Just Above Sunset Photography

Sunday, 15 October 2006

Starting Early
Topic: Oddities

Starting Early

On Friday, October 13, more than two weeks before Halloween and six weeks before Thanksgiving, the Christmas tree thing is up on the top of the Capitol Records Building on Vine, just up the street from Hollywood Boulevard. One gets used to this sort of thing - someone is no doubt producing a "Christmas in Hollywood" special and needed an aerial shot at twilight. Producing an hour of television takes time and if they plan to get everything out of post-production and in the can by early December at the latest… well, they'd be working now. I'll keep an eye out for elves taking a smoke break outside the Paramount lot, or down the street at the Sunset-Gower Studios.

Christmas tree on the Capitol Records Building, Hollywood, mid-October 2006

Posted by Alan at 1:29 PM PDT | Post Comment | Permalink
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Updated: Sunday, 15 October 2006 1:32 PM PDT

Friday, 13 October 2006

Dark Hollywood
Topic: Color Studies

Dark Hollywood

Humphrey Bogart, as Rick in Casablanca at Iguana Vintage Clothing, Hollywood and Vine Your mood effects what you see. Friday the 13th in Hollywood opened with low clouds that broke up late morning in the damp light breeze off the Pacific, pushing in from the other end of Sunset Boulevard, ten miles west, where Sunset ends at Pacific Coast Highway at the south end of Malibu. Then the big billowy cumulus built up, sliding over toward the mountains between us and the Mojave Desert, where they sat, getting darker. Then the sky got darker here, with the low, hairy leading-edge black scudding things drifting in, and it started to smell like rain, somewhere. The first rain of the fall is on the way - seventy percent chance, or so they say. This may be the first rain in six months - but no one checks the records. Did it rain last spring sometime? No one remembers. Rain is not what happens in Southern California, except in the thirties film noir things, or on old radio episodes of Dragnet from the early fifties. But it's back.

Friday the 13th on Hollywood Boulevard, passing through while running a few errands, the place was looking very noir, or very Friday the 13th - everything passing out of light and shadow.

At Hollywood and Vine, at Iguana Vintage Clothing, Humphrey Bogart, as Rick in Casablanca, was still looking down on the street - standing behind the glass and poison green neon, holding one of the cigarettes that killed him. He's been there for years, cynical, seeing nothing.

He's looking down on a very red wall these days, and at Bloodshot. And below him to the right is a black wall that seems to tell a story - but the story is obscure, the meanings hidden. Very noir.

Bloodshot, Hollywood Bouelvard

Black wall, Hollywood Bouelvard

Posted by Alan at 7:33 PM PDT | Post Comment | Permalink
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Updated: Friday, 13 October 2006 7:35 PM PDT

Thursday, 12 October 2006

Green-Red
Topic: Color Studies

Green-Red

Two color studies - the Santa Monica pier, Wednesday, October 11, 2006 -

The geometry of green -

Green wall, Santa Monica pier

Red - and it doesn't scare the kids. They ride it.

Red children's ride, Santa Monica pier

Posted by Alan at 5:43 PM PDT | Post Comment | Permalink
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Updated: Thursday, 12 October 2006 5:46 PM PDT

Wednesday, 11 October 2006

Hollywood Halloween - Costumes and Wigs
Topic: Oddities

Hollywood Halloween - Costumes and Wigs

Halloween is coming up soon. In Hollywood this is kind of an adult thing. Note the array of costumes and wigs for sale on Hollywood Boulevard this year.

Manikin in costume shop, Hollywood Boulevard, Halloween, 2006

Wig for sale in costume shop, Hollywood Boulevard, Halloween, 2006

Manikin in costume shop, Hollywood Boulevard, Halloween, 2006

Ah, but there is innocence -

Tinkerbell clock for sale, Hollywood Boulevard, Halloween, 2006

Posted by Alan at 10:49 AM PDT | Post Comment | Permalink
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Tuesday, 10 October 2006

Reflections, Hollywood Boulevard
Topic: Light and Shadow

Reflections, Hollywood Boulevard

Hollywood Boulevard is what you'd expect it to be. This is an exercise on working with reflections in glass, but they capture the place, Tuesday, October 10, 2006. (See the footnote for the day's events).

Shoes in a window, 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard

Graphic at a smoke shop, 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard

Footnote:

Souvenir shop, 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard It was a big day on Hollywood Boulevard -

Hollywood Walk of Fame Star Ceremony Scheduled While Woods Tees Off in Front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, October 10, 2006

WHO: Ruta Lee, Buzz Aldrin, Jack Carter, Gary Collins, Carol Conners, Dom DeLuise, Larry Elder, Erik Estrada, Budd Friedman, Mitzie Gaynor, Monty Hall, Stephanie Powers, Anne Jeffries, A.C. Lyles, Joey McIntyre, Julie Newmar, Debbie Reynolds, Ann Rutherford, Jack Carter, Fred Travelena, Daphne Zuniga, Alex Trebek, Dick VanPatten, Joanne Worley

WHAT: While actress and LA philanthropist Ruta Lee is honored with the 2320th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, international golfing legend, Tiger Woods will be teeing a ball down the length of Hollywood Boulevard to celebrate the launch of his most recent electronic golf game. The two momentous events will occur 50 feet from each other, tomorrow, October, 10, 2006.

While the scheduling snafu is the first of its' kind in the history of the Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremonies, organizers will try to make lemonade out of lemons and each event will occur side by side. "I'm sure that good sportsmanship will come to play," laughed Ms. Lee, "this is a lifetime achievement for me, and just another tee-off for Tiger!" Just as Tiger tee's off, Ms. Lee's alma mater, The Hollywood High School band, will parade on Hollywood Boulevard across Tiger's Astroturf "fairway," and Ms. Lee will follow in the Ahmanson family's 1924 Cadillac with actors Debbie Reynolds and Alex Trebek.

DETAILS: One of Hollywood's most glamorous ladies, Ruta Lee's career in show business began at the famed Grauman's Chinese Theatre as a candy girl. She was signed by MGM as the youngest of the "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and subsequently in "Funny Face" with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn, as Tyrone Power's secret love in "Witness for the Prosecution" and Frank Sinatra's leading lady in "Sergeant's Three," and has headlined in many musicals as Annie, Dolly, Peter Pan, Mame, Irene, Irma, Nellie, Rose, and Madame in the "Best Little Whorehouse." Lee has appeared in over 2,000 television appearances and is currently in production with "Christmas Everyday," an ABC Family Film and "Loves Pure Light," both scheduled for Christmas 2006 release. For more than 40 years, Lee has headed the Thalians, which has raised more than $40 million for the Thalians Mental Health Center at Cedars Sinai.

Missed all that. Sorry. The reports are it all went fine.

Posted by Alan at 6:33 PM PDT | Post Comment | Permalink
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