Information about traveling to and from Los Angeles, California
The Downtown Comedy Club is Los Angeles’ newest stand-up venue, a start up trying to get laughs from scratch in an area that is on its way back to life. Although it can’t match the big name talent of other comedy clubs in Los Angeles, the club offers a night of stand-up comedy for significantly less than the $40 the other places demand.
One of the original and most established beach communities in Los Angeles, Santa Monica is the home of surf-culture and skateboarding, a la “Dogtown” and has taken in a growing number of hipsters and progressive thinkers who have migrated toward the coast.
Santa Monica is directly west of downtown Los Angeles and the tall buildings of its downtown area can often be seen looking toward the ocean from the hills behind the city. Santa Monica is home to a number of attractions that bring tourists from around the world.
Santa Monica Pier
The Santa Monica Pier is a famous landmark near the coast and its arching entrance can be seen representing the entire city in many places. The pier itself is home to an amusement park and a few restaurants, as well as many fisherman who cast lines off the back end at night for herring and other small fish.
Even more than the arching entrance, the ferris wheel on the Santa Monica is a symbol of the city and for all of greater Los Angeles.
Third Street Promenade
The Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica is a walking street running on Third Street that has become so popular that many of the other beach communities in Los Angeles have tried to emulate its success in bringing people to the city. Streets are being temporarily closed off on weekend and high traffic nights and live music acts flock to try to earn the tips and spare change of the passerby.
The Promenade is best experienced at night, after dark, when its own stable of street performers interacts with tourists and shoppers. When white lights turn on in the trees and live music can be heard.
Santa Monica Beach
The beach at Santa Monica is north of Venice Beach, closer to the less-polluted beaches in Malibu and the water clarity and crowds the beaches draws reflects that location.
Santa Monica Beach is also connected to the bike path that famously runs all the way down the beach through the major beach cities. Riding on “The Strand” as it’s known is a great activity for seeing the beaches up and down the coast of the city, internalizing the differences between places like Santa Monica, Venice and Manhattan Beaches, and people watching as you ride or skate along the pathway.
Rodeo Drive’s shops and stores are some of the most expensive in the world. The shopping experience down Rodeo finds haute couture taken to new levels along the famous street where you’ll find unparalleled service if you make a purchase and be shown the door if you dare to enter the wrong store without dressing up to the level of their usual clientele.
For a street of the most exclusive order, Rodeo Drive comes from humble beginnings. Originally a path for horses and horse-drawn carts, the shopping district that stands today was not established until the 1970’s. Before that, nary an Yves-Saint Laurent could be found on the road.
The term “Rodeo Drive,” refers to N Rodeo Drive, which runs from Santa Monica Blvd to Wilshire Ave. The short three block shopping district is located in Beverly Hills and is one of the more famous parts of the city.
Window shopping along Rodeo Dr is recommended if you’re in need of some really potent sticker shock, but actually going into a store is done at your own risk. While you probably won’t get kicked out, if you cause a scene and don’t seem like you’re going to buy anything, there may be some impolite exchanges.
Christmas is the best time of year to visit Rodeo Drive. Crews decorate the streets with lights and create a festival atmosphere on the weekends. Although it’s hard to justify spending extra time out shopping and fighting crowds during the holidays, they are the best time to see Rodeo and the incredible affluence surrounding it.
In Pasadena, two worlds that make up LA blend together. Pasadena doesn’t have the pomp of Bel Air or the prestige of Beverly Hills, but it does have a fair share of mansions and Mazerati dealerships and Bentleys in driveways. It’s also got a fair amount of poverty, but none of the widespread destitution that characterizes the poorest parts of Los Angeles.
Pasadena borders east LA and Glendale and extends south to South Pasadena, although
“South Pas” as it’s known, is its own city, separate from Pasadena in every way except geography and name.
Pasadena Roses
Pasadena’s most famous event each year is the Rose Parade, which takes place January 1st and runs down Colorado Boulevard as part of the Tournament of Roses which includes the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl. The Tournament of Roses takes over the city for the first week of the year and influences Pasadena all year round. Businesses are named “The Rose Bowl Hotel” or “Rose Bowl Flower Shop” and the city transforms its store windows and face to exude the spirit of the season.
Old-Town
Old-Town Pasadena is basically downtown Pasadena. This central shopping district is home to big retail chains and restaurants and finds itself packed with shoppers on weekends. Metered street parking is usually available on weekdays, on weekends or at night when the traffic picks up your best bet is to head to one of the city’s parking structures at Green St between Raymond and Fair Oaks, 45 S. Delacey Avenue between Colorado and Green St.
Old-Town embodies the mainstream commercial aspect of Pasadena and it is from this standard that the hipsters in surrounding areas of east Los Angeles rebel. Unlike Rodeo Drive or other expensive shopping areas, the feel of Old-Town is high class without being exclusive, accessible but not bohemian.
Tech/Culture
Pasadena is home to an increasing number of high tech businesses, none more so than the NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The JPL develops rockets and satellites as well as staffing missions guiding the Mars Rover and sending probes into deep space. JPL craft have visited every planet in our solar system except Pluto.
Cal Tech also contributes to Pasadena’s image as a hotbed of technological innovation. One of the best engineering schools on the east coast, Cal Tech competes only with MIT in Boston for the country’s finest math minds. Albert Einstein used to lecture here and some of NASA’s top scientists are professors.
The Museum of Television and Radio is a befitting tribute for a city whose fortunes and future were constructed by mass media entertainment.
Now named the Paley Center, the location in Beverly Hills is part reference library, part movie theater and part celebration of Television culture. Visitors have the option of looking up old video clips and pulling them up on individual screens or watching them in a “family room” for four people. The Paley Center also screens films and shows daily in their movie theater sized screening room. Visitors might find shorts looking at the work of Jim Henson, Saturday Night Live over the years, or an exploration of another theme having to do with TV.
The Museum of Television and Radio is a tribute to the media’s past, but it also weighs in on contemporary shows and trends in the industry. Every so often the center offers a Media as Lens series, which assembles a room of people in the television industry and has them weigh in on current topics in the entertainment industry and world at large.
The Museum of Television and Radio is one of those free museums with a suggested donation of $10. Although you don’t have to pay it to enter, the museum is run off of donations in addition to the trust of William S. Paley, whom the museum is now named for.
Unlike typical museums, the Paley Center does not collect artifacts and mementos from Television shows. In fact, there is almost nothing tangible in the Paley Center. The museum exists as a way for future generations to see the shows that established television into the media giant that it is today. With over 140,000 shows selected by the museum staff for their influence, innovation, quality, or success, the museum supplies a way for scholars, historians, and the general public to look into what sort of shows were popular throughout the last century and what those shows looked like.
Unfortunately, the public cannot view the museum’s collection before arriving. Visitors can contact a curator with specific questions at 212.621.6600 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. EST.
The radio component of the Museum of Television and Radio operates much the same way that the television part does. Visitors can look through a catalogue of available shows and programs and choose one to listen to. Unfortunately, copies of programs or even clips of shows are not available for the public as part of the donation agreement with the museum.
Overlooking the city from the hills of Los Angeles, the recently restored and renovated Griffith Observatory is now a museum sparking curiosity in kids and adults. Built in 1935 as part of the bequest of landowner Griffith J. Griffith, the Observatory is no longer on the cutting edge of research, nor do scientists spend much time peering through the telescopes at distant planets or stars. Now that Los Angeles’ lights have dimmed the stars brightness and commuter smog has made it more difficult to see out of the atmosphere, the best thing to observe from Griffith Observatory, is the city.
Griffith Observatory, on the south side of Griffith Park, overlooks Hollywood and downtown and on a clear day the view extends all the way to Santa Monica and the ocean. To the north, the Hollywood sign stands prominently in view. Griffith Observatory is about as close as you’ll get without driving to the base of the sign.
In 2002 the Observatory closed and underwent a $93 million dollar renovation. Exhibits now provide a look at broad aspects of space science on a universal as well as local level. The “Big Picture,” the largest image of space ever displayed, takes up one entire wall, while each planet in the galaxy has its own booth with facts on that planet and a scale displaying what you would weigh under that planet’s gravity.
There is also a collection of meteorites found in California on display as well as a three-dimensional, detailed, rotating model of the moon.
More than a museum, Griffith Observatory has become a landmark and symbol of the past for Los Angeles. James Dean appears in front of the Observatory in several scenes of “Rebel Without a Cause,” and a bust of the actor was placed outside of the museum. The museum is still a popular filming location.
Since the reopening of the Observatory, visitors have had to make reservations for a shuttle to take them up to the main area. That requirement ended November 2, and you can now drive up to the main parking lot and tour the building for free. Enter on Vermont Avenue and follow the signs after passing the Greek Theater. Tours of the exhibits take about two hours, more if you want to see shows in the Planetarium or Event Horizon Theater. Tickets to both of those theaters are an extra charge.
The best location, the best views, the best service… the superlatives accompanying the Beverly Hilton are many. But the best prices? Not so fast.
The Beverly Hilton may be one of the world’s finest examples of “getting what you pay for” out of a hotel, or anything else. Yes the towels are plush and your balcony overlooks the LA Country Club or the mansions of Beverly Hills. Your breakfast comes in on a tray and leaves the same way after you’ve eaten it. Your car is valet parked upon arrival. Your credit card is required.
Luckily for the hotel, the availability of the Penthouse is more of a concern than the price of the room for most of their guests. Rooms run around $200 a night, but go up sharply if upgrading to an Oasis room or one of the Tower suites.
Much of what you pay for at the Beverly Hilton, however, comes to you outside of the room itself. The location of the hotel is second to none for those looking for a place within walking distance of spots like Rodeo Drive and the rest of Beverly Hills. Visitors report feeling important and cared for in what can be an intimidating city.
Quick Facts
The Beverly Hilton consists of 570 rooms on 8 floors and was built in 1952.
The in-room amenities include a flat screen TV and high speed Internet.
Pets under 25 pounds are allowed in the pet suites with a $10 per day extra charge.
There are two pools, one indoor, one outdoor.
The Beverly Hilton is located at 9876 Wilshire Boulevard, in Beverly Hills, at the intersection of Trenton and Wilshire. Call the front desk at 310-274-7777.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame stretches 3.5 miles around Hollywood Boulevard and Vine streets in downtown Hollywood and presents more than 2,000 names who have achieved fame and prominence in one of the five entertainment categories.
Created as part of a Hollywood “Face Lift” in 1958, the Hollywood Walk of fame is another way to walk the streets “seeing stars” in Hollywood. The Walk also connects the community with the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. People tromp up and down the street, literally staring at the ground and reading names as they go.
Nominations are due every May and the committee then meets to award stars to chosen every year in June in five categories. The categories are: film, television, the recording industry, broadcasting, and live theater. Recently, the selection committee has been accepting nominations for corporations and businesses on the Walk of Fame, so long as the company is active in Hollywood and at least 50 years old. Disneyland was the first recipient and now The Los Angeles Times and the KTLA TV station each has their own star.
Walk of Fame Trivia
The Walk of fame ends with stars for The Beatles and Elvis Presley.
There are two stars for Harrison Ford, for two different actors of the same name.
Gene Autry is the only person to have a star awarded to him in each of the five categories.
The Walk of Fame became a cultural landmark in Hollywood in 1978.
The first star on the walk was awarded on February 9, 1960, to Joanne Woodward
The best way to see the Walk of Fame is to drive in to Hollywood, park and walk. The best parking is available at Hollywood and Highland, in the giant underground parking structure. From there, the walk of fame is on Hollywood Blvd and extends east toward Vine St. The Walk of Fame is even more accessible by public transportation. The Red Line, which runs between North Hollywood and Downtown, stops at Hollywood and Vine, the heart of the Walk of Fame.
Without the hot Santa Ana winds pushing the blaze, crews have been able to surround the fires and have them now almost 95% contained in the Los Angeles area and 65% contained in the San Diego area.
Cooler weather helped the firefighters, but word in the weather world is that the dry, hot winds are going to return in the next few days, meaning that fighting fires in the Southwest may become just as difficult and dangerous as it was five days ago.
The fires will affect the city, and travel to the city, for some time. The fires did not and probably will not threaten many of the popular travel destinations in central Los Angeles, but they represent another shock and drain on resources that normally would have gone to the down and out on skid row or the homeless centers in Inglewood instead of those whose houses were taken and lives were altered by a sudden shift in the winds and monumentally bad luck.
Disasters change the perspective of a city and change the character of a place, even if it’s just temporarily. For some, the fires mean little disruption of daily life at all. The freeways through town were never shut down; Disneyland is still standing. Your trip to Los Angeles will probably not be affected. But for a growing number of residents, the end of the wildfires means that the work begins again. At Los Angeles Logue, our thoughts are with them.