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August 2010

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Tuesday, August 31, 2010 – The Walking Man

Walking Man mural by Nicholas Gagliarducci, 2009, Sunset Boulevard at North Vendome Street, Silverlake, Los Angeles

The Walking Man, Marc Abrams, was a longtime fixture of Silverlake, known for his daily and sometimes day-long silent marches through its hilly streets. Pedestrians are rare out here, and he became a celebrity of sorts – no shirt, fluorescent shorts, running shoes, always reading a newspaper or something. He was an oddball and a provided a bit of the surrealism that makes this part of Los Angeles what it is. He'd just pass by, and maybe nod. This went on for decades. Everybody knew him, and no one knew him. It was a mystery, or perhaps it was performance art, or maybe you only imagined him – maybe you were losing it and LA really was the place where the boundary between the surreal and the real finally dissolves. He was a witness to something, but you were never quite sure what.

And this summer he passed away – they found him dead in his backyard hot tub. He was a doctor and there seems to have been a drug scandal and perhaps it was a suicide – or perhaps not. But he was gone, and everyone missed him. Even the New York Times covered his death and the memorial events – and the Walking Man mural by Nicholas Gagliarducci, from 2009, on Sunset Boulevard at North Vendome Street.

It seems we need the inexplicable, and we miss it when it's gone. 

Walking Man mural by Nicholas Gagliarducci, 2009, Sunset Boulevard at North Vendome Street, Silverlake, Los Angeles
Walking Man mural by Nicholas Gagliarducci, 2009, Sunset Boulevard at North Vendome Street, Silverlake, Los Angeles
Walking Man mural by Nicholas Gagliarducci, 2009, Sunset Boulevard at North Vendome Street, Silverlake, Los Angeles
Walking Man mural by Nicholas Gagliarducci, 2009, Sunset Boulevard at North Vendome Street, Silverlake, Los Angeles
Walking Man mural by Nicholas Gagliarducci, 2009, Sunset Boulevard at North Vendome Street, Silverlake, Los Angeles
Walking Man mural by Nicholas Gagliarducci, 2009, Sunset Boulevard at North Vendome Street, Silverlake, Los Angeles
Walking Man mural by Nicholas Gagliarducci, 2009, Sunset Boulevard at North Vendome Street, Silverlake, Los Angeles

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 to 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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All text and photos unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik

[August 2010] [Cat-Dog-Bird] [Family Life] [The Face of LA] [Street Signs] [Hollywood Enticement] [Two Theaters] [Partial Faces] [A Wailing Wall] [Brain Food] [The Survivor] [Hopper Be Gone] [Just Not Real] [Rubber Vultures] [The Unexpected] [By the Pond] [Sunset Sirens] [A Street Gallery] [Catching Hollywood] [The Posters] [Colony Vixen] [Our Tours Rock] [Illegal Dumping] [American Icons] [Nightmare Icons] [Faces Up] [Hollywood Trash] [Shadow Lilies] [Hot Fuzz] [Hollywood Ruins] [In the Details] [Melrose Angels] [The Graffiti Trap] [August Gulls] [Vortex Beach] [Random Heat] [Malibu Abstracts] [Giant Guitars] [Serious Guitars] [Busy Work] [In the Dark] [Summer Roses] [Looking Odd] [Reading the Walls] [Pier Surfing] [Hermosa Interpreted] [On Pier Avenue] [Selling Heat] [Some Stars] [Cross-Cultural] [Street Passion] [Regarding Oppression] [In the Beach Fog] [Beach Beasts] [Sun Shots] [Shape Shots] [Get the Concept] [The Red Hotel] [Long Ago] [The Walking Man] [Local Hostility]

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