Trip to LA! (part I - MOCA)
Er, I started to write this as one entry, but it got waaaaaaaaay too long, so I'll split it into two, LOL.First off, two things I would not have survived without last night:
- Umbrella
- Knee-high boots
It rained like a bitch in downtown LA last night. It was alright in the afternoon, which was great cause I could wander around and look for appropriate bus stops without much hesitation. After the torrential downpour started (complete with thunder and lightning directly over my head) I could only pick a corner with a bus sign on it and hope to God that the right bus would come. Eventually. After half an hour it did, and man, never was I so glad to see a bus in my life. (Well, okay, maybe the first time I went to LA by myself ranks higher because of the crazy dude waiting at the bus stop with me. This time, it was only the rain and the fact that it was late and I was tired and I had to get home.)
But, I'm getting ahead of myself. I took a bus from Claremont to MOCA mid-afternoon, cause from what I've read, Staples Center is a shady place to be when you're by yourself, and the event I was going to see was in the evening and I wanted to get there semi-early but didn't want to be wandering around the shady arena for two hours.
Heck, the entirety of downtown LA is supposed to be a shady place when you're by youself at night. I had three people tell me to be safe or something of that nature during my adventure. Maybe I am crazy, or maybe it's because nobody expects a young woman to wait around alone for a bus downtown at night. Somebody upstairs must have been looking out for crazy ol' me, cause it typhooned and all of the shady people were nowhere to be seen, LOL.
So! Yes, MOCA. It's a lot smaller than I thought it would be, and there are some really strange things, and there are some really neat things. There's an exhibit now called "Visual Music," where the artists take inspiration from musical pieces or sounds and incorporate it into their work. Music has always been an emotional inspiration to me, probably even more so than art, so this was definitely something I didn't want to miss. I was a little bit disappointed since a lot of them seemed to be a bunch of flashing colors and shapes that I couldn't relate to, and made me dizzy otherwise. However, there were some pieces which were fascinating - Thomas Wilfred's "sculptured light" films (or...whatever they're really called) were amazing. Three screens were in a dark room, showing what looked like glowing, colored smoke moving slo-mo across a black background. It was nebulous, dreamlike, and awe-inspiring. Three of us sat on the floor and stared at the wall, absolutely transfixed. There was another film - I don't think I wrote down the artist's name, darn.. - which were a group of constantly-moving points of light forming circular shapes, reminiscent of a mandala. The entire film was done with Indian music, which matched quite well with the moving shapes. I too was transfixed with this piece...until it moved on to the next film, which was seizure-inducing, LOL.
All in all, I don't think really abstract, contemporary art is my cup of tea, but still, you realize how important color and composition are in pieces where there really isn't much going on. A modern abstract artist must be able to know when a piece is finished, or when it needs something more. Finish too early, or add too much, and that can ruin the work.
After MOCA closed, my next goal was to eat, since I was starved and knew that whatever was offered at Staples Center was going to seriously break the bank. My meal at some fast-food chicken place also burned a larger hole in my pocket than expected, but it was good chicken (despite there being not much of it), and the yam was yummy. (Yay for yams!) Unfortunately, the bus stop was somewhere obscure, where a bunch of streets intersected haphazardly, so I must have missed the bus I planned to get on. As time passed, I was starting to worry whether or not I would be able to make the show in time. I was seriously contemplating the possibility of walking the +1 mile to the arena (in my high-heel boots, haha) but then a Dash bus headed for the convention center arrived and I figured I had nothing to lose and asked. I must have seemed really concerned, cause the bus driver let me on and told me not to worry about the fare. I even offered to pay him when I got off, but he said, "Don't worry, it's on me! Be safe!" So yes, apparently being a crazy girl gets you pity points from people, LOL.
posted by sugarfiend @ 11:52 AM
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