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Los Angeles, California
You can check out any time you like but you can never leave
We’re back in Los Angeles because that’s just who we are, there’s no denying it any more. In fact this page includes photos from two very different trips to Los Angeles this year. The first was only a few days after the Winter Classic, while the second far more consequential trip took place in October. Why was it more consequential you ask? Be patient, you’ll find out all too soon enough.
And the pictures, well you already know that they’re from Richard Meier’s Getty Center. And since you know that some are from January and some are from October, that will explain away some of the otherwise dramatic light changes that might seem impossible for a single weekend visit.
I am liking LACMA’s new Renzo Piano designed addition more and more. And if given time and I’m kind of over that way anyway, I’m pretty sure I’ll find myself back there again and again.
There is something new and noticeable to see at LACMA. A great big rock, specifically Michael Heizer's "Levitated Mass" in the backyard of LACMA on Wilshire. You can walk under it, but those little steel supports kind of give away the magic, making it look better from above instead.
One of the better ice cream sandwiches at the Rem free Cool Haus truck parked in the brand new Grand Park downtown. The park just opened and received a lot of great press, but the reality is kind of unexciting. A real missed opportunity if you ask me.
Yes, the October trip was far more consequential (more on that soon), but the January trip included a visit to Baldwin Park, off the 10 past El Monte, which is home to In-N-Out University. If it was accredited, I’d consider going for my PhD there, but apparently its just an employee training center, kind of like the University of Phoenix but more double double related.
After all of the many times I have been out here in Los Angeles, this is the first time that I finally got myself over to the remarkable Bradbury Building, famous for the film Blade Runner. And even though I did not see any replicants in the glorious atrium, the security guard did in fact kind of look like Rutger Hauer. Good to see he has a job I guess.
Since it was October and I was in Los Angeles, I headed over to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery (where a few of the Ramones among others are buried) to see the big Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival. It involves a lot of skeletal face painting, some people dressed up like Aztecs and Mayans, music, food and (most interestingly) a judged competition of generally creepy displays scattered across the cemetery grounds. Some displays looked like altars while others chose different routes.
I really prefer the airport in Burbank as opposed to LAX, so this October instead of taking the direct JetBlue flight from JFK to Burbank, I booked through United where all of my miles were, a flight which included a stopover both ways in San Francisco. This will become important later.
If you paid attention to the news, then you know what happened in late October in New York. Hurricane, er, Superstorm Sandy hit, and before you knew it, my flights were cancelled and I was on the phone on hold for hours still not getting through. Since my plane to San Francisco was not cancelled, I headed over to Burbank Airport just like I would have done normally, returned my rental car on time and approached the United agent with an idea. Maybe I could get closer to Newark on the same ticket, say in Chicago (or even Denver), and wait out the cancellation there. This way if I get stuck in Chicago with another cancelled flight, I have more options to get back east. If they open up DC or Baltimore or Boston or Philadelphia up before Newark and Amtrak still works, I can take a train back to my car (which is safe in a parking deck). Also they'll have flights to all three NY airports so if all of the Newark bound flights are jammed I have more options to get out earlier. The United agent quickly shot my theory down, told me that I had only two options, I could take the flight to San Francisco or stay in Los Angeles. I decided to go forward and get on the plane, and then wait out whatever was going on after that.
