Somebody’s been making art in my neighborhood and leaving it in the street, which I think is not quite the same as making street art. So far, I’ve only seen it on Franklin Avenue but it’s perfectly possible it’s elsewhere too.
Some pieces look more skillful than others, some more crazy than others. Some
of it seems kind of paranoid, and potentially offensive, and possibly racist, but at this point in art history who knows whether lack of skill, craziness, and offensiveness aren’t just artistic strategies. Quite a few people were walking by as I was taking these pictures, but nobody paid any attention either to me or to the art.
Of course much of Hollywood, like the rest of the Los Angeles, perhaps like the rest of the world, continues to be demolished and rebuilt at a frenetic pace. There are plenty of ruins and building sites, and some structures that look like both simultaneously.
And some new buildings require the digging of deep holes that will eventually become subterranean parking garages. Do note how “nature” is still coming up through the ground – though that won’t last long.
Some short sections towards the eastern end of Hollywood Boulevard remain much as they were when I first arrived in LA, over a decade and a half ago, even as things change all around them. There are at least three old school motels, which remain in business and you imagine may be kind of sketchy - the yelp reviews are mixed.
The Harvard still offers in-room “adult movies” but you suspect that may be just a retro affectation. The whole place looks a movie set and may well be used as one.
I guess they knew what they were doing – they certainly had a very big truck, but I did wonder if they really needed those high visibility yellow vests. When you’re 30 feet in the air in a cheery picker, people are going to see you with or without a fluorescent jacket.
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