Beautiful smog

LOS ANGELES – Can you see that layer of smog? Blech. Then again, it makes for beautiful sunsets.

This guy doesn't like TVs

PASADENA, Calif. – Protesters gathered outside Pasadena's City Hall as part of the "occupy" movement. This guy was riding a bike with a TV on his head. Uh-huh. Totally normal.

Santa Monica Mountains

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – I was not the only one taking photos of the views from this spectacular lookout along Mulholland Drive in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Future mudslide site

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – You know how there's a mudslide and some rich guy's house is ruined. Well, maybe we shouldn't build houses like this one.

Watts Towers

WATTS, Calif. – So here's what happened. This weird dude named Sabato Rodia built a series of sculptures using random objects he found. The result is bed frames, bottles, tiles and sea shells held together with mortar. Oh and it's located off Compton Ave. in Watts., an area of South Central that had previously existed to me only in the form of rap lyrics.

Getty Villa

MALIBU, Calif. – The oil tycoon J. Paul Getty built this villa in Pacific Palisades off the PCH but never lived to see it completed. The villa design was inspired by the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, which was destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius.

The villa is home to Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities dating from 6,500 BC.

The below image is a Cypriot figurine of a fertility goddess from about 2,500 BC.

Santa Monica fog

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – We had great weather. Low 80s. Sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. Oh, except for the first two days.

But as you can see, the whole town was overrun with Badgers fans. Very cool.

The ocular lens

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – A camera obscura is a rare optical device first conceived by Aristotle that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen. However, I'm not sure who conceived of the idea to put one in the Santa Monica Senior Recreation Center.

It's very cool, though.

Ray Pruit

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. – You didn't think I was going to L.A. without visiting Kelly Taylor's beach house from 90210, did you? Remember, I'm the guy who examined whether the Peach Pit had better music acts than the Bait Shop.

Kelly and Donna's beach house is located on Hermosa Beach along a strip known as The Strand. Oh and the middle unit (where Kelly and Donna lived) is currently for rent for only $5,500 per month.

8 mph

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. – Typically, speed limits are nice round numbers. Not in Delaware, I learned last summer. And not along The Strand in Hermosa Beach, either.

Meanwhile, don't those trash cans look sort of like R2 units from Star Wars?