Photos California

Above:  "Rack with brains"
Two tree sculptures along Highway #1

San Francisco February, 2013

I have friends in both LA and San Francisco, but prefer hotels for about the same reason provided for us by Oscar Wilde "I prefer to stay where I can complain that the bath water is not warm enough."  Well, there was little (nothing, really) to complain about at the immense Hilton (more than 1,000 rooms I think).  It is a good base line to evaluate complaints on Trip advisor.  I think no matter how nice a property, there will be 1% to 10% able to find something not quite up to their high standards.

I suspect it is partly the revenue flow from Silicon valley that has made SF a much more interesting city now than it was 15-20 years ago.  Granted it is an old city and has its rough edges.  The next block over from my Hilton and the Nikko Hotel, was a solid block of flop and charity houses for homeless, way down and out, very rough and tumble customers.  They were strewn all over both sides of the sidewalk, often in their own urine, many in long lines for food or a bed.  It reminded me of Toronto frankly.  I think - like Vancouver - they come from all over the U.S. for the weather and of course, flock to the big cities - unfortunately for SF.

The days I was there were just great to be alive.  The clear blue skies with 76 f. temp and no wind were such a pleasure compared with the February T.O. I left behind.  I went on a streetcar to the Golden Gate park to the Legion of Honor - an odd name for a major art gallery.  It is situated in the center of a golf course, and looks out to the Bay and GG bridge (hence the photo above.  It is a wonderful museum with many important paintings and a lot more Rodin statues.
Not far away is a sister Museum named the deYoung.  As a result of the last major quake, the old de Young had to be torn down and a new and strange, ultra modern gallery was built on the old footprint.  It is such a great museum with a drop dead collection.  They have one astonishing gallery of ceramic and glass.  In my third photo you can see part of what a colourful and exciting room it is, and two of several fine Chihuly glass works on the right side (in green and orange).  Also there is a glass imitation of a stained glass window entitled "The Messurection."  A girl has botched the resurrection of her rabbit (I think) and is parying about the whole matter.  It is truly funny.
There is a great view from the 9th floor of the admin tower of all SF, the rest of the park (photo 4) and the Bay. There was a Vermeer on display - as there was at the Getty (so only 13 exist and 2 were in LA and SF) and almost noting in art draws crowds like Mr. Vermeer.
There were a lot of really interesting and major commercial art galleries near Union Square.  I should have allowed more time for SF, as I did want to visit UC Berkeley.  But I did walk back to Union Square from GG park which goes through the old Haight Ashbury.  It is less interesting than in the 60s, but everything is, so it is all relative.
I really enjoyed SF and an anxious to return.

Stanford U., The Cantor & Auguste Rodin mysteries

I had never visited Stanford U., and was interested in viewing one of the most beautiful campuses in the world, stopping at the Hoover Library and seeing if there were any traces of Einstein's years there  (no), plus seeing the beautiful Cantor Museum which owns more than 200 Rodin sculptures in addition to its art collection.  The Italians often say "You can't eat the scenery" and leave Italy for less pretty venues to survive.  Academically, I suppose the same is true.  But students there must enjoy the beauty of the campus.  In addition to the handsome buildings laid out in a lovely plan among many fine old trees (H. Hoover was in the first class when the U. opened, so you now know how old it is), the real surprise is a seemingly feral forest built right into the campus. Nearby it is the beautiful Cantor Museum.
It is as comfortable as an old shirt.  A kind of small building by today's standards which includes a pretty outdoor cafe among a gang of large scale Rodin's.  Inside there are far more than I ever knew he made, plus all the familiar ones.
But something didn't smell just right with me.  Bronze statues have been made in editions of 12 for a long time, although I do not know yet, when this practice began. A lot of Bronzes are marked in the manner the Cantor's "Thinker" is - viz. 10/12.  Many others there are marked just as "4" or "7" and many are not marked at all.
Why 12?  Probably it takes as many as six to break even on the huge costs of working with bronze.  Undoubtedly, many never sell enough to get to the number 12/12 as you cannot know the final number for a long time.

You may not believe it, but their Thinker is marked right in the bronze that it was forged in 1972.  The attribution also states that and says that it was authorized by the Musee Rodin  (aka The Republic of France)(meaning that the Musee collected a giant royalty for authorizing the founding which must still be done at Rodin's  supplier/foundry)..  Now you must ask as I did, How could it be that it took 103 years from the date of the 1st forged Thinker, to sell 9 of the most famous bronze in the world, in history, by the most famous and desired artist?
Then I came upon a v. large statue by Rodin of some obscure (to us) French poet.  Incredibly that one had been produced in 1992.
 Then there was The Age of bronze - the 1st photo (above) of the naked young man. I personally have seen more than 12 of these and wikipedia lists 14 known to exist and many of the ones I have seen are not on that list - I suspect there could be 30 or 40 of these - or more.
Then there are the beautiful 12", 16" and 18" ones (photo 2 et al).  Some of those were numbered and many were not. I think those are Rodin's studies for large pieces not produced in his lifetime.
Who cares?  I am just happy to have the opportunity to see these and only find it all curious.  Imagine if you bought a Age of Bronze years ago for $1 million and thought there would be only 12 in the world - and yours would be worth $40 million by now and it is instead worth maybe $150,000 because the Musee Rodin is still producing them like a Holstein cow give you-know-what or a vine in Bordeaux provides annually.  Moreover, I saw far more Rodin bronzes in California alone (there must be 400 at least) than Rodin ever authorized or produced.
I asked some museum people and they were shocked to be told that bronzes were numbered.  One chief security manager even denied it until I showed him.  So I looked hard to see which had numbers and as they are on a dark surface and often on the side of the base, they are hard to see - more so when they do not exist. Guards told me to stay 18" away from the works of art.  I finally told one I certainly did not wish any hard to works of art, but on the other hand, I was not visiting some Macy's or Walmart,.  I was in an art gallery and wanted to see the credentials of the art.  I also wanted to examine the surfaces of the non-numbered ones (they are different than the originals).  Period.  In three cases, the co-opted the guard into joining me in the hunt.
In any case, I loved my visit to Stanford in every way, well except for the girl with the big, big ass in bright orange pants who would not get away from the front of The gates of Hell (ironic eh?) so I could photo it.

The Redwoods and the hill billies

Some 150 miles miles north of SF is Humboldt State Redwoods park which includes the wonderful 32 mile drive through Avenue of the Giants.  The feeling walking through these trees is ineffable.  Of course, we feel miniscule, but there is some feeling of peace and order too.  We know who's boss in  there.
The trees are all spectacular, but I was anxious to see the Rockefeller forest.  I read in David Rockefeller's Memoir (a must-read book) that in 1930,  a large tract of giant redwoods was about to be cut for lumber and there was an urgent  - and to that time, hopeless - need for a donor to save the trees as it contain 100 giants of which 40 were among the world's tallest trees.  The Rockefellers immediately provided $2 Million: a lot of money in 1930, which was matched by the State and saved 10,000 acres on Bull Creek from destruction by the Pacific Lumber company.
The 2nd and 3rd photos are part of the Rockefeller tract.  In one there is a falling trunk across the center of the photo, and you can see two new trunks growing bravely skyward right out of the falling tree truck.
The tree stump I am shown in front of was more than 2,000 years old when it fell, and that was more than 500 years ago.
That old Chandelier is the one of millions of postcards where cars drive through a tree.  As the nice the lady in the gift store had nothing better to do (I was the only one in the vicinity - she was trapped with me) I asked her what creatures inhabit the large redwoods?  She said Wild Turkeys - and they have a lot of them there.  I was surprised at that, although I had thought the redwoods, though majestic did not do a lot for forest animals.  She said they have some deer in the area, but they never grow to be v. large or old as the coyotes, wolves and bears get them.  Maybe I missed something, but you might think that turkeys which nest on the ground would almost be more endangered by such predators than even swift footed deer.

Hill billies so close to sophisticated SF.  I stayed overnight in  a nice Marriot in Novato - about an hour in heavy traffic north of the Golden Gate bridge.  It seems to be a tech city.  But once you go N - E. or West from there, it is quite astonishing that you are so close to Silicon Valley, Stanford, one of the greatest universities in the world  and a great modern city like SF, and you find yourself immersed in hill billies.  Now there are some major crops of oranges and vegetables there, so there must be some farmers or agriculturists, but all I encountered for days were out and out hill billies.  They were happy and pleasant hill billies, true, but they all could have been existing 100 years ago if deprived of their Ford F-150's and their "Hullo, yeah, yeah, ok, yeah, Bye" cell phones.  Maybe I read too much Cormack McCarthy and then just finished The Englishman's boy as well, but although seemed quiescent, almost inert, I could not help but expect that they would burst out of the Main Street pasta bistro, form up a F-150 posse and ride off the put down yet another injun rebellion.  I must admit I did not see any apparent injuns there, so maybe they have co-opted or been abolished.
I did not see the word Library for the few days I was there, and there must have been a legit bookstore (not just tourist lit) somewhere, although I did not see one.  That is lumbering and mining country, but I saw little of either - although one does see loads of cut redwood lumber heading south every hour or so.

Photos Hearst castle view, sunrise & sleeper awakened

The top photo is one view from the Hearst castle  It also looks out to sea.  When Hearst died, many people celebrated, uhh, I mean When Hearst died, there were no buyers for the "castle."  The family tried to unload it on UCLA and the State, but they together with all other sane candidates, feared the high costs of maintaining this turkey located way out in nowhere.  Finally after the third try, the state did accept it and allowed a significant tax deduction to the estate.  However, the surrounding ranch of 2,500 acres, and the cattle you see there, are all still property of the Hearst legatees.  Way up above the cattle on the right top of the peak is the so-called "Castle."  

I have added a photo of a poor elephant seal, even larger than the lady who sat next to me on Air Canada, well over 10' and nearing a ton in weight; a fellow without a castle, not even 600 thread sheets,  not an Audi to his name nor a coupon to McDonalds.  I do honestly hate to be gross or tasteless, but if one saw the whopper of a penis that periodically emerges from that humble hole there, all real men would gladly trade in their Audis and McDonalds Big Mac Coupons for one of the same.  Beauty on the beach in this case is more than skin deep.

Pacific coast highway

Thousands of years ago, when I was young, many people would say one to another, "Let's go for a drive."  And they would.  The import of this is that once upon a time, driving was a pleasure.  For the last decade or so, people have been so "busy" and so obsessively self-important that driving has become combative, an obligation, or hated duty and habit.  The cure for this might be the PCH.

You must find Hwy #1 North from L.A. or South from around SF for example, and drive, drive, drive.  You really get into the spectacular section right about where Hearst's San Simeon Castle is located.  I loved the site of the castle, but thought the (unfinished) castle itself a pastiche of antiques stapled together for a vile, evil  (so said Theodore Roosevelt), nasty egomaniac.
One morning, I skipped breakfast at the hotel to be out on the coast at sunrise.  It was so wonderful.  The hills, sky and even a vulture observing elephant seals' weird habits, turned pink for a minute.  The mama seals were tending their new and recently born,  noisy pups (calves?).  The men were up at a viewing point where I was - about 20' above them . The guys were strewn around among rough rocks snoring loudly as they slept.  One of a length of about 12' (the largest there) and probably approaching a ton in weight, woke up as I watched, rose up and reared his massive head back and roared so that he might be heard over the waves a mile up and down the coast. It was honestly quite a tooth-rattling roar, and then he flopped ungraciously back down to the most unattractive bed of rough rocks and went back to sleep.  I was impressed.

The car driver him- or herself, will be fully occupied just handling the corkscrew drive for many hours.  There are fairly frequent places to pull over and let race cars pass and enjoy the view.  But there is a long, long way without towns, fuel, food or even Starbucks (imagine).  You will think it is the sea, sound and smell that is the great pleasure of this drive.  but I must say the hills are at least as beautiful.  While I was there, the usually brown hills  and canyons were green or turning green and were one of the unexpected pleasures of this drive.

The tourism bureaus said that Feb. March are two of the best months to travel there as the weather is so fine and there are few cars on the road.  From 0700 to 10, there were almost no cars other than mine on the road.  Unfortunately, the few that were there were impatient, wannabe race drivers on their way to their bus boy or rock breaking job up the road a piece.

This is a trip not to be missed.

The Getty Museum and Villa

For so many years I tried to visit the Getty when I was in LA.  But most often the day I have available was Monday when it was (then) closed, or I would have to rent a car to get out there and drive the most crowded highway on earth during rush hours to get there and back.  Finally, in February, 2013, the stars aligned and I went to both the Villa and Gallery.  The Gallery is situated on a hilltop overlooking Santa Monica, LA and the Pacific.  The visitor parks down at the base of the hill, pays to park (but the gallery is free of charge), and takes a train up the hill.
The architecture, landscape and gardens are all the very best of everything and wonderful to behold.
There seem to be eight buildings mostly connected by flyovers.  Some buildings are for conservation, teaching and other professional matters.  But the galleries themselves are surely about the most beautiful ever created.
The walls are not painted.  They are hung with custom made and dyed fabrics, with each room in a different colour.  The effect on the art is stunning.  Nothing can be adequately said about the collection itself.  It contains so many truly invaluable works of art as to be overwhelming.  I was in one room with a large and  great Turner landscape, which (oddly for reasons I could not understand) had a great, but small Caspar David Friedrich next to it, and then every other large painting in the room was by history's greatest artists and some of their finest works.
In the center of the room, there are always several great marble or bronze statues.  The two-headed woman I have shown above was copied from an ancient marble in Rome. Michelangelo was said to have called it the most beautiful statue he ever saw.  I agree.  The statue was bought from the estate of Yves St. Laurent.

How did all this come about?  Getty was the Minneapolis-born son of a rich oil man who said several times that boy Paul was useless and destined to be a failure.  But in the 50s, he purchased a 60 year lease on a tract of land near Kuwait, from the Saudi king, which to that time, had never had oil discovered upon it. He spent $30 million - imagine, in the 50s- before he hit the oil that ultimately made much of his fortune.
It is confusing the normal humans like me that he was so incredibly frugal in his private life and yet amassed such a high level collection of art at such grand prices.
He died in England, and his body was shipped to the Getty villa for burial there.  When the body arrived, the addressees I guess, had to open the casket to be sure it was Paul hisself, and that he was sufficiently dead.  They discovered that he was so cheap, he bought a casket way too small for his size, and as a result, his face was forever imprinted heavily into the inner lid of the casket.
I read that many years ago.  When I arrived at the Getty Museum, I asked a girl at "Information" "So where is Paul buried?"  Said girl, in shock, said "Do you mean MISTER Getty?"  "Yes, that would be the one," said I in reply.  She, in her most dour and nun like manner said, "MISTER Getty is buried at the Villa."  Naturally, upon arriving at the Villa at opening time, and encountering one of the helpful smiling shirts, I asked where MISTER Getty was buried and he showed surprised and asked "How did you find out."  He said they thought it was a secret for many years, but some people seem to know.  It helps to read books - or even the internet today. He told me it was on site, but I could not go there and he could not say officially where it was.  I replied that it had to be facing the Pacific and that did not leave many choices, so it must be up and back there.  I asked if he had been there and he said that he had and that Paul has two relatives buried there with him and the place I pointed to, under a modest concrete slab.
When PG died in '76, there began a six year legal battle over his estate.  I had asked if he really left sufficient money to actually maintain this astonishing museum and the villa.  They said he left $750 million in Getty oil shares (which at today's costs would cover three year's costs). But while the court battle went on, the value of those shares rose to $2 billion.  They said I could look on line at "The Getty trust" financial statements, which of course, I did.  Incredibly, the worth of the endowment by 2011 was $12 billion.  Mind you, this was after the Getty was on a buying spree that drove art ,market prices sky high as they were so aggressive at spending freely.  They paid something in the range of $50 million for Van Gogh's Irises and that was only one of dozens of huge expenditures.

I am not really so interested in the prices of each work, but rather that most older public galleries cannot afford the prices of major works today.  To spend $50 million - if they even have that - for a single work when they can buy 45 or maybe 90 or more important works of lesser fame, is regarded as irresponsible by most directors.

We travel so much to places to see ancient ruins and inevitably must some times be frustrated at imagining what the original structure must have been like.  PG saw the ruins of a lava covered Villa in the south of Italy, and notified his architect that he wanted to duplicate it as it was when real people inhabited it.  The architect had never heard of the villa, but discovered that there were ancient plans still in existence for the building of the actual buildings and site.
Now this incredibly detailed reproduction sits high on a Malibu hill looking out to the Pacific in a kind of glory you cannot imagine until you visit it.  The 2nd storey is filled with valuable artifacts of the local and era - some of which were in the news for having to be returned to Italy as loot taken centuries ago.  There is even a herb garden the inhabitants would have kept with even some of the odd plants of the time.

Whatever sensational details there might have been in Paul Getty's life - and there were many - he left an immense cultural treasure for all of us and probably more than doubled California's cultural standing with his great good taste and largess.

Of course, you can go to Google "Images" and look for many great photos of both the Villa and Gallery.

Los Angeles, February 2013

One of the recent additions to the L.A. County Museum (LACMA), I had been anxious to see, was Michael Heizer's rock named "Mass levitation."  This rock was seemingly happy enough in a quarry until Heizer's donors paid $70,000 for the 340 ton boulder.  A special  truck had to be built to move it.  That truck got 15 gallons to the mile - that's not miles per gallon, but gallons per mile.  It also moved at 5 mph, so roads were blocked for a week while it crawled into LA.  The Museum cleared out mature trees and changed the landscape of the whole back of the site.  Then the rock was craned up to rest on two concrete walls, which we are to take as "levitation" (what?).  Dumber humans can actually walk below this rock when they find their lives so dull that they have nothing better to do. This aspect of Lamca is free, so it is not as tho they are trying to get their money's worth.
I am fond of modern art, but usually offended by the ubiquitous line "The artist says that this forces the viewer to think about....blah, blah, blah."  In this case, Heizer condescend to us saying that we must think about stone age artists.  Oh yes, think very hard and think about artists who actually had some talent and worked to create a sculpture - like Rodin's with Honore Balzac as shown here.
This is not art.  It is the utter banality for our times.  It is the same banality as people wearing nothing but black clothing for more than two decades.  The same banality as one million women said to have complained about the only funny and clever ads on TV - the Geico pig in the same car as a woman - saying that it could promote bestiality!!  But Heizer's banality cost $13 million - all said to be from donors, none from taxpayers or museum funds.
There are a lot of Auguste Rodin sculptures at Lacma.  They looked majestic and pensive in the bright daylight just before sunset.  There are a lot of important works of art at Lacma and I enjoyed it.

UCLA has inherited The Hammer Museum of Art.  Armand Hammer - of Arm & Hammer Soda fame - had a handsome collection including a couple of Rembrandt's,  which is housed on the edge of UCLA.  Even until Hammer died a couple of decades ago, his museum in a modern building on Wilshire blvd would have seemed  customary.  But is has had to considerable misfortune of the Getty museum overwhelming every other museum with its dazzling site, collection and presentation.  Now the Hammer looks dated, small and is presented in a kind of depressing soviet style.

I will make a separate post for the Gettys as they are so compelling.

California conclusions

This KLM 747-300 Combi is irrelevant here but I like it.  It happened to be parked next to our gate at LAX.  Actually, the pilots are still in the cockpit when this was taken.  The Combi version of the 747 closes off one-third of what is usually passenger space on the main deck and transports freight in that space.  You could not imagine the size of cartons coming off this aircraft unless you saw it happen.

I constantly say that we get bad impressions of countries and places al the time because of hearing of plagues, disasters, political and economic problems etc. so frequently.   Then we are surprised when we arrive at a destination and it is so pleasant and civilized.  California is easy to travel - well, with a car and lots of money of course.  During my February visit there were only two days of clouds and rain and the rest were all 70-76 degrees under brilliant blue skies.  Once out of the major cities, driving is pleasant and the highways are great.  Along the coast, a driver has to be careful to watch the fuel gauge as there are long stretches without any towns or gas stations.  I usually refill at half a tank as a precaution, and the one time I did not do that, it was pretty hairy.  I was right at zero on the meter when a village with a good station appeared in a canyon.

Buying gas is a learning experience.  The credit card function on the pumps requires entering a U.S. zip code.   For foreign cards, they would  like to keep your card at the cashier's desk.  But, we are not supposed to ever turn our backs on our CCs, so I always tried to leave my D.L. instead.  This usually worked with  male attendants, but never with females.  They always wanted to charge some amount in advance, and keep the card as well - saying that it could be declined if they did not charge in advance.  My visa actually has a very high upper limit and I am v. careful to protect it.  I grew to hate banks in New York city in the old days because every customer was treated as a vile criminal. It often seemed that way with Ca. gas stations, but I must admit that, unlike Ontario, there is no chance at all of a thief stealing gas and then hitting and killing an attendant - as has happened here too often.  They do have better controls there which have been accepted by their customers.

I must admit that California has far more to offer the visitor than I ever expected.  I am anxious to return as there are so many natural attractions that I want to visit.