Ladies of the NightNormally I'm an early riser. There is nothing more wonderful than being up and around before dawn when all is quiet and you know most people are still snug in their beds. Standing out on my deck, cup of coffee in hand, watching the sun rise before the sound of traffic arrives out in the street, is an experience not to be missed. So when I tell you that my natural inclination is to be a night crawler, you might go
huuuuhhhhh?
All those years working in construction, when I had to be on the job site before dawn, stuck with me. And then having a corporate job for ten years where I had to be on the freeway in the wee hours for the shortest commute. Which has led to the strange lifestyle of still being a night person some of the time and a morning person most of the time. Night time is when I seem to be the most creative, but the early morning is when I am able to get the most work done.
Yesterday I reverted to my night
personna and ended up standing on the corner of Hollywood and
Cahuenga Blvds, prime "ladies of the night territory," at midnight...
My friend
GZ graciously invited me to the Los Angeles Conservancy's "Last Remaining Seats" to see "A Streetcar Named Desire" at the Los Angeles Theatre as my birthday treat.
The evening was quite an adventure. I drove to
GZ's home in West Hollywood. From there we walked the few blocks to the bus stop and rode the bus to Hollywood and Highland. From there we took the Red Line train which runs underground all the way to downtown Los Angeles. I don't ride the train very often, but when I do I can't help notice how clean and bright the stations are compared to any of the other cities in the US and the world that I have visited. It's probably an unfair comparison considering our system is so new, but nevertheless, I can't help but feel good about it. It was also nice to see the train was so well used—standing room only.
People reading this from other cities and parts of the world may find it strange that I'm making such a big deal about riding the bus and train. But my friends in LA will understand—LA is the city where we drive everywhere. We don't walk (except for myself and two other people), we don't take taxis (even if we could find one), we don't take buses (aren't those for deranged people who don't have a driver's license?)... and we certainly do not take trains (those things where you have to drive to the station and find a place to park, good luck, so you might as well have driven to your destination in the first place).
Did you lose track of my story already? We arrived in downtown LA and walked along Broadway (a whole other universe I may write about some day) to
Clifton's Brookdale, favorite of
Huell Howser (who will be featuring the cafeteria again on his
KCET broadcast June 27) and the
only place to eat when you are in downtown LA, if only because the decor is so unbelievably unbelievable. My friend was concerned about this being my birthday dinner, but with this ambiance, how can you go wrong?
After getting my fill of trout and tapioca, we lined up outside the
Los Angeles. From their website: "the last and most extravagant of the ornate movie palaces built on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles between 1911 and 1931. Designed by S. Charles Lee with a French Baroque-inspired
décor, its majestic six-story main lobby and 2,000 seat auditorium of carved plaster ornamentation, mirrors, and cove-lit murals recall the glamorous days of 1930s Hollywood."
I led architectural tours for the Conservancy for sixteen years. When I was leading the Broadway Theaters tours, this was probably my favorite. Non-Los
Angelenos, and even native Los
Angelenos, don't think we have a history. I didn't think so either until I was a Conservancy docent, but Los Angeles has a fascinating background—the downtown theatres being an important part of it.
We found good seats. The proscenium curtain was as stunning as I remembered it. I was somewhat dismayed by the obvious cracks in the plaster around the theatre interior, not there on my last visit many years ago. But it is Magnificent (definitely deserving of the capital "M").
Before the movie, we listened to a talk by
Leith Adams, Corporate Archivist at Warner Bros. He showed us how the film was affected by censorship as the producers discovered that the Catholic Church was going to boycott the movie due to the "erotic" nature of the film. We saw one scene as it was originally released in 1951 and as it was restored in the 90s. The 50s audience was not allowed to see Kim Hunter's sultry walk down the stairs towards Marlon Brando. As the chemistry of their relationship was the center of the story, it seems odd that this was omitted. And it certainly was tame by today's standards.
The opening titles of "A Streetcar" came on the screen. The man who had struck up a conversation with me earlier, plopping down in the empty seat next to mine, told me he was only here to hear
Leith Adams speak, then he was leaving due to other commitments. Apparently mesmerized by the film, he stayed until almost the end. I understood, as the movie is that spell-binding. I first saw it many, many years ago, one of those films that stays in your brain. I didn't remember all the details, and certainly not the ending, but I did have the relationship between Stella and Stanley in my head in stunning black and white. It would be hard to imagine seeing this film in color.
When you think about it, black and white is a strange phenomenon. All colors mixed together and no colors at all. Why did we start out only being able to take photographs and make films in black and white while our world and our eyesight (for most people) is in full color? Think about it. Okay, another blog.
In the meantime, the acting and photography and sets in "Streetcar" are pretty amazing. It's a very powerful production, even today, almost sixty years later.
I understand why Marlon Brando was the acting icon that he was. I wasn't that familiar with Kim Hunter who did a tremendous job playing Stella. Probably the reason is that, according to
IMDb, "Kim was blacklisted in films and TV even though she was never a Communist or even held pro-Communist views. But as a strong believer in civil rights she signed a lot of petitions and was a sponsor of a 1949 World Peace Conference in New York." Terrible, terrible days.
And so, the sojourn home began. The Red Line (packed again at 11:30pm) took us to Hollywood Blvd. And so, there we were, two ladies of the night, standing on the corner of Hollywood and
Cahuenga, waiting for the bus close to the bewitching hour... and waiting... and waiting. A taxi pulled up and
GZ was ready to hop in but for some reason I felt we needed to wait. Seconds later, like a camel in the desert, our 217 appeared. In my car, driving home with little traffic around, I decided this was the time to be up and awake and on the streets in LA.
Except this morning I missed the sunrise.
This weekend is the annual warehouse sale at Classic Tile & Mosaic. You don't have to be in the market for a new bathroom in order to enjoy a visit. On Saturday my friend KL brought with her two decorative tiles she had bought previously and was looking for ideas to incorporate them into her back step risers. I was just looking.
I ended up buying a 6" x 6" Malibu-style tile of a flying fish. The designer was in the store, Juan Aguirre (hope I spelled his name correctly). He works out the design on the computer, then the design is silk-screened on to the bisque tile, then the tile is hand-painted in the "corda seca" style with the colors separated by raised black lines (I believe a mixture of manganese and linseed). When I visited Sevilla, Spain, some years ago I remember watching an artist painting in this style with some kind of syringe like decorating a birthday cake.
I've really neglected my 
