A Few More California Musings, 1983

I wasn't the only one in my group of friends that collected Wishnik Trolls. These were Andy's.

Andy had a friend that lived in the Hollywood Hills on Cielo Drive. If that name is familiar to you, that's the street Sharon Tate and her friends were murdered on in 1969. And yes, his friend lived in the same house. I visited it a couple of times with Andy. I believe it has since been torn down.

An ornamental grass somewhere in Los Angeles.

Downtown Los Angeles in the background, in those halcyon, smog-filled days of the early 1980s. I hear it's much, much less smoggy these days. I'm pretty sure this photo was taken from Griffith Park in Silver Lake.

Southern California landscape.

California Musings: 1983 Trip, Part 1

Santa Monica or Venice? Southern Californica shore scene, above, wherever I shot it, lol—Digital manipulations of the last time I was in California, 1983. I was visiting my late best friend, Andy, in West Hollywood. We rented a Corolla and drove up to San Francisco to visit our friend, Linda. I lived  in WeHo after college and it was great to go back and see that part of the country again. I ran into so many old friends, it was almost as if I never left. I don't have any notes from these photos, so they will be identified in a general way. All photos clickable to enlarge, as always.

Santa Monica—One of my favorite Ferraris of all time, the 308GT4 by Bertone. Seen alone in a photograph, the car's size isn't apparent. When viewed looking at a very small car like the VW Karmann-Ghia, above, the Ferrari's true size is obvious—it's lower and shorter than the K-G, petit really. Its angular Bertone lines are shown perfectly here. You've got to love any scene with not one, but two Karmann-Ghia convertibles and a Ferrari!

West Hollywood—"Tallahassee," named for one of the towns where my best bud Andy's college was located. His best friend was a girl named Toby. Toby and I went to Vassar together, and I drove out to LA with her after we graduated, where I became lifelong friends with her Los Angeles roommate, Andy, until the day he died. Well, still. Toby, not so much for these past thirty years.

Hollywood—Water lilies. Always photographing flowers, from the time I could hold a camera. All of these photos were originally black-and-white, and I colorized them in Photoshop CS3.

West Hollywood—Andy, John and Tony, brunch with cocktails of course.

Santa Barbera—A decorative chimney tower and flowering tree.