Thursday, September 6, 2007 – Signs of Distress

The 7500 block of Sunset Boulevard – west of Hollywood but not yet the Sunset Strip (the edge of Guitar Row) – where the signs of distress are evident. Flying the flag upside-down is a universal distress signal – everyone knows that.  You're in trouble.  With the credit crisis or the mortgage meltdown or whatever you want to call it, a local real estate company with a sense of humor offers this.

Across the street Purple Panther Tattoo is looking all ominous –

Under the real estate billboard, skulls in their sunglasses at Pop Killer, a vintage clothing store at 7503 Sunset – too early for Halloween.  It's just the zeitgeist.

Next to the skulls, a giant vintage Magnatone amp from the forgotten early days of Rock – if you need to express yourself in these difficult times and let it all out.

The current Rock stickers are all doom a gloom, but youth was always so, as they say.

Some long for other times and other places –

For detail, visit Corrente Cadillac –

1949 Cadillac Imperial Limousine – "Seven passenger Imperial Limousine (Model 497533x,) black exterior and interior, front and rear air conditioning - recent restoration"

1952 Cadillac Sedan – "1952 Cadillac Sedan, power steering, sun visor, radio and heater, signal seeking radio, autronic eye, interior like new, light green top, dark green Firemist bottom - recently painted, West Coast car, very sharp"

Universal Sign of the Times:

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