Just another Sunday-Funday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art! We are so happy to be card-carrying members now, and we are putting that membership to great use these days. We’re especially glad to see Ruby has just as much fun there as we do.
The newest fun exhibit is Metropolis II, an awesome miniature city with cars racing through it! Of course, anything in miniature is a given love for Ed, and Ruby is fascinated by watching the cars go. Here’s part of the piece:
And here’s a short clip of it in motion:
And finally, here’s a cute little clip of Miss Ruby, having fun playing around all the lamp posts in Chris Burden’s Urban Light:
As new members of LACMA, we wanted to plan a little outing to check out the California Design, 1930–1965: “Living in a Modern Way” exhibit, as well as introduce Ruby to one of our favorite L.A. hangouts – Canter’s Deli on Fairfax. So we made our way up for a little food before getting our dose of culture!
Ruby was tantalized by all of the selections available on Canter’s ginormous menu
She was definitely a fan of the pickles!
Ed had to get his Corned Beef Hash, and I went for some old school Cabbage Rolls …
After our Canter’s fix, we headed to LACMA for this awesome mid-century modern delight. We didn’t get to stay quite as long as we wanted, but here are some highlights nonetheless:
Probably the most fun part was the giant installation that was there formed of all of these yellow translucent yellow bands. We all had fun playing inside!
Then – we decided to take advantage of the Member Appreciation Days that were going on that weekend and visit OCMA as well with free admission! Don’t let the Orange County location fool you … they have some of the edgiest modern art on display and we LOVE their exhibitions! We were lucky enough to catch State of Mind: New California Art circa 1970 and Two Schools of Cool, which were both fantastic!
To celebrate Ed’s birthday, we headed over to MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary Building to see one of the coolest exhibitions ever, Art in the Streets. This show is HUGE and it shows just how far street art has come from back in the day when people just called it “grafitti” (It’s so much more!). If you really wanna get a good look inside the people who’ve helped catapult the Street Art movement, check out the documentary “Exit Through The Gift Shop” – you won’t be disappointed.
Here are a few highlights!
Hard to see, but this is me standing in front of a bunch of teensy pictures of grafitti art on trains.
Ed and Ruby in front of one of the Shepard Fairey walls
(Does something look familiar about his work? You probably know him from this hugely popular poster!)
Banksy
Mister Cartoon’s Low Rider Ice Cream Truck
Day-Glo room
Fun alley
Spray paint retrospective!
God Save the Queen!
And finally … after all that art … over-stimulation!
Its really tough to put into words what an impact that exhibition has, even if you wouldn’t consider yourself a street art enthusiast. You should see it in person, too!
Here we are again – at the end of another month! So much has happened in the last few weeks, its almost like we’re living with a new little person! Yes, emphasis on the “person” – Ruby has officially made the transition from “newborn” to full on “baby”! She has quite a little personality shining through … she makes lots of sounds, bats her eyes and smiles at people, “tells us” if she’s bored or tired, and shrieks with glee if she really likes something. She is completely aware of the environment around her, and now does a whole lot more than that newborn baby routine (AKA eat, sleep, poop – repeat). And, we also have to mention her new found independence … Ruby sleeps happily in her own room now, in her own crib (Much harder on us than it was for her!).
And now for some three month stats …
Not sure about height/weight, but boy has she grown! The general consensus is that she’s a tall little girl … she outgrew her 0-3 month clothes because her toes had reached to the end of most everything, so she’s now in 3-6 months. If I had to guess, she’s probably 24 in. long now, and at least 13.5 lbs.
Current likes:
Her exersaucer!
“Standing up” (she’s determined …)
Bath time!
Eating toys
Talking to Mommy & Daddy
Current dislikes:
Getting out of the bath tub
Taking naps – there’s just too much going on in this girl’s world apparently!
Notable events:
Sleeping in her crib now!
100 Days Celebration (check it out here if you missed it).
1st trip to the museum
Rolling over from back to tummy
One big change this month was Ruby got a lot more social. She’s been to Stroller Strides (an exercise group for Mommy, where you do a LOT more than just push a stroller!), Baby Yoga, and she just started a class at My Gym in Huntington Beach. It’s a cute class … she does little baby exercises and has free reign over all of the equipment in the space. She didn’t mind at all when we stuck her in the giant ball pit … she just sat in there and looked at us like, “What’s the big deal?”
Also very exciting for Ed & I, Ruby had her 1st trip to the museum! We headed up to LACMA to check out a few current exhibits and introduce Ruby to some of the iconic modern staples.
Here’s Ruby meeting Jeff Koons … (along with Michael … and Bubbles …)
She also got to meet Andy …
Along with a little modern German minimalism for good measure …
And, she also became familiar with the new gallery of Korean Art … a gorgeous collection!
It was a big day, and after taking in all of that culture, she was exhausted!
And finally, as mentioned … Ruby is really into “eating” her toys. After a month of experimenting, she has tried to stick just about every single finger in her mouth, as well as her entire fist. Now that the fingers/fist are old news … she wants big shiny toys in there now, and she’s not going to accept it if its just not physically possible!
She’s probably going to hate me for this later, but here is our little genius … extremely exacerbated by this darn object. Fun or frustrating? You be the judge.
Today was wide open and we had an itch to get on the road – Ed sold his beloved Mini this week, but it was happily replaced by his favorite car, a VW Jetta SportWagen! We decided it was a good day to break it in. We decided to head south down PCH and see where the day would take us. Too bad the sun never came out today – but the drive was gorgeous nonetheless …
We were hungry for lunch, so we hit up Yelp to find a new good place to try. We stumbled upon Crab Zone in Laguna Beach. Don’t be fooled by the cheesy name, this place really delivered! It is a seafood restaurant offering traditional type items like Clam Chowder and Seafood Gumbo, but they also have an interesting Asian Fusion twist, too. There was definitely a lot to choose from.
The 5-star ratings were pretty hard to ignore, and everyone seemed to be raving over the Dungeness Crab with Garlic and Pepper Butter Sauce, so Ed went ahead and ordered it. They really weren’t messing around – look at the size of that thing! Although he said it was probably the messiset meal he’s ever eaten, Ed swears it was worth the mess. They actually chop the legs off and cook everything in a wok, and then they “assemble” the crab back on to the plate. You get a lot of attention when its brought out to the table!
I decided to order a cup of the gumbo and get some steamed King Crab Legs. Wow – those did not disappoint either! Everything was delicious! Once again, big thanks to the Yelpers for getting us to a new destination!
15 Minutes of Fame: Portraits from Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol explores a diverse range of photographic portraits from early modernism, to photographs of celebrities from the 1930s to 1960s, photojournalistic street photography from the 1960s, and contemporary portraiture.
All of the photos were fantastic! This photo taken by Lawrence Schiller in 1962 was one of our favorites. See Alfred Hitchcock in the rearview mirror of the car?
They also had a pretty cool photo booth in the exhibit so that you could capture your own 15 minutes of fame. Here we are with our best attempts at celebrity!
We also love OCMA because of its beautifully designed modern space.
Here’s Ed looking dapper in the tulip chair …
