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.