Hollywood and Highland is the center-point for the touristic trap called **HOLLYWOOD BLVD**. I actually think its current evolution is a good one, after trying to make it into a family friendly mall it's become a “melange” of nightclubs, bars, tattoo shops and souvenir shops. Tacky craptastic. I avoid it if I can.
The organizers were pulling some logistical work - we the pantsless were in a holding pattern in a subway station just below a converted outdoor mall. The mall was a bust - it was sold and then chunks of it were converted to nightclubs or tourist souvenir traps. It surrounds a restored Mann’s Chinese theater.
Wanna be's and never beens show up dressed up as iconic pop culture characters and charge tourists to take pictures with them. On any given day Superman, Zorro, Chewbacca, Wonder Woman and Marilyn Monroe pout and pose for a few dollar tips. An economic model based on stripping.
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The crowd made its way to the Chinese Theater. The normal carnival of camera wielding tourists, mock celebrities, musicians and barflies, teenagers hanging out and Latin families out to view some sights is temporarily usurped by hundreds of pantless people emerging in the midday sun. The air is collectively taken out of the place as its normal rhythm, already carnival, is moved up a tick.
A small bit of the Merry Pranksters is in the air. A couple tall African Americans become pantless converts and start chanting “No Pants, No Pants!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWBxX0fnrR0
(note .18)
NOT SAFE FOR WORK!
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In an unforgettable scene everyone taking pictures of the mock heroes turn and take pictures of us, and the mock heroes themselves break out their own camera and start taking pics as well.
It's as if something so strange ran parallel to a runway during a fashion show and the models on it took out cell cameras and started to take pics.
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A group shot is taken - a smallish woman with a strange hat asked to sit on a tall guy's shoulders. She is hoisted and the group picture is taken. She dismounts. Then she extends her hand to the guy on whose shoulders she had just spent a few moments.
“Thanks - my name is ..”
Someone right next to them noted the situation - “That's the way to do it! Mount up, dismount and then introduce yourself!”
She is unfazed, the smile on her face and the glint in her eye are genuine.
I continue to press for photos.
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