Cross-post, I suppose.

[elderberrywine]

I would normally post this in my reading journal, ebwreads, but since I've only just learned how to post pics, and this is a paid account and the other is not, it's going here.

Lady in the Lake, Raymond Chandler. Random House, 1943. Library book.

This was just too good to be true, but as Chandler so astutely points out in this book, sometimes, there really are coincidences. I randomly checked this book out of the library to read, and I randomly happened to start it today, and my husband randomly chose to have us truck up Wilshire Blvd in LA today. But there are some historical markers on the street, and we paused at one that referred to the adjacent Bryson Apartments as featured in Chandler's Lady in the Lake. Duuuude! How did you know that I am reading it RIGHT NOW?

So in tribute, here is a short except (and if you've never read Chandler, do. Detective novels don't get any better than this). The narrator is private eye Phillip Marlowe, and Degarmo is a policeman. They're calling on his employer's secretary, who lives at Bryson Apartments, in the middle of the night.

Degarmo lunged past the desk toward an open elevator beside which a tired old man sat on a stool waiting for a customer. The clerk snapped at Degarmo's back like a terrier.

"One moment please. Whom did you wish to see?"

Degarmo spun on his heel and looked at me wonderingly. "Did he say 'whom'?"

"Yeah, but don't hit him," I said. "There is such a word."

Degarmo licked his lips. "I knew there was," he said. "I often wondered where they kept it."

And here is the Bryson Apartments.




And




Cool beans.

Comments

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seen the movie Cast a Deadly Spell?

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

No, is it a Chandler?

[serai1.livejournal.com]

It's a Chandler/Lovecraft crossover film, made for HBO in 1993.

It's 1948 in Los Angeles, and everybody uses magic. Everybody, that is, except for private investigator H. Philip "Phil" Lovecraft (Fred Ward), who avoids the stuff for personal reasons. But when a rich recluse (David Warner) offers him good money to track down a stolen book known as the Necronomicon, Phil finds himself entangled in just the kind of thing he's been avoiding all these years. The quest for the book leads him back to his former partner (Clancy Brown), his former fiancee (Julianne Moore), and deep into the mystery surrounding the book, and the prophesied return of the Old Ones. Can Lovecraft complete the job without running afoul of evil powers or succumbing to the temptation to use magic, just once? Only his spell-casting landlady knows for sure.

The cast is great, the writing is AMAZING, and the story is just the biggest hoot, filled with crisp, witty one-liners. ("Good ol' Phil, subtle as a flagpole.") You'd love it.

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

That does sound like fun.

And Chandler/Lovecraft is truly a mind-blowing concept.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have thought it was possible, but they pulled it off with style.

It was only released briefly on VHS, but I had it transferred to DVD and then converted it. I have it up at a download site, and can send you the links if you'd like to see it. :)

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

You can use Scrapbook to post at the other account (or anywhere else) if you ever need to.

I've always wanted to live in a place that looks like that.

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

But can I use the handy little "Enter image here" on the non-paid accounts?

I think I need to figure out some more code. *plaintive sigh*

What, it doesn't remind you of your old digs? ;D You just know the plumbing would be dodgy, though.

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

When you click 'insert image' the first option is 'image from URL' so just paste the URL for the Scrapbook image.

I've lived abroad. Plumbing scares me not.

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks!

I've lived abroad. Plumbing scares me not.

Heh. An excellent point.

[cookiefleck.livejournal.com]

Great coincidence! There are so many wonderful old apartment buildings in LA. I read a book from the library once on historic courtyard apartment buildings in LA... fascinating. I also have a brochure for a self-guided walking tour for WeHo historic apartment complexes; I will definitely do it one of these days.

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

There are so many great ones, aren't there? Walking tours are the best, aren't they? Have you ever done the one of the historic old theatres downtown? That one is really cool; they take you inside all the great old palaces they're trying to restore.

[cookiefleck.livejournal.com]

I have been meaning to take some LA Conservancy tours of downtown but haven't gotten around to it yet! I have attended several events at the Orpheum... what a spectacular venue. Last night a friend was telling me he had a backstage tour yesterday of the Pantages, another gorgeous theatre. ETA - I have this book, you might enjoy it... maybe available at your library? Oops wrong link, here it is again: http://www.amazon.com/Theatres-Los-Angeles-Images-America/dp/0738555797/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

[serai1.livejournal.com]

I went downtown recently and was heartbroken to find that they'd removed the old pillars at the entrance to the Bradbury Building! WAAHHH!!!

[xylohypha.livejournal.com]

I look at those photos once, and they look like classic Hollywood/L.A. I look at them again, and I see Legos.

Nifty for you to experience such a bit of synchronicity.

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

:D Legos? Wut? Well, they are very blocklike, true. Almost as much as the Hollyhock House by Frank Lloyd Wright - apparently an attempt at a Mayan temple look, but quite awesome inside -

http://www.you-are-here.com/building/hollyhock.htm

I was truly stoked.

[addie71.livejournal.com]

Cool coincidence, and love those apartments. Now I have to add Chandler to my reading list.

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

Now I have to add Chandler to my reading list.

Oh, you should! Nobody does hardboiled gumshoe like Chandler. Great dialogue.

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

I love it when things like that happen. The apartment building is so beautiful. It looks like it belongs in the 1940s.

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

Well, it does because it does! :D It is more or less across the street from the original Bullocks Wilshire, a glorious Art Deco palace and one of the most gorgeous and extravagant department stores ever.

http://www.preservation.lacity.org/node/364?size=_original

I adored that place.