Gillie & Marc

 

   Gillie & Marc are a married couple who are known for the sculptures that they create together. Their work can be found on public streets all around the world. They are best known for their sculptures of Rabbitwoman and Dogman. They also have a strong focus on endangered animals. You can find out more about the artists and where their sculptures can be found at gillieandmarc.com. Below are some of the Gillie & Marc sculptures we have encountered in our travels. Many of their sculptures are on temporary exhibition before they move on to a new location.

Paparazzi Dogs

 

  These paparazzi dogmen were the first Gillie & Marc sculpture that we recall seeing. They were located on Powell Street in San Francisco. They were taking photos of people coming out of an H&M store inside the Elevated Shops building. The dogmen are a combination of Marc and his weimaraner dog named Indie.

Coffee Table Of Love

 

 In New York City at Park Ave and East 46th Street you will find Coffee Table Of Love. Dogman is joined by Rabbitwoman for a cup of coffee. There are two more stools at the table for passerbys to join the half animal, half human couple.

 

 

  Rabbitwoman in based on Gillie and an unknown rabbit. Rabbitwoman holds a coffee and looks across at Dogman.

 

   Dogman holds a coffee and looks across at Rabbitwoman.

Love Negotiation

  In Toronto, Canada there is another Rabbitwoman and Dogman sculpture on Scollard Street. This time they are sitting at a smaller coffee table with no room for anyone else to join them. 

 

 When we took these pictures there had been a recent snowfall so the sculptures had a layer of snow on them. These versions of Dogman and Rabbitwoman had some colour in them. Dogman was sporting a blue suit and Rabbitwoman wore a red dress. Neither of them was dressed for the weather.

 

He Was On A Wild Ride To A Safer Place With Rabbitwoman & Dogman

  At the time of posting this blog there was another Gillie & Marc sculpture in Toronto at David Pecaut Square. Dogman and Rabbitwoman are sharing a tandem bicylce with a rhinoceros. You can join them in the last seat. This sculpture is temporary and will leave Toronto in 2025. Who knows where it might end up. 

 

 

  The rhino is there to represent the campaign called Love The Last. This is meant to raise awareness of endangered animal species. We tried to see their sculpture called The Last Three in New York City, but it was gone when we got there. The sculpture represented the last three northern white rhinos on earth. Only two remain alive today.

 
The Travellers Have Arrived

  While other sculptures show Dogman and Rabbitwoman enjoying coffee or riding a bike, this sculpture in Las Vegas is quite different. The two half human, half animals are riding a donkey naked through the Cosmopolitan hotel. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!

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Love Negotiation , He Was On A Wild Ride To A Safer Place With Rabbitwoman & Dogman , Paparazzi Dogs , Coffee Table Of Love , The Travellers Have Arrived

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Post # 336

Monsters Mummies & Mayhem

Location: Hollywood, California, USA
Address: 1660 N Highland Ave.
Date: June 2019
Website:  thehollywoodmuseum.com/

    The Hollywood Museum in Los Angeles has so many movie props and memorabilia that they fill every nook and cranny.  Since it is the Halloween season we thought we would revisit their basement and a few classic horror movie icons.

  First off is an old classic, Frankenstein. While the novel was written in 1818, we are talking movies here. This Frankenstein was played by Boris Karloff in the 1931 film and is seen above with his bride from the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein.

  There were life masks of Boris Karloff and Bela Legosi. Bela Legosi had played Dracula and along with Boris was part of Universal Studio's classic monster movies.

   Another early creature that scared audiences was the great ape, King Kong.  The original King Kong was a stop motion model.  The museum had various King Kongs on display.

  Flying ahead a few decades there were some birds from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.  We are not sure if these were just props or former movie stars preserved for future generations.

  While not a movie monster herself, Elvira became very popular in the 1980s as a host presenting B grade horror movies.  Horror movies had never really gone away, but the 80s saw a group of classic horror villains rise to stardom and appear in numerous sequels.

  Michael Meyers changed Haloween night forever and gained his place as one of the greatest characters in slasher film history.  Michael escapes from a sanitarium and visits his hometown for a night of fright and murder.  Jamie Lee Curtis stars as a babysitter that Michael is stalking while wearing a plain white mask.  So far there have been eleven Halloween films.

   The next mask wearer to terrorize teenagers is Jason Voorhees from the Friday The 13th movies.  He drowned as a boy and is best known for wearing his hockey mask while slashing his way through twelve (or is it only eleven?) movies.  This franchise just has to make Friday The 13th: The 13th.

  The next horror franchise to arrive in the 1980s started with A Nightmare On Elm Street.  This movie starred Freddy Krueger who terrorized teenagers in their dreams.  Johnny Depp's Hollywood dreams came true after being one of Freddy's victims.  There have only been nine movies in this series but there was a Freddy vs Jason cross-over movie made.

  In the late 80s came Chucky.  He was a psychotic, knife wielding doll from the Child's Play movies.  Only 8 movies made so far.  He did find love in Bride of Chucky just like Frankenstein did over 60 years before him.  If you have ever seen videos of dogs wearing costumes, and we know you have, the Chucky costume is one of the best.

  The museum is crammed with movie props and costumes from many other films.  There was this stick figure from The Blair Witch Project. The Blair Witch Project grossed almost 250 million dollars on a budget of less than 500 thousand.  It's shaky hand held camera work caused as much tension and fear as it did nausea.

   After having a role in A Nightmare On Elm Street, Johnny Depp spent a lot of time making movies with a Halloween feel to them thanks to director Tim Burton.  Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is both a Halloween and a Christmas classic.  Johnny's Sweeney Todd costume was on display. 

   We headed upstairs again to escape from the horrors we had seen in the basement.  We did spot a couple more monsters up in a corner.  Mike Wazowski and Sulley from Monsters Inc. are a little less creepy than the hundereds of items you can find in The Hollywood Museum's dungeon.

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The Hollywood Museum

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Post # 292

Frasier On The Backlot

Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Address: 5515 Melrose Ave.
Date: June 2019
Website: www.paramountstudiotour.com

  After a successful run on the sitcom Cheers, the character of Frasier Crane was given his own show.  Frasier aired for 11 seasons as did Cheers before it.  We were fans of both shows.

  Kelsey Grammer played the role of Frasier and didn't have far to go between jobs.  Both shows were filmed at Paramount Studios and both shows were filmed on Stage 25.  We took a Paramount Studio tour when we were in Los Angeles.  We were able to see the exterior of this famous sound stage as well as visit a section of the backlot where one episode from the first season of Frasier was filmed.

  The Paramount backlot has a section named SOHO after the New York City area.  In episode six of season one, Frasier purchases a piece from an art gallery.  He is embarrased when the artist comes to his party and declares the work a fraud.  Frasier is angry and further frustrated when the art gallery dealer insists all sales are final.  He stands on the street ready to throw a brick through the gallery window.  Frasier would be standing between the bike rider and the green subway entrance in the photo above.  The subway entrance was removed in order to film the scene.

  A couple walks by and Frasier hides his brick behind his back.  You can see the building above behind them as they cross the street.  Frasier turns to throw his brick but this time his brother Niles pulls up in his car.  Niles tries to calm Frasier by telling him of a time Frasier stopped him from exacting revenge.  Frasier gives Niles the brick and reminds him of how stromg he was despite the nicknames, such as Peachfuzz.  Niles hurls the brick through the window, tosses some money into the gallery and leaves.  

"We may be barbarians, but we pay for our pillaging!"

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Paramount Studios (Soho)

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Post # 285

Leaping Cats

Location: San Diego, California, USA
Address: 2920 Zoo Dr.
Date: Feb 2014
Website: www.sandiegozoo.org

    The year 2020 is a leap year.  This February 29th we celebrate one of the animal world's greatest leapers.  The serval is a cat that can jump over 9 feet into the air and over 11 feet distance horizontally.  This allows it to snatch a passing bird right out of the sly.

  We witnessed the serval's jumping skills first hand at the San Diego Zoo.  At the San Diego Zoo Safari Park another cat showed off its skills.  In the photo above a caracal launched itself and twisted upside down so it was parallel to the ground.  It did this to catch a little fuzzy toy that was spun around by a string.

  A caracal (above) can also leap over 9 feet into the air. The caracal wins the beauty pageant and ties in the high jump but the serval is the better hunter.  Both cats are relatively small and weigh up to 18kg.

  The serval has the biggest ears of any cat and the best hearing.  It also has the longest legs in proportion to its body.  Not to mention that it has black stripes that resemble those of a tiger.  Its long legs let it snatch rodents down tunnels and its curved claws let it hook fish right out of the water.

   It is said that when a serval pounces at prey it makes a successful kill 50 percent of the time.  In the video above it looks like it grabbed the toy 2 out of 3 times.  A leap year success rate is 1 out of every 4.

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San Diego Zoo (Backstage Pass) , San Diego Zoo Safari Park (Cheetah Run)

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Post # 279

Happy Days House

Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Address:  565 N Cahuenga Blvd.
Date: June 2019
Website:  www.paramountstudiotour.com

  Happy Days the popular television show ran for about 10 years after first airing in 1974.  It followed the life of Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) and his friend The Fonz (Henry Winkler).  The show was filmed at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles so it is not surprising that when they were looking for a home to stand in as the Cunningham residence they found one just a few streets over from the studio.

  Happy Days was filmed on Stage 19 of the Paramount Studios lot.  In the photo above, the red trolley is just about to pass the building.

  If you take the Paramount Studios Tour, Stage 19 is located right next to the tour entrance building on Melrose Avenue.

  On North Larchmont Avenue is Cafe Gratitude. After our Paramount tour we walked here for some vegan dishes.  A few streets further west is North Cahuenga Blvd.  The Happy Days house is located at number 565. The fictional house is supposed to be located in Millwaukee, Wisconsin at 565 North Clinton Drive.  At least they got the number right.

  Unlike some homes used in television or movies, this home has not changed much in the last 40 years so it was easy to recognize. Sunday and Monday are happy days. Tuesday and Wednesday are happy days. Thursday & Friday unfortunately appear to be garbage days.

  The house was used for exterior shots during the shows run. We enjoyed our brief visit to relive some Happy Days memories with the Cunninghams and of course Fonzie living over the garage. We give it two thumbs up. "Aaaay!"

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Cunningham Residence
Cafe Gratitude

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Post # 269

On The Set of Jeopardy!

Location: Culver City, California, USA
Address: 10202 Washington Blvd.
Date: June 2019
Website:  www.sonypicturesstudiostours.com

  As part of our Sony Pictures Studio tour we were going to visit either the set of Wheel of Fortune or the set of Jeopardy!  The Sony Pictures Studio Tour is a walking tour of the studio grounds.  Today's set visit was Jeopardy!  Contestants are given answers and then must phrase their response in the form of a question.  So if the answer was "A Merv Griffin created game show that has been around since 1964".  The question would be "What is Jeopardy!?"

  The two game show sound stages are located right beside each other on the lot so we walked past the Wheel of Fortune stage to get to Stage 10 for Jeopardy!

  Once inside we were face to face with the Jeopardy! contestants row.  Everyone in our group took turns pretending that they had what it takes to answer Jeopardy! questions.

  As we stepped behind the panel we could see the tablets they use to write their final answers.   There are also lights at each position to let the contestants know who buzzed in first.

  The photo above is of one of the buzzers in its holder.

Alex Trebek has been the host of Jeopardy! since 1984.  He has had some health issues recently but is fighting to keep going and he has the support of a legion of fans.

Jeopardy! has won 33 Daytime Emmys over the years.  There was a cabinet displaying the hardware.

  There were other awards on display such as the Jeopardy! college championship trophy.

  In 1932 this Danish company was formed making interlocking bricks for children.  What is Lego?  There was a Jeopardy! set made out of Lego.

  There was a photo of two Mr. Ts.  There was the Mr. T we know from The A-Team and the other Mr. T as in Trebek.  Both men were sporting lots of gold chains.

  There was a Toronto Maple Leaf Trebek jersey on display.  Alex is an avid sports fan and was born in Canada.  He wore this jersey during a video clue shoot.

  If you have ever watched the show and wondered what Alex is writing down during the show, we now know.  He has a chart of the board and he crosses out the answer once a contestant has given him the correct question.

  Finally we had a chance to sit in the audience in front of the set.  The front row is for a group of judges who have to decide if a question was given correctly or if something needs changing during the show.  The big game board was up on the stage, but the set was dark as there was no taping that day.  The answer is "We did!"  The question is "Who had a good time going behind the scenes on the set of Jeopardy!?"

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Sony Pictures Studios

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Post # 263