June 17, 2005

• We interrupt this PHOTOPOST for the following news bulletin: California has been “rocked” by a series of earthquakes this past week. The first hit Sunday, and was a quake measuring 5.2. It struck 20 miles south of Palm Springs in Anza. An earthquake measuring 7.0 rattled off the coast of Northern California on Tuesday evening. Authorities, in turn, issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas from Alaska to Mexico. A quake originally  measured at a magnitude of 5.3, but was downgraded to 4.9, struck at 1:53 p.m. Pacific time, about 70 miles east from downtown Los Angeles. Last night at 10:21 p.m. local time another quake hit, its epicenter was 120 miles west of Ferndale, California, and about 300 miles northwest of San Francisco. I felt the one yesterday afternoon,  which was centered fairly close. In Long Beach, which was nearly decimated by the 1933 quake, the ground is basically sandfill, since we are on the ocean, and for a couple of seconds, I thought “this could be the “big one”" and I actually got up from my desk and stood in a doorway. It passed after a few seconds, but there is a short time when you just know that a lot of damage could be happening somewhere, or could be about to happen right here. Now we continue with PHOTOPOST, already in progress. MFN (Click on the photos to bring up the full size images in another window.)

  
  

  

  
  

  The photos here were taken a couple of months ago in and around Los Angeles during a photo expedition.

  
  

  

  
  

  This first is a photo of a taco stand in one of the old McDonald’s buildings south of downtown L.A. There aren’t many of the old 50s McDonald’s stands left standing, and this one is interesting in that it sells burritos and tacos instead of Mickey D’s.

  
  

  

  
  

  An interesting church I have already used in a couple of composite artworks, about three blocks from the taco stand pictured above. This is on Central Street in L.A. about six blocks south of downtown.

  
  

  

  
  

  A lone guitarist practices on the lawn at Hollenbeck Park in East L.A. The park is situated underneath the Golden State Freeway, but has a lake and some nice rolling hills on the grounds.

  
  

  

  
  

  One of my “barbed wire photos”. This is the Los Angeles skyline taken from the Boyle Street Bridge, one of the series of 1920s era concrete bridges which span the L.A. River (actually a concrete flood runoff basin this close to the city). I am shooting through the barbed wire on the bridge.

  
  

  

  
  

  Here I am shooting through one of the concrete portals in the side of the same bridge as the above photo, onto one of the railyards, and the L.A. river.

  
  

  

  
  

  Shooting towards City Hall (on the right) which I can still remember when it was the tallest building in the city. I am standing on another bridge north of where I was before. This is Cesar Chavez Blvd. Bridge.

  
  

  

  
  

  A nice shot of City Hall taken from a stoplight (in my open car) and looking back over the back seat before the light turns green.

  
  

  

  
  

  This is a wide angle photo of the incredible Disney Hall, in the area of town with the Music Center, and soon to be a large outdoor “urban area” with parks and new apartments and businesses. Disney Hall was designed by Frank Gehry, and is made of burnished aluminum sheets which get so hot during the heat of the day that the sun shines into the condominiums across the street, and the temperature inside the condos goes up 10 degrees. L.A. is attempting to “correct” this bad urban planning. The Disney Hall is either a great work of architectural art or a piece of sh*t depending upon your point of view.

  
  

  

  
  

  The best thing about L.A. are the older buildings, many of which are still standing, (a lot in disrepair) and a lot of which are being renovated into new condos and lofts in an attempt to revitalize the city. These old brick buildings are in the old “Bank District”. I am shooting towards the sky. On the street are the beginnings of some of the “homeless communities.” There was a recent “census” taken of the homeless in L.A., and they counted 90,000, people. That alone is the size of a small town. In the area next to the Bank District, there are tent cities lining many blocks.

  
  

  

  
  

  Lastly, here is my car parked opposite the Coca Cola Building down Central Avenue. The Coke building is an L.A. landmark, and yes, it is supposed to resemble an ocean going ship. Perhaps it will float away when we “sink into the ocean” following the “big one”: the major earthquake that has been predicted since I was a child following the Sylmar Quake in 71. After this week, with four quakes, we’re ready for anything!

  • 8:23 am
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