Quiet times being back in La Canada (LA) especially after an 8 hour journey in the Chinook (Jill and Joe’s RV) but we pretty much caught up on the blog and packing. We did some exercise and cooked some lovely food for us all 2 nights in a row. On the 2nd November Dave and I ended up leaving the lovely home from home we have adopted and ventured down town LA from Pasadena on the Gold Line Metro to Union Station.

This is something new for us, public transport in LA! It’s such a big city to navigate but there is a good metro system if the destinations suit you! It’s $1.50 for one ticket which is valid for 2 hours of travel and took around half an hour to reach Union Station. We were confused when we arrived, but eventually picked up an area map from the information desk at the main entrance and managed to head in the correct direction towards Pueblo de Los Angeles; a very traditionally Mexican area. We hadn’t quite anticipated so many tourists and school groups to be around and realised The festival of the Dead was also taking place. There is a mini Mexican market and lot’s of authentic Mexican restaurants.

Walking down Main Street we stumbled upon Occupy LA at The City Hall. The Mayor has said they can camp there for as long as they want but we’ve since heard that they’re now trying to think of ways to move them on as the area around the City Hall isn’t holding up so well. Aside from this though there is a very strong presence at Occupy LA and we were invited in by a 19 day occupy resident to take a look around. It’s hard not to and it’s an interesting topic to photograph and observe.

So from the 99% to the 1% we ended up making our way to The Disney Concert Hall of which Frank Gehry who’s exhibition we followed in Beijing was the architect. The Concert Hall offers a bizarre versus beauty in its shape, reflections and form, standing out from any building that surround it. We were pleased to be able to explore the building for free and  enjoy both inside and out without any tours or lots of people around. The garden on the 3rd floor is open for people to use in their lunch break and offers a little abyss away from the city blocks of downtown behind. It’s a pretty cool building to explore if those of you out there venture to downtown LA.

On our way to Little Tokyo we wandered further through Occupy LA before enjoying some sushi on 1st Street opposite the Japanese Plaza. $20 between us in a very authentic Japanese style eatery.

We took the Gold Line back to Pasadena, and later that evening we all enjoyed another lovely family dinner! That night we would move closer to the sea as we were to be reunited with Sarah from Helen’s yoga course. We would be exploring a little more over the next few days!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

Using the website site Venice Paparazzi to find out about events (Venice art crawl etc) we spotted a national event taking place along the boardwalk which would offer some interesting photo opportunities…The National GoTopless Day – “a US organization, claim that women have the same constitutional right to be bare chested in public places as men.”

You only have to scratch beneath the surface with a bit of research to find religious connection involving the Raelians; a religious mission lead by a former French racing car driver, who believe in an advanced race of extraterrestrials called Elohim who created life on earth. No surprises to see books for sale on his website, what religious movement would be without an income stream.
To add even more spice to the Topless march a few religious types turned up with their t-shirts, placards, A-boards, orange jumpsuits and even a home made 20 foot cardboard cross! How exciting!

Coincidentally the 5th Annual Supergirl Skateboard Jam was also taking place which involved young women skating and snowboarding on a 28-foot-tall man-made mountain packed with 80,000 pounds of snow. So with camera in hand and zoom lens attached here are some photos from the events. (All nipples are actually covered using fake nipples / tape!)
On the evening we headed out with Sarah and Maria from Yoga class for some Tapas in a lovely place on Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice Beach, followed by Ice Cream in posh Brentwood.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

It was a pretty quiet day for the Leica, Helen decided to take a few shots in her yoga class (blog post to come!) and Dave was getting us ready for our move to the new pad on the beach front! With a spot of Wholefoods shopping and a bit of sorting out we eventually moved out of our wonderful home that has been at Matt’s Feel Good Lounge and he ever so kindly offered to give us a lift over to the new place! So we have now moved and are in a little studio space above a garage on the row just back from the Venice boardwalk. We expect noise, skateboarders passing by and bin dumpsters keeping us awake at night. The studio itself though is very nice! Although we will miss the abyss that we had only a mile away.

Dave had found out about the Venice Art Crawl a few days earlier and so it was on our list of things to do for the evening and along with Sarah (from Helen’s class) we started off at Lilly’s on Abbot Kinney for an exhibition opening. This was one of the many venues featured in the art crawl which happens in Venice on the 3rd Thursday of each month. At Lilly’s we received some free wine and nibbles and enjoyed the atmosphere. After a brief chat with the artist Olivier Pojzman we made our way closer to the beach front to seek out some more venues in the crawl. Pretty much most bars on the front were involved, even the apartments were having little events on their rooftops. Eventually though we made our way to the Erwin Hotel where a good few hundred people were dancing, being photographed, interviewed, drinking and so on, and over the road at the no longer in use Gas Station Courtyard were even more people gathering around live performance art, people painting, selling their work, their vintage clothes, dancing to funky house and enjoying the overall vibe. This whole event was the 1st year anniversary of the art crawl and loads of people were there to enjoy it. We were impressed!!

We ended the night in the Canal club, enjoying a few more drinks and listening to a band play motown classics. We need more of this in the UK, an appreciation of local art and music and more live opportunities for people to showcase their talents.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM & Olympus PEN EP-1, 17mm f/2.8 & 100mm f/2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)