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Tuesday, November 18, 2008 – Christmas Coming
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The week before Thanksgiving and on sun-blasted Hollywood Boulevard, where it's in the nineties and the tourists are wilting, the Scientology folks are putting up their annual Christmas display, next to the Egyptian Theater, under the palm trees. There's obviously something surreal about the whole endeavor – but Santa will soon be sitting here, the sweaty kids will squirm in his lap, and there'll be live cover bands blasting out "safe" rock tunes. Exasperated parents will glace up at the Winter Wonderland scrim and worry about where they parked the car and the drive home on the jammed freeways. Christmas out here is always unsettling. You get used to it.
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And the city has already put up the same Christmas stars as before, the same thing for the last twenty or more years –
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But here are Hollywood's permanent Christmas ornaments – the roof of Holy Transfiguration Russian Orthodox Church. 5436 Fernwood Avenue, East Hollywood – and yes, these folks celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January, which corresponds to December 25 in the Julian calendar.
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And it should be mentioned that in Eastern Europe, Slavic countries have the tradition of Ded Moroz ("Grandfather Frost") – accompanied by his granddaughter Snegurochka ("Snowmaiden"). You see, he also travels in a magical decorated sleigh drawn by reindeer, and he delivers gifts to children. Christmas out here is a kick.
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If you wish to use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me. And should you choose to download any of these images and use them invoking the "fair use" provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, please provide credit, and, on the web, a link back this site.
Technical Note:
These photographs were taken with a Nikon D200 – the lenses used were AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or AF Nikkor 70-300 mm telephoto. The high-resolution photography here was modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0 software.
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