Thursday was a down day for the most part. I chilled, I read, I fixed a toilet, napped. A vaca from the vacation. but, because I can’t seem to sit still, even for one day, I started surfing art gallery web sites, and I found out that one of the big ones, MOCA, was open till 8 and after 5 was free. Ash, my host, didn’t want to go, so I hopped in my car and drove there myself, a feat that I would have been completely unable to do sans phone. Parked downtown several blocks away from the museum, and proceeded to get lost. I would have been fine if downtown LA had one street level, but of course it doesn’t. Anyway, I had a nice time being lost. Like always. I took out my camera, and found some pictures. These are part of a larger body of work, or may be… I’m trying to from an idea around the scale of cities, the perspective that that scale involves. I’m being elliptical because I’m not sure what I’m talking about. The idea isn’t complete, and it wouldn’t be interesting if it was. MOCA was freaking amazing. I’m not going to post any of the photos I took inside, because this isn’t an art history blog. I was stoked to see “John Baldessari”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU7V4GyEuXA, Robert Irwin, and a bunch of others. I was surprised at the power of the Rothko; given a whole day, I would have sat on the bench and stared for hours. There were some Arbus prints, around a corner, badly lit, and really truly unimpressive. Really let the air out of that legend for me. Anyway, after that there wasn’t much to do but drive home. <div class=”center”> <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/in_which_i_get_lost_in_downtown_la/672/0089.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/in_which_i_get_lost_in_downtown_la/672/0090.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/in_which_i_get_lost_in_downtown_la/672/0091.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/in_which_i_get_lost_in_downtown_la/672/0092.jpg’ > </div>
Posted by matt on 2012-08-07T05:05:43Z GMT
So, I got there, and there was much rejoicing and not a little drinking. There was a bartender who gave me a shot that would have killed a lesser man. Me? I was fine. Totally all right, except for the stumbling. Then came the fourth, wherein all of our plans went awry. Plans are usually lists of things that don’t happen, in my reckoning, but I’ve never had quite so many fall through so completely. We were going to go to a beach somewhere for fireworks, but then there was hella traffic, so that turned us back. Then there was maybe a car show, but that was $20 to get in, and the booze wasn’t included. Finally, we said fuck it and went to a parking garage, where we actually got to see several shows, all round the valley we were in (I don’t know if it was the valley or not). There was beer and little caesars and another bar. A great deal of driving in the least traffic I saw while I was out there. Good times. <div class=”center”> <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/4th/673/0082.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/4th/673/0083.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/4th/673/0084.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/4th/673/0085.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/4th/673/0087.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/4th/673/0088.jpg’ > </div>
Posted by matt on 2012-08-05T18:16:18Z GMT
finally getting where you’re going is awesome, especially because that means whatever madness you came for can begin. <div class=”center”> <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/arrival/674/0079.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/arrival/674/0080.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/arrival/674/0081.jpg’ > </div>
Posted by matt on 2012-08-05T18:10:40Z GMT
Things were fine through the national park, and then I realized I’d left my phone on silent, and I had a bazillion messages. The power was out at my house, my roommate had no AC. So, with little to no signal, I pulled off the road to try to connect and check the bill, with no luck. I stopped in a little town, to try to find some wifi, and after a bit of wandering, I found a mcdonalds that I’d missed on the first pass. Sure enough, I was past due. So I paid the bill, and then spent the next couple hours worrying that the A/C was still off in the house (it wasn’t). Anyway, that was a wasted couple hours all told, between the stopping twice and wardriving looking for wifi. It was totally worth it, though, when I saw that mountain off in the distance. Really amazing sunset for me, and a truly quaint motel in Williams AZ. Right out of the 50s, and although the town is one of those places that seems on the edge of collapse due to tourism. When a place has discount souvenir stores, it’s in some kind of trouble. I think the steady stream of people coming through keeps it in the black, though. <div class=”center”> <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/road_problems/675/0074.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/road_problems/675/0075.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/road_problems/675/0076.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/road_problems/675/0077.jpg’ > </div>
Posted by matt on 2012-08-04T23:28:38Z GMT
PFNP, for short, is just off of I-40, and I figured since I had some time to kill, I might as well drive the short loop and see the sights. It’s a lovely stretch of desert, but like most of this trip, it was ungodly hot, so I didn’t care to stick around too long. Very pretty, and worth the hour that I spent on it. Luckily, I got some other tourists to take my photo, even. Thanks random family from Florida! Hope the hydrating for altitude sickness worked out. That’s a lens in my left hand, in case you’re wondering. <div class=”center”> <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/petrified_forest_national_park/676/0069.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/petrified_forest_national_park/676/0070.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/petrified_forest_national_park/676/0071.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/petrified_forest_national_park/676/0072.jpg’ > <img src=’https://images.matt.pictures/petrified_forest_national_park/676/0073.jpg’ > </div>
Posted by matt on 2012-08-04T23:21:54Z GMT
