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A Vampire's Travels

I was supposed to go down to Los Angeles for the 2005 Pagan Festival Sept. 30 -Oct. 1, however, it was cancelled on the 28th, 2 days before the festival. I was pretty darned bummed out, I’ll tell you! I was all excited and looking forward to getting to do some major shopping and schmoozing, but no-o-o-o-o! There’s still no real, definitive answer as to why. Suppositions range everywhere from money problems, to witch-wars fallout. Who knows? Well, I wasn’t going to let that make me cancel my trip, since you don’t get refunds, and my friends were expecting me to visit. Besides, I hadn’t seen my donor in a while, and his other vampire is a friend, so the 3 of us figured we’d make our own fun. (I see that look! Get your mind outta the jugular!)

So, that evening we went to dinner at Hollywood and Vine (http://www.hollywoodandvine.net/) ) with The Syndicate of the Five Points (http://thefivepoints.com/) ). Well, it was $11 for a ‘dry’ martini that was painfully ‘wet’ (probably all confused because I hadn’t wanted Kahlua or pickled herring in it...honestly, the junk that passes as a martini these days!). The service was very slow, but the place was nice inside, with lovely dark paneling and a big schwoopy Bel Epoque stairway coupled with the ubiquitous plate glass windows of Southern California. They didn’t mind a big table of vampires and Satanists sitting around laughing and taking loudly 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?

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 as 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'd not have noticed. 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


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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