After a whole bunch of time out of town (did we really spend four weekends in a row in airports? Yes we did), we got back in the L.A. swing of things this weekend, with a couple of days filled with only-in-L.A. stuff. We started off the weekend with a screening of Wall*E, finally, at the El Capitan on Hollywood Boulevard. It’s a beautiful theater, the house organist (Theater Organist of the Year, 2005) does a great job, and the digital projection looks great, but it’s all so far over the top that I can only go about once a year. The live stage show, really just an advertisement for Pixar and Disney films, was pretty tiresome, but all was forgotten when we got the main feature, which was, as expected, pretty breathtaking. I’ve never wanted to see a movie again more quickly than I did that film; I know there was so much I missed that I’m looking forward to a second viewing soon.
Saturday morning, we headed down to San Pedro, a far-flung area of the City of Los Angeles that neighbors Long Beach, for an L.A. Conservancy tour. The tour started at the luxurious Warner Grand, where our guide filled us in on the history of the city – explorers, railroads, competing locations for a lucrative port, prosperity even during the Depression, and tense relations with City Hall in downtown L.A., a very long 20+ miles away – and of the theater itself. We left the theater and walked through Vinegar Hill, home of many beautiful homes, including one that we went inside, thanks to the owners, who are in the middle of what will be a decade-long renovation process. We passed through the massive and beautiful post office building, which looks like it’s a good deal larger than it probably needs to be today.
We also spent some time in the City Hall building, a beautiful Beaux Arts structure that was renovated after the Northridge Earthquake of 1994. The Red Cars were out and running, as well, which was nice to see.
Our tour ended at the Maritime Museum, where we took in the model ships, the history of canning in the area, and the variety of Charlie the Tuna paraphernalia. We finished the morning with a beer at the San Pedro Brewing Company, whose pale ale I’d first tasted at the L.A. County Fair last summer.
More photos from our day in San Pedro here.
Saturday night, we returned to Hollywood Boulevard for the second night in a row, and vowed not to do that again for a very long time. It was for a good reason, though: we went to see Ricky Gervais at the Kodak Theater, where we enjoyed a very funny show in seats considerably better than we have at the awards show. It was a blast to see Gervais live, and he had a pleasant, somewhat unassuming stage manner that suited him well. Our favorite jokes involved a critical assessment of the story of Humpty Dumpty, and what few lessons it might hold for kids (“If you’re an egg, don’t sit on a wall? Don’t send a horse to do medical procedures?”).
This morning, I got up early and headed out on my bike for Griffith Park, for the first of what I hope will be many, or at least enough, training rides up the hill to get in a little better shape for this year’s Muddy Buddy, which Brian and I are taking on again, hoping to improve on our 2006 showing. The ride was fun, once I got some air in my tires, and I managed to ride all the way up without a break, which made me feel a little better. Being there also made me wonder why we’re not out in Griffith Park every weekend we’re here.
I was back in by nine or so, and we decided to head up to Pasadena for a hike, as we needed to visit Paper Source up there as well. We walked along the flood control channel that used to be the Arroyo Seco, underneath a few bridges and past an archery range, spotting some geckos and ground squirrels along the way. It was a pleasant hike, if a little hot, and I’m glad to have gotten another one under our belts.
More photos from the trail here.
A few bits of note: we returned to trivia on the eighth for the first time since June 10, four weeks off, and though I’m not sure why we had a bad feeling about things, we were justified: our beloved quiz master had been fired by the owner of the quiz company in the interim. It was apparently over some sort of personal conflict that got a little out of hand; knowing their personalities, it wasn’t hard to imagine our man’s resentment and loathing bubbling over at some point. So, we got to see what life after Luc was like, and Brian, the new guy, seemed to do alright, certainly better than Luc’s boss, who is always greeted with jeers for his poor quizmaster skills when he’s called on to stand in. We placed second, doing our best in the face of a wire-to-wire win from the team next to us. We placed second back on our last go in June, and second the week before that, as well, so we’ll look to bust out this week. We’ll see how it all shakes out.
On another note, I’ve added a Twitter feed on the right hand side of the page, as I’ve finally started using it. It seems halfway between blogging and posting to del.icio.us at this point; I wonder if I’ll start doing less of both?
