Welcoming Entrance...

Pasadena and South Pasadena have some of the most charming homes.  This one is right on the border, so I'm not sure which city can actually claim it, but it sure has a friendly vibe.

Gimme a Minute! #1 -- The Getty Villa

60 seconds at the Getty
Be sure to click full screen if you are on a computer.  If you're on a smart phone, just hit play.

The Getty Villa is more than a museum, it's kind of like a combination Ancient Roman movie set and  fantasy vacation house.  Home to the J. Paul Getty Museum's antiquities collection, the Villa houses art from ancient Greece and Rome dating from about 6500 BC to 400 AD.  The art is amazing enough, but the actual grounds, gardens and buildings are what I love most.  Built in the early 1970s by architects working hand in hand with J. Paul Getty, the villa is a recreation of a first century Roman country house called the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, Italy.  Yes, THAT Herculaneum ... the one that got buried along with Pompei after Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79.  (Much of the Villa dei Papiri still remains unexcavated, but the Getty Foundation was cool enough to have created this virtual tour of what it was like back when Julius Caesar's father-in-law lived there.)

If you want to experience lifestyles of the ancient rich and famous, just walk around the Getty Villa's tiled walkways and admire the mosaics, fresco paintings, fountains, gardens, and sculptures with creepy eyeballs that are supposedly closer to what the actual ancient sculptors created.  (Although, recent artistic sleuthing has uncovered that ancient Greece and Rome wasn't nearly as classical and monochromatic as we imagine it ... those beautiful, white statues were originally painted!)

Portals to the Past #1

Lobby of 448 S. Hill Street, just one gorgeous building in downtown Los Angeles

Downtown LA is loaded with architectural gems like the Pershing Square Building at  448 S. Hill Street.  The 15 story building was designed by the team of Curlett & Beelman -- who also gave Los Angeles the beautiful Chester Williams Building on 5th Street -- and was constructed between 1923 and 1924, although two more stories were added with respect to the original design in 2008.

One of my favorite downtown restaurants is on the rooftop of this fabulous old place.  Perch is kind of like something out of a film noir -- that is, if the film noir had balconies jutting right out into the LA skyline.  You walk through the above lobby and head into the elevator as if you're hunting for a private detective's office on the top floor. Once you get up top, a shady looking character ushers you to another, more mysterious elevator.  (Okay, actually the character you'll meet isn't shady at all. In fact, he's a rather a well-dressed bouncer. And the elevator isn't really that mysterious, just gorgeous and old.  But work with me here as I indulge in a femme fatale moment.)  Even better than the second elevator is the a steep, dark, nearby staircase.  Once inside Perch, you can hang out old school inside the dark paneled bar, or choose to sit outside right above the hustle of the city streets below.  Perching outdoors at Perch is awesome, but it's also pretty great to sip dirty martinis inside, right here:

This photograph is less than optimal for two reasons:  1.) I shot it on my iPhone.  2.) I was drinking those aforementioned martinis.

If you really want to indulge in what it might have been like to hang out downtown back in the day, check out the amazing stock footage I found on YouTube. Studios during Hollywood's golden age used to film hours of exterior shots to include in movies, especially to project behind actors for driving shots.  I will include more of these historical videos in upcoming posts, but for now, take a ride through downtown LA after dark... just like a private detective searching for an illusive (and possibly drunk-on-martinis) femme fatale.

Be sure to click full screen if you're watching on a computer.  If you're on a smart phone and the video player doesn't appear above, click here. I found this film at Alison Martino's Vintage Los Angeles YouTube channel. (She also added the great mood music.)   The film can be licensed through Getty Images.