December 14, 2003

• A Tour of L.A.

  Thanks to Joel for driving us around!

  The Monastery of the Angels is a Hollywood nunnery that makes very special and popular handmade chocolates and pumpkin bread this time of year. We’ve already been through half a loaf of the pumpkin bread this afternoon which, if you ask us, is so moist and sweet it tastes more like pumpkin cake. Addictive stuff!

   
  Fire Engines blasting their horns/sirens…; Rita Flora

  After seeing a “fire-engine parade” down Hollywood Blvd , we had lunch at Flora Kitchen, a picturesque cafe on La Brea that is also a flower store.

      
  Tar pit (click to enlarge); Taiko drumming

  … which was followed by a visit to the La Brea Tar Pits right next to the LA County Museum. Is that REAL tar bubbling away in the fenced-off pit? Or are the bubbles somehow connected to the big black hose we see running alongside the tar pit that seems to disappear into… Oh, nevermind. We would’ve had a proper education about the tar pits had we visited the adjacent museum, but we were enjoying the outdoors too much. It’s a rare experience in L.A. to be surrounded by large areas of cultivated greenery, breathing in fresh air…

  In the afternoon, we were introduced to a Taiko drumming workshop at a Downtown Buddhist temple. The discipline and physicality in the group drumming was amazing to watch. The powerful rhythms of the drums extended beyond that small room. Joel told us that this Taiko group performed at the premiere of the Last Samurai not long ago. It was an honor to be there. (The Taiko workshop, I mean. Forget the Last Samurai. That sucked.)

  Later tonight we saw Tim Burton’s Big Fish which was not quite what we expected. The sentimentality is laid on really thick, with highly predictable “character development”. Overall, the film was narratively unsatisfying. Even the circusy freakshow stuff (which was what we really looked forward to seeing) seemed weak. The romance was incredibly sappy, the music even more so. And what about the part where Ewan McGregor lands in Korea? One Asian character spoke Korean, another spoke Mandarin, and the twins spoke Cantonese! Were the Asian actors instructed to speak in their (different) native languages because American audiences wouldn’t know the difference?

  It’s 3.30am.. Eddie is not well with a cold that keeps going away and coming back. Two weeks later I can still feel something in my throat and chest. Tomorrow there’s a lucha show in Compton… Better get to bed.

  • 6:38 am
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