For All You Body Double Fans Out There

Here's a shot of the famous Chemosphere, as featured in that trashy-but-awesome Brian De Palma classic. If you squint, you can see Craig Wasson, staring back down at you with a telescope.

El Lay: Remember the Paramount

"The Paramount recently underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation, with Disney picking up the check. Today, rechristened the El Capitan (its original name), it is very clean and stylish, with a presentation that brings applause even before the movie starts... The hitch is that only Disney films play there now—a far cry from the days when it took three of us to eject a barbiturate abuser who decided to dance in front of the screen while wearing a motorcycle helmet."

—from David J. Schow's essay, "Boulevard of Broken Screams." (This essay first appeared in the September 1993 issue of Fangoria, but was also reprinted in Schow's highly, highly recommended essay collection, Wild Hairs. Don't give me that look. Go track down a copy now.)

(Photo by The Bride.)

El Lay: The Big Gauche Baby

"For me, L.A. is like a big, gauche baby with a shotgun in its mouth. It'll do anything. And with more style, with more fire, with more Errol Flynn go-to-hell vivacity than any other city I've experienced."

—from Harlan Ellison's essay "Face-Down in Gloria Swanson's Swimming Pool," reprinted in The Essential Ellsion.

(Photo by The Bride, snapped on Hollywood Boulevard.)

El Lay: Sort of a Mirage

"I think of the city as a sort of mirage. If you look at pictures of the city a hundred years ago it’s just a bunch of weeds and desert dust. It's not really supposed to be here. I was always fascinated by the city it was meant to be. I guess it was a place created by developers. It’s not really like a city where some people roam around and then they find a good piece of land, and then they test it out for a while and make sure there is water so they don’t die, and then they decide to make a city."

—Beck on L.A., in conversation with Tom Waits.

(Photo by The Bride. Click on the image for a larger, tilt-shifty view.)