I’ve visited LA twice. Once in 2010 on a road trip from San Diego to San Francisco (via Yosemite) and once in 2019 to visit family. Both trips were very different experiences for me, but between them, I’ve seen a lot of what LA has to offer.

Griffith Observatory

On a hill facing the Hollywood sign and at the summit of the Firebreak Trail sits the Griffith Observatory. Constructed in 1933 and opened to the public two years later the observatory has a number of exhibits like the Foucault pendulum in the lobby and the camera obscura giving views of downtown.

Also in the main building is the Tesla Coil, which is fired up regularly throughout the day.

The main reason people go during the day is the planetarium shows, giving a surrounded view of the night sky and of nearby planets. 

As the building is high on a hill, the views across LA are spectacular, especially if you are lucky enough to go when there is little to no smog.

Once again, much like at LACMA, there was someone sitting under a tree, this time relaxing rather than meditating.

Evenings allow for stargazing, and the museum itself continues with ongoing astrological works.

Bradbury Building

Built in 1893, the Bradbury Building continues as an office space, with only the ground floor and a small viewing space on the first floor of a staircase open to visitors.

The building is striking, with dark woods and wrought iron railings around a central shaft. The skylight at the top covers the whole open space and lets in a great deal of light, something needed with the darkness of the interior.

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

Back in 2010, we wandered around DTLA and looked at the typical things, the Chinese theatre, and the signatures in concrete.

Hollywood Walk of Fame

Stretching along both sides of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, the stars are set into the pavement and all the way along, entertainers in costumes looking for a few dollars to take their photos with you brighten up the street.

The Old Plaza Firehouse

We headed into downtown LA, to the oldest building in the town and the first firehouse. The first occupants of the Firehouse when it was built in 1884 were called the Volunteer 38s, and the building is now a musuem.

Hollywood Sign

Iconic, high up on Mount Lee the sign was originally created in 1923 as a temporary advertisement. It has since become synonymous with Los Angeles, appearing in thousands of shows and films.

Mulholland Drive

Then it was up into the hills, Mulholland Drive, to see the famous Hollywood sign and the houses of the famous. I got a photo of the lead singer of Clarence Clearwater Revival who was jogging, a picture of Robert Redford’s maid and a shot of Gwen Stephanie getting out of a car in her complex (maybe). As well as some photos of famous houses, like the house used in Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Jack Nicolson’s house, which has a tennis court on stilts.

Rodeo Drive

We then moved onto Rodeo Drive to see where the rich and famous spend their millions. The cars parked up were impressive, but not actually as extravagant as what you see on the King’s Road in London. From there the tour ended and it was back to the hotel.

Playa Vista

Playa Vista is a newly constructed town near to Santa Monica and loosely centred around the hangar where Howard Hughes built the Spruce Goose. Part of the Silicone Beach area, it is home to wealthy young professionals and retirees.

It would have been easy for this newly built town to be soulless and fake, much like Milton Keynes, but instead, though it does give something of a GTA vibe, the area, thanks in part to its wide streets, spacious regular parks and non-chain boutiques instead comes across as charming. During the weekend a farmers market, selling fruits, vegetables and a range of homemade items like jewellery and blessed crystals is open.

Hammer Museum

As much artists space as it is a museum, the Hammer Museum, is not huge like the Getty, but is in central Westwood. Colourful hair, vibrant glasses and a boho hippy vibe are given off by the visitors. workshops, interactive pieces and musical performances are run regularly.

On the ground floor, is Tschabalala Self, a small room and part of the artist's Bodega Run series, it explores how convenience stores are a community focal point, The central piece is vibrant and arresting and something that wasn't ideal to see with my seven-year-old niece.

The second floor features Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property 1968–2018, a fascinating collection of conceptual art. Focused on using words in new ways is a centrepiece of his work. A mural of a friends obituary covers a wall. A vibrant collage of posters another. The floor in one room is a crossword made of his poems and 20 large canvases contain the full story of a Portrait of Dorian Grey.

The second floor also features the bar and cafe along with a stage, setting up for a music night.

On the third floor, the permanent Hammer Collection is shown, this impressive collection of European and American paintings and drawings reflects the interests and passion of the museum’s founder, Armand Hammer.

Also on the third floor, Dirty Protest: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection, contains a series of recent additions to the museum. The titular piece is deliberate in its grossness, but most other items are more conventional, (if that term can be applied to modern art)

Getty Museum

The Getty Museum is huge, sprawling on the top of a hill, covering a number of modern looking buildings that could have stepped out of any utopian sci-fi show.

The easiest way to get there is to park at the underground garage and take the free tram up the hill. In order to do this, you pass through security which informs you that guns, drugs and knives may be taken away from you. (Welcome to America!)

The entrance hall is vast and welcomes you in, but each of the buildings housing the artworks are off a central courtyard with an outdoor cafe. 

The Getty's primary works are renaissance and later European artworks, similar to what you would see in any good museum in the world.

There are also a large number of statues both renaissance and of their Greco-Roman collection of which they are rightfully proud.

As well as a range of eclectic furniture such as the hot air balloon chandelier with goldfish bowl suspended from the bottom.

The temporary exhibitions are excellent, many focused on photography during my visit. One exhibit was on Oscar Rejlander an artist and early photographer who did both conventional portraitures and also played with the medium, staging intricate set pieces that could have been paintings.

In a small room, four artists are shown with the collective title "Mapping Space" where each thematically takes photography into showing how it relates to real space, not just conceptually.

Perhaps my favourite, Reenactment in Contemporary Photography, explores with a number of artists how reproductions, of events, of family history, of family faces and of famous art can be given nuanced meanings and new life through reenactment. My favourite being an artist who uses hyper-realistic wax masks (with assistance from Tussauds) to pose as members of her family.

Additionally, there was Pontormo: Miraculous Encounters, a small showing, but the first time he has been shown outside of Italy. His masterpiece, the altar display is incredible.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

Already a huge museum space, the Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA) is extending significantly over the next few years with the impressive globe already part finished and the other winding sinuous shaped building in the planning stages.

In BCAM, we saw Rauschenberg: The 1/4 Mile, Miracle Mile, constructed of found objects, Richard Serra: Band, a series of huge metallic cylinders and the Metropolis II a complex cityscape model.My colleague for this visit was seven years old, and a budding art critic who shares many peoples opinions. Her opinions of the work, when seeing the plants in a wheelbarrow was "it's not art". 

In the Resnick Pavilion we saw Charles White: A Retrospective. Charles White is an early African American artist and the exhibition showcases a series of his drawings and paintings. Stark and powerful works. Huge on the wall is Mark Bradford's 150 Portrait Tone. Also showing the Jewelled Isle: Art from Sri Lanka, a collection of local artefacts, religious icons and jewellery. Impressive, but tonally out of place in the Resnick Pavilion of more modern and contemporary works.

In Ahmanson Building, we saw West of Modernism: California Graphic Design, 1975–1995, and the Modern Art Galleries. Unfortunately missing the Bauhaus exhibit. Interesting, but also restricted in visitors photography usage.

Outside were the two major pieces of public art, Levitated Mass, a huge stone suspended over a below ground walkway. and Urban Lights, a emplacement out front of LACMA.

La Brea Tar Pits & Museum

Famous, and famously strange, in central Los Angeles stands the La Brea Tar Pits. A series of dirty pools of asphalt in the ground, bubbling up and smelling unpleasant as they have for over 50,000 years.

The Tar Pits have, over the millenniums claimed millions of animals, plants, and insects from the tiny to the huge. The largest being twenty-four mammoths all found in the same small pool. Their bones piled on top of each other over the years.

Professionals and amateur volunteers try and keep pace with the ongoing discoveries, patiently sifting through the bones, debris, and teeth they find, cleaning analyzing, and sometimes displaying them. (far more is found than could ever be shown.)

There is a museum, a circular offering centred around a small arboretum. The museum has bones and replicas as well as the famous 'fish-tank' a glass-walled laboratory where scientists and volunteers work to progress the Tar Pit's understanding. 

This being LA, naturally there are some unique characters found in the part, not just the typical museum-goers. Despite the noise of the nearby LACMA construction going on, one local found the time and zen to meditate.

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Designed by Frank Gehry, the Walt Disney Concert hall is a masterpiece of architecture, and completely unalike anything else nearby. Whilst the Broad, or MOCA or the skyscrapers are impressive, there is nothing on par with the shining chrome curves of Gerhy's most famous building. 

Housing the Philharmonic Orchestra, the building offers beauty inside and out.

The Broad

Comparatively new, the Broad offers free entrance, but at a controlled rate, so be prepared to wait in line for an hour or so. 

Access to the famous Mirror Room, the Souls of Millions of Lights Years Away by Yayoi Kusama is by an additional queue where you are given a time, which can be many hours away, so get there early and prioritise the queue. (I did not and missed out as it was a three-hour wait by the time I tried to get a ticket)

Additionally, there is a paid exhibition, with its own queuing system on the ground floor. Currently it is Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983.

The free exhibitions are on the third floor, displayed in a rough circle around the central staircase. There are a number of famous artists being exhibited, including Warhol, Lichtenstein and Koons. The museum tends to have a central sculpture in a 'room' with paintings surrounding it. 

The floor is spacious with start white walls making the whole thing very airy and open.

The second of Yayoi Kusama's mirror rooms, Longing for Eternity does not require booking, though there is a line, thousands, or millions of reflected lights stretch into infinity, as you peer into the mirror-lined cylinder.

Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)

Outside, there is a huge scrap metal statue, under which the museum can be found.

Across the street from the Broad is the Museum of Contemporary Art, somewhat less 'modern' than the Broad, it has an excellent collection of post WWII items, in particular a range of Pop-Art works.  

Zuma Beach

Visiting family in Los Angeles, we spent the day with friends on Zuma Beach in Malibu. Thanks to Coachella being on it was surprisingly quiet on the beach. Whilst we were watching we were lucky enough to see dolphins out in the ocean.

Around the rocky corner, there were a pair of Seals basking in the sun, totally unconcerned by the humans all around them, and allowing you to get amazingly close to them.

On the rocks, a lone starfish stood out in bright orange against the black rocks and mussels.

On the cliffs overlooking the water, a number of climbers had strung ropes and were working their way up the rock face.

Seabirds swooped low over the water looking for fish.

And the waves from time to time would crash high on the rocks.

Unsurprisingly with such a beautiful location, a small wedding took place right in front of us.

Venice Beach

2019

If Camden was on the beach in the late '90's it would be Venice Beach now. Alternative is the watchword, with leather, dreadlocks, skateboards, and dyed hair and clothes.

The Legalisation of marijuana has made the substance ubiquitous along the beachfront, the smell is almost overpowering and no doubt helps generate a roaring trade at the various snack shops along the promenade.

Graffiti is everywhere, from the professional to the very amateur and stalls run parallel to the shops on the beachfront offering everything from souvenirs to palm readings to just wishing you positive vibes.

Homelessness is a problem across LA, and it is very obvious along the beachfront the combination of the accepting atmosphere of the local alt-crowd and the temperate climate makes it an ideal spot to camp out.

Muscle beach is here, somewhere I’ve visited in past travels, as is a skateboard park. Walk far enough along the beach and you reach Santa Monica Pier and the more upmarket tourist spots.

The beach, as it faces the pacific looks into the sunset. Whilst there was a lot of cloud cover during my stay, it is always worth stopping to take a look as it can be spectacular.

2010

We started off by going to Venice Beach.

Saw the muscle beach section, and My associate and I got approached by two guys with their music CDs and they gave us a CD of it, and said, just looking for a donation, I gave mine back, saying no thanks. My associate gave him five dollars...

Grand Central Market

Opposite the Bradbury Building and running through the block to Hill Street and the Angel's Flight, the Market offers meals and ingredients to discerning shoppers.

Neon signs are scatted throughout the market and against one wall an entire neon mural shines.

Los Angeles Farmers Market

The LA Farmers Market, and the land on which it sits, has been owned by the Gilmore Family since the late 1800s and continues to be owned and operated by the Family, now in its sixth generation.

Similar to a number of markets in London, in particular parts of Camden or Borough the market has shops selling a range of high end, high-quality foodstuffs as well as a number of restaurants serving excellent foods. 

The Ruben was supurb.

Firebreak Trail

One of the most enjoyable ways up to the Observatory is to park at the bottom and hike up the trail. The shortest route is about a mile, with other trails taking you on longer routes.

The trail cuts through the valleys between some of the hills and slowly climbs up rewarding you with ever-increasing views. From about 2/3 of the way, you can see the Hollywood sign and the Observatory.

At the top, you have a view back into central LA and all of the skyscrapers.

Currently, the scars of the recent wildfires are still visible, but the rains have caused much of the slopes to bloom with life and colour again.