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Los Angeles, California
I watched the stars get smaller, tiny diamonds in my memory
I went out of my way to see the recently renovated (and generally free) Griffith Observatory- the star, visitor friendly attraction in Griffith Park. The building is a free science museum, an actual telescopic observatory, a planetarium, a restaurant, a frequent location for filming and a gift shop all rolled into one. Additionally it is a great building to explore- exterior staircases wind up and down to give you rooftop access (like this photo of the sign over the main entrance) as well as to balconies and terraces with unbelievable views all across the southland.
Right outside the observatory, an especially photogenic although most likely useless column of scientists (Johannes Kepler, Galileo and Copernicus are pictured from left to right) stands guard against an almost purple blue sky of wonderfully puffy clouds.
Not only is the observatory a great place from which to look up, it is also a great place from which to look down. After another rainy day in Los Angeles cleared out all of the bad air, crystal clear views broke out in all directions, making places as far off as downtown, Westwood and even the Pacific Ocean feel close enough to touch.
Griffith Park is more than just the observatory and the Three's Company Zoo (which I’m pretty sure is it’s official name), it is also home to the iconic and hard to miss Hollywood sign, the star attraction of a great view from the observatory but one that the eternally depressed James Dean memorial statue is unlikely to ever see. The Griffith Observatory has been featured in many films (see Wikipedia if you don't believe me), but it's James Dean's fifty year old "Rebel Without a Cause" and its climactic scenes that still get all of the attention.
One of the things that is great about Los Angeles is that there are actual mountains and actual hiking trails within the city's limits. To reach the observatory, I decided to take advantage of such trails and walk up the reasonably short (but especially scenic) section from the Greek Theatre up to the summit. The trails were easy (enough) but totally unmarked, an odd condition considering how many maintained trails there were and how many directions and landmarks there are. And while I did not get lost (my trail pretty much always just went up), it was certainly easy to spot all those other hikers who clearly had no idea where the hell they were going.
Fans (or victims) of slideshows know, just know, that as soon as they see pictures from Los Angeles that sooner or later they're bound to see pictures of the Getty Center, one of those places that is both easy to photograph and hard to take a bad picture of. And since there is likely little I can still write that I haven't written before, I've decided to go back in time to dig up reasonably representative quotes from the Getty's past six slideshow appearances to go with the six pictures below. Some (as always) are better than others. Enjoy.
The building got a lot nicer the deeper I looked, it wasn't the typical skin deep Meier building, and the stone, the stone. I liked the stone, ok.
- December 1998
Depending on my mood, the clarity of my recollections, even the company I'm keeping, I find I either really like or really hate this place.
- January 2002
Perched high atop Brentwood and the 405, just south of Sepulveda Pass is the Getty Center, the six (or seven) year old, billon dollar complex of museums and gardens meant to house a rather expensive collection of boring art. The complex (designed by New York architect Richard Meier) is reachable by a magical little train that unfortunately parallels a much less magical little service road.
- February 2004
Over the years my feelings about the Getty Center have shifted past a grudging appreciation to a real admiration. There are pieces of it that I still like more than others but as a whole it still holds up after so many visits.
- November 2005
Every other sentence I say something completely different- it's either the greatest thing ever conceived by man or somehow disappointing, as if there is some easy answer to such a complicated place.
- June 2006
The other Getty is right where I left it, (still) basking in the sun just off the 405 as it climbs Sepulveda Pass as it (still) enjoys hilltop views from Santa Monica all the way to Century City.
- January 2007
