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These are just studies in composition, or maybe they're social commentary. There was an open parking space on the Sunset Strip, just across the street from the Chateau Marmont, and that place is famous - in 1982 John Belushi died of a drug overdose in one of its garden bungalows, Jim Morrison of The Doors used up what he called the eighth of his nine lives falling out of a window there, James Dean hopped in through a window to audition for Rebel Without a Cause (and the director and cast stayed there during the shoot), Led Zeppelin rode their motorcycles through the lobby one evening to cheering guests (some modest damage that night), and fashion photographer Helmut Newton died when his car crashed exiting the hotel driveway. The parking space was right where his SUV came to rest. But nothing was happing this day, Tuesday, September 26.
On the other hand, the camera was in the car and the light was good, so it was three dimes in the parking meter and a few shots, to give you a feel for this neighborhood. This is three short blocks from home. The first shot - behind a new club being built at Harper Avenue, a look at an Emporio Armani billboard to the left of the Chateau Marmont, a study in angles and color. The second shot - the Gucci billboard to the east, for a flavor of the pretension out here. The third shot is for the contrasts - the parking space was in front National Lampoon, but the magazine essentially exists today only as a logo and a trademark for licensing purposes, as it faded in the mid-seventies when key staffers when off to work for Saturday Night Live. Oh well. There was a new Bentley and fancy Porsche out front.
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