commercial fantasies

An armored knight guards the wall of Shoe City from its rooftop perch.  A Mexican restaurant protects its entrance by constructing cement cactii at the edges of its parking lot.  A huge fiberglass exterminator, standing atop a sign next to the San Diego Freeway, is forever in pursuit of a tiny mouse. Ancient images adorn the walls of what used to be a tire factory, but now functions as a retail outlet mall. A Smiling Buddha is the centerpiece of a Little Saigon shopping center.  This is Hollywood.  The whole region is Hollywood.

The engagement of Los Angeles with commercial fantasy has been a tradition since the 1920s.  Now that tradition is in eclipse.  Fantasy is being ghettoized in places like Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, and Universal Studios.  Many of L.A.'s fantastic buildings have been demolished to make way for less adventurous structures.

There are a few brave souls, though, who build new commercial fantasies and who protect some of the old.  They are not ashamed of their region's simpler, kooky past.

The exterminator, 1
The exterminator, 2

 

Cement cactus garden, Mexican restaurant
Felix Chevrolet

The Lubery, Long Beach
Armed guard at Shoe City

Country Western billboard
Dinosaur at Burger King

WOW tower, on really big store
Dinosaur holding watch at Hollywood and Highland

 

Clothing of the American mind

Fine food restaurant
Donut shop

Plastic Smiling Buddha, at Vietnamese shopping mall