Oct 2007

. The train to Los Angeles was two hours late but after we had a little walkabout I was all installed in my ‘roomette’ for my trip to San Francisco.

Just west of Grand Junction the train went through Ruby Canyon in Utah .. which proved that ‘when you have seen one canyon, you ain’t seen them all’. Fairly wide and not as high as Colorado , the canyon had red, purple and ruby colours in its sedimentary rocks, with occasional flashes of dense green from the trees growing along the river rushing through the canyon floor.

With great regret I made my way to dinner as the sun was setting … but what a pleasing image to retain on the final day in the great South West of America.

It was a two day trip to San Francisco (where most of the time was spent socialising).

Tuesday September 11

Because this was the anniversary of 9/11, the airport was quiet and on arrival in Denver, that was also quiet too.

I stayed at the economical Ramada Inn on East Colfax, a down at the heels main street east of central Denver. At $90 a night this was well below other Denver prices. The driver of the shuttle van from the airport told me not to walk around at night in this area, but I think he was just a big sissy. Most of the people on the street were down and out but did not seem to be criminals and there were plenty of people walking about (there were two major pop music venues nearby). I soon became comfortable in the area and there was the added advantage of an hourly free shuttle service from the hotel to any destination within 3 miles ; this dealt with my need to get to the Amtrak station.

Wednesday

Quick trip to Union Station, the Amtrak station, to collect ticket for my trip to Grand Junction. It is well maintained Beaux Arts building, but absolutely dead. It was busy when I departed early Thursday morning but lacked the frisson of Union Station is Los Angeles.

I’d planned a visit to Denver to see DAM (Denver Art Museum) an Daniel Libeskind building. More highly polished steel in a wacky profile (similar to Frank Gehry’s Disney Music Center). Perhaps it is simply saturation but I am finding this style of building tedious. It screams and does not really live up to its initial attraction ( for example I prefer the Milwaukee Art Museum by Calatrava.

http://mam.org/thebuilding/index.htm

The real disappointment of this building is how poorly it serves the function for which it should have been designed. Quirky corners, odd planes and lacking a logical layout, the building obstructs the purpose of displaying art .. even the unconventional art displayed in this modern wing of the museum.

The collection is high quality but (for me) the best was Anthony Gormley's "Quantum Cloud XXXIII"

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/robinson/robinson10-16-06_detail.asp?picnum=8

This figure of a man ‘disappears’ when you get close to the sculpture and find that it is a collection of short steel rods fixed together in apparently random pattern. Steel in the inner parts is dark coloured ; the exterior is stainless steel which shimmers and gives the work a luminous quality.

A link bridge leads to the main part of the museum and several great collections. This provides a real contrast to Liebeskind’s quirky space and proves that a more conventional space with square or rectangular rooms emphasises the art .. and not the structure. The Asian art is good but I was most impressed by the Spanish Colonial and pre-Columbian collections. The latter included thousands of works (gold, jade, ceramics) from South and Central America.

The Spanish Colonial which I wanted to acquire for my Faith Trash Collection is Death Cart by Jose Herrera (active 1890 – 1910 ), Comment on a modern artwork explains the tradition:

Death Cart can be traced to the Penitente sect of Catholicism, which developed in the remote hill towns of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, in the absence of priests to maintain standard rituals. Carts are still dragged through the streets by Penitente members during Holy Week to remind the faithful of their mortality. As the carved wooden skeletons rattle along the roads, participants see that death is always just a few steps behind.

http://delcorazon.si.edu/galeria_10.cfm

I had never heard of the American painter Clyfford Still, but a room is dedicated to 12 of his major works and a whole museum will be built adjacent to DAM to house Still’s works (and only his works). One of the first Abstract Expressionists, this is exciting art.

http://www.clyffordstillmuseum.org

The nearby Denver Public Library provides free Internet access .. it has a pleasant lively atmosphere.

Normally when I see or hear the word ‘mall’ I flee. Denver’s 16th Street Mall is an exception. I probably would have avoided it were it not for the fact that the Amtrak Station is at one end of it, the library and Denver Art Museum at the other. Free shuttle buses are the only traffic on the street and (at least in the lovely September weather) sidewalk cafes and restaurant terraces can be found all along the street. Many of the buildings are historic ones which have been restored and there is a general air of prosperity about the whole area. There are new hotels and shopping malls off 16th Street but it does seem to show that with proper planning, this type of pedestrianised shopping area can be something other than the wind swept, litter plastered parking lot found in so many cities.

Perhaps it was the altitude (I only became aware of its effect later in the week), but the walk to Denver Botanical Gardens was uphill in more than one way. The few watering spots on 13th Street proved to be either closed or totally inhospitable. The Botanical Gardens are next to spacious Cheeseman Park and that is a very posh residential part of the city ; grand homes in spacious surroundings.

Frankly, the gardens were a disappointment. Perhaps it was the sculpture from Zimbabwe were littered (sorry, ..dotted ..) around the gardens .. or the wrong time of year .. the flowers were burnt and tired. The redeeming feature was the Japanese Garden. Dwarf pines looked from one viewpoint like bonsai then from a distance it could have been a mountainside scene. Reminds me that I really need to explore the theory of these gardens .. they are places which really appeal to me.

My rant: Well, not quite a full scale rant, but the problem of homelessness in Denver is really shocking. It is hard to find accurate information but a 2006 survey says that there were over 9,000 homeless people .. but there are claims that this problem has been reduced of late (moved on?). An article in this month's New York Times estimates the homeless in downtown LA as 10,000 to 12,000
(NYT 11 Oct 2007 'Los Angeles to permit sleeping on sidewalks'.

My rant is twofold .. I feel sorry for some of these people who obviously need help .. and threatened by some of them who are threatening and aggressive. It is a disgrace that entire zones in the centre of these major cities (Market Street and 7th Street in San Francisco has the same problem) are effectively off-limits because of this is problem.

Summary

This was a 2 week tour through the West, the main objective being to visit nephews (multiple) and their families in New Mexico and Colorado. I had a 5 day break in Denver.

I flew from London to Los Angeles, then travelled about 2000 miles on Amtrak using a USA Rail Pass, ending up with a week in San Francisco before my return.

The fine detail

Los Angeles

The shuttle bus from the airport dropped people at smart hotels on the way into the downtown area and I first realized that something was odd when the Asian girl in the van insisted that the driver go around the block and drop her right at her door .. she was not willing to cross the street to her building. He did not seem surprised at this and after she left I asked if this was a bad area .. his answer was (in effect) not as bad as the area where my hotel was located. Great start to a holiday! Even though is was only 9pm no shops were open and there were almost no people walking on the streets. The New Otani is a very smart place and it was quite reassuring. I had a quick clean up and went downstairs to have something to eat only to find that this 434 room 21 story hotel in America’s second largest city stops serving dinner at 9pm (9:30 pm on Friday and Saturday). No coffee shop, and only a small service bar was open. Because the area did not seem safe, I decided it was not wise to look for a place in the neighbourhood (later exploration indicates there is nothing), so I settled for 2 martinis for dinner.

It was a surprise the next morning to find that the hotel is in a fairly lively business district near state and federal buildings including law courts. Lots of people were walking around ; an entirely different scene from last night. I walked to Union Station to collect my Rail Pass and tickets for the train journeys I’d booked on the Internet. It all went smoothly and I was very impressed with Amtrak.

Union Station is one of the greatest railway stations I’ve seen .. built in 1939 with Chinese, Moorish, Spanish and Moderne influences, it is a classic building which is in a prime state of maintenance. Two landscaped area to each side of the main waiting area provide seating in the fresh air under jacaranda trees (and is a haven for smokers). That station is busy because it serves not only Amtrak but LA Metro lines, and commuter trains ; this means it is a lively place (and has a competent but unobtrusive security force, so it feels safe).

Just across the street is the oldest part of the city (El Pueblo) which is now a mixed museum/street market selling Mexican (and, I suspect, Chinese) souvenirs and tat. wrestler masks from Mexico caught my eye ; I go to a bar in Mexico City with a huge collection of them.

The grand old Pico Hotel had a photography exhibition Latinos in Hollywood. Contemporary photos of Ramon Novarro demonstrate why he was such a heartthrob. I was surprised that Rita Hayward was included as a Latino (because of her Spanish father) : I thought she wa pure Irish.

I walked into the central district through very seedy areas (Spring |Street / Broadway) with shops selling cheap clothing to very poor people. The only highlight was the Grand Central Market which connects Broadway to Hill Street. This genuine market selling meat, fish, fruit and vegetables also has many places to eat, some so popular that we were standing to take a seat at the counter as soon as one was vacated. I enjoyed the idea of Hispanics queuing to eat Chinese food ; multi culture in action.

Another example of that was a curious exhibit [ Diversity Day] outside the regional transport headquarters. Small stalls promoting Africa, Iran, SE Asia, Mexico and a few other countries while in an entertainment area a trio of musicians (Turkish?) were joined by a beautiful dancer to the delight of the audience and two little Peruvian girls in particular.

Friday

Disney Music Center

This was the best day in Los Angeles. I walked to the new Disney Music Centre and was lucky to be there just as a free tour started (there are self guided audio tours as well). I am not all that keen on the stainless steel exterior of this Frank Gehry designed building (seems like a copy of his Bilbao Guggenheim Museum), but the interior and especially the articulation of space is impressive. There is a lot of timber (spruce, I was told). We got to see the concert hall itself (often closed to tours because of rehearsals) with its unusual centrepeice “the spiky creation some have dubbed the "box of French fries," which is in fact a 6,100-pipe organ also designed by Gehry” the pipes are not metal but timber. I am really keen to see a concert in this hall.

The major donor, Lillian Disney, wanted a garden included and it is on the 3rd floor with views over the city . It is accessible to the public by staircases from the street but seemed to have no problem with the human flotsam to be found in San Francisco public areas. The trees in the garden are mature .. the fountain of Delft china seemed very kitsch.

"A Rose for Lilly," the flower sculpture that serves as the garden's centerpiece. 'It was designed by Gehry in honor of the concert hall's namesake donor and was inspired by her affection for simple blue and white Royal Delft China - an affection that charmed Gehry, because it flies in the face of crockery snobs.'

We went up to the 5th level of the building (dizzy making) to see the skylights and how the cleaning cradles are used to clean the leaning walls.

http://www.musiccenter.org/wdch/index.html

This part of downtown LA (Grand Avenue) is the centre for financial services, has posh hotels and shops and is a real contrast to the area I visited the day before. The Museum of Contemporary Art might be interesting but I saw nothing that gripped me ; a large portion of it was closed while a new exhibition is mounted. The junk sculpture in the forecourt was eye catching ; it looked like the debris from a small airplane crash.

Pedestrian areas lead to an outdoor concert area and to the newly located (but currently closed) Angels Flight – shortest railway in the world (see below for details).

Clearly the secret to a successful visit to downtown LA is to pay up and stay in one of these hotels ($170 at the Omni versus $109 at the New Otani). My initial impression of downtown LA would have been quite different if I had stayed in this area.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Amtrak Rail Pass
30 days of travel in the West (west of Chicago .. a huge area) for $389 (off peak). This rate is not for US residents ; ahttp://www foreign passport or if a US citizen, proof of residence aboard is required. Once the Rail Pass is issued, you get a ticket from the Amtrak station for each journey but that was easy.

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/am2Copy/Simple_Copy_Page&c=am2Copy&cid=1081442673945&ssid=296

Architecture

Angels Flight Railway

This tiny funicular, billed as the "shortest railway in the world" when it opened in 1901, sits on the east side of Bunker Hill, adjacent to the northern entrance to the Metro Red Line's Pershing Square station. Privately built and operated, the railway carried residents of the Victorian homes above to the shopping and financial districts below on Broadway, Hill and Spring streets. From the 1920s to the 1950s, the railway continued to serve those who moved into the Victorians as they were converted into rooming houses. Then, as part of an "urban renewal" project, the old houses on Bunker Hill were demolished, and the hill itself was truncated to accommodate high-rise development. Purchased by the city from the last private owner in 1962, Angels Flight hung on until 1969, when it closed and was put into storage - with a city promise that it would be reinstalled in a few years. Nearly 30 years later, Angels Flight was restored and reopened across from Grand Central Market, just a half-block south of the original location next to the Third Street tunnel. Now operated by the nonprofit Angels Flight Railway Foundation, the reopened railway allowed visitors to take a ride back in history (and up a very steep hill) for only 25 cents. Closed again in 2001 following an accident, the funicular is expected to reopen in early 2007.

http://www.downtownnews.com/dtvg/architecture.html

Union Station

Designed by the renowned father and son duo of John Parkinson and Donald B. Parkinson, Union Station opened in May 1939, as the last of the great train stations built in the nation. It's still a hub for the city's bus, train and Metro Rail (subway) lines. The structure includes bits and pieces of Art Deco, Spanish Revival, Mission and Streamline Moderne, with a smattering of Moorish details. The distinguishing observation and clock tower rises 135 feet. [L.A. Historic-Cultural Monument; listed in National Register of Historic Places]

http://www.downtownnews.com/dtvg/architecture.html

El Pueblo: The city’s birthplace

Twenty-seven buildings make up the historic enclave known as El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument. Considered the city's birthplace, the once rural Spanish territory was started by los pobladores in 1781. Today, four of the structures have been restored as museums. Chief among them is the 1818 Avila Adobe, the oldest surviving house in Los Angeles. Built by Don Francisco Avila as his townhouse, it served as headquarters for Commodore Robert Stockton during the Mexican American War, and later as a boarding house and restaurant. Visitors can glimpse how life was lived in Los Angeles in the 1840s.

http://www.downtownnews.com/dtvg/architecture.html

St. Vibiana's Cathedral

One of L.A.'s last remaining 19th-century buildings, the former home of the Los Angeles Archdiocese was built in 1876 by Ezra F. Kysor, and modeled after a Baroque church in Barcelona. The façade features classical pilasters crowned with an 83-foot bell tower and dramatic cupola that can be seen blocks away. The cathedral once housed relics of an early Christian martyr whose name is given to the cathedral, St. Vibiana. In early 1996, after suffering earthquake damage, the church began demolition of the site. It became the focus of a major preservation battle, and was eventually saved after the Los Angeles Conservancy filed two successful lawsuits and found a buyer for the property, developer Tom Gilmore. The building has now been converted into a performing arts center, and the site also houses the Little Tokyo Branch Library.
114 E. Second St.

http://www.downtownnews.com/dtvg/architecture.htm