Chateau

Besides being the worst driver in American literary history, Nathanael West also etched an interestingly surreal portrait of Hollywood, the town where he spent his twilight years. The surrealism amounted to dead accuracy, of course. Scenes of cowboys and Indians seated at café counters and fairy tale cottages planted adjacent to miniature haciendas in the Hollywood Hills. When I finally arrived in L.A. I was disappointed to discover there wasn't actually an immense building spelling out "20th Century" like the one that preceded pictures by 20th Century Fox. There was the Hollywood sign, however. And this authentic chateau located on Sunset Boulevard. Where Jim Morrison used up the eighth of his nine lives and Helmut Newton and John Belushi died and F. Scott Fitzgerald nearly did, where Garbo and Montgomery Clift and James Dean and Hunter S. Thompson slept.

Restauranting

I did this illustration for Los Angeles magazine, art directed by the excellent David Armario. The story was about Musso & Franks, a Hollywood hangout that some say is haunted by the ghosts of the stars who once lunched there. Curious to know if you can identify any of these famous faces.

Movie Queue

I spent more time this summer driving kids to and from multiplexes than I spent in an actual theater. This isn't to say there weren't movies I wanted to see. To paraphrase Dorothy "Movies come and go so quickly here!" At least movies I like. Now that my kids are the age when we like the same things they, of course, would rather not be seen with me. I did this illustration for my usual entertainment slot in the LA Times. You can tell by the marquee when it ran, and see the audience for each film in the line. Sophisticated African Americans and knuckle-dragging twenty-somethings still go to the movies.