So, as a few of you know I've been itching to see the Kubrick exhibit at LACMA in LA for the last 9 months. Itching might not be the right word here, obsessing might be better term. But with my temulchuous times with EDD I had to constantly put it off. I even made last ditch try to see the exhibit days before starting my new job, only to have to pass because of the need to fix up the car. Anyway, after the big move here at DSC I found myself with 2 days of comp time and small window to finally jet down to LA to catch the show. SouthWest was even nice enough to give me a decent deal on tickets ($90 each way), I had even staked out a higher end single room hotel/hostel in Hollywood for $50 a night. I ended up getting dicked on the car rental though. Ugh. Anyway, flight booked, hotel booked, rental booked and flurry of emails to friends and what not in LA to make sure I saw as many folks I haven't seen in years now and the trip was a go. The flight down was less then stellar (thanks Oakland airport and BART) and I arrived in Burbank at about 10:30pm. The rental ended up being a pain and taking twice as long as it should have too. I didn't get to Hollywood till midnight and most places I might have liked to see/stop at were closed. I did make a special trip over to my old hood for a burrito at Benitos for old time sake.
Gotta love the fat kid food, and Oakland still can't match a good LA burrito if you ask me.
I think I finally reached the hotel about 1am. It was small, clean and decent bed. On the down side my bedroom was out front so I heard a little too much traffic noise as a whole. Oh well. Slept OK otherwise.
Saturday started off with a much needed shower and lazy trip over to the west side to meet up with the Flynn's, Harpo and a few others. I used to dread the westside as a whole due to parking restraints and expenses. I had told myself before coming down to expect to shell out upwards of a $100 in parking for the weekend, I was ready for it and knew that's that price of LA. Luckily though the Flynn's actually let me in on a nice little secret parking structure that doesn't charge for the first 2 hours and you can leave and come back without a charge. We ate at Barny's Beanery due to conveyance and pet friendly outdoors location, which meant good company, mediocre food. I hate to say it, but the conglomeration of many LA joints really does devalue the original place to start with. Barny's was always a decent OK place to start with, but opening more of them really wasn't wanted or needed. I had a great time catching up with the Flynns and their silly beagle Harpo none the less. Afterwards it was time to move the car (and not pay for parking) and hit Armand Hammer museum. AH is pretty small place, but usually has something good to see. This time around was a retrospect on mid century architect A. Quincy Jones. I think it took me an hour and half to see everything and then it was meandering drive across LA to my room for a shower and few stops for light shopping and photo work too. Mainly I wanted to see the Innes house up in the Hollywood Hills, which was in less then fantastic shape 6 years ago when last I visited. This time around it was very apparent that it was really in rotten shape and I suspect it's now no longer really restorable. Mainly the concrete blocks that make up most of the house are rotting away due to having been made from decaying granite and beach sand. If they do really try it they'll either have to replace most of the outer concrete blocks or some how seal them completely. Anyway, it does look like they are trying do something with the house, but I won't hold my breath.
Next up was a trip down south to Dean's shop in the hood. I really only wanted to take one stop, that being to the Watts Towers, which oddly enough having passed about a 1000 + times in my life time I had never actually stopped to see. So this time around I did. I now need to process the 35mm B&W stuff to show what I saw. Oh well. Anyway, it was fun but after an hour I headed off to Dean's shop to see Dean, Armondo and Steve. We ended up catching up and having a BBQ. I think I meandered back to my room about 1am again.
Sunday ended up being a hustle to Canters with some old MGM pals. Found out the best pizza in fairfax area had closed or should I say been bought out up an upscale food joint that wanted into that hood badly. Good times on Dad's day with old MGM pals, mainly Frank, Dean and Doug. We caught up and probably offended the booth besides us with our our morning antics. On the other down side I noticed I had damaged both my camera and one of my lenses. Fck. The camera's rewind was lightly damaged while the lense (which is 50+ years old) was having problems with it's f-stop. It looks like one of the blades was either damaged or sticking causing problems. Anyway, the brunch was fun, but I kind of feel bad for the family next to us as it was father's day. I think I got out of Canters around 1ish and made my way west to Pasadena and Norton Simon. Now I grew up on Norton Simon museum and really stopped in just to see it again. It's lightly changed, but always a good stop and one of those less traveled museums in LA. At about 4 I left and hurried across LA again to Venice to meet up with a friend and woman. We had drinks and what not at Cock and Bull. Fun and it was off to bed again afterwards.
Monday was Dday for me. 10:30am to LACMA for my Kubrick tour. I picked this day and time to keep down on traffic and wasn't disappointed. For the first hour I think only 10 of us were wandering the halls. After an hour their was maybe 30-40 folks and still kind of sparce, but I was fantastic to see how others reacted to the exhibit. At 1pm I walked out and met up with an old friend for lunch. We only had an hour it was apperent we needed another 2-3 hours to really catch up. Oh well, maybe next time. After lunch I headed back in to LACMA to catch other parts of the museum. Mainly I wanted to see their new Serra sculpture "Band" and I wasn't disappointment. I liked it, but still like "Sequence" more. Come 3pm I had to pack up and head to Burbank airport and get home. Oh well. Most trips to LA over the last few years and I was ready to leave LA after a day or two. I kind of missed it this time.
Buh bye LA, Buh Bye - oh come back later and I'll have more photos.
more pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/filmtwit/sets/72157622473915845/with/9075214271/
