Saturday, April 18, 2009

A photo essay of my day

I LOVE EXPLORING. What better day to do it than today. I had to go to the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) in LA for the Dan Graham art show they had. It is for my contemporary art class I'm taking. I really like contemporary art because it is so open to interpretation, it deals with current themes (war, social injustice, etc.) a lot of the stuff deals with pop culture, and that's something I love. I really enjoyed the Graham exhibit.

So after spending a little over an hour there with my class I took off and wandered Downtown LA. I love exploring. I love getting lost. I love having my camera phone with me.

The MOCA is across the street from the Disney Concert Hall (the shiny building) and can be quite blinding when driving by it.
After photographing it, I walked down to the LA Times Building.
I walked through Pershing Square.
Saw the Angels Flight Tram Cars, which are still not open. I didn't recall them just being RIGHT THERE. I remember seeing them when I was VERY little and went to the Bonaventure Hotel with my parents for a party my mom attended.
Walked through the jewelry district and the Fashion District (Santee Alley). The number of purse vendors didn't surprise me, but the number of wedding/formal wear vendors did.
Went to the Macys Building and bought a few shirts at Macys. I was tempted to buy some Papi underwear, but couldn't imagine it; how would does a white guy like me fit into the Papi image? When I think of Papi I think of a cute latino guy.
Also went to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising Store where I bought some shirts for my cousin for $5 a piece. I emailed her photos and she liked them.

I loved just snapping photographs and I love how LA clearly marks with signs the way to the Fashion District and all the other touristy things. I had my phone with me and the maps also marked the stuff. Not knowing where all the good shopping was I used the "iWant" feature on my phone and it has such a cool feature that you can pull up the wikipedia for historical landmarks in the area. OMG. LOVED THAT. I don't know where this feature was when I was in Seattle, but I was quite the nerd pulling out my phone looking for places to shop and reading the wikipedias of things like the US Bank Building in Downtown LA.

And another thing? There were so many people out. I loved that. I actually got to use some of my Spanish. There was a young latino guy who saw me standing, looking on my phone. He was waiting for a bus. He asked me if I was lost. I told him I wasn't, but I was looking for a good place to shop. He told me that the Ed Hardy Store in the Fashion District was the place to be.

And it was 88 degrees according to my phone in Downtown LA. I got some much needed sun.

I stopped at my parents and my favorite burger stop in LA on the way home. I picked up burgers for the family. SOOOO GOOD!!! I was hoping to make it home in an hour so they'd still be somewhat warm... hopefully? But no, from Lorena in East LA on the 60, all the way out to the 71 in Diamond Bar (20 miles or so?) I did 35mph. It took 90 minutes to get home, which isn't unusual. The Guy was on the 210 leaving Pasadena and he was also stuck in 35mph traffic and we were wondering where everyone was going, certainly not out to the IE.

The drive home was also fun, when I wasn't on my phone I was listening to the radio and KEARTH 101 has a lost hits weekend (pre-1964 oldies), which was actually really good. I heard Sam Cooke, The 4 Seasons, and a bunch of others.

Coming home I chatted with The Guy and told him about the Carl thing. He asked if I was going to go to the bar I've been going to with Carl tonight. I told him the whole thing. The whole wanting me to be his everything, then how I was so accommodating about the Disneyland thing. He told me that was "beautiful, really beautiful." He sounded like he was going to cry. He told me how it shows what a nice person I am, how I was so accommodating, something came up, I didn't back out and I was continuing with my promise. He told me that's why I'm such a good friend and he values me. He still sounded on the verge of tears. It felt so good to hear that from him and the validation and that basically it is Carl's fault, him being inflexible.

And without further adieu, here's a look at my day. Enjoy!
Oh, and check out all of the links... lots of fun reads

Fabric for sale at $0.99 a yard in the Fashion District- there were lots of fabric stores

A VERY blue building

The US Bank Building/ Library Tower (what I call it)

Angels Flight Rail Cars

Disney Concert Hall

2 comments:

Bruce said...

I work at City National Plaza (ARCO Plaza) next to the Boneventure. 90 minutes really isn't bad, on Friday afternoon it usually takes me 3 to 3.5 hours to get to Palm Springs from downtown.

Stephen Chapman said...

The concert hall looks great!