A Walk in Culver City

For the last year or so, I've been walking 15 miles a week. Pretty faithfully, I might add. One big circle around Culver City, California. 4.8 miles. I round up. And I've always wanted to document my walk with photographs. It was a perfect day today - it had rained the night before so the air was clear, no smog and everything just felt CLEAN.

So...let's go for a walk.

I've seen these muscle builders at the community center before. This is part of a regional qualifying competition. I didn't ask a lot of questions - just took the shot and got outta of there. It's prit-ty intense - those bodybuilding competitions.

I've been in Culver City now for - it'll be two years in April. Here's a quick history of the city.

Since the 1920s, Culver City has been a significant center for motion picture and later television production, in part because it was the home of MGM Studios. It also was the headquarters for the Hughes Aircraft Company from 1932 to 1985. National Public Radio West and Sony Pictures Entertainment now have headquarters in the city.

Culver City was founded by Harry Culver in 1913, and the city was incorporated on September 20, 1917. The first film studio in Culver City was built by Thomas Ince in 1918. In the 1920s, silent film comedy producer Hal Roach and Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) built studios there. During Prohibition, speakeasies and nightclubs such as the Cotton Club lined Washington Boulevard.

Home to Sony Pictures Studios (originally MGM Studios), Culver Studios, and the former Hal Roach Studios, hundreds of movies have been produced on the lots of Culver City's studios, including The Wizard of Oz, The Thin Man, Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane, Rebecca, the Tarzan series, and the original King Kong. In fact, the Yellow brick road from The Wizard of Oz is still inside the lot on Stage 27 of Sony Studios. More recent films made in Culver City include Grease, Raging Bull, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, City Slickers, Air Force One, Wag the Dog, and Contact. Television shows made on Culver City sets have included Las Vegas, Mad About You, Lassie, Batman, Arrested Development, The Andy Griffith Show, and Jeopardy!.

A girl I dated works at Sony - I've GOT to get a picture of the Yellow brick road!

Local movie theater.

This guy's on one of the lot buildings at Sony. He's got three arms - not sure what his story is.

This is Lincoln Street. And it's the prettiest road in Culver City and my favorite part of the walk.

'Tis o'bit a Ireland on Lincoln Street. I've never seen anyone walking about outside this place. Always wanted to ask them if the owners were Irish.

Birds of Paradise. I trimmed a few of these on "idiot's" property in Bel Air. They make great floral arrangements in the house but they can be messy as they have a tendency to drip.

The LA river basin.

And why not a little culture while walking? National Public Radio's West Coast HDQ is here - I listen to NPR daily. KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic gives me my much-needed dose of new, hip adult indie music that I don't get anymore from Top 40.

I have a mile and a half or so to go yet on my walk, but I veered off to get a haircut down the road. So we're done. This is a shitty way to end my walk, I know. But all good things must come to an end. Maybe it'll serve as a wake-up call. I despise graffiti. I think anyone caught tagging should get an automatic 5-year jail term. A bit much? I don't think so. Can you honestly tell me that if these gang bastards for once thought that spraying property would land them in jail for that long instead of a getting a fine and a slap on the wrist they wouldn't think twice? And for the stupid taggers who ignore the law and continue, cut a hand off - works in Asia for theft.

Where will your next walk take YOU?