Hitler ruling his oppressive empire from Hollywood? You don't say.

Via LAhistory on Twitter comes this link to a fascinating story on the UK's Daily Mail Online: Heil Hollywood: The Los Angeles bunker from which Hitler planned to run Nazi empire after the war.

Despite my life-long interest in historic Hollywood and historic L.A., this is honestly the first time I've ever heard anything about this.  I have no idea where exactly in the hills it is or why it's taken so long for the story to be widely publicized.

In addition, while there have been no shortage of takes on what life might have been like when writers ask the magic "what if" question, "What if Germany had won World War II?" I am not aware that anyone ever thought to place the new German Socialist seat of power in La La Land.  In reality all that matters is that Hitler and the Nazis were defeated, but from a fictional standpoint, it really is a fascinating idea.

From the Daily Mail article linked above:

It sounds like the bizzare script of a Hollywood B-movie.

In a parallel universe the Nazis have won the war, Adolf Hitler moves to LA where he mingles with the stars of the silver screen while running his evil empire from a luxurious ranch deep in the LA hills.

But during the 1930s, American sympathisers were so confident this exact scenario was actually going happen they spent millions building a deluxe compound ready for their fuhrer's imminent arrival.

The graffit-plagued structures that are still standing will be bulldozed and the place turned into a picnic area.  Big improvement over the original plans, if you ask me.

Historian Randy Young told the Sunday Express: 'This was supposed to be the seat of American fascism from where Hitler would one day run the United States.

Amateur.  Everyone knows if you want to take over America and change it from a republic to an unrecognizable oppressive nanny state you run for president and bankrupt it.  Duh.

Still, amazing fodder for story ideas, no?

To me, the funny part is the idea that Hitler planned on hobnobbing with the Tinseltown elite.  Probably wouldn't have ended well for the numerous Jewish studio heads of the day, but I can totally see many of our modern day stars kowtowing to this sort of thing if it would keep them safe and at the top of the Hollywood heap.  Assuming this whole story is true at all.

Besides, I'd bet good money Marlene Dietrich would have kicked his ass if he'd tried to set up shop in her adopted country.  I'd totally take her over Hitler in a death match.

Listen up redux

About a year ago I blogged about a great, new website I'd found: You Are Listening to Los Angeles:

What do you get when you combine meditative, atmospheric music and the LAPD scanner?  Why you get You Are Listening to Los Angeles, of course!

At the time you could also listen to New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Montreal.

Today I noticed that they've expanded quite a bit since my original post.  You can now also listen to Boston, San Diego, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Minneapolis, Portland, Austin, Baltimore, Denver and Phoenix.

Hollywood signs

I'm not into the whole March Madness thing at all, but even I have to admit that the giant brackets posted up at Hollywood & Highland is pretty cool:



A little later and further down the boulevard, I looked up and saw the Hollywood Sign and realized it just doesn't have the same effect on me that it used to.  For some reason I had to take a picture of it, even though I already have a bunch.  Not sure why, photographic proof of something, I guess.



Sorry, Hollywood, you just don't do it for me anymore.  Cannot wait to nail down a new apartment and blow out of this part of town.

Check out my super new ninja avatar for Twitter and Facebook

Why yes, that is Jonathan Quick, he of the Jedi mind saves.

It's such a great shot of him.  I stole it from a Kings email.  Go Kings Go!

Is there anything cuter than little kids playing hockey? No, there isnt.

Sidney Crosby, who is on the verge of returning to the NHL (and is hopefully, finally past his concussion woes for good), surprised some Little Penguins at practice:

Then there's this adorable little guy, who wasn't about to wait around for his chance to skate with the big boys:

So dang cute!

Welcome to Zombo Com!

Apparently this has been around since the early days of the internets and is quite famous, but I'd never even heard of it until someone posted it on Facebook tonight (and he was tipped to it by one of his kids): Zombo.com.

Per Wikipedia:

Zombo.com is a website that was created in 1999, during the early days of Flash animation on the Internet. While many websites had a Flash intro that would play while the site loaded, Zombo took the concept to a humorous extreme, consisting of one long intro that never leads to any content.

It has remained largely unchanged since it was created. It is also considered to be one of the best sense-of-humor flash websites.

I can't stop listening!  The website just makes me feel so welcome, and like anything is possible!

Dog versus leaves

This is hilarious.  I love this dog!

Willow rules!