The Grove shopping mall at night

Life is good

A tight sail and a brisk breeze. Life is good.

Hollywood Boulevard sign at night

Hollywood Blvd. Street Closure

The Mission Impossible 3 movie premiere is shaping up to be a big event...  They've been building up to this for a while, sending out notices, street closures, bringing in equipment, etc...  Here's the notice I got today:

Please be informed that Paramount Pictures will be holding the premiere of "Mission Impossible III" at the Grauman's Chinese Theater, located at 6925 Hollywood Blvd., at 7:00 PM on Thursday, May 4, 2006. 

Below are the street/curb/lane closures:

Temporary closure of all westbound traffic lanes of Hollywood Boulevard, from Highland Avenue to Orange Avenue, closed to vehicular traffic from 4:00 AM on May 4th to 6:00AM on May 5th.

Temporary closure of all traffic lanes of Hollywood Boulevard, from Highland Avenue to La Brea Avenue, closed to vehicular traffic from 1:00 PM on May 4th to 6:00AM on May 5th.

Temporary closure of the north sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard, from 6925 Hollywood Boulevard west to the northeast corner of Orange Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard, from 12:00 PM to 6:00 AM.

Temporary closure of the mid-block crosswalk from 5:00 PM to 11:30 PM on May 4th.

If I get a chance, I'll try to post some pictures of the festivities tomorrow...

Hollywood Boulevard

This is a birds eye view of Hollywood Blvd from the 5th floor of my building. Looking east from hollywood and la brea.

Walk of Fame with Hollywood Royalty

Elvis Presly Hollywood Star

Sailing Santa Monica bay 2

Sailing Santa Monica bay 1

Bees attack Hollywood

LAPD star

A Star for Hollywood Police Officers

It's a dull, dreary day in LA. But, there's some good stuff going on. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is putting in a star for the Hollywood police officers killed in the line of duty. It's going in on the island at the intersection of Hollywood Blvd. and La Brea Ave. Right next to the Elvis and Beatles (and Chamber of Commerce) stars - this is probably the most prestigious spot a new star could be located.

I just heard a three gun salute outside my office window. I doubt they were firing real rounds!

More Academy Awards Pics

Me and the fam went down to Hollywood and Highland today to take a few more pics of the festivities. They've really gone all out this year! Very glamorous. Plus, I found the secret star bar - then I got tackled by security and thrown in the alley and beaten to a pulp. If it wasn't for my wife and 6 year old daughter, I might not have made it through... luckily, I got a few pics before my brutal assault...



How do you really know when you're in Hollywood? Plus, how do you really know when the oscars are about here? Well, the huge Academy Awards sign, in front of the huge Hollywood sign are good clues...

Hollywood and Highland is always a good place for an Elvis spotting, but Kiss and Tinkerbell aren't everyday appearances!

They build this big bridge over the street for all the cameras to sit on. There must be a very good view of the red carpet from up there.

Pics of the entrance to the red carpet. The movie stars get out of their limos (or their Prius) and walk into this tent before they start down the red carpet.

Various pics of the red carpet, from a nice vantage point in the Hollywood and Highland complex.

This is the entrance to the Kodak Theatre.

Here's a little extra leftover red carpet. I'm not really sure why I took this picture, and my daughter told me to leave it out of the post, but I'm sick - can't help myself.


This is the picture I took just before I was viciously tackled and beaten within a breath of my life. I'm barely able to type right now due to the pain, and I might need a little drink myself......

Hollywood prepares for the Oscars

Hollywood Blvd is shut down. The major equipment is out. They're preparing the red carpet for the Hollywood royalty.

For people that live here the lead-up to this event is pretty much a pain in the ass. The traffic around Hollywood is never as bad as it is during the Oscars.

They've really only just begin to break out the heavy equipment. You can see from this picture that they bring in a lot of equipment for this event. Lots of trucks moving in and out all day long.

Here they're hanging some sort of speakers or camera equipment above the Kodak Theatre entrance. I'm not sure what it could do there... but they must know what they're doing! They always have these wide-angle type shots of the beautiful people strolling down the red carpet, so that's probably what it is. It's hard to see in this picture, but they also put up a clear plastic roof in that area, in case it rains. I can only assume that they'll be prepared to cover the entire red carpet with the clear plastic if the weather turns bad.

This is where the stars stroll down the red carpet - right down the middle of Hollywood Boulevard. They get dropped off on the corner of Highland Ave and Hollywood Blvd, go through a big white tent, and take a stroll down the red carpet, and enter the Kodak Theatre for the award ceremony.

It's my understanding, from people that know these things, that once inside the Kodak Theatre, the stars do not actually sit up front and watch very much of the show. The place to be - the real ticket to the Oscars - is at the bar! They actually have fillers sit in the stars seats when they're not there. They escort the stars to their seats next to the stage right before their award is announced, so they can get up and accept the award and head back to the bar!

Here's a basic layout of the whole deal from Google Earth. A "secret" star bar couldn't really exist if I revealed to everyone where it was, so that arrow is for show only. Actually, I don't even know if there is a secret star bar... but I like to envision myself perched atop a secret bar stool having a couple of drinks and a couple of laughs with Keira Knightly and George Clooney.

I might try to get a few more pics right before the event when the red carpet is laid out. I'm also going to try to get a couple of pics of the circus surrounding the event while it's happening - there are police, fire trucks, swat teams, and bomb squads lined up down Hollywood Blvd. They don't show that part on TV!

TG

Preparing for the Oscars

Hollywood Blvd is a ghost town. Very strange... where are the sirens? where are the honking horns? I'll tell ya - they're all a few blocks over on Sunset and Santa Monica, because Hollywood Blvd. is already pretty much shut down to set up for the Oscars. I'll try to get a couple of pics of the setup later today.

Big Love movie premier

Movie premiere of the movie Big Love at the Mann Chinese. I had never heard of this movie until just today...

The Mann side of Hollywood Blvd is shut down to passers by because of this premiere... just two days before they shut it down for a week to set up for the Oscars.

I'll try to get some good pics of the Oscar setup - it's usually pretty interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes of this award show.

Sailing on Lake Pacific

This is a picture from about a mile out at sea, looking back at Santa Monica. Some days the Pacific Ocean looks like a lake. It's very strange being on an enormous body of water with no wave action at all... It was a gorgeous day.

Lambo in Marina del Rey

Torture at Hollywood & Highland

It's not every day that you see public humiliation by a dominatrix being filmed on the side of the street. Oh... wait... this is Hollywood. I guess you do see that everday...

Judge Judy gets a star

Judge Judy on the podium, speaking to the reporters, tourists, and Jon Voight (yes, he was standing right behind her), and Florence Henderson (brady bunch mom), and ME (blogger extaordinaire) about her new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

samuel

NEW! This is a picture of the hand and footprints Samuel L. Jackson just left at the famed Mann's Chinese Theatre on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The foot that you see in the lower right part of the picture is actually a representative of Mann's Chinese on a microphone telling all tourists about the footprints. There wasn't anyone standing within 15 feet of him, but everyone was looking. I walked right up next to him, kinda nudged him out of the way and snapped a photo with my phone, then kept right on walking! He must have been thinking "damn rude tourists..."

LA Natural History Museum

My daughter Soleil, kicking it with T-Rex at the la natural history museum.

Gig-a-blog: life is good!

life is good!

Sailing back from Catalina

Movie Premiere at Mann Chinese Theatre

There's a big movie premiere at the Mann Chinese Theatre this weekend...  maybe I'll go down and try to get a shot of Martin Lawrence.

 

Please be informed that Fox Studios will be holding the premiere of "Big Momma's House 2" at the Grauman's Chinese Theater on Wednesday, January 25, 2006 at 7:30 PM.

  

Hollywood

RIP George

mann's chinese

I guess Johnny Depp is a big draw these days. Usually they only close down Hollywood Blvd for movie premiers and awards ceremonies... You can't read it very well, but there is a sign hung over the Mann Chinese that says says Johnny Depp will be there tomorrow to put his hands and feet into cement.


Good Afternoon All,

Please be advised that Johnny Depp will be making his mark on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday, 9/16/05. Due to this event, the following streets and curb closures will be in effect:

Temporary closure of curb lane on North side of Hollywood Blvd. from Orange Avenue to Highland Avenue from 4:00AM to 3:00PM

Temporary closure of curb lane on South side of Hollywood Blvd. from Orange Avenue to mid-block east to crosswalk from 4:00AM to 3:00PM

North sidewalk of Hollywood Blvd. closed to pedestrian traffic from the northeast corner of Orange Avenue east to Awards Walk at Hollywood & Highland, beginning at 4:00AM and re-opening at 3:00PM. During this closure, pedestrian access will be available for the Hollywood & Highland facility from Awards Walk to the western entrance into H&H.

what the?

Smokey and Max

Here's a picture of my two dogs... if you've ever met my dogs, you know the irony of the devil and angel costumes... Smokey is the lab, and maximus is the maltese.