hollywood boulevard & kodak theatre - old photos dug from my archives !

i have been thinking often about how there are so many photos i've taken, that remain sadly neglected in storage. there are ones from many previous years stored in a hard disk and a laptop, and there are so many from 2015 still stuck in the phone as well as camera, which i have not even bothered to transfer.

i should be giving them more attention, organising and posting the good ones and clearing out those that havent turned out good. 

the fact that today is the 88th academy award ceremony reminded me of the pics from a visit to hollywood/LA, six years ago. we were living a few hours away at that time, and it was a short weekend day trip. i dont have a lot of photos from the trip, but i picked a few from the ones i had and touched them up a bit, so that i could post them here today.

these are from an afternoon walk around the hollywood boulevard, seeing the 'walk of fame' and the academy awards venue - the 'kodak theatre', as it was called back then, and dolby theatre as it is known now.

this is the home of the academy awards - where the oscars have been given each year, from 2002. (there have been many different venues earlier.) kodak sponsored the auditorium, paying a hefty sum for the naming rights, until it went bankrupt and could no longer afford it. it is now called 'dolby theatre', after dolby acquired the naming rights, and upgraded the sound systems.

the hollywood 'walk of fame' is a long of stretch of sidewalk (footpath) on both sides of the road called hollywood boulevard. the path has stars outlined in brass with the names of those who have made a lasting contribution to the entertainment industry. the stars are installed based on nominations. there are now more than 2500.

here are a few among the favourites that i spotted -

this is the star of the amazing director steven spielberg - he deserves every superlative adjective you can think of -  and whose movie 'bridge of spies' is nominated this year ! (and yeah thats my foot making an appearance.)

the star of actor ben kingsley, who always remains a household name in india for his award winning role of "Gandhi"

and one of my favourites, sandra bullock - who won an academy award for her epic performance in the movie 'blindside'.

there are also stars for many popular fictional characters, like these ones for bugs bunny and snow white.

and finally -

this is the famous hollywood sign, seen here from the hollywood & highland center, which is the complex where the dolby theatre and so many other shops & restaurants are located.

chinese new year, and some rewind pictures from china town, san francisco

I didnt get anything posted yesterday for Mundane Monday - been feeling so drowsy and drained the past two days - if this spate continues for a few more days i might have to swap my morning tea with redbull, just to keep myself going.

anyways decided to make a quick post to give myself a break. last weekend (friday, jan 31st to be precise) was the chinese new year, the year of the horse. it made me go through some old pics taken in china town in SFO, in 2012. that was a whole sunny afternoon spent roaming the streets and looking at shop after shop of cheap chinese trinkets... made me want to buy the whole street :)

so here are the pics -

now this is a china sea -  literally ! i was drowned in there for ages :)

and oh, on a funnier note, check out this epic gaffe by bbc when it wished its viewers for the year of the horse !

have a good week everyone, catch up with you soon :)

Sitcom trivia - 5 locations from 4 sitcoms based in New York City !

October so far has been dragging me here and there, leaving me with disrupted internet access and little control over my time. Most of the month has gone off like this, so am not in the best of spirits. i've ended up having my finger in many pies, so disrupted plans and schedules had left me very annoyed the past weeks... theres a lot of stuff that i need to be doing before the end of october (if i dont want to end up cussing myself and suffer another bout of self-hating), so hopefully i should redeem the last week of october and try to make up for whats lost.

Moving on to other (and better) things, heres something i had managed to compile in the past weeks - and finally managed to get past the draft stage. 

Are you a sitcom fan ? Love the all-time popular shows like Friends,Seinfeld, or How I Met Your Mother ? Then this one is for you.

I love sitcoms and can watch them anytime, all the time. (I dont watch TV regularly everyday, but i loved the convenience of a dvr and watching them any time i wanted to. In the absence of a dvr, I try to catch old episodes on youtube.)

I first stumbled on the location of the "Monk's Diner" that is a regular feature in Seinfeld. All the exterior shots of Monks are of a real restaurant in New York City called Toms. The sign which says just 'restaurant' was used on the show.

image source - Panoramio

Location - 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025 (near Columbia University)

Seeing that made me curious to google the locations of some of the other popular sitcoms, and i found these :

If you are a F.R.I.E.N.D.S fan (and its very hard not to be one), you'll be excited to see this building that was used for the exterior shots of Monica's apartment building.

                                                             image source - Flickr

Location - At the corner of Bedford & Grove Streets, Greenwich Village, New York, NY 10014

Love How I Met Your Mother ? Then you might be interested to see this pub in NYC called McGees, which was the inspiration for Maclarens pub in the show. The creators apparently spent many hours there before the show was created. (Keep in mind however that this was just the inspiration for Maclarens, and was not actually used for any of the shots nor does the interior look similar.)

                                                      image source - Mcgees, NYC

Location - 240 W 55th St (between Broadway & 8th Ave) ,New York, NY 10019

And lastly, from Will & Grace - here is the building which was used for Will & Grace's apartment - 

image source - Flickr

Location - 155 Riverside Drive, Manhattan, New York, NY

and this is the building which was used for Grace's Studio (Grace Adler Designs) - 

image source - Flickr

Location - Puck Building, 295-309 Lafayette Street, Manhattan, New York, NY

These buildings were all only used for the exterior shots - keep in mind that the real shooting happened on sets in studios in California. I hope to be adding at least some of these(esp the friends one !)  to my to-do list when i make it to NYC the next time. Do you like sitcoms ? Which ones are your favs, and would you be adding any of these to your to-do list if you get a chance to be in NYC ?

channapatna/chennapatna toys - ethnic wooden toys from india.

if you are one of the (3 or 4) regular readers of this blog, you probably realised i didnt post this week's mundane monday picture.

i had been travelling over the weekend and monday, and didnt quite have the time to squeeze in a post or prepare it in advance.

i was on a frenzied visit to Bangalore, and the agenda of the trip was such that i was on the road for most part of sunday and monday.

by dinner time on sunday evening we were in the vicinity of one of the many malls in bangalore, and decided to just hop into the food court to grab some dinner. tucked away in a corner of the mall were a few stalls that were selling ethnic indian artifacts and crafts. one of these had a bright display of channapatna toys that enticed me to stop in my tracks before dinner.

Channapatna is a small town about 60 kms from the south indian town of bangalore and is home to a wooden toy & doll making industry. the wooden toys are brightly coloured with natural vegetable dyes and their glossy finish is a treat for the eyes. there were tops, rattles, trains and lots of other toys, as well as stuff like beautiful wooden bangles...

i just picked up a couple of pieces quickly... sometime in the future hopefully i should make a trip to channapatna to see them at their source !

here are some pictures for you to enjoy the cheerful burst of colour ...

                                     

  brightly coloured spinning tops - ( and you still think beyblades are cool ? :) )

     

rows of baskets filled with toys... 

angry elephant - or is he more of a surprised elephant ?!

for those of you who thought he had just looks - thats the cutest pencil sharpener i've seen in a long time !

and a train of not-so-happy looking people - maybe they tried booking tickets in the irctc site !

life is like a puzzle...

found this piece of pine bark, which looked like a jigsaw puzzle, on a trip a few weekends ago... the place was full of pine trees, up on a snowy (in southern california, in the middle of a desert, in april ! yes !) mountain, and so there were pieces of bark, pinecones, etc strewn all over the place...

the pieces of bark seemed to reaffirm my take on life.... life is like a jigsaw puzzle - every piece seems weird by itself, but you just keep going in the hope that you'll finally see the full picture someday...

and yeah, on a totally unrelated note, found this family of snow-people someone had made... thought it looked cute... (ok, maybe it looks creepy too, but i thought it was cute anyway :) )

The fountains of Bellagio - Las Vegas, Nevada

this is a video of the Bellagio fountains that i took on our recent vegas trip :

the fountains outside the Bellagio hotel & casino come to life and sway and dance to music every evening....easily the most beautiful sight to behold, in all of vegas - and, like most good things in life, is free !

the video is quite shaky though, since i had to keep holding the camera above the heads of the people in front !

another one - nice, albeit a very short one !

and the one below is a view of the fountains from the top of the Eiffel tower at the Paris-las vegas, which is right opposite the Bellagio. This one is in daylight....but then again, the video quality may not be very good, as the camera had to be kept between the small gaps in a cage-like structure !

pics of niagara visit

i thought i'd post some of the pics we took on our visit to the niagara falls.... it was absolutely breathtaking, and i have no words to describe it enough... i even felt somewhat emotional, watching such a creation of nature, flowing with such beauty, and falling with such fury....
its a great experience, hearing the thundering roar of water, and watching the misty spray of water rising above after crashing onto the rocks below....

Cherry Blossom Festival,Washington.D.C

As spring makes an entry around the world, the city of Washington D.C has its own unique way of ushering in the spring… Every year, the thousands of cherry trees along the Tidal Basin (in the banks of the Potomac river in Washington D.C)break into bloom in end march- mid april. The flowers last for just a couple of weeks at the most, and the peak period is just a few days. The flowers are white and light pink, and the entire river bank is a beautiful sight in white. The trees were originally planted in 1912 as a gift of the then mayor of Tokyo, Japan. The trees are closely watched and the blooming period is forecast. A Cherry Blossom Festival is held with lots of events. Thousands of visitors from all over pour into Washington to see the beautiful trees. We went to see the cherry blossoms this sunday and it was a wonderful sight. Though there are thousands of visitors, elaborate parking arrangements have been made around the area and shuttles transport visitors from the many parking lots to the Tidal Basin. Trees full of white blossoms line the entire banks of the Potomac river, and it is a lovely sight as you take a walk down the river. You can also take a boat ride on the Potomac river and take in the lovely sights of the flowers on the edge of the waterfront, as well as the Washington monument on one side and the Jefferson memorial on the other. Outside the Jefferson memorial, a stage is set up and events are continuously taking place. There are lots of stalls selling souvenirs and snacks for those who want to grab a quick bite,and yet the periphery of the trees and the waterfront is kept really clean, as there are lot of trash cans everywhere(even seperate ones for trash and recyclable bottles and metal cans....) and people are responsible enough to through the trash only inside them(not leave them strewn around, as I have painfully seen, in most tourist destinations in India...)
Here are some of the snaps i took .... Chk out this link for more details about the cherry blossom festival