L.A. Sign Of The Times #107

Only in L.A.:

 

L.A. Sign Of The Times #106

This picture was taken off my balcony. LA has spectacular sunsets due to all the smog. Don't ask me how that works because unless Ryan Gosling came up with that theory I'm not interested. My favorite part of the picture is the light down in the right hand corner.

LA Sign Of The Times #105

If you can find one home in Los Angeles that does not have a statue of the Buddha either inside or in their garden, I'll show you someone who just moved here and has not gotten with the program. We are very pro-Buddha out here. Ask us why and we'll say, "It was on sale."

This is mine, from Cambodia. 

L.A. Sign Of The Times #104

Endeavor flying by my balcony.

L.A. Sign Of The Times #103

Target shopping carts docking at the Mother Ship.

L.A. Sign Of The Times #102

On Ocean Avenue, in Santa Monica, I always look forward to seeing this tree. Trees?

L.A. Sign Of The Times #101

These 2 Bentleys are parked near my sister Lindy's car in the underground garage in her building. Every time she and I exit the door that leads to the garage and someone comes out after us, she turns to them and says, "Love your Bentleys." And the people always respond, "Those aren't my cars."

Then she laughs and they laugh while secretly taking out their iPhones and dialing 911. Lindy's been doing it for months and sometimes I'm there to witness the dementia first hand.

TODAY SHE SAID IT TO A GUY AND HE SAID THANK YOU AND WENT TO THE FIRST CAR AND STUCK THE KEY IN THE LOCK AND OPENED THE DOOR.

Lindy turned to me and said, "I was bound to find the owner eventually."

Thank God she doesn't play poker.

L.A. Sign Of The Times #100

I've been online since 1995. I've been blogging since 2006. AND I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND BLOGGER?

If that's not grounds for never reading this blog again then I don't know what is. If you can't understand Blogger then you should go back to kindergarten and relearn your colors. And by you I mean me.

I just discovered that you can make pictures bigger in Blogger BY JUST PAYING ATTENTION to the  layout guidelines. And this after I trashed them on Twitter and in a former blog post which I'm too lazy to link but just scroll down a few and you'll see it. I'm not one of those hateful bloggers that makes you click on another page because I know you won't. None of us do. Spend 2 seconds flipping  to another page when you can just scroll down and see all the posts? Blogga please.

What's that you say? You want more page views? That's why you make us click through? You need to make another 24 cents a week? Rob a Girl Scout.

So here it is, the 100th Sign of the Times. If you click on the label at the end of this post, you can scroll through the 99 photos of L.A. that I've taken in the last 6 years.

I took this one at an art gallery in Santa Monica. It was not titled Walking My Plants and I have no idea why not.

L.A. Sign Of The Times #99

Like every single site on the web, Blogger has changed their format, and just like all the others, NOT FOR THE BEST. They've taken away the option to upload larger pictures, which I did before by switching back and forth from their new editor to the old one. I guess they didn't want all their space used up for free.

This smaller format really makes this huge apartment building look like a doll house. THANKS FOR NOTHING BLOGGER.

L.A. Sign Of The Times #98

I love beautiful stemware and these belong to my friends, the people I house sit for. The picture doesn't do them justice but they are gorgeous in person.

My friend has impeccable taste and once Lindy was visiting me and picked up a fork I'd put on the counter. She lifted it and said, "This is amazing." I didn't bother to look until a few days later but the reason the silverware was so amazing was written on the backs of them. They were made by Ralph Lauren!

L.A. Sign Of The Times #97

I went to a party on Sunday. Old friends who I hadn't seen in many, many years. My sister was invited because she's also old. Please don't tell her I said that because I'm going to ask her for a loan.

I wish I could tell you who was there but I can't. So instead I'll focus on this lovely home that looks so wee in a picture but inside? Isn't! So. Fabulous. It helps that the owner has exquisite taste and like a lot of L.A. homes, this one was decorated to within an inch of its California life. An ode to a peaceful existence among the traffic, the smog and the movie stars.

After I arrived I looked up and noticed the mind blowingly architecturally dumbfounding Pacific Design Center was right behind her house.

If you're unfamiliar with the Pacific Design Center, it's where every gorgeous thing ever invented for home decor lives. It's the Louvre for decorators. I went in there once and was asked to leave as apparently crying on the sofas is forbidden.

Assholes.

L.A. Sign Of The Times #96

I found this painted on a wall a few blocks from where I live. Which is obviously not Beverly Hills. Times are tough, not everyone can afford to take an ad out on Craig's List.

I think the drawing of the stove is what would convince me to buy.

L.A. Sign Of The Times #95

I'm fairly certain this resonates with a lot of people:

I know because down in the lower left hand corner, someone tried to steal it by pulling off the paper.

Santa Monica Blvd
Hollywood, California

L.A. Sign Of The Times #94

This painted building is at the top of my street. Whenever I look at it I think, "What are THEY doing on that painting?" Are they a world famous icon? I THINK NOT.

Can you guess which one I'm referring to?

L.A. Sign Of The Times #93

L.A. Sign Of The Times #92

The only church on my street. Unless a cross means something else in Korean.

L.A. Sign Of The Times #91

More people on my street:

L.A. Sign Of The Times #90

Los Angeles has a metric ton of these apartment buildings. I can't even guess as to what year this is from; I think the built-in airconditioners might be a clue. This one could sit on a suburban street where Mad Men stenographers live. Instead, it's up the street from me.

To see the rest of this series of Los Angeles photos, click on the link below. They're not all normal but I guess I probably didn't have to mention that.

L.A. Sign Of The Times #89

I get pedicures 3 blocks from my house. On the way there I took a picture of this building, which is on my street, because I thought only in L.A. do people name their buildings after luxury cars.

In the chair next to me were two women who were obviously friends. One was from Nova Scotia and the other lived up the street from me. The Canadian flew in one week a month to take lessons from the woman who lived on my street who teaches some kind of mind boggling body-mind-exercise-wouldprobablykillme kind of classes, for which she's known all over California.

I was glad I was wearing a baggy dress. And yes, Nova Scotia is part of Canada.

She asked if I lived in the grey building that had just been renovated. Not connecting the grey building with the picture I'd just taken, I replied that I didn't but did she? She said her Dad owned it.

In other news, Blogger spell check thinks "Scotia" is spelled wrong. Because Blogger? Has not traveled much.

L.A. Sign Of The Times #88

This is the view from my balcony, of Paramount Pictures. Paramount is the last major film studio located in Hollywood. It was home to Bob Hope, Mae West and the Marx Brothers as well as the studio that made The Godfather, Saturday Night Fever and Chinatown, to name a few.


I often pretend I own it.

(click on label below to see all the other pictures in this series.)