An operatic version of the disaster movie, "The War of the Worlds," was recently staged in downtown L.A.
Audience members were told at the end that they survived because the Martians' death rays were blocked by the titanium coating on the building they were in, the Disney Concert Hall.
By the way, the little green men evidently steered clear of Long Beach, and I have a theory why — they knew they'd never be able to get past the breakwater.
• Come to think of it, Long Beach has long been overlooked by makers of horror movies.
One exception was the 1954 movie,"Them!" (see photo), about an invasion of giant ants via the L.A. River. (This being the L.A. River, it had no water to slow them down.)
At one point in "Them!" an Army officer announces, "All trains as far south as Long Beach are covered by either a bazooka or a team of flame-throwers."
The strategy works. The ants are stymied, though they spoil a few picnics on the way.
• Another movie with a possible local angle — details, I believe, are still classified — was "Independence Day (1996), in which a survivor of a death-ray onslaught from outer space credits his good fortune to commuting via a subway.
"Thank God for the Metro Rail," he says — a sentiment you don't often hear.
• Speaking of the Metro Rail: I've mentioned the annoying habit of some rail riders who hog two seats. The other day on the Blue Line I saw a sleeping passenger who had taken this distressing trend to a new extreme. Her legs stretched across two aisle-facing seats while the remainder of her body was draped over two front-facing seats. Four seats for one person! I believe that's a new L.A. County record.
• If all the detour signs, orange cones and new mini-traffic circles on local streets have you a bit confused, don't worry. As reader Steve Carson's photo demonstrated, no one seems sure whether the road work is "ahead" or at an "end" (see photo).
• But you can be proud any time you travel on Long Beach's big roundabout, the one where Los Coyotes Diagonal, Lakewood Boulevard, Pacific Coast Highway and heaven knows what other boulevards come together.
That roundabout was once included in a mock salute of outdoor billboards by the L.A. Museum of Contemporary Art (see photo).
On behalf of Long Beach, I say thanks. I think.
Steve Harvey can be reached at steveharvey9@gmail.com and @sharvey9.
http://www.gazettes.com/entertainment/only_in_long_beach/only-in-lb-disaster-movies-roundabouts-more/article_0eab3f96-ce40-11e7-9585-478683455d2d.html
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