Hit the Town | Sa 12/24

Annie came by to pick me up for the Getty around 9:30. It was nice getting to speak to her again, but I wasn't that shocked about finally seeing her in person. We had a nice time catching up on the way to the museum and the whole experience was cool. We had to take a train up a mountain to get to the Getty from the parking area and they play music to get you excited.

It felt strange whipping out my camera like a tourist as an adult since I don't think I've done anything tourist-y since traveling with family before college. The views from the Getty are great, from going up the mountain, to the terraces overlooking the entire area (mountains, ocean, and city), to the gardens on the museum grounds.

Even though we came at 10 in time for the opening, a large group of people came into the entrance hall after us. This motivated us to be quick, but we went through everything pretty slowly at first. Even though we started with the oldest hall (Medieval paintings, mostly Catholic) it was nice getting to read and soak in everything, but the later sections were much more interesting.

After combing over the first half of the museum (South and East halls), I was dying of hunger and we stopped to get something to eat. I was taken aback by the prices of the cafe food ($11 for a ham sandwich) so I settled on a $4 croissant, which only delayed my hunger for a bit. Many of the building sections transitioned to outdoor stairwells and walkways, which were interesting to follow. It made me feel like I was exploring the castle in The World That Never Was for the first time again.

Annie and I decided to speed up through the second half since it had the most interesting bits for us both (van Gogh, the limited time exhibits, and the gardens). Despite these intentions though, my interest in the pieces (Greek and Roman paintings and statues, 1700's French furniture) prevented that pace from happening. I didn't expect to have as much fun staring at art as I did, but there I was.

Later while zooming through to get to the van Gogh section I had to stop to stare at "Portrait of Leonilla" since it was practically photo-realistic from a distance, especially the textiles. It felt cheesy stopping to stare at it, but it was like a woman was actually staring at me from across the room from inside the frame and she was looking good.

Eventually we got to a room with several Monet's, "Wheatstacks, Snow Effect, Morning" being the absolute standout, along with a van Gogh, "Irises". The Monet's were especially interesting in how they appeared to be realistic from a distance, but that was in fact only an effect from tiny specks of various colors when viewed up close. The effect reminds me of Hotline Miami and how its pixelated style doesn't keep it from feeling brutally violent since our brains "fill in the gaps" of detail. "Irises" was also nice to view, especially with the unique effect from its thick outlines and lack of gradients on the leaves, but I didn't have the same epiphany about it as with the wheatstacks.

The rest of this was condensed since I wrote about it from memory days afterwards. It isn't being published until even later after.

• Walked around another garden with many different plants around. Nice but being in the sun was hot and made pictures strangely lit.
• Eventually left for a burger place near Santa Monica Pier. It was surprisingly fancy and tasty for an impulse decision. Annie and I had a fun time updating each other, but we didn't talk a ton. We were also fascinated seeing a car across the street get towed since it seemed to have been on fire earlier.
• Went to the pier around golden hour and it was hectic finding parking. Eventually walked to the pier and it reminded me of why I don't like tourist spots (crowded, families with the "costco new money" look, religious preaching over megaphone, buskers, stands doing zany stuff like stylized name art, overpriced tourist trap food like funnel cakes). We mostly walked around taking pictures of the ocean and lights, and taking in the views.
• Eventually left to walk around, used the restrooms in a Nordstrom but it closed early for the holiday so we called it. Annie dropped me off and Adrian took me to In-n-Out, which isn't very different from in Texas.
• We had a Diet Coke comparison test: canned against fountain. This was surprisingly fun and I realized that cold soda is much smoother than room tempterature. We also got the idea to do a blind taste test with more versions.