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canyonwalkerAnother on the list of things I never did when I lived in L.A. years ago was visit "The Getty". The J. Paul Getty Museum at The Getty Center, as its full name goes, is an art museum perched on a hillside overlooking West L.A. It's not even that far from where I used to live. I can practically see my old apartment from it. More on that in a bit.
One of the newspaper stories I read about The Getty years ago was that the buildings and the view were as amazing as any of the art inside. It mentioned all the swaths of travertine stone.... When I got there on Sunday I saw enough Travertine that I could believe the average elevation in Italy sank a few meters after they mined all this stuff out!
The environs are stunning. Fancy stone everywhere. Gardens. Fountains. From the entrance building we looked at the doors to the first art display, turned right, and started exploring the gardens.
From the many observation decks on the buildings there are expansive views across the L.A. basin. I was able to see the towers of downtown L.A. (left in the picture above) west to Century City and Westwood (center) across the 405 (right) and all the way to the Pacific Ocean (not pictured). This is an example of where I could practically see the apartment I used to live in years ago. It was a few blocks away from where Santa Monica Boulevard crossed the 405. You can't see the intersection, per se, but I recognized in the view the trio of buildings (which I always called "the three sisters") right there and could place my old apartment fairly accurately from that.
But the art? Yeah, there's art. It's inside. It's the kind of stuff that stupidly wealthy people acquire. The kind of stuff that used to be in the Palace of Versailles, owned by King Louis XIV or members of his court. Y'know, now owned by people who consider themselves the modern equivalent of King Louis XIV or his royal court. But outside....
Outside, even a 12-lane highway looks nice. This is the 405 rising up into the Sepulveda Pass.
Inside, there's more art. We looked at it. We were... not entirely impressed. Around 3:30 we called it a day and drove our car on the 405 over the Sepulveda Pass to get late lunch at a delicious Mexican restaurant.
One of the newspaper stories I read about The Getty years ago was that the buildings and the view were as amazing as any of the art inside. It mentioned all the swaths of travertine stone.... When I got there on Sunday I saw enough Travertine that I could believe the average elevation in Italy sank a few meters after they mined all this stuff out!
The environs are stunning. Fancy stone everywhere. Gardens. Fountains. From the entrance building we looked at the doors to the first art display, turned right, and started exploring the gardens.
From the many observation decks on the buildings there are expansive views across the L.A. basin. I was able to see the towers of downtown L.A. (left in the picture above) west to Century City and Westwood (center) across the 405 (right) and all the way to the Pacific Ocean (not pictured). This is an example of where I could practically see the apartment I used to live in years ago. It was a few blocks away from where Santa Monica Boulevard crossed the 405. You can't see the intersection, per se, but I recognized in the view the trio of buildings (which I always called "the three sisters") right there and could place my old apartment fairly accurately from that.
But the art? Yeah, there's art. It's inside. It's the kind of stuff that stupidly wealthy people acquire. The kind of stuff that used to be in the Palace of Versailles, owned by King Louis XIV or members of his court. Y'know, now owned by people who consider themselves the modern equivalent of King Louis XIV or his royal court. But outside....
Outside, even a 12-lane highway looks nice. This is the 405 rising up into the Sepulveda Pass.
Inside, there's more art. We looked at it. We were... not entirely impressed. Around 3:30 we called it a day and drove our car on the 405 over the Sepulveda Pass to get late lunch at a delicious Mexican restaurant.
