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2005 Pagan Festival
I was ly either, so that’s another plus. The food
was a tad bit pricey, but pretty good overall. Next time, though my mushroom
ravioli with greens (and purples!) and the spinach artichoke dip my friend
and I split was very good, I will get the ginormous burger and fries. OMYGAWD!
It was HUGE! And darned good. They also had good wines, and an incredible
spicy hot flat cracker bread with poppy seeds, sesames, and cheese that was
to die for. Oh, and crusty hot french rolls. Good bread and a nice
atmosphere make up for a few minor shortcomings in my view. Most entrees were under
$30, but over $15, and well worth it.
The next day we rose late, noodled around drinking coffee and checking our
email, playing some games (computer games) and generally took our sweet time
getting organized. This meant we had to pick something not far from the house
(my vampire friend lives on Venice beach). So, it being a fine day, we
chose the Maritime Museum (http://www.lamaritimemuseum.org/) ). The building is a nice old Deco thing, with huge windows, skylights, and a wide ramp/walk that is kind of an extra floor on the way to the second floor. It’s a good thing it was so light and airy, because the
power was out. This in no way diminished the experience, it being the museum’s
25th birthday party. We had hot dogs, chips, soda and birthday cake, got to
listen to live music (an acoustic band in ‘salty’ attire playing songs of
the sea...I didn’t get their name, cause I’m bad.) The band was pretty good,
and the museum has a great many model ships, some great smaller boats right
inside, including a Yurok canoe, and a couple of gorgeous little day boats
all nicely made and fitted out. The Maltese one even had inlaid woodwork!
(Yes, I admit it, I’m a boat freak.) There are ‘deep sea’ displays that we
really couldn’t see because of the power failure, but they looked pretty cool
from what we did see. There is only one figurehead, but they also have
working WW2 aircraft spotting glasses you can see into the harbor with, and
hundred year old hard tack (!), etc. Outside, there was nice little wooden sailing
ship with a figurehead and everything, but she was closed for repairs. We
did get to go on the tugboat, though, and if you live down there it’s all of
$25 a year for a membership in the museum, and that entitles you to several
harbor cruises a year in that tug. Such a deal!
(The donor wants me to "mention the fun I had playing with the 40mm Ack-Ack
gun in front of the Maritime Museum".)
Day 3 of my excursion we decided to devote to shopping and then dancing.
Well, what better place than Hollywood? I admit to being all over funny
looking at the stars everywhere on the sidewalks. The sad thing is how many
obscure names I recognized, like Yakima Knute, and how many newer ones were beyond
me. Ah well! I’m old! Our first stop was Shrine (http://www.shrinestore.com/location.html). This was a pretty nice Gothy clothes and accessories shop, an upscale Hot Topic without
the pop culture odds and ends. Some of the things were very nice indeed, and
my donor got a great shirt for wearing dancing that evening. They had a lot
of jewelry, and some religious statuary and incense as well. Our next stop was to be Pan Pipes (http://www.panpipes.com) ), but they were closed, despite both the website and the phone
book advertisement saying they’d be open. I assume this is connected to the cancellation of the festival. Alas!
So, we went on to Necromance (http://www.necromance.com/index.php?resolution=1024 ). Wow. Bones, feathers, shells, freeze dried small animals, fossils, toad purses
(BARBEEEEE! They had ‘em!), ‘golden lotus’ shoes, glass eyes, surgical stuff, etc.
etc. If ever you need dried bat or snake vertebrae, this is the place! No
bad smells, either, unlike some other stores of like kind I can think of, and
it was very clean. The staff was also very helpful, which made them a bit
slow, since my friend wanted to buy a piece of jewelry, but hey! Ya gots to take the good with the bad, no?
,br>
Ok. WTF? We went to Frederick’s of Hollywood IN Hollywood
(http://www.fredericks.com/Default.asp?cookie_test=1 ). What happened to this place? It was a darned Victoria’s Secret clone! I was so disappointed. I’d been hoping to get my donor
something goofy and fun, plus I was looking for a garter belt. I’m not a tiny
woman. They had ONE style in an XL. ONE. I was heartbroken. Back in their
pink flamingo days, they carried a lot of stuff for big girls, and a lot of
crazy fun stuff, like musical jock straps. Nope. All gone. All was muted
colors and ever so tastefully bland. It’s like the death of an old friend. When
nobody else had red fishnets, they did. When nobody else had bunny fur
bikinis, they did. Now? It looks like Martha Stewart gave them a make over. It’s just sad.
We went home and had lobster and steaks, took showers, and generally got
ourselves all gussied up for Malediction (http://www.maledictionsociety.com ). This Goth club iDJed and promoted by Xian, long an active part of the LA community. While I was there, I was able to finally meet in person several folks from the California vampire list
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wretched), including Daemonox, the list owner. Unfortunately, like so many Goth dance nights, it was Sunday night. My donor had to be up at work at an early
hour Monday, so we had to cut it short. Sigh. Still, the club is
beautiful, big pretty chandeliers, nice red walls, snazzy decor all ‘round, and the
sound system is great. The drinks were quite good, and from 10 PM to 11 well
drinks are $2. (Order 2 and keep one for later!) The stairs up the back of
the place were a mite rickety, and needed a good sweep, and the smoking area
could use a few more chairs, but all in all it was a very nice venue and Xian
is a very good DJ. I got to dance with my donor to “Rain of Blood”
MWAHAHAHAA! Further, Daemonox is putting together a massive, vampire friendly
Halloween bash called Hex Hollywood (http://www.hexhollywood.com). I wish I could make it, but I'd have to have a sudden, unexpected windfall of cash.
The next day, one of my friend’s kids were sick, so we just hung out there at
home and read and recovered a bit from all the other things we’d been doing.
My donor and I did go out to the beach that night. Venice Beach
(http://www.venicebeach.com ) at night has very few
people on it. Mostly the locals go out to walk their dogs and sit up in the
life guard shacks and make out, as is the way with teenagers everywhere. It
was so well lit that the little birds were fishing at the edge of the surf, but
not so well lit that you couldn’t see the amazing luminescence of the
breakers. I’ve never see such a light display up here in the north. The waves
flashed such a bright, clear blue for an instant! It was really impressive.
********************************
The next weekend I car tripped down with my ex husband and our youngest
daughter to see the Tutankhamun exhibit at (http://www.lacma.org ). The lines were long, and it was very close and crowded, but that’s to be expected with such a thing. We met our oldest daughter and her little boy and my donor there, and we then got separated inside in the
crush. It was wonderful to see so many things I’d only seen in books up close.
They were beautifully displayed, and with most of them, you could walk all
the way around the objects. The smaller things were suspended in plexiglass
cases, and I could see the backs and undersides of the jewelry. That was
very interesting to me. The work is as well finished on the back as the front.
I was a tad disappointed in that well over half of the works were from his
family’s tombs, and not his. That being said, it did give a nice sense of
him as a real human being who had a family. The sizes of many things were
quite different from what I’d expected. Many were much smaller, but others a
great deal larger. And ALL of the craftsmanship was, of course, top quality.
Very impressive! Still, by the time we were through, I was spent from all the
people and just exhausted. Therefore, it was pizza and beer time!
My donor called his other vampire, and she snagged us a big table and
ordered pizzas at Nova Express Café (http://novaexpresscafe.com ), a very groovy little hole in the wall with a life sized plush Cthulhu and much cheesy ‘50s ‘space’ decor. The pizzas even came on flying saucer trays. They have a good assortment of beers (including Guinness,
yay!), very nice toppings on the pizzas, and decadent gooey desserts. The crust
was nothing to write home about (though I am anyway) but I’m finicky about
bread. Nobody else had a problem with the crusts, so I assume it’s just me.
We all said our goodnights, and the ex, the kiddo, and I retreated to the
motel to sleep like dead things.
The next day, we dragged our weary arses into the van, and headed for home. On the way, we stopped at Fort Tejon (http://www.forttejon.org ). I was just too weary to walk it much, despite a quick parking lot feed the night before. Too much travel in too short a time!
However, it’s an interesting pre-Civil War fort, 9 of its officers having gone
on to serve with distinction in the Civil War, 5 for the South, 4 for the
North. (California was actually pretty divided over the whole thing, with many
people leaving the state to fight for the Confederacy.) It also once held a
Camel Corps. Alas, most of it consists of reconstructed buildings and fenced
off pits where they once stood, and much of it is under the freeway and the
Tejon Ranch. It was interesting to me that there was running water in the
stream in October during a fairly dry year, so it seems a well chosen site.
Really, by this point I was so tired, there could have been Nixies and Niads
playing volleyball in that stream, and I’ays. They have a good assortment of beers (including Guinness,
yay!), very nice toppings on the pizzas, and decadent gooey desserts. The crust
was nothing to write home about (though I am anyway) but I’m finicky about
bread. Nobody else had a problem with the crusts, so I assume it’s just me.
We all said our goodnights, and the ex, the kiddo, and I retreated to the
motel to sleep like dead things.
The next day, we dragged our weary arses into the van, and headed for home. On the way, we stopped at Fort Tejon (http://www.forttejon.org ). I was just too weary to walk it much, despite a quick parking lot feed the night before. Too much travel in too short a time!
However, it’s an interesting pre-Civil War fort, 9 of its officers having gone
on to serve with distinction in the Civil War, 5 for the South, 4 for the
North. (California was actually pretty divided over the whole thing, with many
people leaving the state to fight for the Confederacy.) It also once held a
Camel Corps. Alas, most of it consists of reconstructed buildings and fenced
off pits where they once stood, and much of it is under the freeway and the
Tejon Ranch. It was interesting to me that there was running water in the
stream in October during a fairly dry year, so it seems a well chosen site.
Really, by this point I was so tired, there could have been Nixies and Niads
playing volleyball in that stream, and I’d not have noticed.
Deborah Plantagenet
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