adventures in la la land

As promised, here's a little bit on my trip to L.A. (my accomplices were my father and Allie). I've never seen so many Denny's in my life. We returned last night and immediately felt the oppressive humidity, which wasn't even bad by Washington standards. Today is absolutely miserable after enjoying the best weather possible for a week.

We arrived on Sunday and decided to check out Santa Monica since it wasn't too far from the airport. It's basically Los Angeles's Georgetown (but it is technically its own city)--and we all know what I think about Georgetown. Monday I spent visiting USC meeting key people. That evening we went to a game at Dodger Stadium (the Dodgers beat the Tigers in an interleague game). Tuesday was also spent partly at USC and then onto Hollywood (still the dump I remember from two years ago, but seems to have some new upscale development). I think it would be very funky to live in Hollywood, and that's one of the areas I'm keeping an eye on.

Wednesday we got a late start and headed over to Hollyhock House, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (the first of his California homes). We were part of the first tour group allowed in the house in five years. There's still some restoration work to go, but I guess they wanted it to open on the 8th in honor of Wright's birthday. It was interesting, but of course the tour guide frustrated the hell out of me with her narrow conception of significance, which is no surprise since she's just following mainstream preservation interpretation.

After killing some time on Wednesday we headed over to CBS Television Studios, which aren't really in Hollywood, but instead in the vicinity of the Farmer's Market and The Grove (a new New Urbanist-like outdoor mall). We had tickets to see The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson like I told you before so I hope you watched. It's such a tiny studio! The guests were Dennis Hopper, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and comic Carlos Alazraqui. Dennis and Craig were talking about the Cinevegas film festival, which Craig said he went to a few years ago with a movie he made about a gay, Scottish hairdresser to which Allie and I made a lot of noise (Allie more than me) and a handful of other people clapped [he's referencing The Big Tease, by the way]. Our reaction seemed to surprise Craig, he looked our way and made a comment about how everyone that saw the movie was in the audience today. Last night we watched the tape, and during the couple of audience pans, Dad and I are visible, but Allie is mysteriously absent (blocked by people's heads or something). However, Allie is heard in the aforementioned incident and later during the interview with Marianne Jean-Baptiste when she said something under her breath that the very sensitive microphones picked up since no one else was making noise!

Thursday was Disneyland. Ugh. If I never go to a Disney theme park again, I'll be happy. Within five minutes I couldn't handle the number of children everywhere. The place seemed packed to the hilt but we didn't have to wait very long for most of the rides. The ones with insanely long waits we skipped since we've done them before at Disney World. Friday we spent the day in the Newport Beach vicinity with relatives. Saturday Dad made us get up very early to arrive at the airport more than three hours before our flight. Yeah, he's like that.

All in all, not bad. I didn't find a place to live, but I have a much better handle on the city and at least have made arrangements to stay with a relative until I find a place. The weather is great. I'm still freaking out about it all, but it'll be okay.