Monday, February 15, 2010

Union Station

I took Charles Phoenix's "Disneyland" tour of Downtown Los Angeles on Sunday.  It's an eclectic mix of history, architecture, culture and kitsch.. 
My only regret is that I didn't take more pictures.  I have a fossil digital camera with a limited image card.  I'd meant to buy a better one, but lack of time (and my tightwad ways) got the better of me.
We started at Union Station.   Built in the 1930s, it's the size of a blimp hanger and covered with intricate tiles and panels.  As I feared, light from the huge windows washed out most of my internal photos.  The restaurant (now closed but well-maintained), turned out o.k.

As did this...



...whatever-it-is...
A cone of rocks rises incongruously from a tiled bench.  Phoenix calls it "The Matterhorn".  There is a resemblance.   I like it best up close. 

Note the cobalt blue bottle.   Are any modern products sold in these?  I've seen brown and green bottles on store shelves, but no blues.  Where did the blues go?

*current tours are sold out, but click here to check for more.

4 comments:

Sally said...

I think cobalt might be poisonous? always loved when that blue glass would wash ashore, lots of memories of cobalt blue glass. It's a very cool station.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Maybe you're on to something about cobalt blue being toxic. It sure is pretty.
I'm surprised Union Station wasn't torn down decades ago to make room for something boring. With more time (and a better camera) I could have spent hours snapping up shapes, textures and color schemes to "borrow" from.
Same with Chinatown, but that's tomorrow's installment.

GhostBuild said...

A couple of years ago I bought home-made root beer from a vendor at a Renassaince festival, and it was blue glass bottle. I also have cologne in a blue glass bottle.

Otherwise, I guess you are right, I can't think of seeing cobalt-blue glass bottles at the grocery store.... a quick Google search does not turn up anything seriously official or scientific. I guess it will take more digging.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Thanks for your input, ghost.
Commenter "Stray g" emailed me that Noxzema cane in blue glass jars at one time (they've switched to blue plastic now.) Also I seem to remember old jars of Vick's Vapo Rub being cobalt blue. I'll have to keep my eye out for more examples.