Hooray for Hollywood!

It’s a crisp autumn morning as I’m writing this blog, and we’ve just had Daylight Saving Time, which means we’ve stolen an extra hour but the nights will be darker earlier. It’s always a bit of a bittersweet feeling around this time, because the midday sun is really the only chance for a bit of warmth outside (at least here in the Northeast) and soon enough the hectic holidays will be upon us.

This past month, I had a chance to escape from the cooler climes in New York, where my partner and I live, and visit sunny Los Angeles for the first time. Despite having seen the city in countless movies and TV shows – as most of us have – I had never visited before. One of my all-time favorite musical artists is Joni Mitchell, and when she announced earlier this year that she would be giving a live concert at the Hollywood Bowl, I immediately knew I had to make the trip to see her. I’ve been a fan of her music and artistry since college, thanks to my mom, who introduced me to her favorite singer-songwriters (Carole King and Carly Simon also among them). This was Joni’s first headlining concert in California in 24 years, and she has only given a very small number of live performances in recent years after overcoming a series of health challenges that threatened to extinguish her performing career.

I had been planning to choose a different topic for this month’s blog, but once I saw Boardwalk Puzzles’ puzzle, Hollywood (500 pcs.), which captured the spirit of the city so well, I realized that I wanted to do a puzzle to commemorate my trip. I know I’ve mentioned this in past blog posts, but I love to do puzzles that tie into my travels and remind me of favorite places I’ve visited. 

Boardwalk Puzzles, which encompasses Dowdle Puzzles as well as their own line of puzzles with different artwork, has had some really great images lately, so I was curious to try one of them and see how they compare with the traditional Dowdle-branded puzzles that I was used to already. 

In terms of the packaging, Boardwalk’s Hollywood puzzle has a box that is very close to Dowdle’s (as I mentioned above, Boardwalk encompasses both their own puzzles and the Dowdle brand). It’s a deep box with a magnetic closure that comes inside a glossy cardboard sleeve with the puzzle image on it. I like the quality of these boxes, even though they’re a little bit large in terms of the space they take up on your puzzle shelf. Inside the box, a reusable plastic bag and a poster with the puzzle image are also included, which are nice features.

The pieces themselves are also similar – possibly identical – to those from that I’m used to from Dowdle. They have a blue cardboard backing and a glossy front. The pieces are on the smaller side, but not so small that they are too difficult to work with.

My first step was to sort. I decided on four basic categories: edge pieces, pieces with text or signs with lettering, pieces with sky or landscape, and everything else. Since the puzzle is only 500 pieces, it took me about 30 minutes or so to sort, and because these pieces are so colorful it was fun to see how much fun detail was packed onto each one.

Aside from a few edge pieces that I had accidentally missorted, the rest of the border came together quickly.

The first other section that stood out to me was the area encompassing the Hollywood hills and the iconic sign. I loved the fireworks on the left hand side of the puzzle, as well as the nod to the movie E.T. over the moon.

When my partner Rick and I were in L.A., we went on a guided hike up to the Hollywood sign. Along the way, there was a perfect spot to stop and take photos with the sign framed above us in the background. In the puzzle, the hills look a lot more lush and green around the sign itself. In reality, the terrain is a mix of hearty greenery and dusty almost desert-like conditions. But I have to admit that the way it looks in the puzzle is a lot nicer. 

After finishing the Hollywood hills, I put together the pieces with writing and signs in them next. I absolutely love puzzles that have text in them, especially featuring a variety of different font and writing styles. This puzzle was no exception. I really enjoyed this part of the puzzle. And I usually find that, in puzzles with writing on them, piecing together the signs and phrases and placing them within the puzzle offers a really useful framework of sorts for the rest of the puzzle that comes after.

From there, I basically improvised the rest of the puzzle using the pieces that I had left. The roadway with its distinct purple color, the flashy sports cards, and the dinosaur were easy to spot and pull out, as were some of the roofs buildings.

Since our main purpose in visiting L.A. was visiting the Hollywood Bowl, I was glad that the artist included the iconic venue in the puzzle image. Here are Rick and I before the concert. I think the puzzle’s depiction does a great job capturing the infectious energy of the place. The seating goes back so far! It was fun to look back at the sea of people and realize we were all there with the same purpose of seeing an artist we love live on stage.

Here’s the image of the finished puzzle. I really enjoyed how vibrant and colorful this image was. For me, it had a nice balance of capturing what the place actually looks like but making it appear heightened in a way. The artist, James K. Poai, did a nice job achieving that. His style is somewhat similar to Eric Dowdle’s, but I think his image for this puzzle is a tad more playful than his more traditional folk art style, which I appreciated.

If you’ve enjoyed this image but want more of a challenge, it’s also available in a larger 1,000-piece version.

Or if you’re looking for a more whimsical take on Hollywood and L.A., Ceaco also makes a Thomas Kinkaide puzzle in a great 750-piece size called Mickey and Minnie Hollywood, prominently featuring the TCL (formerly Grauman’s) Chinese Theatre and the Hollywood sign, with iconic Disney characters in the foreground.

Or, if you’re a fan of mini puzzles and/or map puzzles, here’s a cute novelty option – a 100-piece L.A. map puzzle by Geo Toys.

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle trip to Hollywood. Whether you’re planning to visit for yourself, or if you just love the city from its depictions on the silver screen (or from following the behind-the-scenes travails of the Hollywood film industry), some of the iconic places there have taken on a larger-than-life stature in our collective imagination. The Hollywood sign, the Walk of Fame, the Chinese Theatre – all of these are now iconic places that most folks can recognize at a glance. I was happy to be able to escape there this past month and experience the slightly warmer temperatures for a long weekend, and to be able to finally say I’ve seen some of these famous spots up close. But even if you’re only visiting via puzzle, there is much to enjoy in Boardwalk Puzzles’ version of the scene – Hooray for Hollywood, indeed!

-Richard (@piecebypiecepuzzler / YouTube channel: Piece By Piece Puzzler)