SOCAL

So it's a bit delayed; I meant to post this over the weekend, but I was lazy. Anyway, what with some celebration or something in the States called Thanksgiving, I had four days to play with. Now, I could have just done nothing, or spent each day at the local Games Workshop, but I decided it would be much cooler to go to Los Angeles instead. It's an... interesting place. I'm glad I went, but I don't think I'd want to live there! Bit too crazy, bit too driven and a slightly warped sense of priorites. And the closer you get to the epicentre of all the weirdness, Hollywood, the stranger it all gets. This is a place where building a five story mall modelled on an Assyrian temple makes sense. As a tourist I just gawked a shook my head; much like everyone else there that wasn't local. Yes, as usual, I was a terrible tourist, but with a slightly geeky flavour - I made a point of visiting the scenes of movies I like.

Proper terrible tourism. It kinda had to be done.

This is me at Griffith Observatory, a prominent location in Rebel Without a Cause, but more importantly, it's the building Timothy Dalton's Giant Nazi Zeppelin emerges from behind in The Rocketeer.

I hunt for Replicants at the Bradbury building in Downtown LA. This was J.F. Sebastians's apartment in Blade Runner, where Roy Batty and pris hid out.

Does this need any introduction? I stand in front of Nakatomi Plaza, otherwise known as 20th Century Fox HQ.

I took I-5 down from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. This is the most direct route at five and a half hours drive, but very dull. On the way back, however, I took the scenic route up Highways 1 and 101, following the coast. The scenery from here was beautiful, and the roads were a bit more interesting than straight freeway. A little too interesting at times...

I nearly write off the Pontiac by missing the corner and putting it sideways into a ditch. I'm sure Ben would argue that would be an improvement.

And finally, I saw this in a car park in Hollywood and had to photograph it. If it doesn't immediately make sense to you, it probably never will.

Hopefully my next post will be sooner, and include more toy soldiers. Yay!