THE HOLLYWOOD LIFESTYLE

Yes, folks, I am no longer "Paul of Arabia" (or even "Paul of Urbana") but now "Paul of Hollywood" - not to be confused with Frederick's of Hollywood.

I am still waiting for Ann to bring her guestbed up in Cam's pickup Wednesday so I can start *sleeping* in my own apartment in Hollywood (see previous post for new address), but my lease officially started August 1. I must say it feels extremely satisfying to have a place of my own now after several months living out of my car. Maybe I can start getting a bit more organized finally!

TUT TUT

Last Friday, Ann brought the gang up from San Diego county - her old college friend Riitta Malkki and daughter Kari on a visit from North Carolina - and we met up at a Thai restaurant with old Aramco friend Kim Ayers and her financé Alan Petker. After gorging ourselves, we raced over to LACMA (LA County Museum of Art) for the King Tut exhibit. (Kim is a member and got us all tickets.) Counter to my expectations, we didn't have to wait in any enormous lines. You set up an "appointment window" of 15 minutes days ahead, in our case, the window was 7-7:15 pm, and you show up and get whisked right in. I think it's all by appointment; we didn't bypass masses of people standing in line. Inside the exhibit itself, however, it got a bit crowded. I have to say I was a bit let down because 1/3 of the exhibit came from other Egyptian rulers, not Tut Ankh-Amun's tomb. And the most sumptuous pieces of all, the 10 layers of sarcophagi surrounding the mummy, didn't make the tour. So it was interesting but not "wow!" And I expect I'm a bit jaded after seeing the complete collection in the Egyptian Museum many years ago!

MAPPING THE WORLD

I found an amazing map website this morning (better than Mapquest and Yahoo's version) I recommend to one and all:

http://maps.google.com

Google, already one of the classiest acts on the Web, has upped the standard of custom mapping on the web. You can look up a street address and view it in three versions: (1) satellite view - a photograph over the location, (2) regular street map, or (3) "hybrid", a satellite image with street names superimposed - more useful and user-friendly than you might imagine. To gild the lily, they even have an amazing up-down-right-left navigation button that whizzes smoothly in any direction you choose from the original map. You can tour an entire region quickly - like flying a small plane over the city! It also has the normal zoom in and zoom out feature, as well.

Now, it's time to experiment ...

Just fill in my new address 1745 N. Kingsley Dr., Los Angeles, CA

in the blank at top and hit the "Search" button. Experiment by hitting "Satellite" and "Hybrid" at the top of the map for different views. You can see very clearly where the flat land ends and the Hollywood hills begin. I'm about two streets south of the hills. (To get rid of the annoying Address bubble, just click on the x.)

Now, for fun, try your own home address!