This collection of news chum is unified by a theme of death and rebirth. No, we’re not dealing with anything religious; rather, these are all various things that have been given up for dead, and in many (but not all) cases, are experiencing a rebirth:
- Whatsa Matta U? For many years, on Sunset Blvd, there was a forlorn statue of a moose and a squirrel. Not just any moose and squirrel, mind you, but Rocky and Bullwinkle. The statue was at the former headquarters of Jay Ward Productions. Recently, reports have surfaced that the statue has been removed in the night. The good news is that the Pottsylvanians (e.g., Boris and Natasha) are not responsible — rather, it was Dreamworks and Ward’s daughter, Tiffany. Evidently, the statue is being removed to be repaired and refurbished, and is promised to be reappearing somewhere (although no one has stated exactly where) in a much better condition. Frostbite Falls, perhaps?
- The Car CD Player. One thing that is going extinct — slowly — is the car CD player. This extinction is being driven by all of our portable devices that play music — we would rather plug in our device than carry CDs. There’s also the increased connectivity of the car itself, and the need for space in the center console. This is also creating another casualty — the standard sized replacement car audio unit. At the present time, there doesn’t seem to be a rebirth pending for this one.
- Latin. Here’s an interesting rebirth from the LVRJ: Many years ago, Latin had been given up as a dead language. But more and more high school students are rediscovering the language, and Latin classes are growing. The article centered on the final day of a weeklong celebration of everything Latin and Greek in the 60th annual National Junior Classical League convention, which was being held in Las Vegas.
- Discarded Books. Being a book lover, these two are a little bit heretical, but here goes. Buzzfeed is reporting on an artist who is taking discarded books and growing crystals on them. Don’t like that? How about another artist who is making dresses from books?
- Scottish Rite Hall. One of the most beautiful buildings on Wilshire Blvd is the old Scottish Rite Temple (former home of Lodge 42). After sitting vacant for a long number of years, it supposedly is being converted into a private art museum. Curbed LA has even more pictures of the property. I remember the building in its heyday, as I drove down that portion of Wilshire regularly.
- Images from Apollo. The other day I wrote about the technology behind the Saturn V going extinct. Luckily, not all from that era is gone. We still have a wonderful archive of all the Hasselblad photographs taken by the Apollo crews.
