Oscar

Venice Beach, April 2007

"Touch of Evil" Filming Location, Venice California

The famously long intro tracking shot scene at the Mexican border town in Orson Welles's Touch of Evil was filmed just down the street from my current abode, on Windward Ave. in downtown Venice. I took these photos of what's left of the arcades on Windward late at night, when no one was around.

Here and here are links to what Windward Ave. used to look like.

Miracle Mile (1989)

I really took one for the team with this one. This is the worst movie I've watched all the way through in a really, really long time. There are lots of location shots on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, it's true. But they don't justify having to sit through a tedious apocalyptic thriller of this level of banality. This is the kind of movie in which "suspense" is created by constantly having the characters make ridiculous choices, choices that only serve to unnecessarily complicate an already absurd situation.

Ugh! I feel like I need to take a walk just to clear my head after watching this.

Evening Bike Ride

Oscar and I rode down to Marina Del Ray tonight and walked out to the ocean. Here's the view northwards, looking toward Venice and Santa Monica.

Ye Olde California

Lincoln Blvd. April 2007

Parklane Cleaners, Lincoln Blvd.

Lincoln Blvd., Venice April 2007

L. A. Movies, cont.

Here's a couple more movies about Los Angeles that I just discovered but haven't yet seen:

Welcome to L.A. (1976)
Miracle Mile (1988)

Here's my full list of movies about L.A., though I've now realized it's become more a list of movies that feature prominent L.A. locations than a list of movies about L.A. My original idea was to list movies, like 'Annie Hall', that have something to say about what's distinctive about L.A.

Lincoln Blvd.

Lincoln Blvd., Venice CA April 2007

Knob Creek

Knob Creek, Kentucky April 2006

Venice

These were just sitting on the street, like trash. I came across them the other day when I was riding from my bungalow to my house-sitting gig.

Venice, CA April 2007

Improvisation

It's pretty cool having a girlfriend who's trained as an engineer, because she has a sweet set of problem solving skills. We're currently house sitting at a rather nice house here in Venice, and when we sat down last night to watch a documentary about Billy Wilder (consisting mostly of a series of 80's interviews with him, when he was in his 80's) on a big fat TV with the fire burning in the background, I decided a White Russian would be icing on the cake. They had vodka and Kahluha, but no cream. Meredith improvised with some vanilla ice cream, which worked perfectly.

Nixon Bowling

Since my days here are numbered, and it doesn't look like anyone's going to be able to make it out here to visit (so I'm not ruining any surprises), I thought I might as well share with you what I've done so far to convert my Venice bungalow into the Dude's. Check out the poster on the wall.

Images of the Everyday

Well, I finally found a movie that consists mostly of images of the everyday experience of average people in all of their mundane detail. It's Wim Wenders' documentary "Tokyo-Ga", which I highly recommend. It isn't perfect: the ending segment, in particular, struck me as rather empty. (Which is doubly disappointing because it's meant to be the climax of the movie.) But the long shots of riding in a taxi, or watching trains passing by, or a mother and child in the subway, are great. They capture the beauty and banality of everyday life perfectly. The long, unmoving, shots are obviously intended to emulate Ozu's style (the ostensible subject of the movie), but I couldn't help but think it would be possible to take similar shots of aspects of my own banal existence. The goal, of course, is transcendence of the everyday through the artistic representation of it, which Wenders achieves seemingly effortlessly. While I may not be able to achieve that goal, it would be comforting to think I might be able to achieve something a bit smaller: say, documentary honesty.