Vacation. This time Kristen and I decided to hit the City of Angels.

It was a wonderfully exhausting day. Highlights included 2 hours of sleep before our flight, and me getting angry at Alaska Airlines employees (check in only- flight crew were lovely). After landing and fetching our rental car, we stopped to eat at El Pollo Loco. Nothing like going to a Mexican themed fast-food when you can get authentic Mexican cuisine everywhere you look.

We then headed out to the new Getty Museum.
Beautiful location and amazing architecture and landscaping. It’s very eurocentric and the majority of the collection is neo-classical sculpture, renaissance and later paintings and decorative arts from the 1600s and onwards. After 5 hours of looking at art depicting the suffering of Christ and the martyrs of early Christianity, we felt it appropriate to take a break and get a snack outside. We went back to finish off the final wings of the museum. In a gallery containing amazing neo-classical sculpture we met Isak a wonderful eastern european man of 50 perhaps. The man has his hair shaved short and you can see the scar where his skull was cracked. He didn’t tell us what happenned to him, but he says the doctors were amazed he pulled out of a 21 day coma, and not only survived, but seemed to have no brain damage. I get the impression he’s ex-Russian military… but i could be wrong. In any case this friendly fellow said he knew i was truly a lover of art because I scrutiniezed the work of certain statues from every angle. He then proceeded to show us how to read the the serial numbers on any work at the museum to know if it belonged to the Getty or if it was a a loaner. He asked us to come back sometime soon and visit him. Looking forward to it. If you find yourself in that wing of the museum, tell him the Indian guy with the nice watch said he will eventually have his statue in that exhibit.

Next, we drove down from the hills and dived into Hollywood. We were on our way to meet up with my younger brother. He works in television production and has lived out there for about 5 years now. We had an hour or more to kill, so we explored his neighborhood which is sort of sandwiched between Little Armenia and Thai Town. The craziest thing was the huge Church of Scientology compound just a few blocks from Swaga’s place. We walked around and took pictures of the place. Spooky. Why does L. Ron Hubbard keep publishing books from beyond the grave? Why are so many celebrities into this “cult”? Eventually we met up with my brother but while I was walking with our luggage my digital camera slipped off my belt and landed in the street. It was run over a few seconds after, but we didnt realize that till 5 minutes after we’d settled into my brother’s apartment. I ran out, frantically searched the car then saw it out int he middle of the street. I snatched it up and opend up the pouch as i walked back to the apartment. The camera was smashed up, and i’m not sure what’s holding it together. Everyone was shocked to see it, but amazingly the SD Card was fine. Instead of getting upset I decided that the next morning I’d get a new camera. (Stay tuned for the digital camera autopsy, I’ll be posting those pictures soon!)

It was just after 8 and we decided to get dinner. Swaga took us to Palm’s Thai Restaurant. This place is always packed. The prices are cheap and the food is AMAZING. Easily one of the best 5 thai restaurants i’ve ever eaten in. The place is loud and jumping with activity as the band played early Beatles covers and other pop-rock hits of various eras. After they left the stage, Thai Elvis hit the stage. I think he’s one of the owners of the place. Anyway, if you close your eyes, you’d think Elvis himself was singing 20 feet from you. Hit this place if your down in Hollywood.

Next stop downtown Hollywood. We tried to get to Mann’s Chinese Theater. We couldn’t get in due to the premiere of the movie remake of The HoneyMooners. We did see some celebrities including Ayesha Tyler, Gabriel Union and the fat bald Italian dude with the thin mustache… he’s a great character actor, and i’ve seen him in tons of stuff… as soon as I find his name i’ll update this entry.

After sometime we decided to go someplace else. We were off to The Abbey in West Hollywood. Cafe and restaurant by day, it turns into a gay, hollywood hipster and celebrity hotspot. We showed up as some show was wrapping up shooting. The place was packed and Swaga said it was a slow night! We spent a couple hours there and headed back home after 1am.

Stay tuned for Day 2!