Hollywood & The Grammy Museum

Vising: Olivia -- a friend I used to work with

Friday – Spent my day exploring Hollywood & The Grammy Museum. Hollywood is pretty cool, but there are a fuckton of people – to the point where it’s really just annoying. Lots of American tourists like me, but also quite a few foreign travelers, as well. The sidewalks are lined with stars, and so you walk down the street with your head down, constantly bumping into people – either because they’ve stopped to take pictures, or because you stop abruptly to do the same. A lot of people also come out dressed as different movie characters – the Men in Black, Zorro, Captain Jack Sparrow – and try to get you to take pictures with them. And then they want your money, of course. I was about ready to make an exception for Zorro, but I didn’t have any cash on hand.

The same goes for local artists – rappers and reggae musicians alike take to the crowds, offering you free samples of their music but wanting a donation in exchange. I spent the morning walking up and down the streets, ducking into local shops here and there to buy gifts for people back home. And although I did pass by the Hollywood Wax Museum, I never went in. Those places kind of creep me out.

Got lunch from a crowded little Mexican place – chicken tacos, of course. Seems to be the only thing I eat anymore. I then headed back to the parking garage to get my car, and drove into the city.

Spent the afternoon exploring The Grammy Museum – a pretty cool venue that I never even knew existed before Google told me. They have four floors of exhibits featuring all different types of music. The first thing I came to after getting off the elevator was a narrow room with huge screens going down both walls, playing footage of old Grammy Ceremonies. In the middle of the room were Grammy Trophies from past decades. After stopping for some pictures, I moved on to different rooms that housed everything from stage costumes of different artists to sound booths that recap your favorite Grammy

performances. I also found a long, interactive, touch-screen table where you can put on headphones and listen to any genre of music that you chose. After playing around with the table, I found myself sitting and listening to an award acceptance speech from Drake. The bottom floor of the museum was, at the time, devoted completely to T-Swift. So, she’s not my favorite – but it was still pretty cool. They had costumes that she’s worn in concerts, videos of her singing as a kid, and a whole wall full of magazine covers that she’s appeared on. Basically, it was like Heaven on Earth for small children all over the world.

After leaving the museum, I walked over to the Staples Center – really just to get a picture – before heading back to my car. Managed to get back to Olivia’s place without terrible traffic. She and I had talked about meeting some people for drinks/dinner that evening, and so I sat and read my NOOK for a bit (Catching Fire) while texting with her to figure out our plans. Ended up meeting her and some of her coworkers at a Mexican place just up the road for National Tequila Day. Thanks to my incompetence to street parking, I missed the end of happy hour and ended up having to pay $12 for my margarita instead of $6. God damn I could never survive.

Olivia’s coworkers are pretty cool, though, and we had a good time. The one girl even had her dog at the bar with her! He was so cute and so well-behaved. A poodle, I think. Can’t remember for sure now. We ate chips with queso and took shots of tequila because they were $5. We then decided to leave our cars behind and Uber over to the one guy’s apartment for games and more drinks. Pretty sure we stopped at a gas station on the way to get wine and beer. This guy’s apartment was pretty big, and we all just hung out, talking about all sorts of different things. He had a record player, which was pretty awesome. I vaguely remember Olivia and I going through his records to find one to listen to. I also know that at some point, somebody busted out a board game, but I couldn’t tell you what it was. We Ubered back to Olivia’s at some point, and fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.