Santa Catalina Island

Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The island is 22 miles (35 km) long and 8 miles (13 km) across at its greatest width. The island is located about 22 miles (35 km) south-southwest of Los Angeles, California. The highest point on the island is 2,097 feet (639 m) Mt. Orizaba, at 33°22′29.7″N 118°25′11.6″W.

One of the Channel Islands of California archipelago, Catalina lies within Los Angeles County. Most of the island is administered by the Catalina Island Conservancy.

The total population as of the 2000 census was 3,696 persons, almost 85 percent of whom live in the island's only incorporated city, Avalon (pop. 3,127, with another 195 south of town, outside of the city limits). The second center of population is the unincorporated village of Two Harbors, in the north, with a population of 298. Development occurs also at the smaller settlements of Rancho Escondido and Middle Ranch. The remaining population is scattered over the island between the two population centers. The island has an overall population density of 49.29/mi² (19.03/km²).

About a million tourists visit the island every year.

The use of motor vehicles on the island is restricted; there is a limit on the number of registered cars, which translates into a 25-year-long wait list to bring a car to the island. Most residents move around via golf cart. Bicycles are a very popular mode of transport there. 

The Catalina Island Museum, located in the historic Catalina Casino building, is also an attraction as it is the keeper of the island's cultural heritage with collections numbering over 100,000 items and including over 7,000 years of Native American history, over 10,000 photographs and images, a large collection of Catalina-made pottery and tile, ship models, and much more.

The Sunset Strip

The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. The Strip is probably the best-known portion of Sunset, embracing a premier collection of boutiques, restaurants, rock clubs, and nightclubs that are on the cutting edge of the entertainment industry. It is also known for its trademark array of huge, colorful billboards and has developed notoriety as a hangout for rock stars, movie stars and other entertainers.

Glamour and glitz defined the Strip in the 1930s and the 1940s, as its renowned restaurants and nightclubs became a playground for the rich and famous. By the early 1960s, the Strip lost favor with the majority of movie people, but its restaurants, bars and clubs continued to serve as an attraction for locals and tourists. In the 1960's and 1970's the Strip became a haven for music groups. Bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Doors, The Byrds, Love, The Seeds, Frank Zappa, and many others played at clubs. Many musicians lived or stayed at the hotel for the easy access to the live music venues on Sunset Boulevard.

In November 1984, voters in West Hollywood passed a proposal on the ballot to incorporate and the area became an independent city. Increasingly, the western end of the Strip is occupied by office buildings, mostly catering to the entertainment industry, and expensive hotels.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame

The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California. The stars are permanent public monuments to achievement in the entertainment industry, bearing the names of a mix of actors, musicians, directors, producers, musical and theatrical groups, fictional characters, and others.

The Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and maintained by the self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust.

According to a 2003 report by the market research firm NPO Plog Research, the Walk attracts about 10 million visitors annually — more than Sunset Strip, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Queen Mary, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art — and has played an important role in making tourism the largest industry in Los Angeles County.

The Walk of Fame runs 1.3 miles (2.1 km) east to west on Hollywood Boulevard from North Gower Street to North La Brea Avenue, plus a short segment of Marshfield Way that runs diagonally between Hollywood and La Brea; and 0.4 miles (0.7 km) north to south on Vine Street between Yucca Street and Sunset Boulevard.[2]

As of November 8, 2011 the Walk consists of 2,454 stars.[3] These are spaced at 6-foot (1.8 m) intervals, each consisting of a coral-pink terrazzo five-point star rimmed with brass (not bronze, an oft-repeated inaccuracy)[4] inlaid into a charcoal-colored terrazzo background. In the upper portion of the pink star field, the name of the honoree is inlaid in brass block letters. Below the inscription, in the lower half of the star field, a round inlaid brass emblem indicates the category of the honoree's contributions. The emblems symbolize five categories within the entertainment industry:

• Classic film camera representing motion pictures
•  Television receiver representing broadcast television
•  Phonograph record representing audio recording or music
•  Radio microphone representing broadcast radio
•  Comedy/tragedy masks representing theatre/live performance 

Of all the stars on the Walk to date, 47% have been awarded in the motion pictures category, 24% in television, 17% in audio recording, 10% in radio, and less than 2% in the live performance category. An average of twenty new stars are added to the Walk each year.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits.

LACMA is the largest encyclopedic museum west of Chicago and attracts nearly one million visitors annually. Its holdings include more than 100,000 works spanning the history of art from ancient times to the present. In addition to art exhibits, the museum features film and concert series throughout the year.

LACMA's more than 100,000 objects are divided among its numerous departments by region, media, and time period and are spread amongst the various museum buildings.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art was established as a museum in 1961. Prior to this, LACMA was part of the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art, founded in 1910 in Exposition Park near the University of Southern California. In 1965, the museum moved to a new Wilshire Boulevard complex as an independent, art-focused institution, the largest new museum to be built in the United States after the National Gallery of Art.