A taste of Hollywood - Universal Studios Back Lot, Elaine's Birthday Party, April 12th

   We started our day with a HUGE and delicious breakfast made by Ronit. Eggs, scones, muffins, fresh fruit.....So good.
    And, what a full day we had - a real Hollywood day and night.
    We drove to Universal Studios Backlot around noon, guests of Scott A., a former NHS student. It was a delightful and memorable day. Scott took us to lunch there, took us to his office and also for a little drive around the backlot. (Scott is private so I am using his last name.) We enjoyed seeing places we have seen on film, but more interesting than that was a glimpse of a whole other world. Scott has been involved with dozens of movies and it was fascinating to listen to his fascinating stories.

Props and facades

Lamp posts, signal lights, anyone?

Streets on the backlot

Behind us: Back to the Future City Hall

       The day continued with us driving into West Hollywood to meet at Connie and Ted's fish restaurant. The ride down Laurel Canyon Road in the dark was an event in itself - twisty road! (And, of course, Mark repeated the feat afterwards.) We were invited to help celebrate Elaine Mongeon's 39th birthday. It was terrific to see Elaine and her partner, Glen.
       Glen has a documentary film being shown in two days at the Tribeca Film Festival and they are leaving tomorrow a.m. for that.
     Elaine's birthday was celebrated by a creative group of friends. Mark and I enjoyed listening to their stories.
       Plus, Chris Kinsella, a former CPS student who we both taught in the 7th grade, was also there. Chris works in reality tv.
       We enjoyed listening to Iron Mountain archives from a woman, Amy, who works with studios on their archives. She goes out there several times a year, goes underground and works on those archives, especially musical ones. Iron Mountain is a private company that offers secure places for archives and storage. They have storage locations in several spots, but the best well-known one is a high-security facility in a former limestone mine in Boyers, Pennsylvania. Bill Gates stores his Corbin photographic collection in a refrigerated cave 220 feet underground. The U.S. government also leases space in another cavern to store personnel records.
      We also sat next to a guy named Scott who is directing his first full-length film which he hopes will be out this summer. He does not yet have a name for it.
     And, Elaine is working hard on a book as she has a contract for a 2-book deal, besides her day job in film production.

Elaine, Amy, Glen

Mark and Chris