West Coast Googs

After Spamalot opened, I had a few days to recover and get accustomed to Los Angeles. The traffic is a terrible as I had always heard, but the sunshine is also as abundant as rumored. The sun has shone, literally, every day since I've been in LA. It's occasionally cloudy in the morning, but the afternoon is alway sunny and warm. I'm happy to report that while it is hot, it's not as crazy hot as I was worried it would be - most days have topped out in the mid-80's here in Hollywood and it's been cool enough most every night open the windows.

During my first weekend, Mike Gugliotti arrived in California! Googs was in town to see the Yanks take on the Angels and check out the sights before heading down to visit another friend in San Diego. As soon as he set down his bag, we headed out for In 'N Out Burger. Mike was thrilled by all the exotic fast food choices LA has to offer, but I made him drive by Carl's Junior, Jack In the Box and Del Taco in favor of the finest fast food hamburger commercially available. I'm happy to report that he was suitably impressed with his Double/Double.

As I set out for work on Sunday, Mike headed to Anaheim:

Googs' lucky jersey failed to prevent the Yanks from falling victim to the Angels' broom

After the show, Mike needed some cheering up so we went to Santa Monica Pier. Chili cheese fries, funnel cakes and the sea air did the trick: we were both grinning like kids before the pier closed up for the night.

w/ the Pacific Wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Bright and early on Monday morning, Googs and I were off the Santa Catalina Island. We caught a 10AM ferry and were on the island before noon. We left behind the traffic of LA and exchanged it for a place where most people travel by golf cart! Catalina is part of the Channel Islands Archipelago that lies just of the Southern California Coast. Catalina is about 22 miles off the coast, but a world apart from the rest of Los Angeles County.

The major town on the island is Avalon which is home to about 3,000 residents. Avalon is the ultimate beach town. There are plenty of hotels, restaurants and tchotchke shops to go along with the beautiful beaches and hiking trails.

The village of Avalon

Googs and I on the beach in Avalon

Catalina and Avalon have long been getaways for Angelenos. William Wirgley, Jr. bought a controlling interest in the Santa Catalina Island Company in 1919 and quickly began developing, preserving and promoting the island. His Chicago Cubs did their pre-season training and played exhibition games on the island. In addition to building hotels, a horse ranch and the island's famous Casino, Wrigley purchased two great steamships to transport tourists to the island. His vision was not just of a tourist resort, but also included preserving the natural beauty of the island's interior. Today, the Catalina Island Conservancy owns more than 42,000 acres of the island (nearly 90%) and is dedicated to preserving it in its natural state.

Mike and I toured the island's interior (and got a few glimpses of the famous Catalina Bison herd) on the this very cool 1950's "Flxible" bus.

The Avalon Casino - built by Mr. Wrigley in 1929, the Casino is home to a 1,150 seat movie theatre on the lower level and an enormous circular dance floor on the upper level. In its day, the Casino and its big bands were a huge attraction on the island - both steamers would ferry passengers over for weekend dances. It is a truly magnificent building.

As the sun set, Googs and hopped the last boat back to the mainland, having had a truly great day off. We had a relaxingly busy day (touring the island interior and the Casino, margaritas and lunch overlooking the bay, souvenir shopping, soaking or feet in the ocean, eating ice cream) but left many things undone as well (glass bottom boat tours, flying fish tours, hiking, snorkeling). Catalina begs for another visit!

Googs relaxes as the ferry leaves Avalon

The sun sinks into the Santa Barbara Channel

Before work on Tuesday, Mike and I visited the Getty Center. The Getty Center is home to much of the art collection amassed by J. Paul Getty. Getty was the founder of the Getty Oil Company and was declared by Fortune magazine to be the richest living American in 1957. He was an avid collector of art and antiques who left the bulk of his fortune toward the establishment of a museum. Along with the Getty Villa, the Getty Center houses a collection that ranges from Greek sculpture to modern photographs.

The Center was designed by Richard Meier with gardens by Robert Irwin. The combination of the buildings, the gardens and the hundreds of acres in their natural state is breathtaking.

Set in the hills of the Santa Monica Mountains in Brentwood, the Center has beautiful views of the surroundings. This is the view from the South Promontory across the cactus garden and toward downtown Los Angeles (which is, sadly, obscured in the smog at the far left).

I enjoyed the Getty Center as much for its architecture and gardens as for its vast art collection. I enjoy the works of artists from the Impressionists forward most and this is where the Getty's collection leaves off. They have one van Gogh (the beautiful Irises) and a few Toulouse-Lautrec drawings, but this is as modern has their collection gets. I did, however, very much enjoy their collection of illuminated manuscripts and gothic altarpieces.

While Googs went to visit the rest of the Getty's holdings at the Getty Villa on Wednesday, I went for a dose of somewhat lower culture: 25 members of the Spamily attended a taping of The Price Is Right! We met at the unheard of, for theatre types, hour of 9AM at CBS Television City for screening and sorting. Each member of the audience fills out a bit of paperwork and is briefly interviewed by a producer who chooses the on-stage contestants. Without giving away too much (you can watch our episode on October 21st), one of the Spam-fam was chosen to "Come on down!", somebody won "A BRAND NEW CAR!" and Plinko was played (to everyone's great delight). We had an absolute blast at the taping. Drew Carey is funny and charming in person and it was fun to see all the behind the scenes stuff that goes on between takes. I'm also a little embarrassed to tell you how easy it is to get really into The Price Is Right - when the announcer says "IT'S A BRAND NEW CAR!" I couldn't help but scream and wave my arms!

CBS confiscated our cell phones and cameras before we were admitted to the studio (which is, PS, just as cool as it looks on TV in all it 70's fabulousness), but Nigel snapped this photo of all of us waiting for our interview on the hateful benches outside CBS Television City.

I bid Googs farewell as I headed to work on Wednesday night and he headed for San Diego. We had a very busy and great time during his visit to LA. I'm looking forward to a couple more visitors in the coming weeks: Dana & Steve will make a brief appearance and then Wife will make her final visit to the SpamTour!

JV

Bonus picture - Mike's Yankee inspired visit reminded me:

I pass this heart-breaking billboard every day on my way to the theatre.

The Dodgers have a whole series of these billboards around town. They feature both members of the ball club and various LA celebrities declaring that "This is my town: Dodgertown." (My favorite features Yoda and says: "My town this is".)