My Los Ángeles - Page 34

sopas ej · #**661** Posted **Jul 21, 2026, 4:11 AM**

Some very random pics... haven't been really taking a lot of pics in the past month. Been very busy. What few I did take, very mundane. But then most of my pics are mundane anyway.

Loafers, white socks, and shorts... is he from Paris?

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The things you learn from reading the back of a bus.

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Went and saw "The Odyssey" on Saturday. We got there a little early, so we went to the bar and each got a drink.

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I got a rum punch.

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Is it just me, or can Matt Damon do a biopic of Kenny Rogers?

"I know it's late... I know you're weary..."

Photo: Universal Pictures

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I had sand dabs for dinner this evening.

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You know you're in SoCal if the restaurant you're at has Tapatío on the table.

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One of the local donut shops in my town has tres leches muffins. I have yet to try them.

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sopas ej · #**662** Posted **Aug 9, 2026, 4:47 PM**

Had my car serviced yesterday (oil change and tire rotation).

So after dropping it off at the garage, I walked some blocks and got a cold-brew coffee.

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And before I knew it, I got a call from the mechanic telling me my car was ready. I wasn't even halfway done with my coffee. Usually they take at least 90 minutes, but my car was ready in about an hour. Must not have been a busy morning at the garage!

sopas ej · #**663** Posted **Aug 17, 2026, 1:30 AM**

Random redundant photo dump of my Sunday, today, 8.16.2026.

My partner and I went to brunch, around 10 am-ish.

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Artwork for sale at the restaurant.

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I had a breakfast burrito.

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View from the coffeeshop.

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Went to the bookstore afterwards.

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The bookstore made us want to go to the Los Angeles Central Library downtown. So we went.

Who says they're not filming in LA anymore? They still are.

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The Los Angeles Central Library turned 100 years old last month.

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They currently have the world's largest pop-up book in the rotunda.

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In one of the display galleries, they have an exhibit of the first 100 years of the current library building. Very interesting. Plus, I've always had a thing for the 1920s.

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Then...

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...and Now.

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Departing trains, Los Angeles, 1924. Pre-Union Station, of course, which didn't open until 1939.

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Then...

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...and Now.

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The PoMo 1990s addition.

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I stepped outside for a bit.

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The group on the right was taking an architectural tour. There were actually quite a number of architectural tours of the library going on today, I assume because the building turned 100. It's nice that many people are interested in the architecture and history of the building.

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Another architectural tour group.

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ChrisLA · #**664** Posted **Aug 17, 2026, 5:35 AM**

Nice, and to think they tried to demolish this beautiful building and even try to destroy it by fire (arson). I used to take the bus to downtown LA as a teenager, especially during the summer months to escape the depressing conditions of the poor neighborhood of Watts that I mostly grew up in. I spent many hours looking at travel/pictorial books and daydream of the day I could afford to travel and see the world (mostly NYC, Chicago, Philly, Bostone, etc). I would check out the books that were allowed for the public to take home, and the rest I would just spend hours at the central library looking over the ones you couldn't take home. I haven't been here in a while, but the thought to visit every now and then still pops up in my head to go visit one day soon.

It's such a great place to visit, and what a gem it is.

Wigs · #**665** Posted **Aug 17, 2026, 5:42 PM**

DTLA doesn't get enough love. While certainly not NY nor Chicago, it has a cool vibe and interesting architecture and topography.

It will always have a special place in my heart as it's one of the last places I toured with my Dad on vacation a few years before he passed away. We took the light rail err Metro from Monrovia where my brother was living at the time. At Union station transferred to the subway which we took to Pershing Square. My first glimpse surfacing to street level was way more folks walking around DTLA than expected. This was 2019. I recall many construction cranes and signs of redevelopment.
We were fortunate enough to see the views from the observation decks at both City Hall and the US Bank/Library tower Skyspace when the 70th story outdoor slide was there! We walked through the library, lobby of the Biltmore hotel, Grand Central market, wanted to ride Angel's Flight but it was out of service. Saw lots of cool things including The Last Bookstore and even had a late lunch at Olvera Street, some place that had been open since the 1930s.

Thanks for sharing all of the photos.

ethereal_reality · #**666** Posted **Aug 17, 2026, 9:25 PM**

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Fantastic photographs of the library, sopas-ej.

.

sopas ej · #**667** Posted **Aug 23, 2026, 7:11 AM**

Thanks for the comments!

@ethereal: Thank you! I thought of posting those thens and nows in the noirish LA thread, but then I thought 'nah, they're not TOO interesting...'

@ChrisLA: I wish I was able to see the Central Library pre-arson fires, so I could have compared it to how it looked then vs. now. I love the Central Library, and as a library it is definitely not "obsolete."

@Wigs: Reading what you said actually made me tear up a little; it's nice that you got to enjoy that time with your dad on vacation before he passed away. Myself, my parents are in their 80s, and I've been spending more time with them in recent years, just to spend more time with them. My partner had a health scare earlier this week too, so... it's been an emotional week for me.

sopas ej · #**668** Posted **Sep 10, 2026, 3:48 AM**

Random photos... concentrating on my immediate neighborhood in South Pasadena.

An early morning walk through Garfield Park, taken before 7am on Thursday, 8.27.2026.

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Walking back to our apartment, we saw this huge leaf near the sidewalk. That's my foot.

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More random photos taken this month in South Pasadena and Pasadena.

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Dinner in Pasadena.

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YUM. Crispy chicken topped with avocado, with roasted carrots and pickled cucumber salad.

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A late afternoon/early evening walk through our neighborhood in South Pas...

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Decades ago, when my partner and I were looking for an apartment to move into to start living together, we looked at this complex...

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...and we looked at this one. We didn't move into either of them.

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Garfield Park again. It's a very well-used park.

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See the duplex on the right? We looked at that one too, when we were first looking for an apartment. We didn't move into that one either.

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This little slope used to have plants/greenery on it.

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Taken last Sunday... some time at the Norton Simon Museum, and then dinner.

We love all things Sri Lankan.

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Other pieces...

Their faces are all worn away because of worshippers touching and rubbing their faces.

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She looks Cambodian to me...

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Oh, because she is.

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"Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now..."

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Going to get coffee on a rainy Sunday afternoon during a long weekend.

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Nasty tree.

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Dinnertime, at one of our haunts.

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Labor Day 2026 spent in the South Bay.

Going to brunch and hanging out a bit in Hermosa Beach.

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Three different transit agencies stop at this bus stop right outside the restaurant. How convenient.

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I had an omelette topped with avocado, with fruit on the side. Mmm, mmm...

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Coffee in Redondo Beach.

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At the OG Boy and the Bear location; the day before, we were at the Pasadena location.

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My iced coffee.

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My partner's iced green tea. It almost looks like a cocktail.

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Dinner in Redondo Beach.

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Grilled branzino.

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Meatballs.

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What a nice, relaxing weekend. And —, just like that, the long weekend was over.

ColDayMan · #**669** Posted **Sep 11, 2026, 2:13 AM**

Great stuff, as always.

sopas ej · #**670** Posted **Sep 30, 2026, 8:01 PM**

Thanks!

________________________________________________________________

Now for a few random photos, just 'cuz.

Bitchin'!

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Dinnertime...

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Wanna wash my hands...

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Shish tawook. Mmm...

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Oh mah gah I paid $6.69/gallon last night for gas!

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I was gonna post more photos but flickr was giving me grief. I'll post them another time.

flatworm · #**671** Posted **Oct 3, 2026, 9:57 PM**

Lovely photos of real LA - thank you !

Cheers , Steve

sopas ej · #**672** Posted **Oct 4, 2026, 4:46 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by flatworm

Lovely photos of real LA - thank you !

Cheers , Steve

Thank you! I like your photo thread too!

sopas ej · #**673** Posted **Oct 4, 2026, 5:25 PM**

More random photos...

A few Sundays ago, my partner and I went to a botanical gardens. I of course took a bunch of pictures.

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Mmm, yummy cactus fruit.

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Yum.

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sopas ej · #**674** Posted **Oct 6, 2026, 8:17 PM**

I wasn't feeling well this morning so I skipped work today... but I'm not feeling so unwell that I can't post random photos.

I saw this really cool-looking 1961 Cadillac the other night.

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This diner is supposed to be closing and will be demolished some time later this year... coincidentally, we've been eating at it more.

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For many years, I've been enamored of the Caltech campus. I think it's a nice campus, very walkable---flat, and not too large. Plus, sometimes it surprises me that it's such a prestigious university, because it's a very low-key place. I recently walked around the campus and took pictures; what originally was only meant to be a quick trip to take a picture of its newest building, ended up being an excursion of walking around and snapping photos. Being that Caltech has been at its present campus since 1910, it has a nice collection of buildings from various eras and different styles. I took pictures on two different Saturday mornings, the Saturday before their 1st quarter started (9.26.26), and the Saturday after (10.3.26). Those Saturday mornings were quiet on campus; during the week, though, the campus is more hopping with students and faculty walking around, of course.

Caltech's newest building, completed and dedicated some months ago, the Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Center for Quantum Precision Measurement.

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At 10 levels (9 stories above ground and one basement level), Caltech Hall is the tallest building on the campus, and IMO, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Dedicated in 1967, it was originally called the Robert A. Millikan Memorial Library. Millikan was a former president of Caltech, serving from 1921 to 1945. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1923 "for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect." And, he was a huge racist, xenophobe, and misogynist. He was also an advocate of eugenics. So in 2021, Caltech voted to strip his name from buildings on campus, and the Millikan Library was renamed Caltech Hall.

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That white circular building is the Beckman Auditorium which seats 1,136 people. Completed in 1964, it regularly hosts concerts, lectures, dance, and theater performances. The animated film "Forgotten Island" had a special screening at the Beckman before it opened in movie theaters, being that one of the characters ends up being a Caltech student (and the Beckman is even shown in the movie).

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The Parson-Gates Hall of Administration. Built in 1917, it is the oldest building left on the Caltech Campus.

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I assume this was built in the 1970s.

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Some dorms in the distance there, built in the late 2010s.

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An old house that is now a campus building, The Keck Center. The house wasn't moved to the campus, the house has stayed in the same spot since it was built. As the Caltech campus expanded beyond its original boundaries, it started buying properties that were originally residences; what was originally a residential neighborhood just north of campus was demolished as the campus expanded and newer college buildings were built on that land, but this house was never demolished.

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Post-war dorms.

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Orange trees.

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I believe this is one of the oldest dorms left on campus, built in the early 1930s. I know that at Caltech, there are some dorms where faculty also live in them, so that students and faculty can interact with each other.

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At the end of the walkway is the Athenaeum, which is a faculty club. A friend of mine had a company holiday dinner there. They also have suites upstairs. Albert Einstein spend three consecutive winters in Pasadena from 1931-1933; the last 2 times, he stayed at the Athenaeum. He apparently loved Pasadena. Here's a quote from his travel diary: "Here in Pasadena, it is like Paradise. Always sunshine and clear air, gardens with palms and pepper trees and friendly people who smile at one and ask for autographs." - Albert Einstein

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I believe those are the suites upstairs.

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I didn't wanna get too close, it looked like they were setting up for some kind of event.

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A totally Post-war section of campus.

g]
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Postmodern architecture. The Beckman Institute was dedicated in 1989, opened in 1990. They're doing some construction in the courtyard, hence that temporary fencing at the arches.

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I think many years ago, this looked like a street intersection (this is adjacent to the Keck Center).

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This is walking west just outside the Caltech campus; a few more blocks and you'll be at Pasadena's South Lake Avenue Business District.

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Caltech bought this bungalow court and it is now used as faculty housing.

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These houses are part of the Caltech campus.

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I believe this was the original western gateway into the campus.

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And from here you can see how the tall Caltech Hall ruins the view into the campus from this gateway. I believe those trees in front of Caltech Hall were planted much later.

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Totally Mission Style.

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Yes, Caltech has an athletic section of campus. But nobody was playing tennis at the time I took this picture (it was too hot).

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As I was leaving the campus, I saw this Google Street View vehicle.

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My partner and I usually don't get coffee/tea at big chains, but we decided to go to Philz on South Lake.

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Caltech students? Maybe.

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plinko · #**675** Posted **Oct 7, 2026, 10:55 PM**

Nice! Have you ever been able to attend one of their annual open houses? They do such amazing things there. I took my daughter in 2019 when she was 8 (I think they haven't done one since until this year) and for her to get to meet and talk to female rocket scientists was invaluable to her.

Beautiful place.

sopas ej · #**676** Posted **Oct 8, 2026, 7:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by plinko

Nice! Have you ever been able to attend one of their annual open houses? They do such amazing things there. I took my daughter in 2019 when she was 8 (I think they haven't done one since until this year) and for her to get to meet and talk to female rocket scientists was invaluable to her.

Beautiful place.

Thanks for the comment! Caltech is indeed a beautiful place. And it's cool that your daughter got to talk to female rocket scientists, I'm sure it made a very good impression on her.

I have not attended any of their open houses; sounds like something I should do some time. Thanks for the suggestion. I've only ever taken a tour of JPL, decades ago when I was a senior in high school.