Photo Op: Broadway Sun, Santeria

My friends from the north are backlit so heavenly, I just had to share. This was taken just outside the Bradbury Building at Third and Broadway. If you look closely, you can see the edge of Farmacia Million Dollar - one of my favorite downtown stores. Those of you who practice the Santeria undoubtedly know of this gem already. It may be one of the only places in town where you can walk in with $10 and walk out with a penis-shaped candle, a box of aspirin and bad mojo. Once I bought a girlfriend a bar of soap that promised to turn her into a ravishing dominatrix, able to put me in my place and then some. She never opened the box. Eventually, of course, we split and began the inevitable pattern of on-again, off-again booty calls that seem to plague the end of all relationships wherein one partner refuses the voodoo soap. Shortly thereafter it was said she could be found in stores along Broadway, searching for a bar of soap that would cleanse the stain of a relationship gone down the shitter. Here’s a great article all about Farmacia Million Dollar replete with photos.

Now back to the Bradbury side of the street. Anthony Quinn, what’s not to love about you. This mural is called The Pope of Broadway, and it has a pretty interesting background story. Back in the day one of my buddies worked in the Bradbury Building at the online division of the Times. Legend has it he used to stare at maestro Quinn all day, every day. When a tap-dancing Christlike Quinn ye see, happy workers ye surely be.

Bonus photos
Bradbury, Bradbury, Bradbury