A Wonderful Day In The Neighborhood

Took the opportunity today to just go out and walk around the neighborhood a little to see what I might find. The highlight of the outing for me was watching a woman come out of a store and immediately go to war with the door of her Land Rover which apparently was not cooperating with her remote device. This went on for about 30 seconds or so. Then something caught her eye: the identical black Land Rover parked immediately behind the uncooperative one. The remote seemed to be ok with that one. Away she went.

l have to tell you that walking around this particular neighborhood can be a little intimidating. The most popular auto brand on the street is Mercedes. It’s also the low end brand, or at least vies with Lexus for the dubious distinction. Lamborghini’s and Maserati’s? Sure. But you can also pick up a shiny new McClaren on this street.

In fact you’d probably be able to get one of those long before you’d find a cab ’round here. I saw three or four in the course of a two hour stroll. Fortunately we have Uber.

I did manage to get a few iPhone shots- which is what I had in mind, Today is 12-12-12 and I had signed up on Google+ to contribute a photograph to the event. Some six hundred others also signed up but I said I’d be there so…..

We have lots of little alleyways along Robertson and a few along Rodeo and Canon. reminds me of Paris except that these pathways are not so extensive or grand. Here we have the entrance to the Beverly Players theater and then the rather long entrance to something called Super Vision. You need good eyes to see to the end.

Christmas decorations are up around the Hills but we’re also into the fourth day of Chanukah and decorations honoring the holiday are visible in lots of the shops around the hood.

Cars caught my eye today since there are lots of them and quite a few that you’d rarely see elsewhere. Take this Mercedes Formula Racer for instance – sponsored by an old friend of mine:

This is a DUI sitting stock still, no?

I also ran across a vintage favorite sitting on the backlot of an establishment called Auto Doctors. I guess it wasn’t feeling well.

Looks good though, don’t you think?

Rodeo Drive is the better known street here but it’s paralleled by Canon Drive which is to food what Rodeo is to clothes. Even the Pizzeria has valet parking. As I was walking up one side of Canon I noticed a photographer on the opposite side of the street taking pictures of some street sculpture and made a note to check it out on my way back. It turned out that the photog was also street sculpture.

I got in on the act.

A couple blocks further and I ran across a slightly different sort of sculpture adorning the entrance to a public parking lot – next to a Private Client Chase Bank. So, are these rocks coming or going? And what’s a Private Client Bank anyway?

The best shots of the day were of the opposite sides of a fountain in the entrance courtyard to an office building I passed.

This corner gift shop had one of the most attractive awnings I’ve run across here or anywhere.

And although they don’t get a lot of publicity the residential parts of this area – the un-gated,

normals areas – are all but pastoral.

I walked past one building that I found particularly attractive in a art deco-ey way and spent some time after I returned home recasting it with some of the iPhone apps i’ve collected. Here’s the series.