June 19, 2006

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  This year is just going by too fast. This weekend I and Liz were going to the Santa Monica Pier, but I balked after I saw the amount of cars lining up for parking. Liz is still on a walker (healing from her broken leg) and I didn’t want to take photos with so many people around, so no new photos for my Pacific Coast Highway Series, as I had planned. I also changed the blog banner and my profile picture to celebrate my new “Clowns” website, but I haven’t finished the “movie” slideshow with the clowns images, which I spent most of Saturday constructing, because I ‘ve decided to change some of the music. So here it is Monday, and I haven’t posted an entry on my blog since last Thursday. Since I’m not visiting that much either these days, it doesn’t really matter. I posted some of my photos of Universal Citywalk and Studio tour on Feb. 26th of this year. Can’t believe it was that long ago. Here are some more photos from that excursion, the last Liz and I made before she broke her leg.

  
  

   

  
  

  The Hard Rock Cafe building with requisite large electric guitar at the far eastern end of Citywalk. As I just mentioned, I like taking photos before the crowds arrive. We got to Citywalk at about 10:30 in the morning, and there weren’t any crowds (yet).

  
  

   

  
  

  I snapped a couple of photos of this L.A. Angel from an art project a few years ago. This L.A. Angel is at the entrance to the Mexican Restaurant at which we had dinner later in the day.

  
  

  

  
  

  The Haunted House that was up for the Mummy film before Universal installed the Mummy roller coaster ride was still open, and had a short line. This is a bony sculpture at the entrance.

  
  

  

  
  

  One of the gift shops at Universal Studios fashioned to look like a movie theater marquee. Since most of the single screen movie theaters are closing down in Los Angeles at an alarming rate, soon tourist attractions like Universal Studios will be the only place where you can see a real marquee from the “old days”.

  
  

   

  
  

  My favorite “ride” at Universal is the Studio tour, of which I never tire. Here is “New New York Street” built after the fire leveled the original street in the mid 80s. There is still  lots of activity on the backlot at Universal, and they were filming movies and television shows when I visited. The standing street set for “Desperate Housewives” is on the backlot.

  
  

  

  
  

  This is the plane crash set for the remake of “War of the Worlds” with Tom Cruise. This set was outside on the lot, and covered about a block and a half of the area where the 747 crashes as Tom and his family are hiding out in his ex wive’s house, which is partially destroyed in the crash. I was impressed with this set, which looked better than it did in “real life” than in the film.

  
  

   

  
  

  Bruce the Shark, from Jaws. This isn’t the real shark used in the movie, but a prop by which one can pose for photo ops.

  
  

   

  
  

  Here is a dead mummy from the entrance to the Mummy’s Revenge roller coaster.

  
  

  

  
  

  Lastly, a raptor from Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park”. I took my video camera on the Jurassic Park ride a few years after  it opened, and was warned that camera gear might get wet. I didn’t pay any attention to the warnings, and my camera (not the one I used for these photos) did get wet, from one of those spitting dinosaurs on the ride.

  
  

  This year has not been a good one for photography as of yet. I did get quite a few photos for the Pacific Coast Highway Series and would like to get some more by driving up the coast one weekend. I want to take a trip with Liz to Knott’s Berry Farm, and take some shots of Ghost Town, one of my favorite places in all of SoCal. However when thinking of taking Liz anywhere, we have to plan around her injury. Hopefully soon she will heal so that she can walk without the walker, and then we can go to some of the places we planned earlier in the year.  

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