LACMA & the BMW Art Cars

Stopped by the LACMA to check out the BMW art cars and the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum. I really like this light installation at the entrance (Chris Burden's Urban Light). It's nice and somewhat surreal to pass by it while driving down Wilshire.

Renzo Piano designed the new LACMA expansion, BCAM. Without any pretense of knowing much about architecture, I think it's such a let down from the Wilshire side. It could have been a landmark, something to really draw people's attention to LACMA. Instead, to me, it looks boring and already dated. On the other hand, I think the east and north sides are much better.

The east wall obviously borrows from Piano's Pompidou Center design in Paris, and the north side has a cool long escalator that brings you up past an industrial red and grey staircase structure and to the top floor of the BCAM, where you are to begin your visit. Nice.

So we were there because W suggested that we go to see the BMW art cars. Four of the cars are making two stops in the US, and LACMA is one of them. These rarely leave Germany so it was pretty exciting for W to see them. They are apparently legendary cars in their own right, then made even more significant by being given to famous artists (such as Andy Warhol, above) to have their way with them. Really cool.

Roy Lichtenstein (1977)

Frank Stella (1976)

Robert Rauschenberg (1986)

Andy Warhol (1979)

Street Art

Saw this the other day while driving through downtown. "Keep Our City Clean & Safe... Do Your Part." Who doesn't like a little irony?

I personally don't mind the idea of graffiti. I just wish that everyone who graffitied actually had some artistic talent. When I see good graffiti, I [usually] think it adds character to the area. It's really impressive. In Buenos Aires, I loved all the random graffiti art covering the walls in San Telmo; I did not appreciate the crude lettering that tarnished the obelisk in their main plaza. Or consider what British street artist Banksy has done with the 'medium.' I guess, in my layman view, it comes down to whether it was done to express & enhance vs. just to make a mark and desecrate. Obviously this is no eureka on my part, as there is a thriving culture of street art.

Good (Buenos Aires)

Still Good (Buenos Aires)

Borderline, but I still like this (Buenos Aires)

I love Banksy

Imagine if all the graffiti along the walls of the "LA River" were thoughtful, creative pieces. It could actually be something amazing to see..

Itzhak Perlman

Saw Itzhak Perlman perform at the Disney Concert Hall yesterday.I've never heard him perform before and I thought it was amazing. He was supposedly playing "show-off" pieces. I call them crowd pleasers.

The celebrated violinist is also quite the comedian.

Two things I didn't know about him: 1) He contracted polio at an early age and walks with braces, 2) He did the actual performance of the John Williams score for Schindler's List.

Downtown LA Artwalk

A free event in Downtown LA, every second Thursday of the month.
My first time... it was great. (I had to drag W along but he ended up enjoying it)

my favorite: David Grant at the Bert Green Fine Art gallery
http://www.bgfa.us/ , then click on "David Grant"

Downtown LA

I give quite a bit of thought as to where I want to live in the future. I really love urban cities, public transportation, and walkable neighborhoods. I also like sunny weather [year round], diversity in population, and laid back attitudes.

Finding a cross between these traits is actually quite difficult. For example, I love SF but the weather is a bit too gloomy for me. Moving outside of the city to the bay area would be taking away the awesome walkable urban city part. LA and SD have the great weather, but they are better characterized as a collection of suburbs than a true urban city. And don't get me started on public transportation. SD also lacks a bit in the diversity sector.

The winters in European cities are too cold. Hong Kong is a possibility, but the attitudes there are a little rough for me. I've never been to any cities down under so it's hard for me to say.

SOOO, with that extremely long introduction, I have come to be very interested in the development of downtown LA. I've grown up in LA, generally like the weather despite the pollution (gotta admit SD's weather is better), there's great diversity here in both people and things to do, etc etc.

But I hate that there is no city center. I would love to see downtown grow to become a walkable area that is lively and safe at night. It seems like it's really possible.

There are many issues, of course. The homeless and others living in low-income housing is probably #1. That needs to be dealt with fairly. Not that I want downtown to become all 'pristine' like Century City-- the character is actually why I would prefer to work in downtown rather than the westside. "Safe" is different from sterilized. I think I'm in the minority though, because a lot of professionals I talk to want to work in the westside, or are really glad that they work in cc instead of "eww" downtown. I hope the Hollywood attitude doesn't migrate to downtown-- one west side is enough... although it seems a bit inevitable with all the fancy restaurants, hotels, and clubs popping up.

Anyway, I can't wait for all the developments to continue. Hopefully there will be widened sidewalks, more retail spaces at street level, better public transportation (the extentions of the subway are a start), improved safety measures, etc. The Nokia theater looks nice, and I'm sure the Ritz Carlton high rise next to it will change that area drastically (some cons but mostly pros to me).

My most anticipated project, however, is the Grand Avenue development. It's going to run from the Disney Concert Hall to the city hall, with a huge park area running down the middle. Frank Gehry's team is designing the bit, so it'll look pretty fantastical. A lot of people (architects) criticize his designs, but from a layperson's point of view, I really enjoy them. Brings some happiness and thrill to an otherwise boring landscape.

Some renderings:

I totally want to live here, at least for a few years!

The 8th and Grand development looks interesting, too:
http://www.8thandgrand.com/

(all pictures above are from google searches)

Anyway, it'll be really interesting to see how downtown grows in the next decade. I hope to be there to witness it! Here are a few good blogs that follow the downtown scene:

http://www.angelenic.com
http://blogdowntown.com
http://mydowntownlosangeles.blogspot.com/


Ok, back to studying for wills & trusts...

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Picture of the Post:

while I'm on westside vs. downtown thing:
in the Mondrian on Sunset

Amazon

I spent a good hour today reading reviews on Amazon's new e-book devise, the Kindle.

It's quite interesting-- at first I didn't really pay attention to its big ad on the frontpage of Amazon because... well, it looks kind of ugly, and I have never warmed up to the idea of an electronic device replacing the experience of reading from a real book.

But after reading reviews from people who have actually tried it out (most of the negatives are from people who haven't), it actually sounds like it might be something worth buying when I have the money.

The main point is that the screen reads like paper, with something called "e-ink" technology. There isn't the subtle flicker of, say, laptops, and so it's easy on the eyes like a normal book.

Some other major features include the fact that there is free wireless on it so that you can review, purchase, and download ebooks without having to find wifi or be plugged in. You can also subscribe to newspapers and blogs and magazines, which automatically dL onto the Kindle. There's even access to wikipedia-- I don't know the extent of the wireless usage beyond that.

This isn't meant to be a multi-media devise. For example, there's no color (I believe the technology for color 'e-ink' isn't there yet) and mp3s supposedly can only be played at random. But it seems to be really attractive for someone who wants to be able to easily carry a lot of reading material around (esp for traveling). It's light, so you could just pop it out and read it when you have a random five minutes here and there. That would be nice.

But at this very moment, $400 would have to be spent more wisely for me...


Some books I bought/ordered today:















I've been wanting to get Water for Elephants for a while... should be a good beach read in Hawaii :) The reviews on it are great, and from people who like similar books as I do.

Well, actually, these all have great reviews because I am OCD when it comes to reading reviews. I will research all similar products to death before coming down to a decision. It's probably a big waste of my time but I can't help it.

The Knowledge Book I bought from Borders, so it's the only one I have so far. It's awesome. It's by National Geographic and is very well laid out, with full color and lots of pictures (my favorite :) ). It was also really inexpensive for such a well made book.


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Picture of the Post:

What used to be on the Hotel Figueroa (next to the Staples Center). I really liked it.

Sea Dragons!

I went to Long Beach's aquarium this past weekend. I was excited just because I like to be excited for things, but I wasn't expecting to be wow'ed since I have been to quite a few aquariums and they usually have the same things. But the Aquarium of the Pacific was to prove me wrong!!

BEHOLD!!

The Weedy Sea Horse!!


So I saw that and I thought, "wow, that's pretty crazy looking!" A little Puff-the-Magic-Dragon-y. (Btw, I didn't take any of these pics cuz my digicam had died by then due to my manic picture-taking of the Lion Fish (also very cool).)

BUT THEN!!! I SAW...

THE LEAFY SEA DRAGON!!!!


Now I was really blown away. CRAZY!!! I have never seen these creatures before :D

kwik-e-mart fun

We went to the Kwik-E-Mart!! There actually isn't THAT much changed but it was still very cool. I guess only eleven 7-11s were changed in the whole country, so it's pretty cool that we have one so close. This one is at Venice and Sepulveda near Culver City :)

up to 7% goes to actual children!

Hehe I love the one with Jasper "in the freezer" :)

the LA subway is REAL

When I was in high school, upper classmen liked to tell the freshmen that there was a pool on the roof of the gym (which was pretty hilarious in itself considering the decrepit state of our gym, esp the collapsing roof). Now that I think about it, I'm not sure what satisfaction we got out of that. Telling lies feels good? I guess I do enjoy BSing with friends even to this day.

When you tell some people that LA has a subway (even people that live in LA), people usually think that they are getting duped like some high school freshman.... but its REAL! I rode it for the first time last week! And it's actually not deserted. It doesn't feel like I'm in LA when I ride it to work, so it's still fun for me.

Everyone should experience the LA subway sometime. Some of the stations are actually pretty cool-looking. This picture is of the Hollywood-Highlands stop. Check out mta.net for more pictures. I'm serious.

crazy tacos, crazy gas station, crazy concert hall

My title sounds like an annoying radio commercial.

Crazy tacos: Although I have been passing by El Ranchero (Garfield & Mission) for as long as I can remember, I've never actually been inside. Well I went for the first time today for their Monday Madness. It is pretty Mad. Soft tacos (corn tortilla) that are usually $1.50 are $0.50!!! Mad!!! Honestly, they're good (although I don't know about for $1.50...). The only thing that surprised me was that I liked carnitas the least (out of carne asada, pollo, and carnitas). The carne asada and chicken are great. Eaten along with an XL Orange Bang by your side, it's Mad!! OK i'll stop.

Crazy gas station: We were heading down Olympic towards Santa Monica when we passed by this CRAZY gas station! I think it's BP. Wish we had a better picture.

gas station from another planet! i'm easily amused.

Crazy concert hall: Went to the crazy Disney concert hall to watch this show called Shen Wei and company, "Connect/Transfer." It was a unique show fusing dance, music, and art. Some parts were a little too interpretive-abstract dancing for me, but overall it was great. The dancers were incredibly talented and the pianist was truly amazing (spoken in my best critic's voice oui oui). A part of the show was them painting the canvas floor with their bodies as they danced.

Before:
After:

Modern art tends to have a way of looking like children's art, but I like it. This show was actually better viewed up high from nosebleed ;) Go poor grad students!


One more from the outside, just for good measure :) :