Sunbathing, Mansion-Dwelling Turtles Are Kinda Cute

This week was very relaxing. I reconnected with a friend from high school and hung out with some friends in Huntington Beach. Not as much sightseeing this week, but in mid-July I walked around the grounds of Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. Lots of famous movies have been filmed here, including Ghostbusters, Charlie’s Angels, Austin Powers, X-Men, and The Big Lebowski.


The mansion itself is only open for special events, so I was only allowed to walk around the gardens surrounding the house itself. It was pleasantly warm and sunny out (a plus of living in California rather than New York) and the gardens were beautiful. I was able to walk up to the mansion and I peeked inside the windows. I couldn’t really see much, but it looked empty and like there was some refurbishing being done. Through the windows opposite me, I saw another couple of people trying to squint to see what was inside. It must have been difficult, seeing as the windows looked opaque. Points for trying, though.


In the garden right next to the mansion, I saw several turtles in a stone-enclosed pond. I hadn’t seen them the first time I passed the pond, but on my way to look at a sculpture more closely, it was a pleasant surprise to find them there. A few were swimming around the water, but two others were floating around, enjoying the sun with sleepy expressions on their faces, their eyes half-closed. The sunbathers stared at me with mild interest but were too comfortable to care much. It seemed the pond turtles were enjoying the California weather, too.

Both parking and wandering around the gardens were absolutely free, and it was a very enjoyable way to spend a summer afternoon.

My sister is coming to stay with me this weekend! I’m excited to show her where I live and all of the things to do around me.

Crafts + Hollywood

This weekend was beautiful out (yet again ☺). When I was in New York, I wouldn’t be able to sit still when it was nice outside. I always knew that snow or rain or extreme humidity and cold could be around the corner. I never have to worry about that in California. Even if it does rain (for the, like, two days it does out of the year), there are always plenty of other perfectly pleasant days to enjoy yourself outside.


On Saturday, I went to the Renegade Craft Fair at Los Angeles State Historic Park. Both the fair and parking were free, just how I like it. I don’t know about you, but I could spend hours looking around Etsy’s website. I like the love and care that gets put into handmade goods and I always feel good about supporting independent artisans. Of course, Etsy was at the fair, as well as several other local artisans. I liked the Social Grace Designs booth in particular for their delicate, pretty necklaces. There were also lots of other workshops and demonstrations going on.

On Sunday, I headed up to Hollywood and Highland for the “Walk the Walk” festival, celebrating the Hollywood Walk of Fame’s 50th anniversary. Throughout four locations on Hollywood Boulevard, there were a variety of events, including live entertainment and free tours. I was able to tour two theaters, the Egyptian and the Kodak for free. Normally, these two tours would have cost me $20 together. The Kodak tour was one of the last ones allowed before the stage and main theater are closed for renovations. Cirque du Soleil is moving to L.A. and creating a new show based on Hollywood history, and they’re currently retrofitting the stage for their show, to open in September 2011. My sister loves Cirque du Soleil but has never seen them live. She was very excited when I told her. Now I know what to get her for a holiday present!


While I was waiting for the tour of the Egyptian Theatre to begin, I was listening to an 80s cover band, called The Deloreans. I think cover bands are usually pretty hit-or-miss, but these guys were really good. The lead singer was very enthusiastic, jumping down from the platform to interact with people in the crowd. I just had to take a picture.

All in all, attending the festival only cost me $4.95 ($2 for parking and $2.95 at Auntie Anne’s to get my ticket validated). Not bad for hours of entertainment.

Oh Come, All Ye Poor L.A. County Residents

Isn’t it awesome when simply being a resident of California gets you in someplace for free? On weekdays after 5 pm, L.A. County residents get free general admission to all of the L.A. County Museum of Art’s permanent galleries and non-ticketed exhibitions. Since I live nearby, I figured I’d have myself an evening full of (free!) art.

The last time I visited LACMA was in high school, for a school field trip. Walking through the museum, I only recognized the courtyard behind the Ahmanson Building. That made me a little nervous, since at 26 I shouldn’t have trouble remembering things. But no, the change in appearance is actually the result of a ten-year expansion and renovation project known as the Transformation. (Whew!)

Now, I’m a word person, so the appreciation of art can sometimes be beyond me, especially when it comes to contemporary art. But as I’d never seen the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, which was part of the expansion, I wanted to check it out. There were definitely some interesting pieces. I liked Balloon Dog (Blue) by Jeff Koons, which was absolutely huge, as well as a series of plates by Jasper Johns, in which he used catenaries as points of reference. (A catenary is a curve formed by wire, rope, or chain hanging freely from two points. I like to look words up in the dictionary, what can I say ☺.)


My favorite section of LACMA is the Ahmanson Building, which houses the European art. Besides all of the usual lovely suspects, there was an exhibition on the mythological and cultural sources of Wagner’s operas. I love mythology and so was very interested in this exhibition. One particular section was devoted to Achim Freyer’s vision of the Ring Cycle, as put on by the Los Angeles Opera. The displayed costumes were as strange as I’d remembered them to be, having seen one and a half of these operas at L.A. Opera. (Yes, I left during the intermission of one of the operas. But I can explain. Really.)

Since my dad loves opera (he was even a semi-professional opera singer at one point!), he has season tickets to L.A. Opera and I’ve been lucky enough to go to several operas with him. I love listening to the music, and my “ear” has even improved, but I am always interested in the story (a hazard of being a bookworm). When I heard Wagner’s Ring Cycle was based on Norse mythology, I was really excited. But, as I found out, you have to be a serious opera lover to love Wagner. His works tend to be really long, and German, when sung, tends to sound harsh to the ear (exception: The Magic Flute). Combine all of that with Achim Freyer’s extremely abstract set design and costuming, and I found L.A. Opera’s Ring Cycle to be inaccessible. Though I do admire L.A. Opera for taking a risk (after all, my favorite opera was an adaptation of the Old English epic Beowulf).

Even though I’m not a big fan, learning about the inspiration for Wagner’s works was really interesting. The Wagner exhibition at LACMA runs through August 16th.

Shakespeare in the Park

Last Thursday, I saw a free production of Othello at Griffith Park. Not only was the performance free, but the parking was free, too (no small thing to an Angeleno). The play is part of the annual Shakespeare Festival put on by the Independent Shakespeare Co. Previously held at Barnsdall Park, Othello marked the festival’s debut at Griffith Park.

Somehow, throughout my entire English-major career and Shakespeare-loving existence, I have never read Othello or seen it performed live. My only contact with the play (I cringe to admit this) was the teen-oriented “adaptation” O. I have no defense for myself except this: I thought Josh Hartnett was the hottest thing ever.

Unsurprisingly, the ISC’s production of the original play was much better. My favorite performance was David Melville, who played Iago and who also happens to be a co-founder of the ISC. I’ve always thought of Iago as this really evil guy, but Melville’s Iago seemed more light-hearted than I expected. Sure, he’s still jealous, scheming, and manipulative, but hardly sinister, many times playing lines for laughs (though he earned plenty of good-natured “boos” from the audience along the way). Still, I enjoyed Melville’s performance a lot and am excited to see him play Benedick in the company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing (one of my favorite Shakespeare plays) in August.

Performances are at 7 pm, Thursdays through Sundays. Othello will be playing until August 1st and Much Ado begins August 5th.

L.A. for Free/Dirt Cheap

When you think about it, not having a job isn’t so bad. You get to sleep in, miss rush-hour traffic, and you don’t have to deal with any coworkers. It’s not having any money that kinda, well, stinks. But part of moving back from Book Publishing Central (aka New York) means I currently have no job.

So, for now at least, I will have to rediscover L.A. on a very, very, very low budget. And when I say “low,” I mean free.

But I’m not discouraged. Before I moved to New York, I bought a book about free things to do in NYC and made sure to get on the mailing list of every cultural organization I could. When you’re on the lookout for things to do, you’d be surprised what you can find that’s free or cheap. So I have my book about free things to do in L.A. and am all signed up on mailing lists.

And so far, I’m finding a lot of stuff. So I’ll be chronicling it all here, for you, my dear nonexistent readers :)

Settling In

Things have been so crazy since I’ve been back! All of a sudden, there are all these people to hang out with. It’s nice! Throw in a trip to Vegas (Chippendales=amazingness), a Grease sing-a-long, apartment hunting, 4th of July weekend, and South Pacific at the Ahmanson and I’ve had a full month! This has all been amazingly fun, and now that I’ve found a sublet for the summer near Miracle Mile, I’ll be in the thick of it. I promise to post again soon!