Burbank Bounty: Matt Parkman


My suspicions yesterday were correct: Burbank is a hotbed of Heroes posters. I found this one of Matt on Alameda, just east of NBC.

Sure enough, in the blocks around NBC, Heroes has a stranglehold on the bus shelters, often with two back-to-back posters at a single bus stop.

I could have spared myself yesterday's walk, because I saw probably close to ten Sylars today, including this one back-to-back with Mohinder (to take this, I had to stand in the middle of Magnolia with traffic bearing down on me. Hence the half-assed framing).



I saw every single character poster in Burbank today, most multiple times.

Well, almost.

You know who I didn't see? Maya.

Does a Maya poster exist? I've been proceeding on faith that one does, just because it would be odd to give the other eleven regular third-season cast members their own individual posters and skip over poor Maya, but there's been no trace of her.

And this is especially vexing: some rat bastard (rat bastards, plural, most likely) has been stealing the Heroes posters from the bus shelters. You know that photo of that Mohinder poster in yesterday's blog post? He's gone--there's nothing but empty space where he used to be. The Claire on Wilshire and the Hiro on Wilshire have also been swiped. On Vermont and Hollywood Boulevard today I spotted maybe a dozen empty spaces where posters had been stolen. No way to be sure those were Heroes posters, but why do I think people aren't stealing the Beverly Hills Chihuahua posters?

Anyway, this was today's route: since I've done Wilshire to death, I took the bus down Wilshire to Vermont to save myself the walk (I spotted the missing posters from the bus). I walked up Vermont to Hollywood and then west on Hollywood Boulevard to Highland. Hopped the subway through the hills to North Hollywood. Headed west on Magnolia into Burbank. Walked all around Burbank, on Magnolia and Hollywood and Buena Vista and Olive and Alameda.

Burbank is lovely. I like Burbank. It's got plenty of cute bakeries and pretty little restaurants and a great public library, which are the sorts of things that make my soul happy. However, thanks to the way it's nestled in the pretty hills, Burbank also has INSANELY MONSTROUS SCORCHING HEAT in the summer months. Especially today. The heat kind of knocked me on my ass during my aimless wanderings. Unpleasant!

After exhausting Burbank, I headed east on Alameda into Glendale. The intention was to check out the poster situation in downtown Glendale, but I couldn't make it there--I took a shortcut that got me mired in a no-man's-land by the Metrolink tracks, and I was badly faltering in the INSANELY MONSTROUS SCORCHING HEAT, so I caught the first bus out of Glendale and back into Los Angeles. It dropped me off in Chinatown, where I found plenty of Heroes posters... but still no Maya. Wandered through the jewelry district and Pershing Square and Bunker Hill before giving it up and catching a bus home.

So I overdid it today. Feeling pretty crappy right now, actually. The total mileage is hard to figure, what with all the random dithering around, but the first leg of my journey (Vermont/Hollywood) was 5.42 miles, the second leg (North Hollywood/Burbank/Glendale) was 8.8. Add the downtown meaderings to that, and I walked over fifteen miles again today.

I'm done. By now, I've seen every poster multiple times... but no sign of Maya. Until I have proof a poster for Maya exists and I'm not just tilting at windmills, I'm going to stop actively searching for her. Over the past nine days, I've walked over a hundred miles. I've visited the following cities and neighborhoods in search of these damn posters: Los Angeles, West L.A., Westwood, Brentwood, Santa Monica, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Rancho Park, Palms, Culver City, Century City, Koreatown, Downtown, Hancock Park, North Hollywood, Burbank, Glendale, Los Feliz, Little Armenia, Thai Town, Little Ethiopia, and Chinatown. I've cut a huge swath through the city.

Plans for tomorrow involve sitting in a cold, dark room and drinking endless glasses of iced tea.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Maybe you'd find Maya if you'd walked five hundred miles?
Morgan Richter said…
Don't tease, my dear. So much walking! So much sun! Burbank's a lovely place, but I never want to wander aimlessly through its sunny, sunny streets ever again.

Seriously, though, where's Maya? What's the deal?
Morgan Dodge said…
I think this may be a case for the Hardy Boys (or perhaps those DNA testing New York teens?).

Obviously someone is trying to frame you for the theft of these posters. They read your blog, track where you have been, and then steal them. The fingers are obviously pointed at you, obsessed poster fan who goes all the way to Burbank to find more of them. Who else would be stealing them?

Only the clever fingerprinting skills of Joe Hardy can clear you! Where are you when we need you Joe?
Morgan Richter said…
I had the very same thought! It doesn't appear that anyone is Using My Blog For Evil(tm), as I didn't give the intersection of the Mo poster that disappeared (I did say it was on Wilshire in Koreatown, though, which is plenty of information, I suppose). I got an email from some awesome person who is doing her own investigation into the eBay vendors who have procured these posters through fishy means -- she's going to contact NBC about it. Who needs Joe Hardy anyway?
Morgan Dodge said…
Is she named Nancy Drew by any chance?
I hope that she catches the pillagers of the posters ("We would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for those kids and that dog!").

In the mean time, any idea what they're selling for? I know your birthday isn't for a while... but...
Morgan Richter said…
Heh. I suspect they're selling for gobs of money. Hence the high number of purloined posters. That's quite all right -- much as I love Mohinder, I don't need a life-size poster of him, thank you very much.
Anonymous said…
Who knew stealing bus posters was such a profit industry?! A quick search on eBay ("Heroes bus posters") brought up Noah, Claire and Peter, all starting at $10 with $12 shipping. Er, you can buy Claire instantly for $50 (+12). Strange world.
Morgan Richter said…
Well, that's bloody ridiculous. They're pretty awesome posters, but as I told Boy-Morgan, while I love staring at Mohinder's pretty, pretty face, I have no earthly need to own a Mo bus poster. If someone gave me one, I guess I'd tape it to the back of the closet or something.

Any market for Beverly Hills Chihuahua posters? Or House Bunny posters? Because Los Angeles is currently blanketed in those...
Frodi said…
Maya has finally surfaced...but not in a poster. NBC finally released all of the pictures:

http://www.watchingheroes.com/new-heroes-season-3-promo-pics-all-characters-including-the-elusive-maya/
Morgan Richter said…
Cool about the Maya poster -- it still seems so strange that it's been so hard to find on the streets. Good to know poor Maya wasn't totally excluded after all, though. Maybe the poster will turn up at a bus stop somewhere at some point.