Well, we'll find out tomorrow night. But for now here's an Oscar Weekend Update. In fact, it'll probably be mostly pictures, and I'll go as far as to call it a photo update! Enjoy!
This morning the weather was much nicer than I expected it to be, so I decided to go up to Griffith Observatory. However, to get to the Observatory, I had to get on the subway, and that meant either going downtown or catching it in Hollywood. I decided to go to Hollywood, and it was definitely a good decision. I wasn't sure how crazy it would be the day before the Oscars, but at the same time, I was excited to find out. The bus took a detour, but I was still able to get off right at Hollywood & Highland, and this is what I found there.
Hollywood Blvd was completely blocked off between Orange and Highland, and the Red Carpet spanned a few blocks. They covered it in big tents this year with the rain that's expected. Still, it was very cool to be this close to the action of Hollywood's biggest night.
As I was walking along the sidewalk, I saw people crowding together in front of the El Capitan looking toward the carpet. I walked over, and saw what everyone was looking at. There on the Red Carpet getting ready for his Red Carpet hosting duties tomorrow, was the one and only Regis Philbin. How about that for celebrity sighting number 3?
Regis seems like a pretty great guy. I'll admit it was weird to see him wearing jeans, since I've really only seen him in a suit or behind a desk. It was pretty funny that he happened to be standing in the middle of the street right near his star on the walk of fame. How could I not take a picture?
Following the detour along the sidewalk into the Kodak Theatre, you could look back and see the red carpet covered in plastic where the stars walk inside.
Even though you needed a pass to walk on the part above, at the bottom of the "grand staircase" in front of the Kodak, it was possible for anybody to stand on the red carpet, and even though it was covered in plastic, I was excited to stand on the red carpet, so I took a quick picture of my shoes on it.
I walked up to the top of the Hollywood and Highland complex to see what I could see of the red carpet set-up, and in front of the El Capitan and Jimmy Kimmel Studio it was a bird's eye view of the tents.
It started to rain, which was not cool, since I was going to the Observatory to look out over the city, but I got on the subway to go to the Sunset & Vermont station where I could catch the Observatory Shuttle.
In the Subway station under the Kodak, this guy started to talk to me. He was a black guy probably in his mid to late 30s. He asked me how long I had been waiting, made some jokes about following the rules on the subway, and then started to tell me about how he had recently seen the new Larry the Cable Guy movie and how hilarious he thought it was. I didn't really have to do much in the conversation as we talked about comedians and movies and stuff. At first I just had to tell him names of famous people as he described them.
He told me he was a big fan of Mr. Bean and recommended I check out John Cleese's tv show, Faulty Towers. I told him my favorites were the people that made the Naked Gun and Airplane. He asked where I'm from, I told him Pittsburgh, and he said I seemed like I'm from the Midwest, and I told him Pittsburghers don't really like to think they're in the Midwest and we like to consider ourselves in the Northeast, but that in actuality we probably are more Midwestern.
He asked me why I was out here and I told him, and he asked if I thought I could ever live out here. I told him I had no idea, and he told me he was from Michigan but that he thought LA was a great place to visit but a bad place to live, and that people from here never strike up conversation with each other. That they only care about themselves. I definitely haven't felt that way, but didn't really have time to tell him, since this was my stop. He told me his name was Miguel, I told him mine, we wished each other good luck and I got off the subway.
I went outside to wait in the rain for the observatory shuttle. Luckily I had an umbrella, but I contemplated leaving and going back to Hollywood to just see a movie or something. Still I stuck it out waiting for the shuttle and eventually it came. By some crazy string of luck, as I rode the shuttle up to the top of the hill in Griffith Park, the rain stopped and the sun started to peak out.
Although it stayed relatively overcast, it was a lot better than rain, and I was excited when I got up to Observatory. Just to explain, Griffith Observatory is a planetarium, observatory and museum on Mount Hollywood that looks out over all of Los Angeles. The building just opened last year after a massive 5 year restoration and it looks beautiful.
Some of you might recognize the building as one of the places where the robots land at the beginning of Transformers. Apparently it featured prominently in "Rebel Without a Cause" as well. In fact there's a stature of James Dean because of it. Even with the sky cloudy, visibility was pretty good. The observatory had a great and very naturally beautiful view over to the Hollywood sign.
Here's a shot looking down into the heart of Hollywood. It's not easy to make very much out, but you can see the huge Oscars poster on the side of one building, and you can see the giant orange and yellow iPod billboard on Santa Monica Blvd right near where I work.
Here's the view back to downtown Los Angeles. Very cool.
This is from the roof of the observatory, over the front lawn back toward the sign.
With Hollywood on the bottom left, Century City standing tall in the middle, and Santa Monica behind and to the right of Century City, the sun reflects off the ocean in the distance.
Who knew Los Angeles was so beautiful? Here's some sunlight peaking down through the clouds onto the rolling hills out towards the Pacific Ocean.
After checking out the view, I went into the Observatory, which was just as beautiful inside and had a lot of cool exhibits. I decided to see the Planetarium show, which was very cool. Surprisingly, the voice-over wasn't provided by a celebrity like Patrick Stewart or Leonard Nemoy, but rather by a guy standing and walking around inside the planetarium. He was pretty good and had a voice similar to J. Peterman. There was a line about the big bang that just about blew my mind. He said that it "wasn't an explosion into space, but rather an explosion of space itself." Awesome.
After the planetarium, I went outside to wait for the shuttle. As I was waiting, I tried to see if it was possible to look all the way to Anaheim and Disneyland. I couldn't see it. I could however see the mountains and make out the snow-covered mountains in the distance. I love it!
I took the shuttle and subway back to Hollywood and Highland, because I needed dinner, and was feeling like I should have Crepes. I had been in California for too long without having them, so I went to The French Crepe right next to the Kodak. I didn't realize they made crepes with real food, but my craving was for something sweet, so I got a Napoleon with strawberries, nutella, and chestnut spread. I call this picture "The Grandma Shot." Grandma loves to take pictures of meals, and look at me, I'm doing it now myself.
I know my crepe was more like dessert than an actual meal, but you only live once, right?
So I walked along Hollywood Blvd. and waited for the bus. It was a great day, full of good decisions. Not to mention celebrity sighting number 3!
I'm excited to watch the Oscars tomorrow, especially with 3 songs from Enchanted being performed. Although I won't be headed back to Hollywood for it, it'll be too crazy and probably raining, it was very awesome to witness the set-up firsthand. The observatory was awesome, too. There's a lot of stuff in this city.
I hope the weekend finishes up great for everybody! I really do miss you all and am really looking forward to Spring Quarter! It's going to be filled with so much awesome stuff. It's the little things I'm excited about, too, like UC baseball. Let's go to some games, ok?
much love,
This morning the weather was much nicer than I expected it to be, so I decided to go up to Griffith Observatory. However, to get to the Observatory, I had to get on the subway, and that meant either going downtown or catching it in Hollywood. I decided to go to Hollywood, and it was definitely a good decision. I wasn't sure how crazy it would be the day before the Oscars, but at the same time, I was excited to find out. The bus took a detour, but I was still able to get off right at Hollywood & Highland, and this is what I found there.
Hollywood Blvd was completely blocked off between Orange and Highland, and the Red Carpet spanned a few blocks. They covered it in big tents this year with the rain that's expected. Still, it was very cool to be this close to the action of Hollywood's biggest night.
As I was walking along the sidewalk, I saw people crowding together in front of the El Capitan looking toward the carpet. I walked over, and saw what everyone was looking at. There on the Red Carpet getting ready for his Red Carpet hosting duties tomorrow, was the one and only Regis Philbin. How about that for celebrity sighting number 3?
Regis seems like a pretty great guy. I'll admit it was weird to see him wearing jeans, since I've really only seen him in a suit or behind a desk. It was pretty funny that he happened to be standing in the middle of the street right near his star on the walk of fame. How could I not take a picture?
Following the detour along the sidewalk into the Kodak Theatre, you could look back and see the red carpet covered in plastic where the stars walk inside.
Even though you needed a pass to walk on the part above, at the bottom of the "grand staircase" in front of the Kodak, it was possible for anybody to stand on the red carpet, and even though it was covered in plastic, I was excited to stand on the red carpet, so I took a quick picture of my shoes on it.
I walked up to the top of the Hollywood and Highland complex to see what I could see of the red carpet set-up, and in front of the El Capitan and Jimmy Kimmel Studio it was a bird's eye view of the tents.
It started to rain, which was not cool, since I was going to the Observatory to look out over the city, but I got on the subway to go to the Sunset & Vermont station where I could catch the Observatory Shuttle.
In the Subway station under the Kodak, this guy started to talk to me. He was a black guy probably in his mid to late 30s. He asked me how long I had been waiting, made some jokes about following the rules on the subway, and then started to tell me about how he had recently seen the new Larry the Cable Guy movie and how hilarious he thought it was. I didn't really have to do much in the conversation as we talked about comedians and movies and stuff. At first I just had to tell him names of famous people as he described them.
He told me he was a big fan of Mr. Bean and recommended I check out John Cleese's tv show, Faulty Towers. I told him my favorites were the people that made the Naked Gun and Airplane. He asked where I'm from, I told him Pittsburgh, and he said I seemed like I'm from the Midwest, and I told him Pittsburghers don't really like to think they're in the Midwest and we like to consider ourselves in the Northeast, but that in actuality we probably are more Midwestern.
He asked me why I was out here and I told him, and he asked if I thought I could ever live out here. I told him I had no idea, and he told me he was from Michigan but that he thought LA was a great place to visit but a bad place to live, and that people from here never strike up conversation with each other. That they only care about themselves. I definitely haven't felt that way, but didn't really have time to tell him, since this was my stop. He told me his name was Miguel, I told him mine, we wished each other good luck and I got off the subway.
I went outside to wait in the rain for the observatory shuttle. Luckily I had an umbrella, but I contemplated leaving and going back to Hollywood to just see a movie or something. Still I stuck it out waiting for the shuttle and eventually it came. By some crazy string of luck, as I rode the shuttle up to the top of the hill in Griffith Park, the rain stopped and the sun started to peak out.
Although it stayed relatively overcast, it was a lot better than rain, and I was excited when I got up to Observatory. Just to explain, Griffith Observatory is a planetarium, observatory and museum on Mount Hollywood that looks out over all of Los Angeles. The building just opened last year after a massive 5 year restoration and it looks beautiful.
Some of you might recognize the building as one of the places where the robots land at the beginning of Transformers. Apparently it featured prominently in "Rebel Without a Cause" as well. In fact there's a stature of James Dean because of it. Even with the sky cloudy, visibility was pretty good. The observatory had a great and very naturally beautiful view over to the Hollywood sign.
Here's a shot looking down into the heart of Hollywood. It's not easy to make very much out, but you can see the huge Oscars poster on the side of one building, and you can see the giant orange and yellow iPod billboard on Santa Monica Blvd right near where I work.
Here's the view back to downtown Los Angeles. Very cool.
This is from the roof of the observatory, over the front lawn back toward the sign.
With Hollywood on the bottom left, Century City standing tall in the middle, and Santa Monica behind and to the right of Century City, the sun reflects off the ocean in the distance.
Who knew Los Angeles was so beautiful? Here's some sunlight peaking down through the clouds onto the rolling hills out towards the Pacific Ocean.
After checking out the view, I went into the Observatory, which was just as beautiful inside and had a lot of cool exhibits. I decided to see the Planetarium show, which was very cool. Surprisingly, the voice-over wasn't provided by a celebrity like Patrick Stewart or Leonard Nemoy, but rather by a guy standing and walking around inside the planetarium. He was pretty good and had a voice similar to J. Peterman. There was a line about the big bang that just about blew my mind. He said that it "wasn't an explosion into space, but rather an explosion of space itself." Awesome.
After the planetarium, I went outside to wait for the shuttle. As I was waiting, I tried to see if it was possible to look all the way to Anaheim and Disneyland. I couldn't see it. I could however see the mountains and make out the snow-covered mountains in the distance. I love it!
I took the shuttle and subway back to Hollywood and Highland, because I needed dinner, and was feeling like I should have Crepes. I had been in California for too long without having them, so I went to The French Crepe right next to the Kodak. I didn't realize they made crepes with real food, but my craving was for something sweet, so I got a Napoleon with strawberries, nutella, and chestnut spread. I call this picture "The Grandma Shot." Grandma loves to take pictures of meals, and look at me, I'm doing it now myself.
I know my crepe was more like dessert than an actual meal, but you only live once, right?
So I walked along Hollywood Blvd. and waited for the bus. It was a great day, full of good decisions. Not to mention celebrity sighting number 3!
I'm excited to watch the Oscars tomorrow, especially with 3 songs from Enchanted being performed. Although I won't be headed back to Hollywood for it, it'll be too crazy and probably raining, it was very awesome to witness the set-up firsthand. The observatory was awesome, too. There's a lot of stuff in this city.
I hope the weekend finishes up great for everybody! I really do miss you all and am really looking forward to Spring Quarter! It's going to be filled with so much awesome stuff. It's the little things I'm excited about, too, like UC baseball. Let's go to some games, ok?
much love,
Alex
1 comment:
Pittsburghers really DONT like to be considered midwesterners... haha... so true!
I'm so excited you were so close to the Oscars... and you're practically famous now... i mean.. you DID stand on THE RED CARPET haha!!!
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