Thursday 22 May, Hollywood, CA

Hollywood
Tasked with capturing the famous Hollywood sign, we set off Northwards.
A convoluted route which took us from N Highland Ave, under the 101 Hollywood freeway, up Holly Drive, up Deep Dell Place, along Rinconia Drive, up Creston Drive, up again Durand Drive (catching a glimpse but not near enough!, along Ledgewood Drive, skirting Mulholland Highway (not ‘Drive’ of the puzzling David Lynch film starring Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, and Ann Miller, wherein, following a car accident on Mulholland Drive which renders a woman amnesic, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across LA in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality – or so it says somewhere on IMDB! Next onto Rockcliff Drive where a closer view was snatched, we ascended to our epitome – Deronda Drive. Perfect. Banged off several shots for family and friends, then an initial winding, then straight descent down Beachwood Drive, back to the relative falsity of Hollywood/LA.

That Sign
In 1887, Mrs. Wilcox, wife of town founder Harvey Wilcox, met a woman on a train trip who referred to her Florida summer home, “Hollywood.” She was so struck by the name that she suggested it to her husband
The sign originally read "HOLLYWOODLAND", and its purpose was to advertise a new housing development in the hills above the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. H.J. Whitley had already used a sign to advertise his development Whitley Heights.
The rest, as they say in ‘the business’ … is history.

Afterwards
The second part of the day yielded nothing of interest or value. We walked south across Hollywood, and Sunset, down to Santa Monica blvd and along the entire length from N Bronson Ave to N La Cienega Blvd, entirely missing our turnoff at N Highland Ave in this mind-numbing tract of industrial units, garages (both lock-up and fuel), convenience-food outlets and studio lots. Most interesting part of the afternoon was travelling through the ‘Russian Quarter’ of LA where small grocery stores almost entirely abandoned any English signage, and for that matter, any readable signage, resorting to numerous hand-written bills, advertising their wares and services. Apart from the weather (humid and overcast but warm), and the number and size of the pickups, this could have been Park Ostankino in Moscow!

Facts
Much of the ‘Hollywood’ movie industry has relocated to Burbank to enjoy greater space and lower rent.
‘Hollywood’ is often used as a metonym for the US movie industry
‘Hollywood’ is the only district in metropolitan LA to have distinct boundaries as if independent from the greater metropolis.
Er,
That’s it [Ed.]