If things are lining up correctly, the first photo is of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. My mom used to have season tickets to the summer presentations, either light opera or plays straight from Broadway. This place has been here a long time.Fresh off my second marriage, and trying to get right with the world (meaning date more) I decided to acquire culture. I'd read about culture but just didn't have any. But it stood to reason that only a person with culture would pay money to be inside this place, so if I could carry around ticket stubs, I could prove that I had culture.
First thing I did was find a girl whom I thought would appreciate culture. But what with this being Los Angeles, how hard could that be? And as is probably the case everywhere, I found a female desperate enough... She was a lawyer girl, very pretty, petite and Jewish. (Why was she desperate enough to date me? Well, she had issues...) I figured I'd lucked out, because everyone knows Jewish girl didn't have all the moral issues that Christian women get hung up on. So I asked her out, having first checked to see that there was an upcoming Tchaikovsky performance. (Jeez, how did I ever exist without spell check!) How could anyone have any problem staying awake during Tchaikovsky? But it turned out that he wrote some slow, sonorous pieces and it was lights out for the Banana Boy during the first half. My date gently woke me for the intermission and we had white wine. (gag!) I did stay awake for the second half of the performance because I wanted to make sure the drool had a chance to dry from my suit jacket. (Cultured people wore suits back then.) And yes, she was an immoral minx and I paid dearly.
I took these two photos this afternoon, in good ol' downtown LA. They're basically across the street from each other. What do you people think of this place? I'm sure you've seen other photos of it, and of course the Simpson's mocked the heck out of it. It's the Disney Opera House.
The odds of me ever being in the Dorothy Chandler again, or ever in the Disney Opera house are so slim as to be invisible, just like my culture, unless you'd like to talk about my toenail fungus. I got all kinds of culture there.
8 comments:
Did the architect get his idea from a crushed beer can?
The irony of the Disney Opera House is spectacular! I think it goes something like this:
Some other Disney (not Roy & Co.) donated money to help build it. The Disney Co. didn't want the new opera house to have its name, but were shunned by the courts so building proceeded to go right along. However, the 'un-Roy' project ran-out of funds before completion and could not find anymore dinero, EXCEPT from the Disney Co.! So, guess which Disney the Disney Opera House really refers to?
Looks like the Mad Hatter mated with the Tin Man...
I actually misread that slightly as the odds of me ever being in Dorothy Chandler again... and assumed Dorothy Chandler was your immoral ex Jewish girlfriend.
OOPS!
I kinda like Gehry's designs, and I took a tour of the building right after jury duty (the parking lot, as you may know, is directly across the street from both of these objects). However, I doubt that anyone will ever look with the same sort of nostalgia at a scary, twisty modern art building, regardless of how many loose-moralled Hebrews they escorted there.
I must be weird, because I love this place. Oh, I am weird, so that explains alot.
I want to live in this place. And hit the side of it with a hammer to see what happens.
The place is fuckin fabulous, I don't care what you guys say.
Are there flowers around the building? Interesting landscaping? Because, as me sainted pappy used to say in situations like this, "You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think."
I'm a fan of Frank Gehry's work because he's a visionary (and a Torontonian), and I admire his radical and original approach to architecture. Our society tends to mock innovative ideas in general, but I think that's exactly what keeps creative people motivated.
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