Feel Like a Kid Again at El Capitan Theatre

Just down the street in a very touristy section of Hollywood Boulevard is the Disney owned El Capitan Theatre. From the street this location exudes a vibe of the carnivalesque and at once you can remember being six again. Hands down, and whether you have children or not, this should be on your list of LA destination locations.

It took us a little while to get around to this magnificent landmark because it's not your normal movie house. In true Disney fashion, the El Capitan Theatre appeals to children and only features Disney movies. From Disney classics to their new releases El Capitan is all Disney, all the time. We decided Peter Pan would be our perfect excuse to go. Next month they'll be showing one of my absolute favorites Lady and the Tramp, and in March they'll have Oz the Great and Powerful.

Like a lot of the theaters I have written about for my blog, it can only be best explained in pictures. And I'll add the same disclaimer I always do - there's only so much my iPhone can capture and although the photos are nice it still does this place no justice.

Here's a beautiful look at the theater's entrance...

And here are pictures of the entrance's ceiling...

Inside the theater...

 THE PANORAMIC VIEW

SIDE VIEWS

 FROM THE VERY TOP FAR CORNER! IT'S WAY UP THERE!

THE CEILING ABOVE US

THE SHOW BEGINS - But before the show started someone dressed in a big Jake the Pirate costume (a character from Jake and the Neverland Pirates on the Disney Junior channel) came out and danced and sang. Confetti shot out over all the children sitting below. Their laughter was the cutest and was infectous. I couldn't stop laughing at them laughing! It was the sweetest :) After the performance the lights went out and they pulled the curtains up in the ultimate display of awesomeness.

AND THE SHOW BEGINS

Thanks for looking :)

A Drink or Two at the Frolic Room

Just beyond the corner of Hollywood and Vine is a sweet little dive bar called the Frolic Room. Ryan's been talking about this place since we arrived back in October. He's located and pointed it out every time we have driven past it. He always highlights that this is where the likes of Charles Bukowski could be found wetting his whistle back in the day.

The bar has been around since the 1930s, and in present times it certainly does a great job of holding onto its vintage appeal.

Upon first walking in, the bar is dark, quaint, and small. This is the kind of place that could get crowded quickly on a busy night, and I've heard it often does. I reckon some celebrities have closets the size of this bar.

We visited at two in the afternoon. Business looked steady, and old jazz music was playing on the jukebox.

There was a small crowd of people at the far end of the bar. We sat at the opposite end and there were a couple single people occupying seats in the middle. The bar ran the length of the long narrow room. Opposite the bar was a mural made up of Al Hirschfeld caricatures. A modern, flat-screen jukebox was mounted to the wall. A thin band of  rainbow lights (that invoked a feeling of disco and arcades) ran along the molding of the small room. There were signed photos of various celebrities taped to the mirrors behind the bar.

Sweet mural

"I could come here every day after school," Ryan professed, and I laughed because it was true. This was just the type of establishment where you could mellow out, have a drink, maybe pick up a conversation with a stranger, or even study. Even when one of the patrons got up and played a series of Metallica jams from the jukebox, the ambiance was still warm and somehow quiet.

Bukowski taking a swig

In the past, and I'm not sure if they still do it, but the Frolic Room would host Bukowski readings in honor of the beat poet. Bukowski, who is often referred to as the Poet Laureate of Skid Row, was just the type of character you could imagine sitting amongst the crowds here.

One very haunting claim to this bar - and I'm not sure if it's fact or urban legend, but some people had claimed to see Elizabeth Short (the Black Dahlia) at the Frolic Room before she was brutally murdered. Whether that's true I'm not certain, there are a lot of skeptics, but one thing seems to be agreed upon is that the Frolic Room was one of Miss Short's favorite hangouts.

Nowadays people also claim Miss Short's ghost haunts the Hollywood Boulevard area, giving out flowers to folks who address her by her first name.

Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia)

The Frolic Room was also featured in a scene in the movie LA Confidential where a very dapper Jack Vincennes (played by the equally dapper Kevin Spacey) stands like a statue just outside the entrance of the bar, looking into the dark, noir, LA night.

Scene from LA Confidential

The Frolic Room is indeed a fun little place. We were served drinks by a sweet, older woman named Brenda who dressed punk and had awesome eye makeup. She tended bar with what looked like great ease.

This would be just the place for day drinking, or maybe just one or two day drinks. I would highly recommend it as a stop on any LA pub crawl.

Our Apartment - Before and After

When we first arrived in Hollywood it was truly sunny, and very warm. We weren't sure where to start, but we were happy to be here. We spent our first night on an air mattress, and filled the bedroom area with the boxes and items we were able to cram in the Jeep and drive across country with. The next morning we took off to get a U-haul and fetch our things from the lot where our moving pod was located.

This is what the back of the pack Jeep looked like!!!

Ryan blowing up our sweet air mattress

Going to pick up the U-haul was an event in-and-of-itself. We drove into the U-haul parking lot and our vehicle was immediately surrounded by 15- 20 Latino men varying in age and size. Being from Maine I was a little worried about what was going on. Shit like this doesn't happen back home unless there's trouble afoot. Ryan reluctantly opened his window because he wasn't sure what was going on either. These crazy-awesome Latino men were clamoring in the open space of the window to give us business cards and insisting they would help us move for a good price. I looked out my window, away from all the attention Ryan's window was getting, and there were a few men on my side too, one of them frantically motioning with an index finger for me to roll down my window. But evenutally we got through the mass of men. They truly were all very sweet, and after the fact (cause moving is a PAIN) wished we had hired a few of them.

                           Picture 1 - on our way to the pod driving in the U-haul on the 101
                           Picture 2 - at the location where our pod awaited us

That night we immediately put the bed together and eventually we got other important things up and running, like the TV!

                            Picture 1 - Abbey nosey about how things get put together
                            Picture 2 - Ryan putting the bed together, Abbey foreman of the job

                            Picture 1 - Ryan's got the TV working

                            Picture 2 - Abbey napping amongst the mess of moving in

But before we get ahead of ourselves with all these pictures of us settling in, here's some video of our apartment on that first night when all there was was an air mattress and a room full of stuff from the Jeep.

It may be a little difficult to tell how our apartment is set up so I drew this sweet diagram :)

Well, it took a little while to unpack. And there was a slight furniture fiasco. We live in an old building so the doorways are very small and the original sofa we picked wouldn't fit, so we had to go back to Living Spaces and pick the chair that's really as long as the love seat, and now all is well :) We found a nice gardenia for the space in the hallway wall at the farmer's market that happens every Sunday in Hollywood - perhaps the space in the wall is an alcove, but not really, it's like an empty space for a shrine. I'm slowly killing the gardenia, so if anyone has suggestions about how to care for it other than giving it water and trying to put in the sun I'd greatly appreciate it :)

Here's the after video of our fabulous apartment. Please give Ryan all the credit for the awesome movie posters on the wall. It was his cool idea.

Perhaps my video taking abilities are not up to standard, and so here are some pictures of our home.

Picture 1 - Front door, with wreath on it. The wreath was a beautiful wedding present from one of                   Ryan's mother's friends. You can see the records on the left wall and the closet door, picture of the Virgin Mary, and a mirror on the other. The entrance to this weird pantry-like area is next and almost across from it is the entrance to the bathroom. Then the place in the wall where the gardenia lives and the entrance to the living room is across from it. I'm standing in the entrance to the bedroom.

Picture 2 - A picture of the hallway from the entrance of the front door.

Picture 1 & 2 - Show both sides of the hallway. 

Now onto pictures of the living room....

And pictures of the kitchen...

And pictures of that strange little pantry/closet with swinging doors that lead to the living room...

                            These two pictures show the hats above the door, and decorative

                            storage boxes on the floor in front of the door.

                                      The clock in the second picture is set to Eastern Time

On to the bathroom -

                                              View from the bathroom door entrance

                                        These are the walls on either side of the toilet. To
                                        be clear here, the toilet is in its own alcove, set back
                                        from the rest of the bathroom.

                                        Behind the bathroom door is the shower stall. It's
                                        quite cool and seems most bathrooms in LA have a
                                        shower stall separate from the bathtub. Check out
                                        old episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 you'll see
                                        examples of this there too.

                                         Across from the shower stall is the bathtub and sink

                                               One end of the bathtub, and the other

And lastly the bedroom...

                                                        Ryan's side of the bed

                                                           A close up of Ryan's side

                                  My side of the bed. For some reason it looks a lot more
                                  cluttered than it really is. I come with a lot of accessories!

                                        The foot of the bed where my Crosley record
                                        player lives, and Abbey's sweet crate.

Well this does it! Thanks for looking!