Photo Essay: The Peabody, A Grand Hotel of Marching Ducks and Memphis Royalty

When we were planning our Memphis trip months ahead of when we'd actually travel for my birthday, our hotel options always boiled down to one clear choice: The Peabody. 

 

I'd heard of it from a friend who'd stayed there several years ago for a work conference, and who'd been delighted by the daily duck parade. That was enough to seal the deal for me. 

 

But then I also realized that it also fit the theme of my destination birthday celebration—that is, Elvis, whose manager Colonel Parker closed a record deal for the rising star with RCA Victor right there in the lobby in 1955. (The budding performer had previously visited the Peabody to attend his senior prom there.)

Photo Essay: The Life and Career of Elvis Presley, As Seen Through Graceland's Costume, Car, and Airplane Collections

It actually never really occurred to me that going to Graceland would mean more than just visiting the mansion that Elvis Presley lived in until his death in 1977. 

 

But actually there's more—a lot more—across the street, including the "Elvis: The Entertainer Career Museum."

Photo Essay: An Emotional Visit to Graceland, A Trippy Voyage Back to the 1970s

Memphis had been on my bucket list for a long time—but I kept regretting not going when I was a lot closer to it geographically while I was living in New York City. 

I couldn't fit it in during my trips to Tennessee when I flew to Knoxville for a wedding in Chattanooga in 2005 or Nashville for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in 2007. And after moving to California in 2011, Memphis has just always felt so far. 

It was the type of trip I hadn't allowed myself to splurge on, which made it the perfect way to celebrate a milestone birthday. 

The lynchpin to my birthday trip was, of course, Graceland—the historic home of Elvis Presley from 1957 until his death in 1977. 

Photo Essay: The Memphis of Elvis, Beyond Graceland

The easy explanation for my recent Memphis trip was that I was celebrating my 50th birthday at Graceland. 

But the truth is, I went to Memphis for Elvis. All of Elvis. 

After all, most casual Elvis fans seem to segregate his career into two eras—young Elvis (à la Jailhouse Rock) and Vegas Elvis—and typically prefer the "earlier" one versus the "late" one. But my favorite Elvis era is a middle era: the '68 Comeback Special, when he was coming out of his Paramount movie career and getting back into performing live, right before he started his Las Vegas residency in 1969. 

And I have much affection for the cape-wearing, lei-laden, karate-chopping Elvis of Aloha from Hawaii, That's the Way It Is, and his final album (a live-and-studio combo) Moody Blue. 

I'd already chased all those Elvises around two states—like at the Honeymoon Hideaway and other sites around Palm Springs, and at the former International Hotel on the Vegas Strip. But now, it was time for me to finally experience what remains of The King in his longtime hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.

And that's more than just Graceland (pictured above, of which at least one photo essay is forthcoming.)

Photo Essay: The California Museum That Celebrates the Art of the Clown

There's something so appealing to me about single-genre museums—like the Bunny Museum or the Banana Museum—and narrowly-curated collections, like the Crochet Museum or the Beauty Bubble Salon and Museum. 

So, despite having no particular affinity to clowns (other than dressing up as one last Halloween), visiting a clown museum in Barstow was still a must-do detour on my way back from Death Valley this past summer.

Photo Essay: Let the Good Times Roll at Mardi Gras World

I always thought of New Orleans as just being filled with street parties—open containers and beads being thrown. (I think I've seen too many Girls Gone Wild TV commercials.) I wasn't terribly interested in that.

Above: The "Sun King," a.k.a. King Louis XIV, the namesake of Louisiana

It never occurred to me that the Mardi Gras celebration would involve big, elaborate parade floats—the type I would be interested in, considering my love for the Rose Parade and its floats. 

Photo Essay: Some Choo-Choo Cheer for the Holidays at South Coast Railroad Museum

I hadn't been to the Central Coast town of Goleta in years, probably over a decade—mostly because when I'm heading north past Santa Barbara, I take the inland rather than the coastal route. 

But when I finally got back there earlier this month, I knew there was once place I had to go: the South Coast Railroad Museum. 

 

Photo Essay: Heritage Square Museum Has Thrown the Abandoned Church Doors Open

For the entire time I've lived in the Los Angeles area (nearly 14 years now), there's been one building at Heritage Square Museum I haven't been able to get into. 

All the mansions and the former train depot have posed no problem—but the former Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church, on the other hand, was a longtime holdout. 

R.I.P. Belle Boy, Heritage Square's Museum Cat

One of the great joys of visiting Heritage Square Museum in Montecito Heights, Los Angeles over the last few years has been its floofy orange museum cat.

His name was Belle Boy. And I just found out he passed away last September 28, 2023.

 

When I heard the news, I cried with heartbreak. But I was also grateful—glad that I'd gotten to spend a little time with him in May 2023 while producing a video for PBS SoCal's "SoCal Wanderer."

Photo Essay: The Ups and Downs (And Ins and Outs) of San Francisco's Historic Cable Car System

I remember riding at least one cable car during my San Francisco visit in 2006. 

It seemed like a novelty to me at the time—something I'd only seen in Rice-A-Roni TV commercials as a kid. 

 

 

I was less into trains back then than I am now—so I wanted to re-experience this mode of public transport upon my return visit to SF earlier this year. 

 

Trying to get around in the rain with a bum foot made the cable car a necessity this time around.

This time around, there was something else at the top of my list, too: the city's cable car museum, which I had no clue about until after I'd returned home to NYC from my SF trip, nearly 20 years ago.

 

Sure, I wanted to learn about the history of cable cars—but this is no ordinary historical museum. 

Photo Essay: The Camarillo White Horses and the Ranch They Once Called Home

The "ranch house" of Adolph Camarillo is really a Victorian mansion—built in the Queen Anne style by the architecture duo Herman Anlauf and Franklin ("F. P.") Ward in 1892.

 

I'd seen it once, at night, at Christmastime, back in 2018—but I knew I had to go back and see it in the broad daylight.

Photo Essay: The Museum Preserving Showgirl History in Post-Jubilee Las Vegas

What is Las Vegas without its showgirls?

 

Well, that's Vegas right now—because since the "Jubilee!" show at Bally's closed in 2016, there's no longer a showgirl show.

Just the girls wearing feathered headpieces standing outside the Flamingo or the Venetian, or on Fremont Street, trying to get cash for photos. 

Well, except the 50-foot ones that were installed on the North Strip section of Las Vegas Boulevard. 

   

Since October 2023, the closest thing the city has had to a good old fashioned showgirl spectacular is Dita Von Teese's DITA LAS VEGAS: A Jubilant Revue in the Jubilee Theater at Bally's (which was rebranded as Horseshoe Las Vegas in December 2022). Unfortunately, that closed this weekend—but the good news is, I made it back to Vegas in time to see a performance of it on its second-to-last weekend.  

 

But this post isn't about Dita—and, as I learned at the Las Vegas Showgirl Museum, neither Dita nor her production qualifies as a showgirl show, even though it used some of the Jubilee sets and original costumes designed by Bob Mackie.

Photo Essay: Mascots, Memories, and Americana at the Roadside America Museum

I hadn't been to Texas ever on vacation—and the few times I'd gone on business trips (to Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin), I hadn't had a lot of time to go touring anywhere. 

So I wanted to take advantage of my eclipse trip to see a few of the sights of North Texas, for I may not pass that way again. 

We were staying in Whitney, about an hour and a half southwest of Dallas—which turned out to be kind of a difficult spot to call a taxi or shuttle to the airport. But fortunately, the nearby town of Hillsboro had a rideshare driver willing to make the trek—which meant I had just enough time to squeeze in the town's Roadside America Museum before heading back home.

It's located in a 100-year-old former Ford dealership building, where its owner Carroll Estes (no relation to the Estes Dairy Farm) will open the doors for you and give you a tour if you ring him up on the cell phone number posted out front.

Photo Essay: California Architectural Creations In Clay, at Heath Ceramics

[Last updated 10/9/24 9:14 PM PT—Photos of Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena added at bottom of post]

Back in January of this year, I was planning a return trip to San Francisco—a city I hadn't spent the weekend in since 2006 (although I spent a few hours there a couple of years ago).

I had a lot of catching up to do. 

Since I don't visit the Bay Area very often, I don't have a huge list of places to visit—so I fell back on my tried-and-true methods of seeking out fun activities. 

And that meant looking for one of my go-to's, factory tours.    

In addition to the fortune cookie factory tour in Chinatown, my friend and I decided to tour the Heath Ceramics factory in San Francisco's Mission District. 

Photo Essay: Combing Through Hairstory at a Roadside Beauty Parlor Museum

I tried to learn my lesson when I realized I'd wasted so many years not going to the Crochet Museum in Joshua Tree—so upon my return to the area last weekend, I made sure I checked another place at the Art Queen complex off my list.

 

The Beauty Bubble Salon and Museum, which opened in this location along the 29 Palms Highway in 2016.

We Are All Made of Dots

Once you've seen a Yayoi Kusama exhibit somewhere, it's hard to see polka dots and not think of her.

They're her most common artistic motif—both in her paintings and in her "infinity rooms"—but that's not all. It's a repeated pattern that's part of her consciousness—and her subconscious. 

She sees dots everywhere. And she dreams about them, too. (That may or may not be related to the fact that the 96-year-old Japanese artist is institutionalized in a mental facility.)

According to Kusama, "The Earth is a dot, the moon, the sun, the stars are all made of dots. You and me, we are dots." 

 

Even though I saw the big Kusama exhibit at The Broad several years ago, and have visited the infinity room there a couple of times, I hadn't yet had enough of her and her dots—so while in San Francisco last weekend, I visited the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) for the "Infinite Love" show (the artist's first-ever solo show in Northern California).

Photo Essay: Boney Island Gets Reanimated at Natural History Museum of Los Angeles [Updated for 2025]

[Last updated 9/17/25 9:12 PM PT—Boney Island won't return to the Natural History Museum this year, or probably ever. A new location is in the works, but that means the attraction will go dark in 2025. Stay tuned for an announcement of its new location and a future opening date.]

Back around the new millennium, Emmy-winning animation producer for The Simpsons Rick Polizzi created a super-sized yard haunt in his San Fernando Valley neighborhood. 

But it became too popular for its own good—with traffic congesting the residential area and an unwieldy crowd size arriving nightly to check out the array of skeletons and the fountain show. 

So it closed in 2016 and took a year off, reopening in Griffith Park in 2018.

I saw the original version in person in 2014 but missed out on its redux, which closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Fortunately, it reopened once again for the 2023 Halloween season—this time in yet another new location. 

Photo Essay: Hollywood Post 43, A World War I Memorial Built By the Movies and Boxing Matches

It's been nicknamed the "Post of the Stars." 

 

Originally chartered in 1919 by Hollywood luminaries who'd returned from World War I, American Legion Hollywood Post 43 can count such luminaries as Clark Gable, Gene Autry, Mickey Rooney, Ronald Reagan, and Charlton Heston as its past members.

Photo Essay: The 'Resurrection Church' of San Gabriel Mission, Reopened Three Years After the Fire

Mission San Gabriel Arcángel—known as the "Mother Church" of Los Angeles, founded by Spanish missionaries—just reopened to the public for the first time since an arson fire burned down the roof of its chapel nearly three years ago, in July 2020. 

 

I'd actually never been inside the church, the museum, or anywhere else on the grounds except the cemetery—so this seemed like a good occasion to finally take a tour with the Historical Society of Crescenta Valley. 

Photo Essay: A Driving Discovery of Modernism in Downtown Palm Springs' Commercial District

This is the first year that I won't be at Modernism Week in Palm Springs since I first went in 2017. I even went in 2021 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But I had a friend visiting the low desert the week before Modernism Week this year—and since I couldn't afford two trips in February, I chose my friend.  

But fortunately he was very interested in the Midcentury Modern architecture of Palm Springs—so we enthusiastically signed up for a self-guided driving tour offered by Modern Tours Palm Springs, which allowed us to explore various Palm Springs neighborhoods at our own pace.