Culver City & West Hollywood

This morning I did a tour of Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. Several of the big movie studios fall under Sony - including Columbia Pictures, TriStar, and Screen Gems. A lot of movies and TV shows have been filmed on the lot over the years, and its facilities have been used by countless artists.

I always enjoy visiting the big movie studio lots in L.A. and it's been a few years since I've done the Sony one.

The tour was really good, and coincidentally we saw a lot of Ghostbusters stuff on the tour, since it's one of the franchises that is part of Sony. I saw some props and costumes from the movies, and the cars used for filming.

As a special treat, and apparently something that happens very rarely on these tours, we visited Ghost Corps which is the office used by the people who are involved in the production of Ghostbusters movies, such as the one that came out last year. They had so much cool stuff on display, so it was really fun to visit.

We also saw the stage where major composers like Hans Zimmer and John Williams record iconic movie scores for the biggest movies. Apparently, I sat on Spielberg's favorite couch in the studio, haha.

In terms of sound stages, we saw the set for the American version of Wheel of Fortune which was also fun to see.

After the tour, I switched to my next hotel, which is in West Hollywood, right on the Sunset Strip, and across the street from the legendary Comedy Store.

I had dinner at the Rainbow Bar & Grill, a venue frequented by many rock stars over the years. Lemmy from Mötörhead hung out there all the time before he died, and it was used in a couple of music videos by Guns N' Roses. It's a really cool place, and the area has so much history, with places nearby like the Whisky A Go Go, the Roxy, and the Viper Room.

I was actually supposed to go on a rock-themed walking tour of the area, but unfortunately, the tour guide canceled because he got sick.

Instead, I went to The Hollywood Improv, another famous comedy club in the area. I saw a two-hour comedy show headlined by four legends - Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall, Jay Mohr, and Howie Mandel. All of them were pretty good, and it was a nice last-minute replacement when the walking tour was canceled unexpectedly.

Tomorrow - another studio tour and comedy show is on my schedule!もっと詳しく