Readers for life - #RWA11

Magnet #1222 - Public Library of Los Angeles

A friend sent me this supercool magnet of the art deco Central Library built in 1926 in downtown Los Angeles. It's supposedly the 3rd largest library collection in the US.

Pretty neat seeing it without any major buildings around it. Because this is what it looks like now. Crazy, right, seeing it dwarfed by its glass and steel surroundings?

The library is definitely going on my ever-growing LA to-do list, they give docent tours of the building, which is apparently filled with cool details out the wazoo.

Using it for today because I'm sad I'm not in New York this week for RWA 2011. Tonight's Readers for Life autographing event usually the only night I attend when the Romance Writers of America are in town. It's their big event to benefit literacy, where they fill a giant ballroom of 400 authors and their books, and everyone gets in long lines to get their books signed.

Even if you don't want the autographs, it's always fun to meet your favorite authors and see the latest book they have to offer.

So, someone needs to go for me, and enjoy. Please and thank you.

Bumble forward*

Magnet #1201 - Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall

Ok folks. My list for Things to Do in LA is always so very long, but this building is definitely in my top 3 to visit. I've seen it from afar, but haven't managed to go in...my friend brought this back from their gift shop, though...so yay!

Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall, dedicated in 2003, is the home of the LA Philharmonic, and is arguably one of the coolest buildings around. It's one of Gehry's most recognizable works, and he almost didn't get the gig.

Back in the 1980s, Lillian Disney gave $15 million to help build a world-class performing arts institution to Los Angeles. The Walt Disney Concert Hall committee wasn't on board with Gehry, because at the time, he hadn't done the Bilbao in Spain or any major local work - locals knew him as the guy who had a funny house down in Santa Monica.

In the end, it took Lillian Disney's backing to get the committee on board with using him. Several years later - after much drama (that you can listen to here) - they finally managed to get the supercool building with the curvy-curvy stainless steel exteriors built.

And, bonus, they do tours!



*“You've got to bumble forward into the unknown.”

- Frank Gehry

I just love the quote, because if there's anyone who does that, it's Gehry...crinkling papers to see what shapes he can come up with. Building with materials that don't always exist in nature and have to be custom-built, etc.

Also, it's just a great quote for life, at least for me...given how I seem to be constantly bumbling forward into great unknowns this last calendar year.

To infinity...and beyond!

Magnet #514 - Griffith Observatory

I wonder, if when they built this observatory in the 30s that they knew that mankind would eventually reach the moon. There's something so romantic about a world where we'd barely reached the skies, much less the moon.

Growing up, one of the tall tales mom told me was that the day that mankind landed on the moon (40 years ago, happy anniversary, Apollo 11), she was working on a patient who was coding. They finally revived the patient, but when they told him about the moon landing, the guy went out again.

No lie, I was like 8 or 9 when I heard that story, so I totally believed it. What can I say, I was gullible.

Here's something else I can't believe. For whatever reason, I don't have a NASA magnet. But, we make do.

We visited the Griffith Observatory, named for Griffith J. Griffith (goodness), a few years ago, and I dimly remember walking around in it, but not necessarily taking a tour. It had the musty feel of a National Parks building, with aging glass displays, and 70s typefaces.

Still, it was supercool seeing where the Rebel didn't have a cause, where Paula Abdul and Keanu Reeves shot Rush Rush, and where the Rocketeer and the Autobots rallied to save the day.

While the Getty's good

Magnet #357 - Getty Los Angeles

Hey. Who went to LA and got me this magnet? And why come I didn't come with you to the Getty?

I can't figure out why the Getty hasn't made it on to any of my Los Angeles itineraries. Definitely for next time, because I haven't even taken time to learn anything about it. Just that it has a neat building...

Oh, and from what I heard it has crappy parking.

Oh! And it has either a somewhat creepy TV ad (because I have a thing about inanimate objects being animated), or it's a really good spot - because good art does always stay with you.

So, next time I'm in LA, Getty, I'll be going while the Getty's good.

(Can you tell I'm writing this with my punny sister in the room?)

Here's looking at you, kid

Magnet #63 - Warner Brothers Studios

If you've been keeping up, faithful reader, you know I love tours. Luckily, so does my family. (I should start tagging "tours," just to keep track of how many tours I mention in this blog.)

So, it's no surprise that when one of my sisters had a conference in LA, I dragged two friends of mine across the country, and we stayed with her at the Renaissance Hotel at Hollywood & Highland. We spent all week doing studio tours, walking tours, movie star tours and self-guided driving tours.

But, out of all those tours, the Warner Brothers Studios tour is the best - hands down. It's actually quite possibly my favorite tour in the entire world - ever. Not surprisingly, I've done it twice. But, there's the regular tour. And then...there's the superduperawesome Deluxe VIP tour.

Well, it wasn't so much VIP, as much as they were able to charge us like $140 for an extra couple of hours on top of the regular tour - it's like 5 hours! Brilliant! For anyone who loves movie history, who loves Warners, who loves being in a place where so much was filmed, and where so many great actors have walked, this is the tour for you.

Some highlights, in no particular order:

• Eating in the WB commissary. Could not tell you how the food tasted, don't even remember ordering, but the atmosphere was fab. Plus, even though you know it's just the regular WB employees chowing down, it doesn't stop you from actually looking for someone famous.
• Saying "Lookit that boob driving that golf cart like a crazy person!" It was Timothy Busfield.
• Sitting through some of the sound edit of Mr. & Mrs. Smith - the elevator scene where Angelina blowed up Pitt.
• Extra time in the WB museum. They have a wonderful museum full of Warners memorabilia including letters from Ronald Reagan and Clint Eastwood, (when we were there) a whole The WB retrospective, and a superawesome Harry Potter room. (I was a Slytherin under the Sorting Hat. They let me get re-sorted into Hufflepuff.)
• Freaking out over Clooney's parking spot. Freaking out even more when a car approached and parked in it. It was Grant Heslov, his producing partner...close, but no cigar.
• Wandering the costumes and props warehouses.
• Wandering around the vaults, and seeing the art department at work.
• Wandering around Gilmore Girls' Stars Hollow, visiting Lorelai's house, Suki's house, the Kims, the Gazebo and Luke's.
• Wandering around ER's County General Hospital in fake Chicago.
• Visiting Friends' Central Perk, standing behind the bar where Gunther served coffee, and sitting on the sofa.

Seriously. I dare you to tell me of a better tour for an entertainment-phile like me. And yes, we're planning on doing it again...once a new show has firmly ensconced themselves on to the WB lot.

Ummmm.

HURRY UP!

Star light, star bright

Magnet #20 - Paramount Studios

Studio tours. The best entertainment that Los Angeles has to offer. Well, ok, fine, just about the best entertainment that Los Angeles has to offer.

I love taking studio tours, Warners, Sony/Columbia, Paramount, NBC, etc. They're all made of awesome win.

The classic movie lot, Paramount's made up of several historic backlots smooshed into one giant one, with like 30 soundstages and a dozen wonderfully familiar backlot exteriors. Loved this tour - where Wings, Sunset Boulevard, Citizen Kane, White Christmas, Raiders, Star Treks, and a million other classics were filmed. You're standing on the very sidewalks that Tracy and Hepburn, Lucy and Desi, Bob and Bing, Fred and Ginger, and yes, even that crazy Tom Cruise, walked down.

The only tour complaint I had was that the tour guide didn't mention one word about the logo. (Of course, my complaint's about a logo.) All those 22-24 stars were meant to stand for all of the stars in the studio stable. And of course, some of the original stars were like Rudolph Valentino, Mae West, W.C. Fields, and Mary Pickford, and Claudette Colbert and Marlene Dietrich.

Hmph.

Oh! Also, he failed to mention the old RKO logo at the corner of the lot - it's the logo from the old RKO Pictures where they show a globe and a signal emanating from the radio tower.

Beep-beep-be-bee-beeep.

(Ok, fine, that's a little bit of Jericho's opening titles right there. Oops.)

Pink drinks for a red carpet

Magnet #2 - Hollywood & Highland

Given my deep love for anything and everything entertainment-related, Oscar day's something of a holiday for me.

April 2005. A week in Hollywood with a ton of studio tours and famous locations/exterior visits, a few celeb sightings, an almost-conversion to Scientology, and a birthday wish from Dean Cain.

And, yet a major highlight was staying at the offical hotel of the Oscars (the Renaissance) and touring the official home of the Oscars right next door (the Kodak Theatre). The backstage tour was totally made of awesome win - sitting in the seats and boxes, hanging out in the private party rooms, walking down the back hallways to the grand ballroom of the hotel where the Governor's Ball's held, and even taking a trip to the bathroom. Visions of Clooney, Julia and Spielberg running around in my head. (Well, ok, definitely the Clooney part, anyway.)

And, there at the corner of glamour and glitz was Hollywood & Highland, a testament to old-school Hollywood with new-school brash. A mix of posh and non-posh restaurants, high-end chocolatiers and sunglass huts, Lucky Strike bowling and Grauman's. Nothing beats that giant elephant, though. Damn, I wish I'd gotten *that* magnet instead.

Maybe when George escorts me down the Red Carpet.