I finally made it to Hollywood to take the Walk of Fame. Basically the front of Grauman's Chinese Theater was the most interesting part of Hollywood. In the plaza out front, we ran into Homer Simpson, Goofy, Zorro (who had love at first sight with Mack's mom), Elmo, the pinhead guy from Hellbound Hellraiser, Shrek's girl, Batman and a weird white rabbit who frequently pulled his head off to smoke cigarettes. I assume these people were dressed up to be street performers, but it wasn't as obvious that they were doing this for money as it was when we were in Spain this summer. Yeah, there they walk up to your dinner table and put their money hat in your face, even if you didn't watch them lay on the bed of
nails. So, while LA calls Hollywood trashy, I thought it a very fun place to people/thing watch. The stars were pretty cool to look at, although I have no idea who some of the people were, but the hand and footprints in front of Man's Theater were more interesting. We searched high and low for a kid that Laila could measure her hand against, and finally I found just the right girl... Ms. Shirley Temple, who I lovingly, and realistically, impersonated for Halloween. We didn't see a movie at Man's, but we did head into El Capitan, or The
El Capitan as the tickets say, to see the Chronic-what-cles of Narnia (that is a Saturday Night Live reference to
this hilarious, and I mean hilarious, rap that Mack made me privy to). It was so awesome. After we were able to leave the general admission corral, we made our way into an iceland auditorium complete with set props and massive snowy lion heads hanging from the ceiling. Then a real live man came out and introduced the film... the lights went down, came back up blue and that soap snow that California probably patented came fluttering down upon the audience. It was pretty cinematic, and the movie hadn't even started. There were even more props from the set on display by the bathrooms. We got a real insider's look at a movie, way more of an experience than the poster previews I'm used to.
Oh, one other fascinating thing was the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ that was being played as we waited for the feature film to start. A guy who ought to be extinct played bass notes with an outstretched leg, and created songs from some million keys at his fingertips. I've heard rumors about this organ. The Kentucky Theater, which is and will always be my favorite theater (they sell beer there and Fred, the manager, is just about the sweetest man alive), allegedly has one from ancient history that is trying to be restored. What an incredible thing that would be! I just hope it happens before all the people who have any idea how to play these things die off. If you're just curious about the Kentucky and its organ, check
this out. The organs make basically every sound imagineable and they used to be played during silent movies to provide a soundtrack. It was pretty amazing to hear the organ and its abilities, but I gotta say, after about the 28th verse of It's a Small World, I was ready to relocate to Narnia already!
I finally made it to Hollywood to take the Walk of Fame. Basically the front of Grauman's Chinese Theater was the most interesting part of Hollywood. In the plaza out front, we ran into Homer Simpson, Goofy, Zorro (who had love at first sight with Mack's mom), Elmo, the pinhead guy from Hellbound Hellraiser, Shrek's girl, Batman and a weird white rabbit who frequently pulled his head off to smoke cigarettes. I assume these people were dressed up to be street performers, but it wasn't as obvious that they were doing this for money as it was when we were in Spain this summer. Yeah, there they walk up to your dinner table and put their money hat in your face, even if you didn't watch them lay on the bed of 
nails. So, while LA calls Hollywood trashy, I thought it a very fun place to people/thing watch. The stars were pretty cool to look at, although I have no idea who some of the people were, but the hand and footprints in front of Man's Theater were more interesting. We searched high and low for a kid that Laila could measure her hand against, and finally I found just the right girl... Ms. Shirley Temple, who I lovingly, and realistically, impersonated for Halloween. We didn't see a movie at Man's, but we did head into El Capitan, or The 
El Capitan as the tickets say, to see the Chronic-what-cles of Narnia (that is a Saturday Night Live reference to this hilarious, and I mean hilarious, rap that Mack made me privy to). It was so awesome. After we were able to leave the general admission corral, we made our way into an iceland auditorium complete with set props and massive snowy lion heads hanging from the ceiling. Then a real live man came out and introduced the film... the lights went down, came back up blue and that soap snow that California probably patented came fluttering down upon the audience. It was pretty cinematic, and the movie hadn't even started. There were even more props from the set on display by the bathrooms. We got a real insider's look at a movie, way more of an experience than the poster previews I'm used to. 
Oh, one other fascinating thing was the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ that was being played as we waited for the feature film to start. A guy who ought to be extinct played bass notes with an outstretched leg, and created songs from some million keys at his fingertips. I've heard rumors about this organ. The Kentucky Theater, which is and will always be my favorite theater (they sell beer there and Fred, the manager, is just about the sweetest man alive), allegedly has one from ancient history that is trying to be restored. What an incredible thing that would be! I just hope it happens before all the people who have any idea how to play these things die off. If you're just curious about the Kentucky and its organ, check this out. The organs make basically every sound imagineable and they used to be played during silent movies to provide a soundtrack. It was pretty amazing to hear the organ and its abilities, but I gotta say, after about the 28th verse of It's a Small World, I was ready to relocate to Narnia already!
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