A stroll away from where we are staying is an area with some pretty fancy houses, and I took a stroll that way just yesterday with the intention of finding my own favourites. Not many people do stroll around these parts. Most of these are the sort of places that have gardeners and automatic watering.

Whilst in Larchmont village, a bit of a misnomer really as it’s just a short area of a very long road that has some very pleasant shops and coffee places there, I was accosted by the other side of this society. As with everyone over here their manners seem to be excellent. Sitting on the floor near a road junction where I planned to take a photograph he spoke to me: ” Can I prevail upon you for a double cheeseburger and some fries sir, I am very hungry”. It’s a first time I’ve been begged at where the menu comes first. I’m sorry to say I did not respond like the local waiters around here with a ” Sure, I’ll be right with you Sir”, just a rather weak “Sorry”. Whilst I was there he wasted no more time with me and asked others nearby, with the same menu, I hasten to add.

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After the following junction, the houses. Traffic will stop at a sign like this and you can cross the road here with safety.

This is a smaller model than the norm around here,
but some that look like this are huge at the back.

I like the symmetry with this one, and the colour.
Helped by the Californian sky.

This is almost a face with the two eyes being the dormer windows.
It has an expression of lazy indifference, or perhaps I’ve been in the sun too long.

This is a biggie! The colour just would not work anywhere
but California. A Spanish type mansion.

This one is similar

This one has an English country cottage look to it, but on steroids.

My favourite is this one which looks like part of a luxury yacht, lovely lines and dramatic feel. Looked absolutely brilliant in the sunshine. Owners unlikely to worry about what’s on the menu.

My second job title when I first started working was : Typographer. I was hardly qualified in many respects and ‘winged it’ to get the position which was in a large advertising agency. In those days we did a character count and produced type mark ups for the typesetters to follow. I had no idea what I was doing until Norman came to the rescue. He’d been there for years and knew all the ins and outs. He could also see that I had no idea what I was doing. I learnt pretty quickly, thanks to Norman

A visit to the Broad Museum here in Los Angeles to see the wonderful exhibition of modern art there and the dreadful typography. Anyone knows that there’s no such word a tive and that separating a word in the middle is really quite unforgivable. These were some of the basics taught to me by Norman all those years ago.

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That aside the place was terrific, so lets not dwell on a completely unjustified error.
( Typographical joke there! )

We not only enjoyed some of the works, I suspect one is not supposed to enjoy some works. Some can and are meant to shock, others either inspire or deflate you. There was something for everyone here

I’ve never been the greatest fan of Jeff Koon’s work but in this place I found them exciting and interesting. We had a guide who gave us a talk on various pieces and she explained it all about the various pieces she had chosen to show us. Koon’s pieces are immaculatley crafted and made and look brilliant in this gallery setting. There are two separate pieces here, and two images of me taking the shot within the rabbit!

Joseph Beuys’ work, as well as Anselm Kiefer’s pieces, those are the  ones referred to in the terrible typography at the head of the page are not my own favourites.

My favourite from the whole show was a painting by Jean Michel Basquiat this is a detail from the work.

I enjoyed this piece too. A huge table and chairs bringing every visitor back to childhood. Apparently it weighed a ton! You could walk under it but were not allowed to touch, always to me a bit of a daft rule for sculpture which is in essence tactile.

In this shot you get a feel for the space of the place, and to the left is a third of a painting by Jenny Saville I’ve never seen her work for real before, only in magazines and newspapers. She’s one of the few British artists in the show we saw, but is surely one of the best. This massive work of this massive woman is both challenging and absolutely brilliantly executed.

Last but not least, I’m putting this image in there because to me it says a lot about art galleries. The painting? I’ve no idea who did it now but I’ll go back there and report back. The guy on the left is one of the many who keep an eye open for people approaching the artwork with less than favourable intentions. It’s obvious that the dress code for these people is black throughout, but as a gesture of independence some of them decorate themselves, one had very ‘painterly ‘ socks on and this chap had paid a lot of attention to his hair and colourful stuff on his identity tag.

So the guy on the left has the gesture of independence, as has the guy on the right.

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For those who could not find the typo trauma, then here it is: