Street Art, Cars and Oscars

 

 Our last day in L.A. After check-out at the Hoxton Hotel in downtown we drove through these genuinly colorful, loud Mexican neighborhoods with plenty of shops and production sites, market halls, distribution centers, etc., called Fashion, Toy and Flower Districts. It has not much to do with Haute Couture, it’s mostly cheap merchandise, meticulously presented and mostly catering to the Mexican taste, I think. Fabrics and clothing, shoes and blankets, toys, flowers and decorative things, little markets and vendors with food, this all causes a typical Mexican feeling – much more than on Olvera Street yesterday! This area seems to be a distribution center for fresh food in general, for flowers etc., and has huge industrial dwellings for whole-sale merchandise.

On to the Arts District, another "up&coming" neighborhood which received its name from the many murals (photos below) of famous mural artists and galleries there. Originally, an industrial area, there is now street art on the walls around parking lots and on houses, there are cafés, restaurants, a brewery, shops and more. We had breakfast in the „Box Café“ - good but pricey,,, - and watched the mostly young, hip people living with their dogs in the new apartment buildings around.

 

This first photo, on the left below, was taken in Downtown, closeby our hotel, it shows Kobe Briant, a famous L.A. Lakers' player who died in an helicopter accident in 2020. You'll find memories of him everywhere in town. The right photo was taken in the Arts District and shows him as well.

More mural art in the Arts District:

It was another day behind the wheel. It took us quite a bit of time to get to the Petersen Museum (right photo, in front) where we had pre-arranged, time-framed tickets. Distance wasn’t a big deal, but all the red lights were horrible! They seem to be never somehow coordinated in this city. Spent about two hours each in the Petersen Automotive Museum and in the new Academy Museum, across the street (in the background of the pic on the right). 

Both are excellent in their own way: one shows vehicles of all kinds and times and offers special exhibitions, like one about electric cars and Tesla's history. Besides the regular exhibition halls on three floors (photo below),  mostly sorted for topics and types, there is „The Vault“ (far below) with much, much more cars (and an extra, even higher entrance fee). Would easily have found me a new car there - or rather a „classic“ car like the little black Corvette on a photo below.

 

 

The Academy Museum - which opened in 2019  in the historic Wilshire May Company building, built in 1939, called "Saban Building" now, a Streamline Moderne landmark in the heart of the Miracle Mile district. Connected to the Saban Building via glass bridges is a new nglass-and-concrete Sphere Building with a theater and an open-air Terrace with gorgeous views towards the Hollywood Hills (with the sign).  

The museum is dedicated to the movie industry, and, in particular, to the Oscars. Interesting exhibitions focus on different aspects of movie-making, e.g. sound, costumes, make-up, hair, casting, location, etc., there was an exhibition about Black movies and actors, about the Oscar award ceremonies (which takes place annually in Hollywood's Dolby Theater) and Oscar winners, among others. Instructive and well done - said by somebody who is not a real movie-fan!

 

View from Terrace, note Hollywood sign in the background, close to the horizon, center-right.

From there on we were sort of stuck in traffic on our way through Little Ethiopia, Culver City to Inglewood, where we wanted to see the new SoFi American Football Stadium (L.A. Rams and Chargers), neighboring the old Forum, where we watched our first Lakers Baskeball game in the early 1980ies. Didn’t find parking, but at least passed by and traffic was slow anyway.

 

On to the Pacific Ocean – westwards we went: El Segundo, purely industrial and rather ugly, then: Manhattan Beach. We went for a stroll through this quaint little seaside town. Not too different from many others along Hwy. 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, though. It’s said that beach volleyball was invented here. There were some surfers to be seen from the pier with its old Aquarium at the end, otherwise the usual: a main street with shops, boutiques, restaurants, galleries and real estate agents’ offices, a pier, beaches and "seaside" feeling.

Bought provisions for dinner and the flight to DC in an inexpensive Mexican supermarket in Inglewood before we checked in into our not-so-luxurious Motel 6 Studios in Lawndale, closeby LAX, the airport. Felt like in the old days when we were traveling as students, always on a tight budget. Room was huge, hall-like, furniture and decor rather sparse, but, well, got up early, and it was okay.