not of this earth

when driving, attention is sometimes too focused on the road and other cars to notice the scenery.  taking the train and bus gives you time to look out the window, but more importantly, also makes you walk a little.  one place i used to walk by was the lot where "everywoman's village" was.  apparently, it closed down in 1999, ending a 30+ year run of educating van nuys.  i regret not taking pictures of the lone building that still had a mural on it, which has since given way to some new cookie-cutter thing that's as forgettable as well, all the other stuff i've forgotten.  there are some photos over at life magazine, unfortunately mostly interior ones (on the way to yoga, art class, more art class, even more art).

living with the regret of that time, i took the following series of pictures while walking through culver city on my way from the bus stop to my final destination.

chances are pretty good this building won't disappear anytime soon.  though you may wonder about the value of a science-fiction museum, not too far away from this building is the museum of jurassic technology, which is far weirder than science-fiction.

what exactly is this building that has this wonderful mural on it?  this is the culver city department of motor vehicles.  i think they were hoping that one day they would be issuing permits for driving on the moon.  perhaps they still harbor that hope.  after all, spacex is only a few miles away in hawthorne.

the dmv isn't exactly well known for its aesthetics nor its preservation like, say, l.a. dwp.  however, it's also not as well-known for conspicous building renovation as, say, lausd.

so long as people are living and driving in culver city, i'm guessing this mural is pretty safe.  hopefully those folks appreciate this as much as us hikers.