A Wednesday in LA: Downtown, Malibu and Joan's House

LA is a pretty spread out city. I think the city itself is about 100 square miles, and the county is even larger. We spent a lot of time on the West side of town, in Santa Monica, Hollywood, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. But, on the Wednesday we were in LA, we finally got downtown. Joel has already covered our early morning trip to the flower wholesaler's market, Han's house and the LA river. That was all in the warehouse district of downtown, but the more central office core is a just a stone's throw away.

First, we visited the Our Lady of Angels Cathedral (real creative name...). This was a modern cathedral. I know. Weird. Apparently the real cathedral burned down or was somehow damaged a few years back. So the LA Catholics raised the money for this almost casino-style style modern-day cathedral complex. It's built right on the side of the 101 freeway (which goes from downtown to Hollywood). You can enter through a large parking structure, or walk through the main gates (not many do). You enter a large, multi-level courtyard. Joel thought excellent use of fountains and running water. Which was true, although often marred by multiple maintenance men scrubbing and filling these fountains. I thought that was tacky.

Anyway, along side the far end of the courtyard is a 10 to 15 foot high glass wall etched with religious symbols, or maybe just doves. In front of this at one point was an altar t the Virgin of Guadeloupe. This one was of the few ornamental or additions to the other wise barren "cathedral." Even the landscaping was plain and unimaginative.

Inside the actual "cathedral" Joel said that he felt like he was inside an Abalone (which is apparently a shell). That's because the of milky pale stain glass windows, smoothed, curving and vaulted ceilings, and odd asymmetrical floor plan. There were few chapels off the main worship space, though there was a very large organ and some side altars salvaged from a mission, not to mention a walk-in Holy Water fount (possibly for baptisms). In the Cathedral, there was a crypt where we think Gregory Peck is buried along with many other lay people (this is one of the few, if only US Cathedral burial spaces open to non-clergy). Joel thought the Cathedral was pretty inside, I however felt that it was more like a characterless mega-church. If I wanted an antiseptic, cold space devoid of iconography, and the architecture I saw at this Cathedral would be better left to non-denominational Christians.

I did like the Cathedral gift shop though. Or at least the fact they had one, though the actual gifts for sale were not as nice as those I have seen at other Holy gift shops.

After church, we had lunch after a long, long walk (about 5 blocks). Trust me that's long in LA. We ate at the Original Pantry Kitchen, a little piece of 1940's noir LA that's otherwise long gone. It was cool. Then we trekked over to the LA Public Library for some Joel-style worship. As long as we have been together, our trips around Philly and on vacation have been punctuated by stops at used bookstores. But now that Joel is a librarian, libraries have been added to the itinerary. I think Joel stopped at 5 libraries over the length of this last trip. Of these, LA Public was Joel's 2nd favorite (after Beverly Hills). LA Public, unlike our own Parkway Central Library is located right in the thick of downtown LA. It's across the street from a ton of office space on Bunker Hill, there's a large farmer's market that set sup outside of the library, lots of foot traffic, and some really nice stepped outdoor green space that was well-utilized when we passed through. Inside, there were books. A lot. Plus a gift shop, a cool exhibit of some Hollywood history, a multi-story atrium that took Joel's breath away, and a separate teen room (a big deal to Joel). The library was also pretty cool architecturally. But the best part was the fact that so many Angelenos were in the library while e there. Some were getting books and DVDs, or using the internet, but some seemed just to be passing through on their way to somewhere else. Such a contrast to the somewhat isolates feel of our mina library.

Nothing could top the library for Joel, but we did find the Angel's Flight railway, a 300 feet long incline that serves no readily apparent purpose that I could ascertain, but that is nonetheless cool. Angels' Flight was the subject of a Michael Connelly novel that I liked a lot, but much to my chagrin, it was closed for repairs on the day we went to visit. So we went back to the Beverly Laurel and napped and sunbathed by the pool. After soaking up the rays long enough to get our spirits back up, we set off for Brentwood and Malibu.

Brentwood is in sort of the NW corner of LA. The curvy Sunset Blvd. (which runs east from the ocean all the way into Hollywood) splits Brentwood in the middle. the most important thing for anyone to know is about Brentwood that this is where Joan Crawford lived for much of her career in Hollywood. So we drove to her house at 436 N. Bristol Ave. It was a bit hard to take good pictures because the current t residents 'teenage some were playing basketball in the front yard (which seemed kind of disrespectful to me, but hey, it's their house). despite the presence of these teenage philistines, we did manage to drive around the block a few times to get a feel for the house and neighborhood. The house has been remodeled since Joan lived here, but even so, I was kind of surprised by how small it was, how close the street and generally un-mansion like t was.. Remember Joan Crawford was listed in 1937 as the 17th richest person in the country. So why the modest house? I guess she was just that kind of girl. Humble.

We set off down Sunset Blvd. toward the ocean, chasing the literal sunset as we went. We turned right onto the Pacific Coast Highway and headed out to Malibu. About 45 minutes later we ended up at a El Toro State Park beach. It was amazing. There was an angled path heading down toward the beach. It looked pretty steep and I steeled myself for a downward hike. To my surprise, the ramp was just the beginning...there were actually over 200 steps--maybe more--leading down to beautiful beach filled with rocks and caves and all kinds of cool formations. Against the horizon off to the south and east were some of the expensive homes we'd passed on the way in. The beach was a sight to see that every other person there (in at least 3 or 4 groups) were taking wedding or engagement photographs (save for an odd band of teenagers there to make some kind of movie). It was a pretty sight, and a great chance to connect with the beauty and power of the ocean.

When we got done at the beach, we continued north on the PCH and decided to head up to the Mullholland Highway. William Mullholland is the guy who brought water to LA in the beginning of last century. he figured out a way to pipe water down from the north and literally give bloom to the southern California we know today. Mullholland Drive is frequently referenced in stories and movies as it snakes along the tops of the Santa Monica Mountains that separate the city from the San Fernando Valley. It's a twisty road with lots of cool outlooks over the city. But I only know that from watching TV, as we never made it to the Drive part...

The Mullholland Highway eventually connects to Mullholland Drive, but it's much more further west than the Drive and it's very isolated--west of Topanga Canyon State Parka and the Pacific Palisades. In fact, it was kind of hard to believe we were even in LA County as we drove it. It was amazing. A literal drive over and through the mountains. Steep at times, very twisty and all along the way were homes--many mansions--set back from the road. Joel noticed more than one gate covered in black tarp, presumably to keep Paparazzi at bay. After about a 45 minute drive, we came to the outskirts of the Valley and civilization and promptly got lost. We ended up in Chatsworth (truly the armpit of LA County I am sure). We managed to find our way back toward the city via Laurel Canyon Blvd. Laurel Canyon i is a wealthy and beautiful neighborhood--more of a town-that lies between Hollywood and the Valley.

We hadn't eaten dinner at this point, and we'd heard from more than one friend that we should check out the Standard Hotel on the Sunset Strip. (I should point out that this was the hotel I originally wanted to stay at. I saw the Beverly-Laurel as sort of the low-rent version. In the end, I am glad we picked it over the Standard since it was intimidating--to say the least--entering their lobby). They apparently have a cool roof deck upon which one could drink and eat and we thought we'd go. Um. Han told us that going on a weeknight was good cause you wouldn't run into as many "pseudo-people". Well apparently the idle rich (and poseurs) have discovered that partying on a weekday is cool. Cause when we got to the hotel, after contending with a bouncer who looked less than pleased about letting us in, we realized this wasn't our scene. So we left and had a nice salad somewhere else.

All in all, it was a pleasant, sun-drenched day in LA.

Studio Tours

One of the things I most looked forward to on our trip was visiting the motion picture studios.


Now, of the major studios of yore, none turn out the number of pictures they once did. Instead many of the old sound stages are now used by TV--something that would have had Louis B. mayer rolling in his grave. And only four of the major studios offer tours (WB, Sony, Parmount ad Universal). We chose to skip Universal as it's really a theme park ride and not a tour and the internet buzz about Paramount was not good. In fact, the reviews of Sony were bad too, but there was no way I could not go check them out since Sony now inhabits what was Metro Goldwyn Mayer (or MGM or Metro if you prefer), the biggest and best in Old Hollywood (MGM was know to have "more stars than there are in heaven").

So, on our first day in LA, we drove to Culver City (from Beverly Hills). Today, Culver City is a part of the city of LA, but when Metro was first formed and moved to this location, it was a separate town. Joan Crawford and other stars would drive South down Washington Blvd. from Brentwood and the Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills to get here. Back then, MGM owned acres acres of land, enough space to fit the main sound stages and 4 back lots (including a zoo for many of the animals used in film, as well as Leo the Lion). Today, the old MGM lot is just a shadow of its former self.

The first insult to the Metro legend is the fact that Sony uses this lot for its film subsidiary which is called Columbia Pictures! That's right--Columbia, the trashy film company that flew like a vulture to this location to pick the bones of MGM and its former glories. That means there was little if any serious attention paid to the glorious past of MGM (and all of Hollywood history right along with it). They proudly show off their Oscar won in 1034 for "It Happened One Night," but let's not forget, that picture starred Clark Gable, an MGM star. Ugh.

Anyway, the tour was somewhat lame. It was led by a 23-yo tour guide who is trying to break into the business as a writer for one-hour dramas. He was certainly nice enough, but you could tell he did not really care all that much about his job and, as such, was not very sharp on the details of the studio, the lot's history or anything like that. We also didn't really see anything all that cool. We saw a few facades on the "main street" that have been used in film, but no real back lot locations were shown. Of the sound stages we visited, only one, for the new Beyonce movie, was truly impressive. The sitcom set we saw (starring Ray Romano's TV brother) and the set of Jeopardy! were mostly closed down and there's not much to report there. It was also pretty annoying that we couldn't take pics on most of the lot. In short, the Sony tour was disappointing, though nonetheless a must for any Joan Crawford, or other MGM star who wants to soak in a bit of the physical history of that magical place.

Warner Brother's was a totally different story. Warner's has been around almost as long as MGM. It was founded by Harry, Jack and some other Warner Brother. If MGM was the creme de la creme of Hollywood studios--the prissy princess--than Warner's was nothing if not second best. Warner's didn't try to compete with the fluff and the picture perfect films that MGM put it out. Instead, it did westerns and gangster movies (like Jimmy Cagney's) and invested a lot of its dramatic energy in the so-called actress, Bette Davis. Now, it's hard for me to write about her objectively. I think she was a real bitch. But she made a lot of movies for Warner's. There are some other WB notables as well, and in general, there's no denying that Warner's was, and still is, a major Hollywood studio.

Although Old Hollywood is long gone, the excitement and activity one expects from a major studio is still alive at Warner Brothers. We arrive a bit early for our 9:15 AM tour. We arrived at an office building just off the lot, and met the rest of our small tour group and our guide.
Our guide's name was Sky. He was probably about 50 year old and after years of regional theatre and local acting he moved to LA about three years ago. He was on "Passions" for about 40 episodes as a deranged monk and he gives tours of the studio by day. He was great.

Sky drove us and our small tour group onto the Warner's lot in an oversized golf cart. We saw all kinds of cool stuff including the ER set, lots of building facades, live shooting, a New York Brownstone street and more. We stopped at a small museum on the lot (where I took an illegal pic of Joan Crawford's dress from "The Damned Don't Cry". [Sidebar: After Joan was ousted from MGM, the Warners were kind enough to offer her a three-picture deal, including most famously, "Mildred Pierce."]. We also got to visit an amazingly large props warehouse, where we saw the "Friends" set, and we saw some prop cars including the Batmobile, a car from Harry Potter, and the Dukes of Hazzard car. We also got to visit the still active set of "Two and Half Men" (such a vulgar show). We also learned an amazing amount (on both tours) about the extent to which these studios still use painted backdrops. But I digress. In short, Warner's tour: I loved it. And Joel did too.

Flower Market and the LA River

One morning we got up early and drove into downtown LA to see the flower market. At first we thought we could go at about 2 AM (and were considering it), but it turns out the flower market is only open to wholesalers that early. We had to wait until after 7 or 8...and I think we ended up there around 9. It's in the warehouse district.

And it was in fact in warehouses full of people working: moving truckloads of tropicals and watering buckets of lilies. We kept having to dodge carts and hand trucks, and it was interesting to be on the edge of these people's daily routine. Some of my favorites were these bromeliads, and there was also a whole section full of huge orchids in all kinds of pinks. Many of other non-professionals there milling around were wedding planners or women planning their own weddings. Lots of cheap and healthy houseplants abounded, but eventually the pollen clouds starting getting to us and we made our way back the versa. It was hard to tear myself away and leave empty handed.

Next up was a drive by Han's house, even though she's back in Philadelphia. I wanted to get a picture of her street and door anyway, so I can more easily imagine her in LA. Ray and I spent a lot of time trying to imagining Han in LA. Her big piece of advice was to bring sunglasses, so when I imagine her here, I think about the sunglasses. Anyway: her apartment is nestled in a converted warehouse. The streets around it bustled with tractor trailers and delivery trucks, and it took us a minute to find it because the streets kept dead-ending at warehouses.


Last that morning, before heading back into downtown LA proper, was a trip over the LA river. We've been watching lots of movies and tv shows set in LA in the last few weeks, and they all had shots of the river--usually some murderer running through it or some shots to use this damp concrete void as a metaphor for the damp concrete void of LA. It was just a few blocks from Han's house, and after a very short and stinky delay behind five trashtrucks at a stop light, we took a couple of drives over it.
. There wasn't any place to pull over and take a picture--it's not that kind of river.

The Beverly Laurel

So I took some time in picking out our hotel. We're not made of money, so it had to be affordable, but I am too picky at this point in my life to stay somewhere totally crappy. And we needed a good location--easily accessible to the myriad places we wanted to go. And a nice bed, fun space, etc. were all in demand.

At first, I wanted to stay at the Standard Hotel on Sunset. It's a part of a hip chain, kind of like the W. But at $250 a night, it was a bit too pricey (but certainly not crazy, at least by Philly hotel standards). We ended up staying instead at the Beverly Laurel.

It's extremely well located on Beverley Boulevard in Fairfax (kind of south of West Hollywood and east of Beverly Hills). There was parking, a diner downstairs called "Swingers" (that was used in m"Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion") and each room had been redone with cute colors and movie star decor and a kind of retro vibe. It was well priced (about $140 a night) with free parking and internet.

The BL is an old-school Hollywood kind of place with a pool in the middle that all of the rooms face via a balcony. The only downside of this was that the windows all faced the pool, so there was little light when you drew your blinds for privacy. The bathroom was huge though and had been recently renovated and included a really long stall-style shower with three shower heads a bench (I think this was meant for people to use when shaving their legs--which we did not do, but it was nice to know the option was there). And look who was over our toilet! -->

All in all, for others looking to travel to LA, I recommend this spot. It was like 20 or 30 minutes tops from everywhere we wanted to go. And the staff was really nice. Parking was tight but never a real problem. The room was clean and had a fridge and great bathroom. The TV was lacking, the internet was not free and the linens weren't much better than like a Ramada Inn. Those smaller things would represent my only reservation about recommending it--if it didn't force the prices to get way jacked up, I'd recommend to the owners a small investment in those kinds of quality of stay types of things.

Day 4 and beyond

So obviously we stopped blogging regularly. Our bad. So rather than trying to recreate the days I'll be writing about some of our experiences and the things we did as individual posts.

More to come...

Day 3: Portland in the sticks and in the city

So these are going to be some quick, backwards looking posts since we have gotten a bit behind.

On Saturday, we drove with Chris, Siobhan and the baby to the Columbia River Gorge. It's a canyon and was a really important water connection between Oregon and the rest of the country. In just under a half hour drive, we were surrounded by mountains, waterfalls, hiking trails and had gorgeous views of the Oregon and Washington state...and some trains. We visited a few different falls, and Joel and I took a really quick walk up one mountainside. It was really steep and really pretty. Connecting the sites we were seeing was a road (the Columbia River Gorge highway I believe), with a railway parallel to it (and still active with Union Pacific freight travel today). At one of our stops, Multonomah Falls, I stayed close to the outdoor stalls and snack bar, while Joel climbed up to a bridge with a view. I was pretty lucky that there was a railroad society table there that I got to check out and find out more about the trains. We also stopped at a few more spots along the way--including a really cool and crazy Deco, kind of octagonal building on a hilltop which had a view of mountains as far as the eye could see and up and down the Columbia River. Joel loved this spot and attempted to take a series of panoramic shots, and then ended up finding a gift shop downstairs and simply buying one. Ah, commerce.

On our way back, we stopped to pick up some really good Vietnamese food at a place called Pho Jasmine on Killingsworth Ave near the house. We ate. It was really good. The food was frankly worthy of long and lurid blog posting of its own. But I will show some restraint and save the craziness for what's next.

After we ate, Chris and Siobhan were kind enough to lend us their car and we went downtown for the main event: Powell's books. But before we got there, we sort of tooled around for a bit and drove past Portland State University where I once spent some time at for a USSA conference. We also drove by the main branch of Portland Public which was unfortunately closed. But it looked cool from the outside. Along the way, it was impossible (and possibly sinful) to ignore the trolley tracks all over the places.

Ok, so: Powell's. Powell's is called the City of Books, and it certainly puts the Strand in NYC to shame. It's huge--organized into rooms, by colors (like the "Purple Rooom") based on genre and has a mix of new and used books. I dropped Joel off in the Sci-Fi section and looked around on my own. It took us about two hours to get through the store, including a coffee/tea break. The place was packed with people (it seems Portlanders like to read) and it was a relaxed and fun place to be. And the books!

Not everything under the sun was to be found, but at least we had the moon...Joel and I both did pretty well. We decided to ship home whatever we bought rather than try to cram purchases into our already too heavy luggage. Suffice to say this opened the flood gates perhaps a bit too much, but with free shipping and a well-documented love of books, who cares? Joel was a bit sad that we left the store with only three books (2 of his and 1 of mine) on hand, but when we get home, and a box of books is delivered to our door, I am sure he'll rally.

After Powell's we drove around downtown some more to look at lofts and apartments that reminded us both of Amsterdam some and we found the place that the streetcars sleep at night. And stalked them. Then we drove back to North Portland and met up with Siobhan and Chris and James at a park. The neighborhood association was screening "Notorious" and we managed to catch the last quarter of it. Then back home.

 

Day two: solstice

The flight from Denver to Portland was fast and smooth, although I couldn't shut off the little video screen for my seat and had to put up with ads in between the crude maps with a giant plane covering half of Idaho inching northwest.

I'd never seen the Rockies, see, and being partial to a certain run of green mountains, was ready to write off those young upstarts. But they were amazing...snowy peaks and bumpy ridges like the ribs of a giant, mountain lakes crusted with ice and deep furrows. I spent almost the whole flight gaping out the window.
Chris picked us up and brought us to Siobhan's and his house where we met baby James. Eventually we had lunch, then Ray and I went out to St. John's, the neighborhood nearby. We bought food at a plain coop that puts Mariposa's pretensions to shame and I bought an Ayn Rand book (because there's no time like the present to read some good capitalist and fascist fiction) at a used/independent bookstore. >We went to a Salvation Army that was no good, then stopped at a Fred Meyers for more groceries. Then we came back and Siobhan and I took naps while Ray make eggplant Parmesan for dinner. Yum and do.

After dinner we went for a walk around the block, up to the bluff overlooking the river and city on the campus of the University of Portland. Everyone who lives along the road overlooking the river has Florida rooms with no curtains so they can soak up Mt. Hood and the riverport.

Mt. Hood is HUGE and SNOWY and I really want to bring it back with me. We could plop it right on top of the Northeast, so I could always have a hulking, snow-capped peak to watch. It's the longest day of the year, too, and we are lucky enough to spend it up here.