LA in the daylight

Of all my trips to the US, this is the first time I've really spent any time in the LA suburbs. We're really close to downtown here, but it's been great to drive through different areas and see a bit of the reality of the city. Away from the typical hustle of the airport, or the glitzy touristy areas.

Today I spent some time at home practising, which felt good. I was a touch woozy from the long arduous flight (I forgot to mention that, as comfortable as the plane was, there was a *lot* of turbulence on the way here!) but wanted to force myself to adjust as quickly as possible. After hitting "snooze" a few times I finally made it into the day.

Practise was followed by lunch - my request for mexican food was granted at a little restaurant up the road. yum. HUGE portions (I had a another serving for dinner and there's still enough left for lunch tomorrow!) but so so so good. I always try to get my fill of great mexican food when I come to the states. that and cinnabons ;-)

Tara and I did some rehearsing in the afternoon, then I met with local LA composer Cat Lamb, who has written a new piece for me to perform tomorrow night (bass flute and viola). We drove over to the venue to rehearse and meet the venue owners. It's essentially the living room of a 'warehouse' type apartment, in which live 2 really great ex-CalArts students (one is a composer, the other plays violin and also composes I think). It was a lovely relaxed and welcoming vibe there, and I'm excited to perform in the space tomorrow. The rehearsal went a lot better than any of us were expecting (!!!!) though by the end of it my chops were totally blown out. pluhhh! the piece involves a lot of unusual microtones (based on just intonation), and it's hard work with the brain and the embouchure working overtime to figure it all out on the fly. We were all pretty happy with the results though, and are looking forward to putting it all together at the gig.

Coming home we got stuck in some traffic and got called at by some guys on the side of the street walking along the lines of traffic selling baseball t-shirts. We thought this was a bit odd until it dawned on us that this was the reason for the traffic jam - the 'world series' starts today at the Dodger Stadium, which is really close to home!! There's been a large blimps circling in the sky most of the day. Tonight we watched it float behind some low clouds and it all seemed very UFO.

I just now got home from a concert by the California E.A.R. Unit, at the new(-ish) Redcat hall - it's the latest contemporary performance space in LA, and is housed in the back corner (of course) of the amazingly impressive Frank Gehry-designed Disney concert hall. Stunning. Breathtaking, in fact. It's the same architect who designed the Guggenheim in Bilbao, which I was lucky enough to visit way back in 1997 or so. he is truly a unique architectural voice, and I wonder what the world would be like if ALL buildings were as beautiful and interesting and inspiring as his. Would we still see them that way if we had nothing bland and boring to compare them to???

The concert itself was - well - interesting. It was a series of works by young American composers. Lots of different styles represented, but I particularly enjoyed the last work, by Oscar Bettinson. Was really nice to get out and see a little glimpse of the LA new music crowd, and it was encouraging (in a strange sort of way) that the crowd wasn't really that different in size than a lot of Aussie new music concerts.

First concert of the tour tomorrow, so it's time for my beauty rest. Hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon (haven't actually taken very many yet). And of course stay tuned for the next instalment!

j*