San Diego

I spent the week between Christmas and New Year with Mei's family in San Diego.  We had torrential rainfall in Southern California just before Christmas, and it cleared just in time for our visit, but rain is predicted again for Wednesday, so we tried to plan around that possibility.  Our first adventure is to the Wild Animal Park, part of the San Diego Zoo.  (They are changing their name to Safari Park.)  This park differs from most zoos by having large areas of minimally fenced enclosures where large animals can roam fairly freely.  For those of us who haven't been to Africa, it's amazing to see elephants, giraffes, rhinos actually strolling.  The park itself is huge but the area near the entrance has more typical zoo-like animal enclosures for smaller critters.  There's an entire area that we didn't get close to which houses North American animals.  The park has a fairly basic tram ride that takes you around the main large African animal areas.  You pay extra to either get closer to the animals, to see areas not included in the basic tram (for instance, the Asian animal area), or to see parts of the park not open to the public.  Strollers are definitely needed for younger kids.  My friend Alisa lives near by and she and her daughter Allegra joined us for the afternoon. The kids all seemed to enjoy the various animals in the park.  I was most amazed by the 1 1/2 day old baby elephant!  We were told that the baby was born with the entire pack in attendance.  A park volunteer told us that the pack members would approach the baby to introduce themselves and meet her.  There were quite a few young elephants of various ages in the pack.

In the evening, we had dinner at Kansas City BBQ, a restaurant that advertised having been in the movie Top Gun!  Of course, Stephen the movie buff had to visit.  It turned out the food was really good, and they had some baked beans with an amazing sauce, really the best beans I've ever had!   Mason helped his dad with some ribs and gnawed them down to the bone!  He definitely got that trait from his Po po (my mom)!

Wednesday did bring the rain that was predicted.  San Diego is not designed for indoor activities (even malls are outdoor).  The hotel concierge suggested the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park.  It turned out that pretty much every family with kids had the same idea!  The place was packed.  It's not a large museum but they had some excellent exhibits, including dinosaur fossils, live lizards and reptiles, and crystal and jewelry. The tiny cafe was completely overwhelmed by the crowds though, and lines for the various nature movies were very long. Mason watched a 3D movie about a Hawaiian coral reef with Stephen and I.  Some of the 3D effects were a little too much for him, but he was able to sit through the whole thing.

Thursday was clear but cold.  Alisa and Alle were able to join us again, this time with Derek, Alisa's husband and Alle's dad.  The Holiday Bowl is played in Qualcomm stadium and the two teams in it this year are Washington and Nebraska.  So that's why all the tourists from those places!  As part of the festivities, there is a balloon parade near our hotel.  The idea is kind of like the Tournament of Roses Parade for the Rose Bowl, but with large balloons (like the Macy's Thanksgiving parade) and much smaller scale.  The two competing teams' bands marched along with various high school bands from far away states and the balloons were all perfect for young kids.  Alle and Neve remembered each other from the Park visit and got to be fast friends, bonding over the Nutcracker (which they'd both seen earlier in the month, at different venues).  After the parade and a seafood lunch at a nearby restaurant, we all went to tour the USS Midway, which is a decommissioned aircraft carrier now serving as a museum.  Derek served in the Navy (he's now a commercial pilot) so we had a private tour guide, which was great since the carrier is gigantic and there was so much to see.  The tour starts in the hangar bay, where the planes are stored when not on deck.  They had exhibited there lots of old restored combat airplanes, tons of cockpits that visitors could sit in (popular with both kids and adults!), flight stimulators.  We didn't even go down to the lower decks.  The flight deck was really cool.  They had more combat planes and helicopters, including the Tomcat which is the plane made famous in the movie "Top Gun" (I feel the need...the need for speed).  As they did in the hangar bay, some of the larger helicopters were opened so you could walk inside them.  They also had 'standee' figures showing the various coloured uniforms for the different deck crew members.  From the flight deck, you can go down into the admiral's quarters (fancy and relatively spacious), radar room and dining area.  Derek explained how planes land on the deck as well as how they are shot off by the catapult.  The whole place is really amazing, and I can imagine spending a whole day just exploring it.  The entry fee includes an audio tour, for those who didn't bring their own personal tour guide.  Before we could explore the whole place, it was past time for Mason to take a nap.  Neve came with me and the Martin's as we walked further up the waterfront while Mei took Mason back to the hotel.  There is a series of outdoor sculptures along the walkway which the girls loved.  We stopped at the Maritime Museum, which consists of a series of old tall ships (including the HMS Surprise, which was most recently in the movie "Master and Commander"), submarines and a ferry boat, which sold hot drinks.  While Derek went to explore the Surprise, Alisa and I sat on the ferry deck sipping hot drinks and catching up, while the girls played Nutcracker on the small stage.  Pretty soon, it was late afternoon and the sun was setting.  We all walked back to our hotel where the Martin's picked up their car and Neve and I returned to our room.

Once Stephen returned from a visit with relatives and Mason woke from his nap, we walked to the Gaslamp for an Italian dinner.  Mason ate some crab, lobster ravioli, steak from the adult's dinners, while Neve had some really yummy spaghetti and meatballs.

Friday morning was even chillier but again sunny.  After packing up and checking out of the hotel, we drove over to Balboa Park to give the kids a chance to run around a bit before we hit the road back to Los Angeles.  The Park is full of different types of museums and we parked near the Organ Pavillion and a Japanese Garden, which had a koi pond that the kids loved.  This looks like a great place for families when the weather is nicer.

All in all, despite some uncooperative weather, I had a great time and I think the kids enjoyed it too.

Some of the pics I took can be seen here.

Holiday movies

There are always a lot of movies getting buzz at this time of year, and going to see movies is one of my favourite Christmas activities.  Today I went to see "The King's Speech" and it was a wonderful movie, very appropriate for the holidays.  Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are amazing as the man who will become King George VI (the current Queen's father) and his speech therapist, Lionel Logue.  I saw Colin Firth interviewed on Charlie Rose and he's quite an eloquent speaker, but the way he depicted the difficulties caused by his character's stammer (stuttering to us in North America) is heart-breaking.  As is typical of a British movie, there is quite a bit of intelligent wit and humour mixed in with the struggles.  As is also typical of a British movie, the secondary roles are filled with top-notch actors (Derek Jacobi, Michael Gambon) as well as old familiar faces (Anthony Andrews, where's he been?) and there is a bit of a Pride and Prejudice reunion, as Jennifer Ehle plays Lionel Logue's wife.  She was Elizabeth Bennet to Colin Firth's Darcy in the 1995 TV mini-series version of the Jane Austen book (the definitive version, as far as I'm concerned).  The eventual triumph of the King is no less suspenseful and joyful for knowing how it will turn out. 

I also saw "Black Swan" a few weeks ago, as part of a benefit for City of Angels Ballet.  I enjoyed this movie, although it's definitely not an uplifting holiday pic.  The movie is creepy and dark and hallucinatory.  The visuals are amazing throughout, from the cinematography to the costumes to the makeup.  Some of the dialogue is a little melodramatic, and the very last few minutes didn't live up to the rest of the movie, especially the climactic final performance.  The dance scenes were filmed so as to give the actors the best chance of looking like real dancers-they were not filmed in full body but showing bits and pieces, arms, heads, etc.  Professional dancers subbed in for the more demanding scenes and the editing of this was superb.  This isn't so much a 'ballet' movie as a movie set in the ballet world.  This is also a movie that you will either love or hate, probably not a lot of in-between.

Update:  On Christmas Day, I went to see True Grit.  What a great movie!  Amazing character in Maddie, the young girl looking to avenge her father.  Great cast, great story, great score, a movie that really takes you away to a different time and place.  

Photos from New York

Here are the photos I took during the trip.

The Metropolitan Museum

Saturday was my last full day in the city.  I checked out of the hotel, left my luggage with the bag captain and hitched a cab to the Upper Eastside.  I saw on the web that the Met had an interesting sculpture on the roof made of bamboo and that you could line up for tickets to climb up.  This was the last weekend before they started taking the sculpture down.  When I got to the museum, the place was packed.  I asked about where to line up for the roof sculpture and they pointed me to another exit.  After wandering around trying to figure out what they were talking about, I found the wheelchair entrance with a bit of a line of people.  I was able to get one of the last tickets (yay!) and some time to check out a few other exhibits.  The first place I headed was the Khubilai Khan exhibit.  They had some beautiful examples of pottery, textiles, paintings and many other decorative objects.  I focused mainly on the decorative objects, I didn't have the energy to focus on the paintings.  In many of the pieces on exhibit, I learned about how the art during this period brought together artistic styles and techniques from all corners of the Mongol empire.  They were also very open to just about any religion, which also influenced the art.

From the Khan exhibit, I headed up to the roof to check out this sculpture that I was going to be walking on.  It was stunning and huge!  Walking underneath it was like being in a dry bamboo forest (but with climbing rope scattered throughout).  A lot of people were up on the roof having a drink, taking pictures of the sculpture, looking at the colourful foliage in Central Park.  I would be up on the sculpture in a couple of hours!

I took a brief break in the cafe in the American Wing.  This is one of my favourite places in the museum.  I just love the light in here and the way it shines on the various sculptures.

The tour of the Big Bambu sculpture met downstairs.  While I was waiting for it to start, I noticed a familiar face taking her kids to the museum.  Turns out it was Marcia Gay Harden! 

In order to walk on the sculpture, they required that we leave our belongings in lockers (so that nothing could accidentally drop on someone below).  We got to walk up the bamboo paths, on this amazing structure that was just sitting on the roof, not bolted down, creating this wave-like form, with various sizes of poles tied together with different colours of climbing rope.  By the time we were at the top, we were 50 ft above the roof of the Met, looking out over the Park and across at the Penthouses surrounding it.  The bamboo underneath our feet flexed as we walked.  The rock climbers who worked on the structure created a place for a beer cooler, places for bamboo lounge chairs and a small bamboo wind chime.  It was an amazing feeling being up there!  The wisteria on the roof's trellis had started growing up the bamboo.  It was an incredible feeling to be within and a part of this beautiful artwork, knowing that it was going to be gone within a few weeks!

After I got back to the hotel, picked up my bags and headed to Wilson and Ming's coop, I was pretty tired.  Instead of heading to the theatre (to see Cedar Lake at the Joyce) I decided I needed a Shake Shack burger and fries and a frozen custard.  Plus, it would give me a chance to reexamine the light sculptures in Madison Square Park.  It was a fitting way to end a busy week.

Lincoln Center, MAD, and Fela!

On Friday, I had only a few meetings, so I planned a tour of Lincoln Center.  The whole place has been renovated by Diller Scofidio+Renfro with a new fountain in the plaza and a new 'grassy knoll' on the 65th Street side.  The tour guide was an older gentleman with a very deep and dramatic bass voice.  He took us through David Kock theatre, where NYC Opera was doing a rehearsal for Intermezzo by Strauss.  There was no music, just people running around a stage with props.  In the Met Opera House, the Opera was rehearsing Carmen with full costumes and sets.  We were only allowed into the Director's box, but from there we could see and hear everything.  That place is huge!  The final venue we toured is Avery Fisher Hall, where the Philharmonic performs.  This venue was empty so we sat in there as our guide told us a little about the place.  Apparently Avery Fisher paid to have the whole thing taken down and rebuilt shortly after it opened because that was the only way to fix the sound problems.  They really don't make rich people like they used to, do they?

From Lincoln Center, I headed to MAD, the Museum of Art and Design.  I had read about the building that this museum is in in the New York Times.  The building now looks like it says 'HI' on the top. The museum was between exhibits and had only a jewelry show and a pottery show, but their open studio housed Ruth Marshall, who knits cat skins.  She has some small knitted wild cat skins on display (ocelot, etc) and is working on a tiger.  Her knitted skins are based on actual skins in the Natural History Museum collection.  The tiger is from a female from a zoo who was donated to the museum upon her death.  The knit work is beautiful (colour work, shaping, etc) and it was cool to talk to her in person about her project.

Since I was in Columbus Circle, I decided to have lunch at Bouchon Bakery in Time Warner Center.  I had their short rib sliders at the bar and a cookie with ice cream.

After lunch, I strolled down to Times Square to see what was happening at the TKTS booth.  It sure has expanded since the 90s when I visited D while he was at Columbia and we saw Metamorphosis with Baryshnikov!  The line was quite long, and the booth is now several windows wide and located under the glowing red stairs near the Father Duffy statue.  I was able to get a seat for Fela!, a musical based on the life of Fela Kuti.  He invented afrobeat music, but I had heard that the dancing, choreographed by Bill T. Jones was phenomenal.  I went back to my hotel for room service dinner of french onion soup (and the remainder of the cookie from lunch) and a bit of a rest.  I got to the theatre as they were letting the line in.  The crowd was heavily African-American and the theatre was plastered all over with hand painted signs to give it some atmosphere.  My seat was in the very first row!  The cast is all black, and the performer who plays Fela! is pretty much on stage the entire time.  He talks to the crowd as if we are all seeing one of his shows in Fela's nightclub in Nigeria.  The music is amazing of course, but the dancing was phenomenal and it was so cool to see it so close up.  I could have reached out and touched some of the dancer's feet.  The show includes a lot of audience participation and the dancers often move into the aisles as they are singing and dancing.

Broadway, Dance and Food

I think the title pretty much covered the evening activities during the week.  Our days were packed solid with meetings, and there were a couple of business meetings over dinner, but I made an effort to fill the rest of the evenings with seeing live performance. Our offices here are very well located for access to Broadway and City Center.

One of my evening meals included drinks and dinner at Rue 57 at the bar.  The bolognese sauce was delish and I should have take some back to the hotel, because I wasn't very hungry during east coast dinner time, but got hungry later, during west coast dinner time.

A second evening meal was at Mike's Bistro, a kosher restaurant on the Upper West Side for a group dinner that included Warner Bros., our design firms, ADI from NY and BDA from Los Angeles, our contractors, and MEP engineers.  The food was excellent, great service, fun company.  After dinner, a few of us stopped at a nearby Irish pub, P.D. O'Hurley, for a drink.  Pretty authentic too, the bartenders all had real Irish accents.  The food being brought out to fellow patrons smelled really good!

On the third evening, Holly and I went to see Billy Elliott on Broadway.  We got tickets at the box office in the front row of the mezzanine.  We had a little time to kill before the show (but not enough for dinner) so we headed to Times Square.  A couple of years ago, the city blocked off a chunk of street for pedestrians and people were hanging out all staring at the side of a building and waving.  Turns out one of the stores had a camera mounted pointing to the crowd, and people were waving at themselves, which seems like a pretty universal human response to seeing yourself projected on a large screen.  The show itself was great, the Billy I saw (Joseph Harrington) was exceptionally talented (I suspect all of the rotating Billy's are).  Apparently there is a special 'camp' for the various Billy candidates because they need to know ballet, tap, singing and acting, plus be able to speak in a Geordie (or northern English) accent.  After the show, the audience is let out at the back near the stage doors and there were several pre-teen girls waiting for Billy to come out, which he did and signed autographs and had pictures taken with girls and parents alike!  After the show, Holly's brother met up with us (he was at a dinner nearby) and we found a Greek restaurantm, Uncle Nick's, that Holly had been to before and enjoyed.  They were clearly getting ready to closed but there were some 15 to 20 staffers milling about.  They agreed to serve us so we ordered moussaka, pastitsio, flaming cheese and a tray of dips.  The food was excellent, we scarfed it down and Holly's brother had leftovers to take home.

By Thursday, I was exhausted, and I suspect our design team was as well.  We wrapped a little earlier, and I spent some time sitting under the Columbus statue at Columbus Circle.  We watched high school kids milling about.  We had a drinks meeting with our contractor and one of our subtenant contacts at Whiskey Park.  After a little bit of chit chat, I headed back to my hotel.  The day before Holly's brother told us the Thai restaurant, Topaz Thai, near the hotel was quite good, so I got in line and had myself a delicious plate of pad thai with seafood, plus creamy thai iced tea.  The restaurant was tiny and packed, with a line out the door.  The service was fast and pleasant and I paid and was out of there in plenty of time to walk down to the next block to see Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake at City Center. I've seen the touring company in LA, but I loved this performance even more.  I thought the dancers were superb and I love his choreography.  And odd thing happened just as the house lights dimmed though.  I was in the rear mezzanine, and there was a major stampede of people up in the rafters heading for empty seats in the front of the mezzanine.  They made a major racket and it was really unpleasant.

Sunday in New York

Today I took it easy in the morning as my knee was bothering me (probably a consequence of too much walking and my calf muscle still being weak from the injury in June). Wilson and Ming were heading home to Long Island, so I hung out while they got themselves packed up. I then headed to the Parker Meridien where I would be staying during the week. After a quick burger at the Parker's burger joint (a weird little shack like corner of the hotel serving only burgers and fries and taking cash only), I headed to MOMA. They have a show of Abstract Expressionism in New York. Turns out MOMA was kind of the epicenter of this art movement. This is not one of my favourite kinds of modern art, but there were some amazing pieces by Jackson Pollack, Philip Guston, Barnet Newman, and many others. The audio tour is free at MOMA and that always adds something to the experience, especially when viewing less familiar pieces. The sculpture garden had some new pieces, including a wishing tree by Yoko Ono which drew a lot of attention as participants could write a wish on a tag and add it to the tree. The second floor atrium featured a Kara Walker piece ("Gone...") which I've seen before. Another show that drew my attention was one called Small Scale, Big Change which showed several projects by architects designing to improve impoverished urban environments. Many of the projects were residences (either houses or apartments or rehabilitation of existing buildings) but there were also schools and community centers. Not only was the story of each project interesting, but the displays of models, drawings and other documents really added to the understanding of each project. This was one of those wonderful surprises that I love stumbling on when I visit New York museums.

Before heading back to the hotel, I took a quick stroll through the permanent painting collection and spent some time with Monet's Waterlilies. The audio tour talked about how these paintings were viewed with very little appreciation at the time they were created, but that a curator at MOMA discovered them in the 50s during the time when Abstract Expressionism was in full bloom in NY and felt a connection between Monet's works and the current art. Who knew that the Waterlilies were pre-Abstract Expressionist! I loved that the museum made that connection for me!

After MOMA, I headed back to the hotel and rested (including a quick nap). I waited for Lalida, who is our main contact at DCE in Burbank, to arrive from the airport so we could go out for dinner. The hotel recommended Trattoria dell'Arte which is right around the corner. As we walked there, I realized that we are literally next to Carnegie Hall! The restaurant was wonderful. Warm and friendly service, delicious food, and amazing desserts. We started with burratas (huge pieces!), tried two different pasta dishes (bolognese and a cacio e pepe) and cannoli and tiramisu. Everything tasted good and the cannoli really was the best I've ever had.

Tomorrow is the start of a busy week of work.

New York City

As part of a large project to relocate part of DC Entertainment to Burbank, a group of us are travelling to DC's offices in New York to conduct programming interviews. I wasn't about to let a trip to NY pass without some personal time, so I tagged on a weekend before and a Saturday after the official business.

I arrived on Friday, coincidentally around the same time that Wilson and Ming were returning from a trip to China to show off their 5 month old daughter Penelope to Ming's family. I had a set of keys to their coop in Chelsea so I was waiting for them when they got in. We ordered in Chinese take out and I got to meet Penelope who is just adorable, and catch up with Wilson and Ming.

On Saturday, I headed to the West Village to a restaurant called 'ino that was recommended to me by a friend who had just been to the city. I had a delicious sausage, egg and fontina panino washed down with capuccino.

After brunch, I walked east towards Washington Square Park, which was packed with people since it was a beautiful warm fall day. There were all kinds of performers in the park including an a capella quartet, a violinist standing in the middle of the dry fountain, a piano player with her instrument on rolling carts and with the case open to show the hammers and strings, and a trumpet player among the trees. An artist was painting with coloured sand poured onto the pavement with his hand.

From the park, I headed north to the Morgan Library. Although the permanent collection was closed for renovation, they had a couple of wonderful shows. The first was a small show of Degas drawings and sketches, including several studies made for paintings. The subjects included dancers, horses and people, and several of the drawings included water colour. The second show was of black and white Lichtensteins. I'd only ever seen his full colour works, which look like they are machine printed. The black and whites are mostly using graphite, pencil and other similar materials. They also show how he tried various methods to create the look of the Benday dots that are his trademark. Not all the techniques worked, but you can see smudges and other mistakes. The cartoonish quality of the drawings are somehow transformed by the lack of colour. These two shows made me appreciate the way that drawings and use of pencil and graphite really can reveal an artist at work. The third show at the Morgan was of Mark Twain documents, which were interesting historically, but although the writings are there for you to read, I ended up mostly reading the captions, which somehow made me feel like I was reading a history book.

From the Morgan I headed back to 5th Avenue and up to Rockefeller Center. The skating rink was in operation, and the area was packed with people. A newly married couple were getting their picture taken in front of the sign. After hanging out with the crowds for a bit, I walked over to 6th Ave. for the long walk back to Chelsea.

For dinner, Wilson suggested checking out Eataly, which is a new Italian marketplace and restaurant complex by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. The place was packed with lines everywhere. It's divided into sections like meats, fish, pastas, cheeses, and each section has its own restaurant. The seafood restaurant seemed to have the most reasonable wait time, so we put our names in. Half hour later, we got our table. We started with the crudo plate, which is basically Italian sashimi. The fish being offered were fluke, skipjack and sea trout and I thought the skipjack was incredibly tasty. I'm not a huge raw fish fan but these pieces were so fresh you could practically taste the ocean in them. My entree was a roasted bronzino. The fish came whole with the skin just opened up in the middle. Again, unbelievably fresh and delicious for a very simply prepared dish. Dessert for me was pistachio and hazelnut gelato, again amazingly good, strong nut flavours and wonderfully creamy. The lines here would be daunting for a regular visit (and the market prices are very high) but this was a wonderfully delicious and unique dining experience.

dineLA October 2010

We had a 2 week long dineLA this fall and I was able to try 3 new restaurants and return to a fourth that I had enjoyed before.  The first place I went was Culina at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills.  This was a restauarant suggested by my friend Robert.  It was a wonderful dinner.  The room is beautiful with a lovely outdoor patio area for warm weather.  The service was perfect, as you would expect from a Four Seasons.  The food was fresh, delicious and perfectly portioned.  The restaurant is Italian and the main menu appears very authentic.  For dineLA, they had the freshest burrata with grape tomatoes, figs with ricotta, a beautiful piece of steak perfectly cooked to medium rare, and a delicious chocolate dessert, with 3 different textures, mousse, crisp cookie and creamy gelato. 

The second place was Susan Feniger's Street.  This is a very casual place serving interesting twists on international comfort food.  The food was quite unusual and the service friendly.  I found some challenges in the menu because of my peculiar taste preferences.  However, I'm not sure this is a place I would go out of my way to visit.  I can see this being a nice neighbourhood place if you lived close.

The third place I went was Ortolan.  This is a french restaurant, and the room is absolutely beautiful.  They only served the dineLA menu, we had to ask to see the regular menu.  When we did we realized what a bargain the prix fixe price was.  Typically they serve a $75 prix fixe or a $95 tasting menu.  A la carte entrees are between mid $30s and high $40s!  We got our three courses for $44.  The food was exceptional.  Every dish was beautiful from top to bottom.  I had a braised short rib, which was dependably well done, but the polenta that it sat on was some of the most delicious corn I've ever had.  The desserts were equally exceptional.  My one disappointment was that the level of the service was lacking for a restaurant of this calibre.  The hostess was a little spacey, and the main server was a bit brusque for my taste.  The secondary service people were terrific though-the man who brought us the delicious bread and the man who brought out and explained each dish (which was a nice touch, I sometimes forget the details of what I've ordered).  This is a special occasion restaurant, or one to go to on an expense account.  They do have a $55 4 course prix fixe during the week.

The final restaurant was chosen due to convenient location but I'd been there before for a pre-theatre dinner and enjoyed it.  Magnolia is only a couple of blocks away from the Pantages.  The dineLA menu is special for the week, there aren't any dishes pulled from the main menu, which is nice.  The room is dark and modern and the food is quite good, but at this price range, it's also more common.  The service is friendly but our table is positioned a little too closely to an adjacent couple (who's conversation was not at all interesting to eavesdrop on!).

This was a particularly successful dineLA now that I've discovered a couple of great new restaurants.

"Never Let Me Go", the movie

My book group read this novel back in 2006 and many of us loved it, plus it generated a great discussion, so I went with a couple of fellow 'book groupies' to see the movie.  Since we'd read the book so long ago, our memories of the story are fuzzy, however the basic and central plot point is one that no one could forget.  I won't reveal any spoilers, although there are plenty of places to read reviews that will tell all.

We all enjoyed the movie.  It's beautifully filmed and captures the slightly unsettled, even creepy feeling of the book, but in such a subtle way that it sneaks up on you.  I'm always fascinated when watching a good movie adaptation of a good book, how the conversion to a visual medium completely changes the emotions of the story for me.  The editing down of the story into a movie felt quite seamless and I really enjoyed the performances by Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightly and Andrew Garfield.

GLOW Santa Monica

I went to the GLOW event yesterday in Santa Monica with some friends and took some pictures with my point-and-shoot.  The event was a free after-dark art event, with pieces by various artists and groups scattered all up and down the beach in Santa Monica.  This was the second such event.  Apparently the first one attracted such a huge crowd that it become unwieldy.  This time they focused more on art than on music.  There were some amazing pieces.  There were also some that were not so successful but it was interesting to see the attempts to work in a challenging environment: outdoors, at night, with unknown wind and temperature conditions.  The organizers lucked out because the weather was gorgeous.  It's been a very cool summer in Los Angeles but this weekend was hot, sunny with a beautiful warm evening, no fog, no wind. 

The best art pieces were the ones that allowed for some level of audience interaction, that really took advantage of the darkness, and that created an interesting space for that interaction.  One artist was having some challenges working with a fog machine. Others used black light and phosphoresence to take advantage of the darkness. Some pieces didn't embrace the glow theme at all and so didn't seem to fit very well.

I took some pictures with my little camera.  All of these are without flash since it would totally kill the effect of the art pieces.  Handheld and long exposures means these are slightly blurry with some light trails and unexpected effects, but it was a lot of fun to see what would happen.

We headed to Santa Monica early at 5p to beat the traffic, spending a couple of hours hanging out on the roof deck of the new Santa Monica Place Mall, overlooking the ocean.  Our trek started at 8p after full darkness.  At about 9:30, we hit Casa del Mar for a drink and dessert and to rest our weary feet.  We finished up at about 11:30.  The crowds at the event were all shapes and sizes-families with kids and babies, older people, young couples, groups of friends.  Some people had prepared for the event by creating glowing things to wear-horn shaped headdress, lighted jacket.  They were also selling glow rings and other glowing things so the audience ended up being part of the ambiance.

The event went on until 3a and I'm sure the late night crowd looked really different from the early one, but I thought this was an amazing and very successful event.

Homemade s'mores!

This weekend, I took a class at a local wholesale bakery, Bakelab, to learn how to make marshmallows and graham crackers, and put them together to make homemade s'mores!  The bakery is just down the street from where I live and sells their products online (and to local retailers).  Kristin Feuer is the head baker and was our teacher.

When we arrived at the bakery, in a little industrial area, Kristin had little cookie samplers out waiting for us, along with some cold milk.  Her cookies are amazing!  Chocolate chip is my favourite, but the lemon sugar and the ginger molasses were really good as well.  Kristin does a cookie demo class, I may have to go to that!

The first part of the class was a demo, with Kristin showing us how to make marshmallows and how to make graham cracker dough.  The marshmallows were kind of amazing.  She took a sugar syrup, mixed with some softened gelatin, and whipped it in a stand mixer on high speed.  As the mixture comes together, it turns frothy, then white, then super glossy white and sticky.  The white goop is quickly poured into a prepared sheet pan covered in a cornstarch/powdered sugar mixture (to prevent sticking).  Kristin uses gloves to pat the stuff down into the pan very quickly, because it sets so fast.  By the time she had the stuff pushed into all four corners, it was pretty much set and not going anywhere.  You could tell during class that Kristin is a very meticulous person, and probably why she's such a good baker.  She trimmed up the edges (for nice straight sides) and cut up the marshmallow sheet into squares, which would sit a day to dry out before you use them.  The graham crackers were also pretty easy, with bread flour and molasses coming together with cold butter.  Kristin rolls out the dough very very thinly before poking holes in it (she has a special docking device for this) and baking.  The taste of the marshmallows was, as expected, so superior to the bagged kind!  The taste is similar but just so fresh and pure, it's hard to describe.  I was surprised by how good the graham crackers were, as I'm not a huge fan of the boxed kind.  The real thing oozes deep rich molasses flavour in a crispy crunch.

The second part of the class was hands on, with Kristin providing pre-made marshmallows, graham crackers and melted chocolate so we could assemble. We used corn syrup glue on the cracker squares to stick the sandwich together.  Each assembled sandwich is dunked in melted coating chocolate, the extra chocolate is left to drip off a bit, then the chocolatey square is set on a parchment lined sheet pan.  Kristen taught us to drag each square on the paper a bit, to prevent a little chocolate 'foot' from forming underneath.  Neat trick!  She also taught us little 'marking' tricks for the tops of each square, like using the side of the offset spatula to form raised lines, or dragging the line a bit to form a little triangle, or drizzling a stream of chocolate across the top of each square to form squiggles or other patterns.  These are the same marking tricks you see on store-bought Godiva chocolates.

By the end of class, we all had a box of 12 s'mores to take home and a very detailed recipe sheet so we could recreate these.

This was a really fun class, and I'm looking forward to taking some more classes from her.  In addition to the cookie demo, she also does classes on caramel, custards and cheesecakes!

Performance day

Today is the performance.  We have a short warm up class and then run throughs for our variations and repertory piece before a quick lunch and then prep for the performance.  The performance starts with the pas de deux.  Each group is dancing to the same music, Cinderella's Act 2 pas de deux, but with slightly different choreography (harder for the upper levels).  Some of the level 4s are doing this amazing slide into fouette thing that looks really hard.  I have a lot of fun in our partnering dancing with David.  He is with the Richmond Ballet, so I'm going to watch for him.  The variations are next and our group does quite well with the timing.  It's a really fun piece, from Raymonda's wedding scene.  The repertory that the level 4s do is amazing!  They were so together and coordinated it was like they had worked together for months.  Our repertory turned out really well, and Kathy seemed pleased (we'll see how it looks on the video). 

After the performance, we get ready for the dinner at Europa.  It's always fun to see everyone with their hair done and normal clothes.  I'm pretty tired though so we all call it a night early.  Tomorrow is a half day and since our flight leaves fairly late, we actually can take the full half day of classes.  I can't believe how fast this week has gone.  I wish I could dance more, but frankly, one full week of this is about as much as my body can take!  I definitely need to give it a rest.

Day before the performance

Dance camp week always flies by.  Tomorrow is the performance.  The day started out with Scott Putman teaching technique class.  It was an amazing class.  First of all, he spent a lot of time at barre giving us corrections and helping us improve our body mechanics.  We didn't have to do a lot in center, but this was perfect.  We are all pretty fried and this felt really good for our bodies.  Pedro taught pirouettes and jumps and rather than have a set class, he let us ask questions and helped us with issues that various students were interested in.  One person wanted help on pirouettes from 5th position.  I asked about petit allegro.  One of the guys asked about ballone.  Pedro really helped us to break down each issue.  Danile did pointe for us again, and I love how she teaches bourrees, again, breaking it down for us.  Today is also the second day of partnering.  Ty was back this year!  He was so great to dance with a couple of years ago.  We practiced supported pirouettes and pas de chats (so much fun doing jumps with a partner).  We also practiced more of our performance piece.  I am dancing with David, which is great, he's a wonderful partner.  He really helped me with the waltz step.  I found out that Nathan is a still in high school and was in the summer intensive here at Richmond.  Ben is going to Tucson to work at a small company there.  Ty has been working for a small company in Charlottesville. 

We had another session of repertory and Kathy set the final pose (as always, it looks great!) and then I hung around to wait for the others hoping to get a chance to practice the variation with them.  In the meantime, a huge thunderstorm started!  There was a tornado warning and we all had to go into the basement.  It took about 15 minutes for the warning to pass.  After that, it was still pouring with thunder and lightening so we hung around the studio a bit waiting for it to let up.  By the time we got back to the hotel, it was late, so after a bit of dinner dilemma, we decided to head back to the Thai place for a quick dinner. 

Long day

Today is always a really hard day.  We ended with partnering though, which is usually tons of fun.  But the day didn't end until 6:30p and it always feels like there is so much work still to do on the performance pieces and not enough time.  We had some great young guys for partnering, including some who were very experienced at it and could help us improve.  We are doing the Act 2 pas de deux from Cinderella this year, so yet more beautiful music.  We went back to the Thai restaurant for dinner (the food is really good but not heavy, the service is wonderful and they have delicious desserts).  After dinner, we came back to the hotel and reviewed the timing for the variation but everyone is pretty trashed.  I've always experienced waking up on Thursday feeling great, so I'm hoping that holds this year as well.

Pedro, Arabesques and ports de bras

Today we had Pedro for technique class.  He is a crack up, but his combinations are kind of complicated.  I don't know if it was because it was morning, but I kept messing up.  He gives a really hard class.  For the battement combination at the barre, he threw in pirouettes in between!  After lunch we had another go at the repertory piece and it's starting to come together.  We're almost done marking the whole piece, and then Kathy can fine tune.  We then had a lecture on arabesques, the different variations of them (Ceccheti, Vaganova, etc) and how to do them properly.  My final class of the day was a semi-private class with Danile.  I wanted to review ports de bras, but we did it by going over our variation, which has a lot of more complicated ports de bras.  It was a great review session.

Dinner tonight is at Beauregard's Thai Room, which is just in the next block from our hotel.  It's got a lovely patio and the food is inexpensive, light and really tasty.  I treated myself to some flan, which was creamy and delicious. 

Variation and Repertory

Today is the day we learn what we are performing on Friday.  Our variation is from Raymonda and we're working with Danile.  It's a really beautiful piece of music (by Glazunov) and a really neat piece with a lot of ports de bras to work on.  It's quite long too, so it'll be challenging to learn.  The repertory piece is the Act 2 waltz from Swan Lake!  Another beautiful piece of music and Kathy is teaching this, so we're guaranteed to have an amazing complicated pattern to remember.  The afternoon also offered jazz with Willie.  This is the third year he's taught jazz and it's always so much fun.  He has a great energy and great attitude.  He does start class with a bajillion sit ups, though.  As he's moving us through isolations of various body parts, he keeps reminding us that we are supposed to be dancing, even in a studio, we're not just saving it for a stage!  I did bow out of class early though, because I don't want to overtax myself.  Tonight is the trip to the dance store and I bought myself yet another leotard (which I really don't need).  We had dinner at Amici's, next to the store, and had wonderful pastas and salads. 

First day

Today we meet everyone at camp.  There's a lot of familiar faces, and many of them are people I'm following on Facebook, which is great because I feel like I have a small sense of them as people outside of dance.  There are some new folks too, including a girl from Sweden who takes class with Lars (who is not here, unfortunately), and one from London.  There aren't a lot of men this year, but one is a guy who rode his bicycle all the way from Colorado, taking ballet classes all the way over!!  I'm staying with level 3A since my calf strain prevented me from training fully prior to camp.  I'll also do beginning pointe for the same reason.  Kathy gives a great technical class, which is perfect for helping me get stronger.  After pointe, we have a body alignment class with Scott Putman.  I remember his technique class from last year was wonderful and he is showing us his Elemental Body Alignment system, which is meant to retrain our bodies to work better for all kinds of movement (he teaches golfers as well as dancers).  It's an amazing class and at the end of it my body feels totally pulled up and yet relaxed.  We have modern after, which is always so much fun!  Jill takes us through a few combinations that include contractions, falls and freer movements than we do in ballet.  Since she does both, she can help us understand how we need to alter our body to accommodate modern when it's so used to doing ballet. 

After class and showers, Patsy and I go with Sondra for a grocery run (you can never have enough water at dance camp).  We stop by and say hi to the others who headed to Urban Farmhouse for dinner with Kitty Felde.  It's about to close when we arrive, so we went to City Dog.  I had a Cincinnati chili dog and onion rings.  Excellent meaty food here, and totally hits the spot, plus TVs with shark week on and friendly service.  This is a nice, inexpensive find for us!

We have an early call tomorrow and it's our first full day.

Adult Dance Camp, Season 4

We have all descended on Richmond, VA again for another year of dance camp.  This is my fourth year.  We have the usual gang here, Joyce, Suzanne, Patsy, Kelly.  Ronnie is back for her second year and Carol is the newbie this year.  I know from Facebook updates that quite a few of the regulars will be here-Tracey, Mariah, Gigi, and it'll be fun to see who else could make the return pilgrimmage.  This year, most of us are recovering from or dealing with some kind of injury (strained calf muscle for me, from early June) so we're all just trying to stay healthy. 

In The Heights

I went to see this musical with a group of friends this week.  It's playing at the Pantages in Hollywood and features Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is the creator of the show as well as starred on Broadway as Usnavi.  The theatre was packed to the rafters on the Wednesday night that I was there.  The show is set in Washington Heights among a group of neighbours and shopkeepers who sing about their life's troubles.  The rap-inflected music is wonderful!  I'm not a huge rap fan, but this is mainstream enough that I think anyone would enjoy it.  The wonderful dancing has a hip-hop/Latin flavour to it.  I found the story a little weak, there were so many threads they were trying to follow that no one story gets its proper dues. This is a typical immigrants' tale and while you're not going to come away from seeing this show with any real revelations or insights, you may be humming and tapping your toes as you leave the theatre.  This show recently on the Tony award.

Before the show, we had dinner at Fabiolus, which is within walking distance of the theatre.  This is a casual Italian restaurant, featuring some wonderful specials the night we were there.  They are well versed in timing your meal to get you to the theatre on time. 

New Resnick Pavilion at LACMA

There's been so much new construction at LACMA lately, and they aren't quite done yet.  The latest new building is the Resnick Pavilion which will be opening officially in October with 3 shows. I first noticed the building when I came to see the Renoir show.  A collection of varied palm trees had been planted and this new structure had appeared where there was a construction site.  Looking through the window we could see a huge empty space, high ceilings with clerestory windows on the roof and something spread out in the center of the space.  It looked like miniature parking lot bumpers but they were clearly positioned in a distinct pattern.

Well it turns out it's a sculpture by Walter de Maria called The 2000 Sculpture.  It's installed as a 'test' of the space as they fine tune the building.  LACMA has also started doing 'flash viewings' of the space and the sculpture.  Once the formal art shows are installed, the space will be broken up by partitions to accommodate those, so it's a rare chance to see the space in all it's wide open glory.  I went yesterday to take a look and the sculpture is really amazing.  What I thought were parking bumpers are plaster rods with various cross sections, either 5, 7, or 9 sided polygons.  Depending on where you stand in relation to the sculpture, they form various patterns across the floor.  The late afternoon light streaming from the roof-top windows was beautiful. 

I took a few pictures with my Droid phone. There is another flash viewing tonight and the museum is free after 5p.  Park on the meters on 6th street if you're cheap like me, otherwise the underground structure is $8 or free after 7p.

Pictures from Denmark

You can check out pictures to go with the posts here.

Journey home

Today is airport day.  I have one final breakfast at the hotel, and am unpleasantly surprised at check-out to discover there is a fee after all!  It's 95 DKK, or about $16, which is a lot for breakfast.  On the other hand, thinking about how much I took advantage of the spread, how expensive food was in town, and how difficult it was to find food I liked, it probably still is a great deal.  Interestingly, it's completely on the honour system, I could have told the clerk I didn't have breakfast at all.  That was mostly true of the metro system as well.  In the last couple of days, there were men checking tickets but you were mostly trusted to pay your way.

One thing I will not miss here in Copenhagen is the smoking.  A lot of people here smoke.  They also toss their cigarettes into the streets, train tracks, just everywhere.  Most streets are cobblestoned so the butts get stuck in the crevices.  Really not attractive.  They make a lot of noise about being green, conserving energy and water, but don't seem to realise that cigarette butts are horribly polluting.

I got to the airport quite early and was able to get my tax refund (from the amber shop) pretty easily.  The terminal area is lined with high-end shops.  There is not a lot of seating but the ambiance is quite pleasant and doesn't have nearly the 'cattle call' feel that so many US airports do. 

The flight to London is relatively short and the flight to LAX is delayed so I have plenty of time to make the transit.  Again, I'm struck by the calmness here at Heathrow, which also has an airy, bright and pleasant feeling to it.   The plane is packed and it appears I've been lucky to have no changes to my flights due to the strike. 

Once we land at LAX, chaos ensues.  It seems like the entire world has just arrived at Tom Bradley terminal at the same time.  It takes forever to get through customs and people are cranky and in a bad mood.  Ah, good old US of A! 

Sweden

On my last day in Scandinavia, I head over to Sweden via the Oresund Bridge.  You can take the train, bus or car.  The train lands you in Malmo, Sweden.  Apparently, this town was ruled by the Danish at one point (have I mentioned there's been a lot of fighting between the two countries?) and their castle was built by the same Danish king who originally constructed Kronborg.  The town is a cute little place with canals and small pedestrian squares filled with old half-timber buildings.  A lot of people are walking around today and there's some kind of demonstration in one of the squares.  At the castle, there is a cafe that serves meatballs, gravy and lingonberry jam!  I really must have a plate and I have to say, it's absolutely delicious.  Much better than what you get at IKEA!  :)  It's also more to my taste than most of the Danish food I was finding.  From the castle, you can see the Turning Torso building by Santiago Calatrava.  It's a private building so you can't go in it, but it's very striking, with that 90 degree twist.

Before heading back to Copenhagen, I hop on one of the canal tours that leaves from in front of the train station.  There are something like 20 bridges that cross the canal at various points and they all tend to be quite low, requiring ducking of heads.  There is a large industrial area of Malmo where it appears the shipping trade was quite prominent.  There is also a large park attached to the castle and a windmill!  The canal is filled with water birds.  Malmo also has quite a few distinct churches visible from the canal.

One last train ride back into town and an afternoon rest.  I've been here about a week now and in the last couple of days, I've had 2 women speak to me in Danish and a group of Italian tourists ask me directions on the Metro!  

The evening is going to be my second ballet performance, this time the women of the Royal Danish Ballet perform.  For dinner, I have probably the cheapest meal of my trip-a hot dog from one of the many carts, and finally ice cream from the Vaffelbageren shop on Nyhavn, which I noticed on my first day.  They serve soft serve dipped in chocolate as well as regular ice cream in thin crispy waffle cones.  You get 2 or more scoops and they offer whip cream on top!

As I eat my ice cream I stroll the few meters to the ferry landing.  As I'm eating, a man rides up in a motorcycle all dressed up from head to toe in protective gear-helmet, jacket, pants.  He looked like he could go skiing.  He hopped on the ferry, and as I got on myself, I noticed that he had taken off the jacket and pants and was wearing a beautifully tailored suit and tie underneath!  What a transformation!  The sun is still out while we are all gathering for the performance and across the way from the Opera House in front of the Amalienborg palace complex, is the biggest yacht I have ever seen.  It was mentioned in my guidebook that a Russian businessman parks his yacht here, and indeed, this is that yacht.

The women's performance includes Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Fokine, Ashton and again the same contemporary choreographer who also did a men's piece.  This night I'm on the other side of the balcony (near where the royal box is) so I have a much better view of right side of the stage (which is always the better view for ballets).  The performances are wonderful, and I particularly enjoyed the Ashton piece, with a single dancer performing to a solo piano.  There is no royal presence today, so the bows take about half the time!  And I'm also pleased that they don't milk the applause like a lot of companies (and particularly the Russians) do. 

What a great way to end my visit in Copenhagen.  Tomorrow is the long trek through airports back home.

Rainy day

At breakfast this morning, I chatted with a fellow American.  She had been in London for a business trip and added on a visit to Copenhagen for pleasure.  She lives in El Segundo, of all places, just south of LAX.  I keep saying it but it's true, small world.

The sun was not shining this morning, so I looked for indoor-ish activities.  Yesterday I was at Rosenborg Castle, which has a Botanical Garden next door.  There is a large tropical conservatory located there, so why not get some heat and humidity?  Added bonus is that it's free.  The hotel has free umbrellas so I grabbed one before heading for the Metro to Norreport station and the brief stroll to the Garden.  The open area of the garden looks beautiful, with a large pond.  Too bad the weather is not conducive to a nice stroll.  The conservatory is broken up into different ecosystems, from hot humid to Mediterranean.  The hot humid room had carnivorous pitcher plants, papyrus and huge water lilies (with flower buds but they only open at night).  The other rooms had mango trees, cork trees, fuschias, orchids, vanilla plants, cinnamon.  The information card noted that some of the tropical fruit trees do not bear fruit in this setting.

The Statens Museum for Kunst (National Art Museum) is a short walk from the Garden.  The collection is housed in an old structure that has had a modern wing added.  The area between the two has been made into a really neat 'sculpture street'.  The regular collection is free.  The museum highlights Danish art and I have to say, there's a reason you don't really know any Danish artists.  They do have a nice gallery in the 'foreign artists' area that groups art by theme-landscapes, genre, portraits, etc.  It's a huge room and art of all sizes within each category line the walls.  The exhibit currently in the sculpture street is by Tomas Saraceno and consists of spheres of various sizes and materials all tethered at various heights to various parts of the floor, walls and ceiling.  Some of the spheres are merely suggestions made of rope.  Others are actual biospheres with air plants and a water system.  One giant sphere is constructed to allow people inside to bounce around on what looks like a trampoline.  A couple of the spheres are weighted down with water and almost seem to be melting into the floor.  The effect of all these round objects taking up various parts of the space and connected to it in a somewhat tenuous manner is pretty magical.  The museum has a nice little cafe (I had a cold meat board with bread) which has a view of the surrounding grounds.

By the time I walk out of the museum, it's stopped raining, so I decided to head to the Rundetarn, which is an old observatory tower with a nice view over the city.  On the way up, there is an old toilet that they have restored for viewing (is this the second or third old toilets I've seen this trip)!  There is also a room used to display contemporary art.  Apparently the old observatory is open on winter evenings.  From the lookout today the Oresund bridge is clearly visible in the distance and you can see Sweden just beyond.  The various and diverse old towers (mostly on churches) pop up all around contrasting with the more modern glass boxes. 

The Rundetarn is on one of the pedestrian streets and connects to the main area of the Stroget which leads right back to my hotel.  After a short afternoon rest, I head to Tivoli.  I've been walking by this place all week (because it's right next to the train station) and I've read that Walt Disney got his idea for Disneyland from a visit here.  I've been to Disneyland and Tivoli is tiny in comparison (Walt sure took the idea and blew it up). There are rides and one of them looks distinctly like a miniature Small World (it actually takes you through Hans Christian Andersen stories).  Their version of the Matterhorn is actually viking/pirate ships.  There are lots of food options in Tivoli, from high end to cheap (relatively speaking).  I stop at a place called Wagamama which has asian noodles.   I know this chain started somewhere else, but is it London?  New York?  Anyway, it's very popular.  I got a huge bowl of ramen which I couldn't begin to finish but they had cut all the noodles!  Seriously, don't do that, noodles must be long!  The broth is very salty (I've found a lot of the food here is over salted to my taste).  However there are no weird sauces and the price is acceptable.  While I am having dinner, it starts to pour!!  By the time I'm done it's mostly stopped but now there are puddles all over the place to avoid and it's gotten cold.  The area next to Wagamama is a whole chinese themed area with a 'dragon' roller coaster and red lanterns.  A small pond houses a pirate ship with some kind of restaurant on board.  There's another replica of the little mermaid here, donated by the family of the artist.  Tivoli has free concerts of various kinds throughout the warmer months and there are already people waiting in line for Alphabeat (never heard of them).  The concerts don't start until 10pm, because that's when it finally gets dark.

Tomorrow is my last full day and I'm heading to Sweden plus I have one more ballet performance.

A different Louisiana

The day started off with a visit to yet another castle.  This one is Rosenborg, adjacent to the Botanical Garden and housing the crown jewels.  While I was there, I noticed there were a lot of police motorcycles and chauffered limousines in the driveway.  I later found out that there was an official Chinese delegation visiting.  Not sure what the deal is with the Denmark-China connection.

The castle is filled to the brim with collections-glassware, brass, porcelain, etc, plus the usual tapestries and paintings.  The Treasury in the basement though is the most interesting part of the tour.  There is a collection of swords and other arms (rather beautiful ones too).  A small cellar houses a wine collection which I learned had the oldest wines in Europe (something like 400 years old).  Apparently the Queen takes a small pour to ring in the new year.  The pour is small because the wine does not taste very good, according to the shop lady.  The crown jewels are rather spectacular.  There are actually 3 crowns, with one of the older ones encrusted with jewels.  They also have a lot of jewelry sets on display including a stunning emerald set.

From the castle, it's an easy walk to the Norreport train station for the ride to the Louisiana Museum in Humlebaek.  The museum started in a large home and has been added on to over the years, creating a modernist meandering structure with a beautiful view over the water.  The property has several outdoor sculptures on display and is currently featuring an exhibit called Colour in Art.  They do a wonderful job describing how different artists used art in different ways throughout the modern history of art from the time of the Impressionists.  They do a very nice job with descriptive signage to talk about the significance of art for individual artists on display and there are some wonderful examples by Olafur Eliasson, Emil Nolde, and Dan Flavin, in addition to the expected Gauguin, Picasso, Matisse, etc.  One artist has created a small room of mirrors and water that endlessly reflects hanging colour changing light bulbs so that when you are in the room, you feel like you are floating in an endless sea of light.  It's a wonderful juxtaposition to go from viewing some wild Fauvist paintings to Yves Klein's pure blue canvas to another area with Calder mobiles.  Along the path through the exhibit are windowed corridors that show you the sea and sculptures outside.  This may be one of the most beautiful museums I've been in and the sky is clear with the astonishingly dramatic clouds that I've seen all week here.  The museum has a small cafe with a buffet with some typical Danish dishes, but I'm not much in the mood so lunch is a strawberry tart with an elderflower soda.  The shop attached to the museum is filled with Danish-designed goods, clothes, children's toys as well as typical art books and postcards.

After my afternoon respite, I head back out to Stroget for dinner, this time stopping at Europa cafe, which is across the plaza from the Cafe Norden.  They have a nice avocado salad with pine nuts, mozzarella, tomatoes and bread that is the perfect size.  The cafe is a lingering kind of place, and they provide magazines and newspapers in all languages.  I watch as people come in, join friends, sit and chat and eat.  A woman shows her friend the crazy shoe that she just bought, another a red dress.  On my way back I stop to check out the windows of Royal Copenhagen, Illum (a department store), Georg Jensen (sigh...so pretty and so expensive), Wolford (interesting patterned leggings), and some rather unique fashion boutiques.

Ballet with the Queen

Today is the first of the two ballet performances that I will be attending while I'm here.  Tonight's show will be all about the men.  Because I anticipate a late night, I'm hoping to have a relaxing day.  I'm still not sleeping through the night (now I know how babies feel...) and I'm hungry at weird times.  I was going to try the Frilandsmuseet (Open Air Museum) today but I think I've had enough historic houses, and I want to send some postcards to my nieces and nephews so I decided to check out the Danish Design Center which is near the train station.  The sky is mostly clear today and it's chilly this morning but not as bad as yesterday.  

The DDC is in a small modernist little building near the city hall.  The exhibition on now is showing some current innovative design coming out of Denmark.  I'm not sure these items match up to some of the 60s classics from their fellow countrymen (there is an exhibit of Danish classics in the basement).  Since that didn't take long, I notice the 'hop on hop off' buses are lined up near by.  They are a reasonable way to see a neighbourhood quickly so I get on the one heading to Christianshaven and the islands adjacent to the city.  Christiania is one of the places frequently mentioned in the guidebooks as a hippie haven.  They kind of govern themselves.  It appears to be a walled off compound of cottages, mobile homes and shacks.  The island on which the Opera House is located has a lot of former military barracks and buildings but there are also these little plots of land where apartment dwellers can make a garden.  Most of the plots also have a little building that the gardeners have put up to enhance their enjoyment of their little bit of paradise.  From the top of the 2 decker bus, we can see right into these gardens and they are just adorable, well maintained, some exceptionally creative.

After a quick (and pricey for what it is) lunch of sausage and bottled water, I head for the shopping street, this time with a goal-find some amber jewelry.  The places I've seen so far seem to only offer high priced merchandise.  They also all seem to have asian (Chinese?) staff, which I find curious.  I pop my head into a couple of places that all have an intimidating air about them, but in the final one I go to, the sales lady asks me where I'm from and it turns out that she is originally from Taiwan.  She's been living in Denmark for about 20 years, speaks Danish and English, and told me the reason all the amber shops have chinese staff is because amber is extremely popular with the chinese-speaking tourists!  I have a conversation with her mostly in Chinese, helping me find some reasonably priced products and learning how to get a refund on the tax (which like most European countries is high).  Who knew that would happen in Denmark??

The sun is coming out so I head to Frederiksberg Have (Garden).  It's a peaceful and pretty bit of greenery with lots of water birds (herons, ducks, geese, and somewhere at least one peacock).  Not a lot of flowers though, it's mostly lawn, trees, creek.  And the lawn is not perfectly manicured.  Bulbs have been planted in many areas among the grass and to my eyes there are all kinds of weedy things mixed in there.  There is a palace at one end of this garden but it's not open in the way some of the others are.  There are a ton of palaces and castles in Copenhagen and surroundings.

I take my usual afternoon respite and dinner is my left over half sandwich from yesterday.  The ballet is performing in the new Opera House which is across the water via ferry from the end of Nyhavn, very close and convenient to my hotel.  The fee is covered with my transit flex card.  The building is a beautiful glass structure with an interior wood enclosed performance space.  There are three beautiful dichroic glass globe light chandeliers and the whole place is elegantly minimal.  The Danes are not fancy people so the restaurant is a roped off area of the main lobby with minimalist Danish chairs and tables, but serving a fancy 3 course meal.  A bar serves alcohol, snacks and hot beverages but there are not a lot of chairs.  Turns out Danes are pretty comfortable standing around, as I noticed when the pre-performance lecture was going on, everyone simply gathered around the speaker, standing in an area of the balcony while he talked (in Danish, so I didn't learn anything).  Dress code is fairly casual and slightly offbeat.  The theatre is a traditional set up, with a horseshoe shaped first balcony, which is where my seats are located.  The prices are very reasonable.  I'm at the very end of the right hand leg of the balcony.  On the other side, the chairs have the royal crown symbol, must be the royal family's box.  Turns out, it is, because as an elegant older woman enters the box, everyone in the theatre stands.  It's the Queen! Her presence adds a certain energy to the evening.

Tonight's show will have 5 ballets with all men (a woman appears at the end of the final dance).  The choreographers are a varied lot-Bournonville, Peter Martins, Jerome Robbins, Jose Limon and someone unknown to me (probably a contemporary Danish dance maker).  Wonderful dancers and a nice mix of dance styles.  Each bow is to the Queen first, then the audience.  And I do mean every single time.  At one of the intermissions, I chat with the lady in front of me about the down-to-earth nature of the Danish royals, traveling (she visits the US frequently), the ceilings in the auditorium (she works for Chicago Metallic who made the product they used and is a company I'm familiar with), and living in Denmark.  Danes may not be the most gregarious people but they are exceptionally friendly once you start talking to them. 

After the curtain falls, those of us who need to make a mad dash for the ferry back to Nyhavn, and I'm now highly anticipating Saturday's performance by the women of the company.

Hamlet's castle and classic Arne Jacobsen

Today I was determined to figure out the transport system here so after another great breakfast, I headed to the information bureau near the train station.  Since today is the first full work day since I arrived, it was finally open and as I hoped, the lady there was able to help me determine the best pass to buy at the station, which is a 7 day flex card for 2 or 3 zones.  From my hotel, 3 zones will cover the airport, so I go for that one.  This probably would've saved me a lot of money yesterday, oh well.  For longer trips out of town, like heading to Helsingor today, I will just need to get an add on ticket.  Before I head north though, back to the hotel for gloves, second scarf and hat-it is windy and really cold today!  The train to Helsingor passes by some beautiful homes.  The landscape here is very flat and the clouds today are spectacular-I don't think I've ever seen clouds like this and they go on for miles and seem to move really fast across the sky.

Kronborg Slot is the Renaissance castle located at the most northern point of the island of Zealand.  There is a narrow channel here and you can easily see Sweden on the other side.  One of the early Danish kings had the brilliant idea to charge a fee to boats coming through the channel and made a mint, but the place had to be fortified against attack as well (from the Swedes).  There is a giant moat, ramparts, cannons, gates, and casements (dungeon), everything you'd want in a good old fortress castle.  The private apartments are mostly giant rooms barren of most furniture with some tapestries hanging on the walls and giant fireplaces for warmth.  The tapestries and paintings displayed here give you a small history lesson.  The casements are rather amazing.  They are basically a series of passages and rooms under the castle, pitch black save for some little lights on the walls and the guide's flashlight.  A statue of the mythological hero Holger Danske sits in the first room as you enter.  This place was used to store food, hold prisoners, house soldiers during war, and it's wonderfully creepy and eerie.   A tower leads to the roof and a terrific view across the sound to Sweden.  It started raining while I was seeing the castle so the sea is looking particularly fierce, and on the way back to the train station, it started to hail!

Another rest in the afternoon, but this evening I wanted to check out the SAS Royal hotel, near Tivoli.  It was designed inside and out by Arne Jacobsen in the late 50s, early 60s and still has most of the original furnishings in the lobby.  I chose a different path to stroll down there, this time going by way of Gammel Strand which runs along the canal.  The hotel lobby is filled with classic Jacobsen-egg chairs, swan chairs, series 7 chairs.  They look like they've literally been there since the 60s.  The lights are all classics from Louis Poulsen-artichokes and PHs.  There is an expensive restaurant on the top floor, but a more reasonable cafe on the ground floor.  The waiter there confirms that some of the furniture has been there since the hotel opened and are worth a small fortune.  While I eat my chicken club sandwich, I can watch pedestrians stroll by on their way to and from the train station.  I have trouble eating a large dinner here, my stomach expects breakfast not a large meal.  I've still got half a sandwich left which would make a wonderful dinner or lunch tomorrow, so I take a chance and ask the waiter about wrapping it.  It's not typically done here, but after some back and forth, he brings me back my other half neatly wrapped by the chef in foil.  Yay!

Rather than walk, I decided to take the train/metro back to the hotel.  The crowds here are an interesting mix.  There are a lot of tourists-mostly German, some English, French and surprising numbers of chinese speaking groups.  People here dress like it's still the 80s (sand washed jeans with slashes, leggings, piercings, etc).  Not everyone here is blond and fair, but there are people here who have hair that is almost white.  Most people here are average height but there a lot of exceptionally tall ones as well.  On the train back, I hear a young Danish man helping a couple of even younger German women navigate the system.  Their common language with each other is English, so I'm eavesdropping.  Getting off the metro, I hear a couple of young African-American men working out directions, and they sound so exotic here, where everyone speaks English with some sort of accent (to my ears).

Vikings and smorrebord

I slept a little better last night although my body is still totally confused.  Another fabulous breakfast buffet (really, one of my favourite things so far!) before heading out to try and get to Roskilde and the Viking Ship Museum.  I have to catch the train and I find trains confusing.  Maybe it's because I've never lived in a place where they played a significant part of daily life.  Give me a subway any day.  The Metro near my hotel will take me to the Norreport station and I think I should be able to get the Roskilde train from there, but there isn't anyone to ask.  I even had trouble getting my ticket for the Metro.  One of the challenging things about Denmark is that, although most everyone speaks English and there are significant amounts of English signage, there are still gaps.  Once I get to Norreport, I can't seem to figure out how to get some help!  Sheesh.  Finally a lady stops and asks if I need help.  I have no idea why she is asking (aside from the fact that I look completely baffled) but she and her friend direct me to the ticket kiosk where there are people I can speak to.  I get myself a round trip and instructions and start heading to the tracks when I learn the reason for the two ladies' kindness-they offer me a Watchtower to read on the train!

Today is some kind of holiday so when I get to the Roskilde station and again ask someone about a bus to the museum, I learn that the buses are only running infrequently.  Oy.  Good thing I'm not in a hurry, although it is cold and the bus terminal is not sheltered.  They are hardy people these Danes, not sure what they do in winter.  The Viking museum has reconstructed 5 ships that were discovered in Roskilde harbour which appear to have been sunk on purpose in order to provide a barricade from invaders.  Vikings were mainly from Denmark, Sweden and Norway.  The ships include a war ship and trading ship and are pretty skeletal, however they are housed in a modernist building with a glass wall overlooking the fjord.  On a cloudy day like today, it's quite a dramatic backdrop.  A couple of years ago, a group of people reconstructed one of the ships (the war ship) and sailed it from Roskilde all the way to Ireland.  Looks like a challenging adventure, because there is no shelter on the boat.  There are sails as well as oars to cover all possible weather situations.  The museum also has demonstrations of Viking era skills like smithing, bow and arrow making, weaving, etc.  The bow and arrow guy set up a small target and was shooting his arrows at it.  They do in fact make the 'fffttht' sound that you hear in the movies.  Lunch was an unexceptional affair in the little cafe but after lunch the jet lag really hit me and I figured that one of the benefits of traveling on your own is to decide to take a nap in the afternoon.

After a nice nap, I figured I should get out there and get some food but I really didn't want to spend a lot of money again.  I strolled down the Stroget, figuring that's the best way to find cheap eats.  At the first little square along the street, I popped into Cafe Norden, where you order at the counter and they bring you your selection to your table.  I decided to try their smorrebord plate, three open faced sandwich options, shrimp with egg, chicken and bacon, pork.  They are served on some hearty breads with tomatoes, and strawberries.  The sandwiches are challenging for me because they all come with mayonnaise-y sauces.  The ingredients underneath are quite good quality though and the tomato and strawberries are refreshing.  The price here is definitely more friendly.

On the way back, I walked down the other side of Nyhavn so I get a nice view of the busy cafe side.  The streets along the way back to the hotel have restaurants (including a Nepalese place), shops and galleries making for an interesting selection of windows.

Tomorrow, I'm not taking any chances.  I'm going to head to the Central Train Station for help!  Apparently the train ticket covers buses, metro as well as the trains, but there is a zone system to navigate and ticket stamping to be done.  It's just a little too much for someone used to hopping in a car!

Missing mermaid

I couldn't sleep so I ended up going down to breakfast quite early this morning.  The spread is substantial, I was pleasantly surprised.  They had a lot of different breads and pastries, hard boiled eggs, yogurts with toppings, cold cuts, cheeses, jams, orange juice and lots of coffee.  After breakfast I decided to head out to the waterfront.  It was very quiet at that time of the morning, and especially compared to the night before.  Oddly, there were police putting up barracades at places around the harbour although pedestrians were able to walk past.  I eventually walked by a long table with lots of people putting out thousands of plastic cups of water and cutting up oranges and bananas.  Marathon!  What a happy coincidence.  A small crowd of people were strolling to this area to sit and wait for the runners so I joined them.  About half hour later, the first runners came by with their entourage.  Pretty soon the pack was huge.  I watched while the largest part of the pack ran by before continuing my stroll up the waterfront and past the Cast Museum with a replica of Michelangelo's David out front.  This museum apparently has replicas of all kinds of statues from different eras, but it's only open in the afternoon.

The Amalienborg Palace is located here and is the home of the reigning Queen of Denmark and the future home of the Crown Prince and his family.  In fact, the Prince's home is being renovated and is open to the public for viewing before they move in.  I decided to kill some time on a lazy Sunday and wait in line.  The public rooms are all decorated ornately, with plaster ceilings and gilding.  There is a lot of artwork commissioned for the palace, all by contemporary Danish artists.  Some of the art referred to contemporary events, others to aspects of the Prince's and Princess' history.  This year is the 70th birthday of Queen Margarethe and there is a special exhibit in one of the palaces.  Rooms are laid out in historical detail to reflect various former monarchs and a couple of rooms highlight the Queen's history through her clothing (wedding dress, mourning gown, etc).  Since the Queen is in residence, the guards (wearing bearskin hats just like the Buckingham Palace guards but with blue uniforms) did a changing ceremony.  Unlike at Buckingham Palace, the audience stood practically right next to the guards with only a handful of police to keep people in line.

From the Palace, I headed to Langelinie, which is where the Little Mermaid normally sits.  I already knew that she was shipped to Shanghai for the World Expo, but I figured I should at least see where she is normally found.  The spot is next to a moated fortress, Kastellet.  At the spot where the Mermaid would normally be found, there is a large video monitor installed by chinese artist Ai Wei Wei showing the Mermaid in her pavilion in Shanghai in real time.  A couple of little blond Danish girls took turns sitting on a nearby rock posing as the mermaid.  Luckily, there is a replica of the Mermaid statue at the entrance to my hotel.

By this time, I'm starving, and there is a little outdoor cafe, Sommerhuset, nearby.  I ordered some hot tea and a roastbeef sandwich.  The restaurants that have outdoor eating areas all provide fleece blankets for guests to wrap themselves in if they choose.  It's a good idea since the temperature is very changeable.  After lunch, I strolled back to Kongens Nytorv and the pedestrian-only street called 'Stroget'.  Most shops are closed on Sunday so there is not a lot of commerce happening but there are lots of people nonetheless and there are street hustlers working them.  My long walk is meant to take me to the information center near Tivoli, but I unhappily discovered it to be closed on Sunday!  So, back to the hotel for a rest.

For dinner I decided to stay close and found Cafe Victor referenced in one of my guidebooks.  It's on the other side of the square and I can sit at the zinc top bar.  I had an excellent halibut with risotto and dill, which is a very popular herb around here.  Although the US dollar gets a decent exchange rate with the kroner, food is very expensive. 

At 8:00pm it's still very light out, but it's been a long day, so a quiet evening is in store.

Copenhagen!

I arrived in Copenhagen after what seemed like days of travel.  The flight across the pond on British Airways was quite nice, since I was bumped up to World Traveller Plus, meaning I got a bigger seat, a little amenities kit, personal video monitor, etc.  After a short stop in Heathrow and a quick lunch, I mostly napped on the short flight to Copenhagen (it was still middle of the night as far as my body was concerned).  Coincidentally, the two older ladies sitting next to me were Taiwanese Americans who live in Berkeley, here to catch a cruise they were taking with their extended family.  Small world.

The first thing I notice at the Copenhagen airport is that they have wood floors.  I don't think I've ever seen wood floors at an airport, it's usually fairly unattractive carpet.  Nice touch, I feel like I'm in Scandinavia!  There is a metro to the city and I notice that my hotel is right near the Kongens Nytorv (King's New Square) stop.  It's 34.50 DKK (about $6) to get there on the metro and it's a quick 1/2 hour ride.  From the metro exit, Copenhagen is bustling.  There is a lot of construction in the streets, lots of bicyclists, and pedestrians.  My hotel is down the street past the old Royal Theatre.  It's a cute little place, a bit of a smoky smelling hallway and a very small room, but free WiFi and a decent bed.  The room overlooks a courtyard with a bird singing the most amazing song.

The hotel receptionist suggests Nyhavn (New Harbour) for a quick dinner.  The weather is beautiful!  The sun is still out and quite high in the sky (it feels like mid afternoon light to me, but it's early evening).  Tons of people are sitting by the Harbour, most of them having a beer or sitting at an outdoor cafe for a meal.  After a brief stroll, I notice an ice cream shop that I will have to visit later, but settle for a place called Nyhavn Hereford House and had a shrimp pasta dish.

I'm pretty tired, so any more exploring will have to wait until tomorrow!

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

My friend Kathleen and I went to see this company perform at Royce Hall on Friday.  They were doing a piece called Orbo Novo by choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.  This company is becoming well-known for their innovative work with cutting edge dance makers.  Last night's piece was no exception.  It was an evening length piece built around a talk given by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor at the 2008 TED conference where she described the experience of having a stroke.  The thing that made her stroke experience so compelling was her knowledge of the workings of the brain and her ability to describe it as it was happening.  Luckily, she was able to recover and write a book about this experience.  At the beginning of the piece, two dancers sit at the very front of the stage cross-legged and while moving their hands and arms, start reciting Dr. Taylor's description of what happened when a blood vessel burst in her left-hemisphere.  As the recitation continues, more dancers join in, now moving their bodies.  Eventually, the recitation ends but the dance is just beginning.  The stage is set with some very large red metal grids that the dancers move through, around, and over, as well as moving the grids themselves to form various barriers, boxes, or open space.  The dancers perform in constantly shifting groups and configurations.  The music is a very spare string piece. 

The choreographer describes this piece as bridging past and future with the present but my feeling was of watching the inner workings of the brain, as embodied by these beautiful dancers.  Sometimes everyone was working well together, sometimes a single dancer had the spotlight, sometimes the movements were beautiful and fluid and other times it was angry, aggressive or painful. 

This was one of those inspiring dance evenings where I feel like I want to jump up on stage and join in, although I know I don't have the capacity to do what these performers do.

Apparently this company will be making a regular residency at UCLA, so I look forward to more innovative dance in coming years.

Coyote Point Recreation Area

I visited this place with my sister and her two kids (4 1/2 and 2 1/2) and we all really enjoyed it. We spend most of our time at the Museum, which is focused on environmental education. They have an animal rehabilitation area, and displays for animals that are not able to be released into the wild. The animals are all natives, which means no exotic critters, but the natives are pretty cool too, including a badger, otter, bobcat, frogs, raptors and lots of different snakes. The daily keeper talk was on the resident great horned owl, which had a broken wing. The other part of the museum has various mechanical gadgets that kids can turn, push, or otherwise manipulate to make something interesting happen. The kids may also learn about gears, lights, air pressure, but mostly they have fun. The recreation area is located near SFO and there are picnic areas near the water, and views of airplanes landing at the airport. There is a marina, playgrounds, and trails along the beach. This looks like a nice place to spend a hot summer day. There's also a golf course near the entrance if none of the other attractions are up your alley.

California Wildflowers

We had quite a bit of rain this winter, and the wildflowers in the desert areas were expected to be at their best. If you have more time, a trip out to the desert (Joshua Tree, Anza-Borrego, etc) is expected to be very rewarding this spring. Amy and I just had most of a day, so we headed to Hemet where Diamond Valley Lake has a wildflower trail. The lake itself is a reservoir for the local Metropolitan Water District and is only about 2 hours away from West LA. The sky was blue, with a slight cooling breeze and the hills were covered in little yellow, purple and white flowers. A lot of ant colonies were very busy with whatever ants do, tiny lizards (geckos?) were running around, and we heard all kinds of birds. A california quail was heard calling on a nearby hill and on our way out, a bunny ran across the road. Luckily we didn't see or hear any rattlesnakes, which we were warned about. You can check out a few photos here.