Le Pain Quotidien

One of my favorite bakeries and places for lunch is 'Le Pain Quotidien'. Fortunately it is not just a local chain. Here are a few images I shot the other day,without imposing on other patrons.
While black & white images best bring out the textures of the the bread and the bakery itself,

only color images will do the pastry justice.

If there is one located near you, enjoy!

Hollywood Forever Cemetery

The most visited cemetery in the world is Paris's Pere-Lachaise Cemetery. A cemetery containing the remains of notable figures in the field of Art, Literature, Philosophy etc. From H'Eloise & Abelard, Bellini, Moliere to Piaf and Morrison. A significant part of the past 400 years of Western Culture is interned here.
A different culture is buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery. A culture of the new world, a culture of the 20th century, and a culture of a new art form - film.
Hollywood Forever Cemetery is located on 62 acres on Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood. Originally founded in 1899 as Hollywood Memorial Park, ironically it is adjacent to a Movie Studio - Paramount. The list of famous people interned or entombed is extensive. A veritable 'who was who' in the entertainment industry. From Rudolf Valentino to Johnny Ramone. From the famous, Douglas Fairbanks, to the infamous, the mobster Bugsy Siegel, and countless others in between. Not all of Hollywood is buried here, but a good portion is.
In addition to visiting the grave sites tombs and crypts, the cemetery is now open for other functions. You can view an open air film on Saturday evenings, or you can even take a yoga class on selected weekends. I hope they don't do weddings.

The main hall of The Cathedral Mausoleum with its many Saints protecting the tenants. In crypt 1205 you will find Rudolf Valentino, the Mausoleum also houses his shrine.

The Douglas Fairbanks memorial has the scale befitting a national hero.

While Johnny Ramone plays his guitar.

The Rotunda behind the main chapel.

And to keep pace with changing times and cultural influences, there is even a Thai buddhist section in the cemetery.

When in Hollywood, worth visiting.

Production Design: Depicting the Future

As a Production Designer you are always challenged, that is beyond the usual 'time and money'. One is even more challenged when you have to predict/depict the near future (in your designs). Near future is always more difficult for many reasons, than a total fantasied future. One reason in particular: depicting technology. Sometimes you really nail it (at least get really close). A few days ago while browsing the web, I came across a chair entitled 'The Surf Chair'. This was chair was actually designed in 2000.

design Lylover/Sorensen

This brought to mind  an AT&T Commercial Campaign I designed in the mid 80's. The entire commercial chronicled AT&T advances since 1876 and concluded with a brief glimpse into the future. This glimpse was a 'futuristic workstation'.

AT&T World's Fair 1986

The concept behind this was a swiveling/collapsable 'work station'. An office in a box, so to speak, multiples could be used to create an office pool area. The slightly concave flat screen monitor (well ahead of its time) would retract, while work surface would pivot from horizontal to vertical for storage. Incidentally the monitor was intended as a touch screen. A little crude in construction, but then it had to be assembled in about a day. At that time I had just purchased my first Mac (the Mac Plus), which bore no resemblance to what I had designed. 

Link to Actual Spot

And as a footnote, I purposely designed the environment to re-inforce the logo of AT&T.

Ming Ya Buddhist Temple

One of the largest, if not the largest Buddhist Temples in Los Angeles is the Ming Ya Temple in Lincoln Heights. Here are some the images I shot today.

I will post more on my website later.

6.0 Lowers Pro -Men's Surfing Event

The 6.0 Lowers Pro , is a Men's World Qualifying Series Event. One of several events held annually at Trestles in So. Cal. Here are some images from today. Heat #13 in particular. Dane Reynolds (USA) in red and Michael Pichon (Fr) in yellow.

More images at; http://web.me.com/ppolitanoff/Surfing/Nike_6.0_Lowers_Pto.html

Architecture & Rare Books

Working in the field of Architecture and Design, reference and research materials are extremely important. One of the most useful reference books, at least here in the States, has been Architectural Graphic Standards. Arch. Graphic Stds. has been a benchmark since the First Edition was published in 1932. It is now in it’s Eleventh edition. By virtue of being this benchmark older editions had become a collectors item. I personally own Editions 3, 5, 6 and 7. Unfortunately however I did not stop there.

I started collecting rare Architecture books in the mid 80’s. At the time I not only thought it was a worthwhile investment, but it also afforded me some very useful reference material. Soon however I ran out of shelf space, having acquired about fifteen.

Books like ‘Measured Drawings of Some Colonial and Georgian Houses’ (doesn’t Dover have a 15.95 paperback of this available) or ‘Moulding of the Wren & Georgian Periods’, could at least be useful reference books. But where I went awry was with the 1928 reprint of ‘L’Architecture Francais’. Three folio volumes comprising of 560 plates and weighing 12+ lbs. They came from France shipped in crate. Not only do these collect a lot of dust, but moving all three together could be tricky not just due to weight but they are also oversized . Another is ‘Parallele De L’Architecture Antique et de la Moderne’ published in 1650, not the kind of book you take to the office and marking pages with stickies. At least that volume is smaller, and with a title like that you’re bound to impress somebody. All in all mostly French titles, which are on the tip of no ones tongues.

Well I’ve been dragging these tomes around for 25 years now. I’ve dragged them from NYC to Essex, Conn. Essex to Miami, Miami to Southern Cal. I suspect next time I move they won’t be coming with me, at least not those volumes that can double as sandbags.

Chua Duoc Su Buddhist Temple

As part of my series on Buddhist Temples. Here are some images of the Chua Duoc Su Temple that I visited today. A Vietnamese Buddhist Temple located in Garden Grove CA.