If you live in Los Angeles, or if you are a die-hard fan of the Beatles visiting the city, you may know about this tree, the George Harrison tree, located inside Griffith Park, at the edge of the Observatory parking lot. I found it accidentally once, while going to the Observatory with some visitors out of town, but it is really not very obvious… and the memorial looks as quiet and discreet as the former Beatle. Strangely, it is not too far away from a James Dean statue to remind us that ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ was filmed there… in Los Angeles, stars always collide. Thus a pine tree was planted there in 2004 to honor the former Beatle, who died in LA in 2001, with a commemorative plaque to go with it. Not a big deal really. Harrison was an avid gardener during his life, and the city could have done a bit better than this? What about a small garden? I know that George was very humble, but still.
According to the LA Times, a very ironic thing happened recently: Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge told the LA Times over the weekend that the pine tree died as the result of an insect infestation… yeah, the beetles killed it! The tree was already 10 feet tall but according to the Times many trees in Griffith Park have been the victims of bark beetles and ladybug beetles.
Just a few days ago (on July 19th) another Beatle (Ringo Starr) was playing a show with his all Starr band at the Greek theater, also located inside Griffith park. I don’t know if anyone told him, because he may have had a good laugh about it.
