Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
How to see L.A. – or even Pluto
Griffith Observatory is worth the trip.
View of L.A. from Griffith Observatory deck.
A couple hours north of San Diego is the Griffith Observatory, a must-see on a weekend getaway in La-la Land.
You might remember the landmark from the film Rebel Without a Cause. That was James Dean’s second film, between that same year (1955)’s East of Eden and his third and last film, Giant, released the following year. The observatory was the location of some lightning dialogue between Dean and Sal Mineo. No one knew then, of course, that both actors would die grisly deaths – Dean in a car crash, Mineo in a stabbing.
The first appearance of the observatory in a film was 22 years earlier, in The Phantom Empire. Rebel was just one of a couple dozen films and 31 TV shows to follow.
The building is located on the south slope of Mount Hollywood in L.A.’s Griffith Park. So it and the park are named after famous Hollywood director, David Wark Griffith, right? Wrong. The land was donated to the city in 1896 by mining magnate Griffith J. Griffith. The generous industrialist also provided in his will enough bucks to build an observatory on it. Alas, between his donation of the land and his death, he spent two years in jail for shooting his wife.
The views of the city from the observatory deck are reason enough for the drive up. But don’t overlook what’s inside: The Big Picture, a 20-foot-high, 152-foot-wide depiction of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies; videos and live shows about the universe; an exhibit on the evolution of telescopes; a camera obscura; a Tesla coil; a Foucault pendulum; scale models of the solar system; in all, enough to make your head explode.
Admission to the building and grounds is free; there is a charge, though, for the planetarium shows, but it’s not astronomical.
Here's something you might be interested in.
How to see L.A. – or even Pluto
Griffith Observatory is worth the trip.
How to see L.A. – or even Pluto
Griffith Observatory is worth the trip.
View of L.A. from Griffith Observatory deck.
A couple hours north of San Diego is the Griffith Observatory, a must-see on a weekend getaway in La-la Land.
You might remember the landmark from the film Rebel Without a Cause. That was James Dean’s second film, between that same year (1955)’s East of Eden and his third and last film, Giant, released the following year. The observatory was the location of some lightning dialogue between Dean and Sal Mineo. No one knew then, of course, that both actors would die grisly deaths – Dean in a car crash, Mineo in a stabbing.
The first appearance of the observatory in a film was 22 years earlier, in The Phantom Empire. Rebel was just one of a couple dozen films and 31 TV shows to follow.
The building is located on the south slope of Mount Hollywood in L.A.’s Griffith Park. So it and the park are named after famous Hollywood director, David Wark Griffith, right? Wrong. The land was donated to the city in 1896 by mining magnate Griffith J. Griffith. The generous industrialist also provided in his will enough bucks to build an observatory on it. Alas, between his donation of the land and his death, he spent two years in jail for shooting his wife.
The views of the city from the observatory deck are reason enough for the drive up. But don’t overlook what’s inside: The Big Picture, a 20-foot-high, 152-foot-wide depiction of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies; videos and live shows about the universe; an exhibit on the evolution of telescopes; a camera obscura; a Tesla coil; a Foucault pendulum; scale models of the solar system; in all, enough to make your head explode.
Admission to the building and grounds is free; there is a charge, though, for the planetarium shows, but it’s not astronomical.
Comments