A Chronology of the Sun Going Down at Venice Beach

LA Viewed from High Up and Way High Up

Taken from the airplane. The Sierra Nevada mountains.

Literal crop circles somewhere past Santa Barbara.

The Hollywood sign, taken from the roof of a building in Hancock Park.

Getting up there was a bit perilous.

The NBCUniversal building was below.

LACMA was also visible.

You know you're in Hollywood when a store like takes up a huge building.

The building in the center is for the industry newspaper Variety.

 

On another day, the view from Loyola Marymount University.

There is some major construction going on.

LACMA and Hancock Park

[Los Angeles] A group of hipsters playing music as the sun sets in Hancock Park.

Something that blew my mind: the area is riddled with tar pits, produced around 100 years ago. Excavation is continuously conducted in the park (as can be seen by the tents), and animals have been discovered. They are put on display at the George C Page Museum, which is also located within Hancock Park.

Elephant statues on the edge of a tar-mired lake.

Every so often, you see a roped-off area with tar bubbling to the surface.

Took a dried-out palm leaf and stuck it in the tar. It had a pleasingly thick but not too goopy consistency.

If you find this on one of the tar pits, know that it was written by me and a friend.

Bear sitting guard.

Chris Burden's Urban Light sculpture, a trademark of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). These were once real street lamps, from about 90 years ago. The lights are solar powered!

Sepulveda Boulevard, Culver City

Some things I saw walking up and down Sepulveda Boulevard in Culver City, LA:

A stained glass store.

A bunch of perfectly nice donuts strewn in a parking lot.

The sidewalk in front of a store selling tropical fish (which, by the way, was as entertaining as any aquarium.)

Pretty bikes at a bike shop.

Koalas sleep between 16 to 20 hours a day, and so can you.

Seeing that this could be spotted off the street, it wasn't much of a secret.

Pinatas at a party store.

Lassoing Horses

At a farm in Waimea, Hawaii Island. I couldn't confirm whether this was part of the 2013 Hawaii Horse Expo, but a horse-lassoing competition was held in a stretch of land on Kawaihae Road.

Calves would be released, and two riders had to successfully lasso the head and leg as fast as possible. (Or at least, this is what I gleaned from watching them.)

There was one woman who was significantly better than everyone.

This one was for practice.

The belt, the boots, the hat -- all markers of cowboy culture.

I have to say, there was a part of me that thought, "Oh the poor little things."

Inside the horse trailer.