LA October 2013

Los Angeles October 2013,

During a recent business trip to Anaheim California I elected to stay over a couple of extra days so I could have a look at Los Angeles. I am somewhat familiar with Northern California but have never been to Southern California.

I decided to stay in what is described as downtown Los Angeles, which sort of meant I was in a area very focused on business but just a few blocks away to some amazing and vibrant communities, which to me was not unlike parts of London.

First off the architecture of downtown,  I was having lunch in a plaza area and I looked up and saw this huge tower block which just looking at it was vertigo inducing.

It was a little unnerving to know you were eating lunch under such a huge structure, and I thought this building is such a bland statement about corporations that makes them so unapproachable and resonates something very challenging about corporate culture

I also realised I was just couple of blocks from Frank Gherry’s Disney concert Hall…this looked really good in the autumn sun, I was surprised that it was now ten years old and still looked on the cutting edge, and a complete opposite to the tower blocks in the downtown area. The way the building flowed around itself and was part of the surrounding distant landscape was quite a statement

Next door to the hotel was the LA museum of contemporary art (MOCA), (http://www.moca.org) a

new space for LA’s contemporary art scene Some of what you would expect and some not I was impressed with the permanent collections which were generally what you would expect but well presented and added some legitimacy the museum. I also liked some of the video installations ( albeit the video of the nubile artist ‘humping’ a museum wall was …) and recent purchase from artists within the LA area it was encouraging to see that artists were being supported by MOCA and that MOCA itself was a focus for contemporary art in LA.

Of course I had to walk a bit further to see the iconic town hall, featured in so many movies. I still remember it from the original movie version of War of the Worlds getting blown to pieces! The area also served as a useful backdrop for wedding photographs

I walked further ‘downtown’ and found myself in an older district that was very different. Very diverse and busy with lots going on gave a whole new meaning to the concept of pop up shops. There were huge number of shops dealing in gold & silver jewellery busy, bustling and vibrant.

I then found myself in the fashion district, which was like a massive market with shops spilling onto the pavement and huge arrays of clothing, each shop had very loud music, which equated to a discordant cacophony. Plenty of shop workers trying to get you to stop and buy, but really good fun.

A couple of block away & I found the staples centre, a massive sports arena which was in complete contrast to messy, chaotic areas it was so close to

On my last day I was determined to have a good look around the Los Angeles county Museum of Art, this is a world class museum with a great collection all too numerous to mention, needless to say I had a good time in the museum and really enjoyed the later collection of American Art of the mid to late twentieth century but equally I was very interested in the Mexican art and film of the early twentieth century

All in all I enjoyed my brief visit to LA it came across as a warm, friendly and diverse city. I didn't feel that the City was dangerous and I enjoyed the messy and chaotic eclectic mix of the downtown areas..yes it lacked a true 'centre' but then did it really need it?