Spectacular Dawn Over Los Angeles

This was a set of pictures which I took very early in the morning during my first week in Los Angeles. My hotel room window more or less gave out a view facing east, towards downtown LA and some of those famous Hollywood Hills which Bob Seeger sang about. Some mornings were not nearly as spectacular, and there was one morning (April 30th - more on that one later), when I could barely make out either the hills or the skyline of Los Angeles.

Yet these pictures below, however, seem to have come out fairly well. They show what really was a spectacular sunrise over Los Angeles:

Spotting Evander Holyfield

Not sure that I came to the greater Lost Angeles area with any serious expectations of catching sight of celebrities. That's just really not my thing. I did not really want to do a tour of celebrity houses, which I understand is one of the things that people visiting this part of southern California often like to do. 

That said, I have viewed some rich and powerful people. At the event I am working at (and which brought me to southern California in the first place), I spotted Anthony Ledru, the CEO of Tiffany and Company. Not really all that surprising, since this is a Tiffany event, of course.

However, one surprise came on Friday, when all of the rooms were suddenly there was a noticeable hush and an obvious decrease in activity. Each room was cleared of all unnecessary traffic Even employees setting up and/or cleaning up the jewelry were told to hold off. Then, three or four employees (sales reps) accompanied Jay-Z, who was apparently going to arrange to purchase some of the jewelry. Supposedly, according to one of the other guys, he was on the phone with his also very famous wife, Beyoncé, at some point, although certainly not while he was in the room where I was in.

That was a surprise, but not a major one. After all, he and his wife, Beyoncé, are apparently regular customers of Tiffany. They were among the names whom people said to expect.

However, there was one celebrity who I just happened to see, and actually be right by. This was former undisputed heavyweight champion, and boxing legend, Evander Holyfield. It's funny, because one of the other memorable celebrity sightings for me was Mike Tyson, way back in June of 1990, when I went to New York City to see Nelson Mandela just months after he was released. 

Certainly was not expecting to see Tyson then, much like I was not expecting to see Holyfield now. Yet, there they were, just feet away from me both times. 

It happened fast this time. With Tyson, he and Don King - he was the one I recognized from a distance - were walking down a street by themselves, and could be seen from a distance. People began to point and say that was Mike Tyson, who had only months before lost his heavyweight title to Buster Douglas. 

This time around, we were walking along Santa Monica Pier, when one of the three other guys I was visiting with said, "That's Evander Holyfield!"

So I looked and saw a small crowd of people standing around someone, who had his back to me. He turned around, then started walking in the opposite direction of me. I snapped a few pictures, since I already had the camera out, having just been taking some pictures of the ocean and the coast just to the side of the pier. 

There he was. Of course at first, I had not recognized him. But he looked like Holyfield, and was wearing a t-shirt with his name on it. Also, it seemed like he had a small entourage. So I went ahead and snapped some quick pictures. It didn't seem like he minded the attention. After all, if you are trying to remain anonymous or under the radar, you're not about to wear a t-shirt with your own name on it, are you? 

Below are the pictures of my brief encounter, if you can even call it that, with Evander Holyfield. 

A Second Visit to Venice Beach

 

After visiting the Santa Monica Pier on Friday afternoon, the four of us went walking along the walkway, with beautiful views of the beach and the Pacific Ocean beyond.

It was a two mile walk to the pier at Venice Beach, which I had visited just a few days earlier. This time, however, we entered from the Santa Monica side, and I saw that Venice Beach was much, much bigger than just the part I had seen the previous day. Someone had told me that the famous part of Venice Beach was only two blocks farther in any direction from the pier, but in fact, there was a long part of it that was far more touristy. Like with the Santa Monica Pier, it had a carnival like atmosphere. A kitchy feel to it that seems typical of touristy American coastal towns. I did not see any wax museums or "Guiness Book of Records" styled museums, but they would not have felt out of place here. 

Not nearly as many pictures this time. I had taken plenty at Santa Monica, as well as at Venice Beach the first time around. Also, the smog was so serious by the time that we got to the pier, that the surrounding scenery looked more like an outline than anything else. I could not even see the mountains to the left, which had been visible just a few days earlier. 

Still, I did take some pictures. There was Muscle Beach, where I was told Arnold Schwarzenegger worked hard when first coming to the country, building up his physique. Also, there were some interesting murals on the sides of a couple of buildings, which seemed worth taking pictures of. So I thought they would be worth sharing here.

Enjoy!

Did the British Really Historically Troll Germany During World War II?

Not sure if this is fully accurate or not. It appears to be one of those stories which simply cannot be fully confirmed or denied.

Still, it felt worth sharing, with the caveat that this has not (as of yet) been proven to be true. If it is true, it might be one of the funniest stories to come out of World War II, which generally was nothing to laugh about. Still, there are certain stories of things that occurred during World War II which actually are fairly funny.

Here's one by General Norman Schwartzkopf that I remember him sharing on a CBS Special historical program call "Hitler & Stalin: A Legacy of Hate," which he co-hosted with Charles Kuralt, and which was originally first broadcast in 1993, I believe. It was about a Russian colonel, I believe, who put two and two together and realized that his unit would get less and less food and drink (particularly vodka) whenever he would report his losses of men. So he decided not to report them any longer, and so by default, his unit was able to get more food and vodka. At one point, this got noticed, and there was an investigation. They realized the gimmick, and it was ordered that he would be shot. But on the same day as they were to take him, he was instead given a medal for his extraordinary service and leadership for enjoying such a level of success at not losing men by the Soviet military high command. 

Apparently, that story shared by Schwartzkopf in that documentary was true. Whether or not this story about the fake German airfield consisting of wooden planes, vehicles, and the British responding with one single wooden bomb, I cannot say. It sounds like a great story, if it is indeed true. When you think of the risks involved in potentially losing men and aircraft for what amounted to a practical joke, it would seem unlikely, to be fair. But I guess you never know.

In any case, this seemed worth sharing, so here it is. I did add links to two articles, both of which explore the accuracy of this story. And below that is the original Facebook post, from which I first heard about this particular story. 

Did Allied pilots really drop fake wooden bombs on fake wooden decoy airfields? by Laura Skitt on 10th August 2021:

https://www.forces.net/heritage/history/did-allied-pilots-really-drop-fake-wooden-bombs-fake-wooden-decoy-airfields

Did the British Drop a Wooden Bomb on a Decoy German Airfield? During WWII the Germans built wooden airplanes and sometimes complete airfields to keep the Allies away from their real airfields. David Mikkelson Published Sept. 30, 2005:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wooden-bomb/

Джей Рустамов 15 April (2024) at 1745 ·  The best trolling of WW2:

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2230889593779277&set=gm.1126862418506296&idorvanity=354142799111599

A Visit to Santa Monica

One of the places which I heard should be visited during a visit to Los Angeles was Santa Monica Pier. I had read somewhere that Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier were the two beach places most worth a visit in this area.

As already mentioned, I got a surprise visit to Venice Beach on my first day here. The guy in charge of the event that I am working seems to take the guys out almost every night. He invited me, and I went, not sure what to expect. As some other guys voiced, I rather half expected some seedy bar, from the stories that I had been told of these kinds of nights out.

Instead, it turned out to be a pristine spot, and just at the right time. It was still daylight when we arrived at Venice Beach, but the sun was setting. That was one of the things which I was fairly determined to see while out in southern California, and it happened right on my first day, really almost by chance. Glad that I accepted the invite.

Anyway, I also wanted to see Santa Monica Pier. And on Friday, I got my chance.

In truth, I was not expecting this opportunity, either. Not really.

Yet when one of the guys I was working with told me that he planned to go to Santa Monica Pier after our work shift that day, I asked if I could join him. Later on, he invited a couple of other guys, who also worked the same shift (the early shift, which fortunately let out at about 3:30 or 4pm, giving us ample opportunity to get there during daylight.

So we took an Uber, and got a taste of the infamous local traffic jams and delays. Still, we had plenty of daylight left when we finally got there. 

We walked along the pier, soaking in the carnival-like atmosphere of the place. It looked and felt like an amusement park. Fun, I guess, but it also kind of detracted from the dramatic natural splendor of the place. I got some souvenirs, mostly a necklace for my girlfriend and a couple of magnets for my son. 

Of course, I took some pictures. I was particularly taken by the fact that this was where the fabled Route 66 of old ended. Obviously, I snapped some pictures of the surrounding area, which like Venice Beach, had the sandy beaches, the ocean, and the mountains, as well as palm trees. 

In the end, we just walked the pier and soaked in the atmosphere, then decided to walk the two miles to Venice Beach, which the other guys had not been to before. It was a pleasant walk along the Pacific coast, and I will add the pictures of my second visit to Venice Beach at a later time.

Below are the pictures from my visit to Santa Monica. 

Enjoy.

End of Route 66

Santa Monica Pier & Beach