Donna in Hollywoodland

The blog from Los Angeles and Hollywood by Donna Grayson

Saturday, October 08, 2005


Grand Ave Street Festival


I met two friends at Kabuki Restaurant on Sunset and Vine for lunch.

I did Sushi, tho I have to idea if raw fish is on my anti-cancer diet or not. And I warned my friends that as far as Sushi goes, I am a messy eater. I don't do
chopsticks. And a fork and knife are too weird with sushi. So it is basically the
finger method. My friends were okay with it.

We were expecting some other friends to meet us there. But when I called one friend, she was still in her pajamas and just getting on-line to check her emails.
So I said "Okay, we'll meet up with you in Downtown LA "

We walked over to the Los Angeles Metro station on Hollywood and Argyle.
And hopped on the subway into downtown LA.
LA Metro

It was only a few blocks to Grand Ave Street Festival
It was all right in the shadow of the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
We met up with a friend of one of my friends. And got some programs and maps and started to walk around.

Disney Concert Hall
Disney Concert Hall
Grand Ave Street Festival

The schedule had numerous things happening : classical music, drum circles, dance lessons, tours of the cathedral and more.
Trying to decide what to do was difficult. We couldn't seem to agree on anything.
Finally, we decided to spilt. The two guys went in one direction, and the two girls went in another.
I think the guys ended up sitting in on one of the drum circles.

My friend and I weren't really sure what we wanted to do. We had thought since it would be a street festival, there would be booths with clothes and jewelry - but there were none. So, going Shopping was out.

Then we came to the museum of Contemporary Art . We walked around the courtyard, my friend saying how she wanted to see the Basquiat Exhibit .
I said "Well, lets ask them if there is anything going on that is part of the street festival."

I went up to the Boxoffice, and the ticket person said the Basquiat Exhibit was free !
We got our little stickers that said "MOCA", stuck 'em on ourselves and got in line. Luckily, we got there when the line was still relatively short.

We walked around the exhibit looking at all the weird abstract paintings. I didn't take me long to tire out.
The Bangles last night, and now walking around a festival and museum. It wasn't long before I was sitting down where ever I could.
We went into the room downstairs where they were showing a video taped interview with Basqiuat. It was very interesting, but I started to fall asleep. There was an elderly Japanese lady sitting next to me. She was sleeping too. Then she started to snore.
That woke me up.
I wouldn't want anyone else who was there to think it was me snoring.

After the video, we hit the Gift shop. I bought a Basquiat covered journal and a Basquiat refrigerator magnet. I would have loved a Basquiat coffee mug, but they didn't make any.
Poor Basquiat - he died so young, just as his fame was starting. And now some one else is making money off of his refrigerator magnets. So sad.

Museum of Contemporary Art
MOCA Sculpture
MOCA Fountain


We headed back to Grand Ave to get a bite to eat. There was a row of tents with a sign saying "A Taste of Downtown LA".
Now I don't know what you consider "A Taste of" - but this wasn't it for me. You could purchase samples for between $3 to $8 from the row of restaurants.
But I already know what a mini-hamburger tastes like - along with most of the boring food offered there - so why offer it at an event called "A Taste of".
And how many times have I eaten at the chain California Pizza Kitchen - they are good, but I don't need a "taste". Been there, done that.

Only one place Noe Restaurant offered something exciting and different. Gingered Butternut Squash Soup - so unbelievably Yummy ! And some other little dumpling thing that was also incredibly good.
My friend got the little mini-hamburgers. Yawn.

Grand Ave Street Festival

A funny thing happened. As we were walking up and down the tents, my friend pointed to one of the posted menus saying something like "Oh, they have such-and-such to eat."
A women ran up to her right away "Hey, I saw you pointing at me. I'll consider it a compliment."
My friend said "No, I was pointing to the Menu they have posted up".
The women didn't pay attention, instead rattling on about how complemented she was that my friend pointed to her.
We got away from her as quickly as possible.

By the time we were done eating, alot of the events were shutting down. We called the two guys on the cell phone.
They met up with us. Yes, they had gone to a Drum circle.
It turned out that the guy who rode up with us on The Metro, didn't plan to go back. He was staying in Downtown LA for a movie.
As we were leaving, we both agreed we should have gotten there at least two hours earlier so we could have done more things.
And we started talking about maybe catching a movie back in Hollywood.
Yeah, I had energy for a movie.

LA Metro Station

First we had to navigate the Metro system without our friends help.
The few times I have been without a car in LA, I have always bought a monthly bus pass. I really didn't have to deal with the token machines.
Its "select your ticket choice first, insert money second".
Well, we were trying to put in the money first - and we thought the machines had been jammed with slugs.
We were panicking. My friend was frantic "We'll just get on the train, and hope there are no police."
I said "I'm not doing that - its like a $200 fine."
My friend was almost hysterical "Well, how are we going to get home."

Finally a woman walked up to the machines, and helped us insert our money.
My friend is blond. If I was still blond, I could definitely make a dumb blond joke at our own expense.

Once back in Hollywood, we walked over to Arclight Cinemas .
And we saw Capote .
It was a really good historical film, about the writing of In Cold Blood .
Philip Seymour Hoffman is outstanding.


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