When you say "Open Sesame" to the red-eyed owl sitting on a bookshelf, the bookshelf to your right becomes a sliding door that opens and leads you into the mansion labyrinth on Franklin Street known as the
Magic Castle. A private club to which one is admitted only by invitation from one of it's magician members, this institution was founded in the 60s to house Magic Memorabilia and to create a meeting place for minds filled with the ancient art.
Along with the bars and restaurants inside, small tables and chairs in dark little nooks and crannies host tiny groups of guests who sit to watch up close as each table's magician defies reality over and over again. In addition to the cozy, casual drop-by performances, scheduled appearances of featured magicians in a variety of small theatres punctuate the evening's events.
No photography is allowed inside the castle, but I stole this shot of the Close Up Theatre just before our featured magician
Shoot Ogawa entered the room.
This window is outside the castle so I was able to take the picture of it and the flying dragon lights.
No web site to link to, no sign on the outside of this very exclusive guitar repair shop in Studio City. Nestled in the corner unit of a vine covered building at 11632 Moorpark, Brett and Norik have all the work they can handle. No need for social media marketing here. Just the phone number 818-761-4766. They're swamped with repairs for LA studio musicians. They did me a favor to fix an old guitar for me to practice on. I had connections.
The most unique object hanging on the wall was a South American stringed instrument made from the casing of an armadillo (see below). It's called a charango.
