Photo-finish Friday: animal planet

I snapped this on a September morning last year, waiting for an appointment in the shade of an outdoor food court. Reaching down to move my chair, my hand fell on this little creature, and after the initial surprise I set it on the table where it kept me company like this for a long time. Amazing member of the Animal Planet. I'm glad they don't come any larger.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunch Pail. This photo is going to be my last for a while, but as I venture again into the big, busy world I just retired from, there will certainly be more.

Coming up: Tom Lea, The Wonderful Country (1952)

Photo-finish Friday: under wraps

It's arguably the most photographed larger than life-size piece of statuary in LA, especially if you count the webcam focused on this spot from this website.

Wrapped up now, pedestal and all, while the immediate area is being repaved, the figure under the cover looks like a creature rising from a horror-movie swamp. And for gridiron rivals of this particular institution of higher learning, it is no doubt similarly repellant. Not to mention true art lovers, who are likely to avert their eyes.

Never mind, visitors from around the world practically line up to have their photo taken with it. As you can see below on a recent day.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Coming up: William Holden, Escape from Fort Bravo (1953)

Photo-finish Friday: June gloom

June in LA is a month of gloom. Most days overcast and kind of murky. It can start in May and carry on into July, which is when I shot this on a day-trip into the city earlier this month. Gray sky overhead and the Hollywood Hills in the distance, looking like they're ready to disappear in a fog bank. It's called a marine layer, and it gets monotonous.

But when it gets to 115 degrees out here in the desert, which it has been this past week, you kind of yearn for some of that old "gloom." Doesn't look great, but it's a lot like outdoor air-conditioning. Beats the alternative.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Coming up: Saturday music, George Strait

Photo-finish Friday: frog

This talavera frog (la rana) from Mexico joined the household menagerie at Christmas and finally found a place in the jasmine along the fence outside the kitchen window. Here it is basking in morning sunlight.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Coming up: Saturday music: Dwight and Buck

Photo-finish Friday: happy taxi

This one caught my eye a few months ago at the Riverside Downtown train station. The bright yellow and the smiley face seem made for each other. And if you've been putting off getting those tattoo lessons, you might want to jot down that phone number on the roof.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Coming up: Saturday music, Craig Morgan

Photo-finish Friday: airship

It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a dirigible. I snapped this on a calm winter day in downtown LA a few months ago. Dirigibles make for a playful change from the constant traffic of big airliners gliding overhead to LAX. When you can hear them above the sound of the traffic, they make a soft, purring noise.

Stopping in a crosswalk to take this pic, I irritated the impatient driver of a Hummer, who honked at me to get out of the way so he could make a left turn. Such is the life of a pedestrian in the city of motorists on the brink of road rage.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Coming up: Saturday music, Charley Pride

Photo-finish Friday: Marilyn

Had occasion this week to be in downtown Palm Springs, where the new Marilyn Monroe sculpture has been installed across the street from Starbucks. Even in the 100-degreee heat, she had a big crowd of folks wanting to have their photo taken with her. She just arrived from Chicago, will be here for six months, and then moves on somewhere else.

Unlike the flat image of her in The Seven Year Itch, where she stands over a subway vent to catch a draft, she's in three dimensions, and you can have a look from various perspectives. (See below.)

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Coming up: Saturday music, Brooks and Dunn

Photo-finish Friday: shoot

Walking to-from work, I often came across film production students shooting movies. Here a teacher is calling out instructions to a film crew while holding a big reflector to catch light from the late afternoon sky. The camera (easily lost in all the activity) is right in the center of the picture. One of the fellows with his back turned is about to be (digitally) shot. 

While living and working in Los Angeles, I saw scenes like this many times , but it still surprises me how many filmmakers it takes standing just off camera to produce that fleeting image on some future screen.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Coming up: Saturday music, Bob Wills

Photo-finish Friday: oranges

Snapped this shot on the way to work a couple months ago. In front of the car ahead is a truck with a double wagonload of oranges on their way from the orchard to your grocery store. Location: Riverside, California.

Coming up: Old West glossary, no. 33

Photo-finish Friday: desert walk

 Two shadows. Snapped this one about 6:30 one recent morning while out with the dog (lower right) on our daily walk in the desert. Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunch Pail. 


Coming up: Old West glossary, no. 32

Photo-finish Friday

Here we are at the corner of Sunset and Echo Park in LA. All of two sides of this building have been not just graced but enlivened with colorful sidewalk-to-roof wall murals. I snapped this on my last morning in town before heading home to retirement. A closer side view can be seen below.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Coming up: Wayne D. Dundee, Manhunter's Mountain

Photo-finish Friday: men at work

Build we must. I snapped this walking by a construction site near my old office, on my last day before retirement. For a long time, I used to be able to hear these guys working. Amazing how far the sound travels when all you're doing is pounding on a steel beam.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunchpail.

Coming up: James Reasoner, Texas Rangers

Photo-finish Friday: free at last

Took this snapshot Thursday afternoon when I got off the train on my last commute home from work. Roll on, retirement.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Coming up: Woody Harrelson, Billy Crudup, The Hi-Lo Country (1998)

Photo-finish Friday: out and about

Snapped this mini-mural of Tony Curtis one morning recently on the freeway going to work. Where else but LA? Besides City Hall in the background (where I always imagine Jack "Just the facts ma'am" Webb and one of his partners), maybe the most noteworthy thing about the pic is that the morning traffic is not bumper-to-bumper.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Coming up: William Holden and Glenn Ford, Texas (1941)

Photo-finish Friday: desert walk

Remnants of the last Pacific storm front linger on the peaks of San Jacinto across the Coachella Valley from this hiking trail in the desert. The storm brought a day of drizzle to the valley and a dusting of snow on the peaks. Summer heat is on its way.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunchpail.

Coming up: Troy D. Smith, Cherokee Winter

Photo-finish Friday: out and about

Chance found me recently on Grand Avenue near 17th Street in LA, and I came upon this tribute to Thelonious Monk. It's a little worse for wear but doesn't lack the original spirit. A quick search online, and I was able to turn up the photo it was based on. Click here.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Coming up: James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, The Rare Breed (1966)

Photo-finish Friday: men at work

Here are the Nguyen brothers, Andy and Tommy, who operate the Los Saigon food truck to be found some days on Jefferson Blvd. near where I work in LA. You've heard of Tex-Mex. These guys have their own style of Nam-Mex. Their hottest (literally) menu item is the "Chino Latino," described as a "crispy Bahn Mi filled with succulent carne asada." The spin on this treat will curl your tongue. Two great guys full of stories about growing up Vietnamese in Southern California. Learn more about Los Saigon here.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunchpail.

Coming up: Spencer Tracy, The Sea of Grass (1947)
 

Photo-finish Friday: desert sunset

Something for a change of pace from LA. I snapped this photo at sunset recently while returning from a walk in the desert near where I live in the Coachella Valley.

Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at the Goat's Lunchpail.

Coming up: Jack Palance, The Lonely Man (1957)

Photo-finish Friday: men at work

It's 10:00 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, and the waiters at Café Pinot are spreading tablecloths for the al fresco diners who'll be crowding in here for lunch. One is joking to the other that he's learning how to make a bed. This downtown restaurant draws a well-heeled crowd and is next door to the LA Public Library on Fifth Street. For folks unfamiliar with the contraption in the foreground, it's an outdoor space heater.

Coming up: Paul Leicester Ford, The Great K & A Train Robbery (1897)

Photo-finish Friday: desert noir

 

Snapped this shadow of a backyard palm tree against a stucco wall at sundown recently. Yeah, that's me with cell phone in the lower left. Perfect time of day on a perfect spring evening for spiced rum and Belgian beer chaser. Photo-finish Friday is the bright idea of Leah Utas over at The Goat's Lunchpail.

Coming up: Warner Baxter, In Old Arizona (1928)