Well, it's been another busy week as you'll see from this soon to be very long post (i'll try and keep it as short as possible). To make it simpler I've broken my trip into three parts; Hollywood, Gnomon, and the Siggraph conference.
Hollywood.
I thought I would take a little bit of time to show you all around what I consider to be the main center of Hollywood.
From the map above you can see the three main roads through Hollywood, Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, and Santa Monica Boulevard. When I lived here the first time to study at Gnomon these three streets represented a large amount of my time either spent, having fun, studying, or stuck in traffic (City driving). However, they also represent the main tourist attractions such as;
The Hollywood / Highland Mall is named after the two streets it rests upon. In the late nineties Hollywood went through a clean up to get rid of crime and bring back tourism. The mall is one of those additions and is just a short walk from Graumans Chinese Theatre. Its also a great place to park (fairly cheap), something that is incredibly important in a city - How to safely and cheaply park your car. The L.A. Subway also runs from here to downtown.
Graumans (aka Man's) Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre are alongside the Mall. Graumans is famous for it premier's and hand prints whilst the Kodak theatre hosts the Oscars. As you can see Hollywood Boulevard is pretty deserted at 8am in the morning. However...
By 6.30pm it's packed with people and a premier (Scott Pilgrim vs The World) it just about to take place. Just another day in Hollywood.
Moving onto Sunset Boulevard my favourite daytime area (ie non-nightclub) is the section between Cahuenga Blvd and Vine St. Amongst there being a couple of fast food places (Jack in the Box & Baha Fresh) there is also the Arclight Cinema (Retro domed screen), Amoeba Music, The LA Film School, and the CNN building. I used to frequent all of these for various reasons - To watch movies, buy dvds/music, to use the film library, and to visit friends (working at CNN).
The Arclight holds Q&A's with directors whilst Amoeba Music is the supplier of DVDs / Music to the stars. I saw Jake Gyllenhall there once myself.
Onto Santa Monica Blvd. Unfortunately I was running pretty late at this point so I couldn't get all the photos I wanted, but I did risk life and limb taking this photo from my car...
This is the cemetery where many of Hollywoods biggest celebrities are burried. Chaplin, Monroe (as I am led to believe). During the summer they show movies so you can sit amoungst the dead stars and watch them whilst they were still alive. A bit creepy. Whenever I see the cemetery the song "Hotel California" by the Eagles comes into my mind...I think the combination of two would make a great basis for an animation.
There is one part of a street call 'Le Brea' which always sums up Hollywood to me. Let me share the observation with you. The two following buildings are opposite each other...
Yep thats right - Kermit and a strip club. It was made worse in the past by the club being painted fully pink (Recently re-painted) and it also had a large billboard of a naked women which Kermit 'flirted' with. Funny!
I generally stay in a Hotel in Burbank when going to L.A. It's a little bit nicer area and relatively cheap. However, the night I arrived...
...A Japanese resturant was on fire. Luckily no one was hurt and we didn't have to be evacuated. The helicopters and fire trucks did make it seem like world war three though. Because its a desert a fire can be twice a deadly here.
Finally, off to Siggraph...
Believe it or not this is light traffic for L.A...
Hollywood.
I thought I would take a little bit of time to show you all around what I consider to be the main center of Hollywood.
From the map above you can see the three main roads through Hollywood, Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, and Santa Monica Boulevard. When I lived here the first time to study at Gnomon these three streets represented a large amount of my time either spent, having fun, studying, or stuck in traffic (City driving). However, they also represent the main tourist attractions such as;
The Hollywood / Highland Mall is named after the two streets it rests upon. In the late nineties Hollywood went through a clean up to get rid of crime and bring back tourism. The mall is one of those additions and is just a short walk from Graumans Chinese Theatre. Its also a great place to park (fairly cheap), something that is incredibly important in a city - How to safely and cheaply park your car. The L.A. Subway also runs from here to downtown.
Graumans (aka Man's) Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre are alongside the Mall. Graumans is famous for it premier's and hand prints whilst the Kodak theatre hosts the Oscars. As you can see Hollywood Boulevard is pretty deserted at 8am in the morning. However...
By 6.30pm it's packed with people and a premier (Scott Pilgrim vs The World) it just about to take place. Just another day in Hollywood.
Moving onto Sunset Boulevard my favourite daytime area (ie non-nightclub) is the section between Cahuenga Blvd and Vine St. Amongst there being a couple of fast food places (Jack in the Box & Baha Fresh) there is also the Arclight Cinema (Retro domed screen), Amoeba Music, The LA Film School, and the CNN building. I used to frequent all of these for various reasons - To watch movies, buy dvds/music, to use the film library, and to visit friends (working at CNN).
The Arclight holds Q&A's with directors whilst Amoeba Music is the supplier of DVDs / Music to the stars. I saw Jake Gyllenhall there once myself.
Onto Santa Monica Blvd. Unfortunately I was running pretty late at this point so I couldn't get all the photos I wanted, but I did risk life and limb taking this photo from my car...
This is the cemetery where many of Hollywoods biggest celebrities are burried. Chaplin, Monroe (as I am led to believe). During the summer they show movies so you can sit amoungst the dead stars and watch them whilst they were still alive. A bit creepy. Whenever I see the cemetery the song "Hotel California" by the Eagles comes into my mind...I think the combination of two would make a great basis for an animation.
There is one part of a street call 'Le Brea' which always sums up Hollywood to me. Let me share the observation with you. The two following buildings are opposite each other...
Yep thats right - Kermit and a strip club. It was made worse in the past by the club being painted fully pink (Recently re-painted) and it also had a large billboard of a naked women which Kermit 'flirted' with. Funny!
I generally stay in a Hotel in Burbank when going to L.A. It's a little bit nicer area and relatively cheap. However, the night I arrived...
...A Japanese resturant was on fire. Luckily no one was hurt and we didn't have to be evacuated. The helicopters and fire trucks did make it seem like world war three though. Because its a desert a fire can be twice a deadly here.
Finally, off to Siggraph...
Believe it or not this is light traffic for L.A...
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