Screencap reading "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood" with additional text reading "Filming Locations"

Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood Filming Locations

August 25, 2021, 2 Comments

Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood has quickly become one of my all time favorite movies. Quinten Tanatino’s love letter to late 1960s LA is full of wonderful details and used many beloved SoCal institutions, including a number that are accessible to the film buff! While many of the locations in the film, they “play themselves”…

Myself, wearing a black cowboy hat, black tee reading "Bounty Law" and jean shorts, leaning against a large sign reading "The Red Dog" in large red letters.

The Red Dog, the Saloon that Once Served Trigger right at the Bar

June 8, 2021, 1 Comment

When I first went to Pioneertown in 2014 with my dad, we wondered through a desolate western town where the only activity was dirt blowing across the street. Completely devoid of people, we peeked through the windows here and there, windows of legitimate businesses, though closed, and faux ones with pun based names such as…

Close-up of the neon sign atop the shack's red roof reading "Tommy's Hamburgers & Hot Dogs"

Tommy’s Burgers Turns 75

May 28, 2021, 5 Comments

Before embarking on our Koreatown tour, we stopped at Tommy’s for a bite, and it just so happened to be their 75th anniversary! This small shack might not look like much, but it’s here where chili burgers first made their mark in Southern California. Born to Greek immigrants in Oklahoma City, Tom Koulax arrived in California…

A low, single story building has an overgrown front yard area, and weeds growing through the cracks of the sidewalk. Banana trees have grown as tall as the roofline.

The Ghostly Remnants of the Old LA County Poor Farm

February 25, 2020, 5 Comments

Within the small LA suburb of Downey sits what appears to be a ghost town. A mixture of overgrown, charred, and boarded up buildings sit behind chainlink fences topped with barbed wire, and gates locked with multiple padlocks. What is this ghostly place? It is what remains of the Los Angeles County Poor Farm. For those…

Bob's, a large, long flat roof building, with a jutting pointed sign reading "Bob's Big Boy Broiler"

The Bob’s Big Boy that Almost Never Was

January 8, 2020, 3 Comments

As I’ve said before, and as many of you know, I love visiting places that let you feel like you’ve stepped back in time, and one of those places is Bob’s Big Boy Broiler in Downey. But this place wasn’t always a Bob’s Big Boy, and it almost never was… It is no secret that…

The Fleeting Resurrection of the Iconic Aquarius, Hollywood’s Psychedelic Theatre

August 1, 2019, 2 Comments

In my last post I mentioned that Quentin Tarantino brought many long gone 60s LA icons back to life for his film Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, just to serve in the background. One of these icons was the Aquarius Theatre, which is just down the street from the Cinerama Dome and across from another…

Myself, wearing a white t-shirt reading "Hollywood" in red letters, and images of the Hollywood Bowl, Farmer's Market, Grauman's Chinese Theater, and the Capitol Records Building, standing in front of the white dome that is the Cinerama building. A red, white, and blue sign reads "Pacific Cinerama Theatre.

The Pacific Cinerama Dome – Hollywood’s Most Uniquely Shaped Theatre

July 30, 2019, 1 Comment

Over the weekend Patrick and I went to see the highly anticipated Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, but we chose to see it at the iconic Cinerama Dome, which is used, albeit extremely briefly, in the film. Across the front of the Dome was a banner advertising the film 1969 Krakatoa: East…

Myself standing outside Independence Hall, a red brick building with white windows and doors, wearing a tricorn hat of red, white and blue stripes, a white t-shirt reading "Paul Revere and the Raiders" with the original flag jutting from the "Raiders" portion, and jean shorts, and platform shoes features red and white stripes and blue with white stars.

Ride with Paul Revere

July 5, 2019, 5 Comments

I hope my fellow Americans had a lovely and safe Independence Day. We spent the evening at home enjoying Disneyland’s fireworks from our front yard, but not before going to Knott’s Berry Farm’s Independence Hall as per my tradition for the last couple of years. While Knott’s Berry Farm’s version of Independence Hall is open…

Myself, wearing a long sleeve, mini dress of orange, yellow, and green in a paisley print, walking into the golf course, looking over my shoulder.

The Kitschy Kingdom of Golf N’ Stuff

July 1, 2019, 1 Comment

Mini Golf. It’s a kitsch-tastic thing that I think everyone loves. I mean, really, if you hate mini golf, then there’s something wrong with you. Even if you’re no good at it, like me, it’s still fun to hit a ball at weird concrete sculptures. Which is exactly what Patrick and I did with some…

A rounded front building faces the street, atop it a tall spire stretches toward a bright blue sky. Near the bottom red letters spell out "Crossroads of the World." Atop the spire a globe.

The Violent History of LA’s Iconic Crossroads of the World

April 18, 2019, 3 Comments

Sunset Boulevard is synonymous with Hollywood. It’s home to a plethora of iconic buildings and linked to many legendary people. One such building is Crossroads of the World, a bizarre little 1930s shopping center turned office complex that looks like something out of a Disney theme park, with a steamship style building “sailing” past storefronts…