Walking on Melrose

I needed to have some work done on my car (A/C is required in this hot weather!), so I took a day off last week and took it to the mechanic.  The shop is only a mile and a half from my house, so I decided to walk home.  My route was down Melrose Ave - but not the trendy section that everyone knows about.  East of La Brea, Melrose is a much more quiet place, less flashy.  Here are some views from the walk home.

It's still summer

Another crazy busy week at work!  I have a very important drawing revision that has to be released by Friday to meet a satellite's schedule deadline.  So, another week of late nights.

But I still managed to have some fun - last week I went to another concert at the Hollywood Bowl.  The featured soloist was YoYo Ma the amazing cellist!  Apparently a lot of other people think he's amazing, too - the Bowl has a capacity of 17,376 and the attendance was 17,163!!  I've never seen the area so packed and the traffic so snarled!  But it was worth it - beautiful music on a lovely summer evening.

Here are a few photos from the past week.  Hope you enjoy them.

Spy vs Spy?

Circling pigeons

YoYo Ma and the LA Phil

Sunset and sycamore

Sunset and palms

On my way home

This week has been very busy at work - I've had to stay late each day, attempting to get a bunch of drawings done by the end of this week.  Not much time for photo taking, but here are a few I took on my way home from work.  I hope you enjoy them.

Kilroy?

A new cute little restaurant, unfortunately not kosher :(

Battling dinosaurs - ordering room service?

Full moon over La Brea Ave

Velvety palm tree

Up close in the garden

It's summer in SoCal.  We've been lucky that it hasn't been really hot, unlike a lot of the rest of the country.  Because of the generally mild weather year round, there's usually something blooming in my garden at any given time.  It's been a while since I did a garden post, so here are a few of the flowers I'm lucky to see every day.  Enjoy!

Begonia

Salvia "Hot Lips"

Rosa "Mr Lincoln"

Mimulus (Monkeyflower)

Erigeron (Santa Barbara daisy)

Brugmansia

Pomegranate

Salvia "Alan Chickering"

Clerodendrum (Blue butterfly bush)

Ochna (Mickey Mouse Plant)

LA Central Library

The Society for Calligraphy arranged a private tour of the LA Central Library's rare and vintage book collection.  The original building was built in 1926; in 1983 there was a very destructive arson fire.  The building was saved from demolition and instead renovated, adding a new 8-story atrium wing (to keep the addition at the same height as the original building, most of the new wing is subterranean).
The library is very beautiful - there are numerous large murals, statuary, and engraved inspirational quotes both inside and out.

Emma, the librarian who led our tour, showed us a sample of the different types of old books the library owns, including a collection of hand-written cookbooks, first editions, and autographs.  Below are some photos from my literary day :)

Downtown art and hotel

Main building, 5th St entrance

Entrance to new wing

Rotunda and solar system chandelier

Emma, our charming guide

Example of a home-made cookbook, written in wonderful script

The oldest document in the collection - 1500s

A book printed by William Morris' Kelmscott Press

Original score by Erich Korngold, movie composer
(Adventures of Robin Hood, etc)

Lobby of new wing, miniature-style

One of my favorite illustrators from the Golden Age of illustration
(I have one of his books!)

Statue of Civilization (lots of symbolism here!)

Last Remaining Seats

LA Conservancy is one of the non-profit organizations I volunteer for (they are similar to Pasadena Heritage, where I've been helping out on home tours for years).  The Conservancy runs a program each summer called "Last Remaining Seats", showing classic movies in the classic old movie houses in downtown LA.  You'd be surprised at how well they are attended!

I volunteered to usher for two of them:  "The Big Sleep" (1946) at the Los Angeles Theatre (b. 1931) and "Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood" (1922) at the Orpheum Theatre (b. 1926).  Both of the theaters are those ornate Art Deco types (like the Pantages, if you're from LA); the Orpheum has had a multi-million dollar renovation, while the Los Angeles has not (the owners are just doing maintenance/repair work until they can find funds to renovate.  It's still beautiful, but if you look closely, you can see things like peeling paint on the ceiling, etc).

For those of us nowadays who think of movie theaters as slick minimalist addendums to shopping malls, it's amazing to see these old establishments and realize that when they were built, going to the movies was an event!  The Los Angeles has two subterranean levels; the first was a ballroom for dancing, the one below that had a restaurant and "saloon".  People would come for dinner, see the movie, and then stay for dancing and drinks.  I'm sure that lots of cities across the country still have versions of these grand dames hiding somewhere in their centers.

Today's blog photos are from the Orpheum.  It still has its original Mighty Wurlitzer organ, which was used to play the accompaniment to the silent "Robin Hood" (the organist Robert Israel composed an original score).  This is quite a lavish Robin Hood - the studio spent almost a million dollars producing it, which was a lot of money in 1922 - and it was very popular in its day.

Those of you who go to the movies might recognize the Orpheum - a lot of the Oscar-winning movie "The Artist" was filmed there.  Enjoy :)

Lights on Broadway

Vintage poster

Orchestra section

Box seats

From the Balcony

House chandeliers up close

All the way up from the balcony

More fun with miniaturization setting

Cartoon short before the movie

Robert Israel, organ player extraordinaire