Walking In LA...

While I was running errands the other day in Hollywood, to what did my roving eyes did appear, Chucky & Tiffany the two most notorious killer dolls ever to unleash terror on the big screen!

They stared at me malevolently from the display in the window of the historic Hollywood Toys & Costumes. The store has been in Hollywood for 75 years and counting.

It's one of the great things about living in Los Angeles, you get to see all the great history that has been made here every day.

Especially Hollywood, it's very close to where I live and I head up to the Blvd at least once a month have lunch and walk around and take in everything it has to offer.

Hooray For Hollywood!

Hollywood Toys & Costumes on the WWW -

https://hollywoodtoysandcostumes.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopNRPTeF7_qiglmG_rfhY5xJTCNaGyrTCmB7IsYe14uzB2LC0TU  

Hump Day & Chill

Bend It Like
Marilyn Monroe

After a week of Wild Fires (and counting) in Los Angeles, CA I thought it was time to revisit a simpler time in the cities history.

Let's take a Hump Day & Chill trip back to the days of yore when Marilyn Monroe lounged on a chair languidly looking like a million dollars, shall we? We shall!

Marilyn is the kind of woman you knew you could have a dirty martini with, laugh and confide in. I bet she would never tell anyone your secrets, and you'd better not spill hers either.

So let's raise our collective glasses and toast to the history of Los Angeles/Hollywood and remember a time and place when things were less chaotic. 

Hump Day & Chill...Cheers!

Marilyn on IG -

https://www.instagram.com/marilynmonroe/?hl=en  

Hump Day & Chill

I came across this iconic renedering of Bette Davis and her words of wisdom to actresses coming to Hollywood: Take Fountain.

This mural was around the corner from me in my hood and I took a photo of it, and I'm glad I did as it is no longer. I guess a furniture store's showroom expansion was more important. Thus there goes another piece of Hollywood History (I hear it is now privately owned)

So let us Hump Day & Chill to this memory from Hollywood of yester year.

Raise a glass!

Get the full 411 about the mural here -

https://franklinavenue.blogspot.com/2012/02/bette-davis-take-fountain-mural.html

Sunday Funday

Blackie

Today just for the sheer levity of it, I decided to bring back the Creature From The Black Lagoon and declare it National Creature From The Black Lagoon Day!

Hey there's a national day for just about everything else why not the creature.  

I remember seeing the Creature's screen debut on TV with my Dad when I was kid. The creature was a sight to behold to my inner child. I was fascinated by this aquatic oddity. 

Something came to mind when I sae this image of Blackie and decided to hold a day in his honor. There has yet to be remake that updates his image and story for the modern day.

Maybe honoring him will inspire Hollywood!

Creature From The Black Lagoon on Wikipedia -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creature_from_the_Black_Lagoon

Santa's Circus

Santa's Circus 

Extending Giving Tuesday all season long, Santa’s Circus, the cirque-style production, and The Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood proudly announce a commitment to community giving through collaborations with four youth-focused charities: the Ryan Seacrest Foundation, D'Addario Foundation/Immersive Music Challenge, LACC's Guardian Scholars, and the Boys & Girls Club of Hollywood.  The enchanting family-friendly extravaganza, featuring a blend of theatre, dance and high-flying acrobatics, for families and audiences of all ages, will run from Friday, December 8 to Saturday, December 23, 2023. During the 19 performances, proceeds from 10% of every ticket sold will be donated to these charities. Also, a benefit show on Tuesday, December 12 at 5:00pm has been added to the schedule for the general public to attend along with hundreds of attendees from these participating charities who will receive donated tickets. Patrons who purchase tickets can receive 20% off this show—or ANY show throughout the entire run—when applying the code SCLAHOLIDAY20 at check-out. Guests will experience 90-minutes of exhilarating entertainment filled with breathtaking stunts, astonishing skills, and a wintery wonderland of magic, illusions, comedy and surprises. Children in the audience are invited to hand-deliver a letter for Santa to Mrs. Clause during the performance, and families receive a complimentary photo opp with Santa after the show. The Montalbán's magical theatre, in the heart of Hollywood, is located at 1615 Vine Street, Los Angeles, CA 90028. Tickets start at $37 (children)/$47 (adults) and are expected to sell quickly. For more information, showtimes and tickets visit: https://feverup.com/m/144144.

Info PR Assets Tickets

Touche

I remember this as well, "Yes" once upon a time...

Posting this in support and solidarity for the SAG/AFTRA Strike. Here's hoping to a resolution in the near future.

For more info on the SAG/AFTRA strike hit the link below!

https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/  

Hump Day & Chill

Today I am going to Hump Day & Chill by seeing Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer at the world famous Chinese theater in Hollywood, CA.

Oppenheimer is being shown in IMAX there the way it is intended by Nolan to be seen thus I am gonna watch it in all it's resplendent glory.

For those not in the know at one point they shut the historic theater down and revamped it to show movies in IMAX so far I have seen only one movie in the format there that being The Batman. After today it will be two.

Anyway if you wanna know where I'm gonna Hump Day & Chill for three hours today it's with me, myself and Oppenheimer at the Chinese in Hollywood. 

Cheers to air conditioning!

The Chinese Theater on Wikipedia -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grauman%27s_Chinese_Theatre 

Horizons: A 21st Century Space Odyssey

The Montalbán Presents

Horizons: A 21st Century Space Odyssey

Professor Brian Cox’s

Immersive Live Experience

Fri. June 17 & Sat. June 18, 2022

The Montalbán is honored to present Horizons: A 21st Century Space Odyssey, the latest immersive live experience from World-renowned physicist, Professor Brian Cox for two nights, Friday, June 17 and Saturday, June 18, 2022. Horizons is a celebration of our civilization, of our music, art, philosophy and science; an optimistic vision of our future if we continue to explore Nature with humility and to value ourselves and our fellow human beings. Cox will once again be joined by award-winning comedian Robin Ince, his co-host on the BBC’s The Infinite Monkey Cage, Returning to the historic Montalbán (the site of his Cox’s last sold-out engagement in Southern California), the show will start at 8:00pm. Tickets cost $65. Located near the legendary corner of Hollywood and Vine, the venue is at 1615 Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 90028. For information and tickets, please visit https://www.themontalban.com/briancox.

In the midst of a 29-city North America tour produced by WestBeth Entertainment, Horizons demystifies planetary science, cosmology, and quantum theory for an all-ages audience through advanced LED screen technology, comedy, and live Q&A. The tour will also visit arenas and theaters throughout the U.K., Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia. As the Edmonton Journal recently wrote, “Only a handful of scientists can sell out arenas lecturing on some of the most complex issues vexing particle physicists today. Cox is one of them. His capacity to distill some of the most complex questions researchers ask about space, time and things above and beyond it into something the lay person can grasp is rare.”

Professor Brian Cox Photo: Mark Harrison Horizons takes audiences on a dazzling cinematic journey; a story of how we came to be and what we can become. Using state of the art LED screen technology, venues will be filled with images of far-away galaxies, alien worlds, supermassive black holes and a time before the Big Bang. What is the nature of space and time? Why does the Universe exist? How did life begin, how rare might it be and what is the significance of life in the Cosmos? What does it mean to live a small, finite life in a vast, eternal Universe? The deepest of questions will be explored using the latest advances in our understanding of quantum theory, black holes, biology, planetary science, astronomy and cosmology. “I loved the 2019 world tour because it gave me the opportunity to discuss the most profound ideas with tens of thousands of people in front of the most spectacular images of the Universe,” stated Professor Cox. “When the tour was over, I immediately started thinking about how I could delve deeper, tell an even more profound story and make the show even more spectacular. I’m very excited about what has emerged! I hope the evening will make people think about how fortunate and precious we are, how strange and wonderful our Universe is, and the limitless future we have to look forward to if we make the right choices over the coming decades.”

• Brian Cox - briancoxlive.co.uk
• Brian Cox Instagram - www.instagram.com/profbriancox
• Brian Cox Facebook - www.facebook.com/ProfessorBrianCox
• Brian Cox Twitter - twitter.com/ProfBrianCox
• Brian Cox YouTube
• Brian Cox Wikipedia - wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Cox_(physicist)

Something In The Way...

Grauman's Chinese Theater

Yesterday I went and saw The Batman at the historic Chinese Theater in Hollywood, IMAX style. 

Batman is my jam and IMO this was the best Batman movie ever! Robert Pattinson is the best movie Batman ever! 

There I said it. Now on to the important stuff. While I have been to movies in a theater last year etc. I really wasn't prepared for how emotional I got being in the iconic Chinese again. 

From the hand prints in the cement, to the amazing architecture inside. You can feel the history of this shrine to movie going leap into your soul.

A little bit dramatic? Not really, accurate to my feelings, it is. 

I mean I even took this photo of Marilyn Monroe's hand and foot prints (yes I had seen them before) I was feeling so nostalgic. 

Sally Forth and smile like you mean it, it's Monday!!!

The Chinese Theater on the WWW -

http://www.tclchinesetheatres.com/  

Here's Looking At You

Pucker Up!
Michelle Pfeiffer

How has everyone's week been? Mine been pretty good, today I'm going to see The Batman at the Chinese in Hollywood IMAX style and I can't wait!

Being as it is the close of the weekend I felt it  called for some levity and also something that is reflective of how I woke up feeling this morning (hey I had a good dream, what can I say???) 

Thus when I saw this quite silly photo of Michelle Pfeiffer I knew this was it, this was what captured it all starting my day off. 

Oddly I have never seen Michelle act this goofy for a photo ever! I never even new she posed for photos like this. She usually looks so serious or smiling, but never downright off the wall.

So if Michelle can do it...

Bend it like Michelle, here's looking at you!!!

Michelle on IG -

https://www.instagram.com/michellepfeifferofficial/?hl=en

Current Mood

Don't Call Me "Baby." I'm Not Your "Baby."
Michelle Pfeiffer

I follow @NotableHistory on Twitter which serves up Hollywood Vintage Photo realness. Well when this classic of Michelle Pfeiffer came through from the film Scarface I stopped and took it in for a bit, it gave me all the feels, a mood if you will.

Thus my Current Mood about 2022 is capsulized at this moment in time by this vintage image of Michelle Pfeiffer portraying Elvira Hancock in Scarface.

It's all the explanation I'm going to offer, or give, so don't ask for anything more, capice?

All one has to do is take the image in to get a read off it and understand innately where I am coming from.

Hey, if you know, know, now it's time to say goodbye...

Goodbye.

Vintage Photos on Twitter at -

https://twitter.com/NotableHistory  

Meow! It's "National Black Cat Day"

James Dean

With a scant 4 more days until Halloween, how fitting that today is National Black Cat Day...Meow! 

So I let my fingers hit the keyboard and Google the WWW and what to my wandering eyes did appear but a pictorial to honor Halloween of Black Cats and their celebrity owners. One in partik stood out, well a few actually did but this one popped a little more.

Behold the beauty of James Dean and his Black Cat, oh, and there's also a table involved too, for good measure (I guess.)

For those of you reading this who don't know who James Dean is, and I am sure there are a few. First of all take the Walk of Shame and then do a Google search. You'll thank me, trust...

Seeing James and his pussy takes me back to a simpler time, also a time in Hollywood that will never come back. "Yes" Virginia all the glamour is gone, but legends live on!

Go Black Cat or go home! Have you cleaned the litter box?! 

James on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dean  

Waxing Nostalgic

Together Again
Bruce Willis & Demi Moore

Yesterday was Father's Day thus a lot of celebrities and common folk took to Social Media posting photos to pay tribute to that special man in their lives.

Well whilst hitting the round-up of said photos I came across this current one of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. Captioned: "Happy Father's Day, Bruce! Your kids are so lucky to have you," 

This took me back to when they were actually married for eleven years, they were a Hollywood power couple starring in many movies that brought them both big paychecks. In fact Moore became the highest paid actress (at the time) in film history receiving a then unheard of $12.5 million for Striptease. Willis made as much as $20 million at the time depending on the role.

However this is not what I will remember their legacy for, what I will look back on is a small film they did together that Demi produced called Mortal Thoughts. Her is the synopsis for it:

"Mortal Thoughts is a low-key thriller revolving around the relationship between two best friends who are involved in the death of one of their husbands. The movie unfolds as the events leading to a confession are shown in flashback. Joyce (Glenne Headly) is married to the abusive, unfaithful James (Bruce Willis). During an outing at a carnival, James is killed, and Joyce and her best friend Cynthia (Demi Moore) try to cover up the murder."

Of course it was so much more than this, as legendary film critic Roger Ebert puts it:

"There is another level to Mortal Thoughts than either the guilt or innocence of the characters, or the wit with which Rudolph portrays their world. It is the level on which ordinary people cut themselves loose from ordinary morality."

Ebert nailed the truth of this film and this is the reason I love it! Make your day a good one!

Mortal Thoughts on Rotten Tomatoes:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mortal_thoughts  

All Black Lives Matter

I remember when I first arrived in Hollywood I couldn't wait to see the world famous Chinese Theater. Little did I know several years into the future it would be the starting point for one of the biggest worldwide protests All Black Lives Matter

While I did not march I did bear witness to this historic event, the energy was amazing! The following images that I captured speak for themselves, here they are...

Black Lives Matter
on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/blklivesmatter?lang=en

Pride/BLM

Dwayne Wade, Zaya Wade & Gabrielle Union

As everyone knows by now Pride Festivals & Festivities are cancelled this year, this being stated with all of the necessary Black Lives Matter protests going on around the world today in Los Angeles the two will join forces.

In lieu of Pride there is a BLM march scheduled to take place at 11 am starting at Hollywood and Highland (the location of the first Gay Pride in Los Angeles) and ending in West Hollywood, the current home to Pride in LA.

While I am not planning on marching because of the current pandemic, I would if there wasn't one. I am wishing all of those who are well and please be safe. 

Also Happy 13th Birthday to Zaya Wade, daughter of NBA Superstar Dwayne Wade and Actress Gabrielle Union. Her actual DOB is May 29th whose parents threw her a party this past Friday that combined the themes of medieval and pride.

In case you didn't know Zaya is transgender and proud stepmom Gabrielle had this to say to her on her special day:

"You are such an inspiration and motivation to get my butt up everyday and fight," she wrote. "When I'm weary, frustrated, full of rage, I see your face and your joy and you living your best life and I want that for all of us. I love you sooooo much kid!! Enjoy this day and everyday knowing you are loved, protected, respected, admired and celebrated."

Whatever you choose to do today, make it a celebration

Zaya on IG -
https://www.instagram.com/zayawade/?hl=en

Monday Motivation

Black Lives Matter
Hollywood Blvd.

Today's Monday Motivation is real and spectacular! This is Hollywood Blvd. yesterday were it looks like practically all of Los Angeles turned out for the Black Lives Matter protest.

Whats amazing to me about this is not only did this happen during a pandemic, but this is way bigger than any crowd that Orange Caligula has drawn for anything he's ever done. No wonder Bunker Boy is scared and put up a fence around the White House.

Let this inspire and instill our faith in the good of people. I feel it's the perfect note to start your week off on.

"I awakened to the cry
That the people have the power
To redeem the work of fools
Upon the meek the graces shower
It' s decreed the people rule" - People Have The Power, Patti Smith

Black Lives Matter on Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/Blklivesmatter

Hump Day & Chill

Shaken, Not Stirred
Meryl Streep

During this downtime I've been thinking a lot about one of my favorite old Hollywood haunts Musso & Frank. I miss it, with it's great atmosphere, delicious food and amazing martini's. 

Thus today's Hump Day & Chill is brought to you by the martini, to be precise the Meryl Martini as concocted by one Meryl Streep during a performance of The Ladies Who Lunch in celebration of Stephen Sondheim's 90th Birthday.

Honestly I do think Streep is missing a branding opportunity here, she really should explore the Meryl Martini concept, I'd bet she'd make a killing doing it.

In the meantime, break out your own martini magic and Hump Day & Chill to one of these absolutely fabulous concoctions. 

Make mine gin straight up, two olives please.

Thank You!!!

Musso and Frank on the WWW:
http://www.mussoandfrankgrill.com/   

Michael's Musings

Say Hello To My Quarantine Friend..
Michael Shinafelt

We have arrived at yet another episode of As The Quarantine Turns...this week there was much ado about Hollywood on Netflix. Did I binge it? "Yes." What did I think about it? That's for me to know and you to find out, on with the show Minions!!!

Demons have an awful sense of humor, can you blame them? They live in Hell...

Sorry to hear that Ashley Benson and Cara Delevingne have split, not even a sex bench could keep them together 💔

I don't  wear fur but I do eat _______ that's correct Minions it's time to fill in the blank

The latest trend? After everything you say add: "I was just being sarcastic"

Given the reaction everyone's having to Adele's weight loss I assume this means the pandemic is over?!

Oh, so what did I think of Hollywood on Netflix? Did I like it or not? Computer says: NO

Who else wants to show Sutton Stracke on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills the proverbial door and hopes it hits her on the way out?

Dylan McDemott just ran naked through my mind (if only he'd done that in Hollywood, but we'll always have the first season of American Horror Story)

Woman Crush of the Week - Mira Sorvino for being one of the good things in that train wreck known as Hollywood on Netflix

Tell me who, who, who took the cookies from the cookie jar? Was it you?

Murder Hornets, because 2020 hasn't been fun enough

I miss eavesdropping 

Bambi goes to the club alone...

The End

Yep, this weeks episode of As The Quarantine Turns is over, for more intrigue follow me at:

https://www.instagram.com/michaelshinafelt/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/MShinafelt   

Hump Day & Chill

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I Am The "Tiger King"

Exotic
Rob Lowe

I have a confession to make, I have not seen Tiger King. Yet, because of the wonder of Social Media I feel like I have. Yeah, there's that. 

Well the media frenzy has extended to celebs dressing like Joe Exotic during their quarantine downtime. File that under things to do in Hollywood when one is bored.

My pick for the best Joe Exotic get up is Rob Lowe pictured above. It's pretty eerie, and there's a feral intensity to Rob that really shouts "Exotic."

Thus it makes perfect sense that he and the ubiquitous Ryan Murphy are developing their own version of the truth is stranger than fiction story.

Hey, sounds good to me, and aren't you happy???

Rob on IG -
https://www.instagram.com/roblowe/?hl=en