Landscapes: Westwood Village

Westwood Village in Los Angeles, California as seen from the J. Paul Getty Museum. Home to entertainment and technology industry companies, University of California - Los Angeles, budding filmmakers, Fox Theater at Westwood, Diddy Reese (cookies!), Noodle Planet and a lot of other restaurants and shops.

Little Walks

Next week, our bosses will be out traveling in the Hongkong/China area. Well, it's not exactly a case of when the cat is away the mouse can play. No bonita. That is a weird situation for all of us. Of course, in an interconnected world, people are just an email or a text message away.

Anyway, as it's a rainy night in Makati, this actually reminded me of the Promenade at the Tsim Sha Tsui side of Hong Kong. Sometime before in Tsim Sha Tsui, my uncle went to China very early in the morning so he can play golf with his buddies and he left me alone to fend for myself. He must have realized that I can find my way around by following the maps in all those folded papers and travel brochures. My friends call them "papel-papel". With the sole intention of seeing those old folks doing their tai chi early in the morning, I went out 7am -ish for a walk on the Promenade along the harbor. Well, nothing beats a walk along the harbor early in the morning. You have the Promenade all to yourself (well, okay, along with a few other joggers and walkers), see the HK Cultural Center, Clock Tower, the Avenue of the Stars and the HK Space Museum without the usual crowd.

There are actually many other "walks" to do in Tsim Sha Tsui. You can get lost in Kowloon Park and at the Knutsford Terrace/Knutsford Steps, as well as walk the length of Nathan Road and haggle with a vendor for those dried things that hold clams. Haggling is a lot of fun, then see their reaction when you walk away saying, "Ok. Thanks. I'll think about it first."

As in life, the little things count. So pay some attention to those brochures on those little stands in little corners. There are themed walks that can guide you around and they include maps and bits of descriptions about the attractions. I took one of each of the brochures available and those basically became my maps for going around. They are also posted online at the Discover Hong Kong website.

From those little walks, I discovered that walking around and getting lost (a lot) can actually help you know a place better. I hope to discover more interesting places soon. I hope you do too.

Fernbank Museum on a Weekend Afternoon

Fernbank Museum, originally uploaded by Rizza Po.

Other than New York, where else can you find a museum that offers dinosaur fossils, martinis and movies in IMAX on Friday nights? Answer: the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, Georgia. It's a geek paradise - DNA models, dinosaur fossils, life-like replicas of animals in the wild like bears, deer, and other exotic animals. There are also areas for play for kids and the not-so-kids, like a giant bubble-maker, science tricks, and other great stuff. Though we're not exactly kids anymore, I think we kind of enjoyed it.

Two of our friends based in Houston, but working from Kansas City, decided to visit Atlanta that weekend since Hurricane Katrina was hovering near the Mexican Gulf at that time (yes, this photo was taken in 2005). We all decided to go to the Fernbank Museum that weekend since it's just nearby. Besides, I have been passing it everyday for several weeks already yet didn't even get to peek inside. But we were glad, it's a great place for a drowsy weekend. You will get scared, have fun, be awed and amazed, see a film on IMAX, all in one place.

Frank Gehry and MOCA Los Angeles

Earlier today, I discovered this video of Frank Gehry's talk (From 1990, defending a vision for architecture). I never realized that it's kind of long but it's a good introduction to him and his work. I loved his design of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California.


When I was in Los Angeles, I happened to wander into the Museum of Contemporary Arts (L.A.). It's also a great place to discover design. It's just in front of the Walt Disney Concert Hall and it has a great collection of Frank Gehry's designs, including the previous versions of the Concert Hall when it was still being designed. There are also a lot of interesting stuff there like, like a mechanical skirt that "blooms" or sort of moves. There are architectural models of the Bubble Building in Beijing, the Beijing Olympic Stadium, fabric designs by Issey Miyake and other great stuff on fashion. What's more, the entrance fee is only USD$8. That ticket also got me free entrance to their satellite museum at the Pacific Design Center. But I wasn't able to go there anymore as I ran out of time.

Grand Avenue is a good place to wander and explore. What are your favorite architectural highlights in your city?

Visiting Savannah

In my previous post (It Takes Clouds to Make a Glorious Beaufort Sunrise), I wrote about a trip to Beaufort, SC. After Beaufort, our party went on to explore Savannah, Georgia, which is only around 2 hours from there. Savannah is a beautiful city; I have been there twice and every time I always find something new or cool. It's a city rich with tradition and history. There are historic homes all over, historic cemeteries and historic forts. The downtown area is now one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the United States.

I took the picture above at the Colonial Park Cemetery. With Spanish moss hanging from trees, silence, old tombstones for publishers, businessmen, leaders and patriots, the cemetery is calming yet eerie at the same time. That's why I found it interesting to find people reading or walking/exercising there. Usually, cemeteries are only visited on special occasions or on November 1st. But here, people treat the place as a park.

In Savannah, I love walking on River Street and Factors' Walk, visiting the "squares" that are all over the city, having lunch at Paula Deen's The Lady and Sons, walking around to look at the unique architecture and, generally, just soaking up on all that Southern charm. An author, Nick Cohn, talked to someone in Savannah once and that person told him that the secret to living there is to live slow, to learn to drip like honey.

Remember that movie called Forrest Gump? "Life is like a box of chocolates" and all that? The scenes where he was sitting on a bench waiting for the bus were shot at Chippewa Square. Unfortunately, the bench is not there anymore. There's a replica of the bench at the museum at the Savannah Visitors' Center.

I think I actually wrote something about Savannah before, which I will look for after writing this. Some of my suggested things to see and do when in the city are below. Savannah is a city great for walking, so I suggest you stroll around, take out the camera and explore.

Must see:

• Factors' Walk
• River Street
• City Market
• Colonial Park Cemetery
• Bonaventure Park (where the statue commonly associated with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil used to be; it's now in a museum)
• Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
• Telfair Museum of Art
• Chippewa Square
• Forsythe Park
• Historic Homes (great also if you can schedule during the Savannah Tour of Homes)
• Tybee Island (for the Tybee Island Light Station, the first lighthouse on the southern Atlantic coast)
• Mercer-Williams House

Must dos:

• Eat. There is Paula Deen's The Lady and Sons (the Sunday buffet has a good Southern spread) and other nice restaurants at the City Market.
• Visit the "squares".
• Join a ghost tour.
• Walk along River Street.
• Watch how a taffy is made. There are stores selling water taffy along River Street.
• Take pictures of the unique architectural highlights.
• Find unique water spouts. There are uniquely designed water spouts all over; I saw one shaped like a fish' head.
• See all the must-see's.

Pasadena Museums

Around five hours ago, the Mars Phoenix Lander landed on Mars. In mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California everyone was celebrating in the middle of the chaos. This reminded me of my little adventure about a year ago, when I went to the Huntington, maybe took a wrong turn and got lost along the way, then ended up at the gate of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. That was exciting... but it also scared me in a way, so I quickly made a U-turn and looked for the highway.

Why was I in the area again? I was looking the Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botanical Gardens, which is only one of the most beautiful gardens in the East coast and has one of the most extensive and impressive art collections. The Huntington is free every first Thursday of the month. When I was there, I didn't have to get a ticket, but it seems they now require everyone to get advanced tickets on Free Day.

Another great museum to visit is the Norton Simon Museum, also in Pasadena. It's free every first Friday of the month, from 6pm to 9pm.

More great links and info to free museum days in Los Angeles here: Free Museum Days.