RIP ArcLight and Pacific Theaters

Another casualty of you know who: ArcLight Cinemas and Pacific Theaters permanently closed. Included under the ArcLight/Pacific umbrella: the historic Cinerama Dome in Hollywood and the flagship ArcLight Hollywood.

There's been a lot of reaction to this news here in Southern California and from the entertainment industry, and nobody is happy about it. It also seems to have caught everyone completely by surprise. When I first saw it I was so shocked I thought it had to be a mistake. Unfortunately, it's true.

I'm not terribly worried about the Dome itself - it was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1998. I believe this gives it protected status and even if it doesn't I can't imagine a scenario where anyone would be allowed to knock it down. I'm pretty sure somewhere along the line some entity will resurrect it and get it back into the movie business. 

But the loss of the ArcLight/Pacific brand is a big one for Los Angeles. Most of the significant closures in the past year were classic and popular restaurants. These were businesses that should still be here. Their closures were due solely to loss of business because of the shutdown and not by any fault of their own. When I see states that didn't have California's strict COVID closure policies doing just fine...well, that just make this news even tougher to take.

Other local theaters that won't be reopening because of the closure include the Pacific Theaters at The Grove and ArcLights in Pasadena (Paseo Colorado), Sherman Oaks, El Segundo and Santa Monica. The ArcLight's website has already been scrapped with just the stark closing announcement.

But hey, at least The French Laundry seems to be thriving!

Hugs 😥

Update: There is now a petition to save the Cinerama Dome. Again, I don't think the structure itself is in danger, but a show of support isn't going to hurt its future prospects, so...

Update 4/14/21: The petition originally aimed for 2,500 signatures and blew right past that number. As I type this, they have crossed the 8,400 mark and are now aiming for 10k!

Challenge accepted!!!

From Los Angeles Magazine, it's the 100 Places Where You Can Experience Retro Los Angeles.

Some of them I've never even heard of, a lot of them I'm aware of and a number of them I've driven by countless times but never stopped in. I'm embarrassed to say I can only check off seven of the places on this list so far:

26. Canter's Deli
29. Larry Edmund's Bookstore
35. Kip's Toyland
53. The Apple Pan
54. Mel's Drive-In (Hollywood and West Hollywood)
55. Canterbury Records
62. Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (work lunches in the restaurant in the lobby)

Going to have to hit some of those other places and flesh out this list.

H/T to The Streamline Moderne Era on Facebook for the link.

So I may have jumped the gun when I counted Little Blue out last week

For a number of reasons I'm too exhausted to go into, I did not go car shopping with The Brother today and Little Blue Corolla has in fact been towed and repaired and gifted with a new alternator and battery recharge.  It will have to hold on for at least a couple more months.

Oh who am I kidding - this car will probably outlive me.  One of the things I've learned about Corollas over the years as an owner: Mechanics love these cars.  They love them.  In fact, when I went to pick the car up and gave my mechanic my tale of woe, he told me to let him know when I was ready to sell it.  He even Blue Booked it for me on the spot.  And the guy from Auto Club who towed it told me his wife had owned a Corolla and they sold it to their mechanic.  2010 Corollas at Carmax are priced in the $13k range, the same price my Dad and I paid for mine in 1994 (it's a '93 and had spent the first year of its life as a rental).  They are truly the best cars for the money.

After a lot of recent nonstop piling on, I've actually had some things work out the past couple of days (in addition to bringing Little Blue back from the dead) and may actually get my late uncle's Orange County apartment cleaned out by the drop dead date.  Then I can concentrate on paperwork for both his and my Dad's estates and maybe someday, even get back to my own life.  I've been needing and wanting to get a new car and new apartment for years now, and it's actually looking like I might be able to do so one of these months or years.

It was a beautiful day in the Southland today and after hitting the post office to pick up a package and mail a couple of estate and family drama related items, I just couldn't bring myself to go home.  I ran Little Blue to the car wash, then headed over to The Grove, where per their automated parking machine I spent 2 hours and 8 minutes blissfully wandering through Barnes & Noble, Farmer's Market, Anthropologie and Cost Plus.  I didn't buy much, but it was just so wonderful to be out and about on such a beautiful day.  Yesterday, after picking up my newly repaired car, I made much-needed runs to Target and Costco, and Little Blue has fired up every time since the latest repair.

Blue skies and my Little Blue Corolla, shining on me...

Christmas at The Grove

Survived a trip to The Grove Friday so I could skip it over the last weekend before Christmas.  It was relatively painless (except for the line at Anthropologie - came home and ordered the gift card Mom is getting me online).

The Grove was decked out in all its holiday finery.  Although there were quite a few ads around for Tron and Yogi Bear, the place wasn't completely wallpapered with them like it was last year for Sherlock Holmes, which was a huge relief as I was expecting the worst.

Even though it was pretty dreary, it was still a beautiful sight.  Looking down from the 6th level of the parking structure:

 
That's a really tall tree!

It was a lot busier than this picture indicates.

These guys were actually playing Hava Nagila when I took this:

 
Merry Christmas to everyone!

Baking goes to the dogs

I don't know if this place is new, or if I just hadn't noticed it before.  At the Farmer's Market (adjacent to The Grove):