{"id":2059,"date":"2011-08-21T06:01:44","date_gmt":"2011-08-21T14:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/?p=2059"},"modified":"2011-08-22T13:55:30","modified_gmt":"2011-08-22T21:55:30","slug":"griffith-park-lll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/?p=2059","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Park + LLL"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0Independent\u00a0Shakespeare Company’s<\/a> performance of Love’s Labour’s Lost. \u00a0I thought we’d just wander up and down a few familiar trails and then pick our place on the lawn for the show. \u00a0The performers are very clear about there being no photography allowed. \u00a0I’d already taken photos of the set-up last time we went, so I decided (uncharacteristically) to not bring my camera. \u00a0As 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.<\/p>\n

We decided to go up a trail to the right of the parking lot. \u00a0This trail turned out to go nowhere but right back down into the same parking lot about twenty yards away. \u00a0We at first were going to walk up the familiar trail behind the old zoo (where the later performance would take place). \u00a0At 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.<\/p>\n

After walking about half an hour Sam mentioned she had to pee. \u00a0This was quite ironic given my propensity for regular bathroom breaks. \u00a0We 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. \u00a0This wasn’t a familiar trail. \u00a0Sam agreed to hold it and see what we could find if we forged ahead. \u00a0As 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. \u00a0Before getting to the golf course we had to go up one more hill and come down. \u00a0At 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! \u00a0I knew we’d found the staircase leading to the garden that I’d sought for a long time. \u00a0In the photo below you can see the garden (where all the trees are) and the steps just below if you look closely.<\/p>\n

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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. \u00a0I’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. \u00a0When we exited the golf course area we did so to the north of where we had been previously. \u00a0Because 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. \u00a0We kept walking for a while and didn’t see any steps. \u00a0We began to wonder if we should turn around. \u00a0We decided to keep going and very soon we came upon a group of wooden steps heading straight up the hill through the brush. \u00a0After 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. \u00a0At the very top was a hitching post area for horses and a large sign that said\u00a0Amir’s Garden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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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. \u00a0We took the southern steps (visible from the other trail) back down. \u00a0 In the photo below you can see the steps that are (hard to see) in the first photo on this entry.<\/p>\n

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Back on the trail parallel to Griffith Park Drive we spotted a bunny.<\/p>\n

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And then Sam spotted a quick moving baby praying mantis.<\/p>\n

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When we’d originally arrived we had seen a wayward fox wandering around. \u00a0When we returned to get our food\/blankets\/etc. for shakespeare watching we spotted him again.<\/p>\n

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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. \u00a0The opening acts were separate performances put on by a local dance company. \u00a0The first of which was a belly dancing display.<\/p>\n

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The second act was a terrible judgement call by the dance instructor (easily seen, although not in my photos, \u00a0at the side of the stage beaming in approval at the dancers). \u00a0Two young girls in hip hop attire came on the stage and a rap song started blaring. \u00a0They proceeded to do all the vulgar “sex” imitation hip hop moves that you’d see in a rap club.<\/p>\n

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Keep in mind the crowd at these outtings is generally 20-40 year old liberal NPR listeners. \u00a0Often with young children. \u00a0Imagine, if you will, this crowd listening to these lyrics blaring out at them:<\/p>\n

If you’re not drunk ladies and gentleman<\/em><\/strong>
\nGet ready to get fucked up<\/em><\/strong>
\n….<\/em><\/strong>
\nAll of the alcoholics,\u00a0Where you at?<\/em><\/strong>
\n….<\/em><\/strong>
\nShots shots shots shots shots<\/em><\/strong>
\nShots shots shots shots shots<\/em><\/strong>
\nShots shots shots shots shots shots<\/em><\/strong>
\nEverybody<\/em><\/strong>
\n……<\/em><\/strong>
\nThe ladies love us\u00a0When we bring shots<\/em><\/strong>
\nThey need an excuse\u00a0To suck our cocks (suck my cock)<\/em><\/strong>
\n……<\/em><\/strong>
\nIf you aint gettin’ drunk get the fuck out the club<\/em><\/strong>
\nIf you aint takin’ shots get the fuck out the club<\/em><\/strong>
\nIf you aint come to party get the fuck out the club<\/em><\/strong>
\nNow where my alcoholics let me see your hands up<\/em><\/strong>
\n…….<\/em><\/strong>
\nThe women come around<\/em><\/strong>
\nEvery time I’m pouring shots<\/em><\/strong>
\nTheir panties hit the ground every time i give ’em shots<\/em><\/strong>
\n………<\/em><\/strong>
\nNow say I’m fucked up<\/em><\/strong>
\n(I’m fucked up)<\/em><\/strong>
\nI’m fucked up<\/em><\/strong>
\n(I’m fucked up)<\/em><\/strong>
\nI’m trying to fuck<\/em><\/strong>
\n(I’m trying to fuck)<\/em><\/strong>
\nI’m tryin’ to fuck<\/em><\/strong>
\n(I’m tryin’ to fuck)<\/em><\/strong>
\n……<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Right. \u00a0Totally appropriate for a family\u00a0outing. \u00a0I felt sorry for the two girls on the stage, they had no idea what their idiotic dance instructor had done. \u00a0But it was eventually over and the moms could uncover their childrens’ ears again. \u00a0The next act was a traditional…something..dance.<\/p>\n

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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. \u00a0The little girls were not sure what they were supposed to be doing most of the time and followed each other around. \u00a0It would have been “cute” had they not been trying to remember just how exactly you’re supposed to “shake your rump” at the crowd.<\/p>\n

Not wanting to look like a pedophile I decided not to take any photos of this particular travesty.<\/p>\n

The last act – back to it again – was another rap song and “rump shaking” display. \u00a0About 30 seconds into the performance all of these girls ripped off their shirts to reveal glittery tube tops. \u00a0They 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\u00a0embarrassed\u00a0to write about it than these girls were to do it in front of the crowd….<\/p>\n

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The whole thing was bizarre. \u00a0I don’t imagine the ISC will be having them back again. \u00a0Of course the girls filed off the stage and into the adoring arms of their instructor and (some) family members. \u00a0Only to walk down to the parking lot and never return. \u00a0Well, ladies, we were no more interested in your lewd act than you were interested in what we came to see.<\/p>\n

The actual shakespeare performance was probably the best one we’ve seen so far. \u00a0As you can see from the photos we were only a few feet from the stage. \u00a0However, this came at a price of having perhaps twenty children run back and forth in front and behind us during the entire performance. \u00a0By 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. \u00a0There 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. \u00a0At one point a boy just sat down next to Sam and leaned against her. \u00a0 We weren’t aware that there was a “children’s” section, but we’ll\u00a0definitely\u00a0not be sitting on the left side again.<\/p>\n

In between the rugrats’ constant sprinting the performance we saw on stage was pretty good. \u00a0The costumes were certainly better done than we’d seen in the past. \u00a0For 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:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0Independent\u00a0Shakespeare Company’s performance of Love’s Labour’s Lost. \u00a0I thought we’d just wander up and down a few familiar trails and then pick our place on the lawn for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2059"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2068,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059\/revisions\/2068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}