Closing Time

hey everybody, so due to the fact that I'm not in Hollywood anymore, and when I go back in the summer where I work will have moved out of Hollywood, I've decided to lay "Mr. Ogle goes to Hollywood" to rest. I am, however, starting up a new, more permanent and general blog here:

http://randlev.blogspot.com

Check it out, I'm not sure how often I'll update it, but that will be the one I use when I head back out to LA this summer. Which I'm seriously stoked about!

Enjoy! I love you all!

-Alex

The Design of Dreams

So week one of Spring quarter is over.

Last night was Amanda's cast's performance of the opera at ccm and she and the show were great. All of the performances, the music...everything was wonderful. It was especially fun that plenty of people came out to see her and my projections. My stuff worked great, and the forest animals and knockout scenes got big laughs from the audience. I'm running the projections again tonight, and then the cast party is afterward.

All of this projection work is reminding me how much I love the theatre, and I talked to Isabella, the lighting designer, about what theater design and production classes are open to non-majors at ccm. I'm definitely going to have to try and take some next quarter. Who knows, I might even need to keep the option open of getting my masters in Theatrical Design at ccm. We'll see, I've obviously got time to consider these things.

Anyway, this post is still about California. A few months ago I saw a typography tour of Brooklyn on the AIGA website. It was very cool, but walking around Hollywood after reading that article, I was noticing more and more how cool the type of Hollywood is. I mean, Hollywood is a town that was almost built around typography. The typography and graphic design of the town is a big part of what created the spirit of Hollywood.

The Brooklyn article explained the date of creation of the designs. I unfortunately don't know them, but I can give you pictures and explain where they are. So here you go, the following pictures are of typography I thought was interesting or cool along Hollywood Blvd, Highland Ave, and Sunset Blvd. Enjoy!


1. Marquee of the Historic Hollywood Theatre, now the home of the Hollywood Guiness World of Records

2. Vertical marquee on the side of Grauman's Egyptian Theatre

3. Vertical marquee on the side of Grauman's Chinese Theatre

4. Some of my favorite type in Hollywood, the sign on the roof of the Roosevelt Hotel

5. Cinegrill Cabaret Lounge sign on the Roosevelt Hotel. The sign usually has interesting messages displayed on it. Here it says "Alienation Produces Eccentrics or Revolutionaries"



1. The vertical marquee on the side of the beautiful Scientology Building on Hollywood Boulevard. Those Scientologists sure have a lot of money.

2. The type on Walt's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

3. The marquee high on top of the roof of the El Capitan Theatre Building

4. A unique sign for a few shops along Hollywood Boulevard

5. Large sign for an army surplus store along Hollywood Boulevard.

6. The Crossroads of the World along Sunset Boulevard.


1. The vertical marquee on the Hollywood Theatre

2. Sign for Mel's Diner along Highland Ave

3. Department of Water and Power Building off of Highland

4. Vertical marquee on the Hollywood History Museum building

5. Numbers on 1606 Highland Ave.

6. Max Factor Make Up Studio lettering on the side of the now-Hollywood History Museum

7. Lettering along the fence of the Hollywood Center Motel


1. Classic Hollywood street sign, here for Las Palmas Ave

2. "Time to Shop" on an old building that is now a thrift store along Highland Ave

3. Old Hollywood Playhouse sign

4. Sign out front of the Hollywood Center Motel

5. More from the Crossroads of the World complex

6. lettering on Gianelli Square, an old strip mall-like building along Highland Ave


Well, there you have it, some of my favorite typography from around the Hollywood and Highland Area. I hope you've enjoyed this post, there probably won't be many more for now. My computer is on the fritz again, which sucks, but its something new this time. Now it forces itself to go to sleep over and over again after its been on for too long. Not cool.

Anyway, I'll see most of you people that would read this in the next couple days. For everybody else, have a great week!

much love,
Alex

"To all who come to this happy place...welcome"

So I'm pretty far behind schedule now, and it's the night before spring quarter starts, but here comes the post about Amanda and my trip to Disneyland!

I still have some unpacking to do and some work tonight, so I'm sorry if the post isn't as detailed as you might like. Still, here you go!


Amanda arrived in LA on monday and it was absolutely great to see her. Three months is a really long time to be apart and it was very hard. Just being together again was wonderful. Monday afternoon we went to Hollywood and out to Santa Monica for dinner. It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday morning we got up and drove in the rental car down to Anaheim. Traffic wasn't bad, and we got there in about 45 minutes, just around the park opening at 8. We took the tram over to the park and began our first day at the Happiest Place on Earth.

The park was absolutely packed with the spring break crowd, but luckily we knew what we were doing and we were able to do just about everything we wanted. Here are some of the best pictures from our two days at the Disneyland Resort with some commentary:

We started in Adventureland on the Indiana Jones Adventure, which was awesome. One of the times we crisscrossed the park to Tomorrowland we stopped in the hub to get some pictures. This is one the photographer cast member took of us. How fun we are! And look how small and cute the castle is!


I guess I didn't really take many pictures the first day were were at Disneyland. One of the highlights of the first day was definitely Indiana Jones, and the original Pirates of the Caribbean was awesome as well, especially with the added special effects and amazing Jack Sparrow animatronics. The completely rebuilt Space Mountain was amazing, too, and Michael Giacchino's on-ride soundtrack blasting though the speakers on the train while flying through outer space was awesome. Amanda and I also had fun exploring Pirate's Lair at Tom Sawyer Island. We also had a great lunch at the Blue Bayou, the restaurant in the bayou scene of Pirates of the Caribbean. I got us reservations, which admittedly made it fairly fun to watch the people walking up to the desk asking if there was any space. All in all, we had a wonderful first day at Disneyland, but were worn out before dark and decide to leave and rest up for the next day.

Day two we went over to Disney's California Adventure. First we got fastpasses for the Tower of Terror. The Tower at California Adventure isn't quite as beautiful as the Florida original, of course neither can compare to the amazing new Manhattan-themed Tower of Terror at Tokyo Disney.


The ride itself was very cool, not all that different from the original, but without the moving forward scene. Without that scene though, I had no idea when the drops were coming, and I was definitely surprised and scared.

Other highlights from California Adventure were the great Aladdin musical, that was a whopping 45 minutes long in a huge indoor theater with amazing production values and special effects, and a hilarious guy playing the genie. Soarin' over California was great, too, but getting in the singles line was a must there, as we waited only 10 minutes as opposed to the hour and a half we would've waiting in the stand-by line. I absolutely cannot wait to go back there in the summer once Toy Story Midway Mania opens, which should be pretty mind-bogglingly fun.

Early in the evening we had done everything we wanted to we headed back across the Esplanade back to Disneyland. We got some pictures, including one of me in front of the California adventure gate.


As we went into the park the parade was finishing up, so we ran to the back of the park to try and catch as much of it as we could. Here's Amanda in front of the last float in the parade. She really wanted a picture with Snow White, and since we didn't see her anywhere for meet and greets, this was the best we could do. It's a very cute picture, though!


We did a few rides at night in Disneyland, but the highlight was definitely the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. It was the longest line in the park, but it was definitely worth it. Here's the Nautilus submarine in the lagoon. Let me tell you, pictures don't do these subs justice, and when I got up close to them, I was amazing how big they are. Each one holds 40 people!


The ride is completely immersive and absolutely makes you believe you are riding in a submarine in the ocean. They use an amazing technology to project animated fish into the water and make it appear that they are swimming around realistically. Using Thomas Newman's great score from the movie also struck the perfect chord.

The main reason we wanted to be back in the park at night was so we could see the fireworks and fantasmic. The fireworks were amazing, with fireworks shooting off from the whole perimeter of the park and projections on the Matterhorn. Tinker Bell flying back and forth over the castle was amazing, too.

After the fireworks we went over to New Orleans Square to see Fantasmic. The show was great, especially the peter pan pirate battle on the Sailing Ship Columbia. Aside from that, though, I did miss the Pocahontas and Lion King scenes in the newer Florida show. Towards the end of the show, I looked over at the base of a light tower at the front of the seating area and saw a duck there, just standing there staring forward transfixed on Fantasmic. The duck did not move or look away the whole time and didn't flinch, even when the river caught fire. Talk about the magic of Disneyland.


After Fantasmic, Amanda and I were again very worn out, and left the park to head home back up in LA. Before we did, I stopped to take a picture of the dedication plaque at the base of the flag pole. Pretty excellent.


So what did I think of Disneyland? Well obviously it was great and a lot of fun. How could I not have a blast there? Of course it was great and very special to share my first visit with my very wonderful girlfriend, as well. And how does it compare to Disney World? Well, everything is more compact and the park doesn't quite have the spectacular views that the Magic Kingdom Park has. Disneyland does have a great charm, especially on Main Street, which might be my favorite part of the park. It was wonderful to visit, and I can't wait to come back in the summer.

Here's the last picture of this post, looking up at Walt Disney's private apartment above the fire station on main street. Can you see the candle lit in the window? That light is always lit and is there to represent Walt's spirit and the fact that he still watches over the park.


So of course with our great trip and adventure at Disneyland, there had to be a downside, and after we got back to LA, I got pretty badly sick. I guess I caught some kind of a bug. Amanda wound up getting very sick, too, and we're both still recovering. It sucks.

Anyway, school starts tomorrow and hopefully Amanda and I are feeling better. I'm really looking forward to the quarter. It should be a lot of fun, especially once it gets warmer.

So much for a short post. Don't worry this isn't the last of the blog. Things might be pretty crazy until the opera's over this weekend, but I still have some posts to write, including an "interesting typography of Hollywood" photo tour, and a post about things I've learned.

Anyway, I hope you all have great days and weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of people I've missed in the next few days.

Keep it real!

much love,
Alex

A Post About Nothing

So a lot of you are already done with co-op for the quarter. However, out here in the Godless state of California, we work on Good Friday. No, no, that's not true, plenty of people out here are done with work, too. I'm not, I have work tomorrow. It's okay though, it should be a good day.

Anyway, last weekend, Lindsey Meyer sent me the address of the apartment building here in LA that they used for establishing shots of Jerry's apartment on Seinfeld. I know, I know, the show was set in New York, but just like every other sitcom (including Friends), it was filmed out here. I know, it still doesn't make sense that they would use an LA building for an establishing shot that could very easily be photographed in Manhattan. It makes even less sense when you take into account the fact that many other true New York sites were used in Seinfeld establishing shots, like Monk's (the "Restaurant") being actual NYC site Tom's Restaurant.

I don't claim to have the answers, maybe Lindsey or Andrew do. I did, however, set out on Tuesday during my lunch break to find the building. The address of the building is 757 New Hampshire Ave, and when I looked it up on google maps I found it to be just down Santa Monica a ways, so I got on the bus and headed there.

When I got to the 700 block of New Hampshire Ave, I was crushed when I found this:


I couldn't believe that they would actually tear down the Seinfeld apartment! And replace it with a parking lot and a driving range, no less! How disgusting. I mean, it really is a piece of history. I called Andrew and told him the bad news. Needless to say, he was crushed. He said he wasn't going to have any reason to come visit me out here in the summer now. I told him we still had the San Diego Zoo. I called Lindsey, too, but she didn't pick up, which was probably a good thing. I didn't really want the bad news to make her cry.

I went back to work and did some more searching on the internet, baffled that the building was torn down so recently. However, as I was looking on google, I saw that there was actually a North New Hampshire Ave and a South New Hampshire Ave, and both have a 757! How stupid is that? Like there aren't enough numbers in the world to not repeat on the same street?

Obviously I was very relieved that there was still hope, and if I went to S. New Hampshire I might find it. Andrew was relieved, too.

This morning, I woke up and realized if I got ready quickly I would have plenty of time to go to South New Hampshire to find the building. Well I did, and after two fairly painless bus rides, I made it. The street was a block or two over from the bus stop, and just looking over at the street I knew I was in the right place. Soon, I found myself looking at 757 S. New Hampshire.


That's the view from one direction. It's pretty funny how just about every other tree on the street besides the ones in front of the apartment are palm trees. The building itself does do a good job of looking like New York. Here's a shot looking down the street in the other direction.


It's funny because the building is in an area of the city called Korea Town, and signs on the buildings around the apartment are all in Korean. It's not a great area, but it could be worse. Does it still not look very familiar? Here's a shot similar to one that they actually used on the show:


It's kind of weird that the street is a bit of a hill, I never really noticed that on the show. I guess its all in how they shoot it. From what Lindsey tells me, it actually was called the Shelley on the show, too. Make sure you note in the picture above the guy in blue sitting out front looking at me. He looked like he was really confused and didn't understand why I was taking pictures. I think he thought I was going to come back and rob the place.

Does it still not look very familiar? Well, here's the money shot I took. The one that is most similar to what they'd do on the show. I added the Seinfeld logo to make it look even more authentic.


Pretty cool, eh? Just try and look at the picture above without the theme song bopping into your head. Yeah, so I'm really glad I went. It was a lot of fun and really cool to see in person. In true New York spirit, I was able to take the Subway up to Hollywood from where I was, which was excellent. I do love the subway.

So tomorrow is my last day of work. Man it flew by. I can't wait for Amanda to come and for us to go to Disneyland. It's going to be a blast! I hope everybody that's traveling has a fun and safe Easter weekend and spring break!

Don't worry, the blog isn't finished yet, I still have a week of life out here.

Keep it real everybody.

much love,
Alex