Meet Me At 3rd and Fairfax

After my Museum Row adventure, I had to hunker down and get some reading done for work.  Parks are always nice for sitting around and reading on a beautiful afternoon, so I headed over to the Pan Pacific Park across the street from The Grove.  I started looking it up in my guidebook, but found that the only place it is even mentioned is on one of the maps.  I quickly understood why.  This is a park that has clearly been neglected since it became completely overshadowed by the massive Grove and Farmers Market next door.  The grass grows in chunks, leaving sections of dirt and dust.  While kids play sports and families gather, the quality of the grounds is fairly abysmal, limited to a couple picnic tables and scattered rocks to lean on.

Once I had enough of flicking ants off my legs, I decided to head over to the Farmer's Market for something refreshing.  Now this is actually in the LP guide, as it well should be.  The Farmer's Market is one of the best places in LA to casually eat anything you can think of.  While it is barely a farmer's market anymore (despite the signs outside listing the cost of fresh fish and vegetables), it has some of the best Mexican, Mediterranean and Brazilian food in the nearby neighborhoods.  I found a great stand that offered fresh fruit smoothies (not the Jamba Juice variety that is a glorified milkshake with fruit) and headed over to the attached mall, The Grove.

While The Grove is technically an outdoor mall, it much more resembles a grown up Disneyland.  It has streets with trolleys carting people from one end to the other, with sidewalks leading to the various restaurants, shops and movie theatres.

In the center, a massive fountain dances to music.  The fountain was designed by the same designer as the famed fountain in front of the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas.

I will say, this was a bit harder to look at as a tourist, as I spend quite a bit of time at The Grove.  It's one of my favorite places to see a movie, grab dinner or buy a book (see: http://lonelylosangeles.blogspot.com/2010/06/lonely-and-sparse-planet-guide-to-los.html).  While it doesn't have the best variety of shops for a day at the mall, it does have destination stores including the Apple Store, Crate and Barrel, Nordstroms and Anthropologie.

Because of what a popular destination The Grove is, I was shocked to see that it barely even got a mention in the section about the Farmer's Market.  I truly think it deserves it's very own paragraph, encouraging tourists to see how LA has reimagined the mall experience.

TIP: On July 13th, the Farmer's Market will be joining together for a one night event called Taste of Farmer's Market.  They will be selling tickets, starting at $25 that allows you to try the food at the various stands.  Some ticket levels also include booze if you want to get your friends together. http://www.farmersmarketla.com/store/ProductDetail.asp?idCategory=14

TIP: For the Karaoke lover, Wednesday nights are Karaoke night at the Farmer's Market.

LACMA (or how I found the Craft & Folk Art Museum)

 On Wednesday, I had lunch scheduled with a friend who had recently left her job to prepare to start her MBA and decided that lunch would be much better served over art than at Jerry's Deli.  I proposed the idea of hitting up LACMA, which she quickly agreed to.

I checked my Lonely Planet guide to see if it recommended anything at LACMA, since I haven't been there since the early months of the Broad Contemporary Arts wing a couple years ago.  It was pretty much a basic description of the museum until I got to this interesting tidbit of information that really enlightened me:

"Opening in early 2008, it includes a new entry pavilion and the Broad Contemporary Art Museum...."

What?! 2008?!?!?!?!  Is this a guidebook from the 90s?  I shut the book and make my way to LACMA to see what is new on my own.

I find my friend and we search high and low for admissions, but find nothing resembling a ticket booth.  Finally we make our way into the Broad wing and find an information table. The only odd thing is that other than some security, we don't see any patrons.  I know that LA is not exactly the cultural epicenter of the world, but NOBODY is at the biggest museum in the city on a Wednesday afternoon?  Once we ask the information booth how to buy tickets we realize why.  The museum is closed on Wednesdays (what museum is closed on Wednesdays? Isn't Monday the industry standard for closures?) and it is only open for a private event that is currently lunching downstairs.

We make our way out and decide to consult our LP guide to see what would have been cool to check out in 2007.  But first, I check to see if it lists days and hours for LACMA.  Turns out had I consulted the book (and trusted it) I would have found out about the museum's strange mid-week shut down.  Anyhow, we find that we have a choice of the Peterson Automotive Museum, the Architecture & Design Museum, the Page Museum at the Tar Pits and the Craft & Folk Art Museum.  A&D it is!

Nope.  It's closed.  Not just on Wednesdays, but indefinitely for renovations.  I guess it's rare that it would ever be open, considering the penchant these artists have for remodeling.

We both like arts and crafts so to the Craft and Folk Museum we went!  It actually ended up being very cool.  Since my friend is starting school soon and we looked poor and pathetic, we maneuvered student admission prices of a whopping $3.  I paid for both of us, because I'm so generous. The museum was 3 small floors, one or two rooms each, of modern art made from suitcases, wine corks, bowling pins and wire.  It was actually very inspiring to see that you can make art really from anything you were planning on throwing out with your trash.

Our adventure ended up being more exciting than planned. While we missed LACMA, we found a museum we would never have considered going to before and became inspired by all the different ways art can be created. Lonely Los Angeles trip #1 was a failure and a huge success.

TIP:  If you are heading to Museum Row, forgo lunch at Marie Callenders or at one of the museums and instead, hit up one of the gourmet food trucks that line the streets.  Everything from Hot Dogs to Organic and Vegetarian fair are available.  You can find them starting one block east of the LACMA entrance continuing about 3 blocks east.

The Lonely (and sparse) Planet Guide to Los Angeles

DISCLAIMER!!!! I apologize for being days behind. While I am posting Thursday, I am writing for Tuesday...

So, pretending that today is actually Tuesday:

Today, I went to the Barnes and Noble at The Grove (which I had assumed would be a major location to check off in the guide book once I got it) to find my brand new 2010 Lonely Planet Guide to Los Angeles, that would be very clearly on display in the travel book section.

Boy was I wrong...

First of all, I found the travel section easily on the top floor (3) and there was a whole wall devoted to California. Despite my efforts, I couldn't find one goddamn Lonely Planet Guide to Los Angeles. There was the LP California Coast, LP San Francisco, LP California (State), but not one guidebook for LA. Not one. In fact I couldn't find any LA guide books until a helpful employee pointed me to a table for LA guidebooks. Once again... no LP book for LA. Finally, someone thinks to mention that on the first floor, RIGHT as you walk in, there is also a wall dedicated to Los Angeles travel books. Well, that made no sense. Why do we need a table AND a wall for the same thing, have different things on either one and then put them as far away from each other as possible. I venture back down to where I came in and there it was. I finally find that there isn't a book specific to Los Angeles, but rather Los Angeles & Southern California. This is not what I want, but I am so frustrated and late for a movie, that I just suck it up and buy it.

Los Angeles & Southern California (Regional Guide)

Excited for my brand new guidebook, I open it up, expecting to see big pretty pictures and colorful descriptions, only to find a book full of lists. Granted these lists have short descriptions, but those are pretty much dedicated to pertinent information, not the secrets of LA's most interesting locales.

It was then that I realized I wouldn't just be relaying my personal experience, but I would be adding the most important details to the guide: the flavor, the sauce, the secrets, the hits, the misses, the essence.

I hope you appreciate me!

The Summer Solstice

Today, I took a second to think about the fact that it's the longest day of the year when it occurred to me that this day also marked a year since I kicked bad drinking and bad men (no, you horny devils, this does not mean that I am now into bad girls, I'm just not into BAD men anymore). That is a story in itself that with some time and trust, perhaps I will share some of those sordid details with you (yes, I am a tease). But anyhow, I realized as the seasons changed, so did I. And since I did something big last year, why not do it again this year!

Since the last summer solstice (the SS), I spent quite a bit of the past year traveling the world (a solo trip to Spain, a romantic jaunt to France, lunch in Hyde Park, London and a wedding in Jamaica), visiting the greatest museums (oh the Pompideau) and the most historic monuments (seriously, when will La Segrada Familia ever be completed?), making a point to hit every site in the travel books, and yet have completely neglected so much about the very city I live in (Well, I did go to three museums in LA in the last year, but that is besides the point).

Being a New York native and a Los Angeles transplant, I have always said the difference between the two is that in NY you are inundated by so many options and have to pick and choose which path you carve for yourself. However, in Los Angeles, it's a blank canvas: you have access to all the different paints, but you have to make a choice if you want oils or pastels, trendy club kid or nature loving vegan. LA takes work.

The other thing about the land of the angels is that it's also the loneliest city in the world. It's like the painting, there's potential friends and love interests everywhere, but you have to go find them, test them on a canvas for a bit and then decide if you want to create your painting with them. Even once you get your amazing friends, your significant other and start your new family, it's somehow still lonely. Try getting to your friends: you sit in a car and drive for 20 minutes... alone. Try walking to the neighborhood cafe: you'll walk down a street and you'll be walking on that very sidewalk... alone.

LA gets a bad rap. People always say it takes two years to feel at home here. For some people it takes more. Some don't even make it that long to find out, but when it becomes home, it can really be your mix and match paradise, tailored specifically for you.

So with all this in mind, I came up with the idea for Lonely Los Angeles. I am going to be a tourist in my own city this summer. I am going to take the Lonely Planet Guide to Los Angeles and go through it as thoroughly as I possibly can before the weather gets bleak again (ie below 70 and sunny). I want to see the city for what it really is; see what a tourist sees in 5 days, that I've missed in 8 years. Maybe then, I won't just have an idea of who I am within this great world, but I'll know who I am within the city that has shaped my post-collegiate years. I hope you guys enjoy this journey with me and maybe even learn a few things about LA yourselves along the way.