Los Angeles, I'm yours...

We went to the Getty in LA on Sunday, which is a giant complex on top of a hill that holds all kinds of beautiful art. The exhibit we wanted to see the most was by LA artist Tim Hawkinson, whom I only know of because of the booklet in Beck's Mutations. At the entrance to the Getty, his piece, the Uberorgan hangs, which is a giant organ created from enormous balloons, cardboard, aluminum foil, and an accordion-like "computer" that reads music that he wrote. It supposedly plays recognizable pop songs, but when we heard it, it sounded like a bunch of loud farts. That does not, however, make it less awesome.

This:

is the Uberorgan as it hangs in the Getty, and this:

is the Uberorgan in NYC at the IBM building. It's pretty huge.

There's one particular view from the second floor of one of the buildings in the Getty that comes equipped with signs that tell you exactly what you're looking at. From this particular balcony, you have Santa Monica and Venice to the right, downtown LA proper to the left, Hollywood and Beverly Hills to the far left, and the 101 directly in front of you.

After feeling particularly lost at the Getty, we decided to check out Aaardvark's, a notoriously awesome thrift store that started in San Francisco and now has two locations in LA. To get there, we drove through Beverly Hills (which is really surreal) and West Hollywood (which is really cool). The store is located on the more hip section of Melrose Avenue, near Fat Beats. it's filled with moderately priced vintage clothing as well as a rack full of really amazing, but really expensive pieces for the vintage collector. Think tour t-shirts from the 70s for $60.

Walking back to the car, I nearly ran into this guy:
.
His name is Simon Rex, and he's in a bunch of parody movies, including Scary Movies 3 & 4. I heard him telling some dude outside of a bar what he was filming next.

Yesterday we went on a beach walk in Malibu, which was really beautiful. We couldn't park really close to the entrance because there was filming taking place, so we navigated around it and began our walk.

The beach was beautiful. The water was a bright greenish blue color that you could see straight through. There were surfers out not really catching any waves, but looking content enough to be there at that particular moment. Allison and I climbed up on a rock while Anna, Alice, and Susan watched from the rocky beach.

On our way back, we noticed that the filming was still going on and we asked a tech who was walking our way. He told us we'd stumbled upon the set of Heroes, and Anna claimed she recognized the actress. I don't know whether I believe her, but it's still pretty cool.

Later in the day, I saw the most amazing sunset I've ever seen while walking the Santa Rosa mountain trail with Samir and Allison. I can't really describe it other than breathtaking.

Today is Allison's last day, and I'm about to go for another walk on the trail. Tomorrow, Alice, Anna, and myself are spending all day in LA for a David Lynch themed extravaganza. Topping off the day is a showing of Inland Empire and a Q & A session with the man himself at the Hammer Museum of UCLA.

Until tomorrow, my friends.