Cascais, Cabo de Roque, Sintra

Today was my day trip to Sintra with Cascais and Cabo de Roque. Sintra is home Pena Palace, a location often mentioned as a must see on Portugal/Lisbon travel sites. 

One thing I noted from many of those sites is that there is a complicated set of instructions to reach the site. Since I had some reward money from work that included travel experiences, I used some of that for a guided trip. I found one with Ricardo that seemed like a good balance of inclusions. 

In the morning, my instructions were to travel to a nearby train station to meet up, but I received a text from Ricardo that he would pick me up, which was fantastic! We were riding in a car and after picking up 2 ladies from Kitchener, Jackie & Jane, headed out of Lisbon.

Ricardo told us we were going to do Cascais first, then Cabo de Roque followed by Pena Palace in the afternoon, for better traffic and crowds. On the way to Cascais, he took us on some more scenic roads than the highway and gave us a little history. We passed the small town of Estoril which has the only casino in Portugal, and where Ian Fleming lived during WW2 and may have been inspired by the int'l crowd who were in neutral Portugal during the war. 

Cascais is a home to the wealthy set and on our way into town, we drove by some pretty large mansions. The town itself is small with palm tree lined streets and kind of reminded me of some of the small SoCal beach towns. We had some pastries and coffee (and restroom break) before wandering around a bit. 

After Cascais, next stop is Cabo de Roque, location of a large lighthouse and also the western most point of continental Europe. If it wasn't for the curvature of the earth, looking east you would be able to see NYC. 

Finally we arrive in Sintra. We stop to find a lunch place, recommended by Ricardo, pretty touristy but I had a nice cod croquette and tomato rice dish, then wandered a bit on the hilly streets, past the conical National Palace, searching for the traditional pastry travesseiro ('pillow') and admiring the views. 

Ricardo picked us up again to continue the climb up to Pena Palace. The road is windy and steep. Past a certain point, we are allowed only because we are a tourist vehicle and there are a lot of people climbing up and down the hill. Finally we arrive at the gates. Getting in is easy with Ricardo having pre-bought our tickets. There's also a shuttle to go from the gates to the actual palace. Jackie and Jane wait for the shuttle while Ricardo and I walk up. The grounds of the palace were planted by King Ferdinand with plants and trees from around the world. He missed the forests of his native Germany. So we see redwoods, cedar, sycamore, camellias, just an incredible variety of trees. The weather is cool but sunny so perfect for the short hike. 

Before actually entering the palace grounds, Ricardo gives us a little history. King Ferdinand built it with his own money. He used inspiration from sources all over Portugal and even southern Spain to try and build a connection to the local people who were suspicious of the tall blond king who had married Queen Maria. It was really helpful to learn about the various design inspirations to better appreciate the incredible details we see.

There are incredible views from all around the palace and a wall walk that takes you around the perimeter of the building. Some of the details are actually plaster made to look like carved stone or painted tile rather than inlaid. 

The interior is intact from when the last king escaped with his family in the early 1900's, with original textiles and furniture. Amazingly, the complex was turned into a museum almost immediately. 

It's a really remarkable place and definitely exceeded expectations for me, made even more meaningful by having a great guide. 

Leaving Sintra, we drive back to Lisbon, drop off Jane & Jackie and then me. By the time I'm back at the hotel it's 7p and I'm too worn out for dinner. 

Savannah

We arrived in Savannah yesterday after a smooth 4 hour car ride. We got into town in time to look for lunch. After a short walk around the area near our hotel, we stopped at Java Burrito where I got a chicken bowl which was filling and reasonably healthy. 

Our afternoon activity is a tour of Bonaventure Cemetery, a beautiful old municipal cemetery made famous by the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. 

Our guide Paschal was a wonderful story teller. Despite the heat, he regaled us with the history of the cemetery and how it ties with the history of Savannah. He pointed out symbols carved into stone monuments, interesting family plots, historical figures of importance to Savannah and less well known figures. 

One thing we learned is that the statue of the bird girl that appeared on the cover of the book has been moved to the Telfair Museum. 

After the tour, we went back to the hotel to rest up a bit. A couple of the group went out to dinner or for a walk. I decided I wanted to check out the riverfront. I started at the Waving girl statue and walked along the shop fronts, food stalls and restaurants. The water front is very active but the stores had a slightly touristy air about them. 

I popped back up to street level near the Cotton Exchange building and walked down to Leopold's for ice cream. They had a lot of different and interesting flavours and the Turtle Pecan Pie flavour I tried was delicious! 

I came back for an early night and a shower, ready for our next full day.

The main activity for day 2 in Savannah is a food walking tour. Travis took us to the Cotton Exchange to explain a bit of Savannah history before heading to the Taste Experience location to start the tour. 

Our guide is Bailey. She was terrific! We had a total of 6 food stops starting with a pork belly stuffed donut at the shop 

Along the way, in addition to sausage rolls, she crab soup (delish!), Parmesan crusted haddock with a beer taste, chicken empanada, and honey tastings with an apple honey cheddar bite and cookie, we walked along part of the river front starting with a great view of Talmadge Bridge with two large ships passing under.

Bailey took us for a walk through the JW Marriott hotel, which is in a refurbished power plant. The design is unique but it's the decor which stuns. The entire lobby area is filled with fossils, huge geodes, crystals of various sizes and a giant metallic looking dinosaur sculpture! 

After popping back up to street level and a couple more stops we ended the tour at the Savannah Bee Company for the final taste of different honeys and a couple of treats.

Everyone broke up for the rest of the afternoon. I headed to the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters to book a tour. I had enough time to walk over to the Telfair Museum first to check out their collection and of course the Bird Girl. Most of the art was not particularly notable (some impressionist style paintings, portraits, sculpture) but they surrounded the Bird Girl with various paintings of Savannah, giving a nice context. 

At the Owens-Thomas house, our guide emphasized the nature of the contributions of the enslaved population of the house to the running, maintenance and function of it for the family who lived there. Hearing of this in the context of home living puts it into a perspective that is very relatable to a city person like myself. I found it incredibly moving, and it was made more poignant by finding that a servant (probably an indentured woman of African descent) from the 1920s shared my name. 

After a brief rest back at the hotel, the group of us headed to the Pirate's House for dinner. It's quite a fun but also historical house. There truly were pirates who occupied it and used various secret tunnels to get from there to the waterfront. The house inspired RL Stevenson's Treasure Island. You can still see parts of old tunnels and the Herb House is the oldest structure in Savannah. We quite enjoyed our meals as well! 

Atlanta History

This morning I met up with our guide, Travis Hanks (yes, he's a distant cousin of Tom) and some of my fellow travelers. I'm rooming with Rita from Toronto and we also have Fiona from Cambridge, England.

One the things I found appealing about the description of this tour was a focus on Black American history. Today we visited some sites in Atlanta that told part of that story. 

Our first stop was the Atlanta History Center. It's located in Buckhead so we passed some pretty fancy homes on the way, including the Governors mansion.

The History Center has exhibits on Atlanta, the Olympics, local folk art, railroads, and a beautiful garden and farm buildings. There is a steam train locomotive that told the story of how the railroad  built the city. 

The highlight of the Center is the Cyclorama, a 360 degree 50' high oil painting & diorama that was originally created in the late 1800s by German artists in Milwaukee. It served as the movie of its day. At the History Center, there is a film that tells some of the story of this impressive art work. The painting technique gives an incredible impression of being 3 dimensional in places and the addition of the diorama figures really adds to this effect.

The Center also had a lovely folk art exhibit with all different kinds of craft types from quilts to pottery to musical instruments. 

The cafe at the Center had a particularly delicious selection of items made with local ingredients. 

After the Center we headed to the MLK National Historic Site. We weren't able to join the tour of the birthplace but their exhibits on his life and times were very well done. Travis guided us a bit around the area, explaining how the post Reconstruction segregation laws affected this community and showed us MLKs family home. 

The original Ebenezer Baptist church building is in this area, as well as a more modern and larger church building. The MLK memorial includes his and Mrs King's tombs and exhibits of his personal effects, awards, clothes and other ephemera that really humanizes this great man. 

After a rest break, I met up with Travis for dinner. We were joined by Han from the Netherlands, who had missed our morning meeting! 

Travis took us to Twisted Soul for some delicious soul food. I had a wonderful pulled pork sandwich and delicious cornbread along with some stimulating conversation about all of our travels.

Tomorrow is a relatively early start to get on the road to Savannah.

Old friends & quick afternoon in Madrid

 Today was my only full day in Madrid and I wasn't expecting to get any kind of deep exploration of the city. I figured for future trips to Spain, Madrid will likely be a hub.

However, the day started with a bit of old home week by meeting with Reggie's family. Tasha had found a park with a lake and most importantly both parking for them and a metro stop for me. Turned out the metro line had a stop literally at the street corner where my hotel was!

Once I got there, and after a bit of back and forth via text and phone, we found each other and sat at the outdoor cafe for some coffee, a bite and some catch up. They were there with Tasha's mom to visit her sister, who lives in Madrid with her partner. They were about to take a road trip to the partner's familial home, then southern France, then back to Spain. I hadn't seen them since their boys were probably in middle school and now they were young men. I so enjoyed the conversation, hearing from the boys particularly Nathan, and just having a nice catch up. We joked about it being easier to meet up in Madrid than across town in LA. 

After I got back to town and found a quick bite, I bought a ticket for the hop on hop off that had a stop by the Reina Sofia museum. I found Madrid to be a bit of culture shock after Barcelona and Granada, but smaller places but also less cosmopolitan. Madrid felt like any large metropolis, with Spanish. There were the typical global retail places that one would find in NYC, LA, London, etc. The bus audio guide described the many monuments we went by. At the Reina Sofia, I found the museum hard to navigate. It felt like a lot of giant corridors with rooms branching off and I couldn't figure out a rationale for the plan. Luckily, I stumbled on a sign for the Guernica otherwise I might have missed it! I had seen a really good exhibit at LACMA a few years ago with a nice explanation of a lot of the symbolism in the painting and had wished I'd done some research on it. It was displayed near other art with a political meaning. After my museum stop, I took the rest of the bus tour back to the hotel and again rested for the remainder of the day. I checked out the hotel roof top pool deck but it was a tiny pool with a bar and no food and was already crowded with people. I decided to order in my room (taking advantage of the nice room) and had spaghetti. Even the hotel food was reasonably priced. I had an early morning the next day to catch a flight. I arranged with the hotel for a taxi and again after my nightly shower, hit the sack.

Alhambra

 My main reason for wanting to travel to Granada-Alhambra. One of the great architectural marvels in the world and a prime example of Arabic architecture located in a stable location that is easy for a single woman to visit.

I had a guide, Maryla, who was meeting me at my hotel. She turned out to be a delight. She spoken English and Spanish (of course) but also Portuguese and Hebrew, and was learning Arabic. She was extremely well versed in the history of Alhambra. With her, I was able to skip all the lines and she knew exactly the right path to take to visit all the key locations on the site.

The property included a fort area where we could get amazing views of the city below.

There are also several palaces on the site, including Carlos V's western style building, not completed, and the Nasrid palaces which were stunning in their beauty and detail.

Many darker cooler rooms led to courtyards with pools. Every surface was decorated with Arabic text, repeating decorative patterns and inlaid tile or wood. Each room was more beautiful than the next.

From the main complex, we walked through a small street and garden to the Generalife, which was an adjoining summer palace. 

After a wonderful tour, Maryla walked me back down to the main Plaza where I could catch a cab to take me to the St Nicolas church area to a restaurant recommended by my travel agent and a great view of Alhambra.

Lunch was a delicious dish consisting of a 'roasted' (what we would call over easy) egg on a sauce of jamon, mushroom and truffle oil over a bed of very thinly sliced fried potatoes. The dish was delicious, although the pile of very thin fried potatoes was too much for me to eat the whole dish. After lunch, I found Los Italianos, which was recommended to me as the best gelato in town. A cone with two small scoops was only 2 euros.

After a rest back at my hotel room, I decided to walk to a tapas bar that was on my agent's list. I sat at the bar and ordered a couple of dishes, fried seafood and fried eggplant that looked like steak fries but served with something the Spanish call 'cane honey' but is essentially molasses. I came to a new appreciation for eggplant (berenjena) here. I also ordered a tinto verano (red wine with lemon soda, more popular apparently than sangria) and it came with fried cod. Now I had too much food! As I ate, two women sat next to me and from the sound of their conversation, I guessed they must be from Taiwan however I left them be. As I was almost done, one of the women turned to talk to me and we shared some basic info about each other. They were a pair of friends traveling together. One of them lived in Europe so they hadn't seen each other in awhile. They had a long vacation planned. When I was ready to leave, I left them the rest of the eggplant dish and the seafood. They seemed very pleased.

I ended the day with my usual shower and rest.

Last day in Barcelona with Castellers

 On my last day in Barcelona, we were going to meet up with Andrew and Joanna. We went to a local bakery that is a fave of Edie and Bill, Praktik. They had a nice little patio to sit in.

We headed to the Miro museum together, via taxi. It was interesting to see so many Miros in one place! I particularly liked this tapestry.

It was a very hot day and I was super tired, so I didn't get into all of the info about this unique artist but I did appreciate the air conditioning. They also had a nice little sit-down restaurant as part of their cafe so we had a nice lunch.

After our 'siesta', Edie found a casteller, or human towers, show. This is a Catalan tradition that started in rural villages but apparently is quite popular in Barcelona. Based on my observation, several 'teams' meet up in a plaza. Each team is wearing a team coloured shirt. The teams rotate in building their castels. The bottom level is the big guys and lighter and lighter teammates climb onto the previous level's shoulders. The top level is a child (I'd guess 10-ish and from what I saw always a girl) who needs to raise an arm and flash 4 fingers (to represent the 4 stripes of the Catalan flag) before climbing down. While a team is building their castel, members of the other teams will provide side support (like flying buttresses on gothic cathedrals) at the base. It seems like there is a sense of competition, but not really. The teams started by building 4 sided castels, then 2 sided then single. The finally included all 4 teams building single castels together. The whole thing is accompanied by drum and fife type music. It's all quite festive and after they're done, everyone dances and celebrates. It was a lot of fun!

After watching the castellers, we headed to a nearby outdoor restaurant for tapas. It was so great that Edie and Bill knew exactly where to go. Since we had a pretty big group, we shared a large selection of dishes. What a great way to spend my last evening in Barcelona. Of course the evening ended with gelato, which seems to be super popular in Spain. 

Santa Fe

Edie invited a few close friends and family to join her in Santa Fe over President's weekend and Mei and I were able to join her.

She and Bill booked a room at Inn of the Turquoise Bear so we chose to do the same. We flew into Albuquerque airport on Friday afternoon. The airport (they call it a 'sunport') feels VERY southwest, with Saltillo tile floors, Pueblo style pots and decor all around. It's about an hour drive to Santa Fe. We arrived to find a walled compound with luminarias all around the top of the walls. It was dinner time when we got in so after finding our cozy room, we headed out to the main plaza to find some food.

All the trees in the plaza are lit up so at night it looks beautiful. The weather is cold and clear. We stopped at Thunderbird Bar for some shrimp and Frito pie (which is a New Mexico specialty). We managed to get a quick stop into the Five & Dime for some souvenirs before it closed and then headed back to the hotel and bed.

In the morning, we went to the main building to check in and get breakfast. They had a big table with a great spread of yogurt, fruit, breads, and cereals, as well as a daily special. Today was frittata, chicken sausage and tomato salad. The food was delicious. The rooms are wonderfully decorated with local art and prints. Edie's family had arrived quite late last night so we greeted each other over breakfast.

We all set out for the day to walk to the Georgia O'Keefe museum with a detour at the state capital building. Again we found local art liberally displayed throughout. It seems New Mexicans are proud to show off their local artists at every opportunity. The O'Keefe museum is small but has a wide variety of styles of her art.

After the museum, we walked back to the Inn to drive to a local donut shop, Whoo's. We met up with Vid and his daughter Mira. Next to the donut shop is a chocolate place called ChocolateSmith. From the doughnut shop, we made a brief pit stop at a local market for some more substantial eats and then headed to Canyon Rd for some gallery hopping.

The variety of art styles on display in the galleries on this street is remarkable. We stopped at about 5 galleries and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. By this time, we were all pooped out so we headed to Vid's AirBnB to rest. Eventually, Russell's family arrived to make the party complete.

Dinner that night was at Sazon. This turned out to be a remarkable meal. The restaurant is decorated (again) with art. The food is Mexican inspired but with fine dining level creativity. We started with small samples of 6 moles served with mini tortillas (which were soft and delicious). The black bean soup of the day was one of the best things I've ever eaten. The chef came to say hello to our table after our starters. We all thoroughly enjoyed our mains. Mine was duck with a rich poblano mole (not too spicy). Mei had salmon with a different sauce. The chef's special dessert was a creation that revealed different flavours as it melted on your tongue from ginger to avocado ice cream to chili. Really remarkable. The volcano cake and pastry cream with berries were both excellent as well.

We finished the night back at the BnB with whiskey and girl scout cookies.

The next morning, after another delicious breakfast of blue corn pinon pancakes and maple bacon, Mei and I said goodbye to Edie, Bill and the girls for our drive back to ABQ and flight to LAX. We had a short visit but we both decided Santa Fe is worth returning to again, but maybe in warmer weather!

Yayoi Kusama and discovering DTLA

I managed to get 2 shots at seeing the sold out Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrors show at The Broad. This past weekend was my second go with Yuki, Mark and Gigi. They had not seen the show yet.

The first time I experienced Yayoi Kusama was in Cophenhagen. I took the train to The Louisiana Museum and they happened to have a show about Colour in Art. It was a fantastic show and quite extensive, and at one point there was a line to see something (I had no idea what). I was traveling on my own so had no issues standing in a line for an unknown amount of time to see an unidentified art piece. Turns out it was an Infinity Mirror room. They let a few people in at a time, and we had maybe a minute (longer than the time they allowed at The Broad). It was breathtaking!

I was so excited to see this show the first time about 3 weeks ago with a group of 6. The show is very well organized and well timed so that despite having short waits at each room, it never felt like endless waiting. Kudos to the exhibit organizers and museum staff! However in order to accommodate as many people as possible, the amount of time in each room is limited to about 20 seconds!

I'm so glad I saw this a second time because the first time, I was so focused on 'getting the picture' (this being a ridiculously photographable show) that I barely had time to appreciate being in the rooms. In addition, the show includes paintings and sculptures by the artist, as well as posters from her art shows in the 60s when she was working in NYC.

We were in the exhibit for about an hour. After spending some time in the main galleries, we headed to Grand Central Market for lunch. Since Angel's Flight connects Olive to Hill right at the Market, we decided to take this very short funicular, which has had a checkered history (closed for years, reopened briefly but closed again, and only recently reopened). It was a hot day (unseasonably so for late November) and the Market was packed and stiflingly hot. We managed to snag a table rather quickly despite the crowds and each grabbed our own food of the many options. Instead of ice cream at McConnell's (ridiculously long line), Gigi suggested we find the ice cream place at the Spring St arcade, which was kind of on our way back to the 7th/Metro train station.

On the way there, we stopped at The Bradbury Building (famed from the movie Blade Runner), which is right next door to Grand Central Market. The Spring St Arcade also has a Guisado's taco place, but we were there for Gelateria Uli. They had some great unusual flavours (black sesame! jamaica/hibiscus mint!) and they accept suggestions for new flavours. Also, the shop is air conditioned and no crowds, so win-win for us.

After ice cream we walked by Clifton's Cafeteria, which has recently been restored. The decor is essentially intact (fake giant sequoia is still there) but reorganized to include a bunch of different bars and the cafeteria reorganized into zones instead of one long line of food over steam trays. The final stop was the Jewelry Theatre which used to be a vaudeville and then movie theatre, currently serves as home to individual jewelry vendor stations but the theatre decor mostly remains intact above the booths. Worth popping in to take a look even if you have no interest in diamonds.

Thanks to Gigi's knowledge of DTLA, our morning museum outing turned into a mini tour of our own hometown!

Broad Museum & Otium

Recently I had the opportunity to visit the new Broad Museum and dine at the adjacent restaurant Otium. This is my second visit to the Broad but the first visit was a very quick one that I spent mostly exploring the architecture. The one art piece I have yet to experience is Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Room. I've actually experienced another of this artist's installation before-in Denmark at the Louisiana Museum. In that case, they let people in 3 at a time. At the Broad, you go in one at a time for 45 seconds and have to sign up once you get to the museum. Unless you get there first thing, the line gets booked fast. The Broad's collection was previously on display at BCAM at LACMA when they teased the County museum with potential donation of their collection and then turned around and changed their minds. In addition to the previously seen Koons balloon dog, flowers and rabbit, there are Basquiats, Warhols, Rauschenbergs, all the big names in mid-century art plus a lot of recent artists. My favourite part of the collection are the Kara Walkers. I fell in love with her work when she curated a small installation at The Met in NY (combination of her own art with pieces she chose from the collection). Her work initially appears genteel and delicate (in the form of silhouette cut-outs) but then you realize what the cut-outs are representing (all the horrors of the slave era) and you just have to stop and think. The Broad includes a large series installed on a curved wall as well as steel cut outs in the form of a play house.

After our time at The Broad, we went over to Otium to have dinner. This is a new restaurant by Timothy Hollingsworth, formerly of French Laundry. We were at the Chef's table (unbeknownst to me until the end of the evening) which is a counter height giant polished single piece of wood with a live edge. The kitchen is open but in a way that is more open than any commercial kitchen I've seen. There is no counter separating the kitchen from the dining room. You can simply walk right into the kitchen. And several people did. I was with a group of design industry people and we were all in love with the counter stools that we sat in. (We never did figure out whose chairs they were.) The food was a pre-set menu consisting of a raw hamachi (with the most delicious little tomatoes), salad, roasted carrots (from the farmer's market so quite small and ugly but so good), spinach pasta with egg and clams (I could've eaten a giant bowl myself), fish with an amazing green sauce, chicken with the most tender meat and ridiculously good potatoes (despite looking quite ordinary), and a beef that was a bit rare for my taste but again with a delicious sauce. Dessert was a mille feuille with small blobs of hazelnut cream in the middle. I had a cocktail that ended up being way fancier than I realized-it came with a shot glass containing a tea ball with dry ice spewing out a tea scented smoke. The smoke really did smell amazing, and the banana cocktail under the shot glass was really good (if way too big for me) but I'm not sure how the tea smoke affected the cocktail.

All through dinner I had been observing the kitchen and noticed a few things. The staff were very calm and serene (unlike other open kitchens that seemed frenetic). It was also incredibly organized and clean. And there was one young man who appeared to be everywhere, directing, tasting and otherwise seemed in charge. I assumed he was an executive chef or sous chef because he seemed too young to be the main guy. As we were about to leave, I googled him and lo and behold, that was indeed Chef Timothy! As I blurted out 'hey that is the chef' to a fellow diner, one of the waiters came up behind me and asked if I wanted to meet the chef! Of course!! So he brought me to the chef, told him I was at the chef's table (which is how I discovered why our table was so special) and I blathered on about what a great meal it was and thanked him. I left him with a mention of how clean his kitchen is. I'm sure he was blown away by my eloquence! (Not.)

The menu prices ranged from $15 ish for the starters to $30 and up for the mains (including a really pricey steak). The portions are on the small side and the portions for the chicken, beef and fish were not much bigger than the starter items.

Here are a few pictures from our evening.

Invisible Cities

I had a chance to experience this event with a couple of good friends. This was a 'headphone' opera based on the book by Italo Calvino. The book is a description by Marco Polo to Kublai Khan of various cities in his empire, however the cities he describes are not real, but fantasy places. The opera was took part in the original part of Union Station. The small orchestra was located in (and stayed at) the old restaurant space where the audience started, after picking up our wireless Senneheiser headphones. As we gathered for the start of the opera, the words from the book were being read in Italian. The language is so musical that it made me realize why they invented opera. How could they not put music to such a language.

After a brief introduction (and guidance) by the director Yuval Sharon and a short overture, the audience was then welcome to wander throughout the areas of the station where various parts of the performance were taking place. In addition to the main characters, there were 6 other singers as well as dancers from LA Dance Project. The action took place in the two courtyards on either side of the main hall, in the main hall itself, and in the old ticketing area. The station remained open and commuters and travelers navigated in between the performers and audience members (and the regular homeless people who spend time there).

The performance was a truly eye-opening and amazingly wonderous experience. At first, I followed some of the dancers and focused on them. In my initial wanderings, I would glimpse someone seated in the great hall singing and realize it was a member of the cast (sitting reading a newspaper, or typing as they are singing). Halfway through I realized that the text being projected above the entrance to the train tracks were the lyrics and that they were singing in English. Marco Polo was dressed in a hoodie and backpack and looked like he could have been any random station denizen. Kublai Khan was also dressed in regular street clothes and sitting in a wheelchair. The dancers and choreography were wonderful as were the singers and I loved the music. The opera took about 75 minutes, ending in the old ticket hall. Kublai Khan at this point is dressed in imperial splendour. Before we reentered the ticket hall, there was a giant cloud of smoke hanging in the middle of the air. It retained its shape remarkably and when I walked under it, it smelled like burnt sugar.

After the performance, as the cast did their bows, they were standing not more than 10 feet from us. I was able to talk to one of the dancers on how it felt to dance so close to the audience (challenging and intimidating at first but he became accustomed to it). I also was able to talk briefly to the director and congratulate him on an amazing achievement. My friends Kathleen and Brandi and I sat at the bar afterwards to discuss our experiences (each a little different) and I couldn't help but feel like this was a quintessentially LA experience. I can't wait to see more events by this talented crew.

I was able to take some (flashless) photos during the performance. I actually had to restrain myself from taking more, because the visuals were so striking I kept seeing photos in my mind.

Glow 2013

The all night beach side art festival in Santa Monica has returned. I had an amazing experience a few years ago, where a wonderful variety of art installations used lights, colours and luminescence in some incredible ways. This year's festival had fewer art installations, and the ones that were presented suffered by comparison. Very few of them were totally transcendent, like several of the ones from 2010. Too many of them required standing in line (in 2010, there were definitely lines, but there were also many that involved simply approaching the installation and interacting with it). Some of the more fun pieces this year included a phosphorescent wall where people could pose and have their shadow 'captured', and a series of giant fishing nets hung over a pit dug into the sand with coloured lights shining on it. One artist presented a well with biolumniscent algae that glowed when you dropped coins into it. It was quite beautiful when anything disturbed the water, but most of the time, it was just water and the effect was so short lived. The potential did not seem to have been realized.

Despite the disappointment in the art, this was a really fun evening, with beautiful weather and well behaved hordes of people.  Here are some photos.

Ai Wei Wei at Art Gallery of Ontario

During my trip to Toronto, there was an exhibit of Ai Wei Wei's work at the Art Gallery. I went with Ma and Shih Ah Yi (Aunt Pat). I thought the exhibit was interesting. Some of the pieces felt a little too obvious but most of them were interesting, with quite a few related to the Sichuan earthquake disaster. Ma and Shih Ah Yi both had a different take, being more skeptical of him, and feeling like he was all self promotion.

Here's a link to some photos from Toronto, including the Ai exhibit.

LACMA on Labour Day

I haven't been to the museum all summer. Today I had tickets to experience the James Turrell exhibit, including the Perceptual Cell and Dark Matters. The whole exhibit is mind blowing and disorienting (I was actually a little dizzy from the Perceptual Cell experience). No photos allowed (besides photos would not capture the full experience). The Roden Crater models were really cool, would love to see that some day (if it ever opens to the public).

In the Resnick there were models of the latest ideas for rebuilding LACMA with some super cool models of the new building and site. This plan is by Peter Zumthor, a Swiss architect. The new building would be very open to the outside passerby, which would be amazing (and very LA I think). The model builders included miniatures of existing LACMA art to show the potential.

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.

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).

Nudes at the MFA

I was in Boston visiting D, Julie and the kids during Thanksgiving week, mostly hanging around their neighbourhood, but I did make one trip into Boston to take a look at the Degas exhibit at the MFA. The exhibit is focused on his nudes in various media (pencil, pastel, paint, etc.) and in various periods of his career. The first few items in the exhibit are examples of his academic nude model pencil sketches and they are astonishing in their detail and shading. Most of Degas' nudes aren't depicted showing their faces, being viewed from the back and most of them are in everyday settings, particularly dressing and bathing. One room of the show includes nudes in brothels and are of a more graphic nature than anything I've seen in previous shows. Several of the nude sketches are shown near a final work where you can see the way he has used the sketch in the context of a bigger work. Several sculptures are included of his dancers in various positions, including three versions of one my favourites of a woman contorting herself to look at the bottom of her foot.

The MFA also has a small exhibit on Aphrodite, which is interesting to see in context of the Degas show, as the Greek goddess is a popular nude figure in Western art, and there are many beautiful examples in the show of sculpture, vases etc. that can be contrasted with the more worldly women that Degas depicted. Both of these exhibits is on through early 2012.

The MFA has a beautiful new Art of the Americas wing. A large atrium space with a small restaurant and some contemporary art pieces joins the new wing to the main museum. This atrium space reminds me of a small version of the American Wing at the Met, which is one of my favourite spaces in NYC. The MFA has a terrific collection of American art and to see some of the paintings and other pieces related to Colonial times is particularly appropriate in this city. I didn't spend a lot of time here, but there is much to explore.

Paris, art and movie

I had a Paris weekend in LA!

On Saturday, I went to see the Paris Life & Luxury exhibit at the Getty. We went on Saturday evening, which means the parking is free, and the crowds are smaller. Our picnic lunch came from Bay Cities Deli (order online and avoid the never ending long lines at the counter!) although it was a little chilly to be eating outside. As we were walking to the exhibit building, the sun was setting and the combination of the ominous clouds, the low angle of the sun and the white buildings of the Getty Center was just spectacular. Everyone was lined up at the balcony railings to take it in. The exhibit is a wonderfully coherent way to display a particular way of life at a particular time and place (mid-17th century Paris among the wealthy class). They had paintings, sculpture, furniture and various objects of daily use organized by the routines of the day-bedroom, women's powder room, entertainment room, etc.-which gave meaning to even the smallest object. The level of artistry and craftsmanship is exceptional but what was surprising to me was the interest in science and technology (represented by a microscope and mechanical devices). The curators include sound in some of the rooms with chiming clocks and recorded harpsichord music which adds a lot to the atmosphere.

On Sunday I went to see Woody Allen's new movie, Midnight in Paris, which is on the one hand a love letter to Paris and on the other a cautionary note to avoid living in the past.  Owen Wilson makes for a much more likeable 'nebbishy intellectual' than Woody ever did (at least for me) and the cameos by various luminaries are hilarious. For me, there were so many aspects of visiting Paris that I recognized from my past trips-hanging out on a bridge at night watching the Eiffel Tower light up, walking down random streets with no real aim (although not at midnight), checking out the book seller stalls along the Seine, and totally getting caught up in the cities illustrious past.

Paris is certainly a more beautiful city than Los Angeles could ever pretend to be, but on Saturday night as we were leaving the Getty, we got a view that is essentially LA-a clear night and the lights in the LA basin are sparkling with the ocean just beyond and a crescent moon darting behind the clouds. It's good to appreciate the past, but there's a lot to enjoy about the present, as well.

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.

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.

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.