The Variety Parking Garage Tar Pits

With all the talk of the sulfuric smell near my work offices on Wilshire (dubbed The Miracle Mile Stench by LA Observed), it's worth noting that the whole area is bubbling with tar (not just the famed Pits).

Above, tar trickles down the wall in our parking garage at 5700 Wilshire Blvd (which is also equipped with methane alarms, to make sure there isn't a repeat of the 1985 Ross Dress For Less explosion near Fairfax).

Below, more pools of tar, which has thankfully been confined inside these metal barriers.







You'll, of course, remember that the Tar Pits were pivotal to the 1996 movie "Volcano," in which the area actually erupts -- complete with lava flowing down Wilshire Blvd. Variety isn't mentioned in the movie, but I doubt we would have published that day.