A Bristol girl is one of a kind

The Bristol Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles...home of Marla Singer in Fight Club...is lookin' good. Have we seen the last of the Club El Gaucho Hostess Dancing sign?

Don't look down

I have a love-hate relationship with heights. I love climbing up rooftops and scrambling up hillsides for the spectacular views, but I do get wobbly up there. When I was a kid I even got "stuck" a couple times...on a craggy rock off the coast of Bodega Bay, on a locomotive mothballed at a city park somewhere. No problem going up...it's the going down that's painful.

A few days ago EzraPounded and I took a look at Spring Street's 25-story SB Tower loft building, which will be ready for move-ins in March. This is the former United California Bank (long ago relocated off Spring Street and folded into Bank of the West) in Downtown Los Angeles, constructed in 1961 after the city blew up the 13-story height restriction. It's not close to being the tallest tower in town, but it soars above the surrounding buildings, so I had to check the view.

We stepped onto one of the little balconies on the 19th floor, and we couldn't believe what happened. The door was missing a handle on the outside, so we were stuck! Luckily I had a floor plan flyer with the leasing agent's phone number, but it took a couple calls to get her attention. Dude, I didn't like that.

Walliver's Army

New year, new graffiti on the oddly shaped building at 3rd and Main in Downtown LA. This replaces the expressive bubbleheads by Midzt that had been up since 2006. I'm the guy who calls the graffiti removal squads when tagging pops up...but I definitely have a soft spot for more creative street art.

Here's a photo from April 2006...

Brix and Trix Unstix Netflix

Who dropped the Netflix DVD in the Cutler mail chute? Stuck! One of these days I'll rig something up and fish it out. Hope it's a good movie.