Los Angeles, California

Dear Friends:

I totally forgot to post about my recent trip to Los Angeles, California.  I was there on business, to attend a conference - which I'll discuss in the next post.  The location for the conference, and my hotel, was near the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, or what's affectionately called Hollywood & Highland.  Essentially, this is the tourist landmark for anyone wanting to find Hollywood...or at least what they perceive Hollywood to be.

The complex has been completely revamped, and now houses a huge shopping and hotel complex.  It's a beautiful site:

Along the streets, you'll find the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  with special "stars" in the pavement that are dedicated to stars of film, television and the music business.  The term "star" is loosely defined here, but you can find stars for classic Hollywood actors and actresses:

One of my favorites:

This is what it looks like, from several floors above:

You can always find the infamous maps to movie star homes.  I've actually never purchased one of these, even though I lived in LA for a few years.  However, it's probably very enticing for a segment of the population that can't get enough of the Hollywood magic.

You'll see lots of things, here on Hollywood Boulevard.  Some stranger than others.  I had breakfast at a McDonald's, and this is who was in front of me...

The Hollywood & Highland complex also houses the Dolby Theater, where the Academy Awards are held each year.  This is the entrance, where all the stars enter the Oscars.  By the time I finish this post, the Oscars will actually be over...but everyone will see the red carpet that will end right at this staircase:

Across the street is the famous El Capitan Theater.  This is a refurbished landmark from the grand theaters of yesterday.  It opened in 1926 and was extensively restored a few years ago.  It's now owned by Disney and only shows Disney films, exclusively.  That's fine with me ; )  It's the site for a lot of Disney film premieres.

Nearby, you'll find the famous Mann's Chinese Theater.  This is another holdout from Hollywood of the 1930s and 40s.  Stars would come to big premieres here and have the hand and foot prints immortalized in cement:

Back at the central Hollywood & Highland complex, they have a ton of Chinese tourists visit each year.  It's very close to Chinese New Year, so there were displays everywhere:

In the distance, you can clearly see the Hollywood Sign in the hills over the valley.  This is about as close as I would get during this trip:

The other strange thing about being in LA, is how much the entertainment industry is at the center of the entire area.  Huge billboards for films and TV shows can be found just about everywhere.  Here, you have a sign that covers almost six floors of an office building.  You can see an older poster for the movie Hail, Caesar! being covered up with a new ad for The Huntsman: Winter's War. You can see the size of the workers on the scaffolding, to provide some perspective on the size:

We had a lovely dinner that evening, with one of the best vegetable salads I've ever tasted.  Being in California, you're going to have kale at some point...and I embraced it in this delicious dish:

Walking back to the hotel, you had a taste for just how crazy things get here at Hollywood & Highland.  It's like Times Square in NY, Roppongi in Tokyo, or Picadilly Circus in London.  Lot's of colorful characters - most of them intentional.  Check out the guy with the snake on his shoulders:

That's it from Hollywood for now.  The next post will cover the actual conference that I'm attending...