Category: Entertainment

Now this is a Natonal Emergency

San Francisco’s cable cars will stop running for 10 days starting Friday for repairs. San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency will be refurbishing gear boxes, braking systems, and everything else to ensure that everything is “running safely and reliably.”  If you haven’t been to that city you should know that it is at least as exciting and interesting as Manhattan (NYC).  The cable cars are more fun than anything at Disneyland.  They connect downtown with Chinatown and Fisherman’s Wharf.

The cars will be back on service September 23.


Market and Powell in downtown

At Fisherman’s Wharf before the car is crowded

 

View of the bay while riding on a cable car

Donald Trump in the News

Donald Trump wants to be in the lead news stories every day.  Everything he does is all about self promotion.

I just can’t ignore the fact that Donald Trump is living in his own world.  He obviously sees himself as the most important part of everything.  He really believes  that most Americans adore him.  And if anyone says anything that contradicts that view it’s just “fake news.”

He insisted that the crowds at his inauguration were the largest in history even though the comparison with the crowds at the Obama inauguration were obviously far more significant.

Now his latest nonsense is his insistence that Hurricane Dorian was going to hit Alabama.  He apparently used a Sharpie marking pen to show the route of the storm crossing Florida and moving west.

Two things he accomplished. He put himself into the news and provided great opportunities for late night comedians on television.

I guess he has succeeded.

US Bank Building in Los Angeles

US US Bank Bldg from 5th and Figueroa Street
US Bank Bldg from 5th and Figueroa Street

Standing 72 stories on Bunker Hill, the building holds a prominent position in business and in popular culture. It has appeared in numerous movies and even been fictionally destroyed for dramatic effect in such films as “Independence Day,” which saw aliens blow up the tower as they began their invasion of Earth.

The building was the tallest west of the Mississippi River until another building the Wilshire Grand Center competed on June 23, 2017 opened with one more floor.

Still, going to the top of the US Bank Building is fun to do and besides the views there is a glass slide from the 70th floor to the 69th floor that is mounted to the outside.

The views from the those two floors are spectacular.

City at sundown (Photo taken by a friend)

Westin Bonaventure Hotel (numbers indicate the weight the roof will support in thousands of pounds)


Hollywood sign and Griffith Park Observatory in the distance

Snowcapped Mount Gorgonio and Mount Baldy.

 

A wave building on Oahu’s North Shore, Hawaii


This photo was on my computer when I restarted the processor.

The North Shore on Oahu is a great place for photographers to capture vivid images of the Pacific in motion, as the beach’s legendary monster waves rise up before breaking on the beach. This long-exposure photograph, shot early in the morning, shows off the power and motion of the water as it rises to form a curled wave. These waves make the North Shore one of Hawaii’s prime surfing destinations. When his ship, the HMS Discovery, was navigating the South Pacific in 1778, British explorer Captain James Cook noted the locals out in the waves riding on boards. Surfboards date back to at least 500 CE and possibly much further back in history.

The first topless Sports Illustrated cover

Enough with the politics!

This is way more fun!

This was the month that Sports Illustrated always published their swimsuit edition.  They aren’t doing it.  They say maybe in May.

Model Veronica Varekova autographs copies of the 2004 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. | Scott Eells/Getty Images

The problem: the lack of swimwear in a swimsuit-focused magazine

The Czech model has participated in eight SI Swimsuit issues, but her most controversial was 2004’s topless cover image. The shoot, which took place in Montauk, New York, features Veronica Varekova holding her swimsuit top rather than wearing it — and people freaked out. Many wondered if the Swimsuit issue even needed swimsuits anymore.

Hilariously Offensive Vintage Ads You Would Never, Ever See Today

And now for something to get us all off of talking about our delusional president.

With time comes change. As a society, we (usually) get smarter, wiser, more inclusive, more accepting, and more empathetic as the years progress. (There are, of course, obvious exceptions.) For a good portion of the last century, blatant racism, sexism, and prejudice were commonly used in advertisements — by large corporation.

Following are some advertisements that the Me Too groups of today would vocally condemn.

 

Sexual Temperance Spoon

 


Lasting Charm

 

Beauty Over Brains

 


 

This Is an Ad for Coffee…


Good News, Gals!

In the cartoon next to the text, two men have no interest in a thin girl, referring to her as a “beanpole.” Later, as she’s bawling, her mother advises her to try ironized yeast tablets, which helped her gain 10 pounds. The next thing you know, the “beanpole” — now with a hunky man — is the “queen of the beach!”


There are No Words