Ten days in Los Angeles — Letters from the Road

"Well, I'm going out west out on the coast / Where the California girls are really the most / Where we're out there having fun / In the warm California sun" (Yes, a little Ramones is a good thing once in a while.)

Why Los Angeles? Because it's a convenient stop on my way to Hawaii, breaking the trip into more manageable chunks (six and a half hours from San José plus six hours to Honolulu). Why only ten days? Because this is an expensive place and my funds are limited. I've already visited Los Angeles a few times, for just a few days, so on this trip I decided to limit my stay (sort of) to my favorite area in the city, Venice.

You've certainly seen Venice in the movies, even if you didn't realize at the time. Olivia Newton John roller skating to disco music in Xanadu (1980)? That's Venice's Ocean Front Walk. Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson playing street basketball in White Men Can't Jump (1992)? Venice again. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken frolicking in the real world in Barbie (2023)? You guessed it, Venice Beach. And hundreds of other movies and tv series.

I rented a small apartment on Vernon Avenue, a few blocks from the beach, and my main activity has been walking around the neighborhood, from Marina del Rey (SE of Venice along the beach) to Santa Monica (NW of Venice along the beach), including, of course, the Venice Ocean Front Walk and the Venice Canals.

No museums?

I only left the neighborhood to visit museums. The Getty Center looks like a mini city on top of a hill and displays an impressive art collection including Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, Watteau, Goya, Canaletto, Turner, Manet, Monet, Renoir, van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, and many others. They also had a special exhibition by Gustave Caillebotte, the guy famous for that painting with all the umbrellas (Paris Street, Rainy Day).

Paris Street, Rainy Day, by Gustave Caillebotte

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) also has an extraordinary collection of paintings, including Boucher, Delacroix, Renoir, Cézanne, Gauguin, Modigliani, Picasso, Kandinsky, Klee, Magritte, Lichtenstein, and a bunch more.

The Treachery of Images, by René Magritte

Right next to the LACMA, there is the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which shows many props and costumes from famous movies, from the ruby slippers worn by Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz to the magic gauntlet worn by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. For me the most interesting object, for its level of detail and artistry, was the costume of the amphibian man from The Shape of Water.

The Amphibian Man from The Shape of Water

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) was a bit underwhelming, but fortunately they had an exhibition that was amusing, Photorealism and the Work of Art. And just across the street there's another museum of contemporary art, The Broad, which has a vastly superior collection. On display, tons of works by Warhol, Basquiat, Koons, Haring, Twombly, Johns, Rauschenberg, and one of my favorites, Roy Lichtenstein.

And the food?

In Los Angeles, I ate what the locals eat: Mexican food. The best meals were a beef burrito in Santa Monica and carnitas tacos in the Original Farmers Market at the corner of 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue.

And after Los Angeles?

Tomorrow I will move to Honolulu, capital of the state of Hawaii. I will stay there until the end of May.

Aloha!