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5:30AM! I knew that time existed
because my digital clock whizzes past it when I set my alarm, but I
had never witnessed it. Never before today; Saturday, a day I
should be resting. But rest would have to be saved for a work
day. Today I was going to La La Land. I hit the road and
headed for the Oakland airport to catch my short flight to L.A.
Driving along the freeway, I had that sense of camaraderie with my
fellow drivers. You know what I'm talking about,
that knowing glance at the person next to you, that you two and that
guy over there are the only 3 people in this damn city up before the
sun. A certain mutual respect if you will. That feeling
was short lived when I arrived at the airport and realized others
had shared in our predawn appreciation. Alot of others!
No sweat. I marched to the Southwest
counter to get my ticket and found a handy dandy machine that allows
you to stick in your credit card and out pops an actual ticket.
Why did it take them so long to figure this out? I always love
e-tickets. You go to the airport, hand them your license and
hope the ticket teller doesn't have that look of concern on her face
or ask you 5 times how to spell your name and then says your
reservation was for yesterday.
Next stop for the herd I latched onto was a
trip through security. Security pre 9/11 was a breeze.
You leave your gun with the nice lady at the metal detector, walk
through and she hands it back on the other side. Not any more!
After having my license checked 15 times, I was ordered to remove my
shoes. "What?"
"Remove your shoes."
"Why?" "In
case you have 5lbs of C12 explosives"
"Oh, ok."
Off with the shoes, the coat, and anything
else that looks remotely like a good hiding place for 5lbs of C12
explosives. Then it hit me. I had put my sculpting tools
in my carryon bag. Sculpting tools: small, metal, pointy
objects resembling small, metal, pointy objects. Oh no!
I had that ugly feeling in my stomach that I usually get after
zipping past a cop doing 20 over as I see my bag going into the
scanning machine. Try not to act nervous.
"Hey you" "Who
me? It's not mine. That bag isn't mine. I swear.
It's this kids bag. Mine is that Mickey Mouse bag, PLEASE, GO
EASY ON ME!" "Take it easy, I just
want to give you back your shoes."
"Oh, hehe, thanks. Ignore that Mickey
thing, I'll just be going now."
Well, there you have it. All the
security measures and I whizzed through security with my bag
containing 15 knives and that little tool I got that I can't for the
life of me figure out how to use. Makes me feel real safe, how
about you? The flight to L.A. was
uneventful. How do I know this? Because I don't remember
it. I was reading a good book and I'll be damned if the flight
attendant sneered at me when I suggested we circle the airport 3 or
4 times so I could finish the chapter. Off the big ole jet
airliner and on my way to the rental car place. My intent with
the first leg of my trip was to visit Jordu Schell at the world
famous Schell Sculpture Studio. I figured an hour after my
flight landed, I'd be there. I figured wrong. LA has a
way of thwarting you from getting anywhere fast. Number 29
in line at Budget, I finally get my car 45 minutes later.
Hmmm... leaves me 15 mins to get to Van Nuys. I suppose I
could do it. I supposed wrong. Don't drive on the 405,
105, 505, 5150, 5, 10, 1001 or the 13562 highways anytime you want
to get somewhere fast in L.A.. It won't work. Evel
Knievel would have his work cut out for him.
I got to Schell sculpture studio about an
hour late. I got out of the car and could see the golden
arches, or in my case the black locked gate in front of the door.
Ahhh... maybe Jordu got tired of waiting. I peeked in through
the big black bars, but could see nothing except the reflection of
big black bars. Here's a picture of said big black bars.
I decided lunch was in order and headed out to
find my gourmet Shangri-La. Ah... Wendy's the food of
champions. After a quick meal, I phoned up my pal Jon Fuller
to see what he was up to. Jon was working on 15 sculptures, 3
appliances and had to paint 22 masks before 2:00. I figured he
was a tad bit busy and would probably miss him on this trip. I
headed back to Jordu's and guess who was there? If you
guessed Jordu, then you wouldn't be far off. Yeah, happy
dance, I can now get in. Armed with
my trusty, disposable Kodak Crapcam ©, I went in. The things
on Jordu's walls are pretty gosh darn amazing. If I had a
better camera, then the pictures would look pretty gosh darn
amazing. Jordu and I chatted about various rubber related
topics and I got to check out his very cool studio. Finally,
my trip was looking up. When it came
time to leave, I told Jordu a few of us were planning a trip to see
Henry Alvarez tomorrow. Not wanting to miss an
opportunity to see Henry, Jordu decided to make it a foursome, er ah
fivesome, a somethingsome. Sounds like a fun day ahead.
My next stop along the way was a trip to see
Erich Lubatti out in Riverside. You'll just have to wait for
part 2 for the continuing adventures of La La Land. |
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