Having traveled to 100+ countries, it is quite easy to lose sight of the fact that there are actually quite a few people who make vacations out of going to Los Angeles. Perhaps not all that surprising is that, as residents, we don’t think much of our city’s offerings — at least in terms of what most other visitors want to do. “Oh, you want to go to Griffith Observatory? . . .Ummm I think maybe it burned down. Yeah that’s it! Horrible tragedy. Can’t go there.” But I am trying to remedy this by documenting our adventures within our own city, as it is perhaps more revealing of what is actually worth doing in this city from an insider’s perspective.
As a sort of lead-in to Nicole’s birthday, I was able to find a summer concert of some jazz artists at a place called the Skirball Center. For those not in the know, which is probably everyone, the Skirball Center is a sort of Jewish cultural center, museum, and event venue all wrapped up into one. This was the vision anyway of its founder, reform Rabbi, and CEO — Uri Herscher. I don’t believe he is related, but there are actually not that many Herschers out there, so who knows. I should have showed my ID to get free parking. The concert itself was free (but everyone had to pay for parking because the road to it is in a canyon).
We arrived in time for the second set of musicians during a kind of intermission. As guests we were also permitted to visit the museum after hours. It was a lot bigger than either of us anticipated. They have a collection of rotating exhibits and there was currently one focusing on comic books. It dealt with the sort of cultural influence such books had on youth and how America’s delicate sensibilities during the Red Scare and McCarthyism pushed back against so-called “violent” and “disturbing” themes that these books tackled. There was a map showing places that organized comic book burning events. Wisconsin was overall pretty clean, but Wisconsin Rapids evidently partook in this type of thing — a fact that is probably very unsurprising if you’ve been to Wisconsin Rapids.
Anyway, the rest of the museum’s permanent collections were focused on Jewish culture and identity. There were segments about rituals like bat mitzvahs, or death protocols, while others had historic artifacts from old Jerusalem. Another sizable portion of the museum focused on Jewish immigration to America and its influence on our national identity. I joked to Nicole that the Jewish athletics section was rather small — not unlike the joke in the movie Airplane where a passenger asks for some light reading material and is handed a tiny leaflet on “Famous Jewish sports legends.”
We then returned to the outdoor plaza to settle in for the concert. It was an homage to Miles Davis, who would have been 100 this year if it weren’t for a combination stroke, bronchial pneumonia, and heart failure at the ripe age of 65. Don’t do drugs, kids. Anyway, it was like a modern take on Miles Davis. I hope Nicole was alright with it all either way. It proved to be a rather popular event. We had to stand for the majority of the concert.
It lasted for about 90 minutes, but it was very comfortable outside with a light breeze that kept the day’s heat at bay. Upon its completion, we had an easy exit back onto the 405, where I took Nicole to a historic Los Angeles diner called The Apple Pan. They do burgers and sandwiches, but also specialize in their pies. We were there to just pick up some pies. Nicole got cherry and I got banana. We brought them back home to consume on our recently upgraded side patio. I tossed a bistro set out there a month or so ago and added some solar strung lights and a solar candle to add some ambience.
It’s hard to tell from this photo, but it’s a whole vibe out there now. Very LA. Very chic. Very cool. You’ll have to see for yourselves, though. But speaking of cool, I have one more nugget to show you all because I am quite sure you will all care very much. After I successfully completed my annual recurrent training in the simulator, my gift to myself was a device called The Flight Wall. It is a digital display that displays all the aircraft that are in my vicinity—what airline, what plane, where they are going etc. As we live next to LAX, it is quite busy. It also has the capability to track specific flights and tells you what it is currently flying over. Nicole has said she has used this feature to follow my whereabouts. Anyway, if you need a gift for some other nerd important person in your life, I highly recommend The Flight Wall. 10/10. Would buy again. Stay tuned soon for more Los Angeles adventures.
passports & pepto bismol 