You Can Sing While I Drive
Aug. 30th, 2004 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jlhThe Drives
Monday, after a quick lunch, I drove C up Lincoln, down Wilshire to Highland, and up HIghland, where we spotted a Gap and C said, let's stop, I need shorts. So we turn onto Hollywood and park in a lot and I realize suddenly where we are, as we walk past Graumann's. But you know, C and I are from a vacation area, so we're not so much with the tourists. The engraved glass at the Kodak Theater for the Oscar winning films is pretty cool though. All the past awards you see as you walk in, but as you walk out you can see empty slots for future films through 2071. Other than that, though, the Kodak is pretty boring, as it is a mall, with a theater in it.
We drove home along Sunset and then down the PCH, and the entire time C was exclaiming and freaked out the way one is the first time one sees LA. There is simply nothing to prepare you for how sublime it is. (I personally am a easterner through and through and prefer the beauty of New England to the sublimity of the West, but that's a personal thing.)
Tuesday C drove us out to Pasadena and we spent the afternoon wandering about the Huntington Gardens. The desert garden was amazing, as was the Japanese, but I really loved the Australian part, as I am a forest primeval sort of girl. Also, I had been in the sun of the desert garden far too long and unfortunately got a little heatstrokey, so I spent the drive back to LA sipping a yogurt smoothie.
Wednesday C and I plotted out a long drive in the canyons, which I have to say, completely freaked me out. I am very afraid of heights and spent most of the ride up the canyon in silent terror, except at one point when C pulled over to an overlook and had to rev up a little bit to get over the slight lip at the road edge and I screamed bloody murder. It's a good thing he's used to me, is all I can say. Then we went through Calabasas (which I dearly love as it is so pretty with the horse farms and all) and then drove down Ventura through the Valley (because Chris had to see it to believe it) before hopping the 405 and heading back to D's place. After a little bit of a rest, we walked along the beach in Venice down to the pier, but you know, C and I grew up in a beach community and it's funny how very much they are the same anyplace you go.
Thursday, C and I drove to Palm Springs, which was totally worth the admittedly long drive. C and I grew up in the country, after all, and we are used to long drives to get someplace—our entire friendship is about being in a car and hey, at least LA radio is halfway decent. The desert landscape and the mountains around us were spectacular. We cruised around and saw many, many fabulous moderne homes, though unfortunately some of them were obscured by fences (happily, the fences were also in a moderne style). I have to say, I was surprised that Frank Sinatra lived right in the center of town, on a fairly nondescript street. We ate lunch at the kind of restaurant that your grandparents take you to and had some comfort food and a lot of diet coke, and then drove around some more, including up to the base of the tramway, a good 2600 ft up from the sea-levelish of the rest of the town.
About the drive on the 10 to get to Palm Springs I have little to say. I know that most towns do not present their best fronts to the freeway, and I mean no disrespect by this, particularly as I grew up in a town whose only claim to fame is, "Gateway to the Lakes Region" (aka, the last big supermarket/WalMart before your camp site/lake house), but I found Covina, despite its 5 exits, had very little to recommend it.
But oh, the radio! We tuned into classic rock and 80s stations and some soft rock and a bit of rap, and of course NPR which happily you can find anyplace. We were listening along to a fairly innocuous modern rock song where the singer was talking about how much he adored someone or other, and then the next song started, another generic rocker, and I heard the word "praise" and turned to C and said, "Do you know what we're listening to? This is Christian rock!" It doesn't seem to have changed much since I last heard it in high school. It's rather unoriginal musically, and because all the songs are about the same thing, in the same way, it can get monotonous really quickly. Just not my thing.
Friday C and I went into town to LACMA and the Petersen Automotive Museum. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed and underwhelmed by the Petersen museum, as it was neither concentrated nor comprehensive but really just a private collection with a lot of corporate sponsorship stuff added in, and felt disjointed to me. LACMA was wonderful, as we looked mostly at post-1960 art, including the Beyond Geometry exhibit which was so cool. I really loved it, especially the works that were meta, like one series of photographs that came with its own "museum text" or a tapestry that had a plaque that talked about the "history" of the tapestry. There was also a white room covered with words—talk about interacting with the text!
Saturday after D returned from dropping C at the airport, we drove up a completely beautiful road off Sunset, one of the most gradual canyons I've seen and the first place, really, that I could ever imagine living around LA. It was a wonderful last drive.
Monday, after a quick lunch, I drove C up Lincoln, down Wilshire to Highland, and up HIghland, where we spotted a Gap and C said, let's stop, I need shorts. So we turn onto Hollywood and park in a lot and I realize suddenly where we are, as we walk past Graumann's. But you know, C and I are from a vacation area, so we're not so much with the tourists. The engraved glass at the Kodak Theater for the Oscar winning films is pretty cool though. All the past awards you see as you walk in, but as you walk out you can see empty slots for future films through 2071. Other than that, though, the Kodak is pretty boring, as it is a mall, with a theater in it.
We drove home along Sunset and then down the PCH, and the entire time C was exclaiming and freaked out the way one is the first time one sees LA. There is simply nothing to prepare you for how sublime it is. (I personally am a easterner through and through and prefer the beauty of New England to the sublimity of the West, but that's a personal thing.)
Tuesday C drove us out to Pasadena and we spent the afternoon wandering about the Huntington Gardens. The desert garden was amazing, as was the Japanese, but I really loved the Australian part, as I am a forest primeval sort of girl. Also, I had been in the sun of the desert garden far too long and unfortunately got a little heatstrokey, so I spent the drive back to LA sipping a yogurt smoothie.
Wednesday C and I plotted out a long drive in the canyons, which I have to say, completely freaked me out. I am very afraid of heights and spent most of the ride up the canyon in silent terror, except at one point when C pulled over to an overlook and had to rev up a little bit to get over the slight lip at the road edge and I screamed bloody murder. It's a good thing he's used to me, is all I can say. Then we went through Calabasas (which I dearly love as it is so pretty with the horse farms and all) and then drove down Ventura through the Valley (because Chris had to see it to believe it) before hopping the 405 and heading back to D's place. After a little bit of a rest, we walked along the beach in Venice down to the pier, but you know, C and I grew up in a beach community and it's funny how very much they are the same anyplace you go.
Thursday, C and I drove to Palm Springs, which was totally worth the admittedly long drive. C and I grew up in the country, after all, and we are used to long drives to get someplace—our entire friendship is about being in a car and hey, at least LA radio is halfway decent. The desert landscape and the mountains around us were spectacular. We cruised around and saw many, many fabulous moderne homes, though unfortunately some of them were obscured by fences (happily, the fences were also in a moderne style). I have to say, I was surprised that Frank Sinatra lived right in the center of town, on a fairly nondescript street. We ate lunch at the kind of restaurant that your grandparents take you to and had some comfort food and a lot of diet coke, and then drove around some more, including up to the base of the tramway, a good 2600 ft up from the sea-levelish of the rest of the town.
About the drive on the 10 to get to Palm Springs I have little to say. I know that most towns do not present their best fronts to the freeway, and I mean no disrespect by this, particularly as I grew up in a town whose only claim to fame is, "Gateway to the Lakes Region" (aka, the last big supermarket/WalMart before your camp site/lake house), but I found Covina, despite its 5 exits, had very little to recommend it.
But oh, the radio! We tuned into classic rock and 80s stations and some soft rock and a bit of rap, and of course NPR which happily you can find anyplace. We were listening along to a fairly innocuous modern rock song where the singer was talking about how much he adored someone or other, and then the next song started, another generic rocker, and I heard the word "praise" and turned to C and said, "Do you know what we're listening to? This is Christian rock!" It doesn't seem to have changed much since I last heard it in high school. It's rather unoriginal musically, and because all the songs are about the same thing, in the same way, it can get monotonous really quickly. Just not my thing.
Friday C and I went into town to LACMA and the Petersen Automotive Museum. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed and underwhelmed by the Petersen museum, as it was neither concentrated nor comprehensive but really just a private collection with a lot of corporate sponsorship stuff added in, and felt disjointed to me. LACMA was wonderful, as we looked mostly at post-1960 art, including the Beyond Geometry exhibit which was so cool. I really loved it, especially the works that were meta, like one series of photographs that came with its own "museum text" or a tapestry that had a plaque that talked about the "history" of the tapestry. There was also a white room covered with words—talk about interacting with the text!
Saturday after D returned from dropping C at the airport, we drove up a completely beautiful road off Sunset, one of the most gradual canyons I've seen and the first place, really, that I could ever imagine living around LA. It was a wonderful last drive.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-29 09:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-31 04:14 pm (UTC)Why did you mock them?
no subject
Date: 2004-08-31 06:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-30 01:44 am (UTC)I came across your LJ while LJ-friends-friends-hopping. I live in the area you toured when you visited Southern California, and I gotta say, you're the first to see the Kodak for what it is: a mall with a theater.
On a sadder note, your observation on Covina is pretty right on. Stores close in that town 9ish, at the latest. My significant other lives there, bless his night-owl, city-dwelling heart.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-31 04:07 pm (UTC)It's funny, I didn't even realize it was the Kodak Theater because we totally saw the mall first.
Your SO is in Covina? Man, that must be a haul on a regular basis.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-01 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-30 06:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-31 04:08 pm (UTC)