Los Angeles Arts District

I was talking to a friend at UCLA the other day.   She's been in LA for 5 years or so, and lived on the West side for all of it.  Anyway, she told me that the entire time she's lived here, she's only been downtown a handful of times...mainly because she's afraid to leave the west side!  What?!?!?  That's crazy to me.  I love downtown.  And there's SO much to do.  There's bars, restaurants, artists/galleries, and newer things to do that pile on the already huge list of cool things in the downtown area.  Anyway, the Arts District is downtown.  This place is cool.  There's basically a bunch of old industrial buildings now inhabited by artists, mixed in with a bunch of still functioning warehouses/factories, hip eateries, music venues, and galleries.  And of course, being that thousands of artists live there, the place is visually awesome.

There's a bunch of pictures in the gallery below:

PS I started adding these gallery things to put up more pictures in less space, but the trade off is definitely having to use flash.  Let me know if they load too slow and I'll find another solution.

LA: Then and Now

Alright, here it is: I'm pretty much a huge, unashamed postcard collector.

I have a few vintage Los Angeles postcards, and this plan to find the locations and try to get as close to the same shot as I can, for a sort of now version.  Today I tracked down these two on Hollywood Boulevard:

In the postcards, you can see the electric rail tracks on the road.  LA used to have this pretty expansive electric railway set-up, but there was I guess a big corruption/scandal and by 1963 all the tracks were torn up, and buses/cars replaced the trolleys!  It's all part of the Great American Streetcar Scandal, where car, tire and oil companies teamed up and ran the railroads out business to increased car sales.  Who Framed Roger Rabbit? alluded to the situation, when the big wigs were attempting to sell toontown in order to make room for a freeway.

Anyway, Thanks GM for my 45 minute, 8 mile bus ride...I wish I took a streetcar to work.

JR Downtown

JR, this really great French street artist, has some new art work up in LA.  Basically he's been wheat-pasting the world like crazy, and LA's his most recent stop.  I hadn't heard until he did a show in Long Beach and postered up half the walls in town, but JR won a TED grant and has been spending it pasting up HUGE pictures of people on buildings/windows/billboards/etc for the past month.  It's really cool.  The "show" is called "Wrinkles of the City" and LA's only the most recent stop.  Before that was Shanghai and Cartagena.  I heard there are going to be 20 of them put up all over the area.

LA Graffiti

Cold and rainy here, but Spring, woohoo!  Anyway, on my commute everyday I pass through this sort of warehousey/factory/train yard area of LA and there's always really crazy, bright, cool graffiti around.

Berlin Currywurst

There's a new German joint slinging sausages in Silverlake!  What's the word: Es ist gut!

We tried out the new eatery yesterday, and I'm sold.  The German ex-pat owners, Lena
and Hardeep were super nice and ridiculously cool.  Plus they were pretty keen on chattin' it up with my dad, swapping stories about Germany (his line of the family lives back in the Father land).  And the currywurst is real deal.  It's really good.  Go if you're in the area...and try the fritten if you go...with onions.
Photos above from here.

LA Noir: Pete the Drug Dealer and A Naked Guy

Happenings on the LA Buses

So I was sitting on the subway the other night, chatting with Diego, who works at Universal Studios.  Diego got off at 7th Street and another kid sat down.  I glanced over and he started motioning for me to lean over, like he wanted to whisper something.  Umm...okay no.  I don't know you.  But he leaned forward anyway, "hey, I got some kush for sale."  Oh haha.  No, I'm good.  Then the best part happened.  See this guy was totally spaced and his pupils were HUGE!  He leaned back and sat a little awkwardly...and the rest went something like this:

Drug Dealer: "So what are you doing Friday night?"
Me: ...pause..."Oh, well, you know, I have finals next week, so I should probably study."
DD: "Oh yeah. So, uh, you go to that school down on Alameda?"
Me: "No, I'm at UCLA."
DD: "Oh, that one down on Alameda?"
Me: "Uh, no it's out by Santa Monica."
DD: "Oh yeah I think I heard of that."
Me: ...

Then the DD jumps up as his stop approaches.  And stares at me, deer caught in the headlights style with his huge pupils.  And he yells:

DD: "Hey you didn't take my number" - and he told me his number so slowly and deliberately, like I didn't speak English well and he was struggling with coherent thought -
        "it's 3 - 2 - 3 - 6 - 8 - 5 - xxxx.  And my names Pete!"

Then he literally ran off the train.  Thanks Pete.  Thanks, you just made my night a bit better.


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Just a few days later I had a pretty early final.  Walking through Westwood, the streets were mostly deserted.  I got up near campus and was stopped waiting to cross a street; a motorcycle cop was driving by.  And there was this man on the other side of the street, he looked a bit down-and-out.  As the cop drove past him, the man started banging his chest with his fists and yelling at him.  In like 3 seconds flat, the cop had his bike parked and his night stick whipped out.  The man's response was even faster, in 2 seconds he had taken off all his clothes, spread his arms and legs and leaned face forward against the brick wall.  And there I was just watching this entire sequence play out.  No one else was there, just me, the cop and the now naked guy.

LA Noir: Did I just get roofied?

Happenings on the LA Buses

No seriously.  For about 8 minutes, I really wondered.  I even came up with a plan...if I felt my legs go tingly, I would turn to the little old mexican lady sitting next to me, tell her "I've just eaten roofie ridden gum.  Please help." And pray she spoke english. 

Okay, here it is.  I'm not exactly sure why, but a few times since I've started riding the bus, some men have given me little packets of unopened chiclets.  Usually it goes something like this, a man sitting or standing near, leans over, smiles and hands me a pack of chiclets. "For you."  I love gum.  So yeah, I'm gonna smile, take the gum, open it and we'll each have a piece.  Sometimes, there's a little talking after, which no joke first question has on 3 different occasions been "You're Russian?"  "uh, haha, no, why do people think that?"  Usually, there's a bit of a language barrier, and that's about all to the story.  Time on the bus passes a little faster talking to someone, and I end up with a pack of chiclets, win win.  Except last week, I took some gum from this guy, and it was definitely an opened package.  I had this fleeting thought as I popped it in my mouth, remembering those horror stories elementary teachers tell around halloween to never take open candy from strangers when you're trick-or-treating, or ever.  I thought, oh wow, this gum was already opened, what did I just do.  No for real, I think I feel weird.  Oh no. Enter ridiculous, overanalyzed, neurotic stream of conscious here.  Short story long, the guy was in fact just being nice.  He gave me a piece of gum, that's it.  And, also, the little old mexican lady did speak english.

UPDATE: it's been hypothesized that maybe these dudes think I'm a Russian prostitute able to be bought with chiclets.  Fat chance.  I expect at least Mint Mojito Orbit before we can even talk.

More stories from the "underside" later.

Banksy Buzz

LA's been all about BANKSY recently. See the Oscar's are Sunday, and senor Banksy and his movie "Exit Through the Gift Shop" are up for Best Documentary.

"Crayola Shooter" on the Urban Outfitter's in Westwood -
which I walk by everyday

So "Banksy" has been tagging tinseltown for the last week and a half or so.  Annnnd, of the seven new Banksy works that popped up this month (that I know of), 4 of them are on the very route I commute on - or were, two have already been removed.  Pretty pretty awesome.


Okay The LA Banksy tour recap in case you want to wander around LA and check them out:  There are 5 still up that I know of.  "Crayola shooter" is still up in Westwood, "Livin' the Dream" - the billboard on Sunset has been taken down, "Charlie Brown arsonist" - which was on an abondoned burned down buidling in West Hollywood, was stolen or removed or something, "Dog Wizz" is in Beverly Hills and is still up, and I haven't seen the other three, "Kite Caution," "Crayola House Foreclosure," and "This looks a bit like an elephant" but I think they're still up. Recap photo from here.

Okay, where are they: Just click on the map to go to the actual google map for more precise locations.

UPDATE: "Kite Caution" and "Crayola House Foreclosure" are no more...gone...removed by thieves or the owner or something.