What You're Going to Get

I know I've been a little complainy lately, but really it's not all that bad in LA. Here is why I like living in the urban.  You never know what your going to get.... Forrest.  Today, in my desire to get out of my shoe box size apartment, and outside of my own fucked up cluttered head, I decided to take a walk to Grand Hope Park.  For those of you not hip to the DTLA scene, it's the premier babe watching spot in the city.  This is because of it's intimate proximity to the Fashion Institute for Design and Merchandising.  To put it bluntly, it's a babe fest.  All the women going in and out of FIDM are hot, and not surprisingly, dressed to the nines. When I need a pick me up, I head there.  And even if I'm not, it's one of the few green spaces in DTLA.  Sometimes it's not just the scenery, it's the scenery.  So about noon I head out the front door of the Huntington Apartments with my camera and sketch pad in hand.  But never one to take the direct route anywhere, what's the fun in that, I decide to head south towards the Fashion District before looping back towards babe-land.

I had made a slight probing walk towards that area about a week ago and it peaked my curiosity.  Here's the thing about downtown; in any given direction, any street, any block, it can be so different from the next block over.  7th is so different from 8th, and Los Angeles Street is so different from Main.  One is borderline hipsterville, the other is skid row. When you're a downtown rookie, like me, you never know what your going to get, so you tread lightly.  Today I ended up on an adventure.

If you Google the Fashion District it's about a half a block from my apartment. But after my walk today I would say it's heartbeat is really Santee Alley off of Olympic.  For blocks in any direction it's the fabric capitol of the world.  I have never been in a place with more bolts of fabric in my life.  Blocks and blocks of stores with hundreds and hundreds of bolts of wildly colorful fabric.  You have to walk it to believe it.  I shot 4 GB worth of photos, it was so wonderfully colorful and unique.  I tried to get a shot of the inside of some of the stores but, I'm not kidding, everyone of them had a guy standing outside with a stick.  In my LA security guard paranoia I was convinced that if I asked anyone of them if I could take a picture they would just start hitting me with the stick.  I mean why would they all have a stick in their hand unless to whack photographers.  

After the breathtaking walk through fabricland, I walked up 11th towards Staples Center and the park. Each street is such a treat in the urban.  I had never heard of the Mayan Theater, but there it was off of 11th and Hill, and amazing.  Pick a direction and just walk, you'll be amazed at what you get.

Fashion, Santee Alley and the Mayan Theater (now a night club)