Sunday, July 1, 2007 – Framing Hollywood

It's all about context, a tour bus at Hollywood and Highland, just across from the Kodak Theater where they hold the Oscars, and a billboard for that new movie – that one where God (Morgan Freeman) tells Evan (Steve Carell, Denison University, '84) to build an ark and all that. It's a comedy about God destroying the world out of sheer disgust, but having Evan save enough for a new start. Values are variable out here.  Next year, on June 20, we get Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart in Get Smart, a new feature film based on the Mel Brooks and Buck Henry television series that ran on NBC from September 1965 to April 1969, and the CBS for its final season, 1969-70.  None of it makes much sense.

Hollywood is also about the past, as you can see in the window of the Larry Edmunds Bookshop, 6644 Hollywood Boulevard (visit the website and see what that's about).

The past?  Here's a detail of the El Capitan Theater - Morgan, Walls and Clements, 1926 (see Classic Hollywood).   In 1941 "Citizen Kane" had its premiere here, and Senator Richard Nixon delivered that Checkers Speech from this theater in 1952, when it was an NBC studio.  This fellow on the wall remembers it all.

Today? Hollywood is full of odd shops selling most anything.  This one offers a conceptual challenge.

What to do when none of it makes sense, just down the street –

If you wish to use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me. And should you choose to download any of these images and use them invoking the 'fair use" provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, please provide credit, and, on the web, a link back this site.

Technical Note:

Most of these photographs were shot with a Nikon D70 - using lens (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto, or after 5 June 2006, (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.  Earlier photography was done with a Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) with built-in digital zoom.

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik