cover for Grand Avenue CD
© 1999
Miron Murcury is an artist who paints, sculpts, draws, and takes photographs. He lives near and often works in the Grand Lake Business District in Oakland, California. He's also a writer. And he's a past director of the Oakland Film Society. Here we take a brief look at one aspect of Miron's photography.
In 1999, Miron completed a CD of photos titled "The Grand Lake Theatre and The Grand Avenue"; this exhibit focuses on part of that CD. The CD contains over 555 photographs which can be viewed on either a MAC or a PC. These include many photos of the exterior and the interior of the Grand Lake Theatre, and even some areas that customers would be unlikely to see. This photo CD includes every building on Grand Avenue (at that time) between Highway 580 and the Piedmont border. It also includes many photos of the Oakland Rose Garden and of Frank Rowicki's mural "The Grand Experience."
In 1999 and 2000, Miron did extensive retouching of the entrance to the Grand Lake Theatre and of its interior. As an aside, it is interesting that the owner, Allen Michaan, had him retouch a number of areas that customers, and even most staff members, are never likely to see.
Featured here are seven images selected from the many Grand Lake Theatre photos on Miron's CD.
New CD
There is a newer CD entitled "The Historic Grand Lake Theater" © 2005.
In the 2005 CD, I particularly like:
- the decision to focus on the Grand Lake Theater
- that the presentation is multimedia: images, a movie, music and text
- the image of the Grand Lake Theater on the CD
- the roof sign image & the movie of the roof sign flashing
- the organ music selections
- the historical images and text
- the images of inside the theater and the accompanying text
- that some of the images of inside the theater include places most of us will never see
In other words, I like just about everything.
The 2005 CD may be available at:
- Walden Pond Books
- The Smoke Shop
- several other places I've forgotten
Walden Pond Books and The Smoke Shop are in the same block of Grand Avenue and on the same side of the street as the Grand Lake Theater.