated: Tuesday, 21 March 2006 6:08 PM PST

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