Picasso, Pollock, and Pastrami

  Los Angeles, CA

You will consume!

LA County Museum of Art AKA LACMA

Today we added a day pass to our Tap Transit Card and headed out for adventure.  Our busses took us to Museum Row on the Miracle Mile.  There are seven museums in this area including LACMA, The La Brea Tar Pits, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (Oscars Museum), and The Peterson Automotive Museum.  Today we are visiting LACMA.  We got off the bus and walked through Hancock Park.  

These Mammoths have been stuck here since I was a kid.

The La Brea Tar Pits Museum building looks pretty awesome

So does the Pavilion for Japanese Art (Currently Closed)

This park rocks!

I saw the underside of rock!

The palms are in bloom

After scanning our QR code tickets we headed up to the 3rd floor and entered the Expressionism Exhibit.  They have podcasts you can listen to while you look at the art and they explain why the art is arranged the way it is and why pieces are significant.  It's a really neat way to learn more about the art.  At LACMA the Expressionism Exhibit starts with German Expressionists and then moves through to French and then other countries.  

Ludwig Meidner's Apocalyptic Landscape

Untitled Improvisation III
by Wassily Kandinsky

Again, I failed to note the artist but really liked the image. 
If you know this painting, feel free to leave a comment.

Fernand Léger

Picasso

More Picasso

I think these are the singing busts from The Haunted Mansion

This is not a guy standing in front of a
painting that is not a pipe

I liked the way this sculpture looked with the paintings behind it

The 3rd floor didn't stay Expressionist the whole way, but before it transitioned, I was able to see 2 Jackson Pollocks (not photographed).  I have now seen Pollock in 3 states, which is kind of cool.  Just before the collection turned to Pop Art, there was a mysterious pair of doors with an attendant standing out front.  We walked over and she asked if we would like to enter.  Yea!  We go inside stuff at museums!  The installment is called "Central Meridian (The Garage)" by Michael C. McMillen.  We ended up walking through it twice.  It's 4 rooms full of things you would find in a garage along with other cool stuff.  There was audio playing of an old radio station as well as ambient noises like owls hooting, crickets, and other nature sounds.  

The Dummy behind the wheel

They had a full size Dodge Dart lit with red lights

We have finally seen "The Last Supper" in a museum

The GOAT

Me checking out the installment

Doll limbs hang from the ceiling

Again, Donna being a part of the art.

The next room featured Pop Art.  We got to see another Warhol.  We saw one last year at The Belleview Art Museum.  

Actual Size by Ed Ruscha

My first experience with Roy Lichtenstein was with Donna before we were married. We went to a museum in LA and there was a whole room of his and I really liked them.

Jump Rope by Idelle Weber

5 Arts with 2 People by Jon S

This image took up the whole wall and was really cool

We ended up back in the lobby of the building on the 3rd floor and I noticed giant glass doors "guarded" by an attendant.  I looked carefully and it was a giant elevator!  I walked over to push the call button expecting the attendant to stop me and she didn't!  The elevator arrived at the 3rd floor and a series of doors opened.  Donna and I got in and excitedly rode to the 2nd floor.  The elevator art is called "Shafted" by Barbara Kruger and she has an entire floor of her political work.  The elevator is 21 feet wide, 16 feet high and 9 feet deep.

The camera on my phone stalled out so I didn't get as
much of this sequence as I had hoped for but it's still cool.

Here is one image from the Kruger floor.  A lot of the images
had video components and don't really
work in a blog (even though blogs are the future).

We rode the cool giant elevator (our post museum discussion brought out that this was my favorite part of the museum) to the 1st floor and saw a piece we saw on PBS' Art in the 21st Century (streaming free here).  "Band" by Richard Serra takes up an entire room.  It's a single twisting wall that creates 5 "rooms" within the twists.  Some of the outer walls are very slanted and seem like they should fall.  It was fun interacting with it, especially since we had seen it on PBS.  

Donna standing in one of the "Rooms" formed by the Band

I love a good light installment

I don't get to walk on art often, so when I do I take a photo of my feet

We were getting hungry so we walked over to the food area and decided to not buy a dry turkey sandwich for $14.  Instead, we decided to quickly see the other building and then go to Canter's for lunch.  If the other building had things we really wanted to dive into, we could come back. This wing housed "City of Cinema: Paris 1850–1907" and "Lee Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse"

A collection of Toulouse-Lautrec

Another Toulouse-Lautrec, he only lived to be 37

Are you not entertained?

The fashion and inspirations for McQueen

Birds!

A copy of a 1704 map of Los Angeles

Some of McQueen's work

This is becoming a very long post.  Feel free to just look at the photos.  :)

A Walk and Lunch

After the museum we decided to walk to Canter's Deli.  On the way we stopped at The Original Farmer's Market and looked at all they have to offer.  It's a cool place and we would have eaten there if we didn't have Canter's on our mind.  After that we walked over to The Grove for about 10 seconds.  I guess I didn't know what it was because it's just an open air mall with expensive chain stores.  

Street art on the way to Canter's

The root system on this tree is pretty amazing

This row of housing all had different color doors in bright colors

I liked this sign at the farmers market

And then I saw that it is Danny Trejo's Taco Stand

If we weren't so hungry I would have gotten a beer here

We also didn't buy any ice cream which is a departure for us

Soon we were at Canter's Deli.  This is an LA institution and we have been coming here since before we were married.  It's open 24 Hours.  Our visit was at 2pm on a Tuesday so there wasn't a line.  They have the best Matzo Ball Soup I have ever had.  We got the soup and tried to get a pickled tongue sandwich.  They were out of tongue so we got Pastrami (I was fine with the substitution because it makes the blog post title work better).  Lunch met all expectations (except for the fact that we were accidentally over charged and we didn't notice until we got home that night). 

Not much has changed here and we like it that way

This beautiful lamp!

That beautiful smile!

The menu

New retro art in the halls to the restroom

House made pickles are the best! (or maybe they aren't house made, we'll never know)

Me telling Donna how perfect the pickles are

We started splitting the soup before I could take a photo.  It's okay because I am a terrible food photographer.  I need to take an Instagram Photography class.

We split the Pastrami on Rye

After lunch we went to Kibitz Room.  It's one of those places that you usually can't go to because you are driving and who wants to worry about driving after being at a bar?  This time we were bussing so we went in.  We were the only ones there.  I have been once before when a friend and I were going to a concert near by.  It wasn't empty that time.

You can see the history in this sign

My beer on the Canter's Cocktail Napkin (we took one for our scrap book)

Chilling

Donna enjoying kibitzing with me in The Kibitz Room

On stage at The Kibitz Room, World Famous Blogger, JON!

After The Kibitz Room it was time to head home and hug Francis.  The bus ride was pretty uneventful.  We rode by New Beverly Cinema, a revival movie house we went to before we were married that has since been purchased by Quentin Tarantino and lovingly run.  They run old movies and tout the fact that the movies are "On 35mm Film!"  We had hoped to go there but we didn't have enough motivation to see the movies that were playing on days we had free and I don't think we would last an entire midnight showing.  

We made it home, fed and doted on Francis, and started watching the last season of The Expanse.  It was a great day.  Time to rest up for tomorrow's adventures!

The sign was accurate.  Glad we didn't have to sit in this on the bus

I ate a Choco Taco yesterday.  Check it out here.