Month: June 2018

Going on vacation takes many forms.  If you’re traveling independently, taking a tour or staying on a ship for a cruise, you have your own room, cabin  or suite,  but  when you’re visiting friends, you stay with the host family and become a part of your friend’s life and may join in on his or her everyday activities. That’s what I did.

Marilyn has found the ideal exercise; she goes three times a week to  Water Aerobics! Those of us who live in warm climates usually have access to a pool and  in California, one of the requirements for a high school diploma was to pass a swimming test. Other friends and family of a “certain age” – on Medicare- find that this exercise gives a good workout but is also kind on the joints.  Since it was going to be a warm day, I was happy to join her.

The class was filled with seniors of many sizes and shapes, all working on becoming fit. As we danced to the hits of the 60s, I noticed a great enthusiasm among the participants.

After our exercise, we went back to Marilyn’s  to have a lunch composed of leftovers with a few additions, including California’s state fruit, the avocado, then continued on our afternoon activities.

California was born as a car culture, and getting us out of our cars is not easy.  I love public transit and find it fun to explore the various train and metro systems at home and on trips,  so we decided to take the metro.  Our destination was MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art, to see a photography exhibit.

We started our journey at the South Pasadena station.

Step one: buy a ticket.  Buying tickets at a new automated machine is always a challenge, as  we pushed the wrong buttons, didn’t have the right change..did it over and over until we got it right.  Good thing we weren’t pressed for time. The price is reasonable: a senior traveling during non-peak hours can use the system for 35 cents – surely cheaper than buying gas (at almost $4 a gallon currently) and paying for parking.  We started our journey above ground, then the light rail turned into a subway as we transferred. The photo below is courtesy of the internet, since I didn’t want to take my phone out at a busy station. It was enough to follow the lines and get on the right train. Our destination: downtown Los Angeles .

The area we were visiting is called Bunker Hill, an urban renewal project that began in the 1980s and continues to this day. Gorgeous Art Deco buildings from the 20s and 30s mix and mingle with modern glass monsters, soaring to the sky.  It’s a frightening mix of design, and almost freaky to realize that we’re looking up to see the top of an ultra modern high-rise in the middle of an earthquake zone. Each building, old or new, has a unique theme and design, yet they all coexist together.

Imagine being a pedestrian on a street corner!

We meandered in the second building in this photo  series to get a better view of a lovely older structure.  This is the Edison building, built in 1931, as an Art Deco masterpiece of its time by Alison and Alison.  The fourteen story building was one of the first all-electrically heated and cooled  buildings  in the United States.  It is on the corner of Fifth and Grand. Originally the home of a utility company, there are seven types of marble as well as limestone in the lobby; the mural by Hugo Ballin is entitled “Power.” It has been modernized and even has free wi- fi, with comfortable lounge chairs. It’s the perfect place to take a break before we walk up the steep hill.  The first two images above and the four below were taken from online sources.

Our destination was MOCA, next door to the Omni Hotel and a few blocks away from  Disney Hall, at First and Grand, the vibrant concert hall funded by the family of Walt Disney.  No, it doesn’t have Mickie Mouse ears, but it does have a unique design, created by one of the geniuses of contemporary architecture, Frank Gehry, a resident of this fair city. The stainless steel structure with curving lines is one of the city’s 21st century landmarks. Compare that structure with the Los Angeles Public Library a few blocks away on Sixth and Grand, like a beautiful aging dowager among a sea of young shining skyscrapers and you can understand why Los Angeles architecture is so fascinating . Next trip I’ll take a historic tour of downtown. I did a tour of Disney Hall – highly recommended- a year or so ago,  but there’s still so much more to see in the neighborhood .

We got to MOCA an hour before its extended hours closing, in time to see three photographers from their collection.  I wanted to see the work of Brassaï, a 20th century Hungarian-Frenchman who spent the evening hours exploring Paris after dark.  Like Toulouse Lautrec, he was fascinated with colorful café clientele and their unusual habits.   He roamed through bars and brothels, capturing the essence  of their experiences.

The last photo here, of the blonde, is by Diane Arbus, another photographer who also seeks out unusual people for her street photography.  This lady almost seemed  “normal,” as compared to other images in the collection but something drew me to her.

We decided that we were hungry after all our viewing, so we left the land of superstructures and headed by cab to Chinatown for a small dinner of egg flower soup and mu shu chicken, then took the Chinatown metro back from there. It had gotten cool and windy in the later hours so the soup and hot tea were especially soothing.

I have one day left.  My short flight home leaves at 2:00 but I still have another neighborhood to visit, and a trip to my favorite brunch place. We try to cram a lot of activities into each visit, which isn’t hard to do in such a diverse and fascinating city.

The day was bright and sunny as I began my afternoon adventure.

Yep, there were dinosaurs in California all those prehistoric years ago, and they got stuck in the mud!  The area around Los Angeles was loaded with the remains of dangerous  critters, like  the saber-toothed tiger and the Dire Wolf, and they were preserved in the La Brea Tar pits on Wilshire boulevard, in downtown L.A., where past and present come alive in one setting, and where I began my walk.

Marilyn dropped me off near Wilshire boulevard while she took her sick kitty to the vet, and I walked through the area of the tar pits, admiring the displays and models of the prehistoric beasts. Lamborghinis and BMWs now zoom down the  street where the beasts once roamed. What a heady thought!

My destination, however, wasn’t the tar pits, where these beasts got – literally – stuck in the tar and beautifully preserved, but to the museum that is part of the complex, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, known as LACMA. I was there to visit one of my favorite artists, David Hockney.

Meandering through ponds, fountains, and outdoor art, I found the admission booth and bought my ticket. It’s cheaper if you’re a local, but that’s okay. This is one of my favorite places to visit and there’s always something new to see, or old masters to enjoy again. It is the largest art museum in the western United States, and holds more than 150,000 works spanning the history of art from ancient times to the present.

David Hockney is quite the guy. He was born in 1937 and studied art in his native England until 1964, but the lure of the warmth of Southern California brought him here a year later. He was inspired to make a series of paintings of swimming pools in acrylic, then a new medium, using vibrant colors. He’s known for his use of strong colors which bring life to his work. He’s famous also for his theater sets and I’ve enjoyed his opera sets at performances of Puccini’s Turandot and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at the San Francisco Opera. These photos are courtesy of the internet.

The saturated bold colors of Turandot were, at my first viewing, almost a shock to the eyes, but as the opera progressed, the dynamic sets fit in with the drama of music and story. As you can see, his style for the sets of The Rake’s Progress evoked a totally different feel:  soft colors with childlike, almost cartoonish drawings, which, again, paired with the dissonant tones of the music and the satirical mood of the storyline.

Hockney experiments in a variety of media, from painting, photo collages, printmaking, and water colors;  he even made a drawing program for the iPad. He always returns to portraits, however, and the exhibit I was about to see is called 82 Portraits and 1 Still Life, which started at the Royal Academy in London, then traveled to Venice and Bilbao, and is now at LACMA.  He calls the paintings “24 hour exposures” because each sitting took six to seven hours on three consecutive days. All this exhausting work was done at age 80 – pretty amazing. His subjects were friends, family, employees, associates and children and grandchildren of these various associations.

The young man on the right had the only criticism of the artist’s work: he said Hockney forgot to add the eraser on the end of the pencil. Can you see it?  There was a list of people and their relation to the artist on large laminated cards that observers carried around. There was another card  written by one of the subjects who posed, telling of her experience. Sounds like tiring work, even though she was “ just sitting” – for hours and hours. Hmm..maybe it’s not so easy.

The rooms were painted a bold tomato red and the portraits were carefully placed with plenty of room, so the observer could spend time examining the images – the expressions, clothing, and attitudes of each subject,  all alike yet all different. The date and time of the creation was recorded, as well as the name of the person, and the work is considered as “one”. I was fascinated not only by the individual  portraits, but by the work as a whole, as were the others who were in the room with me. I was lucky to have been there when it wasn’t crowded.  The show continues until the end of July.

• My last stop at LACMA was to visit a very popular display called “Urban Light,” which has become  a beloved landmark for the people of L.A. In 2000,  sculptor Chris Burden’s then ten year old son Max gave him the idea for this installation when he was delighted to find old neighborhood light posts at the Rose Bowl Flea Market. Chris found the first street lamps there and eventually assembled 202 of them. The total number of bulbs is 309 because some lamp posts have two bulbs. The lamps are set by an astronomical timer that automatically adjusts to local sunrise and sunset. The lamps are from various L.A. neighborhoods that were used during the 20s and 30s and he sandblasted, power-coated , repainted and repaired them. They were placed at the entrance to the museum and the installation  has become an important tourist attraction.  The display now has LED lights, thanks to a birthday gift  from the Leonardo Di Caprio foundation. Social media has propelled its popularity and people are always there, taking selfies of themselves and friends. It’s a gathering place and a delight to be there as both a participant and observer. I waited for Marilyn and watched the people and pets come and go.

The day wasn’t over, even though the museum had closed. Marilyn dropped off a sleepy, recovering cat home,  picked me up and we headed down to Westwood, near UCLA, where we visited the Hammer Museum, founded by industrialist Armand Hammer to house his personal collection. The biennial called Made in LA is currently on, showcasing the work of 32 local artists, who range in age from 29 to 97. These artists exemplify the diverse and creative spirit of the city.  It was new, fresh, and fun!

As the skies darkened, we got a quick bite to eat before heading home to rest up for another day of adventures in L.A.

Note: photos of Made in L.A. and nighttime views of “Urban Light” below are courtesy of the Internet. My phone ran out of steam…as did I.  There’s always tomorrow.

 

It has been a while since I’ve posted because my part-time work with students took over my life from February until June and I haven’t been lucky enough to take time off for even a lunch out with friends during the week. I’ve been free during weekends, however, so all of my socializing took place then.

There was one exception: I did a quick overnight to Las Vegas on Memorial Day weekend to meet up with cousin Marshall , whom I haven’t seen since he was 12 and I was 13. He grew up in Chicago and went to college in Colorado, then lived overseas for many years, so our paths just didn’t cross. He now lives in AZ with his wife Galina, so we met at the timeshare of my sister and brother-in-law for a brief visit.

The three cousins relaxed on the couch at the Grandview timeshare, then we hit the casino across the street for the Wes Winters show and did a little gambling. My cousin’s wife enjoyed both the show and the slot machines but none of us hit any jackpots.  It was a short but fun trip for me, and then it was back to work.

My sister and brother-in-law stayed with me for a week the beginning of June  and they visited with Bay Area friends, as I was finishing  up my last week of work.  We still had time to visit friends, eat out and sneak off for a sisters’ brunch in a cute new local eatery while my brother- in -law was taking a nap.

Yesterday I was at SFO, on a plane bound for Burbank to visit my friend Marilyn! Finally I’m on the road again.

I normally fly United out of terminal 3, but this time I flew Southwest, so I had the opportunity to walk through all the terminals, to find the security line for Southwest passengers at terminal 1. I love this airport! It’s the nicest, cleanest, and most fascinating place to visit. There are about fifteen different museums scattered throughout the space as well as wonderful exhibits of photography. I greatly enjoyed the thirty minute stroll to get to security. I celebrated my freedom from the world of ( part time) work by having a strawberry margarita before takeoff.

When I arrived, Marilyn and I  also  celebrated my return to Los Angeles by having coffee in beautiful downtown Burbank, as Johnny Carson used to call it

The cafés and restaurants are cute and the street life intrigued me  I’ll have to practice getting more people on the streets shots without being too intrusive.

Later in the evening we enjoyed a sumptuous repast with Marilyn and her daughter Sarah at Mi Piace, an Italian restaurant in Pasadena  on Colorado Boulevard, the venue  for the yearly Rose Bowl parade. We munched on bits of delicious garlic bread before we got our entrees –   I had meat lasagna – then  indulged ourselves on one of their specialties, tiramisu. The Chianti Classico was superb!

I was greeted by the household’s two cats before settling in for the evening, then shortly thereafter, nodding off into slumberland.

More to come..

I hope you are enjoying your summer, where ever you are!