The Gideons Have Competition

Yesterday, we landed at LAX, a little bit ahead of schedule, caught the shuttle to the rent-a-car place, picked up a car and drove to Dan’s place. Driving in LA is always an experience, but with the help of my trusty navigator, Anne, her iPhone and Google, we made it there just fine. Dan’s studio is in downtown LA, on the edge of Skid Row, but technically is in the flower district, which is not to be confused with the piñata district I’ve learned. All of downtown is divided into different districts. His studio is located above fancy exotic wheels and auto electronics distributors. As Dan points out, they have excellent security.

We’re staying in Little Tokyo, about a flat mile from Dan’s place. His suggestion was excellent; the area is both very safe and quite walkable. It is also very Japanese. The photo shows the contents of the hotel room’s side table next to the bed and the bathroom has a toilet that will be the subject of a whole other post. It is really a little bit intimidating. After we checked in, Dan rode over and we set to walking. There is some sort of Hello Kitty event going on. We walked through an outdoor mall, by the place where Dan had his big bicycle accident last year and on into the arts district. Our destination was Pie Hole, Dan’s favorite coffee shop. It had pie to die for. Anne and I split some sort of Earl Grey cream pie, while Dan had a cheesecake that was strikingly similar to the way my mother use to make it.

After our repast, we walked over to see the LA River. You know what it looks like, because you’ve seen it too, in countless movies and TV shows, from Grease to the Terminator. There was even a movie shoot going on at the time. Surprisingly, what with the drought, there was a lot of water flowing in this river. There was also a photo shoot going-on on the bridge. It was definitely not PG, think dominatrix. Dan remarked that he was surprised that the police hadn’t taken an interest in this photo shoot too, not because of its mature content, because that’s artistic license, but because it looked like the kind of operation that hadn’t bothered to obtain a license for the shoot. LA is such a one industry town, but it is interesting.