Harold Lloyd at LAX

[Brooksie]

To paraphrase the late, great Douglas Adams, no language anywhere in the universe has ever coined the phrase 'as beautiful as an airport'. The common feeling upon entering Los Angeles International Airport is a desire to exit it again as soon as possible, which they deliberately make as hard as possible by routing you through Duty Free shops at every opportunity.

All the more surprise, therefore, when I stumbled upon an exhibit - for want of a better word - at the newly renovated Tom Bradley International Terminal, that actually made it worthwhile to stick around for a while.

It's kind of hard to describe, but there's a clock tower, onto which various different abstract and non-abstract things are projected - including a really delightful Harold Lloyd-inspired short silent film. Multiple narratives play out across different windows on the tower. It's really quite clever, and nicely done.

Here are a few photos:





I also took a short video excerpt; unfortunately it seems to display in the wrong aspect ratio.

There are some tiny excerpts and glimpses of how the film was made in this promo video: http://www.momentfactory.com/en/portfol ... t/#_/_/_/_ (it's pretentious to the max, but whatever - making LAX in any way bearable is a formidable feat). This also features a Busby Berkeley tribute that I didn't see, but also looks rather lovely.

[Frederica]

All the more surprise, therefore, when I stumbled upon an exhibit - for want of a better word - at the newly renovated Tom Bradley International Terminal, that actually made it worthwhile to stick around for a while.

It's kind of hard to describe, but there's a clock tower, onto which various different abstract and non-abstract things are projected - including a really delightful Harold Lloyd-inspired short silent film. Multiple narratives play out across different windows on the tower. It's really quite clever, and nicely done.

I'm flying out of LAX next month, if I get a chance I'll stop by the Bradley terminal and see it. Normal behavior at LAX is to scurry hurriedly from the shuttle bus through the security machicolations to my gate, cringing and trying not to whimper too loudly. LAX really is the most soul-crushing experience.

[Brooksie]

Unless you're flying international, you won't get to see it - it's on the other side of Customs/Security. Next time I go through, I will try and film the whole thing (and figure out how to post it in the correct aspect ratio).

[Harlett O'Dowd]

I'm flying out of LAX next month, if I get a chance I'll stop by the Bradley terminal and see it. Normal behavior at LAX is to scurry hurriedly from the shuttle bus through the security machicolations to my gate, cringing and trying not to whimper too loudly. LAX really is the most soul-crushing experience.

You don't fly much, do you? In the grand scheme of things, LAX is a pretty decent airport. Granted, that's like saying the guillotine was an improvement over drawing and quartering (which it was.)

Still godawful, though.

[Donald Binks]

I have arrived at LAX early in the morning and to a Tom Bradley Terminal that has only just sprung to life - the electric lights only being switched on as the herd on my aeroplane approached it. We then had two people on duty behind the counters for a Jumbo Jet full of people! Other experiences have had me in a queue "going half way around the block" trying to get on a domestic aeroplane after the International one. It certainly was not a very pleasant greeting to the United States.

Qantas used to have the option of landing at San Francisco's aerodrome - which was a far, far more pleasant experience. One could clear all the formalities without feeling one was on Ellis Island and then just take the train downtown. Of course, such pleasures are now denied to us and we once more must battle with LAX.

[Frederica]

I'm flying out of LAX next month, if I get a chance I'll stop by the Bradley terminal and see it. Normal behavior at LAX is to scurry hurriedly from the shuttle bus through the security machicolations to my gate, cringing and trying not to whimper too loudly. LAX really is the most soul-crushing experience.

You don't fly much, do you? In the grand scheme of things, LAX is a pretty decent airport. Granted, that's like saying the guillotine was an improvement over drawing and quartering (which it was.)

Still godawful, though.

OK, well, it's better than O'Horror. And maybe a skosh better than Dulles or JFK. Possibly Heathrow, although I think that's a tossup. It's still HORRIBLE. Art is a huge improvement.

[Frederica]

Unless you're flying international, you won't get to see it - it's on the other side of Customs/Security. Next time I go through, I will try and film the whole thing (and figure out how to post it in the correct aspect ratio).

Oh hell, what's that about? Srsly, Adams was right.

[Harlett O'Dowd]

OK, well, it's better than O'Horror. And maybe a skosh better than Dulles or JFK. Possibly Heathrow, although I think that's a tossup. It's still HORRIBLE. Art is a huge improvement.

Heathrow, Gatwick, JFK, O'Hare and Newark (more for the delays) are among my least favorite airports on the planet.

Oh, and St. Louis (shudder)

It's been decades, but I don't recall Cleveland being much fun either.

Others, like Dulles, I've managed to avoid.

[Donald Binks]

If we had some sense we would all still be travelling by ship or train, complete with huge trunks, a myriad of hatboxes and the obligatory two Afghan hounds.

I am old enough to remember when travelling on an aeroplane was a rather simple affair. You just checked in your luggage at the terminal, walked out the door on to the tarmac and got in to the aeroplane. Now I seem to walk miles from the terminal to where the aeroplane is - and am expected to check myself in and pay extra to have my bags transported! Thank God now for computers so that when an aeroplane has decided to go via Timbuktu on the way to where you are, you at least have something to do to while away the hours....

[Harlett O'Dowd]

If we had some sense we would all still be travelling by ship or train, complete with huge trunks, a myriad of hatboxes and the obligatory two Afghan hounds.

Does anyone .... still wear ... a hat?

[Donald Binks]

If we had some sense we would all still be travelling by ship or train, complete with huge trunks, a myriad of hatboxes and the obligatory two Afghan hounds.

Does anyone .... still wear ... a hat?

In winter I will adorn one. My son seems to prefer the look of a beanie.

[Harlett O'Dowd]

If we had some sense we would all still be travelling by ship or train, complete with huge trunks, a myriad of hatboxes and the obligatory two Afghan hounds.

I love traveling with my mother - she still has a sense of childlike wonder and excitement actually SEEING the places and things she read about as a child and a teen. Whenever she would sigh and say how wonderful it would have been to live back then, HER mother would scold her: "Why? You wouldn't have lived like that. You would have been the chambermaid."

While we all hate the bus mentality of modern travel, the truth is we are all much more mobile than we were even 30 years ago. It's lost its romance, but it's much more egalitarian.

[Gumlegs]

If we had some sense we would all still be travelling by ship or train, complete with huge trunks, a myriad of hatboxes and the obligatory two Afghan hounds.

Does anyone .... still wear ... a hat?

Yes.

[Donald Binks]

we are all much more mobile than we were even 30 years ago. It's lost its romance, but it's much more egalitarian

That's the whole problem! Everyone's travelling. Nobody's saying at home! Wasn't it Sir Noel Coward who asked "Why do the wrong people travel?"

[Harlett O'Dowd]

we are all much more mobile than we were even 30 years ago. It's lost its romance, but it's much more egalitarian

That's the whole problem! Everyone's travelling. Nobody's saying at home! Wasn't it Sir Noel Coward who asked "Why do the wrong people travel?"

One suspects you subscribe to the old saw that "Ireland would be a lovely place if it weren't for the Irish."

[Donald Binks]

That's the whole problem! Everyone's travelling. Nobody's staying at home! Wasn't it Sir Noel Coward who asked "Why do the wrong people travel?"

One suspects you subscribe to the old saw that "Ireland would be a lovely place if it weren't for the Irish.

I remember when I first visited Italy, with my parents - my father was asked what he thought of it and his reply was much the same as above. "It would be alright if the whole place wasn't over-run with foreigners!" Mind you - that was back in the 1950's when such remarks were rife.

(I know an Irish man. He's got a brain like a boiled egg done backwards. He told me so himself).

[Harlett O'Dowd]

That's the whole problem! Everyone's travelling. Nobody's staying at home! Wasn't it Sir Noel Coward who asked "Why do the wrong people travel?"

One suspects you subscribe to the old saw that "Ireland would be a lovely place if it weren't for the Irish.

I remember when I first visited Italy, with my parents - my father was asked what he thought of it and his reply was much the same as above. "It would be alright if the whole place wasn't over-run with foreigners!" Mind you - that was back in the 1950's when such remarks were rife.

(I know an Irish man. He's got a brain like a boiled egg done backwards. He told me so himself).

Hopefully the next time you sing "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?" you will be looking at old family photos ... or in a mirror.

[Donald Binks]

Hopefully the next time you sing "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?" you will be looking at old family photos ... or in a mirror.

Oh puh-lease - do me a favour! I have enough sins of my own without having to take on those of persons who made utterances over 60 years ago!

[Harlett O'Dowd]

Hopefully the next time you sing "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?" you will be looking at old family photos ... or in a mirror.

Oh puh-lease - do me a favour! I have enough sins of my own without having to take on those of persons who made utterances over 60 years ago!

When people like E F Benson uttered bon mots like those you mentioned, the intention was clear to ridicule and castigate the speaker.

You may have meant your comments light-handedly or in jest, but they come off as being wishful thinking at best and honestly sincere at worse.

As the virtual descendant of chambermaids, I find the comments insulting in the extreme.

[Donald Binks]

Hopefully the next time you sing "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?" you will be looking at old family photos ... or in a mirror.

Oh puh-lease - do me a favour! I have enough sins of my own without having to take on those of persons who made utterances over 60 years ago!

When people like E F Benson uttered bon mots like those you mentioned, the intention was clear to ridicule and castigate the speaker.

You may have meant your comments light-handedly or in jest, but they come off as being wishful thinking at best and honestly sincere at worse.

As the virtual descendant of chambermaids, I find the comments insulting in the extreme.

Somehow I think you are the type of person who gets out the wrong side of bed each morning, probably has a blue rinse, wears pince-nez at the end of their nose, has the weight of the world on their shoulders and takes offence at almost anything.

I suggest you try and loosen your stays and get back to living your own life. You are trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. There are far worse things going on in the world that could deserve your attention. I have/had no intention of ridiculing or castigating - it is all merely in your mind.

Sshhhhish!

(As I seem now to recall, I have had a run in with you before. So, the above is my final comment on this matter - I have better things to do like discussing motion pictures with someone...)

[Harlett O'Dowd]

Somehow I think you are the type of person who gets out the wrong side of bed each morning, probably has a blue rinse, wears pince-nez at the end of their nose, has the weight of the world on their shoulders and takes offence at almost anything.

Funny. That's my mental picture of you and your buddies. Perhaps we need sit down over a cup of chamomile and swap rinse strategies.

From where I sit, it appears that you are the one pining for the old days more fervently than moi.