So here I am, the night before I move to the RT hotel, ruminating. Which did I like the best? They both had strong points, and both had lousy points.
First, the LA hotel really really beats the SF hotel, and yet they both had the same stars (three and a half). The SF hotel room was small, faced a brick wall, had basic pine furniture and a small TV on top of the closet, in which nothing would hang. Too short. Nice bathroom, though. Very clean and a great location.
The LA hotel, the Hollywood Hotel on North Vermont, is great. Lovely room, worthy of a four star, decent bathroom, more channels on the TV (I do the research so you don’t have to). Absolutely lousy area, but it’s doable, because there’s a Metro station across the road. So all you need to see of the area is the road as you cross it. Mind you, I didn’t really see a decent area in LA, and, believe me, I traveled around a lot. I’ll come to that later. I saw places where you’d have to be wealthy to live there, and places that seemed seedy and not very safe. But nothing in between, the kind of area I live in at home, respectable homes, safe area. Where do the teachers and the librarians and, for that matter, the authors live?
I went to the Getty and to the LA County Art gallery. Not deeply impressed by the art collections, and I kind of collect galleries. I’ve been to most of the major ones, though I still have to do the Getty in Florida, the Russian ones and the ones in Copenhagen and Vienna. The galleries in LA held one, maybe two, major Old Master works, a few minor works by major figures, and a lot of “who”? The Getty, however, was a wonderful place. Breathtaking. And its collection of decorative arts is nothing short of first class, primary, important people. As are some of the pieces in LACMA. Maybe I’m spoiled. In both places they are beautifully presented, but the LACMA paintings have mostly been overcleaned, and I wept for them. What you’ve removed, you can’t put back. Stripped. The Getty paintings were more sympathetically restored and conserved.
The modern art collection in LACMA is better, but like the old master collections, there are some notable absences. I haven’t seen one Constable, and if there’s an artist you need to see face to canvas, so to speak, it’s Constable. Nothing prepares you for that punch between the eyes that you get from the real thing. No Caravaggios, and only a couple of Turners, but since he tried to buy them all back toward the end of his life, that’s not entirely shocking. And no Leonardos, Raphaels and only one tiny but exquisite Holbein.
The decorative arts? First class. Some important pieces by great masters, and beautifully conserved. Porcelain and furniture a must, and if you’re into those, especially earlier and French pieces, you’re in for a great time.
Anyway, enough. What LA is good at is what LA does. I only went on one studio tour, the one at Warner Brothers, because Casablanca is my favourite film and I couldn’t resist, but although it wasn’t cheap, it was worth every penny. Our tour guide, Bob, found out what our group wanted to see before we left for the tour, and he made sure we saw them. So we didn’t bother with Central Perk, for instance, because none of us were Friends fans, but we saw other things, like the Casablanca sound stage and the stage for the new series, Harry’s Law, which one of our group really liked, and we all found interesting.
Bob, who acts, and also speaks several languages, was an engaging host who appeared genuinely interested in us and what we wanted to do. Because I missed the group I was supposed to be on (transport woes) they put me on another one, so I was alone. Bob got me to ride shotgun and made sure I didn’t feel lost or alone. Way to go, Bob and thanks for a great couple of hours that I wouldn’t have missed for the world.
LA is also good for shopping and eating out. The eating out experiences were fun, like the one at the Hard Rock café. Great drinks, by the way. Have a Roadie, so to speak. Vodka, vodka, and cherries. Nice. My second roadie was a lot sweeter than my first, and you can take that any way you want to, except that I only had one drink at the Hard Rock café.
The Farmers’ Market was fun, and I had my second cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory on a balcony overlooking the main shopping area. Lovely. The first was at the top of Macy’s in San Francisco.
Now the really bad. Transport. I don’t drive, and while that can be tricky in other cities, but doable, LA is awful. The metro is fine, but half empty. It doesn’t seem to have a rush hour. I’ve never, ever seen an urban underground railway system so deserted. The buses are pretty horrible and they seem to run when they want to. I’ve met some of the rudest people I’ve ever encountered driving LA buses. But I used the English technique, and it worked out for me.
The English technique? If I told you, I’d have to kill you. But if you’re at RT, ask, and I might tell you without the lethal part.
Getting cabs and drivers? Good luck. Either nowhere to be found, or exorbitant or both. I’m about two miles, from the RT hotel, but when I asked for a quote for a driver, I was told somewhere between $40 and $60. Wow.
So next is the main event and Internet that costs almost as much as gold. My Internet at the SF hotel was reasonable, it worked out to around $5 a day, and here at the Hollywood Hotel, it’s free in the rooms. And I got breakfast at both places. The Westin Bonaventure? $15 a day, plus that’s just for your room. If you want it in public areas, it’s another $15 a day.
Daylight robbery, I call it.
As for the rest? See you there!
