PARALLEL WORLDS

Sometimes I have the impression that our society, especially in the big US cities, is like divided in parallel worlds. Worlds that never meet. Or that meet very rarely. And when they meet it is always strange. There is the world of the rich, and the world of the poor. There is the world of the healthy and the world of the people with serious health problems. There is the world that take public transportation and the one that never takes it. Last weekend for me was one of these moments when I had to look inside a parallel world. I went to see the Union Station, the LA train station.

Strange to think about it, but LA has a train station. And as a matter of fact it has also an underground network. The station is really nice. It has also been used for several movies. Once I was inside, I found also also a "mystery writer", seeking estimators ...... an other parallel world? I think so. I just took this picture and I didn't bother him. But probably I should have done it. I think I would have learned something.

30,000 YEAR OLD BONES

LA is such an incredible city. Live here sometimes is a dream, sometimes is a nightmare. I guess it is a matter of luck, if you end up to be a Hollywood star or a bump in the corner of some street. The same if you are a tourist. There are really tons of attractions in LA. But if you are not lucky you end up in a typical 405 traffic jam or in a bad neighborhood or collecting parking tickets in a beach city or wasting your time in "Disneyland" or in "The Universal Studios". Sometimes even all these nightmares become reality in few hours in LA. I have been living here 4 years, I got a lot of parking tickets, especially in the last 3 weeks, but still I managed to stay out of "Disneyland" or in "The Universal Studios". But what I am never missing, when a friend is visiting me is "La Brea Tar Pit". And, of course, I went there in the weekend with my friend Alfio and with Tina. So you will wonder what is this "La Brea Tar Pit"? Mmmm. A way to see it is this ... it is a natural tar / gas field in the middle of the city. An other way to see it is this .... it is an incredible park, where you can see 30,000 year old fossils collected under your eyes every single day. This is the way it works. Do you see that girl in the picture? She is at the bottom of a tar pit, collecting fossil bones. Each flag is a different bone of a different animal ...What are these bones doing here? Was this the backyard of a butcher shop? Not really. Some 30,000 years ago this area was like today, an area full of natural tar. Animals, probably attracted by the water trapped here, were getting close to this area. But they were trapped by the tar themselves. Now all of them are fossils. ... this is the reconstruction of what could have happen here some 30,000 years ago. An animal trapped in the water / tar ...On the background of the picture the Page Museum. The Page Museum is where the fossils are shown. I have never been inside the museum. The problem of LA is also this. The weather is always so pleasant that I don't really want to spend my time inside a museum. Museums are meant to be in cities with shitty weather, like NYC or London. Here in LA it is better to stay outdoor ... :D

GEHRY in LA DOWNTOWN

Do you want to see Frank Gehry (i.e. the Architect) in LA downtown? You can. Or better, you can see his work. One of his works is here. And, for what I can understand, it is definitely a masterpiece. It is the Walt Disney Music Hall, home of LA Philharmonic Orchestra. Quite a convoluted, shiny and expensive house. We (Tina, Alfio & I) came here on Saturday. This is one of the stops of my personal LA tour, when I have friends visiting ...

... and it is definitely worthwhile. Pictures are easy to take, although it is difficult to appreciate the complexity of the construction if you have never visited it ...

... the reflections are definitely something that every photographer greatly appreciate, not sure if you like these pictures, though ...

... and the internal peaceful garden it is almost an oasis, if you think that you are in the middle of LA downtown. I am not sure what is the name of this flower. I was used to have the same tree in front of the building where I was living in Tel Aviv. And it reminds me of my first days there, I loved so much that tree ...

So what we were saying Gehry in LA downtown? Yes, this is Gehry in LA downtown. Quite a masterpiece. Every city should deserve this type of masterpieces. It is a pity that good architects are so expensive. I understand that it is a market, the more a professional is appreciated, the more he can demand. But there is a limit, I think. We should be less greedy. After all we will have to die. And if really we have a skill that can help other people to be happy, we should share it as much as we can. Before it will be too late. Mmmm ... again, probably I am just daydreaming.

The BEST PART of a MUSEUM

So. Here something more about LA downtown. LA downtown is not only a set of skyscrapers waiting for the "Big One". There is something else that is waiting for it. Some good piece of art. One of the best is probably the MOCA (museum of contemporary art) ...... and its entrance seems to be already hit pretty badly by an earthquake, unless you assume that this is an intentional work of an artist. When I introduce this piece of art to my friends, I use to say that this is dedicated to September 11, and I have to say that most of them believe it ...But my favorite part of the MOCA, and as a matter of fact of all the museums I have visited, is its shop. Definitely the best, because it is not boring, and it has definitely a lot of surprises. Here is Tina testing a new headset for her phone ...... she didn't buy it, only because she didn't like the colour, she was looking for something green. And this is definitely my favorite section of the store. Every time I come here I spend most of my time wondering who is the genius who invented these kits in a bag. You can find anything. From "Is your grandfather a fugitive War Criminal" to "Enjoy Foreign films" to the one I need so badly "Be a professional photographer(or just look like one)". If you have 5 minutes enjoy the ones on the picture ...... yes, it is definitely easier to understand this type of art, rather than the one in the museums itslef ... not sure why, though ... :O

LA DOWNTOWN, CARS & PED

LA downtown is not exactly the most exciting downtown in the World. It is not NY or Chicago downtown. But still, there is something to see and that drove me here, today. I wanted to show it to my friend Alfio. The sky was incredibly blue today, so I had to take this picture ...... LA is definitely a city build around the cars, and LA dowtown is always packed during the week. And if you are not happy enough with the real cars, here they made also monuments dedicated to them ...The good thing of visiting it on Saturday is that there are no traffic jams ... and you can also try to cross the street if, you are not as confused as me and, you can see the green traffic light ...... anyways, there are also other things than the traffic lights to see in LA downtown. In case you are interested, I will put more picture in tomorrow blog. I have to go to sleep now.

HOLLYWOOD, CA

Hollywood, California. If you will start asking randomly to the people here what are they doing here, half of them will answer you "I am pursuing the acting career". And the other half, will answer you "I am a tourist". Of course tonite I was here as a tourist. My friend Alfio is here for the weekend to visit me and tonite we drove him here to Hollywood. And of course the typical touristic tour of LA needs to start at IN N OUT in Sunset Blvd. Jake, Alfio, Sheila, Tina enjoying their burgers ...Very very happy about the healthier yunk food you can find in LA, we went to Hollywood Blvd (AKA The walk of Fame). Quite an interesting walk between some of the most known cinema icons ... the stars on the sidewalk, the Chinese Theatre, the Kodak Theatre ...... and of course, there is a typo in the star. They should have written John Travolta as Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction ... :) But the real stars of the nite were definitely my friends ... loved to go there with them. I am a lucky guy, I spent my entire nite with four shining stars ... :)

SURFER JOE & NEPAL

Surfer Joe is back. Surfer Joe is the nickname of Jake when we surf (my nickname is Surfer Bill). He is back from China for 2 weeks. And it is really nice to have him back. Tonight I went to dinner with him and Jill. I am trying to convince them to come with me to Nepal. But I really think I have chances to convince only Jake. It will be soooooooo amazing to go with him to the Everest Camp Base trekking. We will bring our friendship from 0 to 5,300 meters above the sea level. At that point, if we will make it, I think we will have to find a new nickname for the both of us.

A $3,000,000 PICTURE

I call them houses. The people who really understand how to make money call them an industry. More precisely "real estate industry". To me they are still houses. And this is what happen today to a beachfront house here in Hermosa. Tiered down ...... now guess how much this small piece of land covered by all type of cr-p is worth? I would say 3 million US dollars. Yes. It is completely crazy. I know. They will build a house of wood that will cost probably 150K top. And they will sell it for something like $4 - 5 millions. Probably the guys who call all this an industry are just right. Houses are not anymore the place where people live, are pieces of an industry. True, but sad.

SECOND STREET

Second Street. Hermosa Beach, CA. For most of the people it doesn't mean nothing. For some people it doesn't mean a lot. But for me and for the other friends who are surfing here, second street is the spot. Probably not a good spot. But definitely our spot. We walk or bicycle down and we climb on the top of this small beach construction (AKA public restroom) and we check the waves. This is exactly what I did this morning around 8AM. And I took this picture. The sun is way far East, still rising. The palm on my back is making a long shadow. Nobody is in the water. Nobody is in the beach. The life guard station is still closed ...... and the waves are not good. It happens most of the time. It is pretty rare to have good waves here. But we don't care. We just love it here. And that makes this spot magical. It is strange. Thinking about it, in all the phases of my life and in all the places where I lived, I had a magical place that for some reason I loved. Like this. Just thinking about each of them makes me happy. I hope you have some spot like this, as well ... :D

MY WORST ENEMY

"A man must learn to forgive himself". I read this quote the other day. I thought about it. And I loved it. I think it is sooooo right. And it reminded me of a book. Few years ago I read this book by the title "Your worst Enemy" (or something like this). The message of the book was very simple. Each of us is the worst enemy of himself. It is true for me that I am writing. And I am pretty sure it true for you that are reading. And it is the same for basically all the people that I know. That book really made a difference in my life. Try to think about it. Can you find a person who is creating to you as many problems as you do? Is there a person that can dislike you as much as you do? Is there a person who doesn't believe in you as much as you do? Whenever I am in trouble I ask to myself these questions. And the answer is always no. My life is in my hands. And as soon I realize that, I manage to relax. And I understand that the only thing that I need to do is to accept my limits, love myself and continue. It is not simple, though. One of the most difficult things to do is to forgive ourselves. But we need to do it. A man must accept himself or even better, a man must learn to forgive himself. I think this quote will help me to be a better person. Sometimes life makes more sense if you read through a smart quote ... :D

WHERE AM I?

Where in the world am I? Today I was in the Redondo Beach, CA pier. Just 5 minutes by bicycle from where I live. And for the first time today I noticed this sign. And it remind me of all the places that I would like to visit. I start daydreaming. I have definitely the travel bug. This blog is just an example of it. Time to time I am asking to myself, why all this need to visit new places? Not sure if there is just a reason. There are several reasons, I guess. But probably the best answer is that it makes me happy. When I travel with my backpack, I really feel that I am complete. And on top of that, I really feel I am more open and wise after every backpacking trip. I really manage to understand better the people, and the reasons why we can not be all the same, think the same, do the same things, vote for the same parties, like the same things. We are just all different. And actually this is one of the biggest treasures of the human kind. So, the question was ... where in the world am I? Dreaming of a new trip ... :D

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

If you were not part of it, you have definitely missed something. It has been really a nice party. All good friends were there. Friends I see everyday and friends that I didn't see since months. For me, used to move from place to place, it is always amazing to see that you can build friendship everywhere you go. And at the end of the day, the more I travel the more I realize that I can see the most incredible natural beauties, eat the best food, wander around the finest human creations, but the only reason why I would like to go back to the places I have already visited is only in order to meet friends. Anyways going back to the party, for us who were organizing it, the day started pretty early with shopping and cooking. Here Leif with his funny onion cutting outfit ... ... and here Tina and Sheila preparing the ingredients for the pasta salad ...And around 6PM the party began. Here a collection of random pictures that I took. Everybody trying to enjoy in their own way ...... my way ended up around midnite when I crashed into bed. Too much alcohol. The day after I was told that they had fun until 2AM. But for that I don't have any evidence. Sorry ... :D

THE PERFECT BIRTHDAY

The kidnapping birthday continued beyond the birthday cake. The idea was to go trekking. And even if we had a slow start (my fault I love to sleep late), we managed to do a very nice 3 hours - 7 miles trekking. Really scenic ...... the end of the trail was on what is called the "suicide rock" where we took a nap and some pictures as well ...... and this perfect birthday ended in a local coffee shop with a band playing Jazz ...... I am definitely a lucky guy, be treated like this for my birthday was definitely something I always dreamed about and finally it did happen.