I'm back. And even better, with some new pics. A couple of weeks ago, Steph and I took a trip out to LA to visit some of her friends, my sis, and a much needed break from NYC. Unlike my last trip to LA, I was parking- ticket- and Dept. of Homeland Security- hassle- free. Maybe having someone who knows the area makes for a better experience.
My Mom happened to be out there visting my sister as well, so on our second day we headed out to Catalina Island. An hour boat ride off the California coast, Catalina Island is an interesting place. Obviously you have to have a shit ton of money to live there or have been an original resident from back in the day. The houses are huge and beautiful. There are a very limited amount of cars on the island, you have to have lived there for at least 15 yrs to qualify to own one, so most people get around on golf carts. One of the main attractions for me was the Catalina Casino. A leftover from California's art-deco past, the Casino features a grand theater and the largest dancehall-in-the-round in the world. Typically, we missed the once a day behind the scenes tour by an hour.
While most of Catalina Island is pretty frou frou we ate lunch at the one place that is decidedly not, El Galleon. Some type of Spanish pirates meets mardi gras theme restaurnant, El Galleon dates back to the 50's and a more modest Catalina. I was immediately attracted by the "Hawaiian Luau Smoked Ribs Special" banner that hung in the window. The World Cup played on every one of the place's ten or so large screen TVs. The ribs were retarded good and they had authentic framed pinup art hanging over the urinal, ripped straight from a varga calendar circa 1953. The whole thing reminded me of the restaurant in the John Candy classic Summer Rental.
Let's be honest, most of this post is gonna be about eating. I'm only good at a couple of things in life. I guess I'm pretty good at photography but what I'm really good at, is eating. We saw alot of cool places and alot of good people but most likely it was all on the way to where or with whom I was gonna get my eat on. So with that out of the way let's talk about a little something called In-N-Out.
All anyone from the west coast ever talks about is In-N-Out, like it's the second coming or something. Don't get me wrong it is good fast food. It's really good fast food, but it's still fast food. Regardless, thanks to the In-N-Out's secret menu I was able to order their famous burger "protein style" and keep things gluten free thus keeping the alien living in my stomach from clawing it's way out for one more day. In-N-Out became my go to place for grub when we weren't aware of any nearby gluten free options. When in doubt, In-N-Out. We even found the goddamn In-N-Out University where they train the upper echelon of the In-N-Out workforce, more on that later.
I'd never been to the Getty Museum. But now I can't wait to go back. The building alone is beautiful enough, you could spend the whole day just walking around the outside. But I was even more blown away by the Jean Leon Gerome exhibit inside. I'm not much into paintings. They just don't strike emotion in me the same way a photograph does but these paintings were amazing. The color, the composition, the subjects - it all blew me away. As we were leaving I snapped one of my new favorite pics. The Getty sits atop a mountain and a tram carries you from the parking area below up to the museum proper. Waiting on the platform to go back was a Dad and his two sons and I managed to capture a great little moment.
One day we headed out to La Crescenta where Steph grew up for a hometown tour. Until informed otherwise, I could have sworn they shot The Karate Kid there (the original fuckers - Jaiden Smith, wtf it's all about the Macchio son). In fact most of the places we went to looked and felt like an 80's movie. Joselito's Mexican restaurant, yep. Good food though and margaritas the size of a fishbowl. Then there was the bar in Montrose. I don't know what it was called but we met a friend of a friend from Arizona and another kid named Dan, who asked me how I'd been, like he knew me my whole life cause I said "What's up man?" An awkward "I said what's up MAN, not what's up DAN" conversation ensued. By the end I decided I liked the kid and wished I had known him my whole life. Back to the bar, if they had pulled away the wall next to us to reveal a soundstage, I wouldn't have batted an eye. The fact that they didn't creeped me out. This place was straight out of the backlot. I tried to rock the jukebox but they have that stupid one where it shuffles your picks into the playlist instead of playing them all in a row, thus preventing any bullying. Lame. We left before I heard half of them.
Venice Beach is full of drugged out leftovers and boardwalk "artists." I've seen enough of them in my life so I wasn't impressed the first time I went there and I wasn't this time either. Maybe it's cause I didn't see Tony Alva skateboarding down the walkway. As far as I'm concerned, there are only two artists in Venice Beach. One of them paints ceramic skulls and one of them wears a halloween store alien mask.
Javier from Los Calavera, along with his daughter, has been hand painting ceramic skulls day of the dead style since 1999. His designs are unique and inventive and have spawned shallow imitations along the Venice walkway. I got one of his skulls the first time I was out there and specifically headed back to Venice to get another. If you find yourself in the area look for him and buy one of his wonderful skulls. They are cheaper than you would think.
Then there is the alien guy. While every other "artist" in Venice is peddling their shit with "No Pictures Unless Donation Signs" in front, the alien guy is a true creative genius or bat shit crazy. I'm not sure which one. Basically he sits just off the main walkway in an alien mask and black robe. People walk by, stop to take photos, kids poke and he never flinches. The only reason I know he's real is because I saw him walk up and sit down. He doesn't ask for money and he doesn't have a tip cup. He does it just to do it. Brilliant.
If you've ever had a Pink's hot dog then you know why it's been in business for 75 years. No matter what time of day you go, there is gonna be a line. But it's worth the wait. I did throw them just a little when I asked for a chili dog with no bun. The guy kind of looked at me for a sec and then said "Ok buddy, what ever you want!"
Hollywood is full of every movie cliche there is. So I don't need to post pictures of things you've seen a hundred times. In fact one of the only pics I took in Hollywood was that of Tommy Udo's footprints in front of Graumman's Chinese Theatre. If you've never seen Kiss of Death, do yourself a favor and watch it, that and every other movie with Richard Widmark in it.
Union Station is really just a train station, but it's a beautiful one. The art deco architecture of Los Angeles' past is harder and harder to find these days and Union Station is a must see. Right across the way is Olvera Street, the birthplace of Mexican culture in Los Angeles. Olvera Street combines restaurant's, marketplace vendors and museums to present a history of Mexican culture in Los Angeles. We bought a beautiful handpainted pottery serving dish and one vendor had more Luchedor masks than I'd ever seen before. Unfortunately, my fat head didn't fit in any.
On our last full day, we headed east to Pomona for SoCal Speed Shop's Annual Open House event. Once a year SoCal Speed Shop opens it doors and lets the public behind the scenes at the legendary garage. What should have been a hour drive, turned into a 4 hour journey due to LA's famed freeway traffic. We dropped off the freeway chasing an alternate route and ended up on a road called Hamburger Way. Soon we stumbled upon the big enchilada: the In-N-Out distribution center, company store and In-N-Out University. It was an In-N-Out paradise. Our spirits and bellies refreshed we made the last stretch to the SoCal Speed Shop and words cannot express how cool it was.
The morning of our flight back home we joined my sis and mom for breakfast. We planned to go to the Potholder Cafe where we had gone a couple of days before and encountered a particularly spunky waitres. But we ended up going to the similarly named but altogether different Coffee Cup Cafe. I've really grown to like Long Beach. It's got a good vibe and cool places like former Social Distortion drummer Chris Reece's bar The Pike. I hope my sis will stay there for a little while. This trip to the west really changed my attitude about California. The last time out, I kind of hated it. This time out, I'm wondering what it might be like to live there for a little bit. Maybe down the road.
Click the header pic above to check out all the rest of the pics from LA.
A note for the nerds: These pics mark my crossover to the world of Canon. Spurred by Canon's line of innovative HD-DSLRs, I decided to make the switch. All the color pics were shot on the Canon 7D with a 2.8 24-70mm L series lens or a 1.4 50mm lens. All the B&W pics were shot with a Canon EOS 1V-HS, the above listed lenses, and Ilford Delta 400 Pro B&W film stock.
The 7D takes some great looking images, the level of detail is amazing. But nothing beats film. That B&W Ilford stock is breathtaking. And Canon glass.... whew.
With my health getting better, I'm excited to get back to shooting and really use these cameras to their potential.
