Monthly Archives: April 2012

A Small thought…

Small thoughts 26/04/2012 Leave a comment

I’ve not had any small thoughts lately…

But here’s one.

An artist to watch… Harry Hurlock.

http://www.harryhurlock.com/portfolio/man-with-policeman-victoria-station/

http://www.harryhurlock.com/portfolio/lemons-in-the-sweet-tray/

http://www.harryhurlock.com/portfolio/beauty/

http://www.harryhurlock.com/portfolio/painted-tree-in-forest/

Los Angeles Wednesday 18.04.12

Diary, Home 24/04/2012 Leave a comment

I woke up at six, sensing the end of an adventure perhaps… Left the boy sleeping and, armed with iPad and fags, wandered down to drink tea, and later coffee, and blog at the firepit.

And, perhaps wishing to hold on to the adventure, I overlooked my usual tree-hugger-hash and ate eggs benedict – I’m such a dare-devil – at seven, while the sun rose over the monster downtown skyscrapers. Needless to say, they/it were/was delicious.

Isaac surfaced around eleven and on receiving his inquiring text I returned to our room to pack. We returned to the restaurant for midday, the room vacated, our sweaty and dusty belongings slung haphazardly into our cases, our minds on our last day… and home.

We decided on a ‘bit of culture’ to round off our trip and set off for the LACMA, only to discover it’s closed on Wednesdays. Can you believe it? Why fucking Wednesday? Random? They had such a cool exhibition on too – I’d been looking forward to it all week – In Wonderland – looked amazing. Hey ho… Off to the Getty Museum instead… Oh wow!

But in the mean time, the LACMA, this is just the outside… Imagine the treasures within!

The Rodin Garden… We gazed, like kids outside a sweet shop after closing, through the railings…

And Oh Wow! I’ll say it again. The Getty. Possibly my favourite museum/gallery EVER! Once we’d got there. Phew. They didn’t make it easy and we nearly gave up SO many times and the white- beast-of-bling positively turned blue with my expletives… But finally we wound our way up the hill and parked up and I’m SO glad we persevered. An electric train slunk us silently and stylishly up to the top of the hill and revealed to us the awesome beauty that it is. Mr Getty certainly knew how to flash his dosh, that’s for sure.

It was clean and perfect and white and dazzling, set against the unbelievable (to a brit) blue of the sky. Water bubbled and gurgled and swirled and swooshed cooly and enticingly everywhere. Greenery popped up just when you needed some vegetative respite. Sinuous and sensual bronze sculptures exploded into your vision just when you’d had enough of hard white surfaces and concrete. Plants and trees caught your eye just when you needed solace from intellectual pursuit. God… I loved it.

 

We took in two photography exibitions which were just wonderful.

Herb Ritts LA Style

and

In Focus: Los Angeles 1945-1980

We enjoyed both very much. Very much. Here’s a taster…

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We left, pausing for a last few pics before returning to our car…

 

And then we drove to the airport. We hurriedly emptied and de-fag-butted the car, profusely sprayed around a can of deoderant, crossed our fingers. And then we flew home. And I slept ALL the way. Are you honestly surprised?

So… that’s your lot. Mundanity resumes. And I have got to get down to some proper writing. Stories are knocking at my temples to get out. Poems are rattling at my bones to be given a voice.

See you soon fellow-e-adventurers… Love x

 

Los Angeles Monday 16.04.12 1

Diary, Home 22/04/2012 Comments: 2

And so we packed up… The car was a complete shithole… Isaac emptied it and I tried to sort our stuff into some semblance of order. We dumped the tights… Those useless excuses for sleeping bags. Discovered my magnifying mirror (yes… I did take it with me, completely blind as I am these days…) had melted a long brown scar into the beige leather of the driver’s seat… Oops! Cleared out a bin bag worth of beer and rosé bottles, warm fanta, crisp packets, half eaten burritos and paninis, musty flannels, damp towels, underwear, worn socks, empty fag packets, fag butts, bottle tops etc etc. Discovered we’d left the seat warmers on all night and the battery was dead. Oops again. Asked around and plenty others were in the same boat. A wise group had brought along some jump leads and gradually everyone got going again, as in a chain of goodwill, the ones who’d just been helped, gave a hand to the next.

We said goodbye to our gorgeous, lovely, friendly neighbours, promising to keep in touch – when Facebook actually comes into its own – and we hit the road.

Stopped off for a spot of brunch. We attempted to find a diner and took the slip road into the desert, coming across a diner of sorts, but a closer look told us we’d wandered into a set of True Blood. Terrifying. Isaac promptly suggesting we try American fast food instead and I agreed so we plumped for Burger King – safer possibly, but as horrible as in the UK! only bigger. It tasted OK and felt OK for a while, but later gave us both frightful indigestion. Hey ho… Back on the road and Isaac entertained us with entirely fitting American 60′s and 70′s tracks from Mamas and Papas, Canned Heat, The Doors, Velvet Underground, Neil Young, Talking Heads through to Grouplove. Lovely. And Yay! We were back in LA in no time.
Arriving back at The Standard Downtown, I attempted to climb out of the white-beast-of-bling and realised I’d stiffened up so much I could barely walk. Isaac said he was stiff too, but I know I was stiffer… Sleeping on a blow up bed in the back of a car and standing in a field for four days plays havoc with a fifty year old body… That if nothing else I can vouch for… I was in dire need of a chiropractor…
So it was with heavenly relief that on checking in to the gorgeous Standard the lovely receptionist told us they’d upgraded us to the Penthouse Suite… Free of charge! How utterly heavenly! We couldn’t believe our luck and I shall always be eternally grateful. I liked this hotel before but now I LOVE it! They’d remembered us from earlier and thought we may appreciate the pampering. How right they were.
Goodbye to wrist band, festival hat, shades, grimy feet… Hello to fluffy towels, a bath as big as my dining room table, endless hot water, bubbles and wine…

Our sitting room…

Our bedroom… With its own walk in wardrobe…

Our bathroom, which also had a wet room with two showers and two loos!

Feeling a lot more human and smelling much sweeter, we treated ourselves to a well deserved drink in the roof top bar…

Little and large. So LA. She was fascinating… I stood next to her at the bar and she was about 6’4″ in her heels, the guy a diminutive 5’2″. Such a weird coupling. I sneaked these shots pretending to take the view…

Darkness fell.
We ate in the hotel, too dazed and tired to venture further afield. Enjoyed a lovely little gem and blue cheese salad to start – I so needed some greens – four days eating festival food and I felt like I was about to get scurvy. Another wonderful steak too.
Later sat chilling, smoking and supping wine round the fire pit while a rock band played in the hotel reception. Nice. Life is good.
Slept like the dead. Snored like a pig. Didn’t care a jot! (sorry Isaac) :)

 

Los Angeles Tuesday 17.04.12

Diary, Home 22/04/2012 Comments: 2
Woke up bright and not so early and wandered down to breakfast around ten thirty. I indulged in more tree-hugger-hash-n-eggs and Isaac enjoyed his usual eggs benedict. Just as yum as last time.
We decided to explore Venice Beach. It had been heartily recommended to us by our Coachella chums and I’d never yet visited the area. The drive out was lovely and the weather perfect. And the place did not dissappoint. Lovely hippy vibe, as you would expect.
We parked up and sauntered down the main drag which runs parallel to the sea. It was exactly as I imagined and we started off at ‘Muscle Beach,’ the infamous outdoor gym. It was quiet with no body builders in sight – I guess they start late…
It’s possible for almost anyone to aquire a medical marijuana certificate for on average $40.00. Can’t eat? Eat too much? Can’t sleep? Sleep too much? Can’t breath? Hyperventilate? Addicted to the heat? Can’t stand the heat? The signs are everywhere.
And if, by some strange quirk of fate you can’t get certified… You can buy it off the street…
But the light… Oh! The light…
And the houses… Oh! The houses…
And the cars… Oh! The cars…
And the beach… Oh! The beach…
 And the coffee shops… Oh! The coffee shops…
We both bought 30 incense sticks for $2.00 (and yes… they are incense… ‘onest gov’nor…) And I just had to look up the spelling for insence… shame on me… took me four attempts and each time I knew it was wrong… kept using way too many ‘c’s and ‘s’s.
We wound our way up to Beverley Hills which was a slow and painfully jammed drive, (we were both busting for the loo after that coffee) but we caught some good views and saw a lot of gates and walled gardens.
If you can forget that it’s called The Walt Disney Concert Hall, (home to the LA Philharmonic) you can enjoy it for Frank Gehry’s genius and it’s absolute wonderous beauty. It stopped me at a green light, for what it’s worth, and to me it was worth the honks and irate commuters.
Arrived back at the hotel, finally, after almost running out of gas (see I’ve picked up the lingo pretty quickly…) and almost having to pee in a our Starbucks double walled thermos… 
Quick change and out to Red O, a fantasmagorical Mexican restaurant which I’ve written about before. Drank and ate like Kings and Queens. Truly Scrumptious, especially the tuna and lime ceviche and the crab tortillettes, (my neologism, but that’s what they were…)
And then bed… Our last sleep in LA :(

Coachella! Sunday 15.04.12

Diary, Home 21/04/2012 Leave a comment
Sunday Running Order…
Another glorious day… By far the hottest yet. The car was an oven and man… were we cooking! I went to sleep last night in my black sheepskin gilet on top of a vest, a t shirt, a cashmere jumper, leggings and PJ bottoms and i woke up to long wooly strands of sheep plastered to my cheek and neck. Nice. No doubt about it, I needed another shower. I couldn’t face the freezing drips so went for the ‘posh showers’ at $10 a drench. Worth every cent… Waited in the shade, coffee and water offered, our own private cubicle and dressing area with bath mat, which although squidgy soggy, was still better than the dust and hair encrusted shower trays of yesterday. And the water was hot. Back in the waiting tent I availed myself of the hair dryer and mirror and finally stepped out feeling quite fresh and relatively well groomed.
Everyone’s favourite quote of the week yelled to us… ‘OMG… help me… I’m turning into a giant fishing rod!’ And a young chap fell into our midst completely off his head, spinning and crashing into people, chairs and tents, getting himself caught up in nylon and string, imagining he was stuck under the wing mirror of a car, chucking at us a tiny brightly coloured plastic toy fishing rod with an orange crab hooked onto it before he hurtled off through the campsite like a whirling dervish. He was terrified, poor bugger… An acid trip gone wrong and a real advert for why not to…? Someone help that crazy…
A good strong coffee and another burrito for breakfast from a different stall, which was really good and so full of spicy jalapeños our mouths were now fully awake too.
We wandered in for Metronomy with our Australian friends, suffering again the lengthy queues. My favourite quote of the week shouted to me by a complete stranger… ‘I’m Olly and I’m in route 101 and I like MILFS!’ Made me laugh anyway.
Watched Metronomy, the last half at least, who were great. Love those guys.
People watched again while eating more garlic crab fries and listening to Santigold… One cool woman!
Met up with the crew…
Took in another amazing sunset…

What a pair…

Listened to Gotye from the back of the crowd as the sun sidled behind the mountains.

Watched Beirut from near the front, who were my faves of the weekend after Radiohead. Such brilliant and beautiful music produced from two trumpets, a trombone, drums, an accordion, a double bass, a ukelele and amazing vocal harmonies. I learned they are from Mexico, which I never knew, but made perfect sense. Their wonderful folky tunes always reminded me of Eastern European gypsies, but as soon as they mentioned they were Mexican, it all fell into place.

Took in DJ Shadow. amazing set and lights and moving pictures. Truly spectacular. Really liked this set.

And finally, Snoop Dog and Dr Dre. We got high on the weed filled air as we watched the coming together of some of the most famous names in hip-hop. Among others, Tupak back from the dead, 50 cent, and my highlight… Eminem! Amazing show.

Slow stroll back to the tent along with a hundred thousand other bods and our last night, drinking tea, smoking and chilling with the crew. It’s been amazing and wild and fun and now I’m looking forward to a proper sleep in a proper bed… Hey… Give me a break… The old crow’s not done too bad!

Coachella! Saturday 14.04.12

Diary, Home 20/04/2012 Leave a comment
The morn dawned bright…
Today’s running order…
We woke at I don’t know what time and I wasn’t quite sure how I felt… Certainly very hot, as the sun beat down relentlessly on the two tonnes of white metal that was our bedroom. Tea was required and Isaac did the early morning shift today. V grateful! I sat in the sun for a while just allowing the day to creep in to me, supping and smoking and chatting. We ate a burrito for breakfast – eggs, ripped pork and jalapeños. Slightly odd, but quite restorative. I decided to brave the showers. Only the young and beautiful can get away with being dirty, and being neither, I knew I could put off my ablutions no longer. Queued for twenty minutes and showered in a dripping flow of freezing water. It woke me up for sure. Enjoyed the company of our friends and just chilled for a while. All rather lovely. Discussed what we wanted to do and who we wanted to see today. Nice. Just nice. So nice.

The lovely Allie… Beautiful, self possessed and so effortlessly cool.

She who, like my darling Gaby, could make me wish I’d had a daughter…

So… What did we get up to? We were going to make the effort for Azealia Banks, but we didn’t. We were going to make the effort for the Buzzcocks, but we didn’t. We ended up listening to the Kaiser Chiefs from the fenced confines of the beer garden, which was fun, while we did a spot more people watching. We caught the beginning of Mr Galagher too. Ate more scrummy garlic fries. Talked of life and love and music. What more is there?

Wandered back to our tent to dress warm for the evening and basked in the wonderful California light… And the sunset…

Made it back in for Kasabian and Flying Lotus… Met some interesting peeps in the queue for the loo…

Watched Bon Iver. Beautiful.

I wanted to down load a vid but the internet is just too fucking slow… LATERS… Think I’ve cracked it now…

And then Radiohead. Prime position. Right in the thick of it. Amazing. All I expected it to be. Incredible light show. Every song a different colour. My faves… 15 step. Morning Mr Magpie. Pyramid Song. Myxomatosis. Karma Police. Identikit. Lotus Flower. Final encore… Idioteque… I cried. Isaac nearly fainted. We survived… and stayed for all three encores. One of the best gigs ever. Worth the journey. Worth a lot.

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