Friday, June 27, 2008 – Unimaginable

Hollywood on a Friday afternoon in late June – and yes, this seems to be a car in a bubble bath, something to do with State Farm wanting you to buy car insurance from them. As for the connection, use your imagination.

This was the day the Los Angeles Times reported this –

The 240 Chinese tourists who landed in Los Angeles this week also made history as the first leisure tour group allowed to visit the United States since a new US-China agreement allowing such travel was signed in December.  The new pact is projected to bring in at least 66,000 new Chinese tourists spending $62 million in Los Angeles in the next year. That would represent a 50% jump from the previous year and cement the Asian nation's status as the fastest-growing tourist market for Los Angeles and the world.

The rest is anecdotes from one of the tour groups. One woman said she was surprised to see people "barely dressed" in public, and that the city smaller was smaller and less modern than she had imagined. Others complained about too much cheese, cold milk and indoor smoking bans. The key quote – "Once I got here it really opened my eyes. That we're able to see this today warms our hearts. There are some things that we just can't imagine in China."

In China perhaps one does not see two Batman impersonators checking out the young babes, while a guy in a garbage truck looks on –

In front of Grauman's Chinese Theater someone is not impressed –

But Disney has an impressive new robot –

And there is music in the streets –

Above it all, illumination –

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:

Photographs after March 3, 2008, were taken with a Nikon D200 – or a Nikon D70 when noted. All previous photographs were taken with the D70. The lenses used are (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300 mm telephoto, or (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. Photography here is modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.  The earliest photography in the archives was done with a Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) with built-in digital zoom.

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