CB1100 Monthly Photo Challenge

[Gone in 60]

The sun came out after work! Here's Johnie's Coffee Shop, which is located across the street from the Petersen. For years, it served as one of the best examples of Googie Architecture in the city. It closed for business in 2000, but being between the old Petersen Publishing office and the museum, I had countless lunches there. Due to it's fairly generic coffee shop interior, it has continued to serve as a filming location even after its closure, and more recently was Bernie Sanders' West Coast campain headquarters. It is historically protected, and with the current expansion of L.A.'s subway system, there has been extensive construction on the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, where an underground subway station will be located. I am curious to see how they will incorporate the restaurant in the design of the stations, as the back of the place is blocked off with huge construction fences.

Johnie's was featured in movies such as Reservoir Dogs and Big Lebowski, but one of my favorite recent videos is this dance scene with Sam Rockwell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH5L4qTVsTk


The aforementioned La Brea Tar Pits is a few blocks East on Wilshire. In Volcano, the tar pits are revealed to be a dormant volcano, which erupts, sending the city into chaos.


MacArthur Park is further East along Wilshire, toward Downtown L.A. It has featured in many films and TV shows, but going back to Volcano, this is where the scientist played by Anne Heche discovered that temperature in the park's lake was rising, leading to the discovery of the volcano. Sadly, these days, the park is mostly occupied by homeless people and weirdos. I initially stopped and got off of my bike to take a better photo, but a couple of guys walked up to me assuming that I wanted to buy drugs, so I didn't get the best photo of the park...