Shorts!

I am wearing shorts! WAHOO!

Moving

The bride has joined us and we are off.

Jet lag

My sleep schedule is all messed up. I have been trying to keep on East Coast time so I’ll be awake during the inauguration, but it’s proving rather difficult.

Ceremony

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Boarding the mystery bus

“I’ve got an invitation / To make a reservation…”

Bagels and transportation

We have obtained a great quantity of bagels at Brooklyn Bagel

I also learned from our host some very interesting information about the history of public transportation in LA. Apparently there was a regional trolley network that went from downtown LA all the way out to places like Silver Lake where we are now. In 1948, GM created a fake company for the purpose of buying the rail system from the government, and shut the whole thing down within two weeks, citing the supposed need for a bus system that would move where the people did. This is clearly nonsense; historically, infrastructure such as transportation has dictated were population centers arise, not the other way around. If you create a reliable and efficient means of getting from place to place, people will use it.
But the historical precedent set by GM has apparently endured to this day; LA’s public transportation is primarily provided by buses, and there are still arguments about increasing its reach with revenue from tolls, meeting with heavy opposition.

Now the crazy guy who paints the house numbers on the curb in from of houses is here, giving his theories in eveything from synagogues to Jesse Jackson. What an excellent morning.

Recap

My father and I spent several hours this afternoon in The Museum of Jurassic Technology, which is an incredibly odd place. The best simple way to describe it is as a museum about the idea of museums; sort of a simultaneous parody of and homage to curated exhibits, or as a monument to human attempts to make sense of the world.

There are all sorts of weird things in it. Diagrams of geometric logic operators:

Strange electrical doodads:

Exhibits about string games:

A tea room, with a samovar:

Mice on toast, as part of the room full of physical models or dioramas of old folk remedies

An entire room dedicated to Napoleon. Pictured here is what I think is an oud, and what I know is a painting, although I’m not sure of whom:

There were many additional things that I couldn’t even begin to list. One of them was an entire room of letters that people had written to the Mount Wilson astronomical observatory when it first opened in the 1930s. Some of them were commendations, some were asking for money, some were total crackpot theories. I got a shirt that says “No one may ever have the same knowledge again – Letters to the Mount Wilson Observatory The Museum of Jurassic Technology”.

What I think sums up the place pretty nicely, though, wasn’t even an exhibit. In the lobby, I observed that the display on the cash register at the check-in desk, which was below the counter, and could thus only be seen by the cashier, had the following text scrolling across it:

From the familiar to the unfamiliar
Like a chain of flowers

To me, this is sort of symbolic of the whole place. Rather than have a “message” or something, the museum forces viewers to find their own. It is almost as if someone said, “I have a brilliant idea that I don’t want to tell anyone. I will build a strange museum to make people try to decide what it could be.” This, I suppose, implies that there is a central idea to the museum that you have to “figure out”, which I don’t really think is the case, but there is a level of concealment present.

After the museum, we went to dinner with my relatives at a rather loud and packed open-air mall. I obtained what may be the largest pickle known to mankind:

Note the relative size of the pickle compared to my hand. Or should I say the relative size of the MANPICKLE?!

While at dinner, I articulated what it is that makes that type of place (the mall, not the Museum) rather overwhelming and unattractive to me. It is the feeling that the place was designed to make people do a certain thing, and that you are doing it. Make no mistake, I don’t have a problem with functionality. My favorite places are those that serve their purposes well; they are comfortable, efficient, and pleasant to exist in. But there is a difference between this type of efficiency and the feeling that a space is designed to create needs rather than address them.

I did have a very good time, though; I met my aunt’s soon-to-be-husband (fiance, although that implies an indeterminate time [they are getting married the day after tomorrow (hence my being here)]), who is very interesting and I like very much, and I saw some relatives I haven’t seen in a while.

Also, I am still enjoying the weather. It is still unfair that some people get to have this weather all the time.

Plants

There are all sorts of plants here. Strange cacti that look rather like Cousin It from The Addams Family. There are also orange trees. Fresh-picked oranges are amazing. These are incredibly juicy and soft, with many seeds.

Out of the Closet

A thrift store like any other, except that all the money goes to an AIDS charity.
It appears that all thrift stores share the same smell. It is a necessary characteristic.

Evening

It was wonderful to get to see relatives I haven’t seen in a while at the brunch, and to meet more of the Taubers (Joel [the fianc]‘s family), whom I enjoyed greatly.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy small children. I have been having a great time with all of my little cousins. Eli and I did some building with these nifty sets of magnetic balls and rods which can be stuck together in all sorts of ways. I attempted to build a hypercube, but was thwarted by time, material availability, and the physical limits of the pieces. So it goes.

The dinner was a great success. I met and talked to many interesting people. And the food was FABULOUS. The lamb was not to be believed. Also, the restaurant had very interesting architecture.

Tomorrow morning we’ll be hanging out here at the house, and in the afternoon we go to the wedding, which is in an unknown location. We all get on a bus; no one but the bride, groom, and a couple of their closest friends know where we are going. It looks to be a lot of fun.

Brunch

It is not really the right time for brunch, but my mother insightfully points out that people expect a different type of food when you say “lunch”, and the food here is of a distinctly brunchish variety (bagels, lox, etc.).

Wrestle

Warmth

It is SO warm here. I love New England weather, but it is good to get a break from it sometimes.

Return of the office chair

Does the chair retain its purpose even when empty?

PR

A brilliant marketing campaign for the HBO series Big Love (which I have never seen). You plug in headphones (which they are handing out), and it plays clips of what each person in the picture is thinking.

Office chair?

A rather strange location.

Lost and Found

Shooting the pilot:

Lime

Fresh-picked and -squeezed limeade is officially the best drink ever.

K!

Fun

I am almost indignant that other people get to have this much fun in January. The weather here is ideal for comfort.