Top 10 Los Angeles Experiences of 2015
Being an urban planner is the best job in the world. I’m lucky to have spent another year doing what I love, exploring, and having fun in and around Los Angeles County. Here’s the best of 2015, in no particular order.
Lunar New Year Festival
This free event happens every year along Chinatown’s main corridors, and while the neighborhood is often overshadowed by the food and shopping of the San Gabriel Valley, the Golden Dragon Parade brings thousands of Angelenos to Downtown LA to celebrate with floats, firecrackers, and bands. Spring for some confetti poppers and get in on the fun. Whatever you do, don’t drive — as parking can be impossible. Take public transit or ride share and spend the day eating and walking and have a much more PG version of your December 31st New Year’s celebrations.
You probably judge people that go to the Ren Faire. It’s okay, I did too. But this year, my friends and I packed ourselves into the car and drove to the eastern edge of LA County to Irwindale, paid our $25, and had some of the most fun we’ve had all year. LA is a place where you can be whoever you want to be, and the elaborately costumed LARPers at the faire prove that to be true. It’s hosted at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area, a beautiful setting to pretend you’re in a 16th century Renaissance village. The flower crowns here are 100% less obnoxious than those at Coachella, and it’s one of the few places where you can eat a turkey leg as casually as you’d eat an ice cream cone.
Hollyhock House at Barnsdall Park
The reopening of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House at Barnsdall Art Park was one of the most buzzed about events of the year. Although I didn’t brave the hours-long opening night lines to get a rare glimpse of the home at night, going on a quiet spring afternoon was probably much more enjoyable. The self-guided, $7 tour is a bargain to get to see this architectural masterpiece, atop one of the chillest parks in all of LA County (with a western facing great lawn to watch the sun set any time of year). Parents in town? Take them to Ricky’s Fish Tacos and bring them here to show off the best of Los Feliz.
Sound Bath at the Integratron
While technically not in Los Angeles County, and way beyond the regular Palm Springs/Joshua Tree vacation region, the Integratron in Landers is a must visit for those needing to get weird. The structure is an acoustically perfect dome, and sound baths are conducted on a somewhat regular basis. Tickets vary between $25-$35 and reservations are absolutely required — book well in advance and add an extra afternoon on to your desert trip. The sound bath is an hour long experience lying on the ground staring at the remarkable dome construction, with a 25 minute symphony of crystal bowls followed by the deepest relaxation you’ll ever have. The creator of the Integratron followed writings of Nikola Tesla and telepathic directions from extraterrestrials. If it sounds bizarre, that’s because it is, but it’s also very healing and incredible to share that kind of nap time with strangers.
Back to the Future with LA Philharmonic
I have a special connection to the LA Phil — my grandfather played bass in the Philharmonic for many years, and I have memories of being a young child watching them practice at the Hollywood Bowl. To watch them play a body of classical music is still one of the best Los Angeles experiences there is, but this year, for the first time, I saw them perform the score of a movie LIVE along with the film. It’s mind-blowing how talented they are. This year was extra special, because Back to the Future turned 30, and this was the largest screening of BTTF in the film’s history. Cast and crew joined the Philharmonic on stage, and as the movie happens to be my boyfriend’s favorite, this date night was a homerun. Go see the LA Phil perform a classical work (at the Bowl in the summer or at Walt Disney Concert Hall in the winter, and often for very cheap) but also go see them perform a film score.
CicLAvia — Culver City meets Venice
Every CicLAvia is different, just like the neighborhoods it rolls through. I try to make it to as many of these open streets events as possible, but this year I was just able to go the August Culver City meets Venice event. I’m somewhat skittish on a bicycle, and much prefer bike paths to our region’s lackluster bicycle infrastructure. CicLAvia gives me a chance to ride long distances with my friends, feeling safe and free, and this route was great because it ended at the beach. The route was much improved over the 2014 Venice version, and we ended up grabbing beers and burgers at Hinano Cafe (some of the best in the city) before slowly riding back to Culver City. Each CicLAvia feels like a special moment in Los Angeles history, like we’re breaking the rules and challenging the status quo and that’s okay. The next one is March 2016 in the Valley.
James Turrell Skyspace “Dividing The Light”
The James Turrell Skyspace at Pomona College (part of the larger Claremont Colleges campus) is the best free thing I did all year. It’s not close, and you need to check the times for sunset (or sunrise, for the early birds), but it is worth the drive and the time commitment. About a half hour before sunset, the outdoor canopy structure begins to change colors, and continues for about an hour after sunset. To watch the colors deepen and change and play tricks on your eyes is truly magical. I was impressed with James Turrell Breathing Light exhibit at LACMA, and had this high on my list of things to do for way too long. When Drake’s Turrell-inspired Hotline Bling video came out this year, it was a perfect reminder to get out to the SGV. It’s a little hard to find once you’re on the campus, but it’s a peaceful place to wander around, contributing to the overall megachill vibes you will leave with.
Contemporary Selfie Art- The Broad & Rain Room
2015 was the year of Selfie Art in Los Angeles. The city was abuzz with the opening of the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum in Downtown LA, and LACMA’s popular exhibit Rain Room sold out months in advance. The Broad is a massive display of one couple’s fabulous wealth and their impressive collection of important (but well-travelled) contemporary art. The ticketing system is wacky and I was only able to see their signature exhibition, Yayoi Kusama’s The Infinity Mirror Room, on my second visit (carefully planned to get the first ticket slot of the day). Despite only getting 45 SECONDS in the room, I loved it. I presume that most people spent all their time taking a selfie, and not enough time allowing the magnificent light display take over their mind — but as it’s free, we can always go back. I did not enjoy LACMA’s Rain Room, which seems like art made for the Instagram era, allowing glowing silhouettes to be taken in 15 minutes inside the room. The sensors did not work quite right (and don’t when more than 8 people enter the rain, though 25 or so are in the room at once) and I got soaking wet. This is a paid, timed, ticketed exhibit and if I wasn’t a LACMA member and had paid for tickets, I would have been greatly disappointed. Even though I got great photos at both of these exhibits, I’m hoping 2016 brings more interactive exhibitions like these that don’t encourage selfies and focus more on a quality experience.
All the Public Art — Happy Wall, Projection LA, The Billboard Creative, The Spheres, Secret Stairs
While museums hosted ticketed exhibitions, our construction fences, abandoned buildings, undersold billboards, unused lakes, and secret stairs played host to incredible displays of public art. From the Shake Shack Happy Wall, Vincent Lamouroux’s whitewashing of the Bates Motel, to the Billboard Creative’s curated art show in the sky, to the Spheres at MacArthur Park (at the time the largest public art project in the country), to Secret Stairs being painted all over town, to the murals and tags and spray paint that cover all our blank surfaces, Los Angeles’ public art scene thrived this year. I was often late, pulling over on the side of the road to snap a photo, taking a picture in the middle of the street, or just standing back to admire an unexpected moment of public art as I walked by. I was impressed with the quality, the quantity (all those spheres in MacArthur Park), and the accessibility of it all — on foot, bike, bus, or car, all these projects made travelling around this huge region that much more enjoyable. Perhaps most exciting was the Griffith Park Tea House, now relocated, which an art collective set up overnight on a trail in the park, and asked visitors to write wishes for the city on wooden panels inside. Simple and romantic and totally unexpected, it represented a lot of what I love about public art in Los Angeles.
All The Things I Ate
No list of the best experiences in Los Angeles is complete without all the best foods I ate. I started the year with a Top-4 finalist in FiveThirtyEight’s national Burrito Bracket competition, a bean and cheese burrito from Al & Bea’s in Boyle Heights. This is like a legit version of the Taco Bell bean burrito, and I mean that in the best way possible. I ate spicy dumplings and noodles at Mama’s Lu in Monterey Park, braving the crowds of families and lines. Even though it was rarely soup-weather, I ate a lot of Din Tai Fung xiao long bao, thanks to living only a short distance from the Glendale location. I made pizza in a wood-fired oven in a friend’s backyard and drank a lot of margaritas at the soon-to-close El Chavo as I lamented losing my favorite hideaway. I celebrated when Taco’s Leo started slanging Al Pastor in a car wash parking lot at Glendale and Temple, no longer needing to travel to mid-city for their famous tacos. And of course, as with everyone else that’s visited in the last 68 years, I waited in line at Langer’s for a #19, because great pastrami is worth the wait.
Keep up with the adventures on instagram @katemayo and @tiptheworldover. See you in 2016!
