Escaping to the movie theatre

I've been trying to sell my condo, which means there are long stretches of time over the weekend when I'm instructed to clear out of my home. So, on those weekends, when I'm not booked up, movie theatres are the idea place to kill a few hours without feeling like you're wasting your time.

This weekend's picks were Looper and Seven Psychopaths. Both were selected due to the convenience of their starting time, but I also got a recommendation for the second one. I enjoyed both. Looper is a time travel movie and it's best to see it without knowing too much about it. Everyone already knows that Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis play the same character, 30 years apart. I found the makeup effects on JGL a  little disconcerting (particularly the eyebrows), but there were moments when he did BW so well it was eerie. The city that JGL lives in is 30 years or so in our future and you can see from the visuals how things are going to go for us. And it's not good. The time travel aspects would make for very interesting post movie discussions over drinks, and I think there are some holes in the reasoning that won't stand up to much scrutiny. However I thoroughly enjoyed the movie despite them. It's quite a violent movie, and a little gory in parts, but there are quiet moments as well and JGL is such an excellent actor that despite his character being really not a nice person, you start to hope for him to figure out how to get out of his dilemma.

Seven Psychopaths is even MORE violent than Looper and gorier. It's also really funny. I'm not sure there's much substance beneath the humour and violence, although I think the writer/director wants us to find some. Martin McDonagh is a playwright who has made quite a splash in the theatre world. His script is intelligent and twisty and a lot of fun. Colin Farrell plays the straight man who we observe the action through. Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken are incredible. I don't want to give too much away since this is one of those layered movies where you learn how things interconnect as it goes along. Don't get up right away when you see the credits. It's not quite over yet.

Alice's Adventures

The National Ballet of Canada brought this spectacular production to Los Angeles, and I couldn't have been more excited. This is a brand new ballet, created in 2010/2011 by the Royal Ballet and NBOC. I followed the run up to each company's premier via various twitter feeds and desperately wanted to see it, but the chances of a show like this coming to LA are slim to none. So what a wonderful surprise it was to see this listed on the season's offerings at the Music Center!

The creators of this show are Christopher Wheeldon on choreography, Joby Talbott on music and Nicholas Wright on story. The scene starts in Victorian England at a tea party where Lewis Carroll is entertaining the Liddell sisters with stories. The action takes a turn for the surreal when Carroll turns into a rabbit and takes Alice Liddell down into the cake and an alternate world. The design of the sets, creating the sensations of Alice in this topsy-turvy world, really capture the various adventures she runs into and the characters are ingeniously created. All the costumes were wonderful, contributing to turning beautiful ballet dancers into rabbits, caterpillars and all of the other familiar creatures. Sonia Rodriguez danced Alice and she was on stage almost the entire show. She had some wonderful pas de deux with Guillaume Cote as the Knave and conveyed the gangliness of a teenager beautifully. Greta Hodginkinson as the Queen of Hearts had a hilarious variation that was a parody of the famous Rose Adagio from Sleeping Beauty.  The music was perfectly evocative of each new twist and turn. The audience was clearly thrilled as they applauded each new scene and effect (the Cheshire Cat was particularly appreciated). A lot of kids were at the show and it was fun to see them at intermission jumping and dancing around, imitating their favourite scenes.

NBOC brought a huge cast, and I can't imagine how long it took to put these sets up. Bravo to the Music Center for bringing this to LA.

Endeavour's slow roll down the streets of LA

Today is the day the shuttle starts its very slow roll through LA from the airport to the California Science Center. Twelve miles, 2 mph, through streets, over a freeway, past all manner of homes and small businesses. The shuttle was driven out of the airport and spent the morning parked at a mini mall parking lot while the transport wheels were widened and crews took care of power lines further up the road. I walked to the parking spot from my home (about 2 miles) with a friend to take it all in. There was already a small crowd when we got there at around 9:30a or so. Whole groups of school kids, people in wheelchairs and walkers, people of all ages gathered. People brought their dogs and one woman brought her macaw. I ran into my friend Yuki's boyfriend in the crowd! Everyone was super friendly, helping each other take pictures, getting out of each other's way, letting smaller kids up front for a better view. The only unhappy person in the bunch was a woman whose hair salon was on a balcony where everyone was going to get a view of the shuttle's backside. She was not happy. Everyone else was having a blast. The Science Center sent out a bunch of volunteers to answer people's questions. We chatted with police officers on bicycles. The police were all fairly relaxed about the whole thing, only getting more vigilant about keeping people back once the shuttle was actually approaching. The wing of the shuttle went right over our heads! The clearance was quite tight over tops of trees that had been lopped off and next to street lights. We watched as the shuttle made its first turn onto Manchester. It's currently sitting just before the 405 waiting for the complicated maneuvering to get it over the freeway. The helicopters are overhead and its close enough that I can hear them from my home.

Here are some pics I took, plus a couple of videos.

Update: I had been spelling the shuttle's name without the 'u', then I realized I was spelling it wrong. I thought it was odd, since the 'u' is stripped out of other words. Apparently the shuttle is named after Captain Cook's ship, which of course was an English ship.

Space shuttle fly over

The space shuttle Endeavour will be making it's permanent retirement home at the California Science Center here in LA. On its flight to LAX, it made a grand fly over tour of California. NASA had publicized the fly over spots and the list included Griffith Observatory and Universal Studios. Both of those sites are visible from my office building. I researched, schemed and planned how to see the shuttle during its fly over and maybe get some decent pictures!

Luckily for me, our building's facilities staff are part of our department, so I joined a few people on the roof of our building (building engineers, security installer, random employees who know how to get up there, and the cafeteria's chef). Unfortunately I didn't have my long lens (I'd lent it to a friend, and forgot to get it back).

The day was hot and our small crowd milled about waiting, checking Twitter to see where the shuttle was (Sacramento! Golden Gate bridge! Mountain View!) and noticing the roofs of neighbouring building being slowly populated (including the tops of a couple of the sound stages on the lot). A small car fire created a mini diversion during the wait. The tweets started to note sightings in Malibu! Santa Monica! downtown LA! We were surprised by the order of fly over sights. Finally, sighted in West Hollywood! And then the person with the best eyes saw the glint in the distance. It started as a small smudge in the sky over the hills past Universal Studios. It looped over the studio and flew eastward toward Griffith Observatory which is on the hill behind WB Studio. We expected it to then head to Pasadena (nod to JPL) but instead it looped back our way!! Everyone got so excited as it headed towards us flying over Burbank and eventually directly over our heads! The shuttle flew with two jets and the trio reminded me of films of large fish, sharks, whales, etc that trail small cleaner fish behind them. It was absolutely breathtaking, majestic and beautiful.

Here's a link to the photo sequence.

War Horse

I went to see this play at the Ahmanson this weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have not seen the movie, based on the same book. I might, just so I can compare how two very different mediums handle the same story. The sets, lighting, sound, and of course the horse puppets make this a truly theatrical experience. Who needs 3D, just go to the theatre. The horse puppets are really astonishing in how real they become. When the horses are in danger, there were audible gasps in the audience. Despite it being a harrowing war story, there is a lot of humour throughout the piece. The addition of the Song Man who sings at various critical moments in the play adds emotional resonance. I found the story a little simplistic and predictable, but was still moved despite some manipulative tugging of heart strings. Many Americans were introduced to the horrors of WWI through the TV series Downton Abbey, and there is a feeling of doom and foreboding during the preparation for war scenes when the characters still don't know what they're getting into but you do.

Last day of camp

On Saturday, we had just a half day. Technique class was with Kristen. She basically used the same barre every day that we had her. She had some fun runs during center though which took advantage of the great sprung floor in the big studio. I had so much hang time during the grand allegro combination that I could've had tea up there! There was one last men's class, with some time to work on tours, which Scott broke down and made so intuitive, and one last pirouette class helping us focus on placing our pelvises to allow for more stable turns.
My lunch was missing which really annoyed me to no end but Joyce, Gigi and Carol were kind enough to share parts of theirs.

After saying our goodbyes and returning to the hotel to clean up, change and pack, we headed to an area of Portland called the Alberta neighbourhood, which Susan Mikota had recommended to us. Turned out to be a very hot day in Portland and the neighbourhood was delightful, with cute little local shops. We were steered to Salt and Straw for ice cream. I had their special flavour of the day, cherrywood smoked sea salt with chocolate covered feuilletines (to die for!) and local wild berries. Huge scoops, so it made up for the lunch fiasco. We brought our ice cream to Barista for coffee and sat and recapped some of our thoughts on this camp. It was interesting how different our feelings, conclusions and concerns were, with each of us having very different goals and expectations. Amazingly, we all got through the week with no injuries, hurt feelings or other accidents!

Much as I love camp though, and it's always slightly depressing come home, I was really glad to sleep in my own bed.

I didn't take a ton of photos (too busy dancing) but here's a link to a few.

Performance day

Friday was the day of the performance. It was to take place in the giant studio but we were challenged by the fact that the only backdrop that they had was black which is extremely difficult to film against. We had technique class in the morning to warm us up and then short variations and repertory classes to prepare for the afternoon. I wasn't sure until we actually had our variations run throughs that we might actually be able to pull that piece off.

After lunch, costume changes, and makeup, we did the three pieces that we had prepared. The pas de deux went beautifully. I did the official taped version much better than the run through, which is a minor miracle. Same thing with the variations, although I did miss a couple of places, but in our group of six, we managed to be mostly in unison and with no more than one of us flubbing something at any one time. During the repertory piece, I had to make a quick on-the-spot adjustment due to a misplaced fellow dancer, but our timing was perfect and everyone did their special spotlight wonderfully! I wasn't sure if I wanted to DVD but based on how well we did, I decided did want a copy.

We had time to relax, clean up and change for a nice dinner in Portland at an old establishment called Huber's. The food was quite good, again wonderful service and great company, with Heidi, Chris and the teachers all joining us.

Evenings in Vancouver and Portland

After classes, we would usually return to the hotel to clean up and then find a place to grab dinner. Our meet and greet dinner had been at a place in Vancouver called Charlies' Bistro. We kind of overwhelmed the poor server, but he was the first of many wonderful service people we encountered which gave me a sense of how nice, helpful and down to earth the people in this area are.
One night, we coordinated a trip to the Pearl District in Portland with the Southern California contingent and found a delicious Italian restaurant to take over, Via Delizia. Again, we overwhelmed the place but were served by attentive friendly staff. We found the food to be absolutely delicious and their tiramisu was top notch. We thought we missed out on gelato due to a busted freezer, but they managed to scrape up some amaretto to go with the tiramisu.
In Vancouver, there was a nice inexpensive Thai restaurant near the hotel that we could walk to. The other mainstay was the Black Angus which was on the same lot as our hotel. On Wednesday, the 4th of July holiday meant that almost all the local establishments were closed so a group of 13 or 14 of us descended on the place. We were joined by Scott and Randall, which gave me a chance to find out Scott's story a little (and an interesting one it is, too). After dinner, a few of us headed to the local Fort where their big fireworks display was to take place. When it turned out the admission was $7 dollars, a few of us turned around and headed back to our hotel. From our window, we could see about 10 displays across the horizon. Not only that, but fireworks are legal in Washington so there were some rockets being set up right in the hotel parking lot! The various displays went on for a good three hours!
Aside from the holiday evening, we rarely saw more than a handful of people on the streets. It was so desolate, as to be a little weird. I can't quite figure out how the shops stay in business.
Since almost all of the camp contingent was staying at the same hotel, we often saw them at breakfast or in the lobby. I had breakfast every morning with the trio from Vancouver, Canada, as it turned out we were the late risers!
Unfortunately I was not at all pleased with the hotel. The beds were soft and uncomfortable, the bathrooms were not properly cleaned and they were constantly skimping out on towels. After hearing from other campers, we suspect the cleaning staff on our floor was the deficiency.

Dance camp in the studio

I didn't have much time to write in the evenings during camp (mostly due to sheer exhaustion) so I'm playing catch up here. Starting Monday, we had full days of classes. The teachers at this camp are Scott, Randall (who we have had at Richmond) and a local teacher, Kristen. Most mornings started with Scott's EBAS system which really helped open up the hips, place us over our pelvises and stretch out our muscles. Technique class rotated among the three teachers. Scott's classes were very focused on alignment. Randall was mostly about musicality and port de bras. I found Kristen's classes a little unfocused, although we discovered her to be a generous and kind-hearted teacher. The remainder of the morning we had variations, pointe or men's class, and pirouettes. I had decided to take advantage of men's classes so I didn't wear my pointe shoes much at all. Scott taught these classes and I learned some great techniques for turns in second (which will help with fouette turns) and beats (changements, quatres, etc.) Kristen was our variations teacher and Heidi suggested that we do a part from Four Temperaments, a ballet by Balanchine from the late 40s. The music is by Paul Hindemith. We were doing a cobbled together version of the Sanguinic variation. Kristen put together parts of the corps with sections of the man's and woman's variations. The music is challenging and modern (even though it's 70 some years old). The steps are classic Balanchine (that is, not very classically balletic). The combination made for some challenging choreography. We had a very large group and it made it even more difficult to get a handle on. This piece was not physically taxing but was mentally demanding. We also started learning our repertory piece on Monday. Scott choreographed a new piece on us to some Glass-ian sounding music. There were parts of the piece that involved the whole group, but each person also got a solo, duet or trio, which gave everyone a chance to shine. This piece was also not classically balletic, but was physically challenging to keep timing, and keep placement.
In the afternoon, we had arabesque class which was great, with some nice tips for stretching the back. The transitions class was a chance to focus on pas de bourrees with Randall (although I thought the class was too short). A port de bras class didn't involve enough instruction for my taste.
Wednesday was our first partnering class. We had heard that Heidi had a challenging time finding partners, but she had a couple of great guys, including Scott T who was nice, tall and was great to work with as we learned Randall's beautiful choreography, and figured out how best to work with each other.

Dance camp in the Pacific Northwest

Today was Day 1 in Vancouver, WA, which is a small town outside Portland OR. The studio where camp is being held is Columbia Dance Studio. There is a giant light filled studio plus two smaller ones. After sign in and orientation, we had Scott Putman's EBAS class. This is a system of exercises to help us engage the joints and small muscles that are critical to ballet movement and it's a remarkable series. When we stood up at the end of it, I felt completely lifted out of my pelvis. Even my naturally pronated arches in my feet were lifted. This year I'm in 3B and we had a new teacher who played some challenging music and was very nervous. Instead of pointe, I took men's class, which Scott also taught and focused on proper placement for turns in second. He also taught modern class which was mostly Cunningham technique (so I was told). I always enjoy modern, but I chose to be prudent about the amount of rolling on the ground that I would put my body through.
After classes and a quick grocery store run, we had dinner at the Black Angus which is next door to our hotel with most of the So Cal gang plus Robin from Chicago.
Then it was to our rooms to stretch and roll out our sore muscles, take some advil and watch some Olympic gymnastics trials.

Herb Ritts

There's a really nice exhibit at The Getty of Herb Ritts photos. If you were around in the eighties, you've seen his photos. I recognized so many of the ones on display. He had a knack for using bodies as shapes, lines and texture and he had access to some of the most amazing bodies of the day. (Looking at the photos, you wonder about how grueling it was for the models to hold some of these poses.) The exhibit is shown along with a smaller show of older celebrity photos, including a couple of daguerrotypes and black and whites of figures from the turn of the previous century into the early 20th. These older photos add a lot of context to the Herb Ritts photos, showing how portraiture has evolved. There is also a room with commercials and music videos that Ritts made, again, if you were around back then, you'll have seen them. He passed away in the early 2000s and this show is a reminder of how prolific he was and how much he contributed to the 'look' of that era.

We dined at The Restaurant at The Getty. There's a beautiful view of the hills (it was an incredibly clear day) and the sun setting behind it. This is a pricey place, but the setting is beautiful, service was pleasant, and the food was absolutely delicious.

Bolshoi Swan Lake

The Bolshoi is in town for a short stint performing Swan Lake. They haven't scheduled any of their stars, but the main reason to see this company do this ballet is for the corps. This was the most unified, synchronized corps I have ever seen. During the four little swans, they were so together even their feet were synchronized. Our seats were way up in the rafters (we got our tix late and the show sold out) so while we were quite far away, we could see how beautiful the patterns were created by this impeccable corps.
The leads were technically proficient however I find Bolshoi lead dancers to be a little impassive and they can feel a little cold. The costumes were also a little odd. Some of them were beautiful and sparkly, however others had weird fabric bits scattered on the skirts.

The Follies

I had a chance to catch this musical while it's at The Ahmanson, and I was surprised by how great it was! This show was a last minute fill in, after a previous engagement fell through. We were lucky to get almost the entire Broadway and Kennedy Center cast (only Bernadette Peters didn't make it across the country). This meant that we were able to see some of the top Broadway stars in our own backyard. Living in LA means often having TV and film stars show up in stage productions, and it's often thrilling, however there is a special talent to performing on Broadway and the leads in this show proved it. This production was originally written by Stephen Sondheim in 1971 and tells the story of some show girls who reunite with their spouses at their former theatre one last time before it's torn down. Their heyday was in the time between the wars and throughout the show, the ghosts of former show girls are seen in the dark on balconies and walking among the cast. The songs and story are surprisingly resonant for a 40 year old show. The second half has an elaborate Follies type production with the most incredible floral set and lighting (I involuntarily said, 'Woah' when the curtain went up to reveal this). Throughout the show, younger actors portray the former selves of the 4 leads and the lighting to distinguish the present from the past is really remarkable, and is something that theatre can do so well. And when these Broadway pros get out there and belt out a song while dancing, there's just nothing like it. I particularly enjoyed the actor Danny Burstein who plays Buddy. He's a short, stocky actor, and doesn't seem particularly graceful walking around, but in his dance numbers, he really lit up the stage.

Cedar Lake returns to UCLA

Cedar Lake was in town the weekend I got back from Guatemala. They were so fantastic the last time they were in town, I had to see them again. This year they did three pieces, each with a very different feel. The first piece was the most balletic, danced to mostly Paganini (with a bit of techno thrown in) and the dancing was wonderfully musical. It reminded me of some of Mark Morris' work. The middle piece had a very dystopian feel, everyone was dressed similarly so that you couldn't tell the men from the women and the entire piece had a creepy feel to it. The final piece was incredibly funny, such a rarity in dance. The soundtrack was a pretentious man's voice describing what the dancers are doing, but in the most intellectual incomprehensible way possible, while the dancers are moving in a wordless comedy.
This company has such amazing, strong dancers. It was a joy to watch them in all three pieces. This is also one of the few companies that I know of in the US that works with contemporary choreographers (in the way that European companies like NDT do) and it's exhilarating to watch. They are based in NYC and supported by a WalMart heiress, so kudos to her!

Guatemala trip photos

You can check out some of my photos from the trip here.

Lago Atitlan was mentioned in this article about places to travel to mark the end of the Mayan calendar.

Guatemalan send off

And here I thought our last day was going to be a quiet, uneventful day. We had another great breakfast at our Antigua hotel and learned that Rudolfo would be picking us up and taking us to his studio for a tour. (Rudolfo’s nickname is El Canche which means The Blonde. Which he is not, although he is fair skinned for a Guatemalan.) After breakfast, Joyce, Suzanne and I strolled the streets towards the convent church La Merced. Antigua in the morning is quiet with most of the shops not open and the square still mostly empty. Suzanne wins the medal for most improved shopper with a couple of last minute purchases and by the time we are back at the hotel, El Canche has arrived. We pile our suitcases into his car for the ride into Guatemala City.  His studio is in a gated residential area. On our way there, Jaime called to let Joel know that we are invited to his house (which you may remember we had previously discovered is next door to the studio) for lunch. This is hilarious to us because El Canche had joked about this very thing when at dinner the night before!

The studio is quite an amazing place, clearly reflecting the philosophy and creativity of its founder. He’s also a huge Star Wars fan, so there is paraphernalia all over the place, models, helmets, and a light saber with sound effects. He’s also got bits and pieces from commercial projects his studio has done as well as a really cool old Mercedes that he’s working on (along with appropriate paraphernalia that we model for photos). The studio does a lot of commercial work aimed towards Latin America but the project closest to El Canche’s heart is a project he’s doing called Alien Book which is a series of short animated films featuring a friendly grampa Martian telling Bible stories. His aim is to tell the stories by focusing on the positive values of love, respect, responsibility rather than some of the more violent, aggressive and angry aspects of the stories the way we are familiar with them.

After the tour, we head next door to Jaime and Lucky’s, and just as Carolina is arriving to join us for lunch. Jaime is an architect and he’s added to the original house to provide an amazing living space for his family of 5 kids. In addition to a whole downstairs living area for the 3 boys (including a game room and gym with sauna), there’s a beautiful master suite with a huge walk in closet. The house is surrounded in back by a wrap around deck and a large yard. The lunch is an amazing spread of Spanish tortilla, chicken paella and seafood paella finished off with a delicious almond meringue cake. Lunch is the big meal of the day for Guatemalans and two sons and a daughter are at home for the meal.

Our last stop was a beautiful new shopping center nearby called Plaza Cemaco. It’s a multi-use project with residences, shops and office space, plus lots of open space to walk around in. It’s not completed yet. Our final stop is the airport, after driving through some Guatemalan traffic. The airport check-in process is very smooth and the flight was uneventful. By the time I’m dropped off by Suzanne’s husband, it’s about 1:30 in the morning. It’s hard to believe it’s only been a week since we flew to Guatemala, and it’s been a really remarkable trip made extra special by the wonderful people we’ve met and the generous hosting by Joyce and Joel. It does feel really good to be home, though!

Exploring Antigua

This morning, both Suzanne and I had a little stomach trouble so we were a little nervous about how to proceed with the day. Our hotel offered a wonderful breakfast and I had the yogurt, granola and pancakes, which were delicious. Since Suzanne was not feeling well, Joyce, Joel and I headed to the Hotel Antigua where we could catch a shuttle to the Filadelfia Coffee Plantation. The free shuttle is a former army truck outfitted with seats and it rattles around quite a bit on the cobblestoned streets of Antigua. The plantation is only a 10 minute drive and it’s a very large property with beautiful grounds offering coffee tours as well as zip lines, paint ball and horseback riding. There is also a very nice hotel and a couple of restaurants on the property. The 11a tour was only in Spanish so we skipped that opting to stroll around the property on our own. As soon as we got close to it, we could smell the roasting coffee. We could also see where they’d laid out large squares of beans to dry out on a paved deck. There were dark brown beans as well as lighter ones spread out. Of course we had to try some out, so we sat for a relaxing sip of the local product. After picking up a few bags for souvenirs, we caught the shuttle back to town.

Suzanne was feeling a little better after we got back, so we walked to a place a few blocks from our hotel which has a café but is also a nursery. The gardens were beautiful and had many of the plants we have seen all throughout the trip although here they are labeled. The lunch was a very healthy chicken sandwich with a pepian sauce, which they called ‘tipico’ so it must be common Guatemalan food. It tasted like a sort of barbecue sauce. After lunch, we were all tired, so we repaired back to the hotel for a couple of hours rest. In the late afternoon, we headed out to the square for a stroll and some last minute shopping. Most of the wares seemed like stuff we’d seen at the Lake, but without the more personal touch that the small shopkeepers have there. They also have shops geared more towards city people with clothing, pottery, and other goods. We found a beautiful conch shell platter for Patsy and Kim’s wedding gift.

At this point we were totally shopped out so we headed to a nearby restaurant for a Guatemalan style meal. I had a delicious chicken soup with rice and a Guatemalan tamal which is wrapped in banana leaf and is a flatter shape than the Mexican tamales that I see in LA.

After a last tea and some local chocolates, we called it an early night, our last one in Guatemala. It’s been a really amazing trip, seeing a part of the world that I’d never thought to visit, and meeting some of the most amazing people. Truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Antigua

This morning, we left Lago Antitlan to head to Antigua, the first step in our return to civilization. We breakfasted again at Joyce and Joel’s favourite place before catching a shuttle van into town, which is about a 2 hour ride. We’re staying at Hotel la Catedral, right off the cathedral square. Antigua is the ancient colonial capital with cobblestone streets lined with solid walls and imposing but interesting doors. Inside the doors are beautiful courtyards hidden from public view. The hotel’s rooms are off the courtyard and we have two rooms next to each other with a beautiful but small bathroom. This is one of the benefits of being back in civilization!

After settling in, we head to Casa Santo Domingo to catch a ride up the hill to an art compound for lunch. The hotel is next to the old ruins of a convent. The shuttle to the art compound is an open air vehicle that reminds us of being at Disneyland or another theme park. The road leading up to the compound has lots of sculptures of animals along the way, and there are beautiful views of Antigua below. The restaurant here overlooks the two main volcanoes in the area, Agua and Fuego. Apparently Fuego is still active. Another benefit of civilization, the level of food and presentation at the restaurant is superb. We sit on the deck under umbrellas looking out at art on one side and volcanoes and the valley on the other. The food is wonderful, fresh and perfectly prepared.

After lunch we stroll around the grounds looking at the various sculptures and in the gallery where they are showing one artist’s work (one large piece is going for 35,000 quetzales). The entrance to the grounds has a very large caged aviary with dozens of parrots!

After lunch, we head back to town for a short rest in our rooms and to wait for Joel’s friends, Carolina and Rudolfo, and Jaime and Lucky, for dinner. Carolina and Rudolfo arrive first and their English is excellent since they both have spent time in the US studying. Rudolfo is an animator and has his own studio where he does all kinds of commercial work. Carolina is a lawyer but she is currently working for a non-profit that is training government, educators and businesses in ethics. Rudolfo’s father went to school with Joel. We all decide to head to the restaurant, Panza Verde, and meet Jaime and Lucky there. The restaurant is part of a hotel and it’s stunning at night with a courtyard lit by candles, beautiful wrought iron work and carved wood. Dinner is fabulous, the conversation is lively, although much of it on one side happens in Spanish. It turns out that Jaime and Lucky live next to Rudolfo’s studio! Jaime also went to school with Joel and Rudolfo’s father. Joel, Rudolfo and Jaime start telling stories and break out into hysterical laughter. They’re all delightful people, as is everyone we’ve met on this trip.

The "big city"

The air is very clear this morning and on the chilly side. Today we head into Panajachel in the morning. This is the largest town on the lake and the point where we arrived our first day. Joyce and Joel took us to their favourite place for breakfast, Lazzaroni's, where a full plate is 3 or 4 dollars, including eggs, cheese, black beans, tortilla or bread and either sausages or guacamole. There’s a lot of activity on the main streets of Pana. We’re here mainly for the shopping, but Joel has some stuff to do with Francisco for the house, and Joyce and Joel are meeting with their real estate broker and accountant as well. The shops have an incredible variety of embroidered pillows, table runners, tote bags plus leather goods, shoes, men’s beanies, jewelry of all kinds with beads and stones (turquoise is popular). There are also lots of tourists here, some in small groups like ours, others in large organized tours. Today we did really great on our shopping! We’ve all honed our bargaining skills and picked up a few words of Spanish over the last couple of days.

For lunch, Joyce and Joel’s accountant is joining us for pizza. He’s a young man attending a local university, the first in his family to do so. The pizza place is a cute little establishment called Circus Bar, with walls lined with circus posters from around the world. There’s a wood burning oven in the back. We got one pizza with eggplant and zucchini and another with sausage, jamon and olives. They are delicious!

On our way back to the boat launch, we finish up our last bit of shopping. Today we took public boats, since Pana is a short way from Paxanax but the boat is crowded in the early afternoon since everyone is trying to get back home before the water gets too choppy. In addition to all the people, two large baskets of goods are riding on the roof. The boat has gotten stuck in the sand so it takes three men quite a bit of effort to get the boat back into the water (I’ve noticed that people step in to help quickly and without being asked around here). The boat is riding very low in the water and the lake is very choppy so we can’t go very fast but even so, the ride back is quite exciting, with the boat bouncing up and down quite a bit in the waves. One very large bounce brings a wave right into the boat, soaking Suzanne and Joyce. It’s kind of a relief to get back home, and I’m sure the other riders on the boat are happy for the boat to be lighter by 4 people.

In the late afternoon, Laura and Miguel visit. They are a young couple who are going to be moving into the upper house next weekend. They’re staying through the summer rainy season, what Guatemalans consider to be winter. Laura is a medical student who is working at the clinic in the pueblo at Santa Cruz and Miguel is helping her by writing software programs for the clinic. What amazing people! The clinic they work at was started by an American doctor who fell in love with Guatemala. The local Mayan community doesn’t have great access to care and often can’t afford the medicine. Laura describes the people having a little bit of magical thinking when it comes to medicine.  After a long day of working at the clinic, they still have work to do at home on a research project! We’re all hoping to see them when they return to the US as Laura is hoping to take some elective classes in the Bay Area and San Diego before starting her residency in Internal Medicine. Tonight is our last evening and meal in this little slice of paradise. We’ve got some soup from last night, left over pasta and pizza from lunch and more delicious pears. The sky is incredibly clear, full of stars and there is lightening over the Pacific Ocean which is silhouetting the volcano. It’s an incredible sight, with the lights of San Pedro and Santiago twinkling on either side of it.

Santiago

Today after breakfast (and more stories from Carlos) we all headed to Santiago, which is on the other side of the lake. As we ride in the boat across, it becomes clear how big the lake really is. Santiago is in a little inlet and from here, you can see the third of the three volcanoes, which is invisible from where Paxanax is. Santiago is also filled with more aggressive selling techniques. Local women and girls follow you up the main street asking you to look at their wares. One of the reasons for this is that there appear to be more western tourists here. I noticed a few people were here with a local guide or groups of people traveling here together. The product is mostly the same sorts of things that we found in San Pedro, however I found the level of workmanship not quite as high. There are more leather goods (some of the cutest little baby shoes), more children’s clothes, men’s pants and the women’s huipils and skirts. In fact, we got a picture of Suzanne wearing one! There are also a lot of vendors selling beaded jewelry, wooden carvings, paintings. The variety is amazing.

The lake is at its choppiest on the ride back and it’s quite challenging to get out of the boat onto the dock. It’s also quite late and some of us are starving. Joel arranges for us to partake of the vegetarian buffet at Villa Sumaya, which is a yoga retreat center. Carlos and family are heading home though, so we say our goodbyes, exchange emails and wish them a safe trip home.

We can walk to Villa Sumaya, so we’re there in a few minutes. The buffet consists of some bread and grilled vegetables for sandwiches, along with fresh greens and dressing. The veggies, like all of what we’ve eaten here, is grown locally and tastes amazingly good. They also have an absolutely delicious oil that I use on the sandwich in lieu of dressing. After lunch, we stroll a bit around the grounds, which consists of a small shop, a yoga studio, and a few different buildings with rooms for guests. They also have a small pool, hot tub and children’s area. I can imagine it must be quite an experience to come here for a week of yoga.

After lunch, we take a brief rest, and I decide to try showering now rather than competing with the morning rush to ensure more consistent hot water. Well, no luck, it still goes out quite a bit, but I do manage to get myself clean. Up in my room, I spot a few more interesting birds, including a small blue one with an interesting song, and the return of the yellow, black and red woodpecker. Since I’m up above the kitchen, I’m right at bird level and as long as I don’t move much, they get quite close.

Earlier in the day, we had decided to make soup for dinner to use up some of the remaining veggies and leftovers. So after our brief rest we regroup to start that going on the stove. While the soup is bubbling away, Suzanne teaches us a Pilates class. It feels really good to stretch a bit after days of walking up and down hills and getting in and out of boats! During our class the skies open up and the rain just starts coming down in buckets! Although it has rained every night we’ve been here, this is the heaviest we’ve seen it. There’s lightning and thunder to go with it. The soup turns out to be absolutely delicious! I suspect it has more to do with the quality of the ingredients than with any particular skill on our parts. Everything here just tastes so much more like what it’s supposed to, unlike most of the grocery store produce that we typically eat. Along with the soup, we have two different kinds of sweet potato, some bread we bought at the Santa Cruz market, and corn on the cob.

After dinner entertainment is The Descendants, one of the few movies I haven’t seen from the past Oscars crop. Tonight on our way to bed, the stars are finally out!

Ex-pats and family friends

This morning, Joel had to head to Pana to meet up with some family friends who will be joining us tonight at the house. Suzanne, Joyce and I headed to Iguana Perdida, a hotel at the water’s edge in Santa Cruz, the closest town to the house. It’s within walking distance so we are following the path along the lake shore, with the precarious looking planks, rocks, and dirt paths. This part of the path was washed out for awhile and only recently rebuilt so it’s not very familiar to Joyce. Luckily, every time we had some confusion, there were local men who pointed out the way. At Iguana, we met up with Romi, a former Los Angeleno who abandoned LA and 12 hour work days for a 7 month sabbatical here. She’s just about to return home since the rainy season will be starting soon. Today, the Iguana has attracted quite a few of the local ex-pat community because there is a small market here. Everyone who lives here identifies each other by the house they are renting or now own. One of the market stalls is run by a couple of girls from a local cooking school in the pueblo. The school is teaching the kids to be able to work in the restaurant industry. They’ve brought some pastries and peanut butter. A couple of older local women have fruits and vegetables or hand crafted textiles. A toothless man originally from Russia is selling wild raw cacao beans and bars. He tells Suzanne and I that the raw cacao will increase blood flow to our brains and hearts, and all of our problems will appear as if they are in front of us so we can better see the solution. Or something to that effect. This I had to try. After our purchases, we take a seat at the Iguana’s café for some coffee and a taste test of one of the pastries. We also tried some of the cacao. It’s bitter, without the usual sugar added, but the consistency and flavor of chocolate is familiar.

While we are taking our coffee break, Joyce arranges with Joel to meet at Isla Verde, another eco-resort with a restaurant a little farther down the path. This part of the lakeside walk has some of the most precarious looking planks we’ve encountered. At Isla Verde, we meet up with Carlos and Loti along with their son Gabriel. Joel has known Loti since they were kids. The restaurant here advertises slow food, using only natural ingredients that are currently available. I had another fruit shake and a falafel wrap along with some shared nachos. The tortillas wrapping the falafel are clearly homemade, since you can see bits of greenery and other ingredients in it. The filling is delicious as is the homemade potato chips that come with it. Carlos is quite the talker and has something to say about almost everything, including his sighting of a UFO when he served in the army! He and Loti have four kids and they are all incredibly accomplished! Gabriel is hoping to attend a cardio-thoracic program in Switzerland, one of their daughters is working at the Guatemalan embassy in Holland, and their other son is a lawyer. We definitely get full meaning of slow food as we took our sweet time over lunch listening to Carlos’ stories.

After lunch, Ramos the lanchero (boat taxi driver) takes us back to the house where we continue the conversation. Carlos notices that the property next to us is a small coffee plantation and proceeds to explain to Suzanne and me how coffee is made. His English is really quite good, but on the occasion when he stumbles for words, we seem to manage to understand each other. After a short rest, the conversation begins again up on the upper porch. Since the lake is surrounded by a ring of hills, the direct sun disappears quickly and the haze moves in during the afternoon, obscuring the volcanoes. We found out from Gabriel that he climbed 18 of the 21 or 22 volcanoes in Guatemala by the time he was 16. He hasn’t tackled Atitlan’s three peaks though. Carlos tells us about the difficulty of painting with water colours and tells us that he and Loti had in the past showed their work at local galleries in Guatemala City.  (Truly, these are amazing, accomplished people.)

As dinner time rolls around, we all head down and start heating up the food that we had started to prepare last night, consisting of chicken, a local squash, small new potatoes, and carrots, adding some tomatoes and basil that we picked up at the Santa Cruz market. The meal was delicious, with the basil and tomatoes being a particularly nice touch. Dessert is the pastries along with some small plums we bought at the market. Over dinner, Loti and Carlos tell us about how they met and married (incredible story), Loti describes studying in Canada (near Lake Superiour and in Ottawa), and some fascinating family history.

Our post-dinner entertainment was a DVD of the Michael Jackson documentary “This Is It”, which was meant to show the preparations going into his tour he was just about to start when he passed away.

Visiting around Lago Atitlan

Last night, the rain just poured, buckets and buckets came down, it was rather incredible. I woke up this morning to a cacophony of noises: birds, insects, other critters. In fact, it’s never quiet here. Aside from the noise of power boats, there are so many different types of natural noises out there. I spent some time this morning taking pictures of the house and grounds. Everywhere you turn is another beautiful flower, plant, detail of some kind. I saw a huge black bee of some kind that sounded like a lawnmower! After breakfast, we headed out in a private water taxi to explore around the lake. Our first stop was San Pedro, but as we headed to the other side of the lake, we passed the pueblo where the locals live, built up the side of the mountain. The lake shore is littered with hotels, private houses and little shacks, all dotting the hillsides, every single one built by people bringing materials by boat, carrying it up the mountain and then constructing by hand. There is every style of property imaginable, including a beautiful modernist home, some tiny thatched roof shacks and some very narrow but very steep private homes. The town of San Pedro has a market today, so we head up the steep narrow main road towards it. Along the way are shops selling all kinds of things, hand woven and embroidered textiles, leather goods, postcards and art. Most of the vehicles that pass us are little tuk-tuks, although small cars, trucks and motorcycles are also common. At the market, there are live chickens, fruits of all kinds, and plastic wares. The women are all wearing native woven skirts and colourful blouses, called huipils. After bargaining with some local shop keepers for some souvenirs, we headed back to the taxi to our next stop, San Marcos.

Here, we are heading to Aaculaax, which is an eco-resort. It’s an incredibly beautiful place, with distinctive rooms built into the side of the hill, all with a great view of the lake. Most of the materials are recycled and you can see former beer bottles and other types of glass finding a second life. The proprietor showed us a few rooms and the prices are amazing, $65, $75 dollars a night for a room with breakfast.  They are still building rooms here! Just past the resort there is a cliff that adventurous people can climb up to try a high dive into the lake! Our third stop is Casa del Mundo which is another resort and where we have lunch. The food is so good, I had a chicken burrito with fresh salsa and the most amazing guacamole. They also feature fruit shakes and the strawberry mango one that I had was incredible, the mangos are so fresh.

After lunch, it’s time to head back to Joyce and Joel’s home as the lake starts to get choppy in the afternoon.  We all head to our rooms to rest. As I’m downloading my pictures onto the computer, the racket outside is incredible, and I hear a tap tapping on a tree outside my window. With my binoculars, I can see a yellow bird with a red cap pecking away at some holes in the dead tree. I also saw hummingbirds sipping from a flower, an ochre bird and a very large fat squirrel. Although the tree is dead, there are quite a lot of plants growing on its trunk, bromeliads, air plants, it's like an apartment complex. Joyce mentions that she saw a small snake with gold, black and white stripes! Dinner tonight is leftover spaghetti from yesterday and some delicious pear. After dinner we watched a DVD of Don Quixote performed by the National Ballet of Cuba. It pours down raining again but by the time we turn in to bed, it’s stopped. The noise at night is of cicadas.

Arriving in Guatemala

Suzanne and I flew Taca airlines on a late red-eye to Guatemala City where we would meet up with Joyce and Joel. The plane was very nice, roomy, not crowded. I was only able to catch a little sleep, though, and caught the beautiful site of the sun’s glow appearing on the curved horizon of the earth with the sliver of moon hanging over it. The airport in Guatemala City is modern and clean, and the whole process was incredibly easy, from Immigration to Customs to getting our bags, which basically appeared on the carousel as we walked up to it!

Joyce and Joel were waiting for us and their friend Miguelangel was driving us in his little van to Panajachel, which is about 2 ½ hours away on Lake Atitlan. Driving through Guatemala City you can see this is a developing country, but there is an incredible amount of construction everywhere. Once out of the city, the countryside is beautiful, with cows, dogs, horses, pigs, Mayan women carrying stuff on their heads and wearing their native clothing. It’s such a pleasure to be somewhere with people who still have a strong sense of their own culture, rather than looking all like Westerners.

The road to Pana is long, often winding, but smooth. We made a pit stop at a complex with a restaurant and shop to stretch our legs. We pass a few small towns on our way, each one getting smaller and more rural. After a climbing a mountain and then coming back down, we finally make it into Pana. We stopped at a grocery store to pick up some supplies. Many of the signs in the store don’t look like Spanish and Joel explains that they are in the local Mayan dialect (of which apparently there are many). In order to get to the house, we need to catch a boat from Pana. They’ve arranged for a private taxi since the public boat taxis get very crowded. Francisco, the caretaker of the property is in Pana and helps us with luggage. The taxi drops us off at Laguna Lodge, which is a high-end eco-resort, for lunch (apparently Leo DiCaprio was just here). Francisco will continue with the water taxi to the house and transfer our luggage. The lodge is just beautiful, like something out of a fancy travel magazine. The food is vegetarian, and most of us had the Kum Pao, which is really just stir fried vegetables with a soy based sauce and tofu. It was delicious. Everything here is freshly made, including the salsa, tortillas, chips, etc. The dining room looks out over the lake, surrounded by volcanoes and is immediately very relaxing and serene.

After lunch we walk along the lake edge to the house at Paxanax. The path is a combination of dirt, wood planks (looking very precarious) and stone. The house is up the hill a bit and is quite a large property. There is a main house with a large central room (called the Buddha room and originally used for yoga classes and the like) and kitchen, and several smaller properties with bedrooms and bathrooms. I chose a small room above the main house with windows looking out over the property towards the lake. I’m hoping to see some stars at night. There is a chicken coop and laundry shed on one side and the whole area is landscaped beautifully with incredible flowers and plants. It’s truly a tropical paradise.

After a well needed nap, we regrouped and made a lovely spaghetti dinner with zucchini, tomatoes, onion and corn. After the sun sets, the sky is pitch black and overcast. You can see lights along the opposite shore from the small towns along the lake. There are fireflies among the beautifully landscaped grounds and lightening in the distance. It starts to rain during dinner, echoing off the incredible domed ceiling of the Buddha room. The house was built by an American who moved here some 14 years ago and was a carpenter by trade. He built the property by hand with the assistance of Francisco who started with him when he was 17! There is beautifully hand carved wood everywhere, including most of the doors, handmade fabric lampshades and beautiful details everywhere. Joyce and Joel bought most of the original property from the original owner when he decided to move to Thailand. A smaller portion was parceled off and sold separately.

Since this is a place without constant electronic interruptions, we are making an early night of it, as do the locals who live here.

SF Ballet Program 6

This program certainly covered the gamut of this company's talents. It started with Raymonda, Act 3. This is a classical, traditional ballet and is hardly ever performed as a whole. I'm not even really clear what the story is. Act 3 is a wedding scene set in medieval Hungary, which means we get the chance to see great variations and character dancing. The set is lavish and the costumes beautiful and glittery. Vanessa Zahorian handled the famed solo variation with a lot of panache. My toes hurt just watching all those bourrees.

The second piece is Raku, new from last year. The music is by a member of the SF Ballet Orchestra, the story set in ancient Japan based around a love triangle at a temple. We were lucky to see Yuan Yuan Tan perform the female role. She's remarkable for her flexibility as well as expressiveness. This is a beautiful, tragic piece with strong dancing by all three leads. The set uses moveable pieces with projection to good effect. This is a knockout newer piece for the company, in a contemporary vein but maintaining a story line.

The third piece is brand new this year and choreographed by the artistic director of the Scottish Ballet, who I saw last year and thoroughly enjoyed. The music is John Adams. Four pairs of dancers are highlighted in the piece, with various groups of corps dancers in the background. Everyone wears shorts unitards with varying colour schemes. The costumes were great for highlighting the dancers muscularity, but I found it hard to tell individuals apart and the soloists from the corps. The dancing was fantastic (the company is full of strong dancers) but the music wore on me after awhile. While this piece is contemporary like the second one, it's more abstract with very little sense of story (aside from whatever each individual audience member may read into it).

Barre Vermont's cabaret shows

There is a town in Vermont called Barre. However, I'm actually referring to a bar on Vermont Ave. in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. The bar is attached to a restaurant called Vermont. They've been doing cabaret style shows in the bar revolving around the music from one director's movies. They've done Quentin Tarantino, Coen brothers, etc. I'm a huge Baz Luhrmann fan, especially of his Red Curtain Trilogy movies, Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge.

Last night I finally went to see what this show was all about. I really had no idea what to expect. I just knew if it had to do with Baz's movies, I wanted to check it out. They crammed the narrow space with as many tables and chairs as they could. There's a sound booth at one end, a small stage for a band at the other, stage lighting on the ceiling, a small platform in front of a red curtained niche and steps leading up to the bar itself. There is barely enough room for people to pass between the tables.

The show started with Romeo + Juliet. Interspersed among the songs from the movie is Shakespeare's actual words. They condensed the story into about 1/2 hour but managed to capture the essence of the tale. The performers are very talented. They have to sing while weaving in and out among the crammed tables and avoiding waiters bringing food and drink and the occasional patron coming and going. Since the performers are pretty much right next to you, they have the opportunity to interact and react to things going on in the audience. There is a feeling of being in the show unlike any other. After R+J, they did a few songs from Strictly Ballroom and managed to convey the weird humour from that movie brilliantly in a short period of time (as well as conveying the idea of ballroom dancing without actually having room to dance). The second half was all Moulin Rouge. As with the first two sets, the story is told through the songs while echoing the look and feel of the movie. For instance, in the movie there are a couple of scenes when the character of Toulouse-Lautrec is seen outside the window from where the main action is happening. At Barre, the performer playing TL climbs a tree outside the front window and sings from there (we hear it inside).

The venue is expanding into the adjoining restaurant soon, so there will be some elbow room in the future. I'm curious what they do with a director whose movies are less directly musical than Baz's. All in all, this was a fun and unique evening, one of those things that feel like you could only find in LA.

Ballet de Monte Carlo

I went to see this company perform their version of Cinderella at Segerstrom in Orange County as sort of a last minute thing. We've had a dance drought here since late fall. Turned out to be a great choice! The music is the familiar Prokofiev score (one of my favourite ballet scores) but the choreography, sets, costumes and lighting are all new. Choreography is by the company's artistic director, Jean-Christophe Maillot. The company dances in a contemporary ballet style. In Maillot's version, the Fairy is the ghost or spirit of Cinderella's dead mother and Cinderella is barefoot, with a heavy sprinkling of glitter on her feet when she goes to the ball. (All of the other women wear pointe shoes.) There is a lot of humour in this production, as well as one of the most romantic pas de deux I've seen. The characters all seem to be quite multi-dimensional in personality which makes for a much more interesting and theatrical experience. The corps was exceptionally well coordinated and all of the dancers had strong technique. It was defintiely worth the trip to Orange County!

dineLA February 2012

Another dineLA week(s) has come and gone with 6 meals over the course of 2 weeks. At the end of all that eating, I found some new restaurants that were all really good and worth revisiting.

My first stop was M Street Kitchen on Main Street in Santa Monica. I haven't been to Main St. in ages, mostly because parking is a pain. (BTW, if you've seen the 'S**t people in LA say' video, all of that car/parking stuff is absolutely true!) This is a casual comfort food restaurant with warm friendly service. The food was very tasty and my small group sat at our table for quite awhile talking without feeling rushed (it helped that we were there on a rainy Monday). There is an attached pizza restaurant and bar.

My second stop was Picca, a new Peruvian small plates restaurant. The dineLA menu was not typical of their everyday menu but the food was incredibly tasty and the place has a great noisy vibe. Peru gave the world the potato but there wasn't a lot of it on the dineLA menu. I had a delicious rice and mushroom dish called tacu tacu. One of my friends had a quinoa quiche which was also really good. I definitely want to come back here and try the regular menu. This would be a place to come with a big crowd.

My third stop was Enoteca Drago. I was in Beverly Hills with some friends and found this on the dineLA website. Celestino Drago has two other restaurants, one in Santa Monica and one downtown, and always has dependably excellent Italian food with great service. The Enoteca is a little more casual than the other locations. We got a nice table on the sidewalk on a warm night and enjoyed top notch Italian food. My friends had their wine pairing which was a great value. The streets of BH are quiet at night, but you still need to two hands to count the Italian luxury sports cars driving by, your fellow diners are might be kind of interesting, and there may be a strolling trio of musicians across the street looking for some tips in exchange for a song.

The fourth stop was dictated by its proximity to the Santa Monica pier, as I was going to see the latest Cirque du Soleil show, Ovo. We chose Il Fornaio which is a dependable Italian chain. The Santa Monica restaurant has a nice outdoor seating area right across from the pier. The service was a little spotty but picked up once we made our presence felt.

The fifth restaurant was Cleo, which I'd been to for a previous dineLA. I loved it the last time I was here and they did not disappoint this time. This was the restaurant that showed me that brussels sprouts could be edible and delicious. The dineLA menu consists of a selection mezze and we chose the hummus, baba ganouj and cucumber/yogurt dip plus the spicy cigars. These come with a fresh baked laffa bread. I could just eat dips and bread all evening. My main course kebabs were delicious as was the side of rice. Their signature dessert is the sticky toffee pudding which is rich, thick, sweet and will make you want to lick the plate. This was the winner out of all my dineLA meals.

The final meal was at AOC which I've been wanting to go to for a long time. The chef Suzanne Goin made her name here. This is another small plates restaurant, so again their dineLA menu is not totally typical. The food was really good, but a little disappointing in that while the ingredients were all incredibly high quality and fresh, there was nothing particularly exceptional about them. The service was certainly nothing special for a restaurant of this calibre, I found the server a little brusque. The timing was off as one of our party had to wait quite awhile for her entree while the rest of us sat with our dishes getting cold. I imagine timing is not something that is typically a consideration for a small plates restaurant, but I would've thought some special instructions would've applied to dineLA meals. Unlike the main part of the meal, the desserts were exceptional, so the meal ended on a high note.

Metropolis II

This is a new art installation at LACMA by Chris Burden (who also did the Urban Lights installation at the front of the museum). It's amazing what a creative mind can do with a bunch of Matchbox cars, some kid's building toys and a few train sets. I loved the diversity of the crowd taking it in.

Check out some pics that I took (and a couple of videos as well).

Holiday movies

Since I had lots of time off over the holidays, I managed to squeeze in a lot of movies. Aside from The Artist, mentioned on a previous post, I caught the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Martin Scorsese's Hugo and A Dangerous Method. Two thumbs up for the first two, but only so-so for the third.

Dragon Tattoo was a favourite book of mine and I swore that I wouldn't see the American movie, convinced that they would sanitize and dumb it down. Instead, they captured a lot of what made the book so enticing. Rooney Mara was amazing as Lisbeth Salander, Daniel Craig managed to tamp down his James Bond charisma a bit and the higher quality production values (i.e. bigger budget) made for a great looking and sounding movie. One of the main benefits for us English speaking folks for this version over the excellent Swedish version is not having to read subtitles, which creates a certain distance when watching a movie. There is an inevitable delay and distraction between mentally processing the reading while you are watching the visuals that is no longer there when the actors are speaking in your native tongue, especially in such an action packed movie.

I saw Hugo in 3D and I highly recommend you do the same. The visuals are stunning, Martin Scorsese uses 3D not as a trick special effect but as another tool in his artist's palette. While there are a few moments of things coming at you from the screen for amusing effect, many more times, the added dimension simply creates levels of details that draw you into the atmosphere of the story. I am not familiar with the original children's book, but it's a wonderful and heartwarming tale where an unwanted boy helps a lonely old man, and finds a home in the process. There is a lot of movie history told here (and I wondered how interesting that really would be for kids) and some great action sequences in a Paris train station.

A Dangerous Method is a highly intelligent movie but it's origins as a play are not overcome in the translation to the big screen. The movie just seems very static and talky (I know, I know, it's the 'talking cure'). Keira Knightley's depiction of her character's hysteria seems overwrought and old-fashioned. Maybe this is really what hysterical patients acted like, but I found it hard to reconcile it with my modern sensibilities. Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender are wonderful actors and the two of them are entertaining on screen, but movies are a visual medium and this movie didn't take advantage of that quality.