This early photo was made around or after 1903, the year the Third Street tunnel was opened. The Angels Flight cable cars appear to be open to the elements. If they were Olivet and Sinai, as the cars were named, they were later enclosed. Note the simple arch in front of the tracks and the frame buildings with filigreed ornamentation.
Years later the scene had changed considerably.
And today the surroundings are spectacular (in a new location not far from the original one).
Architect Daniel Libeskind brings his talent to the heart of California with Aura. The 38-story condominium tower improves on the traditional glass block by turning it into a sculptural form. The usual flanks of regular balconies are interrupted in curves to create lost space lines that appear to be carved into the building's facade. Combined with an asymmetrical roof, a notched corner at the entrance, and a gentile slope on the opposite side, the building feels more round than trapezoidal, more organic than man-made, and encourages the viewer to reach out and touch it. The tactile sensation is reinforced by the balconies which go beyond merely providing a viewing platform. Instead, they add texture to a building that shows it's possible to take traditional elements and make them feel new again.
In the Polish capital of Warsaw Zaha Hadid displayed her design for a 790-foot residential skyscraper to be built in the heart of the city. Called Lilium Tower, the sleek, glass-covered building, with floor space of 1.1 million square feet has a fleur-de-lis motif and is to house apartments, a condominium hotel and commercial and recreational facilities on a site facing the city's Palace of Culture. Completion is expected in 2012. 
The USS Macon was one of two lighter-than-air, rigid-hulled airships (a.k.a. dirigeable or Zeppelin) used in the early 1930's by the US Navy as flying aircraft carriers. It went down off of California's Big Sur coast in 1935 while returning home to the Sunnyvale Air Station (now Moffet Field, home to NASA's Ames Research Center). The Macon was one of the most advanced, most expensive aircraft of its time. When it went down, it had on board four Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk biplanes and a crew of 82. All but two survived the incident. 
Afficienados of old 1930s' horror movies and fans of famous old stars and filmmakers may enjoy the Hollywood Legends of Horror Collection of minor horror-movie classics starring major horror-movie actors. The six films offered in the box range in entertainment value from very good to very bad, with everything in between, so there is a little something for everyone in WB's "Hollywood Legends of Horror Collection."
The beautiful Flores adobe stands in a pristine residential area on the southern slope of Raymond Hill, in South Pasadena. The adobe built about 1839 still serves as a private home. The name associated with this old casa comes from General Jose Maria Flores, who led the Mexican Army of California during Mexican War. Flores never lived at the house nor did he ever spend a single night beneath its roof. But, it was at this site that the defeated general retreated after the last battle with the American troops who were advancing upon Los Angeles in 1847. Flores, fearing he would be shot by the conquering Yankees, fled from this place to Mexico never to return.
It's definitely been the media kerfuffle of the week: Roger Ebert's admission that he wrote an entire review of a new film after only watching eight minutes of the picture has inspired a storm of outrage. It turns out that everybody's a critic, especially when it comes to judging movie critics. Now a clearly chastened Ebert has acknowledged that he was wrong, posting a follow-up post to his original explanation admitting that he wishes he had never published the review (of a small indie film called "Tru Loved") in the first place. As he puts it:
For the feature film version of "Max Payne," director John Moore wanted to explicitly depict the shadowy drug-induced visions of the winged Valkyries that the video game only hinted at. But the visual effects crew, led by supervisor Everett Burrell, had to stay nimble when, three weeks before shooting, the director decided to add live-action Valkyries to the previously planned all-CGI effects. "We had a Czechoslovakian dancer named Mako Hindy on set as a reference" for the actors, Burrell said. "We did cool makeup on him and built some wings. We didn't think we'd use it that much, but John loved it so much, he put it in the movie." Plans changed again when the movement of the creatures, filmed in a herky-jerky style created by Hindy, was changed to become more graceful after Moore fell in love with one shot, a balletic slow-motion image of the Valkyrie pulling a man through a window. "We had to reanimate some of the shots, but changes are always made at the last minute. We've spoiled the studios nowadays because we can crank out things so fast."
On a fall afternoon in 1845, 800 members of the Tropical Emigration Society gathered on a field outside Oxford, England, to see their future in action. Specifically, they were there to see the prototype of a great machine -- "The Satellite," they called it -- that promised to generate "infinite wealth" and reinvent society. Roughly the size of two shipping containers placed side-by-side, this wheeled iron vehicle was self-propelled by 12 built-in windmills and could theoretically clear, sow, plow and harvest up to 70 acres at a time. It would deliver those assembled from their sorry lives of toil.
The William J. Gillespie Concert Organ, which has been in operation for a month at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, got a razzle-dazzle baptism in September in the usual way for concert hall organs -- with orchestra in Saint-Saëns' blow-out "Organ" Symphony.
This is the car that Bob Hope said jokingly "looks like an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon."
