The sights and sounds of LA

The ghetto bird (aka police helicopter) has been circling above our townhouse for the last 3 hours trying to track down a fugitive. Suffice to say, you won't take me alive dirty coppers!!

The Valley isn't THAT bad. This is only the second fugitive manhunt that's happened within a 2 block radius of me and I've only seen the cops draw their guns on people once. All this over a 6 week period. I think I can deal with 1 police incident every 3 weeks. 

I grew up on the mean streets of the 90275 area code, which is only about 40 miles southwest of South Central LA, so  I feel I got some street cred.

*Update* Finally, the chopper is gone. Knowing the LAPD they probably shot the dude in the back and then claimed that he had a bazooka in his pocket or something.

Anyways, the SO is on a business trip to Charlotte, NC to visit corporate headquarters so this post is free of feminine interjection.

The past weekend was the typical whirlwind day. Friday, the SO and I took her colleague from India to see LA tourist attractions, Saturday was our visit to a production company to audition bands for our wedding and Sunday was Tylenol day as I tried to recover from my Deloitte friends' kick-ass wedding that I attended. I use Deloitte friends' and not friend's because they met while working at Deloitte. I actually met the SO while working there too. Deloitte....crushing social lives and enriching love lives all in one green Dot.

Too many words and not enough pictures? The lady doth protest too much, me thinks. 

Maybe I'm biased but LA has some crap tourist attractions. I mean one of our main tourist attractions is a bunch of metal stars embedded into sidewalks and some arts and crafts done by "actors". I'll explain the "actors" comment in a bit.

 Thus, given our choices of tourist attractions, we headed first to Griffith Observatory. The observatory just opened last year after an extensive renovation project.

The best part about the observatory is the view of LA. Don't mind the smog it's just there to add ambiance and cancer.

After a quick stroll through the observatory and it's exhibitions we headed to the main event.

Graumman's Chinese Theatre is probably better known for the arts and crafts prominently displayed outside it's main entrance. The  illustrious list of actors and actresses with their hand and footprints forever memorialized in cement is long. From stars of the golden age of silent movies to today's A-list actors it's a who's who of Hollywood. 

John Wayne. 

The Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger. Wow my auto correct recognizes Schwarzenegger. Google folks must be Kindergarten Cop fans. The Governator has surprisingly small feet. I wear size 9s and they were more or less perfectly snug in those indentations. Can you tell my shoes were 29 dollars? Yeah, I can too. 

Mel Gibson. Those hands just look like they're made for beatings and antisemitism.   

Like I said earlier the list of stars is long and illustrious....

Steven Seagal!?!?!? How the hell? And why is that man wearing white socks with his dress shoes and shorts. I'm so confused. Maybe Seagal just attracts bad taste.

Steven Seagal's last 10 movies according to IMBD.com

1. Machete
2. Born to Raise Hell
3. A Dangerous Man
4. The Keeper
5. Driven to Kill
6. Against the Dark
7. Kill Switch
8. The Onion Movie - credited as "Cock Puncher"
9. Pistol Whipped
10. Urban Justice. 

A man with this resume is alongside Clark Gable, Shirley Temple, Denzel Washington, etc. Good choice there. Sorry to keep ranting about this but Seagal had a lucky streak of movies in the 80s and 90s but in no way shape or form should he have  been considered for such an honor. These are his "hits"

1. Hard to Kill
2. Marked for Death
3. Out for Justice
4. Under Siege
5. On Deadly Ground
6. Under Siege 2
7. Executive Decision - he's only in the movie 10 minutes
8. The Glimmer Man
9. Fire Down Below

HE PLAYS THE SAME CHARACTER IN EACH MOVIE. ANGRY WHITE MAN WHO KNOWS AIKIDO. The formula for a Seagal movie....

Choose Setting A
Forest where a fire is raging
A carrier ship
A train
Mean streets of metropolitan city X

Choose Occupation B
Military special forces
Cop
Firefighter
Angry Citizen

Choose Emotion C
Angry
Brooding anger
Quiet anger mixed with revenge fantasy

A+B+C+?????= Profit

I don't get it and I just spent twenty minutes ranting about Steven Seagal. I don't know if I've won or lost at life on that one.

After a quick game of stare down with Samuel L. Jackson it was time to walk along Hollywood Boulevard to check out the stars.

RIP MJ.

I took some pictures of other stars but really, need I show more?