Los Angeles

I traveled to Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago in order to participate in the Society for Ethnomusicology meeting there.  The location changes every year, and this year I was lucky to be able to travel to LA.  There, I spent a great day with Rebecca and Mary--got to see their new home and take a little tour of their new neighborhood in Culver City.  Rebecca picked up Fernando and me at the airport, and we headed to pick Mary up from preschool before walking to lunch at a pseudo Japanese cos-play restaurant/art gallery/store. 

Our first stop along the way to the restaurant was the Culver Hotel, famous for being the residence of the munchkins during the shooting of the Wizard of Oz.  There was a great display of Wizard of Oz memorabilia in front of the hotel behind a glass case.

 Next stop and just before the restaurant, was part of the Culver City studio system.  This house was actually Tara (sp?), the plantation house in Gone with the Wind.

We scootered/walked back to Rebecca's house, said hi to friends along the way, and then dropped Fernando off at his hotel before we headed to the Grove (where Christmas was in full swing and some girls doing ballet were promoting a film version of The Nutcracker), KMart, and Children's Place where Rebecca, Mary, and I shopped until we dropped.

The day with Rebecca and Mary was bittersweet.  It was great seeing them, and time flew way too fast.  The rest of the time in LA was spent at the conference site with some sporadic excursions out and about, including a karaoke session in Korea town (no photos--sorry) and late night ramen.

Some of my favorite scholars and I headed to Little Tokyo where we enjoyed some late night beer and Ramen at a very tasty 24-hour Japanese ramen joint.

 Bonnie Wade and I got to catch up over a chicken salad sandwich and rootbeer lunch (I miss rootbeer).

I had dinner at a tapas place with some members of my Indiana cohort.  It was great seeing these guys after so many years, most with children and holding academic jobs in different parts of the country.  Two of the cohort have already published books and are tenured.  Very surreal to see how much they've changed, but a glimmer of the students I once knew still existed.

Fernando, Stephanie (aka The Shonekan) and I enjoyed a quick coffee before heading to the panels on Saturday morning.  Unfortunately, Stephanie left on Saturday, so I was not able to spend as much time with her as I would have liked.  She's originally from Nigeria and has three beautiful kids I knew as babies.  She's now a professor in Chicago and her husband, a doctor, is working at a great job there as well.  One of the nicest and most beautiful people I've ever met.

Fernando and I participated in the banquet on Saturday night.  The UCLA planning committee arranged for the university's mariachi to perform.  They were the best thing about the evening, which was overpriced with crappy food.  After the banquet, Fernando and I walked to Staples Center for drinks (Fernando: iced tea; Me: virgin mai tai) and edamame at Trader Vics.  It was a pleasant close to the evening and a last chance for us to have a conversation and spend some time together.  It was great seeing Fernando.  Hoping to see him again very, very soon.

The morning of my departure I walked to Starbucks to get the obligatory LA mug, a travel mug, and coffee (which I swear tastes better and is 1/4 of the cost of a bag of Starbucks in Korea) and I snapped some photos of the early morning sun shining on nearby buildings.  This part of downtown LA, with its many art deco-style designs and nice architecture, is quite a lovely place.