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lydamorehouse I am going to attempt a post on my phone. If there are more typos than usual, that is why.
Mason is currently conked out, still asleep. We had a busy first day. The flight we took had us leaving at 6 am, so we were at the airport by 4 am. The flights went well, we had to make a transfer in Denver, but, despite not seeing our connecting flight info on the screen, we walked right to the correct gate. When we landed in LAX, we got our first taste of "The metro? I have no idea...." from, of all people, the information desk. She handed us a fairly useless line map (think London, where the lines are all there, but no sense of what anything is near or where you actually get on). But, we followed the international travellers to the taxi stand.
Our hotel is... okay, the thing about our hotel is that it baffles GPSs. Our taxi drivers,rachelmanija , everyone.... to the point where I am beginning to believe the Palihotel exists in a alterternate dimension. ( I will add photos to this post later, because the hotel does need to be seen to be believed. It's just too hard from my phone..)
But we did connect with Rachel and despite her having a new book out (THAT EVERYONE SHOULD GO BUY!!) she drove us around and showed us Japantown and then drove us all the way out to Burbank to the Blizzard Studios to watch the Overwarch League play.
The show was fascinating.
If you've never seen people playing video games professionally, that's it's own kind of trip. Overwarch is a game that can be played cooperatively, so there are actual teams. Mason knows everyone's handle and their position and stats, just like in any other sport. The games have announcers doing the sports casting thing, so it's, in many respects, a lot like watching any sport. The difference is that they're playing a video game. The main screen follows the in game action, which, in Overwarch involves things like moving a "payload" from one spot on a map to another, while your opponents try to stop your progress. But, in studio, we could also see the players actually playing and watch another couple of screens that showed the characters they played that went dark when their character died, etc.
We had front row stadium seating, which was excellent. Since I was less interested in the gameplay, I spent a lot of time watching the camera crews and the team players. The audience, too. A lot of the players are Korean, Korean-Americans (though we watched two Chinese teams play as well, as each team represents a city, like regular sports), and that seemed to be generally true of the studio audience, as well. I expected to be the oldest (and most lesbian) person there, but that was not true at all. Lots of older adults, anotber super butch lesbian, as well as one very small girl, who was there with her dad. I wondered if some of the players parents were in the studio audience, honestly, but that just might be because they all looked so young to me (though they all have to be 18, since this is a full-time, rigorous job,)
Anyway, we has some fun getting home, since both Mason and I forgot to charge our phones and we ran out of batteries. Luckily, the people of LA are genuinely awesome. Mason and I asked for directions to the metro at a nearby gas station. The guy behind the counter--a recent immigrant from Vienna--said, as all people in LA do, "No, no, get an Uber." Great, except my phone is so dead, I can't possibly download the app. "I'll.charge your phone for you," he says. But, the charge is taking forever, so first he tries to get two of his friends who drive Lyft/Uber to come get us, but neither can come. "Can you believe it?" He says to me. "They owe me money, you know. They say, 'oh, I'll do you a favor anytime.' But do they? No." Finally, despite the fact that everyone in LA _hates_ taxi drivers, I convinced him to call us a .cab. "But have them take you to the metro stop!!" He insisted. I nodded, but when the taxi came, we just took it home.
This morning, I found our local metro stop and bought two 7-day passes.
Despite this resistance to mass transit, the things I'm loving about LA are all the flowers and unusual (to me) flora. I can not get over all the things in bloom here. This morning as I was hunting for the metro, I walked through a park where they were using bay as shrubbery! The buildings here are all one or two stories, not unlike the Midwest, actually, but the skyline is iconically punctuated with the silhouettes of palm trees. So cool. And lots of crows. And hummingbirds.
Today, if Mason and I decide to skip another trip to Burbank, we may take the metro to Santa Monica Pier.
Sorry about a lack of pictures! I will retro fit though on my return!
Mason is currently conked out, still asleep. We had a busy first day. The flight we took had us leaving at 6 am, so we were at the airport by 4 am. The flights went well, we had to make a transfer in Denver, but, despite not seeing our connecting flight info on the screen, we walked right to the correct gate. When we landed in LAX, we got our first taste of "The metro? I have no idea...." from, of all people, the information desk. She handed us a fairly useless line map (think London, where the lines are all there, but no sense of what anything is near or where you actually get on). But, we followed the international travellers to the taxi stand.
Our hotel is... okay, the thing about our hotel is that it baffles GPSs. Our taxi drivers,
rachelmanija , everyone.... to the point where I am beginning to believe the Palihotel exists in a alterternate dimension. ( I will add photos to this post later, because the hotel does need to be seen to be believed. It's just too hard from my phone..)But we did connect with Rachel and despite her having a new book out (THAT EVERYONE SHOULD GO BUY!!) she drove us around and showed us Japantown and then drove us all the way out to Burbank to the Blizzard Studios to watch the Overwarch League play.
The show was fascinating.
If you've never seen people playing video games professionally, that's it's own kind of trip. Overwarch is a game that can be played cooperatively, so there are actual teams. Mason knows everyone's handle and their position and stats, just like in any other sport. The games have announcers doing the sports casting thing, so it's, in many respects, a lot like watching any sport. The difference is that they're playing a video game. The main screen follows the in game action, which, in Overwarch involves things like moving a "payload" from one spot on a map to another, while your opponents try to stop your progress. But, in studio, we could also see the players actually playing and watch another couple of screens that showed the characters they played that went dark when their character died, etc.
We had front row stadium seating, which was excellent. Since I was less interested in the gameplay, I spent a lot of time watching the camera crews and the team players. The audience, too. A lot of the players are Korean, Korean-Americans (though we watched two Chinese teams play as well, as each team represents a city, like regular sports), and that seemed to be generally true of the studio audience, as well. I expected to be the oldest (and most lesbian) person there, but that was not true at all. Lots of older adults, anotber super butch lesbian, as well as one very small girl, who was there with her dad. I wondered if some of the players parents were in the studio audience, honestly, but that just might be because they all looked so young to me (though they all have to be 18, since this is a full-time, rigorous job,)
Anyway, we has some fun getting home, since both Mason and I forgot to charge our phones and we ran out of batteries. Luckily, the people of LA are genuinely awesome. Mason and I asked for directions to the metro at a nearby gas station. The guy behind the counter--a recent immigrant from Vienna--said, as all people in LA do, "No, no, get an Uber." Great, except my phone is so dead, I can't possibly download the app. "I'll.charge your phone for you," he says. But, the charge is taking forever, so first he tries to get two of his friends who drive Lyft/Uber to come get us, but neither can come. "Can you believe it?" He says to me. "They owe me money, you know. They say, 'oh, I'll do you a favor anytime.' But do they? No." Finally, despite the fact that everyone in LA _hates_ taxi drivers, I convinced him to call us a .cab. "But have them take you to the metro stop!!" He insisted. I nodded, but when the taxi came, we just took it home.
This morning, I found our local metro stop and bought two 7-day passes.
Despite this resistance to mass transit, the things I'm loving about LA are all the flowers and unusual (to me) flora. I can not get over all the things in bloom here. This morning as I was hunting for the metro, I walked through a park where they were using bay as shrubbery! The buildings here are all one or two stories, not unlike the Midwest, actually, but the skyline is iconically punctuated with the silhouettes of palm trees. So cool. And lots of crows. And hummingbirds.
Today, if Mason and I decide to skip another trip to Burbank, we may take the metro to Santa Monica Pier.
Sorry about a lack of pictures! I will retro fit though on my return!
no subject
Date: 2019-08-17 05:38 pm (UTC)P.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-17 07:11 pm (UTC)The whole live gaming thing is so interesting. It's like a window into a whole world I never knew existed.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-17 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-17 10:41 pm (UTC)We are having dinner tonight with Maureen McHugh and her husband, Bob Yeager. They also live on Culver City. Can you believe it?
no subject
Date: 2019-08-17 11:05 pm (UTC)Cannot WAIT for the rock opera.
Options for tomorrow:
1. Manga bookshop and Japanese breakfast + something else later.
2. La Brea Tar Pits + Koreatown and/or Thai Town (they're all in vaguely the same area).
3. Something else of your choice!
(1 & 2 are at opposite ends of the city so not good for the same day.)
We should save dim sum for Monday or Tuesday to avoid an insane mob scene.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-17 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-18 03:29 am (UTC)But I have to museum with Bob, because It's part of our history... having met on an outing planned by WorldCon to the Field Museum in 2001? Maybe 2002?
no subject
Date: 2019-08-18 03:32 am (UTC)Yes, let's have breakfast before the museum! Not at the Japanese place, though - it's too far away. I'll think of somewhere good.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-18 03:39 am (UTC)Ahhh, you guys are all so awesome and there are too many good choices.
But I have to museum with Bob, because It's part of our history... having met on an outing planned by WorldCon to the Field Museum in 2001? Maybe 2002?
But I will text you when we wake up -- or, I should say Mason, as I was up at an ungodly hour wandering around and finding the metro.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-18 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-18 03:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-18 04:28 am (UTC)In California I once saw scabiosa, which is kind of touchy and cranky here, growing out of cracks in a crumbling wall.
P.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-18 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-18 02:23 pm (UTC)Also why did this show up twice??
no subject
Date: 2019-08-19 11:44 pm (UTC)