Yesterday I saw the 4k restoration of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland at the El Capitan Theatre, where the movie is screening for the theater’s centennial. Before the movie started, there was a live Wurlitzer organ performance.
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This year I’ve made it a point to return to seeing movies in movie theaters, which in Los Angeles is something special. So far, I’ve seen The Devils and The Odyssey at Quentin Tarantino’s Vista Theatre, Mirror at the Egyptian Theatre, Stalker at the David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum of Motion PIctures, and I’m looking forward to seeing Alice in Wonderland at the El Capitan Theatre this coming weekend.
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A shot of strip club Jumbo’s Clown Room in Hollywood, Calif. For more of my photos, follow me on Instagram.
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A 2021 shot of the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, Calif. For more of my photographs, follow me on Instagram.
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A neon green curved building in Los Angeles. To see more of my photographs, follow me on Instagram.
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A faded church on Vanowen Street in Van Nuys, CA. For more of my photographs, follow me on Instagram.
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This story was originally published on Forbes.com in September 2017.
If you find yourself in Memphis, Tennessee, you pretty much have to tour Graceland, the nearly 14-acre pastoral estate once inhabited by Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll. The residence isn't far from downtown, and sits on a regular road. Across the street from the home, there's a massive complex devoted to all things Presley. But what's curious about taking a stroll around the grounds is that it's less like touring the opulent domain of a once glorified musician and more like taking a deep dive into the abode of a man obsessed with reflections and concealments. At a certain point, in Graceland itself, you might find yourself on a short flight of stairs descending to a basement, and you'll look around yourself to see mirrors have been mounted on the walls and the ceiling, and as you gaze at a vision of yourself reflected back at you, you'll wonder why a man who was adored by so many built a world of his own that was a literal funhouse hall of mirrors.
Before you make your way to Graceland proper and after you plunk down $57.50 (for $5 more, you can tour the airplanes—and how can you not tour the airplanes?), you enter Elvis Presley's Memphis, which is located across the street from Graceland. It is a sprawling complex of Stores That Sell Things Related to Elvis, Museums Devoted to Things Related to Elvis, and Restaurants That Sell Foods That Are Related to Elvis. But before you make your way through it, you are funneled into a room to watch a movie that celebrates The King. When that ends, you are shuttled into a shuttle that meanders and winds its way down and around and across the street to Graceland. There, you wait in line while groups of Elvis Fans and People Interested in Elvis line up to enter the Colonial Revival white and stone mansion. Finally, you enter The House Where Elvis Lived. At which point, you will likely turn to your right and see the peacocks.
This is the music room. Graceland consists of over 17,000 square feet of residence and contains 23 rooms, but the glowing gold of the peacock room is among the most impressive. Simply put, it is incredibly outrageous. Who would put massive stained glass peacocks in their front room? Elvis, that's who. From the start, it's clear that we're not in Kansas anymore, and Toto has left the room.
Being at Graceland makes one—or at least made this one—feel uneasy. Every room is decorated in some outrageous fashion. In the basement, there's a wall embedded with television sets. A retro surveillance camera lurks on a perch. Bizarrely, the billiards room is hung from walls to ceiling with a busily patterned pleated fabric. No one is allowed upstairs to the second floor, which purportedly remains untouched since Elvis died in an upstairs bathroom. In this stuck-in-time place, life is forever frozen, and it's unclear if you are the voyeur or under a microscope.
Arguably, the most outrageous room at Graceland is the den. It is known as "The Jungle Room." The green shag carpet is designed to resemble thick grass. The furniture is made of heavy wood and upholstered in what looks like fur. The red glowing wall where a fireplace would go in the average suburban home features a gently burbling waterfall. The effect is deeply 1970s Polynesian.
One doesn't typically associate Elvis with racquetball, yet if one stumbles from the disconcerting time capsule that is Graceland and strolls about behind the main house, one can peek inside a series of buildings, one of which contains the newly restored racquetball court. According to the Graceland website, one of Elvis's favorite past times was playing racquetball. The Memphis Flyer reveals that Elvis was part of a "racquetball mafia," and the King was no slouch at the game: "Elvis walloped the ball around the court like he was strumming a guitar for the fun of it."
Technically speaking, Elvis still resides at Graceland. He is buried, alongside several family members, in what's called the Meditation Garden. "He became a living legend in his own time, earning the respect and love of millions," his grave marker reads. "God saw that he needed some rest and called him home to be with Him." Tour takers stand nearby, taking pictures of the fallen king.
After touring Graceland, you will be shuttled back across the street. Behold Elvis's plane collection. It includes The Lisa Marie, a Convair 880 jet. "On April 17, 1975, Elvis bought a Convair 880 Jet, recently taken out of service by Delta Airlines, for the then-substantial sum of $250,000," Elvis Australia reports. "After refurbishing, the total exceeded $600,000."
This past March, Graceland opened Elvis Presley's Memphis at Graceland, a $45 million, 200,000-square-foot entertainment complex that includes the Elvis the Entertainer Career Museum, the Presley Motors Automobile Museum, and Elvis Discovery Exhibits. There are white bedazzled jumpsuits. There is a 1955 pink Cadillac Fleetwood. Down the street, Elvis Presley Enterprises spent $90 million to build The Guest House at Graceland to host a few of the 600,000 annual guests Graceland, including those who can afford up to $1,500 a night for a room.
At Gladys' Diner, I ordered the peanut butter and banana sandwich, which was, the sign said, fried in "bacon grease." Frankly, while I had been optimistic about the sandwich, it didn't look like much. I don't know if I spent too much time photographing the sandwich for Instagram, but by the time I bit into it, it wasn't very appetizing. This sandwich was a favorite of the King. It is known as "an Elvis sandwich" or "The Elvis."
By the time I left Graceland, the parking lot was filling, and the fans were funneling in for their turn at the Elvis experience. Personally, my Elvis experience left me feeling uneasy. What was the point of becoming so famous and so beloved if it prompted you to build a house in which most surfaces were reflective? In the end, the king stood alone, surrounded by his mirror image.
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A shot of the iconic Casa de Cadillac in Sherman Oaks. For more of my photographs, follow me on Instagram.
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A car parked outside of Autobooks-Aerobooks in Burbank. For more of my photos, follow me on Instagram.
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Yesterday I went to go check out the Buck House, which was designed by Rudolph Schindler in 1934. According to the LA Times, “The Buck House may be the most beautiful house in Los Angeles.” Previously, I visited Schindler’s own house in West Hollywood, which is phenomenal. What a lucky thing to live in LA.
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Image via CR Fashion Book
The New York Times has an interesting story about “the legal battles and innovations behind 42nd Street” that includes this interesting tidbit:
“Speaking of wholesome, an interesting issue that arose was where the adult entertainment businesses would go. The city decided to enact what some of us in the land use field refer to as ‘erogenous zoning’: prohibiting adult entertainment uses from residential areas, some manufacturing and commercial districts, requiring that they could locate no closer than 500 feet from schools, day care centers, houses of worship. That ordinance was challenged on constitutional grounds, because adult entertainment also has rights under the First Amendment free speech clause.”
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An excerpt:
“Not that long ago, I read something that said Brazzers was in Burbank. Brazzers, if you’re not aware, is an adult production company, and I live in Burbank. I had a hard time believing that Brazzers was based in such a sleepy part of the San Fernando Valley.”
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The other day, I found myself walking past these monstrous satellite dishes in Burbank. I think they are there for a TV studio to broadcast from? But I’m not sure. I’d walked by them several times in the past, but getting closer to them required walking onto private property. This time, I decided to investigate by walking up the driveway and then snapped a few shots of two big dishes that I could see on the other side of a hedge. Then I kept walking down the street.
As I walked past another driveway, I saw there were more dishes, and I could get closer to them. So I walked towards them. There were a series of large dishes, and some other smaller things doing I don’t know what. There was also a small building with a sign that read 2901 SATELLITE BUNKER. It all felt very @socialistmodernism. I wondered if the dishes were transmitting information or receiving information or both. I snapped more pics. Then my phone rang, and a woman walking by asked me if she was going the right way to the Chick-fil-A, and I walked back to my car.
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Love the architecture in Burbank. This is a dingbat, isn’t it? From my Instagram.
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Art by George Townley
I love these renderings of Los Angeles by George Townley. What you see here is a dingbat, an architectural style found across the city that features living spaces above parking spaces. Found via California Sun.
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Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Russell Sage Foundation’s Social Science Summer Institute for Journalists. Helmed by Nicholas Lemann and Tali Woodward, it’s an intimate seminar that teaches journalists how to write about the social sciences and think like social scientists. Guests speakers included Andrea Elliott and Shamus Khan. It’s held in a Philip Johnson building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. I’m already using the tools I acquired there. I highly recommend it for everyone: from graduate students to veteran reporters.
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I made a quick detour up to the Ennis House today, in the hills above Los Feliz. This is the house where Deckard lived in "Blade Runner." Oh, and it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It's one of my favorite residential homes in the world. I used to live nearby and would walk by it regularly. Before they stopped doing so, I went on a tour of the place. It is truly extraordinary. For a time, it appeared that it would fall into ruin, but billionaire Ron Burkle bought it, and he saved it. It's still standing.
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