Real "Jeffersonian" from Bones

Bones fans will recognize this as the establishing shot used for the Jeffersonian.

It is in fact the Wallis Annenberg Building for Science Learning and Innovation at Exposition Park right by the rose garden. I knew I recognized it!

Casa Romantica

Today I grabbed two friends (Lisa and Debbie) and headed South. I didn't have a plan we were just driving along the magnificent coast, enjoying the sunshine and good conversation.

Then I remembered a really beautiful historic home in San Clemete called, Casa Romantica. It is the former home of San Clemente founder Ole Hanson.

From the front its an unassuming home, with a keyhole-shaped entry way. You are ushered into a beautiful grassy courtyard in classic Spanish hacienda style. However the money shot is the view of the ocean from the backyard. High above San Clemente Pier it has an unfettered view of the ocean. You can hear the waves crash but you're far removed from all the people and street noise.

The house has been restored as a cultural center and offers a glimpse into Southern California history, architecture, ecology and culture. Each room is beautifully restored and also houses a small library. It would be a great place to go read. They are also in the process of building an ampitheatre.

Casa Romantica's street address: 415 Avenida Granada, San Clemente, CA 92672
HOURS: Tuesday 1-4 p.m., Wednesday thru Sunday 11-4 p.m., Closed Mondays.

Hollywood Museum

Sick of Britneygate Debbie and I were craving a little of the glamorous spirit of Hollywood past so we trekked up to the Hollywood Museum in the historic Max Factor Building.

There are four floors of Hollywood artifacts and memorabilia. Even walking into the building you can feel the history that lived there - the stars that were made there. It's amazing.

Standing at the door to the museum is a mafioso looking individual who appears to be the doorman. I don't know what his purpose is, perhaps to lure in tourists, make deals on the street, no idea. Inside we were greeted by a woman who I'm sure was alive when Max Factor walked the halls. She took our money and our cameras. That's right, no photos anywhere in the building and to make sure you don't, you're forced to check your camera at the door.

A little shaken at the thought of leaving our precious cameras with a total stranger we pressed on. Once you leave the beautiful art deco lobby, dressed in white and pink marble echoing the building's glory days, there are two floors above you to explore and one beneath you.

The second floor is mainly devoted to costumes by the stars in well-known films. It was so amazing how different the clothing looked in person versus on the screen. It was much smaller and the colors were odd, especially for early technicolor process. For example, a costume from White Christmas is white on screen but in person its actually gold. I guess the lights completely washed it out.

The third floor is an odd assortment of Hollywood memorabilia, ranging from the gold sheath Elizabeth Taylor wore in Cleopatra to an amazing collection of clothing and items belonging to Marilyn Monroe. There is no rhyme or reason to the display of the collection and in many instances there is no description or explation where it comes from. There was no one from the museum around to answer questions either.

A trip to the basement, though scary, is worth the fright. They have the cellblock from Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon. The entire set is on hand including all original props. It was eerie. Next to it is an exhibit on Egypt and memorabilia from Elvira, quite the odd combination.

We spent about 45 to an hour on each floor. There is so much too look at and digest. It really is the glory of Hollywood past with a sprinkling of the present, just to make you feel like you're a part of it.

My favorite part of the tour were the famous Max Factor make-up rooms on the ground floor. Being the first to realize color theory Max painted rooms to flatter the complexion of women of a certain hair color. It's a cool blue for blondes, peach for brownettes, pink for brunettes, and mint green for redheads. It is said that it was Max Factor who made Lucille Ball a redhead and Marilyn Monroe a blonde.

It's amazing but I looked best in the pink and mint green rooms. So Max would have let me be a redhead or a brunette, but never a blonde or brownette (lighter shades of brown). All original props from these famous make-up rooms have been restored from original Max Factor make-up to mirrors, lights and the photos of the famous stars who got made up there.

Also on display on the ground floor is Cary Grant's Rolls Royce, the largest autograph collection in the world and a film about great Hollywood performances and actors.

There are so many artifacts in this museum its hard to digest the fact that you're looking at Bob Hope's golf clubs, next to the first editing machine, next to the body cast from Puffy the dog in There's Something About Mary. It's insane. (For a semi-complete list of artifacts on display click here.

If you're a fan of Hollywood glamour, this museum is a must see. It is extremely uncommercial. They don't even have a gift shop. But maybe that makes it more pure somehow. Who knows. I loved it.

Cost: $15
Hours: Open Thursday through Sunday, from 10 AM to 5 PM. Closed Monday through Wednesday.
Location: The Hollywood Museum: 1660 N. Highland Ave, Hollywood, CA 90028 (323) 464 7776

Cars, Vegetables, and the Hollywood Sign

Our adventure today was to LA to visit the Petersen Automotive Museum, The Grove and Hollywood and Highland.

I come from a family that loves cars. My dad used to be a mechanical engineer. We frequent dealerships just to see the new cars, even when we're not going to buy. We go to car shows and I used to work in the automotive aftermarket. Cars rock! So the Petersen Automotive Museum was a must see for us.

I have to say this was the best museum I've been to in a while. It does an amazing job of showcasing the cars in their context. It explores the world they lived in. You see cars from their inception up through the 60s in the permanent exhibition. You watch the gas pump and freeways in LA evolve.

What was amazing to me was that as early as 1917 they were exploring hybrids. They didn't have the technology they needed to make it work. What was also interesting was that those early cars got 50 miles to the gallon, even through the 40s. Those cars weighed significantly more than our cars do today and they got 50 mpg and we can't manage that with all of our technology, something is wrong with that picture.

Other exhibits on display now are Hollywood Cars, Convertibles and Microcars. If you like cars you really need to visit. Admission is $10 and parking is $6.

For lunch we headed over to the LA Farmer's Market on 3rd and Fairfax, just a few blocks from the museum. Established in 1934 the market has a long history of bring the community together around food. You can buy your vegetables, eat a crepe, taco or New Orleans gumbo. We opted for Du-Parrs a family-owned restaurant established in 1936. Their homemade food was delicious. They have a bakery onsite so the bread and desserts were fantastic.

Then we wandered down the block to The Grove to see the fountain show, shop at Crate & Barrell and we listened to a band on the grassy knoll. The band was called The Copycats and they were really good. Lots of celebrities like to shop there but we didn't see any.

Needing a fix of the weird and fanciful we decided to visit Hollywood and Highland. Out in full force were people dressed up like Shrek, Harry Potter, vampires, Spiderman, SpongeBob and other characters to make money taking pictures with tourists. It works.

We opted instead to have a cream puff at Beard Papa, see the Hollywood Sign (directly behind the shopping complex), and visit the Grauman's Chinese Theatre. I don't know what's so fascinating about seeing celebrity hand and shoe prints but it is. I think its because they're all so amazingly small.

Our last stop was at the Roosevelt Hotel, right across the street from Graumans. Knowing that is where the first Oscar's were held I wanted to check it out. The hotel was home away from home for many stars back when Hollywood was still glamorous.It has been completely restored the Spanish Colonial style and its luster. However I don't think its as beautiful as The Biltmore in downtown Los Angeles.

After three full days of siteseeing we're exhausted. Tomorrow we're going to sleep in and lay low.

Getty Villa

NOTE: I just went back to the Villa today and took the Orientation tour. There is no need to take both the Architecture and Garden tour and the Orientation tour. They overlap a lot. Instead I recommend getting in line early for the spotlight tour lead by the gallery teachers, not the docents. We showed up at 2:45 for the 3 p.m. tour and it was full. So sad.

June 24, 2007 - On Saturday Ty and I went north to Pacific
Palisades to visit J. Paul Getty's renovated Villa.

It is modeled after the ancient Villa dei Papiri, believed to have been the home of Julius Caesar's father-in-law, buried by the explosion of Mt. Vesuvius. Now the Getty Villa is dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome and Etruria.

The grounds are designed to resemble an archeological site. On the top level there are modern buildings and a cafe with outdoor tables. We travel down into the site the architects built layers of sedementary rock into the canyon walls to represent time as we descend upon the Roman home beautifully restored and alive to tell its story.

The Villa is dedicated to showing life as the romans lived. Built around a large courtyard with small galleries that would have been rooms for the family. The walkways are lined with busts of individuals known by the family, serving as conversation pieces for their guests as they toured the home.

The gardens are spectacular. They have gone to painstaking detail to plant only those flowers and herbs that would have been in existance in Roman times.

We watched a 12 min overview of the building and renovation of the Villa and also took the 40 minute Garden and Architecture Tour. I highly recommend it as a great introduction to the museum and its vision. There are also other tours available that go into greater depth about the collections.

One thing I loved was that every tour is given a receiver and headphones. You can wander up to 100 feet away from your group and still hear what the docent is saying. It gives greater opportunity to explore and not have to travel through the musueum in a clump straining to hear. Great feature.

The museum has 44,000k pieces of antiquity and 1,200 are on display, so no two visits to the Villa will be the same. Log onto getty.edu to request your free tickets. I would plan a few weeks in advance as tickets go quickly. But the great thing about a limited number of tickets per day is that the museum never feels too crowded. We arrived at 11 a.m. and wandered around, took a tour, leisurely strolled through exhibits and ate in the cafe and left around 4 p.m. We didn't feel rushed. It was actually a very relaxing experience.

Parking is $8.

Pavilion of Wings

DSC00073
Originally uploaded by greenbeangirl74

This past weekend Erika and I ventured to Natural History Museum in Los Angeles to see the Pavilion of Wings. With her KCRW discount we got in for free, how sweet is that.

The Pavilion itself was amazing! Full of brightly colored bushes and flowers to attract and feed the butterflies there are literally hundreds and hundreds of butterflies flying all around. I felt like a kid again in complete wonder and awe. Most of the time you just stand there in stunned silence as you watch these beautiful creatures flutter around so delicately.

The exhibits shows the life cycle of the butterfly from caterpillar through its metamorphisis. Every week new species are released. The museum lets people in on the half hour but since we went on a weekend it was still really crowded.

The Pavilion is open through November 3rd. There is an extra $3 fee for the Pavilion of Wings in addition to the museum entrance fee of $9.
900 Exposition Blvd. (between Vermont and Figueroa.)
Los Angeles, CA 90007 Phone: (213) 763-DINO

Trip to See Ronnie and Nancy

Today Debbie and I loaded up the CRV and went north to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA. We thought it would be nice to travel back to a time when our enemy was clearly defined and the US was more hopeful about the future as we achieved "peace through strength" in the Reagan era.

The library is out in the middle of no where, so it's peaceful and serene. It does a fantastic job of showcasing our 40th president's love of horses, the southwest and his beginnings in Hollywood.
However, there is an incredible lack of presidential memorabilia. Most of his story is told through a series of 5 minute film vignettes. There are few physical items from his presidency - letters, phone calls we can hear, treaties signed, etc. It felt like a giant political commercial for Ronald Reagan or better yet a movie trailer.

We do have the requisite cases of White House China, gowns Nancy wore and a booth from their favorite restaurant. The Air Force One pavilion is interesting as was the replica of the Oval office, but overall the place lacks depth and it wasn't very interactive.

For a man that orchestrated the end of the Cold War he is reduced to key sound bites and the number of miles he travelled on his plane meeting dignitaries. It isn't quite the picture of the man I expected.

Then again maybe that was the spirit of the age - progress and optimism. During his presidency our confidence as a nation soared, just fast as the interest rates and inflation plummeted. We were in a boom and felt secure as our military was strengthened. Maybe I couldn't connected to the laisse faire attitude of the 80s as we rested on our laurels of our longest recorded period of peacetime prosperity without recession or depression. Knowing what comes next the nostalgia just wasn't enough. So we left a little disappointed, but still glad we went.

To redeem the 90 mile drive to the Valley (from Orange County) we stopped at Olvera St on the way back to eat a churro and visit Union Station.

Then we topped the day off with a trip to Versailles, my favorite restaurant in Los Angeles, to have some Cuban food with Erika, another of my favorite things in Los Angeles.

All in all a fantastic day.

Bible and the People at the Huntington

Today Joanna, Erika and went to the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena to see the new installation The Bible and the People in the Boone Gallery.

This new exhibit traces the evolution of the Bible from the 11th Century through today. The written Word of God started hand-written art only available to a select few. While the pages were beautifully adorned the books, chapters and verses were inaccurate and out of order. The most reliable translation was what was passed down from priest to his congregation through an oral message of memorized passages.

We watch its transformation from an isolated word to one possessed by millions. The invention of the printing press exploded the ability to actually have your own copy. It was now something everyone could own in their home, not just visit on Sunday. Now there are many translations, kinds and it exists in most every language on the planet.

It's a fascinating study of how this one book has transformed and metamorphized to meet the needs of those who read it.

After visiting the exhibit we had tea and wandered through the rest of the gardens visiting the new children's garden , checking out the new conservatory and our favorite, the rose garden.

I highly recommend tea at the Huntington, for about $15 you're treated to three different kinds of tea (China Caemon is delicious), and a tasty buffet of cheese, crackers, little sandwiches and all kinds of desserts.

You'll need the walk around the grounds to work off your tea and the rose garden is the perfect place. One of the great things about all of the unexpected rain we've had lately is the flowers are back in bloom. We noticed some unusual names for roses - like mischief, bridesmaid, and sexy girl. Sounds more like screen names than flowers but hey who am I to judge??

So we decided to name some of the roses as follows:

• Erika named a beautiful orange rose - comquat joy. Just because she likes the sound of it.
• Joanna called a stunning pink rose - Oops, because when you make a mistake you blush that exact shade of pink.
• I named the ever popular red rose - Atonement (most of the time a girl gets a red rose is because some guy messed up).