On Saturday afternoon Sam and I filled our stomachs with food from Whole Foods’ salad bar and headed to Griffith Park to burn it off before watching the Independent Shakespeare Company’s performance of Love’s Labour’s Lost.  I thought we’d just wander up and down a few familiar trails and then pick our place on the lawn for the show.  The performers are very clear about there being no photography allowed.  I’d already taken photos of the set-up last time we went, so I decided (uncharacteristically) to not bring my camera.  As it turned out I would need my camera several times that day, so Sam let me use her cell phone to take all the shots below.

We decided to go up a trail to the right of the parking lot.  This trail turned out to go nowhere but right back down into the same parking lot about twenty yards away.  We at first were going to walk up the familiar trail behind the old zoo (where the later performance would take place).  At the last moment we decided to walk straight through the hispanic BBQ birthday parties instead and follow the wide horse trail by the continuance of Griffith Park drive heading north.

After walking about half an hour Sam mentioned she had to pee.  This was quite ironic given my propensity for regular bathroom breaks.  We had two choices; turn back and walk half an hour to the bathrooms by the carousel or wander on and see what we’d come to ahead.  This wasn’t a familiar trail.  Sam agreed to hold it and see what we could find if we forged ahead.  As it turned out, over the next hill was the parking lot to the Griffith Park Golf Course, which, of course, would contain a clubhouse and bathroom.  Before getting to the golf course we had to go up one more hill and come down.  At the top of the hill I looked at the mountain in front of us and saw… wooden steps leading to a wooded area at the top!  I knew we’d found the staircase leading to the garden that I’d sought for a long time.  In the photo below you can see the garden (where all the trees are) and the steps just below if you look closely.

For the last five years, every time we’ve wandered up and down trails north of the carousel in Griffith Park what I’ve really been doing is looking for a trail of steps that I hiked with a group in 2006.  I’d seen the steps at the top of the mountain, but now I wondered if the steps would come down to the trail we were on just somewhere up ahead. When we came to the break in the trail which lead to the golf course parking on the right, I looked up ahead and saw, just before the next hill – what looked like the opening to the steps.  When we exited the golf course area we did so to the north of where we had been previously.  Because of the variation in the landscape we weren’t sure if we were back on the trail at the same spot (just farther down) or far ahead of where we were.  We kept walking for a while and didn’t see any steps.  We began to wonder if we should turn around.  We decided to keep going and very soon we came upon a group of wooden steps heading straight up the hill through the brush.  After a ten minute real-world version of the Stairmaster we found ourselves in a large garden on top of the mountain filled with many green benches and thousands upon thousands of succulent plants and ferns.  At the very top was a hitching post area for horses and a large sign that said Amir’s Garden.

We discovered upon leaving that the trail I’d seen before we walked into the golfing parking lot was in fact the first of two step trails going up the hill to the garden.  We took the southern steps (visible from the other trail) back down.   In the photo below you can see the steps that are (hard to see) in the first photo on this entry.

Back on the trail parallel to Griffith Park Drive we spotted a bunny.

And then Sam spotted a quick moving baby praying mantis.

When we’d originally arrived we had seen a wayward fox wandering around.  When we returned to get our food/blankets/etc. for shakespeare watching we spotted him again.

This was the third time we’d come to see ISC’s griffith park shakespeare performance, but the first time that there was an opening act.  The opening acts were separate performances put on by a local dance company.  The first of which was a belly dancing display.

The second act was a terrible judgement call by the dance instructor (easily seen, although not in my photos,  at the side of the stage beaming in approval at the dancers).  Two young girls in hip hop attire came on the stage and a rap song started blaring.  They proceeded to do all the vulgar “sex” imitation hip hop moves that you’d see in a rap club.

Keep in mind the crowd at these outtings is generally 20-40 year old liberal NPR listeners.  Often with young children.  Imagine, if you will, this crowd listening to these lyrics blaring out at them:

If you’re not drunk ladies and gentleman
Get ready to get fucked up
….
All of the alcoholics, Where you at?
….
Shots shots shots shots shots
Shots shots shots shots shots
Shots shots shots shots shots shots
Everybody
……
The ladies love us When we bring shots
They need an excuse To suck our cocks (suck my cock)
……
If you aint gettin’ drunk get the fuck out the club
If you aint takin’ shots get the fuck out the club
If you aint come to party get the fuck out the club
Now where my alcoholics let me see your hands up
…….
The women come around
Every time I’m pouring shots
Their panties hit the ground every time i give ’em shots
………
Now say I’m fucked up
(I’m fucked up)
I’m fucked up
(I’m fucked up)
I’m trying to fuck
(I’m trying to fuck)
I’m tryin’ to fuck
(I’m tryin’ to fuck)
……

 

Right.  Totally appropriate for a family outing.  I felt sorry for the two girls on the stage, they had no idea what their idiotic dance instructor had done.  But it was eventually over and the moms could uncover their childrens’ ears again.  The next act was a traditional…something..dance.

After this the wayward dance instructor tried to test our patience again and put out three little girls, who couldn’t have been any older than seven or eight, in what would be described as “slutty club outfits” by their older sisters.  The little girls were not sure what they were supposed to be doing most of the time and followed each other around.  It would have been “cute” had they not been trying to remember just how exactly you’re supposed to “shake your rump” at the crowd.

Not wanting to look like a pedophile I decided not to take any photos of this particular travesty.

The last act – back to it again – was another rap song and “rump shaking” display.  About 30 seconds into the performance all of these girls ripped off their shirts to reveal glittery tube tops.  They proceeded to to do more practice sex in front of the crowd – including that hip hop dance where you pretend to squat and … well… I’m more embarrassed to write about it than these girls were to do it in front of the crowd….

The whole thing was bizarre.  I don’t imagine the ISC will be having them back again.  Of course the girls filed off the stage and into the adoring arms of their instructor and (some) family members.  Only to walk down to the parking lot and never return.  Well, ladies, we were no more interested in your lewd act than you were interested in what we came to see.

The actual shakespeare performance was probably the best one we’ve seen so far.  As you can see from the photos we were only a few feet from the stage.  However, this came at a price of having perhaps twenty children run back and forth in front and behind us during the entire performance.  By the time we were packing up to go home Sam’s white bedsheet looked like it’d been laid out on the sidewalk in downtown Los Angeles for the day.  There was grass of course in front and behind our sheet – but I don’t think these kids took any notice of where their feet landed.  At one point a boy just sat down next to Sam and leaned against her.   We weren’t aware that there was a “children’s” section, but we’ll definitely not be sitting on the left side again.

In between the rugrats’ constant sprinting the performance we saw on stage was pretty good.  The costumes were certainly better done than we’d seen in the past.  For some reason it was harder to find images of this performance online than the others, but I’ll post below the single shot I found so you can get an idea of the costumes: