Los Angeles

1712 S. Glendale Avenue Glendale, CA 91205 Imagine... in one afternoon you can see exact replicas of Michelangelo's greatest works such as David, Moses, and La Pieta; Leonardo da Vinci's immortal Last Supper re-created in brilliant stained glass; two of the world's largest paintings, The Crucifixion and The Resurrection; original bronze and marble statuary, rare coins, valuable 13th century stained glass, old world architecture; and much, much more. And in that same afternoon, you can even take a quiet stroll around a splashing fountain pond that's teeming with ducks and majestic swans! Best of all, it's free. Text from: www.forestlawn.com/visitors_guide/memorial_parks/glendale...

WILLIAM WETMORE STORY United States, Massachusetts, Salem, 1819-1895 Cleopatra, modeled 1858, carved 1860 Marble on polychrome wood platform 55 x 24 x 48 in. (139.7 x 61 x 121.9 cm) 78.3 Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Henry M. Bateman Raised in Boston and educated at Harvard, William Wetmore Story lived at the heart of privilege. He was friendly with the most literate and gifted of American and European society, including the Brownings, W.M. Thackeray, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and James Russell Lowell. By the time Story devoted his considerable energies to sculpture, he already had a successful law practice and had published poetry, essays, and the papers of his father, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story. The judge's death in 1845, a subsequent commission to execute his monument, and a debilitating bout of typhoid caused Story to leave law and eventually to take up sculpture full time. He and his family settled permanently in Rome in 1856. With Cleopatra, Story directed American neoclassical sculpture away from the detachment of Grecian ideals to a new romanticism and the potential for realism and psychological drama. The work established Story as the foremost American sculptor internationally as well as in America. The sculpture is a study of Cleopatra's passion and despair as she contemplates the action that will lead to her fall. A brooding expression crosses her African features, her posture is slumped, and her outstretched hand fidgets tensely. The work captured the imagination of an educated audience that set great store by narrative subjects. Pope Pius IX so admired Cleopatra that the Roman government paid all shipping costs in order to exhibit it in 1862 at the Roman Court of the International Exposition in London, where it made Story's reputation. Text from: collectionsonline.lacma.org/mweb/about/american_about.asp

Randolph Rogers (United States, 1825 - 1892) Nydia, The Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii, modeled 1855; carved circa 1888 Sculpture, White marble on dark marble base, Height: 55 inches (139.7 cm) with base Made in: United States Los Angeles County Fund (78.4) Nydia was the most famous of Rogers’s sculptures as well as the most popular, to judge from the fact that the artist sold at least fifty-two examples (see Rogers, Rogers, pp. 200-203 for lists of locations of life-size and half-life-size examples). It is just as remarkable that, having modeled Nydia in 1855-56, Rogers would sell the present example as late as 1888. Although it had still been much admired at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, only a work of wide reputation and classic status would have survived the changes of taste and style that swept American sculpture during that interval. Its subject is Nydia, the virtuous, blind flower girl in Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s novel The Last Days of Pompeii, published in 1834. The sculpture recreates a moment in the story when she became separated from some friends she was attempting to lead to safety on the seashore, since in the general darkness that followed the eruption of Vesuvius her developed sense of hearing was an advantage in trying to escape the doomed city. Those familiar with the novel saw her situation in a broader sense of brave struggle against impossible odds (1835 edition, 2: 189): Poor girl! her courage was beautiful to behold! and Fate seemed to favor one so helpless. The boiling torrents touched her not, save by the general rain which accompanied them, the huge fragments of scoria shivered the pavement before and beside her, but spared the frail form .... Weak, exposed, yet fearless, supported by one wish, she was the very emblem of Psyche in her wanderings; -- of Hope, walking through the Valley of the Shadow; a very emblem of the Soul itself -- lone but comforted, amid the dangers and the snares of life! In the best tradition of neoclassical sculpture Rogers sought inspiration for his subject among ancient marbles. Nydia’s bent and tentative pose may have been based on a Hellenistic copy of the Old Market Woman (example in Vatican Museum) or the group of Niobe and Her Daughters in the Uffizi in Florence. The latter may have been the source of the baroque forms of Nydia’s clinging, yet flying drapery, which, more than the fallen capital at her feet, suggests the danger faced by the helpless, wet, and wind-tossed young woman. Although Nydia’s regular facial features and the sculpture’s sources in antique art are in the tradition of neoclassical sculpture, its formal extravagance, drama, and excessively sentimental literary source are departures from that tradition that, nevertheless, made it the most popular American neoclassical sculpture ever. The inscription does not include a date, but centered under the artist’s name is the word Rome followed by a comma, as if the date were to be added when the piece was sold. The reason for its omission is unknown. Text from: collectionsonline.lacma.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=imag...

The Hollywood & Highland Center is an entertainment, retail and hotel complex at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in the Hollywood district in Los Angeles. The 387,000-square-foot center also includes the Grauman's Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre, home to the Academy Awards. Located in the heart of Hollywood, it is among the most visited tourist destinations in Los Angeles. The complex sits just opposite of the El Capitan Theatre and offers views of the Hollywood Hills and Hollywood Sign to the north, Santa Monica Mountains to the west and downtown Los Angeles to the east. The centerpiece of the complex is a massive three-story courtyard inspired by the D.W. Griffith film 'Intolerance'. Tenants include 75 shops and restaurants, a movie theater, The Highlands nightclub and a bowling alley called Lucky Strike Lanes. The portion of the center facing Hollywood Boulevard houses retail tenants such as GAP, American Eagle, Banana Republic, Swatch, Express, and Hollywood's second Virgin Megastore, which opened in early fall 2005. Hollywood & Highland also houses 65,000 square feet of gathering spaces including the Grand Ballroom, used for the Oscars Governors Ball. The chef Wolfgang Puck operates his regional headquarters out of the complex. The center also includes television broadcast facilities that in 2004 included the studios for the daily talk show On Air With Ryan Seacrest. The 637-room Renaissance Hollywood Hotel is also part of the site. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Hollywood/Highland Red Line subway stop is beneath the structure. Text from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_and_highland

Mel's Drive-In (not to be confused with Mel's Diner) is the name of a restaurant chain founded in 1947 by Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs in San Francisco, California. In 1972 the restaurant was selected as a feature location by George Lucas in the American film American Graffiti, saving the company from possibly going out of business. The restaurants have since been featured in other media such as Melrose Place (1996, Season 5, episode 1), Doonesbury comics (December 18, 1989), and the book The American Drive-in by Mike Witzel. Some Mel's Drive-In locations are not actually drive-ins, but rather diners, although the sign still says "drive-in"; no San Francisco location serves food to patrons' cars. There are also a number of "Mel's" located in northern California which share the same general American Graffiti/ nostalgia theme and similarly styled Mel's logo. These restaurants are called "Mel's Original." Their locations are not listed on the official Mel's Drive-In website, and there is no online information concerning whether they are in any way related. The Walnut Creek, California location features a history of the original San Francisco Mel's, so it is possible that these are franchises of the same company, or two companies sharing the same trademark in a fashion similar to the Hard Rock Cafe brand. Text from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel

Hollywood Boulevard's all blocked off for the premiere of Tomb Raider 2: The Cradle of Life at the Chinese Theatre.

The Los Angeles Subway is the rapid transit system of the city of Los Angeles, California. In the 1980s, Los Angeles County decided to build a network of metro and light rail lines. Although the first light rail opened in 1990, the only underground subway - the Red Line - opened in 1993 after seven years of construction. The Red Line runs from downtown Los Angeles westwards to Hollywood and North Hollywood. All of the underground stations boast an interesting design, as 0.5% of the total construction budget of the stations was reserved for public art. Due to the city's proximity to fault lines, tunnels had to be built to resist earthquakes of up to magnitude 7.5. Text from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_County_Metro_Rail

The Los Angeles Subway is the rapid transit system of the city of Los Angeles, California. In the 1980s, Los Angeles County decided to build a network of metro and light rail lines. Although the first light rail opened in 1990, the only underground subway - the Red Line - opened in 1993 after seven years of construction. The Red Line runs from downtown Los Angeles westwards to Hollywood and North Hollywood. All of the underground stations boast an interesting design, as 0.5% of the total construction budget of the stations was reserved for public art. Due to the city's proximity to fault lines, tunnels had to be built to resist earthquakes of up to magnitude 7.5. Text from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_County_Metro_Rail

The Los Angeles Subway is the rapid transit system of the city of Los Angeles, California. In the 1980s, Los Angeles County decided to build a network of metro and light rail lines. Although the first light rail opened in 1990, the only underground subway - the Red Line - opened in 1993 after seven years of construction. The Red Line runs from downtown Los Angeles westwards to Hollywood and North Hollywood. All of the underground stations boast an interesting design, as 0.5% of the total construction budget of the stations was reserved for public art. Due to the city's proximity to fault lines, tunnels had to be built to resist earthquakes of up to magnitude 7.5. Text from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_County_Metro_Rail

View of downtown Los Angeles from one of the the glass elevators of the Westin Hotel Bonaventure.

La Brea Tar Pit with the Japanese pavilion of LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) in the distance, Los Angeles, California.

La Brea Tar Pit with the Japanese pavilion of LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) in the distance, Los Angeles, California.

La Brea Tar Pit with animatronic mammoth stuck in the tar, Los Angeles, California.

LA, Ice-Age style! Reconstructed fossilized skeletons of mammoths at the La Brea Tar Pit in Los Angeles, California.

1869 N Vermont Ave Los Angeles, CA 90027