First, Fred 62, the hipsteriest diner ever, probably. You can't tell from these photos, but everyone here is ridiculously cool, except, perhaps, me. All of the waiters and waitresses dress super cute and funky with snarky statements on their shirts and fishnets and demi-leggings and crap like that. Food is good, though.
The blurry guy was our waiter. He had nothing but the utmost disdain for us. Behind him is the wall of presumably fake celebrity portrait endorsements for the restaurant.
Melissa thought that the greasy, bespectacled guy at the next table was Pauly Shore. It wasn't, but it really could have been. Only I think he's tied up in lawsuits because a raucous party of his flooded his neighbor Wes Craven's property, and he's being sued. Ah, Los Angeles.
Then, DOWNTOWN! Downtown LA is what LA should have been. It's got smaller streets, some of which are one way; tall, old buildings with old filigree detailed carvings and actual interesting architecture; multicultural and artistic residents, many of whom are frighteningly rich, some of whom are shockingly poor; old movie theaters that may or may not still be in use; beautiful and well-endowed libraries and classical concert venues and museums on streets lined with twinkling lights; right next to the jewelry, garment, factory, Chinese, Thai, and anything else district. It's like New York, only tiny.
See? How cool is this?
I wish I knew what that building is now, or what it used to be.
One such old theater, which doesn't seem to be doing anything except providing shelter to homeless people.
Another one, with a gorgeous carved archway that I wish I could buy just to keep it exactly as it is. I think I have a hidden dream to own an abandoned movie theater and just sneak around it and creep myself out.
The Disney Music Hall, which you cannot take an ugly picture of, it's just so beautiful. Especially at night with all the various colored street lights reflecting off of its many shiny surfaces.
This street is around the corner from the Disney Music Hall, and those two buildings are the Mark Taper Forum and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. I think that the Disney Hall relieves some of the concert booking for those, so between the three of those places, you can probably see any kind of classical show or play ever.
I think I was trying to take a long-exposure photo of the lights while I was driving so they'd get that cool streaky thing going, but I messed up somehow. I like this photo though, and of course, the steering wheel is super exciting.
And then Dodger Stadium:
Yaaaaaaay baseball.... I guess.
Then, like a tourist, I went around trying to get the perfect shot of the downtown skyline. This was the best that I could get without actually taking the freeway and putting mine and Melissa's lives in danger:
It's a pretty nice skyline. Of course, all those pretty buildings are owned by lending institutions. And I think one hotel.
Quite a sign. It amuses me.
Then we ended up in Santa Monica, just for kicks, and on the way, we saw giant searchlights illuminating the sky. We were wondering what it was, and while were we passing SMC, our old stomping grounds, we saw that the searchlights were coming from somewhere nearby, so we abandoned nostalgia for curiosity. It led us to Santa Monica High School which was blocked off and patrolled by security guards who told us that there was a special event going on in the Greek theater on the high school premises, and that he couldn't tell us what it was. For trying to keep a secret, they were sure not making it subtle. There were a bunch of other people milling around, asking what was going on. It was weird.
The lights were really freakin bright.
Melissa hopped a fence and I climbed halfway into the campus. She was caught (of course) by the same security guard who had told us that we couldn't know what was going on. We felt foolish. But jeez, I felt like we were trying to spy on Area 51. The lights were SO BRIGHT.
They also changed colors. (I think you can see a slight silhouette of Melissa climbing back down.)
I mean, how can you not be curious about this? I have not altered this in any way, that's really how it looked.
The security guard told us we'd find out Monday afternoon at the civic center next door, but being as how we don't live in Santa Monica, we weren't there to find out, and I looked online for it and there was no mention of what went on. There's a terrible YouTube video that I won't even link of the lights, but my photos are better.
EDIT: I just looked harder. Apparently Microsoft was starting E3 early and having their press event early with a light show. If you care about E3 type stuff, the article is here. I'm a little disappointed. I was hoping that Pink Floyd was re-forming and trying out their new laser light show. Nope, it's just Microsoft.
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