halloween, LA style

it was a nice LA afternoon, i was just wandering through the santa monica mall, grabbing a coffee and minding my own business, when i saw this...



yes, its a guy in dressed in a spiderman costume, casually talking on his mobile and unlocking his bike. que?? then i remembered, its halloween. LA people (and americans in general) take halloween verrrrrry seriously. they get so incredibly into it.

later on i knew something fishy was going on when tam and mat practically kidnapped me and starting talking a million miles per hour about halloween this, and trick or treat that, and costumes something else.... hang on... what's going on lucy thinks... and then we arrived here:



this is a shop in LA that just sells halloween costumes and accessories. that's all. well actually they sold a few other bits of novelty stuff (mat took great delight i tricking me and tam with a very lifelike toy cat in a curled up sleeping position, that he KICKED!). this shop was pretty surreal, its was packed with people, all trying on costumes and spending a fortune.

at first i thought this chick (who worked at the shop) was in costume. but she wasn't.



tam found a brilliant low-maintenance costume



once we were all costumed up we went to meet up with mat's friend heath, his girlfriend sam on the left and her sisters jessie and katie on the right. heath didn't look like he was enjoying himself much at all.



we went to busby's - a bar on the santa monica boulevard. after having the car valet parked (of course) we glided on through the doors and i'm not kidding you, everyone... EVERYONE was dressed in costume. it was seriously crazy, hilarious and slightly scary at times...













check out eric estrada from chips!!



and the deal or no deal girls - classic costumes



this was my fave costume. this chick went as a starbucks coffee shop assistant, except wearing only the apron. i also don't think that hotpants and fishnets are standard issue starbucks uniform. she was absolutely trashed, the apron precariously clinging to her chest, and at times failing. she disappeared at one point in the night, came back wiping her mouth as though she'd just been off throwing up somewhere. and then she kept on drinking.



matt in costume, looking vulnerable in the crowd. just before we left the flat to go out, matt turned to us and said something like - "hey i know fairy wings are gay, but, like, are they toooo gay?". Yes, matt. they're too gay. but we love it.



x

los angeles: part 3

here's a few things that i learnt in LA that i'd like to share:
1. men shouldn't wear pashminas
2. the world doesn't need $6,000 value meals (you get burger, fries, coke and a really expensive bottle of wine)
3. valet parking does not make you any more important, despite how it may seem (however it does come in handy in some circumstances)
4. billy bob thornton has an unexplained phobia of antique furniture

anyway, back to the pics...

we visited eames house, design and former residence of the brilliant charles and ray eames. the building used off-the-shelf parts ordered from catalogues which i think was a pretty new idea at the time, especially for a residential design (i think?)



went on a little window shopping expedition on the famous rodeo drive - all i could think of was that scene in the film 'pretty woman' where julia roberts goes back to the rodeo drive boutique that had snubbed her earlier to rub her it in their faces. we didn't really do anything like that. the spell was broken somewhat by this couple:



it was like we had an agreement with the shop assistants on rodeo drive, they knew we weren't worth bothering to be nice to coz we clearly had no money. we were happy because they left us alone to drool on their clothes and diamonds. its so classy there they have chandaliers for street lights, albeit encased in plastic boxes. wierd.



i think these are the best shoes i have ever seen. ever.



tam and mat took me to this amazing italian deli near their place, they do absolultely amazing sandwiches. its bit like soup nazi in that the ordering system is stringent - you have to know exactly what you want, be ready to place your order as soon as your number is called - pay attention or lose your place and have to wait your turn again... and don't even try to ask questions.



my pick is on the left - mozzarella, tomato, basil and olive oil. tam's on the right - about 58 layers of salami, pickles, cheese and i can't remember what else - yummmmm!! we went halves each of course.



but this was mat's - a meatball sandwich, or more like a meatball debauchery. unbelievably good.



on my last day we went to the Getty Center (sic), you park underneath the building and catch a tram up the hill to the museum. this was the view back along the highway.



a panarama of the building (i didn't take this one!)



its just dripping with money, the building (designed by richard meier) is pretty amazing. the collection is said to be not that great, more money than taste. i'm not really sure - we didn't really have enough time to explore the whole place properly - its just huge - with multiple galleries, gardens, etc etc...

this is the outdoor cafe



some of my favourites from the collection...

this crazy marie antoinette style bed, complete with feathers on each corner!



i have no explanation for why i liked this!



they had an amazing exhibition of illuminated manuscripts



we layed about on the lawns in the sun for a while



and this was my last view of LA - what a crazy building, its a restaurant, called the encounter i think. fairly obviously built in the 60's! kept expecting james bond to walk out.



sending big thanks and much love to tam and mat for hanging out with me in LA, i had a ball... you guys rock!

x

los angeles: part 2

tam and i spent a day walking around downtown LA - starting with el pueblo which is the oldest part of la, where the original spanish settlement of the city was.



on julianne's recommendation we visited the biltmore hotel - or should i say the 'millenium' biltmore hotel!



we had high tea - needless to day it was expensive, but gorgeous. we were certainly on our best behaviour.



went to union station, built in 1939 - it was a beautiful mix of deco and spanish architecture styles, a relaly lovely space to be in



this is the walt disney concert hall, designed by architect frank gehry. really is one of the most breathtaking buildings you'll ever see





downtown also has some amazingly tall buildings - its so strange how they're spaced out, compared to NY where the skyscrapers are all packed together. it makes them look even taller somehow.



later went to the farmer's market - not really like what i imagine a farmer's market to be. it was more like a collection of great foodstalls. tam and i had some lebanese food, v yummy, although i was pretty tempted by this...



this couple were sitting at the next table over. they were like the perfect classic american jewish couple, love it!



was about to leave and tam spotted this little beauty - its a fudge brownie monster - a chocolate brownie, with icecream, fudge sauce, cream and nuts. my god, so good.



later at night we took a drive on mulholland drive - famous from the david lynch film (although it only features a tiny bit in the film), but lots of stars apparently have houses there. its a really windy, dark and inredibly spooky place - amazing views of the city. cheers mat for driving, it was no mean feat!





tbc...

los angeles: part 1

los angeles was the last city on my trip, so i was determined to enjoy every last minute of it.

i stayed in santa monica, a chilled out part of LA - my hostel was only a few blocks away from where my friends tam and mat were living - they had very recently moved to LA from adelaide and i was their first visitor! (their flat was above a raw food restaurant, of course) they had been so busy setting up their new life that they'd really had no time to do any sightseeing, so it was great to be able to explore some of the city together.

the cliches of the LA landscape are actually pretty spot on!





this is venice beach - a little way south from santa monica..



the santa monica pier. this guy wasn't all that busy... (although i'm kicking myself now for not getting one)



it was only a few days before halloween when i arrived, so pumpkin stuff was everywhere. tam and i couldn't resist this pumpkin pie...



we even stumbled across an (american) football game, complete with cheerleaders.



apple pan is a classic american burger joint - it hasn't changed a bit since 1947 when it opened. mat told me how its exactly like the original mcdonalds burger restaurant, mcdonalds was turned into a chain, but apple pan has stayed exactly the same.



the burgers were so good, fries served on a wierd paper plate with another one for a small pond on ketchup that the guy squirts out for you, and the coke is served in a waxed paper cone, sitting in this metal holder, cool! the people working there look like they just stepped out of the 50, white aprons, complete with little white hats. they eemed like that'd been working since 1947 too - pretty grumpy, but in a kinda charming way. when he gives you your burger, he whacks it down on the counter on one end - the burger makes this sloppy thwack sound!



never got here but mat tells me that the sandwiches are as good as their sign



gotta love this numberplate. ("adelaide ladi" just doens't have quite the same ring to it though)



the hollywood walk of fame



this is grauman's chinese theatre, hollywood icon of the hand and footprints in the concrete fame



here's mat's proving that he can measure up to the big samuel j.



tbc...