The Hollywood & Highland complex

 Here's a close up of the stairways into the Hollywood & Highland mall and entertainment center complex.  From the right angle below (I shot this pic from across Hollywood Blvd.), or from the balconies up there, you get a good view of the world famous Hollywood sign up on the hill. #steveemigphoto

Back to the Hollywood Tourist Guide Post

Growing up, when I heard of Hollywood, it was always Hollywood & Vine that seemed to be the center of activity.  That stems from the Golden Age of movies, back in the 1940's and 1950's.  These days, it's the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue that draws the most tourists, and a lot of L.A. locals as well.  Hollywood and Highland is the main cross streets, but Hollywood & Highland, with an ampersand, is the name of the biggest complex there.  It's an upscale mall, that wraps around, above, and encompasses the Dolby Theater (where the Oscars are held annually), and the famous Grauman's (now called the TCL) Chinese Theater, which dates to the 1920's, and is where the stars' hand and foot prints are in the cement.  

A wider view of the Hollywood & Highland entry way.  The giant elephants and Egyptian styling are inspired by the set of the 1916 epic silent movie by D.W. Griffith, Intolerance.  This area was built the same size as the massive set for that movie.  You can see one of the many tour buses that drive around Hollywood in front of the complex.  #steveemigphoto

The Hollywood & Highland complex offers many different dining options, as well as shopping, and the Loews Hotel attached to the back of the complex.  You can find a list of all the stores and restaurants on their website, linked above.  The Red Line subway train route, which stretches from downtown L.A. to North Hollywood, has a stop in this complex, as well, making travel without driving (and trying to find parking) much easier.

In the immediate area of Hollywood and Highland, you'll also find the historic El Capitan Theater, The former Masonic Temple, which is now home to the Jimmy Kimmel Show, Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, the Hollywood Wax Museum, Ripley's Believe It or Not museum, and Guinness Book of World Records Museum, as well as dozens of other specialty and tourist shops.  The world renowned Hollywood Walk of Fame, with the stars of the stars embedded in it, stretches both directions from Hollywood and Highland.  All of this, and the history of Hollywood as the movie capitol of the world, is why these cross streets are one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world.  

Back to the Hollywood Tourist Guide post

Explore Stuff... What this blog is all about

Here we see Julia Butterfly Hill, an activist who became famous around 1998-2000 for living in a giant redwood tree for about 738 days, to prevent the tree from being cut down.  She named the tree "Luna," and it was ultimately saved from the lumberjacks' saws, along with a small section of trees near it.  I love what she says about the idea of thriving in this clip.

I've always been an explorer.  Not a "travel to the deepest parts of the African jungle, " or "sail the ocean to the unknown islands," explorer, just someone who likes to see what's around where I live.  Many of my first memories, going back to when I was 5 years old, are of wandering the woods near my house, outside of Massillon, Ohio.  My family moved nearly every year as my sister and I grew up.  My dad got a new job every 2-4 years, and my mom got sick of our apartment or house after a year, so we just kept moving.  

With every new house or apartment, came a new neighborhood, and in one case, a good sized farm.  After unpacking in a new house, I was off on my bike exploring the new area, or hiking around the local patch of woods.  We bounced around small town and rural Ohio until I finished 8th grade, then headed to Carlsbad, New Mexico.  That was a major culture shock.  I hated the heat, but came to love exploring the wide open spaces of the desert, especially in the winter and spring.  

A year in New Mexico, and we changed states again, that time to Boise, Idaho.  Boise is a little river valley tucked into the corner of a huge valley, nestled up against the mountains.  There was miles and miles of waist high sagebrush in one direction, and mountains in the other.  I managed to get through three years  high school at Boise High, but we lived in two houses in town, and a mobile home out in the desert (technically steppe), outside of town, during that time.  

In the trailer park, during my junior year of high school, I got into BMX bikes.  First jumping, then racing, and then into the just emerging, tiny, sport of BMX freestyle, or trick riding.  As a BMXer, trails in the woods or desert were places to ride, but the entire urban landscape became our "skatepark, as well."  I began to spend a lot of time, first in Boise, then in San Jose, California, then Southern California, ranging far and wide on my bike, looking for fun stuff to ride.  BMX turned into a career for a while, and became my lifestyle for 20 years.  

All the time, I was exploring new places, on a regular basis.  In 1999, I left my entertainment lighting company job, where I was kind of a roadie, but working in the warehouse, prepping lights to go to TV shows, corporate events, movie shoots, and movie premieres.  I got injured, and became a taxi driver in the Huntington Beach area.  It was during that first year of taxi driving that I heard more and more about this crazy young activist woman who was living in a tree in northern California.  I'd lived in California for 15 years at that point, but had never bothered to go up and see the giant redwood trees, or the giant sequoias.  When Julia Butterfly Hill came down from the tree she lived in for about two years, she wrote a book called The Legacy of Luna.  I went to a book signing, met her, and then read the book.

I decided it was time to finally go and see the redwoods.  Otherwise, I might put it off forever, as us humans tend to do when engrossed in everyday life.  A few weeks after meeting Julia, I dropped my taxi off, packed a few things in my 1982 Datsun 280ZX (with a cracked windshield and no heat), and headed up the coast out of L.A.  I drove PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) all the way up to the Bay Area.  That trip turned out to be one of the greatest weeks of my life.  

I stopped at Hearst Castle, I saw young, but still 300 pound, elephant seals, on the beach.  I went to Monterey Bay Aquarium, and saw sea otters right outside it, for the first time.  I went to Muir Woods, in Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge, and saw redwoods for the first time.  I continued up PCH into the redwood country of the northernmost part of the long state of California.  There, I hiked around the really huge redwoods trees, much larger than those in Muir Woods.  

You can't do those trees justice in a photo, or video, and I shot both.  I can't describe how cool it was to walk among those 250 to 350 foot tall living things that were 1,500, maybe 2,000 years old.  You have to experience it to get it.  And THAT is what this blog is all about.  Taking a little time to go and check out things that may have been nearby for years, but you never took the time to go look at, learn about, and experience.  

I owe the inspiration for my redwood trip in 2000 to Julia Butterfly Hill.  In this blog, I'm going to look into all kinds of what the big state of California has to offer, delve into some of the history and stories, and give you some ideas for your own adventures.  Whether it's a half hour trip to take the kids to Bunnyhenge (yes, that's a thing), or maybe a week long adventure to check out redwoods or some other place in California you find interesting, that's what this is all about.  

I've been yearning to get out and explore places in California since I got back from living Back East for a decade.  Sometimes I love just wandering a cool area and taking photos.  Other times I dig into the history of a place I thought I knew, and learn a lot more.  Some places may be heavy tourist spots (I've been starting by exploring Hollywood, since I live so close to it now), and some spots may wind up being way out in the boonies.  Like any good journey of exploration, I have no idea where this blog will ultimately take me, and that's half the fun.  

I hope a bunch of you get a little entertainment from this new blog of mine.  But more than that, I hope to inspire all of you to take a little time out of the grind of everyday life, and go explore something you find new and interesting.  Enjoy!  

Steve Emig

Explorer type guy, blogger, artist

April 26, 2021

Crazy California's Online Tourist Guide to Hollywood

The world famous Hollywood sign, as seen through the stairs and entrance way to the Hollywood & Highland mall and entertainment complex, on Hollywood Boulevard, at Highland Avenue.  This is the main tourist are in Hollywood itself. #steveemigphotos

The Hollywood Sign

The best place to take a selfie with the world famous Hollywood Sign

The Hollywood Walk of Fame 

How to find your favorite star's star on the Walk of Fame-  

A look at the History of Hollywood- 

Hollywood and Highland Area (It's the new "Hollywood & Vine")

Hollywood & Highland mall and entertainment complex

TCL Chinese Theater (formerly Gramuan's Chinese)- where the movie stars' hand and foot prints are. 

The Hollywood Wax Museum- Wax statues of the stars you can take photos with.

Madame Tussauds Wax Museum- Wax statues of the stars you can take photos with.

Jimmy Kimmel Show (former Masonic Temple of Hollywood)- Ticket info on the link.

Ripley's Believe it or Not- The place with the Tyrannosaurus Rex sticking out of the roof. 

Guinness World Records Museum- The tallest, biggest, fastest, most...

The Dolby Theater- Where they hold the Oscars (The Academy Awards)

The El Capitan Theater- Historical theater dating to 1927, now owned by Disney, and featuring Ghiradelli chocolates.

Universal Studios- (Just over the hill from Hollywood)

Universal Studios CityWalk (No fee to enter-shops and restaurants)

Universal Studios Tour

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Hollywood & Vine Area- Hotspot during the Golden Age of Hollywood

The Capitol Records Building- Iconic office building at Hollywood & Vine (photo below)

The Pantages Theater- World class live theater in the heart of Hollywood

The Hollywood Palladium- Home to epic live music performances for decades.

Haunted Hollywood

A look at the reports of ghosts and haunted places in Hollywood

The San Fernando Valley (just over the hill from Hollywood)

 The Brady Bunch House- It's a real house in Studio City

Much more info on Hollywood coming soon...

 The iconic Capitol Records Building, designed to look like a stack of records, near Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.  #steveemigphotos

 

 

The TCL (formerly Grauman's) Chinese Theater

The main pagoda of the TCL Chinese Theater is much taller than it seems than when you're in front of it.  Originally the Grauman's Chinese Theater, it's located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard, in the main tourist area by Hollywood and Highland.  It's best known for the hand prints and foot prints of Hollywood stars in the cement out front.

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post

When you look back into the history of Hollywood as a movie and entertainment capitol, the 1920's was a major era of development.  The partnership of Charles E. Toberman and Sid Grauman built three iconic places in Hollywood.  Grauman's Egyptian Theater, which opened in 1922, became a great success, and that led to the building of Grauman's Chinese Theater, which opened in 1927.  But Sid Grauman's stroke of genius at the Chinese was to have major stars put their hand and foot prints in concrete slabs out in front of the theater.  One story says a young starlet stepped into wet cement by accident, while visiting during its construction.  Another story says Sid Grauman himself stepped in wet cement during the building process, and that gave him the idea.  Whatever the true story is, since 1927, major movie stars have been putting their hand and foot prints into slabs of cement, and those slabs make up the entry area of Grauman's, now TCL Chinese Theater.  Millions of tourists have flocked to the Chinese Theater in the decades since, to look at, compare their feet, and take photos of the prints.  

TCL is a Chinese electronics company that bought the naming rights to the theater in 2013.  From 1973 until 2001, Mann's Theater chain owned the naming rights.

Here's a wide shot of the Chinese Theater.  It's a few doors west of the Dolby theater, and across from the historic El Capitan Theater, which was another Charles E. Toberman and Sid Grauman project in the 1920's.  

For people from the Baby Boom or Generation X, here's what you need to know, the original Star Wars movie premiered at the Chinese Theater in 1977.  The theater has been upgraded as an IMAX theater, and seats 932 people.  Several movie premieres have been held there, and it has hosted the Academy Awards three different times.

I happened to make it to the hand and foot print ceremony when two of my favorite Hollywood stars, writer/director/actor Kevin Smith, and actor Jason Mewes, aka Jay and Silent Bob, got their hand and foot prints added in 2019.  There's a big ceremony when prints are added, with a few prominent people speaking at the ceremony.  For Jason and Kevin's ceremony, actor Ben Affleck and Kevin's daughter Harley Quinn Smith spoke, among others.  Kevin, an avid comic book reader since childhood, said on a podcast later that he had Batman and Harley Quinn introduce him.  It doesn't get much more modern Hollywood than that.  Check out this Wikipedia page for a full list of the hand and foot print ceremonies held at Gramuan's/Mann's/TCL Chinese theater.  #steveemigphotos

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post

 

How I give a Hollywood Tour

The former Grauman's (now TCI) Chinese theater signs, and crowd on Hollywood Boulevard, looking east from Hollywood and Orange, 2021.  I don't have photos from our trip in 1996.  #steveemigphoto

 I'm still not sure how it happened, but a zine I published in1985-86 about BMX freestyle landed me a job at two BMX magazines in Southern California.  I was 20 years old, scared to death of "crazy" Southern California, but excited as well.  I flew from San Jose to LAX in late July 1986 with a BMX freestyle bike, an old suitcase of clothes, and $80.  I was met at the airport by my co-workers, Andy, Lew, and Gork, from BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines.  I moved into Gork and Lew's apartment in Redondo Beach, sleeping on the old couch.  That began my life in Southern California.  

Somehow, six years later, I was working on the stage crew of the hit TV show, American Gladiators.  In the summers of 1992-1995, I worked in Studio City on the show, actually practicing the games with the Gladiators and contenders.  While thousands of people my age were trying to "break into" the entertainment business, I stumbled into it completely by accident through BMX and skateboarding.  I spent most of those years down in the Huntington Beach area, but stayed 2 or 3 months in the San Fernando Valley each summer working on one or two shows.  I also lived up here in The Valley in 1991-92 for close to a year, working on supercross and monster truck TV shows, then at a video duplicator. 

Where I lived down in H.B., my roommates were all top am or pro BMX guys, and a few BMX industry guys.  Because of this, pretty much every BMX traveler from around the world stayed on our couches and floor when they came to Southern California.  Being the one BMX guy around who worked in "Hollywood," I got the job of tour guide when any visiting group wanted to spend a day checking it out.  But the best of these informal tours happened when my younger sister Cheri and her friend Heather came down from the Bay Area for a few days in 1996.  They were in their mid 20's, out of college, single, and just starting their working careers.  Cheri was a teacher, and still is, now in North Carolina. 

We had some breakfast at my apartment in Huntington Beach, and I took the helm of their rental car, and we headed up to Hollywood (45 miles or so).  Now everyone has the basic Hollywood things they've heard of that they want to see when visiting for the first time.  We went to Hollywood and Highland, which was still being renovated at the time, I believe.  We took photos of some stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, checked out the hand and foot prints as Grauman's (then Mann's) Chinese theater, and walked around that area for a while. 

Then we hopped back in the car, and I took them to my "secret" spot to take a great photo with the Hollywood sign.  It's the now very unsecret viewing spot that there's a blog post about elsewhere in this blog.  Back in those pre-GPS days, it was a hard spot to find.  The girls got cool photos of each other with the famous Hollywood sign big in the background, and they were stoked.  The drive up there took us past the Hollywood reservoir, which few outsiders realize exists.  It's a cool drive up into the Hollywood Hills.

From there, we headed just over the hill to Universal Studios CityWalk.  For all the hype about Hollywood, it's a lot grittier, dirtier, and a more hardcore urban experience than most people think.  With all its hype, many people think Hollywood Boulevard is practically lined with gold.  But it's a weird and wild place, with all levels of society represented, from super rich tourists to homeless people, and everything in between.   Universal's CityWalk, still fairly new at the time, is the totally tourist, almost Disney-esqe place where tourists feel much more comfortable.  We walked around and checked out some of the shops there, and my sister and her friend bought a souvenirs.  

Now those are the mainstream tourist places that anybody could take friends or relatives to, to show them "Hollywood."  But I wanted to up the ante, and give Cheri and Heather a much more interesting day in Hollywood than normal tourists got.  So we headed down into The Valley, along Ventura boulevard, to the CBS/MTM lot, as we called it then.  Now it's officially known as CBS Studio Center.  Having worked on the lot for four summers, and a couple of other times, I knew a few people working there.  I drove right up to the gate, and managed to get us on the lot (don't try this now, it won't work).  I parked where the guard told me to, on the lower level in the back, which was still pretty empty back then.  New construction was just ramping up on that back part of the lot back then.  

Cheri and Heather were tripping out that I was able to just drive onto a studio lot.  I showed them the drained asphalt pond where the lagoon scenes for Gilligan's Island was shot many years before.  There was a false front of an old mill with a water wheel there then.  We walked up the little hill and I pointed out Stage 1, then being used for the Roseanne show, but used for the Mary Tyler Moore Show many years earlier.  That was the "MTM" in CBS/MTM at the time.  The other end of the Stage 1 building was Stage 2, where Tom Arnold's show was shot, a couple years before.I pointed out Seinfeld's stage nearby, and stage 3, where I had worked on American Gladiators and a knockoff show called Knights and Warriors.  Gladiators shot in the summer, while most other shows were on hiatus (summer break).  Since we had so many huge set pieces, we used Stages 1 & 2 for storage when shooting Gladiators, as well as the areas next to stages 1, 2, 3 and Todd AO/ Glenn Glenn sound studio, where the soundtracks for all kinds of movies and shows were recorded.

We headed into the commissary to eat lunch, which is near the middle of the lot.  It was early afternoon, and it was empty.  I was hoping we might se someone they'd recognize there, but no luck as we walked in.  We got our food, cafeteria style, and were talking over lunch.  My back was to the door, but I heard the door open and saw both Cheri and Heather's faces light up.  The lead actor from The Single Guy peeked into the commissary, looking for someone, and smiled at Cheri and Heather, then shut the door, not seeing whomever he was looking for.  I'd never seen the show, but they both had, and that moved my tour up a few notches in cool factor.  We finished lunch, and headed back to the car, as I pointed out a few more places on the lot.  The little fruit stand market often seen in Seinfeld was on the side of the commissary.  Little did we know, my Hollywood tour was going to get even crazier, though I thought it was pretty much over.

I pulled out of the CBS lot, and headed down Ventura to Coldwater Canyon, and drove them up and over the Santa Monica mountains from the Valley.  It's a really pretty drive, and one made mostly by locals, not so much by tourists.  Coming down into Beverly Hills, I was going through a turn when I saw a white Mercedes convertible crossing over into our lane a bit, coming the other direction.  I swerved to miss it, seeing only a blond woman driving.  But Cheri and Heather's heads snapped in the direction of the Benz, eyes growing big.  In unison they yelled, "That was Madonna!"  Seriously.  I didn't see the driver, but they swore it was Madonna in the white Mercedes.  I just laughed, "Hey, when I give you a tour of Hollywood, I give you a fucking TOUR!"  We all laughed.  I can't say for sure if we just barely missed a car accident with Madonna, but I'll go with their call.  The girls swore it was her. 

We drove by Rodeo Drive, and around Beverly Hills for a bit, and then hit Sunset Drive, and headed west to the 405.  The day in the Hollywood area had been off the charts for them, and for me as well.  We got to Huntington Beach in early evening, and headed back to my apartment.  With sunset coming soon, I took them to one of my favorite local spots for dinner, Papa Joe's pizza.  It was a simple little storefront pizza joint on PCH then, with surfing posters on the wall, and a small Korn (the band) sticker on the mirror behind the counter.  The band gave the owner the sticker when they first formed, 1993, I think, and hit it big a few years later.  Mostly, Papa Joe's had good pizza, and looked out over the Huntington Beach Pier.  We had some pizza, and watched the sunset out over Catalina Island, and talked about our crazy day.  

After dinner, we walked out on the pier, and there was some type of TV or film shoot going on in the sand, on the north side of the pier.  It turned out our crazy Hollywood day wasn't over.  I'd never seen a film shoot in H.B. before that, it was a much more low key, surfer town then, not the world renowned, shopping mall by the sea it is today.  We looked down at about six women, in evening gowns shooting a scene.  One of the women was Pamela Anderson, they were shooting for Baywatch Nights.  Cheri and Heather looked at me, "Did you know this was happening?"  They thought I picked Papa Joe's for dinner for that reason.  But I had no idea, it was just random luck.  We actually heard the director tell the actresses, "OK, one more time, but with more jiggle."  Yeah, cleavage still sells, at least when shooting a murder mystery lifeguard show, or whatever Baywatch Nights was supposed to be.  Then we headed back to the apartment, pretty amazed at the events of the day.

Now if any of my friends from around the world come visit, I'll give you a tour of Hollywood, if I have the time to.  But it won't be near as amazing as the tour I gave to Cheri and Heather in 1996.  Sometimes luck is on  your side, for whatever reason.  As Hannibal from The A-Team used to say, "I love it when a plan comes together."    

Go to Hollywood tourist guide blog post (links to the main attractions)

The Dolby Theater: Where the Oscars are held each year

Entrance to the Dolby Theater, part of the Hollywood & Highland mall and entertainment complex, on Hollywood Boulevard, just west of Highland.  #steveemigphoto

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post

 Opened in 2001 under the name the Kodak Theater, the Dolby Theater is a live performance venue with one of the largest stages in the United States.  The theater can seat 3,332 people.  You'd think someone would have added a single seat to make it all 3's, 3,333, but I guess not. 

Built right smack in the middle of the Hollywood and Highland tourist district, the primary tourist area in Hollywood itsself, the Dolby is best known for hosting the Academy Awards, aka the Oscars, every year since 2002.  You know all of those red carpet Oscar shows where everyone talks fashion as actors and celebs walk into the Oscars?  That all takes place right in front of this entrance above, as well as on Hollywood Boulevard in front, which is shut down for the Oscars.  The rest of the year the theater hosts other live performances, ranging from musical performances to TV shows, such as the live shows for America's Got Talent.  It also was the home of the Cirque du Soleil show Iris in 2011-2013.  

For the younger people reading this, Eastman Kodak, or just Kodak, was the primary maker of photographic and movie film for decades.  Kodak was synonymous with film and movie film, and it made sense for them to buy the naming rights for the theater when it opened, in 2001.  What's really weird, is that a Kodak employee invented the first, or one of the first digital cameras, but the company didn't see a future in digital photography.  Whoops.  Kodak went bankrupt in 2012, and  Dolby, known for super high quality sound systems, bought the naming rights for 20 years.  

The Dolby Theater is a few doors down from the TCI (formerly Grauman's) Chinese theater, where all the hand prints and foot prints of stars are in the cement.  The historic El Capitan Theater is right across the street.  Like all of the other theaters and tourist spots in this area, the stars of the Hollywood Walk of Fame run in front of the Dolby, and for several blocks in both directions. 

Here's a look behind the scenes of what goes into the red carpet preparations for the Oscars.  As a former crew guy who has rolled up and moved a few red carpets for movie premieres (not for the Oscars, though), I can tell you a ton of work goes into events like that before the part you see on TV.  This clip, from a few years ago, shows a few shots of the outside and the inside of the Dolby Theater on its biggest day of the year. 

Is all the pomp and ceremony of the Academy Awards, and other big events, too much?  Is it over the top?  Hey, it's Hollywood, and for over 100 years, movies made in Hollywood, and the surrounding area, have been watched by billions of people around the world.  The entertainment industry knows how to celebrate.  Hollywood has always been known for its glamour and extravagance for big events, and the Dolby Theater hosts the biggest Hollywood event of the year.  

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post

I have a dream...

The Blue Falcon himself, Brian Foster, having fun at an indoor bike park.  A bike park like this is one part of the dream I've had for  years.

The dream started in 1987.  I was a hardcore, if not high caliber, BMX freestyler, and had stumbled into the BMX industry.  The American Freestyle Association had its spring and fall national contests at the Cal State Dominguez Velodrome back then, a venue built for the 1984 Olympics.  Riders from around the U.S., and the U.K. and Europe were in town for the final contest.   My friend Mike and I were hanging out with a group of English riders, when Mike got a call from a young woman we met in Reno, months earlier.  "Party at my house!" she told Mike.  She called a few girls, we brought a van load of BMXers, and we met at the guest house, behind her dad's house, in upscale Palos Verdes.  The typical drinking and fun ensued, and we had a good time.  We all passed out in the little guest house, spread out on couches or the floor.  

I was falling asleep on the floor, as our hostess screwed one of the English guys on the couch above me.  I thought, "Man, it would be cool to have a big house some day, with a backyard full of bike and skate ramps, and a guest house where friends from around the world could stay at while in town.  We could ride all day, party some at night.  It would be cool.  That was the beginning of this dream, back when I was a 21-year-old BMX freestyle guy.

In the 33 years since, BMX freestyle, and several other action sports, have grown, spread across the world, and turned into pretty large industries.  We've also had a few other things happen as well, like the internet, smartphones, YouTube, social media, and the rise of the Information Age economy.  

As we all know, thousands of retail stores, particularly in malls and shopping centers, have gone out of business, as online shopping has begun to rise and replace much of in store shopping.  The Retail Apocalypse, as it got tagged in late 2016, is the closing of about 20,000 stores in 2016-2019, close to another 20,000 in 2020 alone, and now this CNBC article, from last week, quoting UBS, predicts another 80,000 stores will close in the next 5 years, as well.  That's A LOT of empty business buildings.  What are we going to do with dead malls, dead shopping centers, and dead retail districts?  

Here's my idea, MY BIG DREAM, circa 2021.  I'd like to put all of these things below in one large area.  A dead mall could work.  A few warehouse buildings and some land could work.  Even the once thriving upscale shopping district I'm sitting in now could work.  OK, they probably wouldn't want that much new energy and creativity right here, but there are 6 or 7 empty storefronts on this block alone.  Even here, they need some new ideas.  But there are a lot of places in the country, and in California, where this idea could be tried out.  

The basic idea of my dream is: What if we put a bunch of high quality action sports places in the same place as art studios, galleries, video stages and equipment, and maybe music stages and small live theaters, as well.  Hey, this is Southern California, skateboarding, BMX, BMX freestyle, snowboarding, and freestyle motocross were born here.  Surfing was reborn in Waikiki, Hawaii around 1900, but rose to worldwide fame here in southern California.  This is the place to try crazy new ideas.  

What would happen if you put a bunch of highly creative action sports people, and a bunch of visual artists, photographers, video producers, content creators, and a few musicians and actors in one place?  Probably something pretty cool. At the very least, the place would become world famous in a year, and begin attracting lots of other creative people, I guarantee it.  

Here's what I'd like to include.  First, a BMX bike park like the one in the clip above of  a legendary BMX rider, and one of my former roommates, Brian Foster.  I'm an Old School BMX freestyle guy, so that has to be part of the mix.  Then we add these things:

-Indoor (and outdoor?) Mountain Bike Park (Like Ray's MTB in Cleveland).

-A high caliber pump track (outdoor, and maybe indoor as well)

-A great outdoor skatepark and indoor skatepark

-A high caliber indoor climbing gym.  OK, maybe not quite this big and crazy to start, but...

-CHEAP live work art studios 

-Indie art galleries, like this one (that I used to live in, where my Sharpie Scribble Style was born), or maybe this one, or maybe this one.   

-Cheap photo/video studios to rent for photographers, video producers, content creators, etc.  

-Conference type rooms to rent out cheap, by the hour, for workshops, groups working on creative projects, meetings, and whatever else.

-Hangout spots where all these different creative and athletic people can just hang out, goof around, and see what good ideas come out of these interactions.  Chill spots, basically.  

That's the basic idea of my dream.  In addition, we'd need some snacks, most people would want a coffee shop close by, I'd want a good pizza place and Mexican restaurant close by.  A tattoo/piercing shop is almost a given, with all these other groups of people.  Small stages for acoustic music, poetry, or spoken word performances would be cool.  Also, a cheap place for people traveling to the spot to stay.  Cheap motel rooms, dorms,  a hostel, something like that.  If possible, band rehearsal spaces and nearby clubs for local bands to play would be cool as well.  

OK, that's My Dream, something I'd like to see happen in the world.  A dead mall, dead shopping center, or dead shopping district would be a cool place to build something like this.  What do you readers think?

Blogger note- 10-23-2021- Just for the record, this dream was mostly what I imagined when I was stuck back East, in North Carolina, where there are a ton of abandoned factories and warehouses, and other buildings.  It was also a place really lacking in actions sports, but with small, but often vibrant art and music scenes.  Now that I'm back out in Southern California, all these things exist out here, they're just spread out.  This action sports/arts place in one location makes a lot more sense in run down parts of the country that have cheap buildings, and desperately need some place for creative people to get together.  In California it doesn't make as much sense, land is too expensive in the urban areas, where all of these things already exist.

The El Capitan Theater at Hollywood and Highland

The historic El Capitan Theater, lit up at night, at 6838Hollywood Boulevard.  Now owned by  Disney, it's right across from the Dolby Theater, where the Oscars are held,and next door to the old Masonic Temple, where the Jimmy Kimmel Show takes place.  It's right by Hollywood and Highland. #steveemigphoto

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post

Opened in 1926, the El Capitan Theater was one of three themed theaters built by the visionary developer of Hollywood, Charles E. Toberman, working with Sid Grauman.  The El Capitan began life as a true theater, with plays staged throughout the 1920's.  It was built four years after Grauman's Egyptian theater, and a year before the best known of the three now, Grauman's Chinese theater.  The TCI Chinese, as it's now known, is where the Hollywood stars hand prints and foot prints are, and sits across Hollywood Boulevard, and to the left, when standing in front of the El Capitan.  

Theater tickets sales sagged at the El Capitan in the early 1930's, and it began to show movies to keep in business, which was not cool for a stage theater at the time.  The El Capitan held the premier of Orson Welles' classic film, Citizen Kane, when other theaters were afraid to show the controversial movie in 1941.  The theater became the flagship theater for Paramount Pictures, until an anti-trust lawsuit forced the sale.  The furniture company also housed in the same building stayed there until the 1970's.  

The theater, then known as the Paramount, fell into disrepair, and had a succession of owners.  Disney purchased the Buena Vista theater chain in the 1980's, and wound up part owner of the Paramount.  Buena Vista later decided to bring it back to its former glory as the El Capitan, with a $14 million renovation.  The theater re-opened in 1991 to the premier of the movie The Rocketeer.  

The 1994 Northridge earthquake damaged the building extensively, through structural damage and from the fire sprinklers going off.  One owner walked away.  But the theater was again re-built, and Disney continued to be a major tenant, with the Disney store (now Ghirardelli/Disney soda fountain shop), next door.  The Walt Disney Company wound up buying the property, and the El Capitan Theater is used for most Disney movie premieres these days. 

Ticket booth and elaborately decorated entry of the El Capitan Theater, which is now owned by Disney,in 2021 . #steveemigphotos

 

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post

Jimmy Kimmel banners on the old Masonic Temple at Hollywood and Highland

You can't go back into the history of the U.S. without running into the Masons.  The Masonic Temple in Hollywood was built in 1921, and the project was led by lodge leader, Charles E. Toberman, one of the main driving forces in the creation of Hollywood.

I doubt Nicolas Cage ever searched for hidden relics there, like in his action movies, but there is a legend that there was a secret tunnel from Grauman's Chinese Theater across the street, into the Mason's Lodge, allowing stars to sneak out of events, away from the eyes of fans.  That may or may not be true, but the current Red Line subway train, built nearly 20 years ago, would have destroyed that tunnel.  

The Masons owned this building until 1982, and sold it.  It has since become a theater, and now houses the Jimmy Kimmel Show, and has been the show's home since 2003. 

 After the huge Black Lives Matter protests right in front of this theater, in 2020, The Jimmy Kimmel Show put up banners to show their solidarity with the cause.  The Mason Lodge turned theater is now part of the Ea Capitan Entertainment Center, and sits right in the most popular tourist area of Hollywood, on Hollywood Boulevard, just west of Highland.  #steveemigphotos

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post

Grauman's Egyptian Theater at Hollywood and Highland

 

Grauman's Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, east of Highland. 

 

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post

Until I started diving into the history of Hollywood for this blog, I didn't realize that Hollywood Boulevard was originally set up as a theater district.  Originally the dream of 1920's era developer Charles E. Toberman, he wanted to build a theater district in Hollywood that would rival those in Europe.  Toberman pushed Sid Grauman to build and Egyptian-styled theater, at a time when Egypt was big news around the world, as archeologists dug into the thousands of years of ruins.  

The Grauman's Egyptian Theater with its long courtyard, opened in October of 1922, ushering in the era of elaborate theaters in Hollywood.  It held 1770 people, and was designed and built with a grandeur that spawned other Egyptian-styled theaters across the United States.  

In an odd quirk of fate, King Tut's tomb, (PharohTutankhamun) still the most famous Egyptian tomb in the modern era, because it was found undisturbed, with all the treasures, was opened a few weeks after this theater opened.  That sent the interest in all things Egyptian through the roof in the United States.  The Egpytian started the Hollywood Theater district, and opened 4 1/2 years before the much more famous (because of the hand and foot prints) Grauman's Chinese Theater.

 The courtyard style entrance to Grauman's Egyptian Theater, 2021.

 Though closed due to the Covid pandemic at the time I took this photo, the Egyptian is back to its former glory, after years of abandonment in the 1990's, and will open again soon in 2021.  #steveemigphotos

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post

Photos taken on Hollywood Boulevard

Donald Duck's and Winnie the Pooh's stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, properly social distancing in early 2021.  Below, a tour bus parks in front of the Hollywood & Highland Center.

Put up during the Black Lives Matter marches in 2020, the symbols of equality and change adorn Hollywood.

A stormtrooper walks down Hollywood Boulevard among the tourists.

A look inside the La La Land souvenir shop located at Hollywood and Orange (one block west of Highland).

The Hollywoodland Experience souvenir shop, on Hollywood, half a block west of Highland. #steveemigphotos

Go to my Hollywood tourist guide blog post (links to the major attractions)

Working with Wesley "2 Scoops" Barry on American Gladiators in the 1990's

Wesley "2 Scoops" Barry won the championship on the American Gladiators TV show, I think it was the 1993-1994 season.  He's the single best athlete I've ever met in my life, and I've met quite a few. 

American Gladiators was a hit TV show, beginning in the late 1980's and into the early 1990's.  I wound up working on the stage crew for its last four seasons.  We had a lot of incredibly athletic people on that show, both the Gladiators themselves, and the contestants, or "contenders" as they were called.  The contenders had to make it through a physically tough tryout, then get weeded down, to make it on the show.  We had college athletes, Olympic hopefuls, military people, firefighters, cops, wrestlers, gymnasts, martial artists, and even college cheerleaders, compete on the show.  

But in the four seasons I worked on the crew, one guy stood out above all the rest, and that was Wesley Barry.  I met him on day one of that season.  As a spotter, I was one of those guys with the white karate pads on the sidelines, trying to stop people when the ran out of bounds in several of the games, during the shows.  That's the part people of our job people saw on TV.  But the American Gladiators taping season actually took place over about 6-7 weeks the previous summer to when the shows aired.  The first 7 or 8 days we would set up two of the games each day, so the Gladiators and contenders could learn and practice each game.  The grips, riggers, and us spotters would roll in the set-up for each game, and then the Gladiators would practice on one game, on one side of the huge stage (Stage #3 on the CBS Studios lot, in Studio City), and the contenders would practice the other game on the other side of the stage, after lunch, they'd switch sides.  

Obviously, since it was a TV show, and the Gladiators and contenders were the stars, the producers didn't want any of them getting hurt during the practice sessions.  They wanted everybody full bore on the days their shows taped.  So us spotters were the test dummies, pretty much.  We would hook the athletes into climbing harnesses for the wall and Swingshot, the bungee game.  But on every game that required opponents, we practiced against them.  Powerball, Breakthru and Conquer, Joust (pugil sticks), and the others.Yes, that was a lot of fun, and yes, I got my ass kicked many times, by men and women, on practicing those games.  

On the first day of practice on Wesley Barry's season, I remember we practiced the Swingshot game, which we just called "bungee" on set.  In the game, the contestants would jump off of towers that were about 10 or 12 feet high, while hooked into bungee cords.  They would land softly (hopefully) on the ground, take a couple of steps, and use the bungee to jump about 15 feet up, and pull foam balls off a pole in the center (see video below).  Then they turned around, hit the floor again, and jumped back up to the towers, where they would put the balls into a basket on the tower, and then jump back to get more balls.  The balls were of three different colors, and had different points for each.  The contestants with the most points won.  

But on the other side of the arena, the Gladiators would also jump off towers, crash into the contenders, and try to keep the contenders from getting balls back to score.  You can see Swingshot in the clip below.  During the practice day, first, every contender and Gladiator got on the towers, and we had them jump off with different combinations of the three sizes of bungee cords we had.  The riggers, high above us, in the grid, would drop down different cords, and us spotters would hook the contenders climbing harness to the bungee cords, until we found a set that worked well for their size and weight.  One of the production coordinators wrote down the combo for each person, and everyone got a few practice jumps.  That part was more tedious then fun for them.  After that, everyone got back up, three at a time, and tried to get their jump down, and grab balls off the center pole, and get the the hang of the game.  That's when the contenders had a little more time to have fun.  

We ended practice that afternoon, and Wesley Barry was on my tower, and he had worked up a sweat trying to get as much practice on the game as possible.  It was the end of day one, the beginning of about 7 weeks of first practice days, then taping the shows themselves.  I could tell he was athletic,  but so were several of the other contenders.  None of them stood out that much after one day.  Wesley and I were just sitting there for a moment, on the tower, before he climbed down.  He said, "I think I'm going to take this thing," in a quiet, but confident voice.  I asked,"Swingshot?"  He replied, "No, the whole thing.  I think I'm going to win the whole thing."  I just thought, "OK, we'll see."  It was really early to be that confident. 

The Wesley Barry we saw those first 6 or 7 days practicing the different games of American Gladiators wasn't the over-the-top showman you see in the clips of the shows.  He was a confident, but not a really arrogant athlete, and worked hard to figure out each weird event.  He grew a bit more confident as the days went by, and a bit louder when joking around heckling the other contestants.  He knew deep inside that his particular physical abilities, and mindset, were geared to do well on the show.  

After two or three days, someone on the office crew took him aside, and shot that footage in the clip above of Wesley jumping over the car.  It blew their freaking minds, and word spread around the crew and contenders, "That Wesley guy can run and jump over a car, a big car."  None of us saw him do it, but some of the crew saw the raw footage. We began to pay more attention to Wesley Barry.

When we began to tape the shows, we shot two shows a day, with two men and two women competing against each other on each show.  So most of the 80 or so contenders were hanging out at the hotel all day.  We had the Gladiators, and 8 competing contenders, and then four alternates, in case someone got hurt, on set.  Wesley began to stand out from the get go, and the "Two Scoops" thing, and the "250%" effort, and his wild, on camera personality just snowballed as taping went on.  The contenders that won their first show, came back several days later, and we had quarterfinals and semifinals, and then the finals.  The grueling taping days were closer and closer together at the end of the season.

As Wesley Barry became "2 Scoops" on the set, the male Gladiators hated him more and more.  He was fit, he was confident, he was loud.  But mostly he was good, and so freakin' quick.  His combination of sort of a track sprinters body, and martial arts background, frustrated the Gladiators to no end.  His loud interviews after each event added to it.  The Gladiators were good at those games, and they were bigger, physically, than nearly all contenders.  But Wesley was just so quick, even where power was needed, he used his quickness to kick ass, and he won the season of the show.  By the time it all ended, the Gladiators had a lot of respect for Wesley Barry, as mad as he made them during taping.  They respected raw ability, and he straight out had it.  Then we started hearing of his crazy recovery from the fire, a couple of years before, which made him even more inspiring.  

As over the top as he comes across in the clips, he was a really cool guy to work with, and blew our minds every time he came on set.  The one little thing that sticks out in my mind was at lunch one day.  We shot our show in the summer, when most other TV shows were on hiatus, or summer vacation.  Since we had such a big cast and crew, about 100 people total, we used a small sound stage for our catered lunch.  We walked in one day to lunch, and the tables were standard folding tables, set end to end, in two long rows.  So there was a center aisle, and two side aisles.  Wesley, and several other people were in the center aisle.  I was behind most of the contenders, in the right aisle.  

Once in there, we figured out the start of the serving line was on the far left.  A couple of the guys in that aisle joked with Wesley, "Don't worry 2 Scoops, we'll save you something."  He laughed, and took one step, and jumped over the chairs sitting outside the table, over the folding table itself, and over the chairs on the other side.  And he jumped at an angle.  It was a 30" to 33" high, 8 or 9 foot long jump, from a one step take off, into a little spot next to those guys.  He landed softly, barely making a noise.  Seriously, it was like something out of a ninja movie.  Wesley just laughed, as our jaws dropped.  He did it without thinking.  

The other thing that stands out, was that 2 Scoops climbed the 32 foot high climbing wall in 11 seconds, and it was set at about 5.10/5.11 difficulty rating, if you're a climber (routes set by Paul from Climb-It holds).  That didn't look possible either.  Making it up the wall in 30 seconds was a solid performance.

Like Wesley Barry told me on day one, on the Swingshot tower, he won the American Gladiators championship that year,and that's no easy feat.  He came back the next year, to help train the new contenders, and later won the clash of champions show above.  He also traveled to the European show, called Gladiators, and did well there (not sure is he won, but he probably did).  Here's a fan-made clip from that show.  

I met a lot of high caliber athletes working on Gladiators, including former pro football players, a Heisman Trophy winner, and a few Olympic champions.  I also have known many top pro BMXers, skateboarders and snowboarders in my other work.  Wesley Barry, I can say confidently, is the single best athlete I've ever seen.  It was a couple of amazing summers, working with him as a crew guy, on the set of American Gladiators in the early 1990's.

This is a champion against champion show, Wesley Barry, vs. Kyler Storm, both of whom won American Gladiators previously.  The big news of this clip of Swingshot was Turbo losing his cool and punching Tyler mid-air.  But Wesley was kicking butt at the game the whole time.  During this event, I was where I always worked on this event, on top of Wesley's tower.  If you pause this clip at :24, I'm the guy in the background. 

Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, a block west of Highland, at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard, at Hollywood and Orange.  It's just west of the famous TCI (aka Grauman's) Chinese Theater, where all the celebrity hand and footprints are.  

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post

Madame Tussauds is another wax museum on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, which allows tourists to take photos with their favorite stars.  Reported to have at least 125 life size wax replicas of famous movie and TV actors, and musicians.  According to the Wikipedia page, these statues include: Lady Gaga, Kylie Jenner, Kobe Bryant (below), Marilyn Monroe, Barack Obama, Clint Eastwood, and many more.  To see a list of statues, check out the Wikipedia page here.  You can check out Madame Tussauds Hollywood website here. 

The Kobe Bryant statue was open to the public, when I went by last weekend (April 2021).  A couple of tourists check out Kobe, while Lucy is in the back court to get the lay up if Kobe misses.

A tourist checks out Vin Diesel's shirt at Madame Tussauds, April 2021.  #steveemigphotos

 

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post

 

Hollywood Wax Musem

Hollywood Wax Museum, on Hollywood Boulevard, just east of Highland, at 6767 Hollywood Boulevard. Ssteveemigphoto

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post

Opened by entrepreneur Spoony Singh in 1965, Hollywood Wax Museum was the original place for tourists to get photos with the Hollywood stars, or at least wax statues of them.  When it first opened, the line to get in was reportedly a half a mile long.  Featuring life size replicas of famous movie actors and singers, the Hollywood Wax Museum lets tourists take photo with their favorite stars, and it's located right on the Walk of Fame, on Hollywood Boulevard.  You can check out their website here.

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post 

 

The best place to take a selfie with the Hollywood sign

OK, your selfie will look better than mine, since you'll be in it, and not me.  Also, this was taken without zooming, on my ancient iPhone 5, you can snap a better shot on a new phone, or with a camera.

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post

 In the 1991, when I first worked and lived in the North Hollywood area, I rode up to this park with a friend form work, to play with his dog.  For years, when friends or family from out of state came to visit, it was my secret spot to take people to get a great photo of them with the Hollywood sign.  A few months ago, a Facebook friend visited, and we hopped in his truck, and I directed him around Hollywood, to show him the major sites, then we headed up to this spot.  He wanted a good photo of the world famous Hollywood sign.  There were 10-15 cars parked on the road, and at least 40 people wandering around taking selfies and photos.  I realized that GPS has changed things like this.  The once obscure spot is now easy to find with GPS.  

Here's how you find it.  The closest address is 3203 Canyon Lake drive (DO NOT disturb these residents).  From Hollywood, head north up Cahuenga, or north on the 101 freeway.  From the 101, get off on Barham and turn right, then follow the GPS directions.  From Cahuenga, turn right on Barham, cross the 101, and follow the GPS directions.  They will wind you up hill through a neighborhood, then down a big hill, where you'll see the Hollywood Reservoir (yeah, there's a big reservoir hidden up there, too).  You'll head left, wind past the reservoir, and back up through another upscale neighborhood.  When you hit Canyon Lake drive, turn right, though this address will be on your left.  Park near the public park, on the road, and find a good photo spot.  There will likely be more people doing the same thing.  

Also, there's a big, wide walk/bike path around Hollywood Reservoir, and it's a great walk (1-1 1/4 miles?).  Park on the big steep hill (there will be many more cars there, it's a popular spot), and make sure you curb your tires.  From the top of the damn, halfway around, there's a great view out over Hollywood and Los Angeles, even if it's smoggy.  If it's not very smoggy, there's an awesome view.  I have seen a rattlesnake on the side of this trail once, so stay on the big path. 

Back to the Hollywood tourist guide post

Pianist Stephen Ridley shuts down Hollywood Boulevard

I found this one on YouTube, looking for interesting things that have happened on Hollywood Boulevard.  According to the text, after a concert, pianist Stephen Ridley pulled a piano out into the street for a little impromptu jam.  Hollywood is one of those places where just about anything can happen, especially if it involves entertainment.  Check out his piano version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" right here.  Oh yeah, he grew up almost completely deaf, and even after surgery, he still has a severe hearing disability.  He tells that story in this video. 

Go to my Hollywood tourist guide blog post (links to all the main attractions)

A few of my photos of Hollywood Boulevard- 4/5/2021

Things are looking up on Hollywood Boulevard.  Street sign and one of the older buildings, topped by a radio tower.

A couple of the familiar characters, who take photos with tourists (for tips), in front of the mall at Hollywood and Highland.

The a capella group Pentatonix, on a hot fall day in 2019, taking publicity photos for a Christmas album, judging by their clothes.  Yes, once in a while, you can see famous people right on Hollywood Boulevard.  Not often, but it happens.

Pick up your own fake Oscar award at one of the many souvenir shops.

An  MTA bus heading east to Hollywood and Vine.

An actual live movie shoot happening.  I was set up, selling my artwork on the sidewalk, and these guys, and a few crew people, just walked by doing a shot.  I have no idea who they were, but it looked like a high end camera, more of a movie shoot than something for TV.  

All of these photos were shot in 2019-2020.  #steveemigphoto
 

A look at the history of Hollywood

How did a moving picture machine invented by Thomas Edison, in 1892, in New Jersey spark a huge creative industry in Southern California?  That's what this video explains.  To be clear, this comes from a YouTube channel called the Cynical Historian, and he seems to have a bit of an axe to grind as a writer.  But this is a solid look at the 120+ year history of motion pictures, the studio systems, and how Hollywood, the area just north of downtown Los Angeles, came to be its capitol.  

I worked in TV production for a while in the 80's and 90's, and learned a bit of Hollywood history on the job.  But this 20 minute video fills in the details that most of us have no idea about.  This was produced in September of 2020, mid-pandemic, and so it ends with the near future largely unknown.  But it's a great start to learn the history of the movie and TV industries. 

To my Hollywood tourist guide blog post (links to the main attractions)

A solid look at the economics of the movie industry

This well produced, and recent, video from Economics Explained gives us a look into the finances of the rapidly changing movie industry.  Here are a few numbers the popped out to me.  Worldwide global box office sales were $42 billion in 2019.  The movie industry supports 2,500,000 jobs, more jobs in the U.S. than either farming or mining.  This industry pays out $181 billion in wages annually.  That's a big industry.  People tend to forget that.

The current pandemic slammed a 71% drop in revenue on the industry in 2020.  That's a huge hit, and everyone who works in the industry is amped to get back to work again.  As I'm writing this, business of all kinds is beginning to open up, as mass vaccinations take place, and we all hope things will be going full steam again within a couple of months.  I'm going to be writing and linking videos about Hollywood, the place, in the coming weeks.  I'm now living just over the hill from Hollywood itself, and much of that industry is here in the Valley.  So diving into interesting places in and around Hollywood seemed like the place to get this blog off the ground.

SR-71 pilot, the L.A. speed check story

For everyone of us who's thought about becoming an airplane pilot, or dreamed of it while watching Top Gun, or some other movie, here's a real SR-71 Blackbird pilot with one great little story.  Major Brian Shul (ret.) tells this story, that happened high above California, and I've always seen it tagged on YouTube as the "L.A. speed check story."  For those of you who don't know what the SR-71 is, here's a clip of one flying.  As futuristic as these planes still look, they actually flew from 1964 to 1998.  Top speed was Mach 3.5, which translates to roughly 2,663 miles per hour at sea level, though less at the high altitudes these flew at. 

Maverick's swell: January 18th 2021

After the crazy year of 2020, when the U.S. and the world struggled through the Covid-19 pandemic, 2021 came in bringing huge surf around the Pacific ocean.  The January 18th swell at Maverick's, off Half Moon Bay, southwest of San Francisco, was an epic one.  The largest coastal surf break in California, Maverick's adds cold water and plenty of great white sharks in the area, to level up the danger factor.  This video gives a great look at the best rides of that day.

The tallest and biggest volume trees in the world are both in California

First of all, who knew there were so many tall trees in Tasmania?  Watch this video, and you'll see what I mean.  But the tallest trees, the California or coast redwoods, top out at 389 feet tall.  Four of the five tallest species of trees are native here, though not the tallest in every species is in California.  The General Sherman giant sequoia is the biggest tree, by total mass, at over 51,000 cubic feet.  

In 2000, after meeting activist Julia Butterfly Hill, and reading her book, The Legacy of Luna, about spending a couple years living in a redwood tree to keep it from being cut down, I went to see the redwoods.  That trip was one of the best weeks of my life, and though I didn't get quite to the tall trees grove, where the absolute tallest trees live, I spent three days driving and hiking among the giant redwoods.  I know it's cliche', but photos just can't show how huge those trees are.  I highy recommend seeing the redwoods at some point in your life.  Wandering among living things that are over 300-350 feet high, and 1,000 to 2,000 years old, is a bucket list experience. 

California: The 5th largest economy in the world

This video is form only a few months ago, and gives a good look at how California became a world economic powerhouse, and at the challenges it faces (high cost of living) in today's high tech enabled, hyper connected world. 

There's no place like California...

This 1986 news segment about BMX freestyler Maurice Meyer was shot in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.  I'm the guy at 5:07 chasing after my bike.  BMX freestyle was my life for most of the 1980's.  This clip is the oldest video of me here in California.  It was shot in June or July of 1986.  

In late August of 1985, I packed up my ugly, brown, 1971 Pontiac Bonneville, which was slightly smaller than an aircraft carrier.  I left Boise, Idaho, where I had lived for about four years, and where I graduated high school in 1984.  I drove solo to San Jose, California, where my dad had started a new job, and my family had moved a couple months earlier.  I finished my summer job, managing a tiny amusement park called The Boise Fun Spot, packed up my car, said goodbye to my friends, and hit the road west.  Upon landing in San Jose, I moved into the empty bedroom of my family's apartment, living with them and my little sister, Cheri.  

I'd moved around my whole life, a different house or apartment almost every year, though we'd often stay around one city for 3 or 4 years.  I was born a Midwest kid, just outside of Akron, Ohio, and we bounced around small cities in towns there until I finished 8th grade.  In 1980, my dad got a job in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and we lived there for a year.  It was a huge culture shock, but I came to love the wide open spaces of the western deserts, at least in the cooler months.  But my dad's new company fell prey to the changes hitting American factories in the 1980's, and we then moved to Boise, Idaho, where he found a job at a large engineering firm.  Being an outdoorsy kid, I liked Idaho a lot.  We still moved houses two more times, but I managed to get all three years of high school in at Boise High, and graduated.  I also got into BMX bikes, first jumping, then racing, then the emerging sport of BMX freestyle, or trick riding.  There was no money for college, and I didn't have a strong draw towards any particular career when I was 18.  My high school friends and I all talked about becoming wildlife biologists.  That was mostly because it seemed to be the only way to get paid to go hiking and camping.  But none of us went to college for it.  So I worked at The Fun Spot in the summers, and a Mexican restaurant all winter after high school.  

Once I got to San Jose, I quickly found a job at a local Pizza Hut, and worked evenings, and practiced tricks and wandered around the area on my freestyle bike in the afternoons.  I started a Xerox zine about freestyle as a way to meet the other Bay Area riders.  I soon met the NorCal pros, like Maurice Meyer (featured in the clip above), Robert Peterson, Dave Vanderspek, Hugo Gonzalez, and Rick Allison, along with several great amateur riders.  

Much to everyone's surprise, especially mine, my freestyle zine landed me a job at Wizard Publications, home of BMX Action and FREESTYLIN' magazines, in August of 1986.  I moved to Southern California to take that job, with my bike, a suitcase, and $80 in my pocket.  I've spent 25 years of my life in California, far longer than I've lived anywhere else.  I would have lived here longer, but fate deported me Back East in 2008, and I got stuck in North Carolina for way too long, but finally made it back to Cali in 2019.  

In this blog I'm going to share videos, photos, and stories of all kinds of cool, weird, and interesting facts, stories, historical sites, weird places, adventures, and other things in California.  Maybe it was because I moved so much as a kid, but I have always been an explorer.  I love to just wander new areas and explore.  I also like to check out weird, interesting, and historical places, and learn their stories.  

Maybe it's just my current financial situation (barely scraping by as an artistblogger with no car), or maybe it's the year of Covid-19 lockdowns, but the urge to explore more of California has been growing since I got back.  As a long time blogger (since 2008), and self-publisher (since that zine in 1985), doing a blog about California history and interesting spots just seemed like the perfect next step for me.  OK, enough about my background, it's time to go explore...