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Yep, the Magic Castle sure has gone downhill on my last few visits. That's not to say I know all about it and its illustrious history. I think, after the land is sold, it will be a long, steady decline ... and the end will come at an appropriate time for such an icon and institution.
The land it and Yamashiro call home, despite the presence of a few taudry motels sharing the space, is a fabulous bit of hilly parkland in the midst of safe zone Hollywood. It's inevitable that it would be sold and developed.
Recent Hollywood development mystifize me. There's dozens of very hip clubs, frantically busy on Saturday nights, with parking fees rivaling Manhattan. Trendy lofts are going up everywhere, and mall-clone shops opening in more and more parts of town.
BUT ... most of the place is still skeezy as ever, competely creepy and vaguely unsafe. It's a weird mix.
Anyways, I've heard some surprisingly good things about Yamashiro's, despite how touristy it is. Perhaps, when swanking season returns with the Fall, we should make a pilgramige up there one Autumn evening.
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