Catching Up Some More

Not last Thursday, but the Thursday before (February 19), Jody and I went to see the Deaf West Theater/ Center Theatre Group co-production of Pippin at the Mark Taper Forum.

The show was enjoyable, if bumpy; the two actors (one singing, one signing) who played Pippin were great, and Berthe and Catherine and Charlemagne were all wonderful. Unfortunately, the Leading player neither led nor played (I'm really surprised he was even cast), Fastrada was just okay, and the production design was both obtrusive and scattered.

Jody and I were visiting the Music Center (officially known as the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County) for the first time. The Music Center is comprised of three major performing venues: The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Ahmanson Theatre. The first building opened in 1964, and the latter two in 1967.

You might also be interested to know that the three main buildings at the heart of New York's Lincoln Center—Avery Fisher Hall, the New York State Theater (now the David H. Koch Theater), and the Metropolitan Opera House—were opened in 1962, 1964, and 1966, respectively....each building's execution occuring a year or two before its LA counterpart.

The Music Center buildings were all designed by Los Angeles architect Welton Becket. Not to take anything away from Mr. Becket, but do ya think maybe he saw Lincoln Center at some point during his planning process?

Do We Have To Order Them Together?

This is the first of a series of posts I hope to make about fun things we see around town. I'm creating a new tag for it, Landmarks and Signs.

I pass this sign four or five times a week, and it never fails to give me a chuckle. My favorite part of it is the "OK"-signalling, toque-wearing chef, whom we might more readily associate with, I dunno, Italian food or something.

Also, the building is great. Clearly airlifted from the top of a ski run somewhere.

Brrr.

I'm sure the geniuses who recommended radiant ceiling heat to the architects of my apartment building convinced them that it was an incredible leap forward in technology that would warm the building efficiently for years to come.

Hardly.

What actually happens is, you go to bed freezing despite having turned the heat on half an hour beforehand. If you walk around the room during that half hour, your head is warm, but everything below your shoulders is freezing. And then the next morning, you wake up dry-mouthed and roasting like a thanksgiving turkey.

Weirdly enough, this is not unique to my building. From what I've heard, there were a few years in the 70s when everyone in California was doing it.

Bizarre.

Mind you, these overnight temperatures are still not FREEZING!. More like the mid-40s. Cool enough that you want a pair of wooly socks. Or an oversized cat.

__________

Day off.