Odds and Ends From L-A Shopping

Anyone visiting Los Angeles or Hollywood wold want to go to one specific place to start his or her vacation. It can be the Walk of Fame, Universal Studios, the Staples Center or even Television City. After a while, you know L-A almost as much as your own town, and you want to look for something different.

Since I have been in L-A several times, from attending the red carpet premiere of Serenity to attending conventions and certain special events, I've been at the point where I look for parts of L-A that I have not seen. That was true recently when I found out which Red Line station is a stone's throw from the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Angel's Flight, and a parade of defunct movie houses.

When I took one of those tour buses, I was told about a swap meet every Sunday at Fairfax High School, which is not too far away from Television City, It's where I got stuff like this:

I went back recently, and got even more amazing stuff. The biggest find, no doubt, was this MTV relic from 2000:

It's not a real "all access pass", but I'm guessing this must have made teens back then feel like they were real insiders. I wonder how many fans tried to bluff their way backstage with one of these.

This one was a surprise: a pin from KRON San Francisco with I think was a picture of a sports anchor from the early 1970s:

Now, a CBS Price Is Right ticket from 1980, complete with promo postcard

How about a page of stationery from Walt Disney's The Rescuers?

An extra large postcard from MarineWorld, owned by ABC 42 years ago before it eventually became an amusement park in Vallejo

If you work it out right, you can get one-of-a-kind Hollywood history at reasonable prices. I even got two American Idol TV taping tickets for 30 bucks...autographed by the final two that year, Bo Bice and Carrie Underwood. It's tough enough to get these tickets for that price without autographs. What's more, I got them at a pawn shop in Santa Monica.

But back to the Fairfax Trading Post, this has got to be the most surprising: a ring pass for a boxing match at the Trump Plaza from...the 1980s, maybe? Just check out the face of the guy on this pass. Happy, ain't he?

So, when I head back to Los Angeles for Oscar weekend, I may not have time to head back to Fairfax, but there's always Goodwill or Out of the Closet, where I got an official Jimmy Kimmel Live cap...and a very rare Buffy crew cap (movie crew, not TV crew). Who knows what I'll find next time?