May 8, 2008
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PhotoPost: Silverlake Steps Part Two
This is the second PhotoPost consisting of photos of staircases in Silver Lake. The first PhotoPost consisted of photos taken on April 19th can be found HERE. The photos in the current post were taken when I made Mike's VideoBlog #8 on April 26th. (An aside. I added all the Mike's VideoBlogs to the sidebar, under the Index.)
This is the famous "Music Box Steps" from the Laurel and Hardy short "The Music Box" released in 1932. You can see photos of the steps and movie files from the short on the Laurel and Hardy website HERE. In the "Music Box", the homes on the left hadn't been built yet. The steps go from Vendome to Descanso at the top of the hill.
Halfway up the "Music Box Steps" which are awarded their own signpost at the top and the bottom, and a plaque designating the area as a historical site, I turned around and took this shot.
This is the top of the "Music Box Steps" in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. I added eight additional photos from this shoot on my PhotoBlog. These were taken at the same time I shot the VideoBlog but I use the videocamera for the video and the Sony 8.2 megapixel camera for the stills. The bright flowers are on a bouganvillea plant.
Here is a shot from the Micheltorena steps showing an area of this part of L.A., with winding streets, steep hills, and lots of foliage. I got to the area quite early in the morning, and by the time I got home after lunch, the mercury had shot up over 90 degrees. It turned out to be one of the hottest days on record for this time of the year.
An interesting autopark area wedged into the hill. When I lived in Silver Lake as a toddler, I remember that my parents used to say one of the walls of our apartment building was the dirt side of the hill. I'm sure I'm recollecting incorrectly, unless a wall was broken and you could see the hillside through a hole or something. As you can see from this photo, there is a lot of cutting into the hills to create a place where a house (or in this case a carport) can be placed. I liked the blue background somebody had painted.
Here is a shot standing on the Micheltorena steps looking down across Sunset Blvd. up Micheltorena into the hills. Micheltorena is the steepest street in the area.
I took some photos of this guy stitting on the Micheltorena steps from the back as I climbed down to Sunset Boulevard, then I got this shot of him sitting there as I began my climb back up the steps. I was a bit surprised to find that he was "rolling a doobie", or fashioning a marijuana cigarette, which is something you don't see every day (anymore at least). The guy was around my age too.
A close up of some purple flowers (I'm sure some astute reader will identify them for me) in focus with a staircase slightly out of focus in the background. Now that I'm getting adept at using the new camera (which I got for Christmas 2007) I really have an itch for a digital SLR with through the lens focusing.
I pass this oddly shaped tree covered by Mediterranean Ivy in the video. I took a few photos as well. This is a front "lawn" for one of the homes up the Landa steps. You can see part of a "No Tresspassing" sign on the right, and a partial stair railing on the left.
A panorama of Hollywood shot from Effie Street on the way to the Landa steps. Although the area is beautiful, nowadays with my aching hip (replacement), I don't think I'd want to live there again. It's a neat scenic hike around L.A. however. I passed a couple of guys on the Landa steps who had the same printout I was using to find the staircases.
A view from Griffith Park Blvd. up into the hills to the west. I've just walked down another staircase into this area, and liked the view. My aunt lived in Echo Park, which is near to Silver Lake, when I was young, and I remember this area very well. She lived in a house which was "on stilts". You can see a house like this on one of the photos in the PhotoBlog.
At noonish, I began the drive home, quite exhausted from my hike in the hills, after dining in the area. As I was heading down the Harbor Freeway back home, I shot a dozen or so photos of the skyline from the car as I was driving. My car is open, so it was fairly easy, however I wasn't framing the shots. There is another PHOTO of the freeway and the skyline in the PhotoBlog. My next scheduled PhotoPost (and MikeVideo) will hopefully be a trip to the 2008 edition of the Renaissance Faire in Irwindale, where I plan to go this upcoming weekend!
Comments (63)
i love being able to take a hike through those steep stairs without having to actually hike it! one of the real joys of arm chair traveling!!! its funny just how fascinating it is to see places that you might never see in real life!!! :love:
Wow and I thought my home city hilly/steep..Greetings
Love it. Thank goodness we can't drive up stairs or we wouldn't be getting any exercise at all.
Great blog!! :goodjob:
It was like we got to go with you on your trip (and agree with jerjonji too
)! I like that parking area you photographed too ... The building in the last pic, that seems to have a round top -- reminds me of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, because it looks kind of like it's leaning.
@katie0873 - Dear Katie, The "round top" building is the US Bank Tower, the tallest building in California at 73 stories (and the 9th tallest in the U.S.) The "lean" is due to the fact that I'm shooting from my car on the freeway. It gets blown up by aliens in the movie "Independence Day".
@baldmike2004 -
Oh yeah... I remember that part of the movie.
I never knew these staircases existed! I especially love the one with the bougainvillea. They don't grow so well here in central PA.
Thanks for those shots of the Michaeltorena steps! Looking forward to the Renaissance Festival photos as well.
That blog deserves a 5-stars rating and a recommendation, so I'm giving you right now! Wonderful pictures, vivid and colorful with interesting narration. In Malaysia, they called the bougainvillea as "bunga kertas" which literally means "paper flower".
you keep this up and we'll be able to bounce bullets off your butt!
Very cool post and video too. Here I am looking for a flat spot to ride my bicycle and you climb stairs!:sunny: Did doobie guy share?:giggle:
Well the yellow flower beneath the bougainvilla flower photo is a flowering aloe. Sorry don't know the violet purplish flower...
I gave up on visiting the Letter B above Burbank, it is quite a hike to get there. I'm pretty sure you can drive near the Hollywood sign but they have fencing and cameras there now...
Again, it makes me want to go there and hike the stairs. Not gonna happen any time soon. I heard there are some similar stairs in Portland. Maybe I'll check that out.
I really like that blue carpark spot too lol... That looks really cool. It's interesting what people do when they're trying to cram more living space into a small area. Seems like a fun place to photograph too.
Only you can make a flight of stairs so interesing to read about
@CdllcEnthus - Dear Gabriel, You'll like the next PhotoPost a lot, I'll bet. I'm going HERE this Saturday.
I've been wondering: How does one pronounce you last name?: "Nyiri"
i have to admit i am so out of shape i probably wouldn't have been able to walk up all those stairs like you did. especially with it being so hot. i have stamina problems. i love the little blue carport. it looks like someone tried to put stars and moons up on the sides. i would love to do that to a wall in my house but i think my mom would freak out if i painted her walls.
I've really enjoyed seeing these secret places and the view. Thx Mike.
you take wonderful photos. what camera are you using mike?
it's wonderful that you've got an open car. won't work so well in Malaysia because it randomly and sometimes consistently rains here. What we call normal rain here would probably be called 'tropical storm' by American standards.
Made me homesick for San Francisco. I might copy you and do a staircase blog. You don't think of Newport as being hilly but we've got all these bluffs and paths to the beach. Great blog.
oooh my neighborhood! I live in Los Feliz near Sunset and Virgil, so SilverLake is walking distance from me. I want to tackle the music box steps soon ... I'm going to see if steps part1 is the radio walk steps.
And the flowers look like lilacs, the unnamed ones.
@nidan - Dear Jimmy, My mother used to say "Nyiri, rhymes with "cheery". And the kids at school would rhyme it with "queery". My dad's family was Hungarian. The "y" is actually pronounced in the Hungarian dialect, which is pretty tricky.
@NightlyDreams - Dear Leigh Ann, You saw in the video that I'm pretty much out of breath when I call it a day. I do a power walk three times around our business park each morning at 8am. It's a little under two miles. My doctors don't advise me to jog because of my 10 year old hip replacement. But I can outpace most of the joggers! Not bad for an old coot, eh?
@ihsankhairir - Dear Ihsan, I'm currently using a Sony DSC-W55 at 7.2 megapixels, a gift I got from work last Christmas. I have a lens adapter attachment and wide angle and zoom lenses. What I really want is a digital SLR but the good ones go for at least $500.00. Before that I used the digital stills generated by my 1.2 megapixel videocamera, which I got in 2004.
@baldmike2004 -
you would do better than i. i am not suppose to over exert myself. per doctors orders. i have heart palpitations. my own fault usually cause im not supopse to drink caffine but i do anyway. it does get a fluttering when i do too much lifting and too much moving. i have to pace myself now. so you do much better than me for an old coot
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