Random LA

Some shots taken during an outing to see the reclusive genius Jeff Mangum perform at The Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles.

Dinner was at this venerable LA institution, 104 years young.

 no clove Life Savers available to save my life

 umm

 the old United Artists Theater on Broadway

 Eastern Columbia building

 show venue

 outside an adjacent building

 Orpheum lobby lighting

 grand old theater

Unfortunately no videos of the show, recording (and photography) was strictly verboten and the seats were a bit too far up for the iPhone to properly capture the intimacy in Jeff's performance.

And a shot taken in a Carlsbad alley. 

LACMA Photos

A few photos taken outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art a few weeks ago.

Field Trip - Los Angeles Natural History Muesum

Last weekend we headed up to LA for a long-overdue field trip. This time we hit the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, located in Exhibition Park near the USC campus.
Founded in 1913 as the Museum of History, Science and Art, the art wing moved to Wilshire Blvd in the early 1960s. Overall it's similar in vein (if much smaller than) Chicago's Field Museum.

Outside is a screened in greenhouse-like structure that is generally used as a butterfly garden. However with Halloween approaching, they kicked out the butterflies and moved in giant spiders. Or maybe they just let the spiders take care of any remaining butterflies...

caged tarantula

Aside from some terrariums near the entrance with poisonous and dangerous spiders, the exhibit's critters were all free to roam. This particular example is from Malaysia. Hand included for perspective.
Yep, it was that large.

cool web

Moving indoors to the land of interactive exhibits, bones and stuffed animals...
...Celeste got to try her hand at assembling some T-Rex bones. Or bone replicas.
Finally she was able to put it all together. Turned out pretty good if you ask me. But I'm biased.
My grrrl is one who can't walk past a museum exhibit without taking in absolutely everything.
That brain of hers is like a sponge.
And most like the Field, the museum dedicates a fair amount of space to dioramas of dead critters, placed in natural-ish settings.

looks like Juno

Allie sure likes bison, especially in burger form

Next up was the new Age of Mammals exhibit, located in the museum's original 1913 building.
A very impressive exhibit talking about 65 million years of evolution. And they had another Juno.
After that we checked out a bug zoo. Here's the grrl examining some beetles.
A few more wings were examined before making the drive back home. Another good day.

Down on the Street - Los Angeles Edition

I've made about a dozen runs up to Electra's L.A.-based photographer over the past year, bringing him two-wheeled goodness for him to work his magic on. All of us at Electra are always blown away on how perfect he makes the bikes look. Cables are consistent, tires have the perfect amount of sheen (not too much, just rich and black) and the colors are 100% true.

One of the fun things for me during these trips is to check out the funky vehicles that are parked around his studio. He has an early Ford Ranchero under cover and there are some odd wheeled movie prop things parked around the complex. Today I spied something new - a scoop of Virgil Exner-penned iron in the form of a 1960 Plymouth Valiant.
Let's zoom in on that cool aluminum grill:
Gotta love the 60's font. That logo would certainly make for a sweet t-shirt.

Need divergent curves? They're available in spades:
Interesting that it's badged as a Suburban...
...especially considering that Chevrolet had been using the marque for 27 years by the time the Valiant debuted.

That roof rack is just begging for a vintage longboard.
One of the best features, not pictured, is the car's venerable Leaning Tower Of Power Slant-6 engine. With it's reputation for longevity, I think I need to add Slant-6-powered car to my list of cars I'll own before I'm dead.

Spring Break: Travel Town Museum, Griffith Park L.A.

After spending a few hours exploring the Griffith Park's Old L.A. Zü, we drove a few minutes north to take in the Travel Town Museum.
Founded in 1952, Travel Town hosts a wide array of locomotives, passenger cars and other rolling stock. Most of the locomotives on display are steam-powered, with one dating back to 1864.
We were quite surprised to find the museum as a free admission area. A few cars and locomotives were open and available for us to climb in and on.

inside the A.T.&S.F. Snack Car #3355 (1928)

Santa Fe logo window detail in #3355

Lots of steam, sadly I lost track of which locomotives are photographed below.

artsy-fartsy black and white
tying the grrrl down to the tracks

I really liked the simple type font on this tender:
And I love the engineer skunk from a California Western locomotive:

I think I'm going to have to make a t-shirt with this logo, too cool!

After we had spent about 45 minutes checking the place out, an announcement on the PA alerted us to mosey on over to the station for a ride on the park's passenger railroad.
The fare was all of $2.50 per person for two trips around the park. So we crammed Celeste into one of the cars:
But she quickly discovered that there was adequate headroom to be found.
Bringing up the rear.
An afternoon well spent.

And now a public service announcement from the museum:

(click here for a definition)