Any idea of what to do in Los Angeles and San Diego?

have a nice trip^^

The San Diego Zoo is really something - it would be intensely stupid not to go. It isn't your typical zoo, by a long shot.

Legoland is nearby - it's amusing, heh. Coronado Island is worth visiting, as is the Scripps Institute, the USS Midway museum and the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum.

In Los Angeles, be sure and go to both the Getty museums, the one overlooking the city off the 405 as well as the newly-reopened one in Malibu. Have dinner at The Charthouse in Malibu, while you're there, and get to/from Malibu by driving through beautiful Topanga Canyon. Enjoy the eclectic shops on Melrose Avenue, eat at least once at Jerry's Famous Deli, avoid Universal City like the plague, go down to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, vist the Griffith Park Observatory, go to Disneyland in Anaheim, stop by the Dark Delicacies SF/horror bookstore, vist Fry's Electronics in Burbank and/or Woodland Hills, drive down scenic Mullholland Drive, head south and visit William Randolph Hearst's amazing estate at San Simeon (featured in Citizen Kane), and enjoy the scene.

Can't tell you much about San Diego, but I'd absolutely second the Getty museum outside of LA idea. And remember to take your camera, it's some of the most stunning architecture I've ever seen, and the collection is equally stunning. Just a note though, if you're looking to go to Hearst Castle, you'd be heading North (maybe 5 or 6 hours drive?), not South. Amazing place, if you're into the grand, opulent type thing.

i'll be impressed if you can find anything to do in san diego. what a horrible city. :P

Here are a couple of unique places in the L.A. area outside of shopping malls and amusement parks you might find worth your time.

Museum of Jurrassic Technology

Arclight Cinema

UCI Beall Center for Art and Technology in Irvine (between L.A. and San Diego)


La Luz de Jesus Gallery and The Soap Plant in Hollywood.


Enjoy your visit!

If you like good beer check out the Karl Strauss Brewpub in downtown San Diego - great beer and food!

San Diego is fairly boring.
The architecture at UCSD is worth checking out, tho. The Geisel Library (named after Dr Seuss) is shaped like a cube balanced on a point. Some random building has a huge neon Bruce Nauman installation, too.

The Salk institute is supposedly pretty great, too.

http://www.salk.edu/about/campus/architecture.php

If you get over to the Hillcrest /Adams Anvenue/ University area there are plenty of fun little hangouts. Get away from where the tourists hang out and visit where we really live, and it's not so boring after all. I had a great time in Escondido the other day visiting the Mingei museum which had a Dale Chuhuly exhibit - awesome stuff. Lots of neat little art galleries sprining up around there, too.

You have to check out TBN, Trinity Broadcasting Network. You can actually visit their studio and it's absolutely amazing!

Just to add on to what Jamie said, the Center for Land Use Interpretation is right next door to the Museum of Jurrasic Tech.

Avoid Legoland. The SD Zoo is damn impressive, but the Wild Animal Park in Escondito is better (though a bit further away).

Tuesday night at the Air Conditioned Lounge is "Big Sonic Chill" which starts at 9 and is an excellent selection of music and atmosphere. Small place and nondescript at 30th & Adams. Alternative on Tues is no-cover improv jazz at tht Onyx Room in Downtown.

Thursday night there is salsa dancing at Cafe Sevelle on 4th, lessons starting at 8.

For an overwhelming breakfast, try Hash House up in Hillcrest. Overwhelming in both quality and quantity. Sammy's Sushi in the Claremont Mesa/Convoy area is (in my opinion) the freshest and best sushi in SD, and Sammy will wager for sake bombs with customers.

The Landmark Ken and Landmark Hillcrest tend to have a good cross-section of indie and mainstream movies, but don't overlook the Pacific Gaslamp 15 for quality films if you're stuck in downtown.

Make a point to hit up 24-hr Mexican food restaurants. Fish tacos & carne adada burritos are almost infallible around here.

Yes, SD can be a boring ass place, but you can find worthwhile stuff to do. Have fun.

Try to see Tim Hawkinson's gigantic sculptures! Then tell us what you think..
Maybe some trip to Joshua Tree? try a little peyote tea?
Peace

Hello, Sascha told me to recommend some things for you to do. So here I am.

Looks like you need about a month to do all the things people recommended and such, but I must say if you are feeling adventurous take the trolley from downtown san diego and go all the way to US/Mexico border (30 mins). Enter at your own risk. Take a cab (3-4$) to "Revolucion" street. There you can but anything from switch blades to "tobacco" pipes and well whatever you can't buy legally in the states. Also you must experience The man with a whistle that pours tequila down your throat and spins you around, and then get a foto on the painted donkey that looks like a zebra. Lots of kitchy things to do and see. It's safe to go there in the day time and its cleaned up a lot. People will tell you NOT to go, but it's a must since you don't make it to this part of the globe that often.

For LA, My girlfriend Meghan, good friends with sascha too works for MOCA LA. She could get you tickets. Its in downtown SD.

http://www.moca.org/index.php

I suppose for any further info you can email me and I can offer you any further assistance on getting those tickets if you wish.

If nothing else, have a great trip!

Hello, Sascha told me to recommend some things for you to do. So here I am.

Looks like you need about a month to do all the things people recommended and such, but I must say if you are feeling adventurous take the trolley from downtown san diego and go all the way to US/Mexico border (30 mins). Enter at your own risk. Take a cab (3-4$) to "Revolucion" street. There you can but anything from switch blades to "tobacco" pipes and well whatever you can't buy legally in the states. Also you must experience The man with a whistle that pours tequila down your throat and spins you around, and then get a foto on the painted donkey that looks like a zebra. Lots of kitchy things to do and see. It's safe to go there in the day time and its cleaned up a lot. People will tell you NOT to go, but it's a must since you don't make it to this part of the globe that often.

For LA, My girlfriend Meghan, good friends with sascha too works for MOCA LA. She could get you tickets. Its in downtown SD.

http://www.moca.org/index.php

I suppose for any further info you can email me and I can offer you any further assistance on getting those tickets if you wish.

If nothing else, have a great trip!

I can't believe nobody told you to go to Disneyland!

Seriously, if you're going to come over to California from Europe, and you're going to go up from San Diego to LA, you must spend at least a half day at Disneyland which is on the way there. (A whole day is better.) Enjoy being a little kid again, go on silly rides. If you do go, best is to get there early in the morning (before lines get too long. Bring a picnic lunch so you don't have to overpay for bad food.

There is going to be an amazing show by Blaine Fontana this Saturday, March 4 at Scribble Theory in Santa Ana. Huge installations and amazing art. I previewed it and it's worth a looksee. It's right inbetween San Diego and Los Angeles, too, so it's perfect. You must, must, must check it out.

Some of his paintings are here at TotemBookMedia.com.

The website for the gallery is a little cruddy, but its here: Scribble Theory Gallery.

The show iinfo:

BLAINE FONTANA
"The Animal Council"
Scribble Theory Gallery
210 N. Bush St.
Santa Ana, CA 92701
714.542.5928.

Preshow 2-4 PM
Opening 7-10 PM

E-mail me if you go so I'll know to look out! I love your blog and I'd like to say hi.

P.S. The guy who told you to "drive south and visit San Simeon" was confused. San Simeon is worth a visit, but it's hundreds of miles north of LA, more than half the way to San Francisco..

if you're at all interested in doing some record shopping then stop by amoeba music -- a 35,000 square foot monster filled top to bottom with records & cds & dvds & etc. it's at the corner of cahuenga + sunset.

Hi Regine

I'm traveling 10000 miles from Australia to attend ETech. So I've been interested to see what everyone has suggested. I'll be just as interested to see wat you decide to do.

Perhaps we'll see each other at the event.

Rich

hey, i would hang out in san diego for only a day or two and skip anything between san diego and los angeles. there is way more to see in and around la. Meet up with your friends and then

A) take a drive up PCH to malibu and stop for a drink at moonshadow's (amazing/best view of the pacific, cold drinks)

B) Drive Mullholland and check out the amazing view and stop in for a drink at the getty (one of the best views in the city) . . . (Getty is at one end and free, Meier's work is a snoozefest compared to so many other architectural projects out here, eames, lautner, wright, neutra, and about 40 teaching/practicing architects that are more contemporary, all of which is available to be seen)

C) Drive up to the top of griffith park and walk around (the observatory is still closed, but once again, great view)

D) Walk around Rodeo (check out rem's prada store)

E) Shop on Melrose, old vintage stuff

F) Have a few drinks at either Standard Hotel, the Roosevelt, or the Mondrian (the somewhat annoying but very LA nightlife experience)

G) Hit up some great local bars over in Los Feliz, Silverlake, and Echo Park, send me an email and I will come and meet you and friends for a drink.

I live In LA, Echo Park, and have given the whole LA tour for at least 20 people, skip the touristy stuff and check out the sights of both cities. LA has a bad rap but there are many great things to see.

oh yeah and we are having a party on the 3rd at my house with a few live bands. email if you want to go.

-M

hi there,
i found out about you and your blog a few days ago. very nice.
i had troubles to stop clicking around late at night...
(especially now that i have internet only one evening per week).
(today is an exception, bills to pay!!)

well i am a swiss boy and i spent 4 years in LA
and i must say that the Salton Sea is one of the strongest memories of my stay. here is a link with little history and introduction to this place:

http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/salton Salton%20Sea%20Description.html

otherwise i also have a contacts to go visite the Andrea Zittel lab
in the Joshua Trees Park. (near Saltoon Sea and San Diego, but
you need a good car and a lot of water)

take care,
and thanks for your blog, especially the inflattable section, as we
are working on a project using the same tech. :-)

gregory

hi everyone,

thanks so so much for the suggestions. mind you, i m a bit paranoid and convinced that they ll just stop me at the frontier. no particular reason for that, just paranoid i tell you!

oops little syntax mistake in my earlier post, the right llink is:
http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/salton/Salton%20Sea%20Description.html

otherwise for andrea zittel:
http://zittel.org

have fun,
g

Forgot one thing Regine; in SD you can also skip Seaworld, unless you are bringing children who would enjoy the animal shows.

These two has been mentioned allready, so I'll just underline them:

Museum of Jurassic Technology - is simply a must for you in L.A. : http://www.mjt.org/

Hearst Castle - quite a bit north of L.A. along the coast. But the road is beautiful and the place itself is incredible, unbelievable and... I lack words... one would like to think it's perverse cultural a joke, but no. Not even the guides get the absurdity of it all, but present it as if it was as good as "doing Europe" yourself. It's a bit pricey to get in though, but worth it: http://www.hearstcastle.com/

and then lots and lots of Mexican food...

Have nice trip

A

How has no one mentioned Balboa Park? Walk around Balboa Park. Bring your aibo and take him/her (?) for a walk. It's gorgeous.

Otherwise, I echo most of what changston has said about San Diego.

I think you'd enjoy a night at San Diego's Beauty Bar. It's a bit out of the way, in a neighborhood that can't decide if it's a "little Vietnam" or "little Mexico" and is completely non-touristy. Plus you can get a manicure with your cocktail. There's a Beauty Bar in LA too, so that's an option as well.

If you feel like going out on your first night in town, I like Mondays at Bar Dynamite. It's the best night of dub/reggae in the city.

I go to UCSD and second the recommendation to check out the architecture and the Bruce Nauman installation. The Salk Institute is also well worth visiting and is right by UCSD. Otherwise, stay away from UTC (the neighborhood around UCSD) because it's the most goddamned soulless place in the city.

What to do?

Get the hell out ... come up north.

Much more interesting, and there'll be a big storm blwing through.

I can't believe it. You coming from Brussels right?

Not one comment above mentioned the beach. La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya) is a must visit.

Sheesh, buncha geeks.

Go to San Francisco instead!

Southern CA is nothing more than a billboard for the decline of civilization.

What about riding the roller coaster in san diego!? =)

I'm actually going to the Blaine Fontana show and, unfortunately, I currently reside in the cultural wasteland that is San Diego. So if you need a lift out of Fascistville and beyond the Orange Curtain, let me know... :)

you're stupid if you don't go to the San Diego zoo, it's one of the wonders of the Western World IMHO

other attractions - Balboa Park, the beach, Tiajuana, etc etc.

If you are venturing south of the border, skip TJ and head to the Guadalupe Valley for some interesting emerging wineries in the Mexico Wine Country and a delightful meal at Laja. Guadalupe Valley is east of Ensenda.

Morpheus Gallery on Wilshire Blvd:

http://morpheusgallery.com/

So many people down on the Diego. Bars- try Nunus on 5th ave, the Casbah (near airport/little italy), or The Turf Club in Golden Hills. I recommend the Contemporary Museum in La Jolla and hell, everyone should have a Tijuana "experience" --but other parts of Baja are more traditionally pleasant.

say hello to Lucky if you see her.

u have a choice you are not determined by your location

SD has a lot of cool stuff to offer... here is my take

the museum of contemporary art in la jolla usually has interesting exhibits and also has a permanent andy goldsworthy installation as well as some windows designed by robert irwin

balboa park is a nice place to wander around, with an orchid garden and the sometimes interesting museum of photography

i'd also consider driving a few miles north to encinitas. the roxy cafe serves an amazing falafel burger, and the sunset from swami's beach is worth the trip

you might want to check out "share" - a weekly gathering of people creating live audio and video. i haven't been to the one in sd. it just started about a month ago.
more info here:

http://share.dj/