Fairfax, isn’t that is Los Angeles? Yes! This blog has been quiet for more than a year. I have been busy, but when I was not busy I was lazy and the result was no entry since November 2022. Fast forward to June 2023, we moved to Los Angeles. The big city is filling my camera and my mind with thoughts and visual adventures that may be worth telling.
You also have to start somewhere, and after a long time it gets awkward, so here we are, writing about Fairfax and Sunset. Everything is a project in LA. I thought it was a myth but I do plan my errands and trips according to the number of left turns. If it looks like more than three left turns, I will need a lot of motivation.
Many things in LA require planning – at least to me. Going to get pizza to go requires an action plan even if the pizza is just five minutes away. Three right turns and one protected left turn. I’m Italian so I want the pizza to be as hot as possible: this required making sure that the car is parked right in front of the pizza place. Check! I found a spot right by Prime Pizza.
I was about one hour early to order so I went for a stroll. Up Fairfax. I could make up reasons why I went that way but I just wanted a no-brainer, so to concentrate on what I would see.
The camera I had with me with the Fujifilm X-T4, paired with the Rokinon 12mm manual lens (18mm equivalent) and I thought Fairfax would give me enough inspiration to avoid the byways and still be satisfied.
By the time I got to Fairfax and Melrose the avenue was pretty empty. The sky didn’t promise a storm, more like… hinted at the possibility of later rain? Which happened.
The wide lens gave me a chance to get a good shot of the Westinghouse on 1022 Fairfax. I can’t and won’t ever resist dinosaurs.
Further north, on Fairfax and Norton, something made me cross the street. People looked, awkwardly bewildered, at the flag waving at the corner of the United States Post Office building. [Something happened, please enter your favorite explanation here] and the flag was hanging upside down. Someone went inside and notified the employees. Someone else eventually came out and folded the flag, as it was closing time. With all due respect to Old Glory, a flag hanging the wrong way ranks pretty low in Los Angeles’ list of problems, but as it was September 11 and happening at a Federal building, it was a little cringy. Even the delivery robot was surprised.
I decided I had seen enough and I walked down, till I got back to Prime Pizza, and sat a while looking at Samis’ Groceries on the other side. I know they are spelled differently but I can’t help wondering every time if they are somehow related to Samy’s Camera, or at least they know of and acknowledge each other. Yes these are silly thoughts but I was really hungry by then.
I drove the pizza (round pie, pepperoni) home and we ate the whole of it. No slices were kept prisoners in the Prison de le Fridge. My visual day was over, I thought, but little did I know that the greatest marvel was about to happen as I walked out to commit the exhaust pizza box to the dumpster: our little yard glowed a faint red, and the reason was a breathtaking sunset that the rainy afternoon had heralded in. Nothing happens for any reason, it’s all random, but randomly I had charged the batteries of the drone that very afternoon, so I ran upstairs and grabbed the drone and the remote and slapped a battery in and hurried outside.
It was a stunning sunset, everyone was out to admire it, like in a village, but some villagers commented on an additional wonder that I had missed earlier: a double rainbow (which indeed was extensively documented on social media). But the sunset itself was no small wonder, so I cannot complain – nor can you, dear reader.
I looked around a bit, turning the camera to the place we’ve called home since June, the famous Park La Brea
(La Brea sure has a nice sound, but in Spanish it means tar… so we live in the Tar Park).
Also, by now you probably guessed why the title was Fairfax and Sunset =)
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