A friend of mine invited me to do a walking tour of L.A. that included Lake Hollywood, Hollywood Memorial Park, followed by one of the top pizza places in the country. At first, I wasn't too excited to go to a cemetery but after I realized it was Memorial Day it made sense.
So our trek began first with meeting at local park in Beverly Hills and carpooling to our first destination. Neither one of us realized Hollywood had a Lake. Here's the description from Wikipedia:
Hollywood Reservoir (Lake Hollywood) is a
reservoir located in
Hollywood, California. It is a man-made reservoir built in 1924 and held by the
Mulholland Dam. It was designed by
William Mulholland. The lake currently holds 2.5 billion gallons of water and provides
Los Angeles with most of its water. The surrounding area is open to hikers and joggers, however, since the lake provides drinking water, swimming and boating is restricted. The reservoir is maintained by the Department of Water and Power. The reservoir and surrounding neighborhood are located just below the
Hollywood Sign.
What we didn't know was that after 9/11, public access was reduced to weekends and limited hours during the weekday so although the access road was locked, we walked along the perimeter for about an hour and it was quite pleasant. My friend was a little disappointed but it was a beautiful day and no harm, no foul. Getting there was very easy on the eyes - there were many lovely homes in the Hollywood Hills to admire and there were many opportunities to spot the Hollywood sign. If you are interested in learning more, check out the sites below or follow the links above.
www.hollywoodknolls.org/hollywood_reservoir.htmhttp://www.hollywoodsign.org/see_lakehollywood.html
On to the cemetery. As we drove in, it's architecture hearkened back to an earlier more glamorous and stately period. I started looking forward to our walk...but quickly, I felt myself drifting into wonderment about the past lives now interned there.
My friend had a card which gave directions to notable stars and celebrities. I did not see any flags on any gravestones and was surprised. However, there were some fake miniature Christmas trees scattered around - some recently removed and thrown in the trash and others ignoring the march of time.
Johnny Ramone was by far had the easiest memorial to find. Cecile B deMille's was classicly understated. But what I found most surprising, most shocking actually, was the amount of dog doo around in the real estate of the deceased stars. Dog poop was on flat memorial stones - not once, but at least half a dozen times. I can not fathom the number of insensitive, moronic clods who visited the sacred grounds and showed no respect. We tip-toed around a huge area to avoid mounds and mounds of poop. It put the kabosh on the experience. This would never happen where I grew up. What a shame. I can't say that I enjoyed the experience, but I can say that it made me think about how fleeing life is. "FVGET VITAE NOVAE" was on the Grecian style masoleum and I could only make out life flies new so I tried looking it up online from the University of Notre Dame.
novus -a -um [new , fresh, young; fresh, inexperienced; revived, refreshed; novel, unusual, extraordinary];
vita -ae f. [life].
fuga -ae f. [flight , running away]; esp. [flight from one's country, exile, banishment]. Transf., [swift course, speed; avoiding (with genit.)].
Thus life is short. Life is fleeting. Make the most of it while you can - were the messages I got out of today's little exploration. If you are interested in learning more about Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the links are below but be fore warned about the lack of care and ground maintenance. The Cemetery should institute a no dogs allowed policy.
http://www.seeing-stars.com/buried2/HollywoodMemorial4.shtml
http://hollywoodforever.com/Hollywood/
A good pizza always uplifts the spirit. On to a place called Tomato Pie. (www.tomatopiepizzajoint.com) We ordered the "Grandma" which was apparently voted the top 25 pizzas in the country by GQ magazine.
Yes, it was very good - infact, the crust was great. I however, like way more cheese. Inferno pizza in Upstate NY gets my vote for best pizza. Two slices and a shared salad later and it was time to walk again.
We walked for another 40 minutes around Roberston Blvd.
Life is short...it's good to be back home.
