Palms on Olympic

ZOMBIELAND

and the log line of the year goes to...

VENICE Beach @ night - by Canal Club

Back of sign

The Hollywood Bowl: John Williams

Light Sabers came to life when the orchestra played the STAR WARS theme music.

The Witch's House 90210

http://www.seeing-stars.com/Landmarks/WitchesHouse.shtml
There are so many beautiful mansions in Beverly Hills that it's hard to keep track of them. But if you turn north from Wilshire Boulevard, up posh Carmelita Avenue, you will discover an extraordinary house unlike anything else you'll ever find in these parts.

Known formally as "The Spadena House," but better known simply as "The Witch's House," this bizarre, whimsical creation was built in 1921 for a movie studio in Culver City. It was used in several silent films, and then moved to this pleasant residential neighborhood in Beverly Hills in 1926, where it is now a private home.

But the small house might as well have been created by the Brothers Grimm.

It looks for all the world like some haunted fairy tale cottage; you half expect Hansel & Gretel to walk out the front door. The yellow walls of the house slope precariously, giving the impression of imminent collapse. Its dilapidated, pitched roof (covered with odd-shaped brown shingles) is pointed like a witch's hat. The saggy, wooden window shutters are hung at odd angles. An eccentric picket fence surrounds the property, made of wavy, warped wooden pickets.

Even the landscaping in the front yard is purposefully bizarre, with gnarled, twisted trees, a wooden bridge crossing a moat, a miniature old mill and a sign (hanging from a lantern) which reads: "Witch's Landing."

This house has to be seen to be fully appreciated, and is indeed one of the Beverly Hills' unique sights. (The local children must have a field day on Halloween!)

(In July of 1998, the owners sold the home for $1.3 million to Michael Libow, a real estate agent who plans to preserve the historic house. In his remodel of the interiors of the home, he is adding Gaudi-esque elements to create a 'cottage' feel to it. Also, there is a new intricate garden wall which accurately reflects the textures of the original building... an addition which looks as if it had always been there.)

Leaving North Shore for the Airport...bittersweet

SMURFS - the movie

i'm oddly intrigued...

Valley of the Temples Memorial Park

Valley of the Temples Memorial Park is a memorial park located on the Windward (eastern) side of the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu. It is a vast area of lush, rolling green hills at the foot of the Koʻolau mountains, overlooking the sleepy town of Kāneʻohe. Thousands of Buddhist, Christian and Shinto residents of Hawaiʻi are buried in this memorial park.

The park features the replica of a 12th. century Japanese Buddhist temple built in the late 1960s. Its name is Byodo-In Temple which translates to the Phoenix temple, because of the two majestic metal phoenixes along the top ends of the main temple. It is a recreation of the Buddhist temple in Uji, Japan. Inside the main part of the temple there is a 9-12 ft Buddha sitting on a gold leaf lotus.

Also on the grounds are large Roman Catholic statues depicting Jesus' suffering, crypts and mausoleums of some of the most influential people in Hawaiʻi. Most notable of those interred at the mausoleums of the Valley of the Temples is Walter F. Dillingham, Hawaiian entrepreneur and statesman. For a time, former Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos was interred at a private mausoleum overlooking the Byodo-In Temple.

Making the rounds in Waikiki...

Peter Lik Open house in Waikiki

More Hawaii - East side of Oahu.

USS Arizona Memorial

(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

The USS Arizona Memorial, located at Pearl Harbor in the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors killed on the USS Arizona during the Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 by Japanese imperial forces and commemorates the events of that day. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the island of Oʻahu was the action that led to United States involvement in World War II.

The memorial, dedicated in 1962 and visited by more than one million people annually,[1] spans the sunken hull of the battleship without touching it. Since it opened in 1980, the National Park Service has operated the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center associated with the memorial. Historical information about the attack, boat access to the memorial, and general visitor services are available at the center. The sunken remains of the battleship were declared a National Historic Landmark on 5 May 1989. (Wikipedia)

USS Arizona (BB-39)

USS Arizona (BB-39) was a Pennsylvania-class battleship of the United States Navy. The vessel was the first to be named "Arizona" specifically in honor of the 48th state. She was commissioned in 1916 and served stateside during World War I. Arizona is best known for her cataclysmic and dramatic sinking, with the loss of 1,177 lives, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the event that brought about US involvement in World War II. The wreck was not salvaged, and continues to lie at the floor of the harbor. It is the site of a memorial to those who perished on that day.

On 4 March 1913, Congress authorized the construction of Arizona, the second and last of the Pennsylvania class of "super-dreadnought" battleships. Her keel was laid at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 16 March 1914. She was launched on 19 June 1915, sponsored by Miss Esther Ross—daughter of a prominent Arizona pioneer, Mr. W.W. Ross of Prescott, Arizona. Her remaining machinery was installed, which included new Parson turbines,[1] and she was then commissioned at her builder's yard on 17 October 1916, Captain John D. McDonald in command. (Wikipedia)





As of 2009, 67 years after the explosion that destroyed Arizona, oil leaks from the hull still rise to the surface of the water. Arizona continues to leak about a quart (0.95 L) of oil per day into the harbor. Survivors from the crew say that the oil will continue to leak until the last survivor dies. Many of the survivors have arranged for their ashes to be placed in the ship, among their fallen comrades, upon their death and cremation. The Navy, in conjunction with the National Park Service, has recently overseen a comprehensive computerized mapping of the hull, being careful to honor its role as a war grave. The Navy is considering non-intrusive means of abating the continued leakage of oil to avoid the further environmental degradation of the harbor. (Wikipedia)

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor is a harbor on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into World War II. (Wikipedia)





USS Missouri (BB-63), now a museum ship, docked at Pearl Harbor


History:
Pearl Harbor was originally an extensive, shallow embayment called Wai Momi (meaning "harbor of pearl") or Pu'uloa by the Hawaiians. Pu'uloa was regarded as the home of the shark goddess Ka'ahupahau and her brother (or son) Kahi'uka In Hawaiian legends. Keaunui, the head of the powerful is celebrated. It is attributed the honour of having cut a navigable channel near the present Puuloa saltworks, by which the great estuary, now known as "Pearl River," was in all subsequent ages rendered accessible to navigation. Making due allowance for legendary amplification of a known fact, the estuary doubtless had an outlet for its waters where the present gap is; but the legend is probably correct in giving Keaunui the credit of having widened it and deepened it, so as to admit the passage of canoes, and even larger vessels, in and out of the Pearl River estuary. The harbor was teeming with pearl-producing oysters until the late 1800s. (Wikipedia)

Turtle Bay Resort