Wednesday, March 28, 2007 - Surreal Metropolis

No, we're not talking Nicholas Constantine Metropolis, the late Greek-American mathematician, physicist and computer scientist, the guy recruited by Robert Oppenheimer to work with Enrico Fermi and Edward Teller at Los Alamos.  Who can forget his algorithm (the Metropolis algorithm or Metropolis-Hastings algorithm) for generating samples from the Boltzmann distribution, later generalized by W.K. Hastings? He also led the team that developed the first computers at IBM.  But we're not talking about him, or the somewhat obscure actor.

No, in Hollywood, at La Brea and First, we're talking about Nick Metropolis - The King of Collectable Furniture, reviewed here by Kim Cooper -

The Scene
This open-air corner lot with the circus atmosphere is the first place to go when searching for that piece of furniture so odd no one else would dream of stocking it. Popular with Hollywood set dressers and eccentric collectors alike, Nick Metropolis rarely fails to surprise with its constantly changing stock of historic weirdness.

The Goods
From shamelessly trashy leopard-print sofas to utilitarian racks of classroom lockers; from atomic-patterned tiki bars to vintage bowling score tables, the accent is on kitsch. Artist-designed boomerang tables are covered with decoupage images of curvy babes or shaggy Beatles. Larger items include rows of well-used theater seats and massive promotional posters. Inside you'll find amateur artwork, ship models, globes, tacky lamps and other unique pieces calculated to add atmosphere to your swinging bachelor or bachelorette pad.

There are signs all over - Prop Rental, Buy Props. If you're in charge of dressing the movie set, this place is useful. In the film world, mise en scène refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement – sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting. Here you go. The place is a bit disconcerting.

But this looks useful -

Less useful -

Get your statuary here -

Need a wheelchair? This one seems to come with a stone lion and a case of beer.

It's all fun -

Or maybe, if you look up, it isn't that much fun.

But…

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