Tales from Los Angeles

So I went to Los Angeles last week, I have been out to California several times but never ventured far outside of the Orange Curtain. My wife was out there doing a show for TCM so we figured we'd roll vacation up into it. Here is the highlight reel:

- Disneyland- I've always wanted to go to the original park, we made it happen. FINALLY got to ride Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and was shocked they still have it given that nobody (American) cares about The Wind in the Willows anymore and that it has all of that Hell stuff in it. Met Snow White, Ariel, Cinderella and Chewbacca. Practically bum-rushed the very last running of Hyperspace Mountain of the night- my whole family was jumping ropes to get up to it. I think I like Disneyland better than Magic Kingdom, although Sleeping Beauty's Castle seems so small compared to Cinderella's. LOVED the façade of It's a Small World. Indiana Jones Adventure was great but felt dated after riding stuff like the Harry Potter rides. Great to see Snow White's Scary Adventure again, it closed in Florida. Matterhorn Bobsleds is a great concept, but the ride is rough as hell. The "Paint the Night" parade is absolutely awesome, far better than the one in Orlando.

- Hollywood- Eh, it was OK. Weird mix of ultra high-end stuff and total down-and-out stuff. We stayed in Los Feliz in a $5 million 1920s mansion, which was pretty great. Visited Hollywood Forever cemetery and saw Victor Fleming's vault, which was pretty neat to do. Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum was pretty good, but they did not have the Ghostbusters thing, which irked me. Chinese Theater was pretty cool, but there was this ultra-racist cult or something there right in front of it screaming the entire time. Had late night veggie dogs at Pink's, which was fun. Probably the coolest thing here though was going into this comic shop at random and it turned out that they were having this big exhibit of George Clinton/Parliament/Funkadelic artwork. Went to that Times Square-ish Hollywood and Highland thing and wished that we hadn't. Spent a lot of time in Amoeba Music, but bought nothing. We went to this estate sale where they had $15 Nerf guns for $75, Skylanders for $20 a piece and a used Wii U for $295. Saw Steven Spielberg's house, which looked like Michael Jackson may have chosen the statuary out front.

- Santa Monica/Malibu/Venice- We had a hotel for one night on Venice Beach, which I hated. I am not much of a beach person, but when there are hustlers and scumbags all over the place it makes it worse. I have never been anywhere in my life where there was more public screaming and ranting. The hotel was super nice, and the area wasn't janky...it's just that same mix of high and low end. Watched some awesome skating at the skatepark there. Ate at Ivy on the Shore, which has the best onion rings I have ever had and I am an onion ring connoisseur. Had a Japadog on the pier- veggie dog with daikon, shoryu and green onion. Kind of awesome. Last day we wandered around the beaches at Malibu, which were actually pretty great. Lots of surfing, dolphins, and it wasn't hot.

Now, if there is one thing that is emblematic of this trip, it is Pokémon Go. There was not one single place that we went to where I did not see multiple people playing. The big ferris wheel at the Santa Monica pier was lit up to look like a Pokeball. There was a group of people around the Chinese Theater that were all wearing Team Instinct shirts. Everywhere we went, Pokestops everywhere and lure modules popped off on just about every one. Stores had signs out front- "Pokémon Go Gym here!". There were billboards with companies using Pokémon imagery- like an STD clinic "We catch 'em all!" The freaking Alexander McQueen store had a stop. Disneyland was FULL of stops. We caught a bunch, saw a Nine Tails but it got away. My wife got mad at us for playing so we stopped.

So good trip overall.

Hollywood never ceases to amaze me with its portmanteau of glitz, glamour, and transvestite hookers.

It's hard to understand Pokemon Go if you don't live in a major city.

Sounds like an awesome trip. Is the Haunted House still a thing at Disneyland? Loved that.

Yes! The Haunted Mansion. One of my favorite things of all time. Still running, still awesome. I actually prefer the Magic Kingdom version though, it has a lot more pre-show.

I don't get prefering Disneyland to Disney World. I've heard that once before and the reasoning made no sense. I feel like the castle at Disney World ALONE makes that park better because little girls think it's a real castle (it's huge!) and that princesses live there. There's just a real magic feeling to Disney World that isn't there for Disneyland. The latter feels more like an amusement park whereas the former feels like a resort (rip-offs and all).

Glad you had a good trip!

Well, here's one thing. We saw more princesses and characters than we usually do at Magic Kingdom. At Magic Kingdom, the lines to get into the meet and greets are ridiculous- you have to fast pass them if you don't want to wait two hours. We waited about 30 minutes total to see three princesses and Chewbacca (missed Kylo Ren). And we saw more characters out and about.

Everything about Disneyland feels more accessible...even getting to the park. I mean, I _love_ the ferry boat ride and the drama building up to seeing Cinderella's castle...but I also kind of liked parking right at the park and walking straight in.

The food is WAY better. At Disney World, we wind up eating crap veggie burgers and $12 caprese flatbreads. My wife got vegetarian gumbo by Pirates and I had Forest of Endor (kale, broccolini, cannellini beans, sundried tomatoes, pasta, pine nuts). They also had BBQ tofu.

Some of the rides are substantially different. PIrates is longer and better. It's a Small World has hidden characters in it and that amazing original building.

Frontier land and the New Orleans are are way better than Liberty Square.

Star Tours is in the main park and not shoved off in the park no one wants to go to.

The kids area is MUCH better at Magic Kingdom though, Mickey's Toon Town is dated and old.

Magic Kingdom does have some better things- the new Snow White mine train ride is amazing, the thing where you meet Belle at her house is one of my favorite attractions.

We forgot to ride the Pinocchio thing, I just realized that! We missed the Finding Nemo sub thing too, the line was always way too long.

The Finding Nemo ride is AWFUL. Incredibly cramped and humid, and way too long.. You missed nothing.
Pinocchio is awesome, though.

Gary Sax wrote:

It's hard to understand Pokemon Go if you don't live in a major city.

My brother is completely hooked on this, and he does most of his hunting in the megatropolis that is Lancaster, OH.

He had some story last night about walking around a gas station parking lot that happend to be in the middle of four Pokestops. It's definitely a cry for help.

I went to get fitted for a suit last week with my buddy who;'s keeping me company. While I'm being fitted, my buddy is playing Pokemon Go (I don't play btw) and says, "oh man! A Pikachu is here! Oh man, i hope I can get---- ah DAMMIT he got away!" to which I'm about to express embarassment to the guy fitting me (who's checking the inside seam WAY too much) when the tailor guy says, "oh, okay this is super unprofessional but do you mind if I just stop for a sec to try and catch that Pikachu?" and before I can say, "what?" he pulls out this massive Samsung Galaxy S7 and catches the pikachu.

It might be the first time I feel really out of touch or old or something. Like honestly in my head I think I was thinking, "you kids and your pokemon and your rock and roll music..."

[quote="Black Barney" post=231490... I'm about to express embarassment to the guy fitting me (who's checking the inside seam WAY too much) when the tailor guy says, "oh, okay this is super unprofessional but do you mind if I just stop for a sec to try and catch that Pikachu?" and before I can say, "what?" he pulls out this massive Samsung Galaxy S7 and catches the pikachu. ...[/quote]

Sounds like you should be relieved that he wasn't trying to catch YOUR Pikachu.

It's a Squirtle, first of all. Although this one time I swear it was Charmander. Youch

Anyway, he was an Indian guy wearing these bright blue eye contacts. I thought it was a White Walker for a second, especially when I noticed he smelled like death

Nice guy tho

When my relatives/friends visit LA, we literally avoid Hollywood. It's nasty and I don't know why anyone would want to go there. It's tourist traps and grime. "Hollywood," i.e., where movies are made, is all over the place. Burbank (Disney/Pixar), Culver City (Sony), Studio City (Universal), NoHo, Century City, Chatsworth (wink) all have studios. But they are places of business. It'd be like visiting a bottling plant.

If coming to LA, I recommend: The Getty, Griffith Observatory, Malibu (Zion or the Lagoon).

Yeah,with my wife working in production we couldn't care less about seeing "where pictures are made" and all of that. It's like going to her job. You are exactly right, they are work places. It would be like going to where a house is being built. I did see the Paramount lot and was like "yay". It had a row of really shitty car repair shops backed up to it. That's Hollywood for you.

My wife was actually working in Studio City...we didn't see Burbank or any of that other stuff.

I do really love Hollywood history, so it was cool to see Los Feliz in particular...that was really where all of those first generation of Hollywood filmmakers and stars lived.

Really wanted to go to Griffith Observatory (the place we stayed was literally down the hill from it) but the one day we had a shot at it, it was closed. We also wanted to go to one of the other museums (not the Getty) that had a Cindy Sherman exhibit but we never got to it.

Cindy Sherman is at The Broad and LACMA is going to have a totally swet Guillermo Del Toro thing coming up. LACMA is where I take folks the second time. They have Metropolis II, Rain Room, and some other cool stuff. I saw the traveling Kubrick exhibition there and it fucking rocked. They've done exhibitions on comic art, &c. It's super cool.